Gail Williams

Meta Plans to Add Facial Recognition Technology to Its Smart Glasses

Facebook plans to put facial recognition in its glasses and they think we’re too stupid to fight back.

Their internal memo: “We will launch during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns.”

Why don’t I know who Ramanathan is? Check out this interview on his work; how we know various heat traps blanket the planet. Plus why the early climate predictions were off, and about mistakes in designing adaptations to mitigate suffering.

Posted by 2600 this morning on fbook

Trump’s Racist Attack on the Obamas Shows the Moral Collapse of His Presidency This wasn’t a joke or a mistake but a warning about how racism, silence, and abuse of power are eating away at democracy…

Can we still be shocked? This needs an outcry. Sickening but we cant look away is.gd/J5qZmW

“When a Soviet soldier comes to you, YOU:

1. Don’t know
2. Don’t care
3. Don’t tell
4. Don’t have
5. Don’t know how to
6. Don’t give
7. Can’t do
8. Don’t sell
9. Don’t show
10. Do nothing”

Večerní Praha (Evening Prague)
August 26, 1968

ICE OUT … solidarity forever. A statement from small independent BareBottle Brewing in San Francisco about staying open and donating 10% to the ACLU today.

Proud of my local brewery here in SF.

Ian Austin, an Army veteran, was arrested for protesting ICE in Minneapolis. But he’s continued protesting. Senior reporter @julialurie.bsky.social spoke to him.

“When they say, ‘Why would you be out here?’ How the fuck could I not be out here?” he says. “My nation is under attack."

Alabama uses Japanese American Internment era law to charge immigrants who don’t self-register Alabama is finding new ways to criminally charge undocumented immigrants

Do we need to say it louder? Here. Louder.

" Federal courts in Alabama are using a law last applied during the U.S. internment [incarceration] of people of Japanese descent during World War II to charge immigrants who don’t register themselves..."

www.al.com/news/2026/01...

More than 200,000 Danish citizens have signed a petition to buy California as a response to Trump’s attempt to take Greenland.

They say they will provide Californians with “rule of law, universal health care, fact-based politics, and a lifetime supply of Danish pastries.”

When DT first mentioned Greenland I thought he likely wanted it for Putin. Maybe just a little something to “trade” to Russia, on his dear pal’s wishlist? Controlling the whole melting strategic Arctic seems like a Putin goal. Could DT want to make a“deal” ?

I need people to wrap their minds around the fact that here in Minneapolis, ICE broke the window of a vehicle yesterday, pepper sprayed the occupants, and arrested them, and shot another observer in the face today, and OBSERVERS ARE STILL GOING OUT TO PROTECT THEIR NEIGHBORS AT MASSIVE PERSONAL RISK

Angry about invasion.. and angry about all the other stories that the planned chaos effectively overshadows. This is worth reading and actually felt encouraging.

Barf

Will it be on free YouTube, or on YouTube TV streaming service? I’d imagined it was YouTube TV, further restrict viewers, right? Or are there more subscribers than ABC viewers? I haven’t been motivated enough to do my homework & figure this out.

Ad placement is an amusing question.

Great Gary Kamiya article

Uh oh. Might attract the wrong sort of person with that casino steakhouse menu.

Trump Halts Five Wind Farms Off the East Coast

Pure fanaticism, just objectively bad policy especially while building all these new data centers. But also an opportunity for Democrats to say loudly, over and over again, that Trump and Republicans are making everything more expensive. Higher electricity costs impact everything.

Blooming yellow wildflowers at sunset, with a boot-shaped observatory with dome open in the background.

Blooming red wildflowers at sunset, with a boot-shaped observatory with dome open in the background.

Happy December Solstice! 🌞

It’s summer at NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory in Chile! Wildflowers? Blooming. Skies? Clear. Sun? Vibing. ☀️

Sending warm thoughts to the northern hemisphere! ❄️

Cool findings. I think we need metaphors from other disciplines and traditions to broaden and refine our best work. Not just the most elite performers. All of us.

OK, Republicans. You can stand up to him. You need solidarity. Communicate, bear witness and take back your dignity.

You don’t have to live like battered wives.

Glad you know and trust the intention.

Is that Spanglish? Would you see it in southern Mexico or South America or Spain?

Did you try it out? I don’t have time to test it myself but it’s an appealing claim.
How does it avoid hallucination issues? Does it have obvious political biases for questions about, say, vaccines or Gaza?

It’s such a cool book. Geological and human history of the fascinating city of Oakland.

Wow

He was SO BAD. And the hero worship/propaganda has distorted his legacy so severely that I have had conversations with otherwise reasonable younger people, born after his presidency, who think he was an example of an enlightened conservative.

Ferry building and Embarcadero lights reflect on the Bay after dark

A few days ago we took the SF to Oakland ferry after dark for the first time, to see a concert at Yoshi’s. Day is nice, by night was delightful. Love these little SF Bay Area urban adventures.

A dramatic stretch of desert is being proposed as California’s next national monument California’s proposed monument, encompassing a river in one of the hottest and driest corners of the country, would be larger than Yosemite.

Story (paywalled) is pretty good! www.sfchronicle.com/california/a... The river is largely underground, leaving a little swath of green vegetation across the desert except for floods now and then Amazing area.

Map shows proposed Amargosa National Monument (South and East of Southern half of Death Valley NP) in dark green.

Locals are organizing a long term plan for National Monument status for the Amargosa! Not adding to #publiclands -- managing them differently. I've hiked there: applauding good news & optimistic people! Map from story in SF Chronicle shows area in darker green: files.sfchronicle.com/embed-bot/20...