@mattwaite.bsky.social
Professor of Journalism, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. I teach people who can't spell code to find stories and visuals in data with #rstats. Publish all my course books and tutorials at https://github.com/mattwaite
@mattwaite.bsky.socialAhhhhh, remember headlines before SEO? Good times. Good times. No idea what that story is about, but the answer is in this 3 pound hunk of paper.
@mattwaite.bsky.socialDON'T DO IT -signed, guy who graded all day yesterday only to get half of it done.
@mattwaite.bsky.socialGot the data from NOAA, visualized with ggplot.
@mattwaite.bsky.socialLincoln Nebraska got more rain last night than any day in the last quarter century, according to NOAA data.
@mattwaite.bsky.socialI am an undignified amount of giddy about how it turned out.
@mattwaite.bsky.socialDo you, like me, still think about the 2010 Winter Olympics interactive graphic from the NYTimes where they turned finishing times into sound? Good news: I burned some tokens and created soundeR, an R package that sonifies data in a very beginner friendly way: www.mattwaite.com/posts/2026-0...
@mattwaite.bsky.socialTook me 20 minutes, three screenshots and Opus 5.5 in Claude Code. Works on desktop, works on mobile, pops into the CMS with a simple iframe. And there's room to grow.
@mattwaite.bsky.socialWhat if news orgs offered news avoiders a break from the relentless terrible of the day with a silly little game off the news? Example: Big news here, 1/4 of the football stadium will be demolished in December. Turn that into a game of Breakout: www.mattwaite.com/south-stadiu...
@mattwaite.bsky.socialGive me a minute and I can probably construct a convincing argument that my mental health hasn't improved since I gave up my Blackberry.
@mattwaite.bsky.socialOne day. Soon. commodore.net/computer/
@mattwaite.bsky.socialThere’s Proper Spurs and then there are the true champions who take Proper Spurs to new levels.
@mattwaite.bsky.socialSomething like it. I used the national participation data in class the other day. Lot of theories why, but it’s something like 32 states saw declines in participation.
@mattwaite.bsky.socialHigh school football participation is down nearly 40 percent from 2008 in the state so it may be happening and no one is asking the kids about it.
@mattwaite.bsky.socialMy next pitch: America needs kids to be Nebraska football fans to teach them that life is suffering - joyless even when you cover at -23.5.
@mattwaite.bsky.socialI see the launch of your clickbait empire is going well.
@rsimmon.bsky.socialReposted by @mattwaite.bsky.socialI am having a particularly frustrating week, so here’s one of the best things I’ve ever done. The eruption of Sarychev Peak in the Aleutian Islands, seen by the crew of the space station.
@mattwaite.bsky.socialHow Gen X am I? Super, so glad you asked. You see, right now, the earworn burrowed deep in my brain is the theme music from The Adventures of Remo Williams. *That* Gen X.
