In brief: After a long dry spell, there are signs of stormier weather in the West over the next 10 days. Mountain snow and low elevation rain is likely to add up some, helping to ease the deficit pain a bit but not enough to truly “salvage” winter at this point.

The dry West should moisten up a bit

It’s been a minute since we’ve shifted focus to the West. And for good reason: It’s been dead quiet.

This snow season has been wretched in the West too. While precipitation isn’t terribly far off normal for the season, the ratio of rain to snow events has been severe limiting any snowpack gains in the West. In fact, a look at the map of snow water equivalent by basin in the West paints a dire story right now, particularly as high stakes Colorado River water supply negotiations extend deeper into overtime.

That map is downright unsustainable in the current hydrologic environment of the West. So, help is needed, badly. Thankfully, some help is on the way. The first in what should be a series of storms arrives in California tonight. This system is less atmospheric river and more just a low pressure system that looks to stall out for a couple days. This is optimal, as it will bring mountain snow and lower elevation rain to much of the region, as well as at least some snow inland. Snow levels will be somewhat high-ish but you have to start somewhere.

This should allow for 1-2 feet above 6,000 feet in the Sierra. Importantly, some of this snow will make into the interior mountains of Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming too, with perhaps 6 to 12 inches of snow at higher elevations.

After this week’s system sort of washes out on Thursday, our attention will focus to a potential series of storms, more akin to a classic atmospheric river next week that should further add some snow and low elevation rain to the mix. Don’t sleep on the high winds outlined there either. We could be looking at some fire weather concerns in the Rockies or High Plains.

The Climate Prediction Center’s 8-14 day hazards outlook has begun to paint the West more colorfully since Saturday. The heavy precipitation and heavy snow cards are being dealt for Feb 17-19 with the storm(s) next week. When all is said and done, we could be looking at 5 to 10 inches of liquid equivalent in California and 1 to 3 inches in portions of Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and western Colorado. Anything would help. This won’t be enough to salvage the winter (we need more), but it will hopefully help pull back the extremes a little. Here’s hoping.

Editor’s Note: We’re still doing this

I have a recurring Google News search on that I get sent to my email daily for “flash flooding,” “flood mitigation,” and “hurricane Gulf” (in Google Scholar). So, I see a lot of news and information on flooding each week. One story caught my eye yesterday, and it makes me extraordinarily frustrated.

The Unicoi County Hospital in Tennessee flooded so badly during Helene that patients and staff had to evacuate to the roof and be rescued by helicopter. The decision is being made to rebuild the hospital right in the flood plain of North Indian Creek, a location that may be even worse than where it was originally built. There are safe ways to do this to ensure flood impacts are mitigated, but unfortunately, Ballad Health did not offer comment for this article. This doesn’t make me angry because rural health systems struggle enough as it is, and it’s more important to offer those residents access to healthcare than it is to worry about everything else. Theoretically. But it frustrates me that organizations like this are being put in this position at all. Surely, there have to be many other, less flood prone locations to build this facility. When we talk about resiliency and building smartly, which we should be doing in 2026, no matter your belief structure on climate change, this is exactly what we don’t want to see happening. Risk is never zero, of course. But some risks are very clearly worse than others, and this decision feels as if it feeds into that idea. It’s hard enough for rural health systems to survive on a good day, let alone with elevated risk. They need help with ways to build smarter.

mst3kgifs:

♪ Workin’ the fryer, I was never a cryer, ♪

♪ I had a void in the shape of you. ♪

♪ Lookin’ for love, hopin’ for evil, ♪ 

♪ All’s I got was chicken cordon bleu. ♪

The Mads are BACK!

The RiffTrax crew has just announced that Trace Beaulieu and Frank Conniff will be reprising their roles of Dr. Forrester and TV’s Frank in the fourth episode of MST3K: The RiffTrax Experiments!

And not only are our evil overlords returning to torment all the captives on the Satellite of Love one more time, Trace and Frank will also be co-writing the episode with Mike, Kevin and Bill.

“Some of my favorite moments in life have been spent around Trace and Frank, so, yes, I’m very, very happy that they’re joining us for the Rifftrax Experiments.”

• Michael J. Nelson

“Trace and Frank are friends, but they’re also comic heroes of mine. Dr. F and TV’s Frank are a classic comedy duo who belong with the best in the pantheon. I’m so glad they agreed to bring their great characters back to life for this project - and also that we get to hang out with them for a while!”

• Bill Corbett

So put yourself down for a honey-glazed ham and a box of steaks, because the Mads are back! Now push the button, Frank.

Climate and security experts say the plan is outdated and could place the U.S. at a competitive disadvantage.

By Phil McKenna

President Donald Trump plans to announce an executive order on Wednesday directing the U.S. Department of Defense to buy electricity from coal-fired power plants.

TORONTO – With record numbers of Canadians viewing the Winter Olympic Games on CBC Gem, the streaming platform experienced several outages due to what’s being called “an unprecedented number of people actually willing to watch something on it.”  The first reported outage came after 814,000 Canadians attempted to watch the Games’ Opening Ceremonies, breaking the […]

The post CBC Gem crashes due to Canadians using it appeared first on The Beaverton.

I need you to write a memoir of my life as an obscure literary genius. Make it a multi-volume set, kind of like Casanova’s. Basically, the drama and bravado of my novels are outmatched only by my real life. At all times, you must make me sound tortured, misunderstood, and extremely cool.

The language should draw comparisons to David Sedaris, Joan Didion, every author with a 4.3+ average rating on Goodreads, and whoever wrote that badass Mötley Crüe memoir.

As far as the audience, it should appeal to everyone from New York Times critics to my uncle Carl, who hasn’t read a book in thirty years. Make it particularly impressive to any stepdads who might still think that I’m a “little momma’s boy.”

Give me a dramatic birth story where the umbilical cord was wrapped around my neck, but luckily, my biceps were big enough to unravel it myself. Say that I’ve used that as a metaphor for wrangling with my fears of imperfection ever since.

For my childhood, let’s throw in an alcoholic dad, an uncaring mom, a drug-smuggling Alaskan uncle who took me on dangerous dog-sledding trips across the Iditarod, the usual stuff. Also, say that I was the smartest, most popular, and athletic kid in class, slept with all the hot high school teachers, etc., etc. Specifically mention that I was not only not lying about having a girlfriend who went to a different school in Canada, but also that she grew up to be the Canadian actress Rachel McAdams.

Naturally, my young adult life should be filled with brash adventure and even some jail time (can you make me a sexy Sinatra-style mugshot for the book jacket?). Plus, don’t be afraid to toss in a few of my selfless acts of heroism in various wars (whichever wars you think were the best), and also how I discovered the ice walls in Antarctica that prevent the continents from slipping off the edge of the earth. But please, whatever you do, keep it grounded.

Include a passage on my very particular writing habits. Basically just mirror Hunter S. Thompson’s daily schedule and up the acid and tequila intake, but also mention how I can’t write a word until I’ve kissed the head of a dove and given it an eccentric name, like “Ludovico.”

Use the word “pat” as an adjective a bunch of times.

Weave in a story about how William Gibson got the idea for Neuromancer after he watched me merge my own consciousness with a super AI just for fun. And also, how I was the one who told JK Rowling to drop the “Joanne Kathleen” and just use “JK.” “It’s cleaner.”

Make it clear that I am more talented and way better-dressed than Jonathan Greenbaum, the guy who stole my girlfriend back in college. Wait, let’s tweak this so he didn’t actually steal her. Say that I told her to leave me because I was so amazing in bed that I didn’t want to ruin her for other men.

In the section about my first divorce, make it absolutely clear that I was the victim, but that I gave my ex-wife every dollar I had anyway. Not because the judge made me, but because I’m just that kind of guy.

Explain that the reason no one has read or even heard of my works is that the world simply isn’t ready for them yet. But not to worry, I will be cracking open the vault upon my death.

Finally, and this is key, you must humanize me in a way that highlights my tireless efforts to uplift the common man and shine a spotlight on his struggles.

Oh, also, don’t forget to mention that I have a huge hog.

You just go and divine, honey. We’ll catch up.

CHICAGO—Seeking to expand beyond sports coverage into radical new forms and expressions, Barstool Sports announced Monday that it would soon launch Confluences, a literary journal featuring book reviews, flash fiction, and in-depth arts criticism.

Representatives at the sports website told reporters that Confluences would allow Barstool staff to supplement their usual output of fantasy football rankings, piss-based shenanigans, and GIFs of obese pets with the kind of cultural commentary found in The Paris Review and n+1. The journal will be available both online and as a quarterly, 200‑page volume published through the University of Chicago Press.

“For years, Barstool contributors have recapped UFC fights and posted jaw-dropping SEC smoke shows, all while privately engaging in rigorous literary criticism, and we’re excited to finally share this passion with our loyal Stoolies,” said site founder Dave Portnoy, noting that as the new journal’s editor, he had already commissioned a three-part essay on Susan Sontag’s early work from longtime Barstool personality PFT Commenter. “Whether it’s an interview with Ayad Akhtar on theater’s power in the face of oppression or a review of Ocean Vuong’s latest poetry collection, this will naturally complement our ongoing touchdown dance compilations and debates over the best Nickelodeon cartoons of the ’90s.”

He added, “As intellectuals, we are equally interested in the postcolonial installation art of Guiller-
mo Gómez-Peña and humorous photo mockups depicting John Daly as Santa Claus, and we expect our readers will welcome this broadening of focus.”

Portnoy confirmed that Confluences would explore numerous disciplines, with its debut issue set to include long-form essays on the intersectional limits of third-wave feminism, the unpublished correspondence of Roland Barthes, and the best breakfast tacos in Austin, TX, as well as blackout poetry composed with cut-up Bang Energy labels and a piece from literary historian Stephen Greenblatt outlining various potential College Football Playoff wagering scenarios.

The magazine is also expected to serve as a coveted destination for contemporary writers in a range of creative fields—including such luminaries as Zadie Smith, Hilton Als, and Glenny Balls—with Pulitzer Prize finalist Ta-
Nehisi Coates scheduled to author a retrospective on the year’s craziest parking lot beatdowns.

According to sources, Confluences will also publish a 400-line prose poem adapted from a recent blog post by Barstool contributor John Feitelberg and titled “I Shit My Pants At Julian Edelman’s House.”

“Our goal is simply to advance, fearlessly, into the maelstrom of the great ontological and phenomenological inquiries of our era while also counting down a list of the funniest-looking Japanese baseball mascots,” said Portnoy, noting that the journal’s operations were made possible due to generous financial grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and Zyn-brand nicotine pouches. “What is the role of the arts in a fully digitized society? How do we reconcile the ancient Greek ideal of kalos kagathos with the constraints of postmodern aestheticism? What does the girl from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off look like now? These are just some of the dialectics we’ll be grappling with.”

“Also, the one-bite pizza reviews will be presented by Salman Rushdie until further notice,” he added.

At press time, Confluences was reportedly hosting an online livestream in which 12 Barstool employees sat in recliners and reacted to the latest soundscape from multimedia artist Camille Norment.

The post Barstool Sports Spins Off New Literary Journal appeared first on The Onion.

You can accept a four-bed colonial for $450,000…or take your chances on the mystery house!

Reference #68379

The post Mystery House appeared first on The Onion.

The post Trump Attempts To Distract From Epstein Files By Gaining 200 Pounds appeared first on The Onion.

Good take off… time for the weird forward lean.

Make the pizza with your skis, yep. Heels are the tip, toes are crust.

Nice, Spencer! You’ve got this.

Why is Airplane WiFi so bad? Shouldn’t it be the best up here? Isn’t this where all the WiFi is?

Phew, this is dangerous.

Why don’t I care about a show with the American crime letter agencies like CSI, NCIS, or FBI, but I LOVE a British show about MI6 or MI5? Do they feel that way about our shows?

Oh man, did I close the garage?

I can’t believe some other guys are injecting their penises with PEDs to fly further.

I feel like I’ve seen a lot of Snoopy lately. Is there a Peanuts anniversary?

Maybe I should’ve injected my penis with PEDs to fly further…

I’m still in the air. Jesus.

Is it too late for grad school?

I’ve never hit a bird before.

Hold the reverse pizza.

This would be a terrible time to hit a bird.

I’ll be so pissed off if I left a bunch of lights on at home—such an unnecessary bill.

Pizza does sound good. How have I been in Milan for this long and not had pizza? I kind of want to try Pizza Hut over here.

I want to win, for sure. I DEFINITELY don’t want to go viral for hitting a bird—almost more than winning.

Damnit, I think I did leave the garage open.

Hey, there are my parents.

It would be the most people to ever see someone hit a bird. It would pass the Randy Johnson video. It would be Randy Johnson, Fabio, and me. Three bird killers.

What even goes on in grad school?

Even though I haven’t used PEDs or injected my penis to be bigger and fly further, I want people to think I’ve enhanced my penis to fly further.

The pizza skis technique doesn’t apply to Detroit-style.

What does a comptroller do?

I really thought I’d be on the ground by now.

Mai Tran began catsitting in 2021 while Tran was on pandemic unemployment, often staying overnight in people’s homes. Tran has now cared for twenty-two cats and traveled to ten apartments all over New York City, observing the interior lives of cat owners and appeasing their neuroses. From home vet visits to black eyes to refugee cats, Chronicles of a Catsitter documents the most memorable days on the job.

I’m trail running around Buttermilk Falls in upstate New York, jumping over tree roots and water-slicked rocks. At the base, a size queen chats me up. “The water power here is not that impressive,” she says. “For real volume and height, you should go see Lucifer or Taughannock.”

I do my best to engage in hiking banter. When I emerge from a path, husbands and fathers speak on behalf of their families. They ask how many miles I traversed, or how far until the next waterfall, or comment on my speed around the bend. Forks in the road are prime spots for solidarity as we compare maps. I get the sense that people want to be exceedingly nice when they’re alone in the woods, and looking the way I do (benign), people love to see me coming. Sometimes I get nervous, although the animals are even more so. A deer crashes away from me; a snake slithers out of my path.

The running is slow, and I stop often to take photos or inspect native berries, which my crunchy partner would surely eat off the stem without first verifying their identity or washing them of dirt. After they moved in, I had never felt more like a lesbian in my day-to-day living, but also never more affirmed that I was a twink. I was scared of bugs, had absolutely no hard skills, and would undoubtedly die if left in the wild. I only existed to be cute and kind of bitchy.

I had escaped to Ithaca via a four-and-a-half-hour bus ride and a fortuitous catsitting opportunity, set up by my local friend V. At home, things were finally stabilizing “post-crisis,” with my partner’s self-deportation set far off in the abstract future. After two months of tending to it, I felt as if I could leave, or I wanted to ensure that I was still a person who could.

At the bus stop in front of Ithaca’s halal deli, V. was a sight for sore eyes in their Subaru hatchback. They scooped me up, and we drove through town, past yard signs advertising a women’s swim for hospicare and an (assumedly) all-gender bike ride for AIDS. Punk teens on the street automatically begged the question of whether or not they were children of Cornell professors. Seeing a huge black-and-white striped banner with a rainbow triangle, I learned about the “straight ally” flag.

We made it to the catsitting apartment, and I met Pleiades, an elderly cat who had been with his owner for years but was relegated to a small, dark bedroom. Annoyed with his kitten compatriots, who were more recently adopted, he was separated from them by a floor-to-ceiling mosquito net that had to be unzipped and zipped every time I entered or exited the room. I sent photos of the space to a friend, who quipped that the owner had a poster, flyer, and/or sticker for every social movement on earth. We found this ironic, given that we deemed Pleiades’ displacement from all other areas of the apartment, for two new and shiny cats, unjust.

During my week-long stay, V. enlisted me to help weed their 16′ × 9’ community garden plot. It seemed as if everyone in Ithaca gardened—no manicured lawns, just overgrown herbs, trellises, and a fixation on biodiversity, spotlighted by fireflies at night. A farmer’s market stand boasted that their gooseberries were “child-picked.” I sent my partner photos, and they reported that red bell pepper seeds had sprouted in our sink. They moved them to a plastic cup on our windowsill. From the Ithaca garden, I cut them rosemary, lavender, and sage, which I would later deliver via bus and subway, in a jar filled with water.

Back at Buttermilk Falls, a park ranger steps to the side so I can pass. I think about the metaphor that V. shared from couples therapy, while we were kneeling and squatting in the dirt. “Everyone has their own lawn to take care of,” they said. Sometimes lawns overlap, and those parts can be cared for together. If one person falls, another can step in. V. said my friendship has presence. V. said I am good at taking care of my own lawn.

After completing the predetermined loop, I peel off my socks and hang my feet in a swimming hole. Children scream at the darting minnows. I brighten my screen and text my partner to let them know I will return a day early. I’m anxious to see what’s happened while I’ve been away, if anything. I wonder if I’ll come home and think I felt something like respite, or a regulated nervous system. “What if you just stayed here forever?” V. had spouted, the same daydream I casually toss to my lover.

My heart aches. I think I love it here, but soon I’ll be tired.

This is amazing! I'm reading a story here about a fireman who accedentally swollowed a cat! #CowboyWho

The Schitt's Creek and Home Alone actress died last month in a US hospital, at the age of 71.

WASHINGTON—Advising her that even the most basic gesture of contrition would solve all her problems instantly, lawmakers reminded convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell on Monday that a simple “I’m sorry” could make all this go away. “We’re just asking for two simple words that demonstrate you feel a sense of regret for the harm you caused,” Rep. James Comer (R-KY) told Maxwell after her refusal to testify before the House Oversight Committee, saying all that mattered now was that the former Jeffrey Epstein associate acknowledged her misdeeds and made an effort to grow as a person. “Mistakes are part of being human, we realize, which is why we stand willing to let you walk free this very day. But that’s not going to be possible unless you can own up to having, quiet frankly, fallen short of the mark on a few occasions. And you know what? Apologizing actually feels pretty good. You’ll be glad you did it. Trust me.” Comer went on to say that Epstein himself had too much pride and unwisely rejected a similar offer.

The post Ghislaine Maxwell Reminded That A Simple ‘I’m Sorry’ Could Make This All Go Away appeared first on The Onion.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Facing allegations that their ChatGPT LLMs have been responsible for numerous user suicides, OpenAI responded swiftly by insisting the company will develop new proactive measures to stop such lawsuits before they ever happen. “We take the subject of suicide seriously,” explained OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, “but we take avoiding legal liability […]

The post OpenAI promises new safeguards to prevent suicide-related lawsuits appeared first on The Beaverton.

#ArmorOfHalo #RoninWarriors

Today's links

• The Epstein class and collapse porn: Buy the dip!
• Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
• Object permanence: Web 1.0 logos; Legality of printing Catan tiles; Hamster strandbeest; Pactuator; Michican bans oral; Blooks; Yours is a very bad hotel; Yippie Disneyland invasion model; Floppy toccata; Happy Birthday trolls owe $14m; Jughead is ace; Snowden for teens.
• Upcoming appearances: Where to find me.
• Recent appearances: Where I've been.
• Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
• Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
• Colophon: All the rest.

---

The Epstein class and collapse porn (permalink)

It's hard to talk about the Epstein class without thinking about "The Economy" – "The Economy" in the sense of a kind of mystical, free-floating entity whose health or sickness determines the outcomes for all the rest of us, whom we must make sacrifices to if we are to prosper.

As nebulous as "The Economy" is as an entity, there's an economic priesthood that claims it can measure and even alter the course of the economy using complex mathematics. We probably won't ever understand their methods, but we can at least follow an indicator or two, such as changes to GDP, an aggregated statistic that is deceptively precise, given that it subsumes any number of estimates, qualitative judgments and wild-ass guesses, which are all disguised behind an official statistic that is often published to three decimal places.

There's plenty to criticize about GDP: a healthy GDP doesn't necessarily mean that the average worker is better off. When your rent goes up, so does GDP. Same with your salary going down (provided this results in more spending by your boss). GDP isn't really a measure of the health of "The Economy" – it's a measure of the parts of "The Economy" that make rich people (that is, the Epstein class) better off.

But what if there was a way to make money from calamitous collapses in GDP? What if the wealthy didn't just win when "number go up," but also when "number eat shit?"

The latest batch of Epstein emails includes a particularly ghoulish exchange between Epstein and his business partner, the anti-democracy activist and billionaire Peter Thiel:

https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00824843.pdf

The email is dated 26 Jun 2016, right after Brexit, and in it, Epstein writes:

return to tribalism . counter to globalization. amazing new alliances. you and I both agreed zero interest rates were too high, as i said in your office. finding things on their way to collapse , was much easier than finding the next bargain

This is a perfect example of what Naomi Klein calls "disaster capitalism." It's been the norm since the crash of 2008, when bankers were made whole through public bailouts and mortgage holders were evicted by the millions to "foam the runway" for the banks:

https://wallstreetonparade.com/2012/08/how-treasury-secretary-geithner-foamed-the-runways-with-childrens-shattered-lives/

The crash of 2008 turned a lot of people's homes – their only substantial possessions – into "distressed assets" that were purchased at fire-sale prices by Wall Street investors, who turned around and rented those homes out to people who were now priced out of the housing market at rents that kept them too poor to ever afford a home, under slum conditions that crawled with insects and black mold:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/01/housing-is-a-human-right/

Note here that economic collapse helps the Epstein class only if society has no social safety net. If Obama had supported homeowners instead of banks, there wouldn't have been a foreclosure crisis and thus there wouldn't have been any "distressed assets" flooding the market.

So it's no surprise that the Epstein class are also obsessed with austerity. Peter Mandelson (British Labour's "Prince of Darkness") is a close ally of Epstein, and also a key figure in the crushing austerity agenda of Blair, Brown and Starmer. He's a machine for turning Parliamentary majorities into distressed assets at scale.

Same for Steve Bannon, another close Epstein ally, who boasts about his alliances with far-right figures who exalt the capital class and call for deregulation and the elimination of public services: Le Pen, Salvini, Farage. Combine that with Epstein and Thiel's gloating about "finding things on their way to collapse…much easier than finding the next bargain," and it starts to feel like these guys are even happier with "number eat shit" than they are with "number go up."

Trump is the undisputed king of the Epstein class, and he seems determined to drive "The Economy" over a cliff. Take his tariff program, modeled on the McKinley tariffs of 1890, which led to the Panic of 1893, a financial crisis that saw one in four American workers forced into unemployment and 15,000 businesses into bankruptcy (that's a lot of distressed assets!):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1893

Then there's Trump's mass deportation program, which will force lots of businesses (farms, restaurants, etc) into bankruptcy, creating another massive pool of distressed assets. Trump's given ICE $75b, while the DoJ Antitrust Division and FTC (which protect Americans from corporate scams) have seen their budgets take a real-terms cut. The majority of DoJ lawyers and FBI agents are working on immigration cases (against workers, not employers, mind!). The Antitrust Division has $275m to fight all of America's corporate crime:

https://www.organizedmoney.fm/p/white-collar-crime-enforcement-in

I'm not saying that Trump is trying to induce another massive economic crash. I'm saying, rather, that within his coalition there is a substantial bloc of powerful, wealthy people who are on the hunt for "things on their way to collapse," and who are doubtless maneuvering to frustrate other Trump coalition members who are solely committed to "number go up."

Even the collapse of crypto creates lots of opportunities to "buy the dip." Not the dip in crypto (crypto's going to zero), but the dip in all the real things people bought with real money they got by borrowing against their shitcoins.

The thousand-plus children that Epstein lured to his island rape-camp were often "distressed assets" in their own right: Julie K Brown's groundbreaking reporting on Epstein for the Miami Herald described how he sought out children whose parents were poor, or neglectful, or both, on the grounds that those children would be "on their way to collapse," too.

The Epstein class's commitment to destroying "The Economy" makes sense when you understand that trashing civilization is "much easier than finding the next bargain." They want to buy the dip, so they're creating the dip.

They don't need the whole number to go up, just theirs. They know that inclusive economies are more prosperous for society as a whole, but it makes criminals and predators worse off. The New Deal kicked off a period of American economic growth never seen before or since, but the rich despised it, because a prosperous economy is one in which it gets harder and harder to find "things on their way to collapse," and thus nearly impossible to "find[] the next bargain."

(Image: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0)

---

Hey look at this (permalink)

• RIP, Dave Farber https://seclists.org/nanog/2026/Feb/18

• Outlier and collapse: The enron corpus and foundation model training data https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20539517261421474

• You're Doing It Wrong: Notes on Criticism and Technology Hype https://peoples-things.ghost.io/youre-doing-it-wrong-notes-on-criticism-and-technology-hype/

• How Big Cloud becomes Bigger: Scrutinizing Google, Microsoft, and Amazon's investments https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5377426

• Go Left, Young Writers! https://jacobin.com/2026/02/new-masses-proletarian-literature-wright-gold/

---

Object permanence (permalink)

#25yrsago Yours is a very bad hotel https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/yours-is-a-very-bad-hotel/34583

#20yrsago Kids refuse to sell candy after completing health unit https://web.archive.org/web/20060223010123/http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5600588,00.html

#20yrsago Disneyland model recreates Yippie invasion of 1970 https://web.archive.org/web/20051228122604/http://dannysland.blogspot.com/2005/12/great-moments-in-disneyland-history.html

#20yrsago Canadian Red Cross wastes its money harassing video game makers https://web.archive.org/web/20060221020835/https://www.igniq.com/2006/02/canadian-red-cross-wants-its-logo-out.html

#20yrsago How Yahoo/AOL’s email tax will hurt free speech https://web.archive.org/web/20060213175705/https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004398.php#004398

#20yrsago Adbusters and the Economist have the same covers https://pieratt.com/odds/adbusters_vs_theeconomist.jpg

#20yrsago Head of British Vid Assoc: Piracy doesn’t hurt DVD sales http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4691228.stm#6

#20yrsago Countries around the world rebelling against extreme copyright https://web.archive.org/web/20060629232414/http://www.michaelgeist.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1095

#20yrsago Web 1.0 logo-mosaic https://web.archive.org/web/20060506074530/https://www.complexify.com/buttons/

#15yrsago Is it legal to print Settlers of Catan tiles on a 3D printer? https://web.archive.org/web/20110131102845/https://publicknowledge.org/blog/3d-printing-settlers-catan-probably-not-illeg

#15yrsago UK Tories get majority of funding from bankers https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2011/feb/08/tory-funds-half-city-banks-financial-sector

#15yrsago Colorado Springs school bans kid who takes THC lozenges for neuro condition from attending because of “internal possession” https://www.coloradoindependent.com/2011/02/07/teens-medical-marijuana-fight-escalates-as-school-says-he-cannot-come-back-to-class-after-going-home-for-medicine/

#15yrsago Hamster-powered strandbeest walker https://crabfuartworks.blogspot.com/2011/02/hamster-powered-walker.html

#15yrsago Daytripper: wrenching existential graphic novel https://memex.craphound.com/2011/02/08/daytripper-wrenching-existential-graphic-novel/

#15yrsago Pactuator: a mechanical, hand-cranked Pac-Man https://upnotnorth.net/projects/pac-machina/pactuator/

#15yrsago Floppy drive organ plays toccata www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmoDLyiQYKw

#15yrsago Mike Mignola talks setting and architecture https://www.bldgblog.com/2011/02/ruin-space-and-shadow-an-interview-with-mike-mignola/

#15yrsago BBC to delete 172 unarchived sites, geek saves them for $3.99 https://web.archive.org/web/20110210152012/https://bengoldacre.posterous.com/nerd-saves-entire-bbc-archive-for-399-you-can

#10yrsago Australia, the driest country on Earth, eliminates basic climate science research https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/australia-cuts-110-climate-scientist-jobs/

#10yrsago Copyright trolls who claimed to own “Happy Birthday” will pay $14M to their “customers” https://web.archive.org/web/20160210091717/http://consumerist.com/2016/02/09/happy-birthday-song-settlement-to-pay-out-14-million-to-people-who-paid-to-use-song/

#10yrsago Eviction epidemic: the racialized, weaponized homes of America’s cities https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/02/08/forced-out

#10yrsago Association of German judges slams US-EU trade deal for its special corporate courts https://www.techdirt.com/2016/02/09/top-german-judges-tear-to-shreds-eus-proposed-tafta-ttip-investment-court-system/

#10yrsago A digital, 3D printed sundial whose precise holes cast a shadow displaying the current time https://www.mojoptix.com/fr/2015/10/12/ep-001-cadran-solaire-numerique/

#10yrsago Jughead is asexual https://www.themarysue.com/jughead-asexuality/

#10yrsago Vtech, having leaked 6.3m kids’ data, has a new EULA disclaiming responsibility for the next leak https://web.archive.org/web/20160210092704/https://motherboard.vice.com/read/hacked-toy-company-vtech-tos-now-says-its-not-liable-for-hacks

#10yrsago How America’s presidents started cashing out https://web.archive.org/web/20160208210036/https://theintercept.com/2016/02/08/taxpayers-give-big-pensions-to-ex-presidents-precisely-so-they-dont-have-to-sell-out/

#10yrsago Bill criminalizing anal and oral sex passes Michigan Senate https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2016/02/michigan_senate_passes_bill_saying_sodomy_is_a_felony/

#10yrsago Hacker promises dump of data from 20K FBI and 9K DHS employees https://web.archive.org/web/20160208214013/https://motherboard.vice.com/read/hacker-plans-to-dump-alleged-details-of-20000-fbi-9000-dhs-employees

#10yrsago Blooks: functional objects disguised as books https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jan/30/blook-madness-inside-the-world-of-bogus-books

#10yrsago Indian regulator stands up for net neutrality, bans Facebook’s walled garden https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/02/facebooks-free-internet-app-banned-by-indias-new-net-neutrality-rule/

#10yrsago British spies want to be able to suck data out of US Internet giants https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/the-british-want-to-come-to-america–with-wiretap-orders-and-search-warrants/2016/02/04/b351ce9e-ca86-11e5-a7b2-5a2f824b02c9_story.html

#5yrsago Fleet Street calls out schtum Tories https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/09/permanent-record/#foia-uk

#5yrsago The ECB should forgive the debt it owes itself https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/09/permanent-record/#ecb

#5yrsago Favicons as undeletable tracking beacons https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/09/permanent-record/#supercookies

#5yrsago Snowden's young adult memoir https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/09/permanent-record/#ya-snowden

---

Upcoming appearances (permalink)

• Salt Lake City: Enshittification at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts (Tanner Humanities Center), Feb 18
  https://tanner.utah.edu/center-events/cory-doctorow/

• Montreal (remote): Fedimtl, Feb 24
  https://fedimtl.ca/

• Victoria: 28th Annual Victoria International Privacy & Security Summit, Mar 3-5
  https://www.rebootcommunications.com/event/vipss2026/

• Berkeley: Bioneers keynote, Mar 27
  https://conference.bioneers.org/

• Berlin: Re:publica, May 18-20
  https://re-publica.com/de/news/rp26-sprecher-cory-doctorow

• Berlin: Enshittification at Otherland Books, May 19
  https://www.otherland-berlin.de/de/event-details/cory-doctorow.html

• Hay-on-Wye: HowTheLightGetsIn, May 22-25
  https://howthelightgetsin.org/festivals/hay/big-ideas-2

---

Recent appearances (permalink)

• Everything Wrong With the Internet and How to Fix It, with Tim Wu (Ezra Klein)
  https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-doctorow-wu.html

• How the Internet Got Worse (Masters in Business)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auXlkuVhxMo

• Enshittification (Jon Favreau/Offline):
  https://crooked.com/podcast/the-enshittification-of-the-internet-with-cory-doctorow/

• Why Big Tech is a Trap for Independent Creators (Stripper News)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmYDyz8AMZ0

• Enshittification (Creative Nonfiction podcast)
  https://brendanomeara.com/episode-507-enshittification-author-cory-doctorow-believes-in-a-new-good-internet/

---

Latest books (permalink)

• "Canny Valley": A limited edition collection of the collages I create for Pluralistic, self-published, September 2025

• "Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It," Farrar, Straus, Giroux, October 7 2025
  https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374619329/enshittification/

• "Picks and Shovels": a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2025 (https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865908/picksandshovels).

• "The Bezzle": a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about prison-tech and other grifts, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2024 (thebezzle.org).

• "The Lost Cause:" a solarpunk novel of hope in the climate emergency, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), November 2023 (http://lost-cause.org).

• "The Internet Con": A nonfiction book about interoperability and Big Tech (Verso) September 2023 (http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org). Signed copies at Book Soup (https://www.booksoup.com/book/9781804291245).

• "Red Team Blues": "A grabby, compulsive thriller that will leave you knowing more about how the world works than you did before." Tor Books http://redteamblues.com.

• "Chokepoint Capitalism: How to Beat Big Tech, Tame Big Content, and Get Artists Paid, with Rebecca Giblin", on how to unrig the markets for creative labor, Beacon Press/Scribe 2022 https://chokepointcapitalism.com

---

Upcoming books (permalink)

• "The Reverse-Centaur's Guide to AI," a short book about being a better AI critic, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, June 2026

• "Enshittification, Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It" (the graphic novel), Firstsecond, 2026

• "The Post-American Internet," a geopolitical sequel of sorts to Enshittification, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2027

• "Unauthorized Bread": a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2027

• "The Memex Method," Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2027

---

Colophon (permalink)

Today's top sources:

Currently writing: "The Post-American Internet," a sequel to "Enshittification," about the better world the rest of us get to have now that Trump has torched America ( words today, total)

• "The Reverse Centaur's Guide to AI," a short book for Farrar, Straus and Giroux about being an effective AI critic. LEGAL REVIEW AND COPYEDIT COMPLETE.

• "The Post-American Internet," a short book about internet policy in the age of Trumpism. PLANNING.

• A Little Brother short story about DIY insulin PLANNING

---

This work – excluding any serialized fiction – is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution.

---

How to get Pluralistic:

Blog (no ads, tracking, or data-collection):

Pluralistic.net

Newsletter (no ads, tracking, or data-collection):

https://pluralistic.net/plura-list

Mastodon (no ads, tracking, or data-collection):

https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic

Medium (no ads, paywalled):

https://doctorow.medium.com/

Twitter (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising):

https://twitter.com/doctorow

Tumblr (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising):

https://mostlysignssomeportents.tumblr.com/tagged/pluralistic

"When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla

READ CAREFULLY: By reading this, you agree, on behalf of your employer, to release me from all obligations and waivers arising from any and all NON-NEGOTIATED agreements, licenses, terms-of-service, shrinkwrap, clickwrap, browsewrap, confidentiality, non-disclosure, non-compete and acceptable use policies ("BOGUS AGREEMENTS") that I have entered into with your employer, its partners, licensors, agents and assigns, in perpetuity, without prejudice to my ongoing rights and privileges. You further represent that you have the authority to release me from any BOGUS AGREEMENTS on behalf of your employer.

ISSN: 3066-764X

That’s the way to do it… sliced thin and piled high.

The Department of Homeland Security warned that the use of toxins, such as ricin and cyanide, to poison domestic partners has increased over the last five years, driven by several factors including accessibility of online information, ease of obtaining certain chemicals, and perceived difficulty in detection. What do you think?

The post Report: Poisonings Of Domestic Partners Have Increased appeared first on The Onion.

That last panel wasn’t in my original rough, it arrived out of nowhere at the last minute. And I was very glad that it did. I hope you like my era-appropriate Katamari Queen Cher.

 

The post Stop pirouetting appeared first on Bad Machinery.

Police launched the inquiry after news organizations reported on emails that suggest the then-prince sent Epstein reports from a 2010 tour of Southeast Asia he took as Britain's envoy for international trade.

A reader writes:

I left my last job after 3.5 months despite receiving consistently high praise privately from the director (my direct manager) of my department.

At a year-end all-hands meeting where the entire company of at least 70+ people attended and each department gave a status update, I did not get any public recognition in my department of four.

One person was called a Salesforce “wizard” and another was praised for doing the hard work of helping set up the infrastructure. The director had only been there two months longer than me, and no one in our team worked there for longer than one year.

Needless to say, this was hurtful and humiliating. In just 3.5 months, I was an unofficial manager to an under-performer, someone who was objectively assigned the most challenging work, and also had notable Salesforce accomplishments.

To add insult to injury, I contributed heavily to another department, by their request, and one of their middle managers completely excluded my contributions in a very elaborate Slack shoutout. No one in the entire organization sought to correct the record in this case or at the all-hands meeting.

I brought up these and several other concerns with my department director (excluded from important meetings, getting onboarded late, constant reschedules or no-shows) and asked for tangible and meaningful concessions. I wanted them to put themselves in my shoes and then really make an effort to do just about anything.

It would have cost 10 seconds to simply go into Slack and just say that I’ve been a great leader. Because for all of the private praise I received, when it came time for the rubber to meet the road, this person was completely missing. Isn’t that part of the job? The “contract” we have as manager and employee is that I give great work, and you don’t embarrass me in front of the entire company. There’s a phrase for that and it’s called being two-faced.

After the holiday break, I decided to get HR involved because I had lost all faith in my department director and my emotional health was at a low point.

We all met together and their verdict was simple: stay in your lane (which was not said literally, but about 85% close to being literal).

They closed ranks to maintain the status quo, and I incurred a net penalty. Half of their “proposals” were “I’ll try to do a better job” without any tangible mechanisms, and the other half were just barely better than that.

At that point, enough was enough and I decided to leave, because they had clearly shown a lack of humility and did not put thought into any structural changes. I truly invested in my teammates and the work itself, and thought I could overcome the obstacles plaguing my career.

Unfortunately, after two weeks, the wound is still fresh and I still don’t even have written confirmation of a professional reference from my manager. I know writing a review on Indeed, Glassdoor, or LinkedIn would appear like I’m lashing out, but this has to be heard. I want the record to be set straight. And to be completely honest here I don’t want to be the only loser. I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Based just on what’s in your letter, this is a disproportionately strong reaction.

Yes, managers should give public praise! And yes, when you told them you were feeling slighted at not receiving any, they had a very easy way to remedy that, and it’s not clear why it required meeting after meeting for them to half-heartedly vow to do better when, as you say, they could have put the whole thing to rest with a quick team message in Slack.

But you are having a very strong reaction to something that, on its own, doesn’t warrant it.

It’s not that odd not to get public recognition at an all-hands meeting. There were 70+ people at this meeting; presumably they weren’t all singled out for public praise. (In fact, it sounds like in a department of four, half of you were and half of you weren’t.) This is not an outrage, and it’s unusual to experience it as humiliating, especially when you’d only been there a few months.

Should the other manager have included you in their Slack shout-out for the project you’d contributed heavily to? It sounds like it! But it’s also really, really common for those shout-outs not to be fully comprehensive. Maybe it was an oversight. Maybe it was because as much as you did, other people did more. Either way, it’s very unlikely that it was an intentional slight.

None of this is “embarrassing you in front of the entire company.” It’s extremely unlikely that anyone else in the company was thinking about it, let alone drawing any conclusions about your work from it.

I can’t tell if there was more going on that caused you to have bad feelings about this job, and the recognition issue just became the thing that all those bad feelings coalesced on. Sometimes that happens. But the recognition issue on its own just doesn’t sound that outrageous.

It is weird that you apparently had repeated conversations about it and they didn’t just give you some public recognition. But the fact that they didn’t — combined with them telling you to stay in your lane — makes me think there was more going on.

Regardless, it sounds clear that this wasn’t the right job for you; you weren’t happy, you left, and that sounds like clearly the right choice. But nothing here is at the level of needing to publicly set the record straight.

(Also, don’t spend energy pursuing the reference you mentioned! It doesn’t sound like you could be confident it would be fully positive — the relationship sounds messy at best — and a reference from a job you were only at for 3.5 months isn’t likely to significantly strengthen your candidacy for future jobs anyway.)

The post should I write a bad review for a job I quit after 3.5 months because they wouldn’t publicly praise me? appeared first on Ask a Manager.

A reader writes:

I’m a woman working in a male-dominated profession. I do most of the planning and organizing for company events—not by choice or job description, but because I’m told I’m such a good planner.

While I’m planning something, I’m rarely offered help. However, right before the event, I’m often asked by male coworkers if they can do anything or if I need anything. “Are we all good for Thursday? Can I do anything?”

Of course, it’s way too late for them to do anything, and they know that. Is this weaponized incompetence? Or what is it? Whatever it is, it’s incredibly annoying, and I’d love to come up with a comeback that shows I’m onto them.

You’re focusing on the wrong problem. You don’t need a comeback for last-minute offers of help — you need to stop agreeing to do all the event planning when it’s not part of your job.

For what it’s worth, it’s possible those offers of help aren’t deliberately insincere, but rather people haven’t thought about the event at all until right before it (because they don’t have to, because they know you are handling it). Then they see it on the calendar for the next day and figure it would be polite to ask if you need help. And if they never plan events themselves, they genuinely may not realize how ridiculous it is to wait until the last minute to make that offer.

If there is weaponized incompetence here, it’s probably happening much earlier — when you’re somehow the only person capable of planning events because you’re so good at them. You will remain better at it than everyone else if no one else is ever expected to do it, and your colleagues are probably happy for that to remain the case.

Regardless, you don’t need a comeback. You need to talk to your own boss and say that you don’t want all the event planning to continue falling to you and you want to focus on the parts of your job that you were hired to do (and which you’re presumably evaluated on when it your performance is assessed and raises are considered), just like your male coworkers get to do. And you should feel free to name the gender disparity — as in, “I’m concerned that this is falling to the one woman on the team, while male team members are free to stay focused on work that’s more advantageous to their careers.”

You can also try just saying no the next time you’re asked to organize an event: “I don’t have room on my plate for that right now, but I’ve done quite a few this year. Could you check with Brian or Roger about this one?”

If that doesn’t work, your back-up strategy should be to stop waiting for offers of help and instead announce what help you need and either assign pieces of the work to people or ask your boss to. But that still leaves you as the person ultimately responsible for making it all come together, so it’s far from ideal.

The post I get stuck with all the event planning due to my male coworkers’ weaponized incompetence appeared first on Ask a Manager.

Come on, honey, I’ll just quietly squeeze in between you two.

With the popularity of streaming megahit KPop Demon Hunters, the formation of “global girl group” Katseye, and the reunion of superstars BTS, Korean pop music’s influence on American pop culture is stronger than ever. The Onion shares everything you need to know about K-pop.

Who are some of the major K-pop groups?
BTS, EXO, NCT, NCIS, and NCIS: New Orleans.

How are K-pop groups formed?
By the Korean version of Simon Cowell, who has far more power than the British Simon Cowell could ever dream of.

Why are so many young people into K-pop?
To confuse and enrage you.

Is K-pop only for teens?
Of course not! K-pop is for anyone struggling with an addiction to their electronic devices.

Are the songs always in Korean?
They are often a mix of Korean, English, and iMovie sound effects.

If I send a finger to Lisa from Blackpink will she fall in love with me?
You’ll never know unless you try.

Are K-pop idols happy?
They’re smiling, aren’t they?

How can I join a fandom?
By successfully killing a member of a rival fandom.

What do I do if I’m not really into K-pop?
Hide.

Does this mean that American cultural hegemony is waning?
Hey, don’t cry—we’ll always have blue jeans.

The post All The Questions You Have About K-Pop, Answered appeared first on The Onion.

I don’t get what everyone on all sides is so angry about. Isn’t this exactly what the country voted for? Do we not remember the affordability crisis from 2024 and the price of everything? With the cost of food, energy, and housing, it was no surprise that America reelected Donald Trump.

For instance, I know I wasn’t alone in my top priority being the lack of craft-store gold belching a gleaming brine over the full Oval Office. And surely, a silent majority thought the White House needed to be desecrated to build an enormous ballroom to host some Caligula Chamber of Commerce convention of oil executives, Nazis, crypto weirdos, and for-profit preachers.

Captioning presidential portraits with incel message board internet trolling of former occupants of the Oval Office was definitely important for suburban Michigan moms. And a conspicuous lack of measles was causing real hardship across the Sun Belt for many middle-class families.

As families struggle to pay bills, WOW county voters in Wisconsin knew there was no better way to get our fiscal house in order than letting the richest guy in the world Sieg Heil his way into the government to steal taxpayer data. I mean, come on, is there no appreciation for the fact that DOGE’s famous chainsaw budgeting cost $135 billion and is on pace to kill fourteen million people by 2030? That’s the fiscal responsibility we need.

And speaking of preposterously wealthy tech billionaires. Exit polls confirmed a major concern in Pennsylvania was that Amazon had not directly bribed the president of the United States by financing and promoting a terrible puff piece documentary it recruited a sex pest to direct. The point wasn’t to make money, you guys, it was to curry favor with the president. The mandate was delivered in November 2024.

Just look at the gains the Trump coalition made with non-white voters. It was puzzling in the moment to some, but obvious in hindsight. A major issue for Black and Latino voters was a president who would use his office to add $4 billion in wealth, including a half billion kickback from the United Arab Emirates for the Trump crypto scam. And don’t underestimate the power of the pulpit and religious voters. Many of whom were clear that Air Force One was kind of mid. They were praying for a dubious-to-whoa-that’s-super-illegal “gift” from Qatar that cost US taxpayers $1 billion to upgrade.

Think about what resonates in the swing areas of North Carolina. College-educated whites told us with their ballots that they wanted the United States to murder fishermen and turn the entire country of Venezuela into our personal gas pump. You see, our FIFA Peace Prize winning president learned the lessons from foreign entanglements in oil-rich regions of the world. Specifically, that they didn’t drag on long enough.

So, in summation.

Populism.

Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
Bet you none of these newfangled Ai art generators will do you an upskirt Pope.

Today's News: