Nick Wehner

The old Westinghouse flood gates, now abandoned and left open

Power substation to power all the huge pumps inside

Gigantic old water pumps to pump out the floodwater

Presumably control panels for the pumps

Went to the Westinghouse flood gates today. Would have been so cool to see this place when it was functioning!

Your subscriber dollars at work: Aftermath has a new regular contributor and monthly columnist. Welcome @adashtra.bsky.social and @jmrivera.bsky.social to our regular rotation of writers!

aftermath.site/podcasts/after...

We spoke to queer Nigerian gamers about the identities they hide online Voice chat can mean teamwork, coordination, and banter, but for many of the queer Nigerian gamers we spoke to, the mic is a risk assessment tool.

“You’re playing with people who assume safety. But safety is not universal.” - from Ebenezer Mowete's first byline for Mothership
www.mothership.blog/queer-nigeri...

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...

I know it’s annoying that I constantly ask people to sub, but subbing makes a huge difference. @aftermath.site has around 5,000 paying subs right now; most of us still work other jobs on the side. we have over 90k bluesky followers. if a fraction subscribed, it would literally change our lives

Same! Ghislaine’s website had wholesale copies of MARE/OCTO content shortly after it came out. IIRC I suspected her site was auto-scraping and blocked its IP.

Can’t wait for my angry emails to her and her team about this to end up in the files 🤣

Ashes Of Creation Dev Says No One Got Their Final Paychecks A mass layoff announcement was sudden and swift

Intrepid Studios, which makes an MMO that was Kickstarted for $3.2 million back in 2017, suddenly shutdown overnight last week.

Its head of marketing says no one is getting their final paychecks.

The director of the game claims control of the company was taken from him kotaku.com/ashes-creati...

Some jawdropping CBP crime statistics here...

ICE Begins Buying ‘Mega’ Warehouse Detention Centers Across US Plans for such centers and jails in nearly two dozen communities have sparked protests over suitability, proximity to homes and schools.

BIG news from @bloomberg.com, which confirms that ICE has gone ahead and *purchased* multiple commercial warehouses with the aim of converting them into mass detention camps.

This is likely to be the big detention story of 2026 — literal warehousing of people.
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Here is the User Guide for ELITE, the Tool Palantir Made for ICE 404 Media is publishing a version of the user guide for ELITE, which lets ICE bring up dossiers on individual people and provides a “confidence score” of their address.

New from 404 Media: here is the user guide for ELITE, the tool Palantir made for ICE. A map shows people on a map; ICE clicks them, brings up their dossier. ICE uses to find which neighborhoods to target. We obtained it, you can now read the document for yourself: www.404media.co/here-is-the-...

Sesame Street Instagram: Big Bird snuggling a smaller bird. Offering comfort in Scary Times: After a violent event, children of different ages will have different needs. These age based strategies can help them feel safer and more secure.

Sesame Street is now offering tips for parents on post-trauma comfort because the federal government is physically and mentally abusing our country's children.

Microsoft handed the government encryption keys for customer data Microsoft complied with a warrant to hand over BitLocker recovery keys to the FBI, and privacy advocates are worried.

Microsoft has confirmed it will hand over BitLocker encryption recovery keys to the FBI. You definitely should not be accepting Microsoft’s default of storing BitLocker keys in the cloud when signing into Windows with an MS account www.theverge.com/news/867244/...

DHS Is Lying To You About ICE Shooting a Woman At least four videos show what really happened when ICE shot a woman in Minneapolis on Wednesday. DHS has established itself as an agency that cannot be trusted to live in or present reality.

404 Media published this piece after an ICE officer shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis. Worth revisiting today:

Alex Pretti was a colleague at the VA. We hired him to recruit for our trial. He became an ICU nurse- I lover working with him. He was a good kind person who lived to help and these fuckers executed him.

White. Hot. Rage.

They murder a man in cold blood and wait around to watch him die. There is no hell hot enough. Abolish DHS. Impeach, convict, remove. Trials as soon as possible.

ICE agent asked why he's taking pictures of a legal observer's car, replies: "Cuz we have a nice little database and now you're considered a domestic terrorist. So have fun with that."

In our conservative estimate, 41 percent of Grok’s images — or 1.8 million — were sexualized depictions of women. Separately, CCDH analyzed how many were sexualized images across genders and ages. Their findings: an estimated 3 million images, including more than 23,000 of children.

Musk’s Chatbot Flooded X With Millions of Sexualized Images in Days, New Estimates Show

We set out to determine how many images of women and girls Grok created during its nudifying spree. What we found was “industrial-scale abuse,” experts said. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/t...

This video filmed by Ben Luhmann shows the moment a federal agent sprayed chemical irritants directly into a man's face in south Minneapolis.

Three agents already had the man pinned to the ground when a fourth agent walked up and sprayed the irritants.

Observing ICE agents is 'a de-escalation tactic,' sociologist says The federal government has accused ICE watchers of breaking the law. Sociologist Nicole Bedera said ICE watchers have science behind them. She spoke with MPR News host Clay Masters.

"Research would tell us that most ICE agents entered into these jobs in part because they want approval, and they want to affirm their masculinity in public," said sociologist Nicole Bedera. "An ICE watch works by surrounding these people ... with disapproval."

BREAKING: Ubisoft is canceling the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake and 5 other games (4 unannounced, 1 mobile). The company says it is also delaying 7 games (including an unannounced project believed to be a Black Flag remake) as part of a larger restructuring.

'Where's Papi? Where's Papi?'

When I lecture to students about how the apparently thriving economy of the 1920s was really a house of cards just waiting to be knocked down, one of the points I stress is how much a small number of the very rich were essentially propping up consumer spending in unsustainable ways

South Side. 3000 Sidney Street. Caller is with ICE and says that protestors have them blocked in.

"Beyond this, the company announced that it will no longer have a centralized Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI+) team, redistributing that work across the People team and leadership, and keeping Employee Resource Groups as simply Slack spaces without formal lead roles or any standalone budgets"

The Companies Behind ICE Sludge built an interactive map of every ICE contractor working with the Trump administration.

New: We built an interactive map of every ICE contractor working with the Trump administration.

readsludge.com/2026/01/16/t...

Queer trans ICE protester in small Minn. city recounts agents' violence and humiliation Alice Valentine of St. Cloud was pepper sprayed and jailed by ICE for trying to protect immigrant neighbors.

NEW — ICE violence has spread well beyond Minneapolis, with agents landing in small cities like St. Cloud. I spoke with Alice Valentine, a local queer trans woman, who protested ICE on Monday and was pepper sprayed, beaten and jailed as a result, along with her girlfriend.

This is Alice's story:

ICE agents to begin checking documents at MSP airport, patrol jet bridges - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will begin checking documents of travelers and workers at MSP airport, with patrols inside jet bridges.

It’s been reported locally, but I’m not sure how much national notice this has gotten. As part of this invasion by shithead goons, they are putting ICE agents in jetbridges and other parts of the airport at Minneapolis-Saint Paul. If you are flying Delta via MSP, you are putting yourself at risk.

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