Tamara Kneese

How It’s Made: A 7,000-Word Story on Coal in Oakland “This is the only time in my entire life, I think, where I wrote long and someone was like, ‘Well, could you make it longer?’”

People said they wanted more culture pieces on Bsky, right? For COYOTE, I interviewed the @oaklandreviewofbooks.org and @meganwachspress.bsky.social for a behind-the-scenes account of how Megan's 7,000-word feature (!) on coal in Oakland came to be—a phenomenal work of longform journalism.

Dr. Strangelove looking less like satire with every passing hour

Are you living near a data center? Our interactive map shows where construction is skyrocketing. Companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta are rapidly building data centers amid the AI boom. Our interactive map shows where they are.

A really cool example of investigative reporting from @businessinsider.com, mapping (the often undisclosed) locations of US data centers by tracking permits for the diesel back-up generators they use: www.businessinsider.com/data-center-...

My research is on working class women and AI and the ONE consistency among all of the interviews we’ve done so far is concerns about data centers and environmental impact. We do not bring it up - they do. Every single one.

US Critical Mineral Aggression Abroad Connected to Data Center Fights at Home We must phase out fossil fuels—not endlessly reshuffle environmental sacrifice zones around the planet, write Hannah Lipstein and Tamara Kneese.

"Mounting a principled opposition to the resource grab for AI allows us to fight for just distributions of green technologies," write D&S program associate Hannah Lipstein and affiliate @tamigraph.bsky.social. www.techpolicy.press/us-critical-...

WSJ reporting that the U.S. used Claude for the air strikes in Iran. Centcom has been using Claude "for intelligence assessments, target identification and simulating battle scenarios" www.wsj.com/livecoverage...

BREAKING — 51 Iranian children are dead after a strike hits Minab girls elementary school in Iran.

Men studying a dragon

ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIP IN HISTORY OF SCIENCE
My home department at Uppsala University is advertising an endowed professorship in the history of science. This is the best position in the field in Sweden, and probably in all of Scandinavia. Apply before 30 April 2026. www.uu.se/en/about-uu/...

These fascists are so incompetent and delusional that they’re going to make tech woke again

What's missing? The public. Decisions about whether AI can surveil American citizens or autonomously deploy lethal force are being settled in a contract dispute. No Congress. No democratic deliberation. No accountability. We've outsourced questions about the use of force to a corporate negotiation.

The irony is stark: a private AI company is holding the line on guardrails against mass surveillance and autonomous weapons—while the federal government pushes to remove them. After revoking Biden's AI safety policies, the Trump administration is now pressuring Anthropic to abandon its own.

Beyond compensation, this agreement: • Makes important improvements to working and learning conditions • Strengthens class size commitments • Enhances preparation time for elementary teachers • Establishes clear guardrails around the use of artificial intelligence in schools • Reinforces safety protections for staff • Formalizes dedicated intervention and enrichment time to ensure students who need additional support receive it consistently and equitably At the heart of this agreement is our shared responsibility to Oakland's students. It reflects our commitment to provide our educators with competitive compensation and professional supports, and give our students the stable thriving schools they deserve

Whoa establishing AI guardrails in schools is part of the newly won OEA agreement with Oakland Unified School District

I’m pissed that I spent my precious time before having a baby writing and editing a lengthy report that essentially no one read instead of working on the book proposal that could have made me rich (able to pay my rent plus childcare)

The Epstein files document what many women researchers have long experienced but rarely seen laid bare so starkly: exclusion operating behind closed doors, shaping who gets funded, invited, mentored, and taken seriously. How many of these networks, norms, and gatekeepers remain in place?

Sounds amazing!

Say Goodbye to the Undersea Cable That Made the Global Internet Possible History was unmade last year, as engineers began the massive project of ripping the first-ever transoceanic fiber-optic cable from the ocean floor. Just don’t mention sharks.

I’ve been waiting for this undersea cable epic from @janeruffino.bsky.social to drop

Join us 3/3 for this workshop as we teach you how to examine critically the socio-environmental consequences of data centers, identify misleading statistics and media narratives, and investigate the real local impacts of data centers: actionnetwork.org/events/data-...

‘No one deserves this’: Beaverton father dies after deportation to Mexico A Beaverton family is grieving after the father, who was detained and deported by ICE, has now died.

This 53 year old man who lived in my neighborhood w/no criminal record & who had been in the US for 30 years, was detained and thrown into a cold cell for days, caught pneumonia and COVID there and deported.

He finally died.

I am so angry.
www.kptv.com/2026/02/21/n...

When he finally kicks the bucket, can we all collectively agree to never speak his name again?

Can’t wait for your book!!

Revealed: Epstein cultivated relationship with CBP officer, causing US investigation Guardian review of US justice department files reveals Epstein interacted with six CBP officers. The officer investigated denied any knowledge of trafficking underage girls

NEW: Jeffrey Epstein cultivated relationships with CBP officers at the airports he frequented.

Epstein emailed and texted with six CBP officers, invited them to his island, visited with them at the airport, and frequently sought to determine who was going to be on duty when he was traveling

Congrats to BART rider and Oakland legend Alysa Liu on winning a gold medal at the Olympics and making the Bay Area proud!

From looking at our last test exchange, I did in fact go through with the plan! And aside from not finishing the book proposal yet (oops), it worked!

Oh it’s so alarming to revisit the words you wrote while gestating or sleep deprived in the newborn days. Such fascinating typos, I find!

I’ve written so many shitty, foggy brained words during this pregnancy and I need it to stop

Am I having a baby just so I won’t have to write or edit anything for a while? Maybe

We cite work by @miriamposner.com, @zgtcooper.bsky.social, @anavaldi.bsky.social, @triofrancos.bsky.social, @chipscommunities.bsky.social, @alondra.bsky.social and more

And someone should hire Hannah ASAP! She is a fantastic researcher and collaborator

US Critical Mineral Aggression Abroad Connected to Data Center Fights at Home We must phase out fossil fuels—not endlessly reshuffle environmental sacrifice zones around the planet, write Hannah Lipstein and Tamara Kneese.

From lithium mines in Nevada to salt flats in Chile to towns and cities across the US, the AI boom's resource demands link local communities to global supply chains—and the same fight for environmental justice, write Hannah Lipstein and Tamara Kneese.

US Critical Mineral Aggression Abroad Connected to Data Center Fights at Home We must phase out fossil fuels—not endlessly reshuffle environmental sacrifice zones around the planet, write Hannah Lipstein and Tamara Kneese.

Data center fights are hyperlocal but depend on opaque global supply chains + geopolitical resource grabs. How do data centers connect with critical minerals and electronics manufacturing, and what makes these connections palpable? Hannah Lipstein + I wrote about this @techpolicypress.bsky.social

A poster for the Digital Democracy from Below taking place on February 20, 2026, 12:00pm-1:30pm EST. Free and open to the public. Speakers are: Julie Bolthouse, Luã Cruz, Bianca Wylie, Tamara Kneese, Dhanaraj Thakur, Roya Pakzad and Rebecca Williams. Co-organized by Jess Reia, Jonathan van Geuns and Nicole West Bassoff. Sponsored by the Digital Technology for Democracy Lab at UVA.

A reminder to join us this Friday, 12pm to hear from @rebeccawilliams.info @technolua.bsky.social @tamigraph.bsky.social @thakurdhanaraj.bsky.social @royapak.bsky.social B.Wylie & J.Bolthouse @ UVA & online. Free & open to the public: dtdlab.virginia.edu/event/digita...
@uvadatascience.bsky.social