Sherwood News
Tech Reporter · 2023 - 2026
Covered Big Tech and the race to build AI.
The power play behind Hyperion, Mark Zuckerberg’s colossal data center being built in rural Louisiana
In July of last year, community leaders in rural Richland Parish, Louisiana — population 20,043 — approved financing terms for a new project tied to billions of dollars in tax breaks. A Delaware company called Laidley LLC wanted to build “a multi-billion-dollar datacenter campus in the Parish resulting in several hundred new good paying jobs,” according to the text of the resolution, published later in the local newspaper.
2025
Here’s a rundown of the AI-powered humanoid robots that tech companies want to be your new roommates
The biggest tech companies in the world are convinced that humanoid robots are the next big thing. Elon Musk says yet to be released Optimus humanoid robot could boost the company’s valuation to $25 trillion.
2026
We interviewed the CEO of Andon Market, who is not a real person at all
Most AI benchmarks are kind of boring. There are some that can test for coding ability , general knowledge , medical diagnoses , and even how well they can solve puzzles.
2026
OpenAI’s ARC de Triumph
OpenAI’s Sam Altman thinks that the upcoming GPT-5 AI model will be smarter than him. Emphasis ours: “I don’t think I’m going to be smarter than GPT-5.
2025
America’s high-stakes drone problem
There is a new sense of urgency in the US government: America needs to be a leader in drones, and it needs to happen fast. A number of major obstacles lie in the way of this ambitious goal , and most of them originate in China.
2025The Markup
Investigative Data Journalist · 2020 - 2023
Investigated how technology companies collect, use, and misuse data. Covered location data and privacy.
The Popular Family Safety App Life360 Is Selling Precise Location Data on Its Tens of Millions of Users
The app is a major source of raw location data for a multibillion-dollar industry that buys, packages, and sells people’s movements
2021
There’s a Multibillion-Dollar Market for Your Phone’s Location Data
A huge but little-known industry has cropped up around monetizing people’s movements
2021
Everyone Is Judging AI by These Tests. But Experts Say They’re Close to Meaningless
Benchmarks used to rank AI models are several years old, often sourced from amateur websites, and, experts worry, lending automated systems a dubious sense of authority
2024
Amazon’s Enforcement Failures Leave Open a Back Door to Banned Goods—Some Sold and Shipped by Amazon Itself
The online giant bans products related to drugs, spying and weapons, but we found plenty for sale; one of the items bought on the site left a grim trail of overdoses
2020
Forget Milk and Eggs: Supermarkets Are Having a Fire Sale on Data About You
When you use supermarket discount cards, you are sharing much more than what is in your cart—and grocery chains like Kroger are reaping huge profits selling this data to brands and advertisers
2023The Wall Street Journal
Graphics Editor & Reporter · 1999 - 2017
Created interactive data visualizations and developed innovative storytelling formats. Built viral projects including 'Blue Feed, Red Feed' analyzing social media filter bubbles.
Blue Feed, Red Feed
See Liberal Facebook and Conservative Facebook, Side by Side
2016
Clinton vs. Trump: How They Used Twitter
In the 2016 election, Twitter was a battleground. This graphic shows how the candidates – and their campaigns – tweeted in very different ways.
2016
Bob Dylan Is a Nobel Prize Winner Who is Also a Touring Machine
2016
The Biggest, Oldest, Most Over-the-Top Rock Festival Ever
Graying classic-rock fans are helping to make Desert Trip Anschutz Entertainment Group’s highest-grossing festival ever.
2016
From Pluto to the Sun: A Field Guide to the Solar System
NASA’s New Horizons flyby of Pluto caps more than 50 years of exploring our nearest celestial neighbors. Here’s a chance to look back at the moons, planets, asteroids and comets photographed by Earth’s farthest-flung probes.
2015Beautiful Public Data
Creator · 2022 - Present
A newsletter exploring visually interesting public datasets and the stories they tell.
All of the 8,331 License Plates in America
States now offer a vast menu of personalized plate options for a dizzying array of organizations, professions, sports teams, causes and other groups.
2023
Special Database 18: 3,248 Mugshots Used for Training Image Recognition Systems
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has maintained a dataset of mugshot photos of 1,573 people for decades, including 175 minors, until we asked about them.
2023
Highway Photologs
The highway departments of almost every state in the U.S. ran "photolog" programs, some dating back as early as 1961. Specialized vans with cameras documented each mile of roadway in their states.
2022
The United States Frequency Allocation Chart
This crazy, beautiful chart illustrates the incredible complexity of managing one of our nation’s most crucial – and invisible – national assets: the radio spectrum.
2023
Nuclear Weapon Test Films
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories has an archive of an estimated 10,000 films of nuclear weapons tests from the 1940's - 1960's.
2023MIT Technology Review
Contributing writer · 2023- Present
How a 1980s toy robot arm inspired modern robotics
The tasks taken on by the Armatron aren’t so different from the ones AI is tackling today.
2026
These stunning images trace ships’ routes as they move
Publicly available data helps monitor ship traffic to avoid disruption of undersea internet cables, identify whale strikes, and study the footprint of underwater noise.
2026
How lidar measures the cost of climate disasters
Lidar data allows the identification of more subtle consequences of a disaster, including fault line shifts, volcanic eruptions, and mudslides.
2026
The forgotten history of highway photologs
Decades before Google Street View, state government vans were photographing each mile of roadway, capturing a rich visual history of America’s roads and highways.
2026
When the race for fusion ground to a halt
A billion-dollar nuclear fusion machine was shuttered the day it was dedicated. It was never turned on.
2026