Gerald Rich

Because this database is for everyone. Victims of police violence, law enforcement hiring officials, civil rights advocates, researchers, attorneys and journalists can now investigate these once-secret records for themselves. 6/

Hey! I helped make this and you should check this out. Interested in expanding this to your state? Reach out to @biglocalnews.bsky.social

a man with a beard is riding a motorcycle in the woods . Alt: a man with a beard is riding a motorcycle in the woods .

oh hell yes. nice work

Redwood City’s slogan of “Climate Best by Government Test” turns 100 years old this year and it still goes hard

Millions of kids are missing weeks of school as attendance tanks across the US School attendance has hit record lows since the pandemic. More than a quarter of kids were chronically absent in the 2021-22 school year.

Great to see @sharonlurye.bsky.social’s incredible @apnews.com reporting on missing students across the US at the @biglocalnews.bsky.social conference projects.apnews.com/features/202...

Why extracting data from PDFs is still a nightmare for data experts Countless digital documents hold valuable info, and the AI industry is attempting to set it free.

Hello, it's me, talking about getting data from PDFs again.

arstechnica.com/ai/2025/03/w...

Cutting-edge web scraping techniques at NICAR Here's the handout for a workshop I presented this morning at [NICAR 2025](https://www.ire.org/training/conferences/nicar-2025/) on web scraping, focusing on lesser know tips and tricks that became po...

Here's the handout for my "Cutting-edge web scraping techniques" workshop at #NICAR2025 this morning github.com/simonw/nicar...

Plus some extra notes on the custom software I built to support the workshop: simonwillison.net/2025/Mar/8/c...

Picture of conference room filled with data nerds

Kicking off #NICAR25 by learning more about @biglocalnews.bsky.social with @zstumgoren.bsky.social, @gerald.bsky.social & co

MAZEL TOV!!!

Things we learned about LLMs in 2024 A lot has happened in the world of Large Language Models over the course of 2024. Here’s a review of things we figured out about the field in the past …

I think everyone who has an opnion, good or bad, about LLMs, should read how @simonwillison.net has summer up what’s happened in the space this year. He’s the most credible, most independent, most honest, and most technically fluent person watching the space. simonwillison.net/2024/Dec/31/...

People won’t “like” you "Likes are one of the very few ways audiences send us signals across platforms and I don’t think we can count on those hearts in 2025."

"If you’re producing news, people aren’t going to like you. Like, literally," writes @juliachanb.bsky.social

jeez. @kissane.bsky.social shared this earlier and it's quite helpful www.sf72.org/hazard/tsuna...

Uhhh tsunami warning for the Bay Area?

Ted!

If you also did not know this, I highly recommend reading @oriion.bsky.social's incredible profile on Sarah McBride and Andy Cray. It is comprehensive, compassionate, and well worth your time: 19thnews.org/2024/10/sara...

still one of my favorite sessions that i share with colleagues often

they're great for cooking and checking surface temps: ovens, pans, etc. not always the most accurate, but they really help with searing and caramelization

chiming in to say @inafried.bsky.social is a fantastic reporter covering this beat

Suggestion to add NYT editor @mccartney.bsky.social, a wicked talented data journo!

Thanks to JSK alum @dansinker.com for jumpstarting this starter pack. #journalism bsky.app/starter-pack...

a man in a blue shirt with the number 801027 on the front ALT: a man in a blue shirt with the number 801027 on the front

Damn it’s good to see journos online again. What are some good packs folks have found so far?

May the Fourth be with you!

OMG @jeremybowers.bsky.social do you know @eesomonu.bsky.social (AP, fmr NPR)? I introduced her to Harvey's, and she's getting into cooking sweets with duck fat. What recipes you got?

Only if comments can get upvotes or they group similar ones. Give me the summed data on how many people simply comment, “Why” 😂

What’s the song that goes, “Come my lady. You’re my sugarfly, butter baby”?

Hey New York. Some news: @mccartney.bsky.social and I are moving to Oakland this weekend. We’ll be in and out of NYC for work, but we’re excited to be calling the West Coast home and be closer to family 🥰🌁

How to Set Up Your Mac to Develop News Applications Like We Do (Almost) everything you always wanted to know about working from the command line, but were too afraid to ask.

happy 10th anniversary to this piece of incredibly useful news nerd documentation, originally written by @gerald.bsky.social and continually updated ever since!

https://blog.apps.npr.org/2013/06/06/how-to-setup-a-developers-environment.html

Asked AI to imagine Captain Picard with hair and it did not disappoint

LLMLM or “lemelm” 🤣