hacker-journalist ejfox.com
Articles by EJ Fox
NBC News Big Board
It started as a prototype I made in January — a touchscreen way to explore county-level election results — that I demoed to Adam, then to Steve, then to Marc, until it got the budget and became the real thing: the "Big Board" Steve Kornacki wields on air, live, in front of about 10 million people watching on NBC and MSNBC. Michael Small and I built it with NBC News Digital's product and tech teams.
Meet The AI Hackers Wielding Glitch Tokens
Last year Matthew Watkins stumbled on a fascinating and haunting phenomenon in an otherwise mundane experiment. Watkins is one of the first of an entirely new type of scientist; one who studies machines who speak. They are often known as “AI Safety Researchers” but that’s a lot like calling F1 drivers “Car Researchers”.
EJ Fox: ๐ Introducing room302.studio
It's been a long journey since I first started in data visualization contracting over ten years ago, and I'm incredibly proud to introduce my new data and prototyping studio: Room 302 Studio. As my client work grew larger and more intricate, I realized the tremendous potential of forming a studio where talented people could connect, collaborate and strive together towards empowering the world through projects and tools that center joy and kindness.
EJ Fox: đ Deconstructing Crypto, AI, and the 21st Century Colonial Mindset
This post is in progress, and updates are expected Started 2023-01-24 Updated 2023-03-23 1246 words 7 min read 1 photos #politics #machinelearning In the swirling chaos of the 21st century, we find ourselves in the throes of a digital revolution, but we are in danger of entrenching the systems of oppression that already pervade our society. Cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence (AI) have been heralded as saviors of economic opportunity, promising to enfranchise communities across the globe.
Deconstructing Crypto, AI, and the 21st Century Colonial Mindset
Started January 24, 2023Last Updated April 09, 2023 1358 words 7 min read In the swirling chaos of the 21st century, we find ourselves in the throes of a digital revolution, but we are in danger of entrenching the systems of oppression that already pervade our society. Badly designed AI can harm vulnerable and marginalized groups even when it “works,” by subjecting them to new forms of data-gathering and surveillance and encoding historical patterns of discrimination into automated systems.
My Modern Scrapbook
I have gotten pretty good at saving interesting things that I see on the internet. On my iPhone, I have the Pins app, which allows me to add any link I see to my Pinboard bookmarks. Anytime I read something I think I might want to reference, show someone, or think about later, I chuck it into my bookmarks. I've done this for over 10 years now, making little notes of my favorite things while wading through the ever-expanding deluge of "content".
EJ Fox: đ How To Run A Project
Lessons from contracting One of the amazing things about contracting is that you get to see inside many different organizations and management styles. I have found that every new team I work with has a technique or system worth learning from. Over time you gather a broad toolkit and an intuition about the types of structures that best suit a certain group of people.
EJ Fox: 📝 Election Night 2018
Around 1AM I saw a note in Slack that said, very simply, that there were bacon pancakes in studio 3B. Studio 3B had been accurately described to me as “that costco looking studio” and it held a makeshift control room. Screens were stacked at the front, different desks decked out with multiple monitors encompassing the director’s desk.
EJ Fox: π Embracing Joy-Driven Development: A New Philosophy for Better Work
#programming #process I want to take some time to put into words the philosophy that has been guiding my approach to work for the past few years. My ideas and approaches have evolved as I have tried to explain these motivations to different collaborators, and I will try to distill that here. The core of what I think of as "Joy-Driven Development" is a drive to embrace the sparks of joy that illuminate our work, guiding us along a path infused with curiosity and effortless innovation.
EJ Fox: š How I Use GPT-3
The OpenAI Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3 (GPT-3) can be used to do incredible things. From generating election summaries to writing shot lists for a documentary, knowing how to use GPT-3 is the key to unlocking its potential. I've been talking to GPT-3 (who I sometimes call š¤ The Robot) for a while now. I first used GPT-3 through the app AI Dungeon which encouraged a storytelling approach.
Comtrade Data Processing
Learn new data visualization techniques. Perform complex data analysis. Publish your findings in a compelling document. All in the same tool.
Hydroelectric Dam Animation (1700-2005)
Learn new data visualization techniques. Perform complex data analysis. Publish your findings in a compelling document. All in the same tool.
Data Interrogation Template
Learn new data visualization techniques. Perform complex data analysis. Publish your findings in a compelling document. All in the same tool.
Randomly Generated Election
Learn new data visualization techniques. Perform complex data analysis. Publish your findings in a compelling document. All in the same tool.
The Lack of Data
An exploration of what we choose to track, and what we don't – and what that means if we want to make the world a better place This post is in progress I would really appreciate your feedback on things I could improve. Get in touch via email or Twitter... ejfox@ejfox.com or @mrejfox If I wanted to, I could tell you the precise angle and speed of a small ball thrown in a game of professional baseball.
Circle Flow Watercolor Painting
Checkout Circle Flow Watercolor Painting Enter your info to complete your purchase Card Keep on file Card Number We do not keep any of your sensitive credit card information on file with us unless you ask us to after this purchase is complete. Charge to Keep on file You'll be charged US$901. Your purchase was successful! We charged your card and sent you a receipt Enter a password and we'll remember your credit card for next time. You agree to our Terms Of Use.
Framed 11x14 Darkroom Print - Man on Bike
Checkout Framed 11x14 Darkroom Print - Man on Bike Enter your info to complete your purchase Mailed to: Keep on file Is this your street address? Card Keep on file Card Number We do not keep any of your sensitive credit card information on file with us unless you ask us to after this purchase is complete. Charge to Keep on file You'll be charged US$125. Your purchase was successful! We charged your card and sent you a receipt Thank you so much for supporting my work and my darkroom.
Obama’s State Of The Union Was Written For A 10th-Grader
President Obama’s 2015 State of the Union address was written for a 10th-grader, which makes it the most high-minded of all his SOTU speeches, a data analysis by Vocativ reveals. Generally, in order for Obama to make himself understood to the broadest possible swath of the population, he tailors his speeches to the intellect of a 14-year-old. But over the last few years, the grade level of the president’s speeches has edged up.
Randomized Direction Sand Sim
Randomized Direction Sand Sim A recreation of Harm van den Dorpel's fall.gif (discovered via Tom MacWright's Blob melt). Modified so that the direction that it pushes is randomized. See the Data or Config section for image credits. Data Config Library Helpers Dependencies
A summer of live streamed coding
For the past few months, Ian and I have been experimenting with livestreaming ourselves working on dataviz projects on Twitch and calling it Coding With Fire. These experiments evolved from the rough shape of how Ian and I have hung out since we met nearly 10 years ago as coworkers at a dataviz startup in San Francisco. During coffee breaks and after work we would hang out and hack on projects that didn’t fit into our day jobs.
Pattern Moire - Line & Circle Grids
We generate the "patterns" as a bunch of arrays of elements (points or lines): Inspiration
Pattern Moire
An Observable notebook by EJ Fox.
Hong Kong Protest Techniques
In which the citizens of Hong Kong find new creative ways to improve on public disobedience Traffic cones - to help contain tear gas cannisters Suitcases (as defenses) Water bottles Laser pointers Breaking bricks Using slingshots Transporting divider fencing Extinguishing tear gas with traffic cones and metal bowls Makeshift armor: saran wrap, garbage can lids, luggage = shields Organization - human supply chain lines Hand signals for when supplies are needed Parting crowds for ambulances...
Online Nazis Have Figured Out How To Game Twitter
One of the newest weaknesses online trolls are exploiting is one of the mechanisms built to defend against them, Twitter’s system for reporting tweets that violate their Terms of Service. Twitter doesn’t detail publicly the mechanisms used to decide which tweets and accounts get removed, how many reports trigger a human moderator, or whether a certain amount of reports automatically triggers a ban.
Looking for D3 freelancer to partner with
Looking for someone with interest in data analysis, visualization, and javascript to help expand my freelance work and take on bigger projects. I’ve been freelancing in the data visualization space since 2012, with a few years spent in-house in news organizations. Most recently I was full time at NBC News helping to lead the redesign of the Big Board using web technologies like Vue and D3.
Vegan Leather Isn’t As Ethical As You Think
NYFW Cruelty-free synthetics come with serious environmental costs (Illustration: Tara Jacoby) By Scott Christian, EJ Foxand Kaitlyn Kelly Feb 10, 2016 at 9:40 AM ET When it comes to leather, a vegan faces two choices: wear synthetic or wear none at all. But is synthetic leather, sometimes called vegan leather, really the better option? The answer is complicated. While itâs easy to understand what vegan leather is notâanimal productâunderstanding what it is can be tricky.
Things I've learned about elections
Edge cases Elections are all edge cases. Votes are cast and tallied by a wide variety of Americans who all have the same goal but often different ideas about how to go about it. Votes are cast in cities and rural areas, in places with millions of constituents or dozens. Many elections are run locally by someone you should mentally picture as your well-meaning aunt. The sheer scale of such an operation is astounding. We live in a country that spans a continent and 9 time zones .
‘No slurs, no racism’: Andrew Yang's campaign and supporters struggle to push away extremists, leaked chats show
Andrew Yang, a long-shot candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, has won some attention in the national political debate in recent months thanks in part to a fervent online support network called the “Yang Gang” that pushes support of the candidate on several social media platforms.
MAP: Which Of America's Most Racist Town Names Are In Your State?
US POLITICS Interactive Map: A state-by-state guide to America's racist history By EJ Fox and Gerald Rich Nov 04, 2015 at 2:28 PM ET Racial slurs criss-cross the United States, appearing in placenames in every single state in America, a Vocativ data analysis of millions of records has found. From Dead Negro Hollow, Tennessee, to Wetback Tank, New Mexico, to Dead Injun Creek, at least 1,441 federally recognized places across the nation include slurs in their official name.
ejfox (EJ Fox) on Keybase
What the heck is Keybase? Keybase is an open source app Keybase comes with everything you need to manage your identity, create secure chats, and share files privately. It's free. It's fun too. Over 100,000 people have joined Keybase so far to prove their identities, and it's growing rapidly.
Tracking President Trump's Visits to Trump Properties
President Donald Trump frequently uses his luxury properties for government business and leisure, prompting ethics concerns over a president appearing to promote his private enterprise at public cost. NBCNews.com and the NBC News White House unit are tracking Trump's visits to his properties and golf courses since his inauguration. Where does Trump go? Trump's trips have so far been concentrated in Palm Beach, Florida.
Here’s The Worst Food You Can Eat On Thanksgiving
Forget the pilgrims and Christopher Columbus, everyone in America knows that Thanksgiving is all about food and, consequently, overeating. Though the annual holiday binge-a-thon is an American tradition, a Vocativ analysis of nutritional information found some less-than-palatable numbers behind the Thanksgiving meal. In total, a Thanksgiving plate comprised of one serving of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, and a slice of cranberry sauce contains 716 calories.
NYC Trump Tower Protest | EJ Fox
NYC Trump Tower Protest August 14, 2017 at Trump Tower in New York City. Related
My expanding mental map of the world
I grew up in the Hudson Valley, surrounded by beautiful green trees, dairy farms, and dirt roads. My mental map was basically my house and the bus route to school. That was my world. As I got older I started hanging out at my best friend’s house a lot. I’d have my parents drop me off at the mall and wander around causing havoc, or sneak into movies at the theater. My world was expanding. I’m very lucky to have grown up a train ride away from the city.
Everything, Everywhere, Is Obama’s Fault
Of all the insanity Sarah Palin spouted during her long and winding endorsement of Donald Trump, one shining moment stands out: the infamous Grizzly mom blaming President Obama for her son Track’s arrest on domestic violence charges. She’s just sure it was the President’s neglect of veterans that led Track to assault his girlfriend, which—you have to hand it to Sarah—is quite a twist on the devil made me do it.
Creating a Twitter art bot with Node and D3 – EJ Fox – Medium
I’ve been wanting to create a Twitter bot that tweets out random images created with D3. This is the pathway that worked for me- if you want to do something similar, I hope it works for you! The code is all on GitHub but this guide walks through the concepts involved. We’re using coffeescript because it makes writing code fun. Making art should always be fun.
Cross-Country Roadtrip 2017 | EJ Fox
In 2016 I decided to quit my job and drive around the country for a few weeks. I decided, for the poetry of it, to start in Washington, DC on Inauguration Day. I slept in my car, bought a tent in Savannah and camped in State and National Parks, and on the couches of generous friends. I made a point to slow down, think about America outside the sphere and hubbub of the media cycle, and just take photos and write. These are some of my favorite photos from the trip.
Driving From Raleigh to Savannah | EJ Fox
Driving From Raleigh to Savannah Photos from the drive from Raleigh, NC to Savannah, GA and the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge. Savannah Wildlife Refuge Related
Trump Inauguration & Protests in Washington DC | EJ Fox
The inauguration of Donald Trump– contentious as it was– had everyone in agreement about one thing: things are going to change. Men and women wearing red hats, beanies, and inauguration-branded scarves mingled with other men and women wearing black and pink, protest pins, and carrying signs. There was tension in the air, of course. They’d all traveled from far and wide to be in Washington, DC and be part of history and make their voice heard.
Rethinking Breaking News – I. M. H. O.
What can be done? During breaking news events, journalists need to be the professionals in the room. They need to be the ones to tell everyone to calm down and wait for good information to come, and we should be able to trust them that they will give it to us when it does. They should know we’re watching Twitter just like them. News organizations need to use their unique skills to curate and verify the flood of information that comes out during big events.
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