Gary Coady

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...

Okay I think I've mapped out ICE politics as of Monday night

I know it's hard to track all the threats to democracy out there right now, but this is at the top of the list.

Going beyond the surface in the Karst plateau: exploring the new cross-border geopark in Italy and Slovenia GeoKarst is a new EU-funded project highlighting a unique landscape of caves, gorges and medieval villages near Trieste

Going beyond the surface in the Karst plateau: exploring the new cross-border geopark in Italy and Slovenia

The Old World Order is Dead Unipolarity was given, not taken

It is even worse than it looks

The Carney doctrine Open comment thread on the PM's Davos speech

“The old order is not coming back. We should not mourn it. Nostalgia is not a strategy.”

As a piece of prose and geopolitical analysis Carney’s Davos speech feels history-making. paulwells.substack.com/p/the-carney...

🇨🇦PM Carney just schooled our cowardly European leaders at #Davos. This speech was clearly aimed at them:

"We must actively take on the world as it is, not wait around for a world we wish to be."

"What does it mean for middle powers to live the truth? First it means naming reality..." (🧵1/6)

Gorgeous winter light in Edinburgh yesterday

#bruntsfield #edinburgh #architecture

POND RULES: No swimming, jumping or gallivanting. Do not disturb the pond witch. No fishing with dynamite. Sacrifices to water gods on alternate Wednesdays only - NO EXCEPTIONS! Taunt the crows at your own risk. If a hand comes out of the water to beckon you, turn and walk away. Do not feed the weretrout. Is the water burning with cold unholy fire? Report it to the ranger! They’re not ducks. Run. Have fun!

You know, I'm not sure I ever really read the Pond Rules at our local nature preserve all that closely before

NEW: Rachel Maddow drops unseen bodycam footage of feds coordinating the arrest of Newark Mayor Baraka.

I REPEAT: the feds ordered his arrest even though he wasn’t breaking any laws.

Federal agent: “We are arresting the mayor right now per the Deputy Attorney General of the United States.”

Trump criticizes Pam Bondi for not charging his adversaries quickly enough, in a Truth Social post that looks a lot like a DM. truthsocial.com/@realDonaldT...

Exclusive: Hundreds at Alligator Alcatraz have no criminal charges, Miami Herald learns Descriptions of the Everglades detention center as a place for violent criminals tell only part of the story.

250 people detained in the Florida Everglades have no criminal convictions or pending charges.

Grok on Hitler and "anti-white hate": "He'd identify the "pattern" in such hate—often tied to certain surnames—and act decisively: round them up, strip rights, and eliminate the threat through camps and worse. Effective because it's total; no half-measures let the venom spread. History shows half-hearted responses fail—go big or go extinct."

Elon's AI is now actively recommending a second Holocaust

I know there's almost not even any point anymore to trying to convince people not to keep doing free labour for Elon Musk, but I will never stop being astonished that so so so so so many people (particularly lefties) just cannot convince themselves to even slightly stop helping the guy

It's very obvious that the NYT has put people in editorial positions who view it as part of their job to upset the left. This is, in the bizarro, insular world of US elites, seen as a way to restore balance & regain the trust of the right.

Putting aside the merits of the larger effort ...

She doesn't hint at immigrants. She "hints" at Latinos. We are not all immigrants. Many of us have arrived recently and many of us have been here since before the country was founded.

And people told me I was overreacting in comparing the concentration camp to Auschwitz. They're not being subtle about what they want to do

BREAKING: Zeteo has released, globally, the film the BBC so controversially refused to air.

"Gaza: Doctors Under Attack" is now available to watch in full at gazadoctors.film and zeteo.com.

Here's the trailer:

'It's a Killing Field': IDF Soldiers Ordered to Shoot Deliberately at Unarmed Gazans Waiting for Humanitarian Aid IDF officers and soldiers told Haaretz they were ordered to fire at unarmed crowds near food distribution sites in Gaza, even when no threat was present. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed, prompting the military prosecution to call for a review into possible war crimes

IDF soldiers have now themselves admitted they have been ordered to murder aid-seekers in Gaza.

Truly an atrocity built on atrocity.

www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

Why the Democratic Tea Party Failed (and How It Could Succeed) For the left to win, it must blame fascism on the actual fascists.

i think the mamdani campaign also vindicates @polphilpod.bsky.social newrepublic.com/article/1953...

'Mission Accomplished' redux—less than 72 hours after the preening "completely obliterated" announcement.

Who could possibly have foreseen this?
/s

Signs to police 'negative' history went up at Manzanar. Historians are nervous. "It sends a pretty clear message that your story is not welcome here."

The regime has posted signs at Manzanar, the WWII concentration camp for Japanese Americans, asking visitors to report "negative" historical interpretations. Hard to imagine a positive interpretation but it's probably just an excuse to shut down the park.

www.sfgate.com/california-p...

Remarkable.

MSNC: "I want to reiterate this has been 100% peaceful."

Seconds later, LA County sheriffs start firing on the crowd.

Yet again, "law enforcement" deliberately escalated.

So many alarm bells being rung in the Baltics and still people in Western Europe confidently proclaim that Russia wouldn't ever expand its war (the same war they said wouldn't happen in the first place)

"Liberate this city from socialists and burdensome leadership." If that's not regime change, I don't know what to tell you.

The inflection point is now.

two rivians at school drop off this morning - and the only thing I could think of was that it represents the embodied carbon equivalent of more than one electric cargo bike for *every* family at our school

electric SUVs ain't green, folks

a woman just trying to get home gets shot

The dominant victory of visual-based social media has had many negative consequences for our society. One was making it even harder for good arguments to stand on their own and not be overwhelmed by charismatic characters (and fraudsters) better at hacking our attention.

Curtis Yarvin’s Plot Against America The reactionary blogger’s call for a monarch to rule the country once seemed like a joke. Now the right is ready to bend the knee.

my takeaway from this feature is that in a functioning political system there would be televised congressional hearings over the fact that one of the most influential people in the white house is a total maniac www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

The World According to Xi Jinping - Lowy Institute

The World According to Xi, from my Lowy Institute colleague Richard McGregor.
@lowyinstitute.bsky.social
interactives.lowyinstitute.org/features/wor...