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kennysmith.bsky.social
Adventuring with @laurensmith.bsky.social. Cyclist, diver, reader, builder. On the side: professor of comm studies, sports comm and media. Formerly: reporter, anchor, producer, adviser. https://www.kennysmith.org [he/him/his]
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Hooray for science. Hooray for fungus. 🔬🍄💉

I recently learned that people are posting messages and photos to Google Maps (and not always relevant to the locale or appropriate for all audiences) because they know Google doesn’t care. Despite, or because of, that apathy, that’s a retrograde social media platform. Definitions matter.

“Exposure to #MediaLiteracy instruction was associated with higher trust in news media, more frequent news consumption, & increased confidence in doing reverse image searches." - NLP's Kim Bowman, who talked about our "News Literacy in America" report on the Unpacking Education podcast 🎙

Who needs to sell when you can do this?

Sport being a prism through which we view ourselves — and sometimes our aspirations — it should be encouraged as a healthy party of discourse. @laurensmith.bsky.social and I, years ago, wrote research on Twitter as an online water cooler. That was a contributing factor to the platform’s success.

View the first images from the new Vera C. Rubin Observatory, which will revolutionize how astronomy is done. “Your observation was made already. You just have to find it.” In 10 hours of operation, it’s already discovered 2,104 new asteroids. [kottke.org]

I spoke with the BBC about how disinformation spreads, especially in times of conflict and political division. When people are faced with binary choices, they're more likely to share content that aligns with their identity. And the more emotional or sensational it is, the faster it spreads.

You’re telling me you don’t want a 2.39:1 or 16:9 ratio on a 70-foot screen blaring 80 dB spots for the local Mitsubishi dealer?

I don’t follow NYC politics terribly closely, but … It was something like 82° when he stepped off, and Maps tells me that’s a 14-mile walk of hand shakes, high fives and hip hop hugs. And he’s wearing long sleeves and slacks. That’s campaigning.

People read this and think of X. This is much, much more broadly defined.

I guess that’s one way to lower the bicycle injury rate statistics. I have a few other suggestions

Victory lap time for Fox.

@newslit.org @mediasmarts.bsky.social are two orgs doing great work to foster critical thinking skills and media literacy, but a broader system is needed like Finland for example, where these skills are incorporated into education from a young age. disa.org/early-disinf...

On the Today Show Monday, Jalen Hurts announced the release of his new children’s book, “Better Than a Touchdown.” “It’s always been a dream of mine to have my own children’s book,“ Hurts said on the show. ”Today, that dream finally comes true."

Just …

“I feel like I have been lied to” is almost never code for “I can’t believe I was duped and fell for this.” But it SHOULD be.

Olorunninpa was the co-author of a book about George Floyd which was a finalist for the 2022 National Book Award for Nonfiction and the winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. This week, his byline was with this headline.

"i asked chatgpt" yeah well i went to the doctor, i went to the mountains, i looked to the children, i drank from the fountains there's more than one answer to these questions pointing me in a crooked line and the less I seek my source for some definitive closer I am to fine

Swimming in a triathlon several years ago I came upon a woman who hit upon most of the actual signals you see here — READ THIS ARTICLE. I got her to one of the nearby canoes, where the marshal had no idea what she was seeing. (The swimmer was OK. I saw her after the race.)

Protected Bike Lanes Attract Four Times as Many Cyclists - A timely article from @lloydalter.bsky.social just in time for a judge blocking NYC Mayor Adams' illegal plan to remove an all ages and abilities protected bike lane 👇 www.theenergymix.com/protected-bi...

Money that universities make with dorms, dining plans, bookstores, and more will partially be redirected to #Florida collegiate athletes under an emergency rule approved by the edu-ma-cation board. floridaphoenix.com/2025/06/18/d... via @floridaphoenix.com

I'm doing a panel here at Lehigh on writing op-eds, audience is academics across discipline to help those who want to do public scholarship. I have my own insights as a journalist and public writer to draw on, but if you take pitches, what are 1-2 things you want folks just getting started to know?

Useful study. But imagine if the these same insights, generated by gaggles of humanities scholars & educators in recent years, were taken half as seriously as Brain Data™️. One might even argue that the systematic devaluation of such knowledge has created the cultural conditions for AI’s adoption 🤔

Wild how the Fed chair saying that *entire regions of the United States* won’t be able to get a mortgage in the next decade barely registered as a news event

IMO local governments (cities, counties) should be funding bike share and bike libraries like @mplscargobikelibrary.com . Every mile that someone is enabled to bike vs. drive benefits ALL of us, with fewer crashes, less wear & tear on streets, less noise and air pollution, etc.

I have a similar technique for some orange varieties. And every now and then you have to wonder about the first person who tried one of these things. Musta been hungry.

One mile from my childhood home. “(C)ould feasibly consume around 10.5 million megawatt hours per year. That’s more than 90 times the amount of energy used by all residences in Bessemer and more than 10 times … used by all residences in Birmingham annually.” insideclimatenews.org/news/1105202...

Aggerholm, Barnes, Billings, Brievik, Connor, McNamee, Morgan, Nguyen, Papineau, Russell, Smith, Torres … and about four dozen other thoughtful and brilliant scholars in the area of the meaning of sport. And there’s a quote about sport, society, and deserving. All of that no longer need be defended.

Because editors and directors aren’t available to work on productions with which they are intimately familiar … and avoid spoilers and out-of-context action, exposition, or plot points.

BeIN Sports extends its three-year Premier League live TV rights deal in MENA for ~ÂŁ550M, up 10% over the last cycle; League's total overseas rights rose 27% (Matt Slater/New York Times) Main Link | Mediagazer Permalink

This year’s fourth issue of Communication & Sport (vol. 13, iss. 4, August 2025) is accessible at journals.sagepub.com/toc/coma/13/4. It focuses on youth and university sport, including but not limited to American (NCAA) college sports. #NIL #CrisisCom #Concussion Happy reading!

“Over 250 million acres of public lands are eligible for sale in the bill, including local recreation areas, wilderness study areas and inventoried roadless areas.” www.wilderness.org/articles/med...

Netflix says Netflix House, its in-person experience offering interactive activities, will open in Philadelphia and Dallas in late 2025 and in Las Vegas in 2027 (Wendy Lee/Los Angeles Times) Main Link | Mediagazer Permalink

“The study estimated the cuts could cause nearly 2 million people to lose their primary doctor, 1.3 million people to not fill medications they need and 380,270 women to skip a mammogram. More than 16,600 people could die as a result of losing access to or forgoing care, the researchers estimated.“

Didn’t realize the asbestos lobby was still that powerful, and possibly into asbescoin or something similarly stupidly named.

Chaser.

Aggerholm, Barnes, Billings, Brievik, Connor, McNamee, Morgan, Nguyen, Papineau, Russell, Smith, Torres … and about four dozen other thoughtful and brilliant scholars in the area of the meaning of sport. And there’s a quote about sport, society, and deserving. All of that no longer need be defended.

I wonder what that could mean.