A few weeks ago I traveled to Ladakh to see how the India-China frontier had changed since a bloody clash five years ago. Things are much calmer, but both sides are rapidly building up infrastructure & there is no going back to the pre-2020 status quo. www.economist.com/asia/2025/12...

We said goodbye to the MetroCard but we must also say goodbye to the existential, slightly depressed "Add Value/Add Time" meme that will no longer make the rounds 🫡 nygroove.nyc/add-value-ad...

"I was elected as a democratic socialist, and I will govern as a democratic socialist," Mamdani says in a big applause line. "I will not abandon my principles for fear of being deemed radical."

EXCLUSIVE: @laurenweberhp.bsky.social & I have spent the last year collecting school+county-level vaccination data from across the US and found that only about 28% of counties now have herd immunity for kindergartners from measles—that leaves about 5.2mn kids unprotected. Gift link: wapo.st/49zDc43

Chants of “tax the rich” break out among thousands of New Yorkers huddled up outside the inauguration of Zohran Mamdani as Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks.

Wow: The share of U.S. counties where 95% + of kindergartners were vaccinated against measles — the number doctors say is needed to achieve “herd immunity” — has dropped from 50 percent before the pandemic to 28 percent

To anyone who happened upon a funeral in Washington Square Park in Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon and wondered who was being honored, it was for the MetroCard, which is being retired on Wednesday. trib.al/1kiOgYB

Also slate let me review the sex scenes in Dying For Sex (my favorite show of the year) with @rebeccaonion.bsky.social slate.com/culture/2025...

A few work things I liked this year. - we made a memecoin, because why not. slate.com/podcasts/wha...

The Earth Is Nearing an Environmental Tipping Point Today’s global coral bleaching events are the worst kind of climate warning. www.wired.com/story/the-ea...

EVERYTHING IN A TEN FOOT RADIUS OF ME THAT DOESNT HAVE A PLACE TO GO IS GETTING THROWN AWAY

Now down to only three people named in Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start The Fire" who are still alive. Bob Dylan, Chubby Checker, and Bernie Goetz.

Sat on a furby. Fucking terrifying.

another robot highlight for 2025: man wearing humanoid mocap suit kicks himself in the balls

Good article, but I think we could add that many of the current government officials & influencers spreading political point-scoring falsehoods during crisis events HAVE BECOME gov officials & influencers BECAUSE of their bullshit-spreading talents. System effects of rotten attention dynamics.

From the well-sourced Helene Cooper: "A Defense Department official said that the Pentagon had worked in tandem with the Nigerian government to carry out the strikes, which the official said were approved by that government." www.nytimes.com/2025/12/25/u...

pov you’re an oldest sister

damn, migraine app, thank you

Woah www.latimes.com/california/s...

top ten ledes of the year www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...

Merry Christmas, friends

Most demented album art open.spotify.com/album/2kzkwg...

The Professor, our foster dog, is up for adoption but has had zero applications. And I get it, people are busy, but he’s wonderful. Not a sleep in your lap dog but the king of sleep next to you dogs. Just a nice little 4 month old gentleman. With a PhD. new.shelterluv.com/embed/animal...

Two Furbitches yelling “exactly” to each other.

An ICE officer shot an undocumented driver trying to evade arrest on Wednesday in a Baltimore suburb, ICE and local officials said, resulting in a crash that left the driver and a passenger hospitalized.

There are, regrettably, two furbies in my living room, both talking.

I hope you all remembered the relevant batteries

Kash Patel made the FBI buy a custom fleet of armored BMW X5 for him to ride around in. trib.al/9pBbwTB Patel’s FBI spokesperson claimed—without evidence—that this is actually saving the American taxpayer money. The standard version of the X5 costs about $70,000.

NEW: By a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court blocks Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Chicago to assist immigration agents. A majority holds that he likely lacks authority to do so. Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch dissent. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

BREAKING: The Supreme Court has blocked Trump's effort to deploy the National Guard in Illinois to protect officials carrying out his mass-deportation policy.

Grand Central on December 23 with small child. When you speak of me, speak well.

I went to the opening for PubKey, a Bitcoin bar originally from NY with a new location in downtown DC. It was wacky and wild and had several Santas, Chinese lion dancers, a mariachi band, and more. But the weirdest thing of all were the federal employees in suits. www.theverge.com/policy/84913...

Exclusive: The U.S. moved a large number of troops and additional special-operations aircraft into the Caribbean this week.

It could be worse. You could have toilet rats. www.kuow.org/stories/toil...

Not now, haunted Victorian shoes

TIME TO SIGN UP FOR SUMMER CAMP I can't believe I am doing this December 23rd.

Merry Christmas!

Year 1 data on congestion pricing in Manhattan… * Vehicle traffic: -11% * Foot traffic: +3.4% * Storefront vacancy: -0.9% * Pollution: -22% * Revenue for mass transit: $548M So YES this has been a huge success.

A small Mexican Navy plane transporting a young medical patient and seven others crashes near Galveston, killing at least five people and setting off a search in waters along the Texas coast, officials say.

She’s makin a list Checkin it twice Because adhd makes it hard to where’s my phone

Good @telliotter.bsky.social story on the DOGEification of the government. www.wired.com/story/expire...

You’ll read Nebraska and have a picture in your mind of who is impacted, the story will tell you just how wrong you are. And Tyson is going to do as little as possible to support them.

Yes, CECOT is a concentration camp in the guise of a prison. The Venezuelans were the first people to *ever* be released from CECOT since Bukele opened the prison in January 2023. Seriously. The first.

This is 404 Media's @jasonkoebler.bsky.social waving at himself through a Flock camera; one of 60 we learned was left exposed to the open internet. Not only could anyone with a link livestream it, but some admin portals were open with no login credentials required. www.404media.co/flock-expose...

For years, people have lodged complaints about Tesla’s doors. With no official statistics, Bloomberg did its own analysis on the number of fatal crashes in the US in which door functionality played a role. Read more: bloom.bg/49tm0fF 📷️: Getty Images

If Weiss had more skill she could have spiked the CECOT segment much earlier in the process because it didn‘t reveal enough new information about a widely reported story. This would also have been a terrible decision, but would at least display some knowledge of how things actually work.

I am sure the 60 Minutes report on CECOT was very well done, but what makes the decision to kill it even more damning is that CBS was hardly out on a limb on this story. It has been extremely well documented and reported by many journalists.

Now seems like a swell time to point out that Frontline just released this excellent 11-minute mini-documentary about what happened inside CECOT.

"The emergence of Witkoff as envoy to the Kremlin is partly a story of Putin maneuvering to nudge aside America’s diplomats and clasp hands with its billionaires." www.wsj.com/world/putin-...