home.social

#publicgood — Public Fediverse posts

Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #publicgood, aggregated by home.social.

  1. Chicago Reader: Chicago has abundant water. Data center developers want a taste. “Waterways in Chicago and northern Illinois have supported industrial activity for more than a century, and now those same bodies of water are drawing an influx of proposed data centers that would tap into the region’s plentiful resources. These proposals have drawn considerable scrutiny, with experts and […]

    https://rbfirehose.com/2026/09/10/chicago-reader-chicago-has-abundant-water-data-center-developers-want-a-taste/
  2. Chicago Reader: Chicago has abundant water. Data center developers want a taste. “Waterways in Chicago and northern Illinois have supported industrial activity for more than a century, and now those same bodies of water are drawing an influx of proposed data centers that would tap into the region’s plentiful resources. These proposals have drawn considerable scrutiny, with experts and […]

    https://rbfirehose.com/2026/09/10/chicago-reader-chicago-has-abundant-water-data-center-developers-want-a-taste/
  3. Chicago Reader: Chicago has abundant water. Data center developers want a taste. “Waterways in Chicago and northern Illinois have supported industrial activity for more than a century, and now those same bodies of water are drawing an influx of proposed data centers that would tap into the region’s plentiful resources. These proposals have drawn considerable scrutiny, with experts and […]

    https://rbfirehose.com/2026/09/10/chicago-reader-chicago-has-abundant-water-data-center-developers-want-a-taste/
  4. Chicago Reader: Chicago has abundant water. Data center developers want a taste. “Waterways in Chicago and northern Illinois have supported industrial activity for more than a century, and now those same bodies of water are drawing an influx of proposed data centers that would tap into the region’s plentiful resources. These proposals have drawn considerable scrutiny, with experts and […]

    https://rbfirehose.com/2026/09/10/chicago-reader-chicago-has-abundant-water-data-center-developers-want-a-taste/
  5. Chicago Reader: Chicago has abundant water. Data center developers want a taste. “Waterways in Chicago and northern Illinois have supported industrial activity for more than a century, and now those same bodies of water are drawing an influx of proposed data centers that would tap into the region’s plentiful resources. These proposals have drawn considerable scrutiny, with experts and […]

    https://rbfirehose.com/2026/09/10/chicago-reader-chicago-has-abundant-water-data-center-developers-want-a-taste/
  6. The Guardian: Key witness in Meta trial says terms of settlement insufficient to halt apps’ harms to teenagers. “The star witness in the US government’s landmark trial against Meta believes that a multibillion-dollar settlement reached on Wednesday does not go far enough to stop the social media giant’s harms to young users. ‘The limitations that are in the agreement are the equivalent of […]

    https://rbfirehose.com/2026/08/30/the-guardian-key-witness-in-meta-trial-says-terms-of-settlement-insufficient-to-halt-apps-harms-to-teenagers/
  7. The Guardian: BBC chief proposes ‘public service algorithm’ with YouTube-style user-generated content. “The BBC director general has suggested opening up the BBC to YouTube-style user-generated content as he backed the idea of a ‘public service algorithm’ free from the interests of US tech companies.”

    https://rbfirehose.com/2026/08/28/the-guardian-bbc-chief-proposes-public-service-algorithm-with-youtube-style-user-generated-content/
  8. The Journal (Ireland): Meta, TikTok, YouTube and LinkedIn didn’t act on 77% of misinformation reported during Áras race. “SOCIAL MEDIA COMPANIES failed to act on the vast majority of electoral disinformation reported by researchers ahead of last year’s presidential election, a new report shows. The report also criticised the companies for not demonstrating an understanding of the context […]

    https://rbfirehose.com/2026/08/27/the-journal-meta-tiktok-youtube-and-linkedin-didnt-act-on-77-of-misinformation-reported-during-aras-race/
  9. Watching A #NOAA #Webinar on Flash Droughts
    --
    noaaresearch.webex.com/wbxmjs/ <-- shared NOAA Summer Science Series individual webinar
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    drought.gov/what-is-drought/fl <-- shared NOAA overview technical article
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    star.nesdis.noaa.gov/star/NOAA <-- subscribe to the NOAA Summer Science Series
    --
    doi.org/10.1038/s41612-024-006 <-- shared paper
    --
    communities.springernature.com <-- shared technical article (derived from paper above)
    H/T @Jeffrey Basara PhD, MBA | Chair and Professor - Department of Environmental, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Massachusetts Lowell | Co-Founder - American Prime Sustainable Solutions
    [Flash floods? not TOO hard to conceptualise.
    Flash drought? harder to 'get my head around', but H/T / presenter does an excellent job!]
    "Not all droughts are the same. In some cases, drought rapidly intensifies at subseasonal to seasonal scales with significant impacts to agriculture and water resources along with the increased propensity for heatwaves and wildfires. Like all droughts, flash drought begins with a precipitation deficit. However, both evaporative demand and soil moisture are critical flash drought variables, and identifying and monitoring the desiccation of the terrestrial surface is key for determining flash drought development and associated impacts. While recent advances in knowledge and monitoring of flash drought have occurred, fundamental questions remain in the state of the science. What are the overall mechanistic relationships between atmospheric demand, evaporative stress, terrestrial desiccation, and precipitation that drive the progression of flash drought? Do regional characteristics of the environment impact the evolution of flash drought? What are the scales of predictability for flash drought? Finally, how will flash drought frequency and intensity evolve in a changing climate system"
    --
    "Flash drought intensifies rapidly due to changes in precipitation, temperature, wind, and radiation. These changes in the weather increase evapotranspiration and lower soil moisture. Flash droughts can cause extensive damage to agriculture, economies, and ecosystems if they are not predicted and discovered early..."
    #water #hydrology #fedscience #publicgood #hydrologicdrought #waterdeficit #spatialanalysis #spatiotemporal #watersecurity #risk #hazard #humanimpacts #streamflow #riverflow #groundwater #surfacewater #climate #weather #climatechange #extremeweather #atmosphere #metrology #regional #global #farming #agriculture #fluvial #pluvial #rainfall #precipitation #cloudcover #energy #heat #temperature #ET #evapotranspiration #farming #agriculture #foodsecurity #waterresources #dynamicsystems #watermanagement #flashdrought #drought #susceptibility #monitoring #prediction #model #modeling
    @noaa

  10. PsyPost: Updating Wikipedia pages boosts public trust in scientific organizations, study finds. “A recent study published in the journal Anatomical Sciences Education has found that updating Wikipedia pages for scientific organizations improves public access to accurate information.”

    https://rbfirehose.com/2026/05/17/psypost-updating-wikipedia-pages-boosts-public-trust-in-scientific-organizations-study-finds/
  11. Influence Of Modeling Assumptions On Pedestrian Evacuation Success For Non-Eruptive Lahar Hazards At Mount Rainier, Washington
    --
    doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2026.1 <-- shared paper
    --
    sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/6 <-- shared, related open data source
    --
    [I still remember working on and being fascinated by lahars being an engineering geologist in Washington State (and from my time studying in New Zealand), although (of course) not to this level of detail/focus]
    #volcano #lahar #evacuation #exposure #model #modeling #engineeringeology #risk #hazard #naturalhazard #MountRainer #Washington #USA #spatialanalysis #spatiotemporal #emergencymanagement #GIS #spatial #mapping #publicsafety #hazardzone #vulcanism #downstream #debrisflow #massmovement #monitoring #detection #geostatistics #demographics #atrisk #fedscience #publicgood #fedservice #opendata
    @USGS

  12. A quotation from John Adams

    Every Man must seriously set himself to root out his Passions, Prejudices and Attachments, and to get the better of his private Interest. The only reputable Principle and Doctrine must be that all Things must give Way to the public.

    John Adams (1735-1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797-1801)
    Letter (1776-04-16) to Mercy Otis Warren

    More about this quote: wist.info/adams-john/81374/

    #quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #johnadams #commongood #commoninterest #community #democracy #mutuality #privateinterest #publicgood #publicservice #republic #selfcontrol #selfdenial #selfinterest #selfmastery #selfpolicing #selfrespect #selfsacrifice #society

  13. Provisional Land Use Data From Water Year 2024 Is Now Available On [CA]DWR Atlas, CNRA Open Data, And SGMA Data Viewer For Public Use
    --
    gis.water.ca.gov/app/CADWRLand <-- shared web-based CDWR datasets / map
    --
    “The collected data is used by various federal, state, and local agencies, academic researchers and private consultants , and can help estimate the amount of water available for agriculture. Using this information, farmers can adapt and make decisions to better manage scarce water supplies more effectively.”
    #GIS #spatial #mapping #California #download #opendata #water #hydrology #datause #datasharing #download #landuse #spatialanalysis #spatiotemporal #wateryear #DWRAtlas #statewide #CNRA #SGMA #publicdata #publicgood #usecase #crops #croplands #cropmapping #counties #countysurvey #CADWR #DWR #groundwater #irrigation #wateruse #watermanagement #federal #state #local #webmapping #agriculture #watersecurity #foodsecurity #watersupply
    #CaliforniaDepartmentOfWaterResources

  14. Spotted on LinkedIn: Adopt a Station. From the front page: “Congress has voted to rescind public media’s funding. Help preserve independent journalism and community programming across America by adopting a station.” You can either select an NPR station by state or discover stations which have lost significant revenue and need immediate help.

    https://rbfirehose.com/2025/07/22/spotted-on-linkedin-adopt-a-station/