Torrey Mortenson

Picture of webpage with popup asking to connect to devices

I can't imagine you'd want a feature like this intentionally, Jeph. Thought I'd let you know. @ass.golf

Spotlighting The World Factbook as We Bid a Fond Farewell Somewhat devastating news today from the CIA: One of CIA’s oldest and most recognizable intelligence publications, The World Factbook, has sunset. There's not even a hint as to why they …

The CIA just stopped publishing their World Factbook and took every page, including the archived copies of previous versions!

This sucks. It was public domain, so I recovered the 2020 edition (the last one published as a zip file) and shared it to GitHub simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/5/t...

Book on Trump's mental capacity coming when?

We need a Rascal Mitch on that wall. @danryckert.com

Thanks! For someone who only spent one semester in law school I still have a bit of the bug. But yeah, states aren't capital 'S' sovereign but are lowercase 's' maybe. I like semi better than quasi.

Yeah that tracks in my mind. Somewhere between 0 and 1mil people political sovereignty manifests. This would work as a structure for a group of states becoming a nation too, though that could get weird. But even amongst US states I feel like CA is more sovereign than, way, Idaho. In terms of power.

Semi-sovereign, I mean the concept of sovereign exists like a spectrum I think. In the US people are sovereign, kind of. You can't assert your sovereignty to buy a bomb for example. But we have stronger domains of sovereignty. States and nations are similar too? Maybe? Is this quantum sovereignty?

Call for Proposals: Data Collection for Replication+Novel Political Science Survey Experiments Alexander Coppock and Mary McGrath January 27, 2026 We invite proposals for a survey experiment replication+novel design competition. Se- lected replication+novel design survey experiments will be conducted on large samples of American respondents, quota sampled to match U.S. Census margins and filtered for quality and attention by the survey sample provider Rep Data (repdata.com). Each proposal consists of two parts: (1) a replication study of an existing, previously published survey experiment, and (2) a novel experimental design on a topic of the authors’ choosing. The replication studies and reanalyses of the existing studies will be combined into a meta-paper to be co-authored by all authors of accepted proposals along with the princi- pal investigators (Coppock and McGrath). As a condition for acceptance, authors commit to sharing the data and producing a write-up of the findings from their novel design for submission to a scholarly journal, and public posting of a working paper pre-publication.

🎺 Call for proposals 🎺

1️⃣ replicate an existing experiment
2️⃣ run a novel experiment

on repdata.com

3️⃣ coauthor with Mary McGrath and me to meta-analyze the replications and existing studies
4️⃣ publish your study

details: alexandercoppock.com/replication_...
applications open Feb 1

please repost!

Ok Hakeem, so, now that you've found your balls DO NOT PUT THEM DOWN SOMEWHERE RANDOM AGAIN. Keep a tight hold, not too tight, and make sure you leave them somewhere you'll always remember. Ooo or maybe just put them in your mouth. That would work.

Have you submitted anything to the court in this case? I feel like @unlawfulentries.bsky.social would have a lot to say, a book some might even say.

The weakness of @democrats.org leadership meant that these changes had to be paid for in blood. Feckless sycophants to the old order have no place in this world now. Be on notice @hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social @schumer.senate.gov, may you never know a moment's peace.

Do if someone disproved one of his arguments. He said "I'd shake their hand and thank them. We're all searching for the truth, not trying to score points." And I've always taken that to heart. Don't be a dick ofc but if someone is wrong I think it should be expected that they get called out.

Not in academia but in social science/engineering govt research and I always try to be professional and fair but will totally tell someone they are wrong or write a conference paper pointing that out. Maybe it's my philosophy background. I remember I asked a philosophy professor once what he would

Love it thank you!

Hundreds of clergy descend on Minneapolis and go on lookout for ICE MINNEAPOLIS (RNS) — The faith leaders, who hail from across the country and represent a range of religious traditions, deployed to neighborhoods with significant immigrant populations, where DHS agent...

"'What did we learn from the Holocaust? We have to act and we have to resist,' Tracht said, running out of breath as the car turned the corner. 'If I’m not going to act and resist now, then I shouldn’t call myself a rabbi and I can’t be a proud Jew.'"
religionnews.com/2026/01/22/h...

Pug sitting fancily

ICE sleeps somewhere. ICE buys food and beverages. ICE rents vehicles. ICE uses bathrooms. ICE buys fuel. Deny ICE access to food, beverages, fuel, bathrooms, and beds.

And every candidate for MN state office should be asked what conditions should be in place before MN continues to collaborate with the federal govt at all.

Oh I didn't see this. So what have they been doing mission wise? I'd hope he would send the guard to specific protest areas to guard the protestors or something.

Why didn't you deploy the national guard? I would think there would be a state sovereignty argument for preventing federal actions temporarily while they are summarily executing your citizenry. Actually do something instead of getting on the phone.

Pretty standard Dem platform to campaign on a bunch of shit they have no idea or gumption to six.

What baffles me as a (kind of) academic is the apparent lack of power that the legal academy seems to hold over professional practitioners (e.g. lawyers and judges). It appears that law profs have no real ability to affect the practice of law. So, what's the point then of legal academia?

Ok so after @danryckert.com declaring his interest in the feud, I propose a joint Kinda Feudy with a joint KF/GB survey and the GB crew playing against KF. Maybe @jeffgerstmann.com can moderate? @gameovergreggy.bsky.social @grubb.wtf @tolkoto.com can we get this done? Continue the streak!

So..... @governorwalz.mn.gov since there isn't a federal investigation you might interfere with, I fully expect you guys to be in court immediately to demand access to all evidence and information for the state investigation. Right?

I'm sorry. As a technology writer, I'm supposed to be telling you that this bet will some day pay off, because one day we will have shoveled so many words into the word-guessing program that it wakes up and learns how to actually do the jobs it is failing spectacularly at today. This is a proposition akin to the idea that if we keep breeding horses to run faster and faster, one of them will give birth to a locomotive. Humans possess intelligence, and machines do not. The difference between a human and a word-guessing program isn't how many words the human knows. I'm sorry. I know that when we talk about "digital sovereignty," we're obliged to talk about how we can build more data-centres that we can fill up with money-losing chips from American silicon monopolists in the hopes of destroying as many jobs as possible while blowing through our clean energy goals and enshittifying as much of our potable water as possible.

Córy Doctorow with another verbal bullseye: pluralistic.net/2026/01/13/n...

Exactly. I feel like so much of the liberal viewpoint is about feeling cool being friends with people who believe your worldview is criminal. Ginsburg, Schumer, Newsom. They all feel like pathetic people who never learned to stand up for principles with friends and are just excited to be included.

Had a similar situation with one of my friends the other day. After I saw the post I sent a text that just said, "So I'll just go fuck myself then?" Lol

Love this, minor change. "But that's not why he wants it. No, he has his eye on bigger game." No clue what that means at all lol but has some shlock

This is too small. Get rid of DHS entirely. I understand the need after 9/11 but now it just competes with other LE functions in DOJ. Unnecessary department.