Heather Bryant

@hbcompass.bsky.social

1646 Followers 3490 Following

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

Photo of a black cat in front of a computer monitor touching the screen with a Stack Overflow page open.
Big cat attacking a black bean bag multiples times, each time disappearing off screen before suddenly launching onto the beanbag.
Screenshot of Department of War AI Strategy memo: Speed Wins. We must internalize that Military AI is going to be a race for the foreseeable future, and therefore speed wins. We must weaponize learning speed, and measure and manage cycle time and adoption rates as decisive variables in the Al era. We must accept that the risks of not moving fast enough outweigh the risks of imperfect alignment. I direct CDAO to establish deployment velocity and operational cycle-time metrics for all PSPs, to be a focus of their monthly reporting to the Deputy Secretary and USW(R&E). AI Model Parity. We are seeing unprecedented velocity in the evolution of the frontier AI models. These models are becoming smarter and more robust every day. The Department cannot be working off models that are months or years old. We must have the latest and greatest AI models deployed for our warfighters. Deploying these capabilities across all echelons is simply not enough, we must be able to support and sustain rapid model updates across all echelons. I direct CDAO to establish a delivery and integration cadence with AI vendors that enables the latest models to be deployed within 30 days of public release. This shall be a primary procurement criterion for future model acquisition.
Small black cat playing with a blue circular ball track toy, laying on the floor next to it and pushing the ball around the track until she stops it and sends it in the opposite direction. Over and over again.
Illustration of fictional inbox with search for sender "The Store" which returns a month's worth of emails with the subject lines: [shopping cart emoji] You left something in your cart, Still thinking about super cool item? [looking emoji], Super cool item is selling fast, [hourglass emoji] don’t miss your chance, [green checkmark emoji] Order #87 confirmed, [folder hands emoji] Thank you for your purchase, Thanks for subscribing to our mailing list [envelope emoji], [magic wand emoji] We’re at work on your order #87, There’s still time to add to your Order #87 [stopwatch emoji], [letter in mailbox emoji] Order #87 shipping soon, [closed mailbox emoji] Order #87 has shipped!, Order #87 will be arriving soon [timer emoji], It’s almost time! [big smiley face emoji] Order #87 arriving tomorrow, Order #87 is out for delivery [box emoji], It’s here! [confetti ball emoji] Order #87 has been delivered, Tell us, did we hit the [target emoji] How did you like Order #87?, Don’t forget to review your order [clipboard emoji], [raised hands emoji] You’ve earned 86 points for Order #87, We’d really appreciate your feedback. [writing hand emoji] Please fill out our..., Follow us on Facebook for 10% [money with wings emoji] off your next order, It’s not too late to tell us how we did [heart hands emoji] on Order #87
Screenshot of excerpt: It says something about the world we're living in right now. That lies and falsehoods, misrepresentations and manipulations are so pervasive, so rife, so affecting that we are primed to receive broad, nebulous, unspecific, tangential, or just differently focused speech that doesn't match our own priorities as if it represents the same level of threat as the misinformation and disinformation infecting our institutions and civic life. It feels more and more like the expectation that social media users have is for other social media users is not sharing their thinking out loud or thinking in progress, but declaring positions with which one argues or agrees. If you don't caveat every possible nuance, related topic, or thing you aren't including, the oversight will be noted. The social convention of not making assumptions about what someone thinks about the things they don't mention is no longer convention. What you say is assumed to be the totality of what you think and know. Every word has become evidence, including their absence. Sometimes especially their absence. Correcting others has become, maybe not the motive, but most certainly a prominent activity of social media users. Few people have the ability and access to go stand in the face of a politician or billionaire and tell them to their face they are wrong. But with just a few clicks, you can easily come across someone online who is entirely or just wrong enough, that you can tell them so. The power out of reach for so many where it matters most, is easily within reach where it matters arguably least.
Screenshot of an Adobe ad for Firefly with a fox illustration where the fox tail is out to the side and front of the fox in way that's pretty much anatomically impossible without seeing more of the fox body which is not in view.
Empty desk and a cat bed in front of a window.
Photo of book cover for "The real world of technology" by Ursula M. Franklin
Screenshot of results from searching "horror" on Netflix that includes The Land Before Time and Knocked Up.
USPS homepage with Breast Cancer stamps and a call to action to "Help Fund the Fight: Purchase the Breast Cancer Research semipostal stamp and help fund research to fund a cure for breast cancer."
Screenshot of Washington Post homepage filled with stories about Jimmy Kimmel
Screenshot of text: One would hope that, now that both parties have been touched by political violence many times over, the experience would make both more likely to respond to acts against the other side with open hearts (or to feel regret for past responses), since everyone has been here and knows how awful it is.
Author page showing one other title, a book about last week's Powerball jackpot win.
Search results showing 4 new titles published in the last 24 hours on his death.
Meme: society is in shambles because we're not smelling enough fresh baked bread.
Small black cat looking upward and backward while laying in front of an out of focus book.
Photo from the side of a hanging flower basket with a chicken drumstick upright between the stems of a fuchsia plant.
blue scribbling of a chart with abbreviations
Small black cat curled up asleep in front of a patio door with a green garden on the other side of the window.
Front view of the inflatable that shows the column is actually an arch flanked by flamingo heads.
Pink inflatable display over a shelf that, from the side, looks suggestive of male genitalia.
Red book cover in style of Mean Girls Burn Book, read with orange lips and small black scribbles in the corners with phrases "Executive Orders", "No Puppet!!!", "Project 2025", "MAGA", and "Concepts".
Black cat napping on the back of a chair in front of bookshelves.
Collaboration is required: Serving all members of a community requires coordination and collaboration across a broader sector of community stewards. We are forming networks of 'do-ers'—allies who reject exclusivity and gatekeeping in favor of collective power.
Screenshot text: "Hi everyone. Chris, Jairaj, and I wanted to let you know that we’ve heard and have been listening to all the views being expressed about how Substack should think about the presence of fringe voices on the platform (and particularly, in this case, Nazi views). I just want to make it clear that we don’t like Nazis either—we wish no-one held those views. But some people do hold those and other extreme views. Given that, we don't think that censorship (including through demonetizing publications) makes the problem go away—in fact, it makes it worse. We believe that supporting individual rights and civil liberties while subjecting ideas to open discourse is the best way to strip bad ideas of their power. We are committed to upholding and protecting freedom of expression, even when it hurts. As Ted Gioia has noted, history shows that censorship is most potently used by the powerful to silence the powerless. (Ted’s note: substack.com/profile/49…) Our content guidelines do have narrowly defined proscriptions, including a clause that prohibits incitements to violence. We will continue to actively enforce those rules while offering tools that let readers curate their own experiences and opt in to their preferred communities. Beyond that, we will stick to our decentralized approach to content moderation, which gives power to readers and writers. While not everyone agrees with this approach, many people do, as indicated by..."
Tesla with a bumper sticker that says "bought it before we knew how awful he is"
Onion headline t-shirt that reads: History sighs, repeats itself
Cat laying in front of keyboard and mousepad.
Compilation of six photos. Each showing a silver chain and gold chain version of a necklace with 19 round beads. Tuxedo cat is black onyx and white selenite. Ginger cat is citrine. Black cat is black onyx. Calico cat is blue blonde tigers eye. Smoke grey cat is grey tigers eye. Tortoiseshell cat is natural tigers eye.
Screenshot of Threads post insight: 10.9k total views 1,088 total interactions 1,006 likes 59 reposts 20 replies 3 quotes
Small black cat laying on a chair in front of bookshelves.
Video of small black cat purring.
Phot with circles around mismatched shadows from inconsistent lighting in the editing.
Original photo of person near a river before Denali was edited into the background.
Onion t-shirt that reads: Smart, capable people behind the scenes keeping America safe: "We don't exist."
Nine shield cut black onyx necklace.