David Faden

Water droplets on a bush poppy leaf. Other leaves branch out in the background. The green fuzz on the bottom left is a deer plant (Acmipson glaber). The green fuzz on the bottom right is California buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum). I think this might be the first time that I've typed "Eriogonum fasciculatum" without making a mistake.

Water droplets on a bush poppy (Dendromecon rigida) leaf. calscape.org/Dendromecon-...

Cells Use ‘Bioelectricity’ To Coordinate and Make Group Decisions | Quanta Magazine The discovery that tissues use electricity to expel unhealthy cells is part of a surge of renewed interest in the currents flowing through our bodies.

Probably a silly thought, but does this lend credence to electric field theories of consciousness? www.quantamagazine.org/cells-use-bi...

Green strawberry leaves lit by a camera flash, surrounded by brown soil, with the remnants of a puddle from watering.

It was dark by the time I finished planting this woodland strawberry (Fragaria vesca). Thought it looked a little spooky lit like this. Hoping it will turn into a monster and fill up this space.

IRS and DHS in April agreed to share info to help detail suspected undocumented immigrants.

That data sharing began in Aug.

In Nov, a judge said the whole process was illegal.

Now in recent weeks, IRS discovered that it violated its own internal process (that a judge already said was illegal).

Immigration Court Drops Case Against Tufts Student Rumeysa Ozturk The Turkish national had been arrested by plainclothes federal officers outside her apartment.

The immigration case against Rümyesa Öztürk is over, and rightfully so.

Writing an op-ed is protected speech, not a deportable offense.

Now, the administration must be held accountable for abusing the immigration system to punish expression.

Somehow I'd imagined the Oxford dictionary was the largest in English. Good job Wiktionary. Fun to be aware of all these. Thank you!

If you are reading this it is because I’m dead: here’s what I want to tell you about how to live | Carlos Hernández de Miguel Leaving this world in an age of lies and cruelty, my last message is simple: don’t give up on truth, says Spanish journalist Carlos Hernández de Miguel

“victims of nazism & other dictatorships never stopped repeating fascism had not died, that it was still lurking, waiting for the moment to resurface. That is why it will be so important to be aware of history. Looking back is the best way to face the present”

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

@jburnmurdoch.ft.com Was Turkey notably less free than Russia after 12 years? Hungary comparable to Venezuela? It looks like the plot says these things. It'd be interesting to see the raw data. What are the starting points? A bracing synthesis of where we may be in any case.

some Public Service Journalism: I took that Minnesota judge's pdf list of court orders that ICE violated, found all the cases on CourtListener and linked to the dockets reason.com/2026/01/30/j...

Every social theory undergirding Trumpism has been broken on the steel of Minnesotan resolve. The multiracial community in Minneapolis was supposed to shatter. It did not. It held until Bovino was forced out of the Twin Cities with his long coat between his legs. The secret fear of the morally depraved is that virtue is actually common, and that they’re the ones who are alone. In Minnesota, all of the ideological cornerstones of MAGA have been proved false at once. Minnesotans, not the armed thugs of ICE and the Border Patrol, are brave. Minnesotans have shown that their community is socially cohesive—because of its diversity and not in spite of it. Minnesotans have found and loved one another in a world atomized by social media, where empty men have tried to fill their lonely soul with lies about their own inherent superiority. Minnesotans have preserved everything worthwhile about “Western civilization,” while armed brutes try to tear it down by force.

Last week in Minnesota, I watched ordinary people risk their lives to protect their neighbors. In the process, they not only won a significant—though not final—victory against authoritarianism, they proved virtually every MAGA social theory wrong. (gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Learned of the existence of "We are Bellingcat" from the author's profile, @eliothiggins.bsky.social, which I saw from a reskeet. Excited to see that our library system has it. Put it on hold. Something to look forward to. Thank you, Bluesky.

May 12, 2025 MEMORANDUM FOR: All ICE Personnel FROM: Todd Lyons Acting Director SUBJECT: Utilizing Form I-205, Warrant of Removal On January 20, 2025, President Donald J. Trump issued Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion, directing the Secretary of Homeland Security to "ensur[e] the successful enforcement of final orders of removal." 90 Fed. Reg. 8443, 8444 (Jan. 20, 2025) (E.O. 14159). Essential to the removal of aliens subject to final orders of removal is the ability to locate and arrest them. To this end, certain supervisory immigration officers within both Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) are authorized to issue an administrative warrant, Form I-205, Warrant of Removal (Form 1-205), for the arrest of an alien with a final order of removal. 8 C.F.R. § 241.2(a)(1). All U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) special agents and deportation officers are authorized to execute Forms 1-205. 8 C.F.R. § 287.5(e)(3)(iii) - (y) Although the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has not historically relied on administrative warrants alone to arrest aliens subject to final orders of removal in their place of residence, the DHS Office of the General Counsel has recently determined that the U.S. Constitution, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and the immigration regulations do not prohibit relying on administrative warrants for this purpose. Accordingly, in light of this legal determination, ICE immigration officers may arrest and detain aliens subject to a final under of removal issued by an immigration judge, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), or a U.S.

Arrow) district court judge or magistrate judge in their place of residence.23 ICE immigration officers should consider all available enforcement mechanisms, including the use of a Form 1-205 to arrest an alien in their place of residence, to achieve the requirements of E.O. 14159 in accordance with applicable law and policies. This guidance informs the use of Forms 1-205 and provides to ICE law enforcement personnel a reminder of the general limitations and exceptions that may apply when effectuating arrests in an alien's residence. General Guidelines ICE law enforcement officers receive extensive training on the legal and procedural requirements for making administrative and criminal arrests. ICE personnel must remain cognizant of all existing laws and policies pertaining to arrests when carrying out civil immigration enforcement actions. Prior to entering a residence to conduct an administrative immigration arrest pursuant to Form I-205, officers and agents must ensure the Form 1-205 is properly completed and is supported by a final order of removal issued by an immigration judge, the BIA, a U.S. district court, or a magistrate judge. This is essential because that order establishes probable cause. Officers and agents must also have reason to believe that the subject alien resides at and is currently located in the address where the Form I-205 is to be served.

ICE secretly told its officers that any time someone has been ordered removed, ICE can break down their door.

It has been accepted for generations that the only thing which can authorize agents to break into your home is a warrant signed by a judge. No wonder ICE hid this memo!

Circles in circles, Moire-like, with a 4x4 grid of larger ones, smaller ones repeating

Semi-repeating pattern showing some grid-like regularity with a transition around a circular edge

Symmetrical around the -45 degree line? Circles and grids

One teeny thing I tinkered with tonight -- "wallpapers" based on A. K. Dewdney's description in his "New Turing Omnibus". I find them mesmerizing. You can play around here: revfad.com/dewdney_wall.... Code: github.com/fadend/dewdn.... Would like to understand the patterns but haven't yet tried.

Thanks for the clarification! Won't work for me but sounds like a great opportunity.

Is it right that this requires being onsite some of the time, i.e., not open to fully remote workers?

ICE has stopped paying for detainee medical treatment ICE halted payments in October, and the situation will persist for at least several more months

I’ve been writing Popular Information for 8 years, and this is one of the most important stories I’ve ever published. This is a humanitarian crisis that has gone unreported.

Adding it to my reading list. Thank you!

Grateful for their generosity. So much to learn.

And Szepesvári: sites.ualberta.ca/~szepesva/rl...

Otterlo and Wiering: www.ai.rug.nl/~mwiering/In...

Bertsekas and Tsitsiklis: web.mit.edu/dimitrib/www... "Neuro-Dynamic Programming"

Impressed with how many reinforcement learning books are available online, starting with Sutton and Barto: incompleteideas.net/book/the-boo...

There are only 45 million foreign-born people living in the United States right now, about half of whom are naturalized citizens. So this ridiculous edge-lord post by taxpayer-funded trolls is suggesting deporting 55 million native-born citizens.

Temporarily Offline Internet Archive services are temporarily offline. Please check our official accounts, including Twitter/X, Bluesky or Mastodon for the latest information. We apologize for the inconvenience.

@archive.org Scary to see archive.org offline. Hope they're able to get things back up soon. Another PG&E outage?

The share of counties where 95% or more of kindergartners were vaccinated against measles has dropped from 50% before the pandemic to 28%, according to our analysis of public records from 44 states and the District of Columbia. At least 19,000 schools are now more vulnerable to outbreaks.

Pollinator Conservation Spotlight: Primrose Way… | Pollinator.org Pollinator Partnership is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization and the largest in the world dedicated exclusively to the protection and promotion of ...

Enjoyed this article from @pollinatororg.bsky.social about @primroseway.bsky.social www.pollinator.org/nappc/pollin....

Dang. Thanks for sharing that.

Tonight’s dumb napkin cartoon…

Melissa Hortman Died in a Shocking Act of Political Violence. This Is the Story of Her Life Melissa Hortman died in a shocking act of political violence. This is her story

I met Melissa Hortman in October of 2024. She was smart and kind. I heard about her murder in a LA hotel room and it dropped me to my knees. So I went to Minnesota and talked to her kids, parents, and friends. This is not true crime, this is Melissa in real life. www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

Threatening NCAR, Trump administration seeks to extinguish a beacon of climate science The Trump administration’s world view is that the US doesn’t need a climate science brain trust because it doesn’t like what the brains say.

Read this from Ben Santer (very famous climate scientist for those who don’t know) about what NCAR means and what dismantling it will do.