Politico - At least six career staffers at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency were suspended with pay this summer after organizing a polygraph test that the agency’s acting director, Madhu Gottumukkala, failed. www.politico.com/news/2025/12...

People flocked to Google en masse because it simply worked better than AltaVista or Infoseek

You're a mean pilot, Mr Grinch.

You can't simultaneously tell me that it's too hard to use a trans person's pronouns and then turn around and call an AI chatbot "she." If you're giving less consideration to a human being than a fucking computer program, you're just an asshole.

nothing i can say about these people is crueler than their behavior toward each other

jfc

who needs seat belts, smoke detectors, lifeboats or parachutes

Reminder: if the Trump administration is founded on any meaningful principles at all, it is that elites should face no consequences at all as they strip the nation for parts.

It *was* issued by the Kremlin

“I’m running for Congress because we’re facing a five-alarm fire for our democracy” New York City Comptroller Brad Lander declared in his mid-December launch video.

jfc primary every democrat

You know who's even more irked? is Democratic voters who have been screwed over once too often by disgraceful fake-left DC Democrats. I for one can't wait for @bradlander.bsky.social to take Goldman down

Microsoft is the biggest advertiser for Linux.

This is a dumbfounding guideline. Absolutely a destructive and incompetent recommendation that was clearly made by people not qualified to judge such decisions.

Any real reporter should quit the show and CBS.

Medical experts have studied Trump’s public speeches and mannerisms, as well as his documented health issues, including chronic venous insufficiency (CVI) and the ever-present bandages on his hand, and concluded that he is in decline and perhaps even exhibiting signs of someone with dementia.

Llm's are only useful if you don't particularly give a fuck whether your output is actually correct and it doesn't really matter if it is. Which says a *lot* about the jobs and lives of the people who are the loudest about advocating their use.

I like all of my research tools to have an air of non-deterministic behavior to them. Keeps things more exciting.

suspect a big reason why many academics and others who work in areas where getting facts RIGHT is key are disinterested in using LLMs for research: they’ve tried it, they keep noticing major errors in output, and they conclude that having to verify all that doesn’t actually save them time.

BRENNAN: What are you going to do to force DOJ to comply? MASSIE: The quickest way and most expeditious way to get justice for these victims is to bring inherent contempt against Pam Bondi. That doesn't require going through the courts. We're drafting that right now.

👀

We’re going to see a lot more of these cases after the next election. “An ICE leader has been locked up in the same jail where he’d sent ICE prisoners after he allegedly strangled his girlfriend earlier this month.“

I was basically too multidisciplinary for the first decade of my career, but it paid dividends in the increasingly broad books I’ve written. You can’t understand much about the questions in your field if you don’t also know a fair bit about a couple other fields. A challenge for training grads.

“.. After the release of thousands of Epstein files on Friday, The New York Times contacted Ms. Farmer .. She broke down in tears. “I’ve waited 30 years,” she said. “I can’t believe it. They can’t call me a liar anymore.” @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/u...

Known as PSR J2322-2650b, the exoplanet is shaped like a lemon, boasts baffling skies, and may have hidden troves of diamonds in its belly. The distant world closely orbits a pulsar, a type of hyper-dense dead star that is tugging on the gassy planet, giving it the distended shape.

On the one hand, they have redacted Trump’s name from the Epstein Files. On the other hand, they have put it on the Kennedy Center.

Please kill me

It was such a joy to celebrate Hanukkah with Mandy, Kathryn and their son, Gideon. As Jewish New Yorkers across our city prepare to light candles and mark the seventh night today, I wish you and your families a Hanukkah full of light and love. youtu.be/KIxAKyioXng

this is the greatest feeling, when the cord box proves its utility to a family member

A Cliffs Notes for the Jake Paul situation since I'm seeing people confused. Jake Paul and his brother were 'prank streamers'. Yes exactly. They got famous for doing that and got rich. Jakes fame got to his head and somewhere along the way he started believing he could fight pro boxers.

This is despicable. My grad alma mater once again on the frontlines of exploitation and harm in higher education.

In one stunning story whose capstone came yesterday, the files released included confirmation that Maria Farmer, a young artist lured into Epstein's world by a pretense to support her art that turned into sexual assault by Epstein and Maxwell, had indeed gone to the FBI in 1996 to report Epstein.

‘Either the self-proclaimed “very stable genius” spent nearly two decades around Epstein without recognizing what was happening in plain sight — or he recognized it and chose silence. Neither explanation reflects on intelligence as much as it does on character.’ www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

New research from the University of Pittsburgh suggests that the wastewater created by fracking the Marcellus formation, the ancient gas deposit beneath Pennsylvania, is far more radioactive than previously understood.

Known as PSR J2322-2650b, the exoplanet is shaped like a lemon, boasts baffling skies, and may have hidden troves of diamonds in its belly. The distant world closely orbits a pulsar, a type of hyper-dense dead star that is tugging on the gassy planet, giving it the distended shape.

Before folks chime in with the obvious "but how can a Latino man like Enrique Tarrio be a white nationalist," it would be useful to read essays like this about the complicated nature of the emerging "multi-racial right." inthesetimes.com/article/mult...

Proud Boy leader, J6 organizer, and recipient of Trump pardon Enrique Tarrio has been a bit more active on social media lately. Today he is promoting a woman who organized a Mein Kampf reading group and proudly identifies as a "white power" advocate of the US being a White Christian "ethnostate."

A February 2025 report from RAND, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization, written by Carter C. Price found that if the system in place before 1975 had stayed in place, the bottom 90% of Americans would have had almost $80 trillion more in 2023 than they did.

SCANLON: For many young people, “education has become a liability. .. Early career roles have eroded.” Homeownership “hasn’t budged.” “.. prediction markets, sports betting and cryptocurrency start to look like some of the only levers they have left.” @kyla.bsky.social www.wsj.com/personal-fin...

With their relatively tiny budgets compared to the costs of disasters, NCAR and federal agencies, like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, actually pay huge dividends for American society, in property and lives saved.

Steve Bannon reportedly said: 'You raised a kid that slit your throat!' about the late Rob Reiner. A reminder that not a single prominent Democrat or liberal pundit said anything even vaguely akin to this when Charlie Kirk was murdered. Oh the hypocrisy.

Timeline cleanser:

With tightening immigration policies, the EU is moving towards a Eurokafala system where migrants are constantly brought in to make up for labour shortages, but also constantly abused as second-class citizens. www.ft.com/content/4329...

....had to do a double take at the paper making this excellent point

This week, we learned 21 states are eager to dismantle your First Amendment Rights. It should be bigger news. Here's the story, and here's what you can be doing about it. These are YOUR RIGHTS that the states want to steal from you. buttondown.com/wellsourced/...

“It’s not a “Florida” thing. It’s not a “Texas” thing. It’s a 21 states out of 50 thing. The government wants to dictate to half of this country's states what they can read & what they can think. They want public institutions of democracy & civic engagement to be mouthpieces of government beliefs.”

The US faces a critical deadline in January 2026 to prove it has stopped measles transmission and could lose its elimination status if large outbreaks linked to ongoing cases (like those from the Texas outbreak) aren't definitively stopped and a 12-month period of no local spread is achieved.

There's a powerful illustration here regarding "influencers" vs. "experts".