Elon Musk appointed 19-year-old Edward “Big Balls” Coristine, the grandson of a KGB lieutenant colonel to DOGE. He was instrumental in cutting funding for the United States Agency for International Development, which directly resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of poor people overseas.

👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼

The only New Year’s resolutions you need: - haunt more forests - wander more moors - terrify more towns - draw more townsfolk towards their mossy doom with the awesome and terrible grandeur of your dark shambling form

One thing 2025 made clear: Durable progress on climate in the US will require structural reform to our corrupted political systems. Otherwise, steps forward will always be vulnerable to the bloody clawbacks we saw this year. A political strategy that doesn't center system reform is not "pragmatic."

This year's spikes in measles cases could cause the U.S. to lose its "elimination status" by next year after the CDC reports nearly 2,000 cases and 50 outbreaks nationwide. Dr. Peter Hotez discusses on "All In." youtube.com/watch?v=gTsj...

This is a metaphor for the tech industry overall circa 2025

Incredible social science & data use here. The immediate story is about how the opioid epidemic (pushed by pharma in high cancer areas), resulted in major opioid death & economic hardship which - through various media/political channels - resulted in a sustained rise in support for the Republicans

For everyone just discovering hockey thanks to that TV show, the World Juniors are on right now, and it’s some of the best hockey you’ll see.

it’s amazing in this moment for anyone in public education to say “you know what kids don’t really need to learn? how to speak for themselves and how to piece together their own arguments about what’s real and true in the face of a lot of bullshit”

Well, my words have come to haunt me. Despite my best wishes, family bought a tablet for my toddler for Christmas. What’s the best way to delicately keep this from impacting my child?

There's so many experienced professionals out there suddenly being told how to do their jobs by god tier clowns.

“Like prime, but with human beings”

Does anyone else bristle at this framing? WSJ says blue books are “torturing” students with hand cramps, and “nobody likes them.” Listen, students have been outsourcing everything to AI and cheating their way through college. Blue books should be celebrated as a return to authentic human learning.

He was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.

Oh hey, this was a fun day to be away from the internet.

What do we need? More sea otter photos!

Today I survived my 2nd time literally sprinting across Sky Harbor airport while carrying my toddler and a bunch of luggage in a month.

Is this storm starting to look like the potential for an event like in ‘97?

Now seems like a swell time to point out that Frontline just released this excellent 11-minute mini-documentary about what happened inside CECOT.

BLESSED YULE AND HAPPY SOLSTICE TO THOSE WHO CELEBRATE 🌲🕯️🌟 THE SUN IS GONNA COME BACK

The fossil record preserves bones, not biodiversity. But extinction happens at the scale of bacteria, fungi, mosses, microfauna, parasites, soil invertebrates. Entire kingdoms of life disappear without leaving a mark.

The US is not Denmark. Denmark is not the US. The Danish immunization schedule is not adapted for the realities of the American Healthcare system and population. Let me explain. This is a long thread so buckle up 🧵

You know those Slips, Falls, and Ladders training videos? Well, my sister in law fell off a ladder while she was working at school yesterday. She’s quite injured, but luckily didn’t break anything. My parents ironically got my niece and nephew a giant trampoline for Christmas.

after all, it is the season we celebrate virgins

Be like Rick Steves! When I was in college I volunteered to bring meals and hygiene products to people living in SRO’s, who were not homeless, but still people in need. Winter was especially dark and lonely, and we often overlook our vulnerable neighbors while thinking about giving to others.

Let's do all the mathtalk prompts... what do you notice? what do you wonder? How many? How do know? King's Hawaiian - you owe me a roll.

SNAP is a lifeline for workers in low-wage jobs. Meanwhile, CEOs are paid 280x as much as the typical worker. Don’t be angry at workers for using food stamps. Be angry at the corporations paying them so little that they need them.

For 28% of Americans, they cannot read and understand this sentence, or this is the hardest sentence they can read and understand. – (Level 1) "The cat is big. The cat runs. The cat is happy. The dog is here. The dog sees the cat. They play."

This is the worst case scenario that everybody was worried about

Lit Folks, make this a book NOW:

I’m like 90% cookie at this point. Brown Butter Snickerdoodles with Snickerdoodle Kisses.

rfk will not rest until your kid is dead wapo.st/4s2l2zn

Has anyone used Core Knowledge with their child during their preschool years? I bought What Your Preschooler Needs to Know and am excited. I’m increasingly leaning towards a combo of Waldorf school and CK at home. It continues to astound me that Hirsch has been so overlooked.

Techbros seem to love Tolkien, so here's an analogy to help you understand what genAI is. GenAI is The One Ring. You think your use is justified, b/c you don't have evil in your heart. But it came from evil, it is intended for evil purpose, & anything you do with it will be twisted to that end.

For anyone who needs the heavy, warm quilt of words tonight. tomhirons.com/poetry/at-th...

Power Outage! We’re hoping it ends before our food spoils. It’s gotten me thinking: much do power banks for a California home that already has solar cost amidst today’s climate program cutbacks? Are there any rebates left?

I’m wondering… can all of those wealthy “environmentalists” who like to jet to conferences and who are standing by silently right now actually put their money to use and float these vital institutions for the next 3 years?

This breaks my heart, almost as much as the loss of USAID.

Before the 1990s, plane crashes caused by microbursts used to kill planeloads of people fairly regularly. Dr. Ted Fujita and NCAR scientists figured out how to detect microbursts and warn pilots about them. Since then? Zero airliner crashes from microbursts.

The birds enjoyed the blue skies too!

Northern Californians: The incoming storm is pushing the fog out of the way, and I CAN SEE BLUE SKY. I’m going for a fog-free run for the first time in 3 weeks.

Just a friendly reminder to surround yourself with the kind of people who support their local library, theatre, bakery, bookstore, and café.

My town’s mayor spoke at a Turning-Point inspired high school club this week and made the news for saying that her daughter is a lesbian because trauma turned her gay and MLK Jr was a Marxist. I know I don’t belong here, but now I get why I haven’t liked her specifically.

Why does it feel like everything is breaking down again?

First time baking with yeast, and I made saffron buns for St Lucia Day tomorrow. Lessons were learned. The saffron did not really seep into the milk, so it’s more like saffron-adjacent buns. And no, I’m not Swedish. They taste really good though.

We’re watching the Ken Burns Revolutionary War documentary. While it was talking about the various taxes on goods, wool refining tools were shown. We used those same exact tools school when my students made blankets from scratch with a Waldorf art teacher!

This is an excellent & balanced overview of recently increased pace of planetary warming. There's much we still don't know, & there are almost certainly multiple causes, but possibility (not confirmed, but real) that these trends portend higher climate sensitivity is disquieting.

A tiny trial in New York has shown that personalized mRNA vaccines can provoke massive, lasting immune responses against pancreatic cancer, even as sweeping federal cuts now threaten the fragile labs required to produce them. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/a-breakthr...

Errrybody say awwwww