N E Azil

Line graph time series of monthly mean Arctic sea-ice thickness for each year from 1979 to 2026 using shades of red and blue. A seasonal cycle is shown with thicker ice in late winter and thinner ice in late summer. A long-term decreasing trend is also visible, with 2026 outlined in bright red as a record low. Data is from PIOMAS (Zhang and Rothrock, 2003)

The average sea-ice thickness around the North Pole continues to set monthly record lows (according to the PIOMAS dataset). Each line represent one year from 1979 (blue) to 2026 (red)... note the trend 📉

More views at zacklabe.com/arctic-sea-i...

😕🇺🇸

The parody movie about the AI bubble is going to have nowhere to go.

Judge Rebukes U.S. Over Application to Search Reporter’s Home

Judge Rebukes U.S. Over Application to Search Reporter’s Home

A prosecutor apologized for failing to alert the magistrate to a 1980 law that restricts searches for reporting materials.

w/ Erik Wemple

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/20/u...

E.P.A. Plans to Loosen Mercury Rules for Coal Plants, Documents Show

The EPA plans this week to loosen restrictions on coal-burning power plants, allowing them to emit more hazardous pollutants including mercury, a powerful neurotoxin that can impair babies’ brain development, internal agency documents show.

In the backyard of a school in one of #Kyiv’s districts, where many homes remain without heating due to Russian strikes, the smell of fresh bread fills the air.

It’s 43-year-old French volunteer Loïc Nervi baking bread in his mobile bakery.

Trump claimed his big EPA climate rollback will save Americans money. That's very unlikely. The agency's own analysis shows that the costs will probably overwhelm any savings.

The Trump administration claims its latest move to gut climate regulations and end all greenhouse gas standards for vehicles will save Americans money.

But its own analysis indicates that the new rule will push up gas prices, and that the benefits of the rollback are unlikely to outweigh the costs.

Headline: The 2028 Democratic Presidential Contenders, Ranked by Nate Silver.

1) Haven't read this.
2) You shouldn't.
3) Here were "strongest" Dem candidates at comparable points, 2.5 years before elex that Dems won:

—1974: Teddy Kennedy early leader. 1976: Prez Jimmy Carter.
—1990: Mario Cuomo leading. 1992: Prez Bill Clinton.
—2006: HRC leading. 2008: Prez Obama.

Chart: Grid battery installations soared to a new high in 2025 The U.S. energy-storage sector has grown rapidly over the last few years as solar has expanded, costs have declined, and electricity demand has soared.

2025 may have been a tough year for clean energy in the U.S., but grid batteries still broke a deployment record.

CREW statement on Jared Kushner’s role as special peace envoy - CREW | Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington The public has no reason to trust Jared Kushner’s integrity as a government official to put their interests above his financial benefit.

Given Kushner’s history of self-enrichment, the scope of his foreign investments and the magnitude of his role, he will need to go above and beyond to assure the public he is operating solely in their interest.

Full statement: www.citizensforethics.org/news/press-r...

The US government keeps using dangerous chemicals on protestors Civilians, children, and even the agents themselves are at risk.

Tear gas, the most widely deployed crowd-control weapon, can cause more harm than temporary irritation. Beyond burning eyes and skin, it has been linked to corneal ulcers and menstrual cycle disruptions.

But tear gas is just one type of chemical used by federal agents for crowd control.

1. Filter search results for those I follow.
2. Search Saved.

Thread:

Picture via a CNN reporter of a banner with Trump’s face going up on outside of DOJ building

Biden would’ve been instantly impeached in a bipartisan vote if he put his face on the freakin’ Department of Justice building

other cars. No one-and particularly not Teresa-made any attempt to seek help. Even had she wanted to, whom would she call? If Argentines had learned anything in the two and a half years since the military had seized power, it was that little good came from paying attention, and even less came from attracting it. The armed men who now roved the city as agents of the dictatorship were at once secretive-driving cars without license plates and obscuring their faces with women's stock-ings-and brazen, abducting people off the street in broad daylight. It was almost as if they were daring bystanders: acknowledge you've noticed us, see what happens. No. Better to forget what she'd witnessed. Teresa waited for her husband to pick her up, locked up the store, and left. Her employers had always treated her well, but a thought lingered — one that many others in Argentina had come to believe over the years: "Si se los llevan así, es por algo." If they were taken, there must be a reason.

Argentina, 1978:

“The armed men who roved the city were at once secretive — driving cars without license plates and obscuring their faces with women's stockings — and brazen, abducting people off the street in broad daylight… daring bystanders:
Acknowledge you've noticed us, see what happens.”

1/

Hazardous substances found in all headphones tested by ToxFREE project Substances include chemicals that can cause cancer, neurodevelopmental problems and the feminisation of males You wear them at work, you wear them at play, you wear them to relax. You may even get sweaty in them at the gym. But an investigation into headphones has found every single pair tested contained substances hazardous to human health, including chemicals that can cause cancer, neurodevelopmental problems and the feminisation of males. Continue reading...

Hazardous substances found in all headphones tested by ToxFREE project

@campaignlegal.org filed a complaint today alleging that the $3.5M contribution to Trump's super PAC violated federal law's ban on straw donations, and because the funds appear to have originated from a foreign source, additionally violated the ban on foreign money in elections.

Fulton Co elections expert: “In all 5 areas identified by ... the [search warrant] affidavit, there are a multitude of false or misleading statements or omissions. ... Once ... corrected, the affidavit loses any basis in reality.”
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

The Quintessential Epstein Files Email - The American Prospect Jeffrey Epstein and his friends standing up for Mary Jo White against Elizabeth Warren tells you everything about the class war at the heart of the files.

Guys I found the best Epstein Files email. The one that illuminates an elite class that's cocooned themselves into an unaccountable shell of wealth and privilege, fighting to protect their secrets and offenses.
I could write a novel about this email.
prospect.org/2026/02/17/e...

Sorry! Regulatory rollbacks broadly under current administration (not specific to data centers).

Will the combination of data centers and regulatory rollbacks be a hiccup or a setback? (Posing this tersely and trusting you to unpack implications.)

The current person in charge of ICE's procurement for detention is a GEO Group executive who ran the company's immigration detention portfolio. He was granted an "ethics waiver" from DHS allowing him to hand out contracts to GEO in his new role.

"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." –Justice Louis Brandeis

Words spoken many years ago that are just as relevant today.

We must continue the fight to get big money out of politics.

Everybody who brought flowers to Navalny's grave on Monday did so knowing it would land them on a police watchlist, or push them higher on the lists they're already on.

Nothing like making it harder for women to vote. These asshats don’t think we don’t know what they’re trying to do.

The Art Of Snow, Before It Melts (10 Photos) Snow can turn an ordinary street into a gallery overnight, then erase it again by morning. That short life is exactly why this art hits so hard. These 10 photos show winter as a creative tool, not just a season: a lamp becomes giant glasses, a mailbox becomes a monster, and a small patch of slush becomes a full scene.

The Art Of Snow, Before It Melts (10 Photos)

Snow can turn an ordinary street into a gallery overnight, then erase it again by morning. That short life is exactly why this art hits so hard. These 10 photos show winter as a creative tool, not just a season: a lamp becomes giant glasses, a mailbox…

Add an adoption or marriage, and this can be a nightmare.

A. Opinion polls.
B. Getting older people out to vote R in November weather when he's not on the ballot.

<mumble> ballroom <mumble>

Same day