2 Kings 6:5 But as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the water: and he cried, and said, Alas, master! for it was borrowed.

So there's a really important debate on civil liberties and national security going on on the House floor right now. It is shameful that it's taking place at this late hour of the night / morning. But I'm going to at least do something productive & try to explain here:

The Crimson continuing to break stories the Times could only wish it landed.

NEW—I got an exclusive excerpt from a USAID whistleblower's new book that made me gasp multiple times. It details Trump's dismantling of the humanitarian aid agency & his team/DOGE's shocking ignorance to public health. 'Into the Wood Chipper' by Nicholas Enrich is out tomorrow. Read excerpt here:

TGI Tuesday

For the car shopper in your life

I know I’m a broken record on this but: A handful of law profs are engaging in an effort to convince the Supreme Court to accept a reactionary administration’s effort to redefine American citizenship and render countless children stateless.

An abortion ban survived at the North Dakota supreme court last year: 3 of 5 justices voted to strike it down, but it would have taken 4. One of the two justices who voted to uphold the ban (Jerod Tufte) is up for reelection this year; no one has filed to challenge him yet, with 9 days to go.

Sooo, got that wildly misrepresenting "Justice for Democracy PAC" mailer... Bad enough to sue over?

this goes for so much of the right wing ecosystem. the same guys who scream “DEI hire” would sink to the ocean if they weren’t kept afloat by their far right sugar daddies

Some guys impersonating police officers from a restricted number wasted an embarrassing amount of my time.

At CBS News Radio, my dad interviewed the Beatles at peak of Beatlemania, Lucille Ball, Bing Crosby, Gene Autry, Marlene Dietrich, Jack Benny... and he was just one random reporter living the dream! Hard to fathom the role CBS News Radio played in building the America these people are tearing down.

Welcome SPRING, officially.... We declared winter over yesterday, and spring officially arrives right now (at 10:46 a.m.) with the vernal equinox. At this moment, the sun is positioned directly over the equator, bringing roughly equal day and night across much of the globe.

I know there are a few different reasons, but wow the Metro is eeeempty today.

Well that was certainly a high speed car no headlights with siren in pursuit for a residential street at 2 am

This discussion starts to answer questions I've long had about how it looks to manage (or not) fossil fuel infrastructure with falling utilization.

6/6 If you’re serious about climate solutions and what it takes to make them real in the world, I strongly recommend this major new work. Thank you, Nick, for once more explaining something essential to us all. press.lse.ac.uk/books/m/10.3...

Brava

Thank you, Ryan. We need so much more of this. ICE Employees: if you see something, say something.

Can't fuckin' believe I'm doing this but here goes: Twitter is a mind prison, a true jail of career advancement. I stopped posting on there and within months I became the CEO of The Onion and I'm not kidding. Went back on last year, felt worse, then left again.

No cheating your last saved picture of a celebrity is your therapist. I win

After voting, snuck in one last brunch at Whiskey and Oyster before it closes in a week.

Sitting here open-mouthed at this Sound Transit board presentation, because it was just explained that making Ballard Link's Seattle Center station "slightly trapezoidal" would save the agency a HALF BILLION DOLLARS.

At one point there was a sizable science communications community here. If you’re still around, here’s a great undergraduate internship opportunity. #science #scicoms ewvl.fa.us8.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Front page of this month’s edition of The Onion.

If you want to understand how far-reaching the corporate rot in media is, read this gutting piece about the fall of Oregon Public Broadcasting. (And follow @ryanjhaas.bsky.social and @leahsottile.bsky.social’s new publication @thewesternedge.bsky.social which will be amazing bc they’re amazing)

Highlighting the speaker who stood in front of the Surprise mayor and told him to consider what the Mayor of Ohrdruf must’ve thought before he died by suicide: “He might have thought ‘how is this my fault I had no jurisdiction over this’ maybe he said ‘this site was not subject to local zoning.’”

This @bostonreview.bsky.social piece by @adambonica.bsky.social and @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social is an absolute must-read, as are many of the responses to it. Spread this one far and wide.

- Nanomechanics - Physical chemistry - Chemical physics - Acoustics - music theory

I couldn't focus on any of my other work today and made this articlesofinterest.substack.com/p/clerical-c...

overheard people talking about having to collect data for this www.politico.com/news/2026/01...

The Old Town #ALX Ross closes for good tomorrow, after at least 43 years in that location.

Life changing spaghetti in an Osaka Museum cafe

My colleagues at @pressfreedomtracker.us are investigating and writing up as events unfold, so expect more reporting on MN incidents at this link. It already has three from November: pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incident...

No kidding climate philanthropy should buy this newspaper

What are the best accounts to follow of people who are posting from on the ground physically in Minneapolis, Minnesota? I started a list but pretty sparse so far (mainly @jcollins.bsky.social who is doing a great job out there for @mprnews.org):

50 runaway sheep ram-paged through a German supermarket in rural Baa-varia, causing shear mania on Monday morning. After breaking away from their 500-strong herd, the brazen sheep spent 20 minutes milling around in the Penny supermarket before ewe-turning and seeing themselves out.

A new project for the new year - sharing a favorite podcast episode from a year ago, monthly. Up first, January 2025: 99% invisible on the development and evolution of the Tennessee Valley Authority pca.st/episode/b7ec...

2025 was a strange year, appropriate to end it with an impromptu living room dance party with my little one.

I know one of you has to have a billionaire’s phone number, $1m to save one of the best fossil collections in the country is a bargain. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/s...

Bill Clinton releasing a statement saying 'release the Epstein files, you cowards' was not on my bingo list.

Highly relevant to the Bluesky demographic - mementos scattered across so many formats and fragile storage media www.bbc.com/future/artic...

Still in pilot mode, but only $7k for solar plus storage and management in a literal backyard box.

Add Oliver Sacks to the long list of if it sounds too storybook to be true...

Okay, 3 days later, an incomplete list of Trump admin policy with direct connections to making electricity more expensive. 1. Passage of the OBBB, which stripped tax credits from wind and solar (wind, solar, batteries are now ~90% of the interconnection queue) www.canarymedia.com/articles/cle...

I know you’re probably being sarcastic, but this is exactly the attitude that kept me from pursuing a career in the arts for years. Now, in late middle age, I am finally doing what I’m good at, and I’m happier and more financially secure than I ever was working tech jobs.

The indispensable and inevitable episode

COP is 'drowning in stupid homework' www.semafor.com/article/11/1...

This is an interesting read. www.notus.org/perspectives...