Dude was fined $500 million for fraud.

Hey scientists: has anyone else been getting lots of invitations to sketchy conferences lately? I get several a week now. The webpage for the mtg is weird, with vague topics and distorted photos of scientists (some clearly fake) in odd fields. I know it's a scam but I can't figure out the angle.

🚨 Job alert in my group: Want to do a PhD in Computational Linguistics working on figurative language (metaphor), on social media data, and in an interdisciplinary digital humanities environment, at one of the largest universities in Germany? Apply by March 30, 2026! Contact me with any […]

Remember that Elon Musk supports AfD, if you think that it's still cool to stay on X

There are certain queer times in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke

He’s clearly been workshopping his specious arguments.

To my mind, this is the single tweet that explains 95% of the energy behind the MAGA movement.

"In Chicago, of 92 people arrested for assaulting or impeding officers last fall, 74 cases have resulted in no charges; in 13 cases, charges were filed and dismissed; and five charged cases were still pending."

I just got back from Whistler and overheard *so many* conversations from people all over the world about not going to the US. A Dane said “I was planning to go to Vegas this year but then the Greenland thing happened.” One Aussie said to another “I don’t want to wind up in an ICE concentration camp”

And a thank you to @librarycongress.bsky.social IG page for today’s #Caturday photo.

NH state house passes "CHARLIE Act," which bans teaching, I kid you not, "critical consciousness" & "prohibited world-views," such as that queer people exist, or that slavery involved race, or, implicitly, that the Nazis murdered Jews based on identity. newhampshirebulletin.com/2026/02/19/h...

“The disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, 84, the mother of the “Today” show anchor Savannah Guthrie, has gripped the nation…” Has it, though?

When Silent Sam, the Confederate soldier statue, was removed from campus, UNC agreed to give it to this neo-Confederate group, along with $2.5 million for caretaking. UNC agreed to fund a neo-Confederate group.

So much curling. So, so, so much curling.

This, but also seizing all his wealth would do more for everyone on Earth than the $2,000 per person.

not to be missed, though: her coach(?)’s literal cartoon-eyes awooga reaction

The Free Press is discovering new levels of Telling On Yourself that scientists previously thought could not exist

Literally nobody has seen anything like it.

Periodic workshop notification: my next personal essay workshop is this Sunday, and the next on on developing a writing and creative practice is March 8th: www.elizabethspiers.com/workshops/

Watching other countries actually make their leaders and powerful men face consequences with jealousy.

👀

Wishing a blessed Ramadan to those who observe — may your fast be easy!

A big day for very legitimate accounts.

Trying to understand who their imagined audience is here.

It's almost as if the entire point of a warrant is to prevent the government from just rounding up whomever it wants

“I’m not nervous, maybe you’re nervous, you ever think about that?”

douglas adams was our most accurate futurist

"AI detectors" are themselves AI, and yet are endlessly trusted by people on here if they say that a newspaper article is AI. AI detectors are snake oil. None of them reliably works. And UK broadsheet are not yet using AI to write articles. No, that link to the deal you found doesn't prove it.

This might be of interest of (and use to) some of my followers.

ted bundy ass tactics by the gestapo

The Internet.

I've watched this like 20 times (sound on!)

curling but one of the stones is cake

Now this is a movie plot!!! Someone understands grad school.

I may say more later but part of what some of us need to understand is that the right has built an entirely distinct civic society, with its own hierarchy and (mostly networked) cultural institutions. That includes celebrity.

Or, researching things and looking at evidence leads people to conclude that progressive beliefs make sense. If research and evidence are biased, seems like conservative scholars would be able to demonstrate flaws in the scholarship.

The study does not remotely say that science “leans hard left.” Nor does the fact that academics left the Nazis-and-child-porn website for a different website mean they’re producing biased evidence. All of the major threats to science in 2026 come from the right.

I know Kevin knows this, but the explanation for this is clear: It's racism. Racism and xenophobia and misogyny. A white native-born American, living in the parts of the country where white native-born men still hold disproportionate power, is the only fully "real" American in the eyes of many.

I used the paid version, 5.2, which was naturally more helpful: "Bottom line: If it’s a full-service wash where you’ll leave the car there for a while, walk. If you need to be with the car or move it, drive."

‘I Could Totally Do That,’ Says Correct Man Watching Luge Event https://theonion.com/i-could-totally-do-that-says-correct-man-watching-luge-event/

It should have at least reminded them to use a backpack to evenly distribute the weight.

Blown away that Luxembourg (population 700,000) has more all-time Winter Olympic medals (two) than all of South America (one).

Legendary founder of NPR programming Bill Siemering is enjoying Zoom visiting with students so much that he's asked me to put a second call out. No honorarium necessary. Any takers?

Utterly unacceptable in a democracy. In a sane world, House Republicans would be drafting impeachment articles today and Senate Republicans would be preparing for a trial to convict and remove him from office

The "erasure of white culture" guy having trouble when asked what white culture has been erased is like when the woman who wrote a "woke indoctrination" book couldn't define "woke." Many observers keep searching for a material or intellectual explanation for this stuff, but there really isn't one.