Today's links

• Justin Key's "The Hospital at the End Of the World": A biopunk medical thriller from a major new talent.
• Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
• Object permanence: Coconut volunteers; Astro Noise; Rich old men behind "Millennials Rising"; Stop the "Stop the Steal" steal; "Chasing Shadows."
• 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.

---

Justin Key's "The Hospital at the End Of the World" (permalink)

Justin C. Key is one of the most exciting new science fiction writers of this decade and today, Harpercollins publishes his debut novel, The Hospital at the End of the World:

https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-hospital-at-the-end-of-the-world-justin-c-key?variant=43822999928866

I've followed Key's work for more than a decade, ever since I met him as a student while teaching at the Clarion West writers' workshop in Seattle. At the time, Key impressed me – a standout writer in a year full of standouts – and I wasn't surprised in the least when Harpercollins published a collection of his afrofuturist/Black horror stories, The World Wasn't Ready For You, in 2023:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/19/justin-c-key/#clarion-west-2015

This is virtually unheard of. Major genre publishers generally don't publish short story collections at all, let alone short story collections by writers who haven't already established themselves as novelists. The exceptions are rare as hell, and they're names to conjure with: Ted Chiang, say, or Kelly Link:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/13/the-kissing-song/#wrack-and-roll

But anyone who read World Wasn't Ready immediately understood why Key's work qualified him for an exception to this iron law of publishing. Key is an MD and a practicing psychiatrist, and he combines keen insights into personal relations and human frailty with a wild imagination, deep compassion, and enviable prose chops.

Hospital at the End of the World is Key's first novel, and it's terrific. Set in a not-so-distant future in which an AI-driven health monopolist called The Shepherd Organization controls much of the lives of everyday Americans, Hospital follows Pok, a young New Yorker who dreams of becoming an MD. Pok's father is also a doctor, famous for his empathic, human-centric methods and his scientific theories about the role that "essence" (a psychospiritual connection between doctors and patients) plays in clinical settings.

The story opens with Pok hotly anticipating an acceptance letter from The Shepherd Organization, and the beginning of his new life as a medical student. But when word arrives, Pok learns that he has been rejected from every medical school in the TSO orbit. In desperate confusion, he works with shadowy hackers in a bid to learn why his impeccable application and his top grades resulted in this total rejection. That's when he learns that someone had sabotaged his application and falsified his grades, and, not long thereafter, he learns that the saboteur was his father.

To make things worse, Pok's father has fallen grievously ill – so ill, in fact, that he ends up in a Shepherd Organization hospital, despite his deep enmity for TSO and its AI-driven practice of medicine. Pok doesn't accompany his father, though – he has secured a chance to sit a make-up exam in a desperate bid to get into med school. By the time he is finished with his exam, though, he learns that his father has died, and all that is left of him is an AI-powered chatbot that is delivered to Pok's apartment along with a warning to flee, because he is in terrible danger from the Shepherd Organization.

Thus begins Pok's tale as he goes underground in a ubiquitous AI surveillance dystopia, seeking sanctuary in New Orleans, hoping to make it to the Hippocrates, the last holdout from America's AI-based medicine and surveillance dystopia. Pok's father learned to practice medicine at Hippocrates, and had urged Pok to study there, even securing a full-ride scholarship for him. But Pok had no interest in the mystical, squishy, sentimental ethos of the Hippocrates, and had been determined to practice the Shepherd Organization's rigorous, cold, data-driven form of medicine.

Now, Pok has no choice. Hitchhiking, hopping freight cars, falling into company with other fugitives, Pok makes his way to New Orleans, a city guarded by tall towers that radiate energy that dampens both the punishing weather events that would otherwise drown the city and the data signals by which the Shepherd Organization tracks and controls the American people.

This is the book's second act, a medical technothriller that sees Pok as an untrusted outsider in the freshman class at Hippocrates med school, amidst a strange and alarming plague that has sickened the other refugees from TSO America who have taken up residence in New Orleans. Pok has to navigate factions within the med school and in New Orleans society, even as he throws himself into the meat grinder of med school and unravels the secrets of his father and his own birth.

What follows is a masterful and suspenseful work of science fiction informed by Key's own medical training and his keen sense of the human psyche. It's one part smart whodunnit, one part heist thriller, and one part revolutionary epic, and at its core is a profound series of provocations and thought experiments about the role that deep human connection and empathy play in medical care. It's a well-structured, well-paced sf novel that probes big, urgent contemporary themes while still engrossing the reader in the intimate human relations of its principals. A wonderful debut novel from a major new writer.`

---

Hey look at this (permalink)

• Ken MacLeod: Imagined Futures https://plutopia.io/ken-macleod-imagined-futures/

• Elbows Up: How Canada Can Disenshittify Its Tech, Reclaim Its Sovereignty, and Launch a New Tech Sector Into a Stable Orbit https://archive.org/details/disenshittification-nation

• HOPE IS NOW A 501(C)(3) NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION https://2600.com/content/hope-now-501c3-non-profit-organization

• Department of Justice appeals Google search monopoly ruling https://www.theverge.com/tech/873438/google-antitrust-case-doj-states-appeal

• List of Kennedy Center cancellations during the Trump administration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Kennedy_Center_cancellations_during_the_Trump_administration (h/t Amanda Marcotte)

---

Object permanence (permalink)

#20yrsago AOL/Yahoo: our email tax will make the net as good as the post office! https://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/05/technology/postage-is-due-for-companies-sending-email.html

#20yrsago Volunteers ferry 15k coconuts every day to Indian temple http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4677320.stm

#15yrsago Wikileaks ACTA cables confirm it was a screwjob for the global poor https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011/02/secret-us-cables-reveal-acta-was-far-too-secret/

#10yrsago Laura Poitras’s Astro Noise: indispensable book and gallery show about mass surveillance https://www.wired.com/2016/02/snowdens-chronicler-reveals-her-own-life-under-surveillance/

#10yrsago How to prepare to join the Internet of the dead https://archive.org/details/Online_No_One_Knows_Youre_Dead

#10yrsago Who funds the “Millennials Rising” Super PAC? Rich old men. https://web.archive.org/web/20160204223020/https://theintercept.com/2016/02/04/millennials-rising-super-pac-is-95-funded-by-old-men/

#10yrsago They promised us a debate over TPP, then they signed it without any debate https://www.techdirt.com/2016/02/03/countries-sign-tpp-whatever-happened-to-debate-we-were-promised-before-signing/

#5yrsago Stop the "Stop the Steal" steal https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/04/vote-machine-tankies/#ess

#5yrsago Organic fascism https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/04/vote-machine-tankies/#pastel-q

#5yrsago Ron Deibert's "Chasing Shadows" https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/04/citizen-lab/#nso-group

---

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)

• Why Everything Got Worse and What to Do About It (Jordan Harbinger)
  https://www.jordanharbinger.com/cory-doctorow-why-everything-got-worse-and-what-to-do-about-it/

• 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)

• "Unauthorized Bread": a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2026

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

• "The Memex Method," Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2026

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

---

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 (1011 words today, 21655 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

A judge ruled Senate Bill 13, passed in 2021, violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments. The law prevented state investments in firms it deemed as boycotting oil and gas companies.

This week on Lost Terminal: Lyosha starts a new hobby, Arctica makes a discovery, and Seth schedules a meeting.
Lost Terminal will return next week!

📓 Free transcript: https://www.patreon.com/posts/149944020
🎵 Today's SIGNAL is: https://namtao.bandcamp.com/track/phosphene-4
🦣 Mastodon https://namtao.com/@lostterminal
📝 Tumblr https://lostterminalpod.tumblr.com
🎙️ Recorded using a RODE NT-1 v5 USB in 32-bit float, edited with REAPER on Linux

🙏 CREDITS

• Credits narrated by Lucy Stringer

❤️ Thank you so much to everyone who supports me, but especially my Patreon Producers:

• Ada Phillips
• Kit
• Mike McCaffrey
• Jade Felicity Bilkey
• Stephen McCandless
• Mike Schneider
• Catoxis
• SoXX

Lone Star College-North Harris posted a photo:

Campus Connections Fair feb. 3&4, 2026

I’m gonna put on a skit for you. Just pretend that we’re at Carnegie Hall.

“If I actually wanted to spend my time partying with young women, it would be trivial for me to do so without the help of a creepy loser like Epstein.”
— Elon Musk, dismissing the emails between him and notorious sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein that were part of the latest Epstein Files release by the DOJ

I understand that it’s not a great look to have exchanged tens of thousands of text messages with the Cannibal King over many years. Still, cut me some slack. We’ve all had a questionable acquaintance or two in our lives.

The extensive recipes we shared about how to cook human flesh? Clearly jokes. Stop getting so uptight. You say he wasn’t kidding? Well, sure, but how was I to know that?

Was I aware he had already been arrested for biting some people in public? Who among us hasn’t— uh, I mean, sure, yes, but he had served his time, and we all believed he had been rehabilitated.

Did I spend time in the Cannibal King’s so-called torture basement? Technically, yes. But this really isn’t the “gotcha” moment you’re thinking it is. I just assumed the wall chains and saws were eccentric interior design choices. The Cannibal King was a funny guy. He told me the blood stains on the floor were already there when he bought the place. Plus, he almost never had a supposed “victim” in there at the same time as me—at least not one that was alive.

What did I mean when I texted him that I “loved” the jerky made of human flesh that he sent me for Christmas? An inside joke. You wouldn’t get it. You people have no sense of humor.

Quite frankly, I think it’s time to question our society’s stigma about eating people. It was perfectly acceptable in many cultures in the past. And the “victims”? Some of them came willingly. They were paid fairly for their arms and legs. Many of them have never even been found. Wouldn’t surprise me if they never really existed.

Not that any of this matters, of course. I hardly knew the Cannibal King, and I didn’t kill or eat anyone. I am a very busy man, working on very important projects, like robots, space exploration, and AI-generated pornography. Besides, I don’t need someone to help me abduct, kill, cook, and eat people. I could easily do that on my own if I really wanted to.

Toronto/Vancouver/Winnipeg/Montreal/Ottawa/etc. – It’s official: We’re in for one wet ass February, fuckers.  According to February experts, the shortest month of the calendar will also be the wettest, with 28 sopping, dripping days. Every other February you’ve ever experienced is going to seem dry as shit compared to the soggy month ahead. Groundhog Day? Wet. Valentine’s […]

The post WEATHER REPORT: Get ready for a wet ass February appeared first on The Beaverton.

A reader writes:

I work in healthcare IT. Recently, our organization made the decision to switch to a new Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system. I, along with dozens of colleagues, are responsible for building this new EMR to meet our organization’s needs. It’s a months-long process that involves lots of coordinated decision-making across the entire organization. The tentative go-live date for this new system is well over a year from now.

Our leadership is telling the entire IT department that no PTO requests will be approved during this time.

None of this has been communicated to the department en masse, but it has trickled down to managers, who then relay it to their respective teams. The message from my manager has been, “No PTO will be approved.”

When I asked about booking a vacation this summer, the response was, “The go-live date is [specific 2027 date].”

Since then, I’ve confirmed that no PTO means no PTO. They’ve said they might be able to grant a day off here or there, depending on project needs. But those decisions would only be made closer to the dates we would want to take off.

I have a spouse and small children. The thought of zero vacation for over a year seems really awful to me.

(I do think this is only about vacation and not sick time. I don’t think they’re saying if we get sick that we can’t take time off. And we are salaried, so we have been told that we can generally flex our schedules to go to one-off appointments without using PTO. But PTO for vacations is a no-go. )

Many folks in our department are quietly seething, but it doesn’t seem like anyone is willing to bring it up in a large group.

Is this something that my company can do? PTO is a part of our compensation package, and we accrue leave every pay period. I am new to this organization, so it’s entirely possible that I am way off-base in thinking that this is a bizarre policy.

No, this is absurd.

The idea that people should work a full year through with no time off to recharge is ridiculous.

And no one can attend a family wedding? A funeral? Be at the birth of their grandchild? All trips of any sort for the year are off the table?

Legally, in most states, they can probably do it. California is the exception to that, because California treats vacation time as earned wages and prohibits extreme black-out periods that prevent you from having practical access to the time off.

Assuming you’re not in California, the best thing you and your coworkers can do is to push back as a group, pointing out that this is an unacceptable restriction on your use of earned benefits and a massive hit to very routine quality-of-life expectations, that you have lives and commitments outside of work, and that it’s in the organization’s best interest to have well-rested and recharged employees.

You said no one seems willing to do that, but why? This is an incredibly normal thing for a group of employees to take issue with and push back on … and if you don’t, you’re going to be stuck with no vacation for a year. Create some friction for your company and make it harder for them to do this. There’s a very good chance that if you push back as a group, they’ll budge.

The post my company says no one can take any time off for a full year appeared first on Ask a Manager.

A reader writes:

Our company works in a building that houses multiple businesses. We share reception and security.

Recently, there was a terrible incident where the ex-boyfriend of one of my employees, Sarah, got into the building by booking a job interview with a different company. He then made a beeline for our office instead, and made a huge scene shouting at Sarah, and even tried to hit her in front of all of us.

Thankfully, security tackled him before he could hurt anyone, and he’s been arrested. We had a security meeting with reception and the other business managers in the building and have agreed to a shared appointment calendar and other precautions to prevent this from happening in the future. I’ve done my best to support Sarah with what she needs to feel safe here, and she seems to be doing well.

The problem is Fred, the other manager in my office. About a week after this incident, I was giving him an update on the steps we were taking in case this man is released and causes further problems. Fred was clearly annoyed and asked me why I didn’t just “solve” the problem by firing Sarah. He went on to claim that Sarah was being unprofessional by “allowing her personal life in the office” and that we were going to a lot of trouble for “just one employee.”

This is not the first time he’s said something insensitive about our employees, but this was by far the most egregious comment. I told him that Sarah had done nothing wrong, and that it was our job to provide a safe work environment. He rolled his eyes and visibly tuned out for the rest of the meeting.

He hasn’t said anything else since that meeting. But I find it increasingly hard to work with him. I’ve been defaulting to email to communicate with him, even though his office is right next to mine, because I feel gross being in the same room with him. I especially feel icky when I see him chatting in a friendly way to Sarah, knowing what he thinks about the situation. It’s bad enough that I briefly considered looking for a new job, but that would mean Fred would temporarily be in charge of my reports. I’m worried he would actually fire Sarah if he could.

How do I address this? I don’t feel like it would be appropriate for me to pull him aside and tell him what I think of his reaction, but I also feel like I’m dropping the ball by not the challenging what he said more directly. Is simply avoiding him as much as possible the most I can do here?

I answer this question over at Inc. today, where I’m revisiting letters that have been buried in the archives here from years ago (and sometimes updating/expanding my answers to them). You can read it here.

The post my coworker wants to fire a domestic violence survivor appeared first on Ask a Manager.

#Rowen #RoninWarriors

Howdy folks, and welcome back to HHR. Today, we’re taking a look at a Remarkable store in Austin, or at least a store that was once Remarkable. We’re checking out 1700 W Parmer Lane, Austin, TX 78727, a former Randalls with a unique history, so let’s start with that! This store started life as one of the last new Randalls ever built. While it’s not the final Randalls store, it was built at the end ...

Okay. Map one more genome, and then it’s off to bed.

RUTHERFORD, NJ—Expressing disappointment at how his life had turned out, local pet iguana Kermit confirmed this week that he had assumed by this point he would have moved out of his starter tank. “I just always pictured myself living in a far bigger enclosure at this age,” said the 8-year-old green iguana, adding that when he was a juvenile he didn’t mind being placed in the modest habitat, with its small plastic rock and budget friendly heat lamp, but that he had always figured it would be more of a short-term arrangement. “I’ve grown over the years, and this place hasn’t exactly grown with me. I mean, I try to be grateful—I know there are a lot of captive reptiles who would kill to have a stable arrangement like mine—but at the same time, it’s hard not to get jealous of my peers who live in 75-gallon terrariums with full-spectrum UVB lighting and a working waterfall. I didn’t expect anything ornate. But, you know, a tank with a little pond, some natural light, and maybe a view of the living room would be nice. I still would eventually like to have a mate to share my home with, and I just can’t do that here.” At press time, Kermit was reportedly staring at a pet supplies catalog left near the terrarium, wondering what his life might have been had things played out differently.

The post Pet Iguana Assumed He’d Move Out Of Starter Tank By Now appeared first on The Onion.

PHOENIX—In an effort to attract clientele who need to rent vehicles for their belongings without having a final destination totally locked in just yet, U-Haul officials unveiled a fleet of live-in trucks Wednesday for customers to sleep in as they sort some shit out. “We’re excited to finally be able to offer our customers an affordable place to crash for a bit while stuff blows over,” said U-Haul CEO Joe Shoen, adding that the rental term could be extended to however long down-on-their-luck customers need to get back on their feet. “To rent one of our indefinite-stay ‘Rough Patch’ vehicles, just give the lot operator a sad, knowing glance, and he’ll give you the keys without asking any personal questions. Plus, instead of paying for the vehicle upfront, you can just pay us back when you’re good for it. If you hole up next to a library, you can usually mooch off their Wi-Fi to get the ball rolling on some shit, but be careful where you park, because we can’t cover tickets, too—we just can’t. Look, are we saying it’s the Ritz? No. But the cargo area has a furniture pad you can use as a blanket, and if you park in a quiet alley somewhere, you can probably make it through the night without anyone bothering you.” At press time, Shoen clarified that while the trucks are technically smoke-free environments, given all the shit you already have on your plate, if you need a cigarette to take the edge off, U-Haul’s not going to get in your way.

The post U-Haul Unveils Live-In Trucks To Sleep In While You Sort Some Shit Out appeared first on The Onion.

JACKSONVILLE, FL—Sighing in frustration as she turned another page devoid of sexual content, Lord Of The Rings reader Adrienne Heeren told reporters Wednesday that she couldn’t believe how long it was taking for Sam and Frodo to fuck. “Don’t get me wrong—I love a slow-burn, friends-to-lovers kind of thing, but I’m on the third book, and they haven’t even kissed yet,” said Heeren, who noted that while she was enjoying love interests Samwise Gamgee and Frodo Baggins’ flirtatious banter and dynamic, she was quickly growing impatient while waiting for the eroticism to kick in. “In the first book, when Sam was caught crouching outside the window, I was like, ‘Here we go!’ But nope, false alarm. I know people love these books, but so far I don’t get it.” At press time, Heeren had turned on the film adaptation to see if it was any “spicier.”

The post ‘Lord Of The Rings’ Reader Can’t Believe How Long It Taking Sam And Frodo To Fuck appeared first on The Onion.

Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
Seneca would be releasing a 300 page self-help book with himself on the cover every six months.

Today's News:

Mauro Henriquez, an 18-year-old Houston ISD student and team captain for his school’s soccer team, has been detained by ICE since Dec. 16 and is set to be deported along with his father, according to the federal agency.

#CowboyWho

WASHINGTON—In a firm dismissal of decades of scientific research and real-world data on the organ’s benefits and safety, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. publicly questioned the efficacy of skin Wednesday while testifying before Congress. “Everything we know about skin has been learned from so-called scientific studies funded by large corporations who have a financial stake in keeping our musculature covered in an unnecessary layer of man-made flesh,” said the self-proclaimed “membrane skeptic,” declaring that the ubiquity of skin in modern society, from the epidermis down to the subcutaneous tissue, amounted to little more than a “nefarious marketing campaign by the powerful people who manufacture skin.” “A lot of the public has lost their trust in skin, and for good reason. Skin is a significant contributing factor to skin cancer, being linked to it in nearly 100% of cases. One of the most common factors shared by those diagnosed with autism is that they all have skin on their bodies. That’s not a coincidence. What’s more, your muscles can easily suffocate if they don’t get enough exposure to the air.” “That’s why I cover my internal organs with a perforated raw beef hide, which a lot of research shows works even better than whatever skin is made of,” the secretary continued. “I mean, stratum basale, spinosum, granulosum—what the heck are these ingredients, and why are we letting them anywhere near our children’s bodies?” Kennedy added that skin was a relatively recent invention, citing the fact that the bones of prehistoric humans unearthed by archaeologists are consistently skinless.

The post RFK Jr. Questions Efficacy Of Skin appeared first on The Onion.

CHARLOTTE, NC—Describing the woman’s imagined scenario of workplace valor as both “cringeworthy” and “profoundly sad,” office sources confirmed Tuesday that employee Sarah Cobb’s fantasy about impressing her coworkers at Davidson Analytics was unimaginably pathetic. According to reports, Cobb—who in reality has failed to distinguish herself either socially or through her work in her four years at the local company—harbors a delusional and deeply embarrassing daydream in which her heroic performance during a team meeting finally garners the fawning approval of her previously disinterested peers. The the humiliatingly bleak and fanciful little notion reportedly hinges on Cobb confidently speaking up to solve a tough logistical problem that no one else can crack, resulting in applause and an approving fist bump from her manager. In an especially heartbreaking window into her sad, empty life, the pitiful delusion is said to conclude with Cobb receiving an invitation to join several of her colleagues on their daily coffee run, an activity she has long envied from afar. At press time, sources confirmed that Cobb had moved on from imagining her peers cheering “Nice!” and showering her with celebratory Slack emojis to an even more pathetic fantasy in which she recounts the story of impressing her coworkers to her parents, who finally declare that they are proud of her. 

The post Fantasy About Impressing Coworkers Unimaginably Pathetic appeared first on The Onion.

The post Fat Dad Sits On TV Remote Like Mother Hen Warming Young appeared first on The Onion.

Flush door handles have been quite the automotive design trend of late. Stylists like them because they don't add visual noise to the side of a car. And aerodynamicists like them because they make a vehicle more slippery through the air. When Tesla designed its Model S, it needed a car that was both desirable and as efficient as possible, so flush door handles were a no-brainer. Since then, as electric vehicles have proliferated, so too have flush door handles. But as of next year, China says no.

Just like pop-up headlights, despite the aesthetic and aerodynamic advantages, there are safety downsides. Tesla's handles are an extreme example: In the event of a crash and a loss of 12 V power, there is no way for first responders to open the door from the outside, which has resulted in at least 15 deaths.

Those deaths prompted the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to open an investigation last year, but China is being a little more proactive. It has been looking at whether retractable car door handles are safe since mid-2024, according to Bloomberg, and has concluded that no, they are not.

Read full article

Comments

The former Harris County attorney defeated Amanda Edwards in Texas’ 18th Congressional District. The two will face off again in the March 3 primary for a redrawn version of the district.

The pair have returned home to Minnesota, according to Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro.

Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez fired on Pretti during a protest in Minneapolis last month, according to government records viewed by ProPublica.

ICE bypassed the county medical examiner in favor of a military facility for the autopsy of a Nicaraguan man and won’t release a ruling to the public.

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…

1. I inherited a team from a terrible manager

Thanks to your help, I have a shiny new job. I’ve inherited a team where the last manager, Jane, was a true chaos agent. I’m getting stories of her ignoring staff, not communicating on projects or workload at all, putting the blame on staff to senior manager when projects didn’t happen, drinking too much at work events, inappropriate behavior. All her behavior went unchecked for some years until she was suddenly let go.

The team are generally exhausted. There is some anger that they escalated complaints about Jane and nothing was done (until it was). At least one openly says she has PTSD.

I am trying to support the team and be an aggressively good manager. I’m being transparent about what I’m working on and how it involves them, consulting with them on planning, giving them clear guidance and timelines and so on. They are being super receptive to everything, and bringing good attitudes to the table because they seem so relieved to have a normal manager.

Every single day I’m getting multiple team members say, “Wow, it’s not like it was before” and “Wow, Jane would never have done that” or “Jane always did XYZ, it was awful.”

When they say these things, I want to acknowledge what they’ve been through but also not have meetings turn into group therapy sessions. And when the flush of me being not Jane has worn off, I’m sure they will discover some things they don’t like. They won’t get to do whatever they want all day anymore (like they were before) for a start.

So how do I best support this traumatized team to get the most out of them and help them move on, and what do I say when they start in on the Jane stories?

Visibly being an aggressively good manager (as you’re doing) and time. It’s going to take a while for them to viscerally feel and trust that they’re working in a different situation now and for the stability of that to feel solid.

In response to the comments about how things used to be under Jane, try to keep things moving forward in a reasonably upbeat way: “This is what I’ve found to work well” … “I’m always open to feedback if you have it” … “I’m glad this sounds better to you” … “Let’s see how this goes!” … etc.

I do think you can be open to some one-on-one venting about what happened in the past — and it might give you useful insights into some of the clean-up you’re going to have to do — but it shouldn’t be a group activity that takes over team meetings; that tends to go off the rails quickly and can keep people mired in the past longer. If you see that happening and redirection doesn’t resolve it pretty quickly, it might be worth addressing directly: “I know this team has had a rough time of it. I’m seeing our meetings start to derail on how things used to be, and while some of that is understandable to process the changes this team has been through, I also want to keep us focused on what we’re doing now.” (That said, if people are really struggling with it, there might be value in one discussion to process it together, for anyone who wants to participate, with the understanding that the team needs to move forward after that.)

2. Application asked about how anxiety affects your work

I was filling out a teacher job application and it had a questionnaire that included this question:

“In the last period of time, how much has anxiety interfered with your interaction with your team mates?” The answers you could choose from were:
* None
* Mild; some interactions have been strained, but no serious problems
* Moderate, we have complained or accused each other of minor insults or work slip-ups
* Severe, I am concerned that anxiety has made it difficult to work effectively as a team
* Extreme, I am concerned that my anxiety makes it impossible to work with others on this team

Is this question illegal?

If you’re in the U.S., it’s illegal. Employers can’t legally ask questions that are designed to suss out the existence of a disability. They could certainly ask questions about your relationships with coworkers and how effectively you’ve worked on a team, but they can’t ask, as they’re effectively doing here, “Do you have anxiety and, if so, how does it show up at work?”

3. I did a huge amount of work to save my team’s butt — and no one has even thanked me

My office was changing to a new system in a month after working toward it for over a year, and my manager called me into a meeting, near tears, and told me that the new system had not been set up to create important reports that we desperately need. Our work runs on these reports. We report to auditors and the government using these reports. We track our own data using these reports. Not having them wasn’t an option.

She asked if I had any ideas as to what could be done because I’m good with Excel, and if I knew any formulas that could organize this data in the way we needed.

I spent weeks designing a sprawling framework that automatically mapped all of our data into six wildly different reports, including some that were requested after the initial meeting as a “want” rather than a “need.” I learned new skills to make this happen and put aside my own work to get it done. I worked late. I analyzed and picked apart the old reports to correct the mapping, even identifying errors in the old reports that needed to be corrected moving forward. It was a ton of work and no one else in my department could have created this, including my manager. It felt like a miracle when I pulled it off. It is now being utilized by all levels of management in my division due to how useful it is.

And I never even received a thank you.

Now, six months on, it is invariably “my” file when there is an update or correction that needs to be made, but “our” file in every other context. That’s it.

I’m not expecting a parade or a promotion, but there hasn’t even been a conversation highlighting that someone at least understands that I pulled our butts out of the fire in a major way. I’m wondering if I’m being too sensitive? I work here. It wasn’t volunteer work; they paid me to do it. But without me, they would have had to delay launch and pay the system designers a whole lot of money to get the result I basically handed to them. Is it wrong to expect a ‘thank you’ for working, even if the task was this far outside of my normal purview?

No, you absolutely should have been recognized for going above and beyond and solving a massive problem! That would be true even if it were a normal part of your job; it’s extra true because it wasn’t.

You should ask for a raise, and make this a centerpiece of your argument for why you deserve it — both the creation of the system itself, and your ongoing role in keeping it working.

4. My boss’ personality changed after brain surgery

I’ve worked for the same boss at the same company for 16 years. During that time, my boss needed brain surgery. It’s been three years since his surgery, and his personality and management style have taken quite a turn for the worse. Instead of the demanding but fair boss I worked with for so many years, he is now harsh and downright mean — to the point that other colleagues will contact me privately after an undeserved public dressing down to ask if I’m okay. Executive leadership has been present for some of these meltdowns and have not intervened.

After three very difficult years working with him, I’m looking for another job and it looks like I’m about to get a very welcome offer. But I’m wondering how honest I should be in my eventual exit interview. Should I highlight these personality shifts to HR as a reason for leaving? It doesn’t seem quite fair to my boss, because it is very possible and even likely that these personality changes are due to the brain surgery itself and therefore there is little that can be done to change for the better. All the same, I’ve been shielding the rest of the more junior team from his mercurial moods as best I can and feel guilty quietly leaving them to deal with him in this state.

I want to approach this both honestly and compassionately, and any advice is appreciated!

Yes, tell HR. Your boss is in a position of power over other people and being abusive to them; it’s not a question of whether or not he can help it, it’s a question of the fact that it’s happening. You can certainly present it through a compassionate lens — specifying that it’s a change since his surgery and you realize it might stem from that — but it would be a significant kindness to the people left behind if you make someone aware that it’s happening. (And while executive leadership has seen some of it, they don’t necessarily know the extent of it.)

5. Leaving after I successfully pass a performance improvement plan

I’ve been on a performance improvement plan (PIP) for the past few months (it was paused for a long while) due to poor performance that ended up being caused by a sudden onset of a pretty serious disease.

Now that I’m recovering and back at work, my PIP is active again and … well, I’m progressing fine. No major issues, hitting KPIs and not feeling terrible after the work day. Barring any major hiccups, it’s looking like I’ll pass it.

I want to relax and get into the groove again but on the other hand, the way the middle levels of the company treated me while I was ill (grandboss and HR), up to and including open mockery in meetings. I still want out.

I really love my team but I’ve lost trust in the company. I also have wider issues with the workplace that are more of “we need to all join the union” problems but those don’t really factor into my PIP, they just piss me off.

I’m dealing with guilt from wanting to leave, anger from how I was treated, exhaustion from fighting an illness that impacted my life for the better part of two years and the longing to leave to see if I can get a better deal in a new workplace (likely outside of my current high-stress field). Obviously there’s a lot of parts at play here, but is it common to pass a PIP and leave anyway? Is it ethically questionable?

It’s in no way ethically questionable to leave after passing a PIP. It would be in no way ethically questionable to leave if the PIP had never happened, either. If you want to leave, you get to leave! Ethics don’t come into it, unless you’re, like, an airline pilot parachuting out of the plane mid-flight.

People end up leaving shortly after PIPs all the time — sometimes because they feel poorly treated, but sometimes because the PIP made them realize the job wasn’t a great match (whether due to the work itself or their manager’s expectations, or because the PIP made them feel too much instability, or all sorts of other things).

The post I inherited a team from a terrible manager, job application asked about how anxiety affects your work, and more appeared first on Ask a Manager.

The small Mexican Navy plane crashed into the Galveston Bay in late December 2025, killing six people and injuring two others.