Robert Stewart

@robertstewart.io

861 Followers 1014 Following

Minnesota (Owatonna, St Paul, UMN) and Maryland (College Park) Asst Prof at UMD Criminology (criminal records, collateral consequences, public policy, data) "Funny here and there," according to one student robertstewart.io

A photo of a very crowded entrance to the Minnesota State Fair.
New icons for various Google Apps. They're hideous.
Screenshot from an MPR News article: "What cities are flying the old state flag? MPR News used AI tools LocalLens and ChatGPT to identify cities and towns across Minnesota where city councils discussed the state flag or local news outlets covered debates around the flag and then verified each instance. It’s possible there are more areas debating the flag than are covered in this story."
Map showing age-adjusted hypertension mortality rates by U.S. state in 2024 (deaths per 100,000). Minnesota stands out as one of the highest-rate states in the upper Midwest, falling in the 16.32–<20.4 range (darkest red), alongside Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee. Most surrounding states are in lighter orange or yellow tiers, making Minnesota’s rate notably elevated for its region.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
Man with long hair sitting on a gaming chair at his computer rolling his eyes as he says, "Well, actually," drawing out the actually.
An image of Justinian I
Pete Hegseth bench pressing what he claims is 315 pounds, but they look like bumper plates (that is, probably more like 105 pounds)
Meme with Bane from The Dark Knight Rises: You think the cold is your ally? You merely adopted the cold. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn't see warmth until I was already a man.
Sign at a hockey rink: "Please remember, they are kids; this is a game; coaches are volunteers; refs are human; your kid does not play for the Wild. Thank you South St. Paul Youth Hockey Association"
2026 MNGOP Caucus Gubernatorial Strawpoll Results with 26% reporting: Lisa Demuth in the lead with 1069, Kendall Qualls in second with 1020, Mike Lindell in third with 611, "undecided" in fourth with 339, then Scott Jensen, Phil Parrish, Kristin Robbins, Patrick Knight, Jeff Johnson, Peggy Bennett, Brad Kohler, Raul Estrada, Write-ins, and John Krhin in last.
Facebook post that reads, "DFL Caucus Night... it's 7pm and there are dozens of people still in line... I've never seen larger crowds. This is at Duluth East High School," accompanied by a photo of the line to get in and people filling out forms.
A snippet from an email from UMD administration about possible inclement weather: "Dear Terrapin Community, Campus leadership is closely monitoring the weather forecast for this weekend, tracking meteorological models as conditions develop. We have adjusted our Residence Hall move-in schedule this weekend and have urged all students to return before Sunday. Our outstanding Facilities Management team is making preparations for snow removal, and faculty will be issued guidance on options to offer asynchronous instruction to maintain continuity of learning, particularly in the event of a multi-day campus closure. More details about the forthcoming storm can be found below."
The confederate battle flag of Virginia's 28th Infantry Regiment
Painting of the First Minnesota charging the field at Gettysburg, by Don Troiani
Headline: "Minnesota National Guard members will wear yellow reflective vests to distinguish themselves from other law enforcement if activated during anti-ICE protests." Photo: Two National Guard soldiers in camouflage and yellow vests.
Forecast for the next 9 days but with wind chill highs ranging from -22 deg to 3 deg
A weather forecast for the Twin Cities showing the next nine days will have highs ranging from -2 degrees to 18 degrees
Screenshot of a statement from DFL Chair Richard Carlbom: “Chris Madel built his career defending violent and exploitative criminals. He represented fraudsters, rapists, and pedophiles, getting many of their charges and cases thrown out along the way. Madel desperately wants to be seen as a pragmatist, yet he jumps to defend criminals charged with hate crimes against our communities. With such a checkered history of clients, he lacks a moral compass to be Governor. He would take Minnesota in the wrong direction,” said Minnesota DFL Chair Richard Carlbom. “The contradictions continue. Despite claiming to be ‘tough-on-crime,’ Madel fights to let criminals get out with little consequence. The platform of law-and-order that Chris Madel campaigns on is a farce built on years of defending Minnesota’s worst.”
A photo of the White House walkway from the mansion to the West Wing that features pictures of previous president and The Rose Garden" written in gawdy-as-hell script above the walkway.
A figure with three panels labeled Felony, Matched, and CES show predicted party ID for Black (orange dashed line) and White (blue solid line) respondents from R+30 to D+30 contexts. The y-axis runs from Strong Republican to Strong Democrat. In all panels, both groups become more Democratic as the context shifts toward D+30, and the Black line is consistently higher than the White line, indicating stronger Democratic identification among Black respondents at every point.
Screenshot of a super pac text message: "California's Governor just dropped a MAJOR warning: "We could lose" ACT NOW >> st-fu.org/25k-goal?t=J7Yio2 -STFU PAC Text STOP to quit"
Letter from representatives Brad Findtad and Tom Tiffany asking Canada what their plan is to control the smoke from their wildfires.
A screenshot of a facebook post by the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office with a picture of emojis they say are codes kids use to talk about drugs and the caption, " Parents: Did you know that drug dealers are using emojis to sell drugs on social media? According to @DEA, emojis like dragon (heroin), diamond (meth), plug (dealer) are being used as secret codes for illicit drug sales. If your child is on social media, it’s crucial to: • Stay informed about these and other suspicious emoji codes – don’t forget peer-to-peer payment applications (Zelle, Cash App, Venmo). • Monitor for out-of-place messages • Start open, judgement-free conversations with your children about drugs Talking to your kids early, and often, can help protect them in an increasingly complex digital world."
Decidedly lower and middle class preferences
We urge the FTC to aggressively apply this law to people-search websites that aggregate public information without any accuracy verification, quality control measures or clear options for people to have their information immediately removed. These companies sell our personal information to anyone willing to pay, including those who will use the information to stalk, harass or dox people. It is time to let us gain control over our personal data.
A screenshot of a bluesky thread in which a user shares a story about a student avoiding using an em dashes because professors see them as an AI “tell.” Another user replies defending em dashes and criticizing this implication, and a third user suggests using Google Docs to show revision history to prove they wrote it.
Text from an email: "Dear Fall 2025 Instructor, We are excited to share that you are scheduled to teach in a General Purpose Classroom that will have our new automated classroom recording feature available for the Fall 2025 semester. The classroom recording feature enables you to schedule Panopto recordings in advance, creating a seamless technology experience that lets you focus more on teaching and less on managing classroom technology. Get additional information about this announcement."
Robert Mueller in a superhero outfit handing the "resistance" baton to Paul Clement in a superhero outfit.
A snippet of the list of universities the Ed Dept is investigating for race-conscious admissions, with George Mason University highlighted.
The guy from Ancient Aliens.
Message from twitter following deactivation: "Deactivated Your account is deactivated Sorry to see you go. #GoodBye"
Screenshot from studentaid.gov loan simulator recommending the SAVE program (even though it was blocked)
A worksheet showing two kids making a puppet and then playing with it (I guess?) and someone making a sundae. The child is supposed to "write what happens in each picture," but it's unclear what the child is supposed to write.
Guy wearing a shirt with "1488" in large characters across the front at Disney World
A snippet from the story in the quoted post describing how Hancock used GPT-4 to survey academic literature on deep fakes and draft a declaration. He explains that he prompted the program to generate paragraphs on AI arguments but notes the program misinterpreted his notes to add citations later. Hancock states, “I did not mean for GPT-4 to insert a citation,” but the program mistakenly took his note as a command during the transfer between MS Word and GPT-4.
Cartoon meme with a person holding a piece of paper in the top panel that says, "USPS Tracking Number" and saying, "Woah." In the bottom panel, the person is holding the paper and smiling and says, "This is worthless."
Image titled "Felony Voting Rights Update" Text from the ACLU Nebraska reads: "The Nebraska Supreme Court has indicated that they will not be releasing published opinions tomorrow, meaning our next chance at a decision that will impact thousands of Nebraskans’ voting rights is likely Oct. 18, the day of the online voter registration deadline. That’s also one week out from the in-person registration deadline, Oct. 25. If you have completed all terms of a felony sentence and are not yet registered, or if you’re registered and uncertain of your voting rights, please follow us and local media closely these next two weeks. We will share news as soon as we have it."
Figure 2. Overall State Felony Disenfranchisement Rates, 2024 This U.S. map shows state felony disenfranchisement rates in 2024. States are shaded based on the percentage of disenfranchised individuals in each state. The Southeast generally shows higher disenfranchisement rates, with other regions varying in shading.
Table 1. State Felony Disenfranchisement Restrictions in 2024 This table categorizes U.S. states based on felony disenfranchisement restrictions into four groups: No restrictions (2 states): Maine Vermont Prison only (23 states): California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Washington Prison, parole, & probation (15 states): Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, West Virginia, Wisconsin Prison, parole, probation, & post-sentence (10 states): Alabama, Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, Virginia, Wyoming
YouGov survey question, "Do you have an animal as a pet?" with Yes or No as response options.
"Blasphemy was punishable by death in several colonies"
A scene from Star Trek TNG where holodeck Leah Brahms is giving Geordi a shoulder massage
A poll asking, “Did you watch any of the presidential debate?” The top answer, chosen by 46.3% of respondents, is “Yes, I watched almost all of it live.” Below the question, there is a circular pie chart with different colors representing the following options: • “Yes, I watched almost all of it live” (44.6%) • “Yes, I watched some of it live” (25.0%) • “I watched a few clips of it later” (17.9%) • “I did not watch any of it” (8.9%) The poll indicates that 54 out of 56 people responded, with 3.6% choosing “Didn’t answer.”
Screenshot of part of a reddit post in r/UMD with the title, "Please shower people."
A screenshot from a YouGov survey with the question: “Up to what point in a pregnancy do you think abortion should be legal for each of the following reasons?” The specific reason given is: “Mother develops a life-threatening medical condition that can only be treated if the pregnancy is ended.” The response options are as follows: • Never legal • Legal up to 6 weeks into pregnancy • Legal up to 12 weeks • Legal up to 15 weeks • Legal up to 24 weeks (fetal viability) • Legal up to the point of birth
A table titled, "Charges and dispositions by source," with four columns. The column headers are "Charges/Dispositions," "State Report," "Background Check Company," and "Data Aggregator Report." The red highlighed portion mentioned in the post shows that the State Report found charges for 101 participants. The Background Check Company found charges for 77 participants, and the Data Aggregator Report found charges for 56 participants. The rest of the table is as follows: The first column subheader is "All Charges" Charges/Dispositions State Report Charges: 1323, 1123, 973 All dispostions: Convictions: 401, 350, 632 Dismissal/Acquittal/Diversion: 821, 669, 117 Disposition unknown: 101, 104, 224 Another column subheader is "Charges by Participants" Participants with charges: 101, 77, 56 Participant dispositions: Convictions: 92, 68, 47 Dismissal/Acquittal/Diversion: 89, 62, 30 Disposition unknown 28, 22, 38
A table titled, "Frequency of offense type of orphan charges," with two columns. The first column lists "Offense Type" and the second column lists the "Frequency" of each offense type's orphan records, with a total N of 1,066. The contents of the table are: Drugs (trafficking, possession): 340 Forgery/Fraud/Bribery/Vice: 122 Weapons offenses: 113 Public Order/Misc: 113 Assault (aggravated, on police, simple): 99 Property/Theft (burglary, auto theft, receiving stolen property): 95 Armed robbery: 75 Criminal process (obstruction, contempt, escape): 48 Family offenses (cruelty, neglect): 30 Other violent (sexual abuse, kidnapping): 17 Murder/Manslaughter: 14
A figure with 101 rows representing each participant and three main columns representing each source. The x axis within each sources represents the count of charges reported by the respective source. The participants are sorted by the charge counts in the State Report, with the participants with the highest count of charges at the top and the fewest at the bottom. The State Report features a smooth curve, whereas the other two reports are much more jagged, especially the Data Aggregator column.
Venn diagram showing overlap between criminal charges reported by the Official State Report, the Regulated Background Check Company, and the Unregulated Data Aggregator. The Official State Report includes 613 charges not reported by the other two sources. The Regulated Background Check Company reports 351 charges not not reported by either other source and 121 charges also reported by the Unregulated Data Aggregator. Additionally, the Unregulated Data Aggregator reports 594 charges not reported by other sources.
Sport jacket with a name tag on it that says "Robert Stewart - Assistant professor, University of Maryland."