What a convenient way to expose yourself to liability under the wiretapping laws of several states

missed opportunity to thank Sal Saperstein

It's awards season, meaning I will now occasionally start posting my totally subjective favorite outfits, starting with the #CriticsChoiceAwards (though I don't think I've seen every look, since there was no Chalamet yet).

Finished my first book of the year!

babe wake up, they're doing insider trading on war crimes

Once again.

file a DROP request here: consumer.drop.privacy.ca.gov * Delete Request and Opt-out Platform

How to delete your data in one easy step — if, that is, you live in California. Gift link: wapo.st/44RD9y3

Ladies and gentlemen, it is time once again for the only year-end list that matters. I present the 2025 list of band names taken from phrases actually uttered in conversation while discussing food over the past year:

I am extremely sad but at least we still have Urban Cookies, I guess. www.azcentral.com/story/entert...

Really enjoying reading everyone's posts celebrating and closing out 2025! I wrote mine a few weeks ago; here it is again. blog.yaelwrites.com/2025-in-revi... Wishing everyone a 2026 filled with joy, adventure, and hopefully less fascism.

THIS. Did you know sickle cell is curable, now? FULLY curable. If you're feeling down or despairing about what FEELS like technology/advancement/science "standing still" or being fully malicious, I have great news: You're not paying attention to actual science. Just tech industry marketing.

Every year, I do a list of 10 games I loved that year -- this is 2025! My guess is you'll know some of them, and also that you won't know some of them. Please let me tell you about these fine video games!! (Links are mostly to Steam, but some are on console too.) /thread

Here's a tragedy of DOGE that most people will never know about, even though it has big consequences: no one is left to coordinate the transition to memory safe systems code. 🧵

Tell me about the worst injuries you've ever had!

please hold while i attempt to connect you

Just watched the new Knives Out and I think it's really important you know that the scene in the Seminary's Gym is filmed in the same place Rick Astley filmed the music video for Never Gonna Give You Up. I saw the window tracery and immediately made my friends pause the film so I could tell them.

I fell in love with Nettle & Bone; what should I read next?

Bodies were a mistake.

The last hike I’ll be doing for a while!

Dr. Further research is needed.

Happy howlidays, friends!

When you’ve gone to this place, it’s time to just admit your only interest in antisemitism is claiming it doesn’t exist

if you're shooting jews at a jewish social event in the diaspora, you're not targeting the state of israel, nor are you targeting its policies, nor are you targeting anyone with the power to effect change in israel's policies. you are just targeting jews.

If you’re wondering why your friends in academia are a little on edge right now, it’s because an eighteen-year-old who hasn’t done the reading, doesn’t look at the assignment, and has does no critical thinking skills more complex than “because I think it’s in the Bible” can literally end your career

says a lot about the current state of journalism for cnn not to know that citation requires actually quoting the source material or at the very least referencing a specific passage (something that wasn't done once in what was supposed to be a post-secondary academic paper)...

I attempt to explain the FBI Epstein dump redaction failure. cybersect.substack.com/p/unredactio...

I know we're all trying to get through the holidays and the end of the year and nobody's thinking about February yet, but mark this in your calendar? @huertanix.bsky.social @cactuscon.com

The story is insane. The acting head of cyber security, a Noem crony, repeatedly demanded to see highly classified information he didn’t need access to, and when staff set up a lie detector test as a condition to grant him access, he failed it. So DHS suspended the staffers.

Happy Hanukkah and happy Solstice, friends! Here’s to letting our light shine in the darkness. 🕎

I was trying to submit Bailey to @weratedogs.com but couldn't get the portal to work. In any case, here are the seven cutest (IMO) photos of her!

brb moving to new york so mamdani will come to my hanukkah party

When I was in grad school at Cronkite, we would get a zero on an assignment if we misspelled a proper noun or made an error that would have required a correction. I think about this a lot.

Client gifts I've given over the years: Dragonfjord's Puzzle a Day game, holiday candles, chocolate, touchscreen cleaner rollers, 100% Soft dumpster fire keychains, stickers and pins, @muckrock.com redacted mugs...

I made a quick update to BADBOOL to clarify the list is mostly U.S.-based because it is... a volunteer project based in the U.S. With that, I'll be taking the month off of updating. Thank you to everyone who's spread the word about this project, especially @privacyguides.org @freedom.press. 💕

I took a look back at the year and posted links to my major projects, articles, white papers, public talks, podcasts, and interviews. blog.yaelwrites.com/2025-in-revi...

I played pickleball and didn’t hate it.

people keep asking me if I'm ready for the holiday and I'm like, I'm IN my holiday

I try to get to inbox zero once a month and this is the time of year where I realize I stopped sometime in September and suddenly have thousands of emails to go through. The time-sensitive ones help because I can just delete them.

One time as a first-year teacher making $28,000 a year I was told we had to buy gifts for ALL the other teachers. I was so broke that I bought coal mine naughty black nugget bubblegum, each in its own individual naughty coal sack. People thought I was funny rather than cheap, so...

It's amazing how productive I am when I give myself permission to be unproductive. Which is not the reason to do it!

The Trump admin, in its quest to eliminate the entire concept of asylum from the law and get rid of all asylum applicants without hearing their cases, wants to deport a Chinese dissident to Uganda, despite the fact that he has a slam-dunk asylum claim.

As the year winds down, I put together a tasty sampler platter of some of my favorite interviews from 2025 - complete w/ updated commentary by yours truly! (And if you've never checked out my show, this is a great place to start.) Enjoy! Share! podcast.firewallsdontstopdragons.com/2025/12/15/b...

Thank you to everyone who has shared this. The hearing is over for today. DHS has filed a motion to pretermit (end Guan's asylum application in the US) and have him sent to Uganda - where he'd be at risk of being sent to China. The hearing to decide that will be held 12 January.

A side note on this story: One of the other things we found is that this is the same sort of tool used to uncover so-called “terrorist financing,” which ensnared Uyghurs for sending money abroad - even for innocent things like sending down payments for a house bsky.app/profile/dake...

1/Beijing is using an increasingly powerful tool to control and monitor its own officials: Surveillance technology, much of it originating in the U.S., an @apnews.com investigation has found. Buckle up for a twisting ride through China's corruption crackdown... apnews.com/article/whis...

The Jews For Food Aid Chanukah Tzedakah campaign aims to raise $36,000 for Palestinian olive farmers. Tzedakah is a practice of solidarity that leads us to collective safety and freedom for all people, binds ourselves to others, and brings us closer to a world redeemed.

counterpoint: no it's not www.cnn.com/2025/12/13/h...

So we have two immigrant heroes. One in Australia who helped disarm one of the shooters and one in the US who helped track down the Brown U shooter. When a man stabbed several people in the UK, it was also an immigrant who disarmed him. Weird that the Far Right keeps vilifying immigrants.