Heather Bryant
@hbcompass.bsky.social
News and information for and with communities. Journalism person, writer, artist, photographer and maker. Co-founder of Tiny News Collective. Building carefully.org Writing at hbcompass.io Managing journalism.wtf She/her
Reposted by Heather Bryant
In a special project on extreme cold in prison, 27 PJP contributors in 17 states describe winter behind bars — and the small dignities that could make it more bearable.
What Extreme Cold Feels Like in Prison
Prison writers from across the U.S. describe how cold their prisons get in the winter — and what small dignities could make it more bearable.
prisonjournalismproject.org
November 21, 2025 at 1:50 AM
In a special project on extreme cold in prison, 27 PJP contributors in 17 states describe winter behind bars — and the small dignities that could make it more bearable.
I've been thinking about social media a lot lately and how so much of the interaction I feel like I'm witnessing is oriented around users correcting one another.
www.hbcompass.io/breathe-just...
www.hbcompass.io/breathe-just...
November 20, 2025 at 2:16 PM
I've been thinking about social media a lot lately and how so much of the interaction I feel like I'm witnessing is oriented around users correcting one another.
www.hbcompass.io/breathe-just...
www.hbcompass.io/breathe-just...
I kinda think the tail actually being attached to the fox's body might have been one of the creative limits to keep.
November 18, 2025 at 3:36 PM
I kinda think the tail actually being attached to the fox's body might have been one of the creative limits to keep.
If you are struggling with the current national topic of conversation you are not alone. This is very difficult. It is grueling to hear people treating it like a debate. The coming weeks and months are going to be rough. You are not obligated to witness every update or cruel comment.
November 13, 2025 at 9:49 PM
If you are struggling with the current national topic of conversation you are not alone. This is very difficult. It is grueling to hear people treating it like a debate. The coming weeks and months are going to be rough. You are not obligated to witness every update or cruel comment.
Hey, while we're talking about the absurdity of 50-year mortgages can we also talk about how Medicaid Estate Recovery causes families to lose houses, which represent the only wealth most middle income families are able to build while higher income families have the ability to protect their assets?
November 9, 2025 at 5:08 AM
Hey, while we're talking about the absurdity of 50-year mortgages can we also talk about how Medicaid Estate Recovery causes families to lose houses, which represent the only wealth most middle income families are able to build while higher income families have the ability to protect their assets?
Reposted by Heather Bryant
Call me controversial, but technology that leads vulnerable people into crisis and even holds their hand as they die by suicide should not be endorsed by schools and universities, we should not be giving discounted subscriptions to this monstrous tech to young people AT ALL
The boyfriend of a friend of my son's has spent several weeks in a psych ward due to Chat GPT induced psychosis. He isn't suicidal but AI encouraged him down a toxic and paranoid wormhole until he became completely delusional. Evil stuff.
1.This is not the only known example we know of ChatGPT cheering on a vulnerable young person to die by suicide, this time it is a recent Texas A&M grad
2. Every single university that has invited OpenAI into our midst should be asked to account for their choices.
www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u...
2. Every single university that has invited OpenAI into our midst should be asked to account for their choices.
www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u...
November 7, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Call me controversial, but technology that leads vulnerable people into crisis and even holds their hand as they die by suicide should not be endorsed by schools and universities, we should not be giving discounted subscriptions to this monstrous tech to young people AT ALL
News orgs that produce good journalism but also publish incendiary, bigoted, and/or offensive "opinion" content because it's lucrative is like a hospital running a gun store in their lobby. You can be in the service of informing people or the business of provocation but tolerance for both is waning.
November 7, 2025 at 5:07 PM
News orgs that produce good journalism but also publish incendiary, bigoted, and/or offensive "opinion" content because it's lucrative is like a hospital running a gun store in their lobby. You can be in the service of informing people or the business of provocation but tolerance for both is waning.
Big "hitting on women and then calling her names after she says no" energy here. The content is worth scraping & sharing but if the rights holder says no, then it's "worthless".
The ubiquity of liars who fail at basic consent in the Gen AI space is part of why I don't want anything to do with it.
The ubiquity of liars who fail at basic consent in the Gen AI space is part of why I don't want anything to do with it.
NEW: Common Crawl, the massive archiver of the web, has gotten cozy with AI companies and is providing paywalled articles for training data. They’re also lying to publishers who have asked for material to be removed. “The robots are people too,” CC’s exec director told us when we asked about this.
The Nonprofit Feeding the Entire Internet to AI Companies
Common Crawl claims to provide a public benefit, but it lies to publishers about its activities.
www.theatlantic.com
November 4, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Big "hitting on women and then calling her names after she says no" energy here. The content is worth scraping & sharing but if the rights holder says no, then it's "worthless".
The ubiquity of liars who fail at basic consent in the Gen AI space is part of why I don't want anything to do with it.
The ubiquity of liars who fail at basic consent in the Gen AI space is part of why I don't want anything to do with it.
The end of the calendar year brings a lot of holidays. You do not owe anyone a meeting, attention, forgiveness, reconciliation, a second chance or anything else simply because it is almost a holiday.
www.hbcompass.io/forgiveness-...
www.hbcompass.io/forgiveness-...
Forgiveness on (Holiday) Deadline
The close of the calendar year brings a variety of occasions that are utilized by those who seek forgiveness without having taken any steps to earn it.
www.hbcompass.io
November 3, 2025 at 8:54 PM
The end of the calendar year brings a lot of holidays. You do not owe anyone a meeting, attention, forgiveness, reconciliation, a second chance or anything else simply because it is almost a holiday.
www.hbcompass.io/forgiveness-...
www.hbcompass.io/forgiveness-...
We made it to November 1.
Wishing you a satisfying Let's Circle Back to This In The New Year for all who celebrate the season.
Wishing you a satisfying Let's Circle Back to This In The New Year for all who celebrate the season.
November 1, 2025 at 1:49 PM
We made it to November 1.
Wishing you a satisfying Let's Circle Back to This In The New Year for all who celebrate the season.
Wishing you a satisfying Let's Circle Back to This In The New Year for all who celebrate the season.
I was a child raised by a disabled grandmother on food stamps. Which one of us was supposed to get a job?
October 31, 2025 at 10:04 AM
I was a child raised by a disabled grandmother on food stamps. Which one of us was supposed to get a job?
The Venn diagram of journalists mad when their stories get ripped off and reposted without credit and journalists who use Gen AI tools built with stolen and unlicensed art to create visuals for their stories is the shape of hypocrisy.
October 30, 2025 at 8:22 PM
The Venn diagram of journalists mad when their stories get ripped off and reposted without credit and journalists who use Gen AI tools built with stolen and unlicensed art to create visuals for their stories is the shape of hypocrisy.
Being outraged that California is voting on whether to redistrict when red states are just unilaterally deciding to redistrict without input from their voters is a wild choice for hypocrisy.
October 30, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Being outraged that California is voting on whether to redistrict when red states are just unilaterally deciding to redistrict without input from their voters is a wild choice for hypocrisy.
Reposted by Heather Bryant
No discussion of Musk/ Futurism/ Moderation or epistemological collapse can be done properly without discussion of race/ class and yess interpersonal dynamics
“But Sydette that’s kind of like saying we’ve never had a good discussion”
“But Sydette that’s kind of like saying we’ve never had a good discussion”
a man in a suit and hat is sitting in a chair with the words `` i mean '' written on the screen .
ALT: a man in a suit and hat is sitting in a chair with the words `` i mean '' written on the screen .
media.tenor.com
October 29, 2025 at 1:10 PM
No discussion of Musk/ Futurism/ Moderation or epistemological collapse can be done properly without discussion of race/ class and yess interpersonal dynamics
“But Sydette that’s kind of like saying we’ve never had a good discussion”
“But Sydette that’s kind of like saying we’ve never had a good discussion”
Where XanderCat could choose to lay and where he does choose to lay.
October 25, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Where XanderCat could choose to lay and where he does choose to lay.
If you haven't read this or haven't read it in a while, it's a very grounding experience at this time.
October 24, 2025 at 3:32 PM
If you haven't read this or haven't read it in a while, it's a very grounding experience at this time.
Dear messaging app developers, when you have friends you actually want to see the things they message you and you want to see it in their words not "✨See a summary of the last 5 messages" because that's how being a friend works and is literally one of the most meaningful parts.
October 24, 2025 at 11:29 AM
Dear messaging app developers, when you have friends you actually want to see the things they message you and you want to see it in their words not "✨See a summary of the last 5 messages" because that's how being a friend works and is literally one of the most meaningful parts.
Extremely low chances: Being harmed by AI that gains sentience and turns on us.
Extremely high chances: Being harmed due to software on a critical system that is compromised or fails because of vulnerabilities created by someone recklessly relying on AI to build and/or run it for them.
Extremely high chances: Being harmed due to software on a critical system that is compromised or fails because of vulnerabilities created by someone recklessly relying on AI to build and/or run it for them.
October 21, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Extremely low chances: Being harmed by AI that gains sentience and turns on us.
Extremely high chances: Being harmed due to software on a critical system that is compromised or fails because of vulnerabilities created by someone recklessly relying on AI to build and/or run it for them.
Extremely high chances: Being harmed due to software on a critical system that is compromised or fails because of vulnerabilities created by someone recklessly relying on AI to build and/or run it for them.
The Shepard Tone is an auditory illusion where the tone seems to ascend or descend but it never actually breaks, creating this feeling of ratcheting tension that is never released. That's what this entire year has felt like.
October 20, 2025 at 3:54 PM
The Shepard Tone is an auditory illusion where the tone seems to ascend or descend but it never actually breaks, creating this feeling of ratcheting tension that is never released. That's what this entire year has felt like.
Reposted by Heather Bryant
Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.
June 19, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.
I know 2026 feels pretty far away but there are already conferences on the calendar in the early part of the year. The 2026 Journalism WTF conference guide is now out. As more dates and details are confirmed, they will be added to the table. www.journalism.wtf/journalism-c...
Journalism Conferences 2026
Ready to think about 2026? Here's your guide to the 2026 journalism and media conference calendar. As dates and details are finalized for existing and upcoming events, details will be added to the tab...
www.journalism.wtf
October 16, 2025 at 3:01 PM
I know 2026 feels pretty far away but there are already conferences on the calendar in the early part of the year. The 2026 Journalism WTF conference guide is now out. As more dates and details are confirmed, they will be added to the table. www.journalism.wtf/journalism-c...
Reposted by Heather Bryant
If I genuinely believed I was 18 months away from superintelligence that could solve cancer, I would probably not be pivoting to horny chatbots, but that's just me (a person with priorities)
October 15, 2025 at 11:04 AM
If I genuinely believed I was 18 months away from superintelligence that could solve cancer, I would probably not be pivoting to horny chatbots, but that's just me (a person with priorities)
While Land Before Time was certainly emotionally devastating as a child, I didn't clock it as a horror film.
Screenshots are from the results of searching "horror" on Netflix.
Screenshots are from the results of searching "horror" on Netflix.
October 15, 2025 at 12:51 PM
While Land Before Time was certainly emotionally devastating as a child, I didn't clock it as a horror film.
Screenshots are from the results of searching "horror" on Netflix.
Screenshots are from the results of searching "horror" on Netflix.
If you're confident that you can tell the difference between AI and real media, do you have that same confidence in your local police, courts, social services, school administrators, employers, and community? Because they all also have to be capable of that for you to not be harmed by false media.
October 13, 2025 at 2:51 PM
If you're confident that you can tell the difference between AI and real media, do you have that same confidence in your local police, courts, social services, school administrators, employers, and community? Because they all also have to be capable of that for you to not be harmed by false media.