They won't name the contractor, which doesn't surprise me. They probably aren't even allowed to say the contractor's name in internal communications, let alone with the press.

Even in the Northeast?

GET YOUR DIGITIAL CALIPERS OUT, BOYS, WE'RE GOING MEASUREHEAD MODE !

Apparently, elementary schools now have yearbooks they want us to buy. And the photo company forced my pre-K kid to do some kind of serious professional pose because "it's for the yearbook."

I've been posting a lot in this thread about building houses, and I just don't think it's as simple as people make it out to be. I can't think of a single major city in the world that has figured out how to be both broadly affordable and desirable to live in. More housing helps, but only a bit.

Tonight’s the night we disguise ourselves and threaten our neighbors for candy!

Hey #econsky Is there anybody out there talking about how systemic use of the S&P500 as a benchmark in models (e.g., CAPM, VaR, monte carlo portfolio simulations, etc) is creating inefficiencies and fragility in the market? The S&P500 is not a broad market index like it used to be.

First Christmas decorations up at 4:25pm on October 29th.

9 if you don't count layovers, 11 if you do.

Hey, it's my advisor's advisor's advisor's advisor's...(X20) advisor.

Shielding Chart xkcd.com/3158/

Absolutely blindsided by the death of GM Daniel Naroditsky. Horrible horrible news. RIP

EXCLUSIVE: One Saturday afternoon in October, my phone lit up with a notification. I glanced down at the message. “Anna, Lindsey Halligan here,” it began. So began my text exchange with the woman who is prosecuting the president's perceived political enemies. www.lawfaremedia.org/article/anna...

When the current authoritarian takeover of the US end (and it will eventually, they always do), there are three options: 1) Prosecutions and purges 2) Truth commissions and possible reparations 3) Amnesty & forgetting A short thread with examples of each:

If Democrats ever get back in charge, they should consider ratifying the Rome Treaty, and filing an Article 12(3) declaration accepting the jurisdiction of the ICC in relation to these crimes.

I've never really gotten into Critical Role, but I'm giving Campaign 4 a shot. It's just so... overproduced.

Early birthday present from my wife. #TheExpanse

He really is a Bad Bunny. Where is his fur? Look at those tiny ears.

The collapsing cost of publishing to the whole world - written, audio, video - has given rise to an extraordinarily fragmented information space, creating an ideas market where audiences have the ability to select their own narratives and publishers have an incentive to flatter audiences' biases.

Talking about 2028 is dangerously naive; the danger is now. Trump is directing the military and justice department to go to "war" on US cities and his enemies, from TV hosts to former FBI directors. Keeping the 2026 midterms fair may be the last stand. My latest: www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

Looking at the news today was a grievous mistake.

Just watched All Of You on Apple TV+. I was promised a romance with sci-fi elements. It's... not that. Mild spoilers below.

When I joined BlueSky, I didn't really eant to talk about politics. I was writing a novel, and wanted to talk about that. I also worked for a federal contractor, so I had to be careful about what I said. Then, the Trump administration took off on it's authoritarian speedrun and I lost my job. 1/

It's been months since I last worked on my novel, because of, you know, the state of the world? Anyway, I finally forced myself to sit down and write a few hundred words. I'm going to make an effort to more seriously get back on track. #writingcommunity #WIPsnips

Service fee? Small order fee? All of this hidden until checkout? I do not understand how this is legal.

Reading a book about the Thirty Years War and the most sympathetic character is Swedish Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna. Basically the classic "nerd with the worst job on Earth." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axel_Ox...

I'm at a start-up pitch event, and I can't help but think of that scene from Starter Villain by @scalzi.com I'll be so disappointed when nobody gets catapulted off the stage.

We're in cuckoo bananas world where Ezra Klein is bowing to right wing authoritarian narratives faster than Karl Rove.

Sounds to me like everybody was right. A groyper that shifted to the left specifically on trans issues because he fell in love with a trans woman. I stand by my original statement that not only is assassination wrong, it's politically counterproductive. This broken idiot canonized Kirk.

This makes sense to me. The dot-com bubble didn't herald the end of the internet, like some at the time thought. (Krugman thought the Internet was no more impactful than the fax machine). Successful AI companies will lose 90% of their value and then figure out the use cases and make it all back.

I just saw a TikTok like “the motivations of assassins don’t make sense anymore” but boy have they never. Hinkley shot Reagan to impress Jodi Foster. Oswald was such a complete mess people just assume the CIA did it. Guiteau killed Garfield because no one would make him an ambassador.

1. A few hours before this morning’s presser, in which law enforcement authorities announced they had taken into custody Charlie Kirk’s killer, Meghan McCain, daughter of the late John McCain, weighed in on “the fundamental difference between the right and the left in this country.”

Today I learned about the "cor anglais" which is French for "English Horn." But they don't call it the English Horn in England, they use the French. Meanwhile, we have the French Horn which is English for just "cor" (in France). There is no "cor français."

All six seasons of #TheExpanse are back on Amazon Prime, if you want to check it out sometime...

Not only this, but whomever did this just created a martyr. If their goal was to silence Kirk's message, they failed miserably.

I'm so happy to be married so I don't have to deal with all of this nonsense.

When I was finishing my Ph.D. in 2023, I blindly applied to about 100 jobs. I ended up with 5 interviews and 2 job offers. Now, with two additional years of experience, it's 250 applications, 1 interview, 0 job offers.

My blitz chess is still improving. Up 250 points in the last ~2 months.

Not just norms, but laws. Tim Cook bribing Trump with 24k gold in apparent exchange for tariff relief needs to ge prosecuted, for example.

This is only a bit low in my opinion. At a trial, I would have expected closer to $15k per book. ($5k is what many authors agree to, times triple damages). They had a better than 50% chance of winning, but fighting would be more lawyer costs, plus time value, and cost of fighting appeals.

reading comments on a recent NYT crossword and found a whole thread of people who'd never heard the word "mage" before. others helpfully explained that it was related to the religious "magi" and the word "magic." never have I have been so aware of my own bubble 😂

Trump says Huntsville, AL will be known as "Rocket City." It's been known as Rocket City for decades. That's where Wernher von Braun worked, and it had the nickname back then.

My mother-in-law, after sleeping in our basement: "Oh, I don't flush the toilet at night because I don't want to wake you guys up". Also her, sleeping in our basement: TV is on at full blast

NEW PIECE: Powell and the Federal Reserve System has already failed to meet the moment and not defending Lisa Cook will seal both Powell's and the Fed's fate. www.crisesnotes.com/powell-will-...

To Donald Trump and his administration: If you hurt my people, nothing will stop me — not time or political circumstance — from making sure you face justice under our constitutional rule of law.

LOL

I've seen this so often in my career. Nobody gets fired for doing the wrong thing, as long as the wrong thing is "standard practice" that everybody else does. Trying something new demands immediate, unqualified successes, or you're fired.

Packing one ot two EpiPens for a day trip is smart when you have a kid with food allergies. EpiPens 3 and 4 are just emotional support EpiPens.