Bob Stepno
@bobstep.bsky.social
Former journalist, tech writer, academic, media historian, now retired in sw Va, playing oldtime-style music (mandolin, uke, guitar), exploring the Blue Ridge, writing a little, including https://jheroes.com
https://boblog.blogspot.com
https://boblog.blogspot.com
Reposted by Bob Stepno
A data hoarder set up a searchable archive of the Epstein docs released by the House Oversight Committee. Used OCR and a self-hosted AI to analyze and categorize them.
Actually useful bc the docs were released as disorganized jpeg files in a giant Google Drive
www.404media.co/data-hoarder...
Actually useful bc the docs were released as disorganized jpeg files in a giant Google Drive
www.404media.co/data-hoarder...
Data Hoarder Uses AI to Create Searchable Database of Epstein Files
The open source project has been mirrored as a torrent file and represents one of the easiest ways to navigate a messy data dump.
www.404media.co
October 9, 2025 at 4:19 PM
A data hoarder set up a searchable archive of the Epstein docs released by the House Oversight Committee. Used OCR and a self-hosted AI to analyze and categorize them.
Actually useful bc the docs were released as disorganized jpeg files in a giant Google Drive
www.404media.co/data-hoarder...
Actually useful bc the docs were released as disorganized jpeg files in a giant Google Drive
www.404media.co/data-hoarder...
Haven't read this yet, but an oral history approach to this dumping of so many workers & programs sounds valuable, especially if the people on both sides were interviewed for, you know, posterity. Because this is in Wired, I wouldn't even mind tangents about the tools and techniques employed. Book?
September 25, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Haven't read this yet, but an oral history approach to this dumping of so many workers & programs sounds valuable, especially if the people on both sides were interviewed for, you know, posterity. Because this is in Wired, I wouldn't even mind tangents about the tools and techniques employed. Book?
Happy 5786, Donna and others wishing and praying for peace, freedom, justice, hope, and kindness!
As Jews approach the New Year, a messages of hope and compassion and healing from Rabbi Angela Buchdahl of Central Synagogue in NY. She was on CBS Sunday Morning and I liked what she said, so I thought I'd share it: www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNfD...
Rabbi Angela Buchdahl on Rosh Hashanah, and a return to "our better selves"
YouTube video by CBS Sunday Morning
www.youtube.com
September 22, 2025 at 9:14 PM
Happy 5786, Donna and others wishing and praying for peace, freedom, justice, hope, and kindness!
Reposted by Bob Stepno
Threatening a television network with fines to get them to fire a specific talk show host like Jimmy Kimmel is EXACTLY what the First Amendment is supposed to prevent.
Jimmy Kimmel should sue everyone
It's time for the left to get as serious about the 1st Amendment as the right is about the 2nd.
Jimmy Kimmel should sue everyone
It's time for the left to get as serious about the 1st Amendment as the right is about the 2nd.
September 18, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Threatening a television network with fines to get them to fire a specific talk show host like Jimmy Kimmel is EXACTLY what the First Amendment is supposed to prevent.
Jimmy Kimmel should sue everyone
It's time for the left to get as serious about the 1st Amendment as the right is about the 2nd.
Jimmy Kimmel should sue everyone
It's time for the left to get as serious about the 1st Amendment as the right is about the 2nd.
Back in 1979 I began learning Irish & U.S. fiddle tunes on the mandolin and knew @wesleyanuniversity.bsky.social students pursuing Carnatic singing, drum & flute. But electric Carnatic mandolin wasn't part of the curriculum! Fascinating, but 9/8 slipjigs are still my limit! Thanks, OofD & Bandcamp!
Odysseys in Electric Carnatic
by Mandolin Sisters
(Discostan 2025)
discostan.bandcamp.com/album/odysse...
by Mandolin Sisters
(Discostan 2025)
discostan.bandcamp.com/album/odysse...
Odysseys in Electric Carnatic, by Mandolin Sisters
8 track album
discostan.bandcamp.com
September 10, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Back in 1979 I began learning Irish & U.S. fiddle tunes on the mandolin and knew @wesleyanuniversity.bsky.social students pursuing Carnatic singing, drum & flute. But electric Carnatic mandolin wasn't part of the curriculum! Fascinating, but 9/8 slipjigs are still my limit! Thanks, OofD & Bandcamp!
Reposted by Bob Stepno
Not like they tried to hide their plans either.
August 30, 2025 at 1:13 AM
Not like they tried to hide their plans either.
Reposted by Bob Stepno
I am deeply distressed that Project 2025 is not known by every thinking person. Yes it is over 900 pages. It is THE GOP platform. Heritage Foundation is churning out white male extremists placing them in Gov positions and across Communities to implement School agendas. How can you not be aware?
August 29, 2025 at 11:39 PM
I am deeply distressed that Project 2025 is not known by every thinking person. Yes it is over 900 pages. It is THE GOP platform. Heritage Foundation is churning out white male extremists placing them in Gov positions and across Communities to implement School agendas. How can you not be aware?
Reposted by Bob Stepno
With O'Neill (apparently) taking over CDC (if they ever get around to firing Monarez), I think it's worth looking back to Project 2025 and asking what they actually intend to *do* to CDC. So, I went to remind myself today. Here's what's in store:
August 29, 2025 at 8:56 PM
With O'Neill (apparently) taking over CDC (if they ever get around to firing Monarez), I think it's worth looking back to Project 2025 and asking what they actually intend to *do* to CDC. So, I went to remind myself today. Here's what's in store:
Reposted by Bob Stepno
20 years after Hurricane Katrina, revisit our Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation about the impossible choices doctors and nurses faced in the aftermath of the disaster.
This is "The Deadly Choices at Memorial," co-published 2009 with The New York Times Magazine:
This is "The Deadly Choices at Memorial," co-published 2009 with The New York Times Magazine:
The Deadly Choices at Memorial
ProPublica is an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest.
www.propublica.org
August 29, 2025 at 10:02 PM
20 years after Hurricane Katrina, revisit our Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation about the impossible choices doctors and nurses faced in the aftermath of the disaster.
This is "The Deadly Choices at Memorial," co-published 2009 with The New York Times Magazine:
This is "The Deadly Choices at Memorial," co-published 2009 with The New York Times Magazine:
Reposted by Bob Stepno
CNN has really improved its chyron game
August 23, 2025 at 6:34 PM
CNN has really improved its chyron game
I loved having my mother or grandmother read me the comics while I looked at the pictures on those big color Sunday comic pages. It's been a while! But this guy (around the same time) was good at it, too. jheroes.com/2025/08/15/n... #oldtimeradio #1950s #comics
Newspaper comics on the radio
This isn’t about journalism’s “newspaper heroes,” but another convergence of America’s 20th century “newspaper culture” and that mass media upstart, radio …
jheroes.com
August 16, 2025 at 5:12 AM
I loved having my mother or grandmother read me the comics while I looked at the pictures on those big color Sunday comic pages. It's been a while! But this guy (around the same time) was good at it, too. jheroes.com/2025/08/15/n... #oldtimeradio #1950s #comics
Reposted by Bob Stepno
Today is Bandcamp Friday! They waive their fees so artists receive a full share of all music and merch sales. This is a great time to support your favorite independent musicians. curtiseller.bandcamp.com
August 1, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Today is Bandcamp Friday! They waive their fees so artists receive a full share of all music and merch sales. This is a great time to support your favorite independent musicians. curtiseller.bandcamp.com
I still use Facebook and feel guilty about not spreading some of the same information with my dusty old blog. Here goes an attempt with the jetpack Android app and the Evernote text editor as go betweens to copy and paste a Facebook post into the WordPress.
stepno.wordpress.com/2025/07/27/h...
stepno.wordpress.com/2025/07/27/h...
How to hear Virginia’s Cardinal News
Posted this to Facebook this morning, but folks who just read this blog might be interested. Because I’m posting this very quickly with my WordPress blog’s new JetPack app, I see that t…
stepno.wordpress.com
July 27, 2025 at 3:36 PM
I still use Facebook and feel guilty about not spreading some of the same information with my dusty old blog. Here goes an attempt with the jetpack Android app and the Evernote text editor as go betweens to copy and paste a Facebook post into the WordPress.
stepno.wordpress.com/2025/07/27/h...
stepno.wordpress.com/2025/07/27/h...
Reposted by Bob Stepno
🦋
Behind Trump’s imperial presidency, there’s Russell Vought
Vought is best known for co-authoring the Project 2025 policy playbook. A Trump loyalist, now director of the Office of Management & Budget (OMB), as well as the new acting director of the CFPB.
A Bloomberg deep dive: archive.is/mbgAk
🦋
Behind Trump’s imperial presidency, there’s Russell Vought
Vought is best known for co-authoring the Project 2025 policy playbook. A Trump loyalist, now director of the Office of Management & Budget (OMB), as well as the new acting director of the CFPB.
A Bloomberg deep dive: archive.is/mbgAk
🦋
April 23, 2025 at 4:05 PM
🦋
Behind Trump’s imperial presidency, there’s Russell Vought
Vought is best known for co-authoring the Project 2025 policy playbook. A Trump loyalist, now director of the Office of Management & Budget (OMB), as well as the new acting director of the CFPB.
A Bloomberg deep dive: archive.is/mbgAk
🦋
Behind Trump’s imperial presidency, there’s Russell Vought
Vought is best known for co-authoring the Project 2025 policy playbook. A Trump loyalist, now director of the Office of Management & Budget (OMB), as well as the new acting director of the CFPB.
A Bloomberg deep dive: archive.is/mbgAk
🦋
Reposted by Bob Stepno
This is precisely correct.
June 9, 2025 at 7:09 PM
This is precisely correct.
Thanks for the free Atlantic article from someone who knows the military and the law: "Perhaps nothing would please Trump more than to replace weird stories about Elon Musk with video of masked protesters burning cars as lines of helmeted police and soldiers march over them..."
I know everyone's been breathlessly waiting for what I was going to write about LA.
here you go - gifted
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
here you go - gifted
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Trump Means to Provoke, Not Pacify
Don’t give him the pretext he wants.
www.theatlantic.com
June 9, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Thanks for the free Atlantic article from someone who knows the military and the law: "Perhaps nothing would please Trump more than to replace weird stories about Elon Musk with video of masked protesters burning cars as lines of helmeted police and soldiers march over them..."
Catching up with last week's reading...
www.newsfromthestates.com/article/trum...
www.newsfromthestates.com/article/trum...
Trump-backed giant tax and spending bill bloats deficit by $2.4T, nonpartisan CBO says
WASHINGTON — The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released detailed analysis Wednesday showing Republicans’ “big, beautiful bill” would increase federal deficits by $2.4 trillion during the nex...
www.newsfromthestates.com
June 9, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Catching up with last week's reading...
www.newsfromthestates.com/article/trum...
www.newsfromthestates.com/article/trum...
Reposted by Bob Stepno
Virginia hasn’t let you file taxes on its own site since 2010, when lawmakers killed the free iFile system and handed the task to private companies like TurboTax (which now charges $64).
A new bill to bring it back passed — but Youngkin vetoed it.
virginiamercury.com/2025/06/09/f...
A new bill to bring it back passed — but Youngkin vetoed it.
virginiamercury.com/2025/06/09/f...
Fifteen years after shuttering its tax-prep app, Va. may be ready to compete with TurboTax again • Virginia Mercury
“We should not have to pay a for-profit company in order to file our taxes easily,” said Del. Kathy Tran, D-Fairfax, who sponsored a bill this year that would have the state develop a free individual ...
virginiamercury.com
June 9, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Virginia hasn’t let you file taxes on its own site since 2010, when lawmakers killed the free iFile system and handed the task to private companies like TurboTax (which now charges $64).
A new bill to bring it back passed — but Youngkin vetoed it.
virginiamercury.com/2025/06/09/f...
A new bill to bring it back passed — but Youngkin vetoed it.
virginiamercury.com/2025/06/09/f...
Reposted by Bob Stepno
Deploying the military on U.S. soil as law enforcement against Americans was on page 555 of Project 2025.
So don’t say “I didn’t vote for this,” because you did.
This isn’t a response.
This was always their plan.
So don’t say “I didn’t vote for this,” because you did.
This isn’t a response.
This was always their plan.
June 8, 2025 at 12:53 PM
Deploying the military on U.S. soil as law enforcement against Americans was on page 555 of Project 2025.
So don’t say “I didn’t vote for this,” because you did.
This isn’t a response.
This was always their plan.
So don’t say “I didn’t vote for this,” because you did.
This isn’t a response.
This was always their plan.
Yes! And at some libraries, the handwritten notations on the catalog cards!
Actually, yes, this and a fantastic set of encyclopedias
June 3, 2025 at 5:23 AM
Yes! And at some libraries, the handwritten notations on the catalog cards!
Reposted by Bob Stepno
WATCH: “That’s what this is all about.”
On IG LIVE @aoc.bsky.social just called out @CoreCivic and other private prison companies for profiting off these ICE detentions after donating big bucks to Trump (and other Republicans).
An all-too-familiar story for us here in Tennessee.
On IG LIVE @aoc.bsky.social just called out @CoreCivic and other private prison companies for profiting off these ICE detentions after donating big bucks to Trump (and other Republicans).
An all-too-familiar story for us here in Tennessee.
May 11, 2025 at 2:52 AM
WATCH: “That’s what this is all about.”
On IG LIVE @aoc.bsky.social just called out @CoreCivic and other private prison companies for profiting off these ICE detentions after donating big bucks to Trump (and other Republicans).
An all-too-familiar story for us here in Tennessee.
On IG LIVE @aoc.bsky.social just called out @CoreCivic and other private prison companies for profiting off these ICE detentions after donating big bucks to Trump (and other Republicans).
An all-too-familiar story for us here in Tennessee.
Reposted by Bob Stepno
The effect of ChatGPT on students’ learning performance, learning perception, and higher-order thinking: insights from a meta-analysis
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The effect of ChatGPT on students’ learning performance, learning perception, and higher-order thinking: insights from a meta-analysis - Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
Humanities and Social Sciences Communications - The effect of ChatGPT on students’ learning performance, learning perception, and higher-order thinking: insights from a meta-analysis
www.nature.com
May 11, 2025 at 2:53 AM
The effect of ChatGPT on students’ learning performance, learning perception, and higher-order thinking: insights from a meta-analysis
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Bob Stepno
I know Great Barrington well and it is extremely hard to imagine any scenario on this earth in this small town that would require cops to roll out like they're going to war.
May 10, 2025 at 11:36 PM
I know Great Barrington well and it is extremely hard to imagine any scenario on this earth in this small town that would require cops to roll out like they're going to war.
Reposted by Bob Stepno
May 9, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Haven't posted anything original here in a while except for Wordle scores. So here is some spring time on the Blue Ridge..
May 11, 2025 at 3:35 AM
Haven't posted anything original here in a while except for Wordle scores. So here is some spring time on the Blue Ridge..