Alexa Woodward
@alexawoodward.bsky.social
Executive Director, Vermont Complex Systems Institute 🐙 potter ☕️ lawyer ⚖️ songwriter 🪕 sci fi nerd 🛰️ | this is a personal social account and views expressed are mine only 🧠
Find me under my full name on LinkedIn (work) & Spotify or Bandcamp (play)
Find me under my full name on LinkedIn (work) & Spotify or Bandcamp (play)
Reposted by Alexa Woodward
I don't blame people for assuming there's no good, healthy version of online community. Anyone younger than me has probably never seen it. But it used to exist, I swear.
I've interacted with plenty of EU lawmakers recently, and it's not universally true (of course) but it is striking how many seem to take the fact that some companies are bad to mean the entire internet concept was bad. It doesn't need to be! We can build a better internet!
Takeaways from #eurosky: big tech social media displaced journalism, a core pillar of democracy, and has been bad for society. EU lawmakers want European, privacy-centered tech. There are still questions of whether the internet is worth building on and what to build. But they are talking about it
November 21, 2025 at 5:23 AM
I don't blame people for assuming there's no good, healthy version of online community. Anyone younger than me has probably never seen it. But it used to exist, I swear.
Wow! Jesse Welles performed his song “Join ICE” on the Colbert Show last night. 🏆
November 21, 2025 at 3:00 AM
Reposted by Alexa Woodward
Looks like LLMs are *very* vulnerable to attack via poetic allusion: "curated poetic prompts yielded high attack-success rates (ASR), with some providers exceeding 90% ..."
https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1
https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1
November 20, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Looks like LLMs are *very* vulnerable to attack via poetic allusion: "curated poetic prompts yielded high attack-success rates (ASR), with some providers exceeding 90% ..."
https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1
https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1
Reposted by Alexa Woodward
November 19, 2025 at 3:59 PM
😭❤️
there may well be more citizens showing up here in Charlotte to learn how to peacefully resist Trump’s indiscriminate mass deportation effort than federal agents on the ground here, as we saw firsthand last night.
November 18, 2025 at 12:00 PM
😭❤️
Yes.
huge turnout in Charlotte tonight for @siembranc.bsky.social’s “Safe to Work, Safe to School” training for people who want to learn how to protect their neighbors from Trump’s mass deportation effort.
November 18, 2025 at 2:46 AM
Yes.
If you are in #Burlington #Vermont next weekend come folk it up for a good cause 🎶
November 16, 2025 at 11:43 PM
If you are in #Burlington #Vermont next weekend come folk it up for a good cause 🎶
Reposted by Alexa Woodward
Alice Wong, Presente. Thank you for everything.
“Don’t let the bastards grind you down. I love you all.”
November 15, 2025 at 1:31 PM
Alice Wong, Presente. Thank you for everything.
Reposted by Alexa Woodward
We're excited to announce that the website and registration for IC2S2 2026 (July 28-31) will launch in early December! The Vermont Complex Systems Institute @vcsi.bsky.social at the University of Vermont will be hosting IC2S2 in 2026: youtube.com/watch?v=p412S4GnPkc&feature=youtu.be
IC2S2 2026 | Burlington, Vermont
YouTube video by UVM Office of Research
youtube.com
November 13, 2025 at 3:36 PM
We're excited to announce that the website and registration for IC2S2 2026 (July 28-31) will launch in early December! The Vermont Complex Systems Institute @vcsi.bsky.social at the University of Vermont will be hosting IC2S2 in 2026: youtube.com/watch?v=p412S4GnPkc&feature=youtu.be
Reposted by Alexa Woodward
Three German universities offering post-docs for researchers "who cannot conduct or continue their work in the USA appropriately because of actual political pressure. "
www.uni-konstanz.de/zukunftskoll...
www.uni-konstanz.de/zukunftskoll...
Early Career Rescue Fellowship
www.uni-konstanz.de
November 11, 2025 at 7:10 PM
Three German universities offering post-docs for researchers "who cannot conduct or continue their work in the USA appropriately because of actual political pressure. "
www.uni-konstanz.de/zukunftskoll...
www.uni-konstanz.de/zukunftskoll...
Reposted by Alexa Woodward
#Fungi, #Feathers, and #Insects Spring from Carol Long’s #Art Nouveau Vessels
Link for more: www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/09/caro...
Link for more: www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/09/caro...
November 10, 2025 at 11:24 PM
#Fungi, #Feathers, and #Insects Spring from Carol Long’s #Art Nouveau Vessels
Link for more: www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/09/caro...
Link for more: www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/09/caro...
Reposted by Alexa Woodward
“It's astonishing how much it costs."
Zoë Keating, a Burlington-based cellist and composer, says the health insurance plan she pays $73 a month for this year could cost her $1,636 every month next year.
Zoë Keating, a Burlington-based cellist and composer, says the health insurance plan she pays $73 a month for this year could cost her $1,636 every month next year.
‘It makes me sick to think about’: Vermonters get sticker shock during ACA open enrollment
Estimates from the state’s commercial insurers, MVP and Blue Cross Blue Shield, suggest thousands in the state could drop coverage entirely as a consequence of the enhanced, COVID-era subsidies going ...
www.vermontpublic.org
November 10, 2025 at 2:01 PM
“It's astonishing how much it costs."
Zoë Keating, a Burlington-based cellist and composer, says the health insurance plan she pays $73 a month for this year could cost her $1,636 every month next year.
Zoë Keating, a Burlington-based cellist and composer, says the health insurance plan she pays $73 a month for this year could cost her $1,636 every month next year.
Or, maybe we do? Some inspo for @aptshadow.bsky.social
We are out here fighting over whether we should keep burning the atmosphere or if people should have enough food to eat, and meanwhile the spiders are learning to cooperate. You do not want the spiders to cooperate.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/s...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/s...
Stinking, Spongy, Dark, Huge: A Spider Web Unlike Any Seen Before
www.nytimes.com
November 11, 2025 at 2:01 AM
Or, maybe we do? Some inspo for @aptshadow.bsky.social
Reposted by Alexa Woodward
Oh, I love this. A new species of sea anemone was discovered recently that parks itself on top of a hermit crab shell like a hat. It seems to feed partly off the crab's faeces, but it also excretes a hard shell that extends the crab's home. In return, it's carried around the seafloor like a king.
November 10, 2025 at 9:57 PM
Oh, I love this. A new species of sea anemone was discovered recently that parks itself on top of a hermit crab shell like a hat. It seems to feed partly off the crab's faeces, but it also excretes a hard shell that extends the crab's home. In return, it's carried around the seafloor like a king.
Reposted by Alexa Woodward
A recent essay, “The Great Feminization,” posits that the growing influence of women is harming U.S. institutions. Sophie Gilbert argues that the real problem facing American culture is quite different: https://theatln.tc/kUfY14fc
November 10, 2025 at 2:15 AM
A recent essay, “The Great Feminization,” posits that the growing influence of women is harming U.S. institutions. Sophie Gilbert argues that the real problem facing American culture is quite different: https://theatln.tc/kUfY14fc
Reposted by Alexa Woodward
OutKast is inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame:
“We started in a little room. Great things start in little rooms”
“We started in a little room. Great things start in little rooms”
November 9, 2025 at 1:05 PM
OutKast is inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame:
“We started in a little room. Great things start in little rooms”
“We started in a little room. Great things start in little rooms”
Reposted by Alexa Woodward
I havent read such a banger of an essay in a very long time. This is so well-written!
Maybe Don’t Talk to the New York Times About Zohran Mamdani
It’s remarkable, the people you’ll hear from. Teach for even a little while at an expensive institution—the term they tend to prefer is “elite”—and odds are that eventually someone who was a studen…
lithub.com
November 8, 2025 at 5:37 PM
I havent read such a banger of an essay in a very long time. This is so well-written!
Reposted by Alexa Woodward
sometimes an Oxford comma can make all the difference
November 8, 2025 at 12:36 PM
sometimes an Oxford comma can make all the difference
Reposted by Alexa Woodward
It shouldn’t be forgotten that a big piece of Mamdani’s campaign was simply “cities are cool and lots of people enjoy living in them” which in and of itself dismantles alot of rightwing talking points
November 7, 2025 at 12:02 PM
It shouldn’t be forgotten that a big piece of Mamdani’s campaign was simply “cities are cool and lots of people enjoy living in them” which in and of itself dismantles alot of rightwing talking points
Making art is a form
of survival in times like these!
of survival in times like these!
November 5, 2025 at 1:57 AM
Making art is a form
of survival in times like these!
of survival in times like these!
Reposted by Alexa Woodward
Gutting the federal workforce and shutting down the government does not appear to have gone well for the GOP in Alexandria, VA.
November 5, 2025 at 1:54 AM
Gutting the federal workforce and shutting down the government does not appear to have gone well for the GOP in Alexandria, VA.
Reposted by Alexa Woodward
Studio Ghibli, Bandai Namco, Square Enix demand OpenAI stop using their content to train AI
Studio Ghibli, Bandai Namco, Square Enix demand OpenAI stop using their content to train AI
No more Spirited Away and Demon Slayer in Sora 2.
buff.ly
November 3, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Studio Ghibli, Bandai Namco, Square Enix demand OpenAI stop using their content to train AI
Reposted by Alexa Woodward
I was laid off from Teen Vogue this week, alongside multiple other phenomenal team members.
At our Summit, I was asked how it felt to be 1 of 2 Black women left and what that meant for representation. Now, there are no Black women at Teen Vogue and that is incredibly painful to think about.
At our Summit, I was asked how it felt to be 1 of 2 Black women left and what that meant for representation. Now, there are no Black women at Teen Vogue and that is incredibly painful to think about.
November 3, 2025 at 11:57 PM
I was laid off from Teen Vogue this week, alongside multiple other phenomenal team members.
At our Summit, I was asked how it felt to be 1 of 2 Black women left and what that meant for representation. Now, there are no Black women at Teen Vogue and that is incredibly painful to think about.
At our Summit, I was asked how it felt to be 1 of 2 Black women left and what that meant for representation. Now, there are no Black women at Teen Vogue and that is incredibly painful to think about.
😭 honestly the political content at teen vogue is top notch. Sad that teens won’t get this anymore.
I was laid off from Teen Vogue today along with multiple other staffers, and today is my last day.
certainly more to come from me when the dust has settled more, but to my knowledge, after today, there will be no politics staffers at Teen Vogue.
certainly more to come from me when the dust has settled more, but to my knowledge, after today, there will be no politics staffers at Teen Vogue.
November 3, 2025 at 8:27 PM
😭 honestly the political content at teen vogue is top notch. Sad that teens won’t get this anymore.
Doing a little food pantry folk music fundraiser for my birthday this year!
November 3, 2025 at 6:31 PM
Doing a little food pantry folk music fundraiser for my birthday this year!