Alan Stenhouse

with alt text, because everyone needs to be able to read this 😭

I miss when you could post Brave Norman Rockwell Townsperson and the caption could be, like, “R.E.M was wrong to leave ‘Fretless’ off of Out of Time” instead of “The secret police should stop murdering people.”

A short note to Kristi Noem To a current Cabinet secretary from a former one

The New York Times reports that the Department of Homeland Security has sent Google, Meta, and other media corporations subpoenas for the names on accounts that criticize ICE enforcement. The department wants to identify Americans who oppose what it’s doing. I’ll save them time.

GEORGE RETES: “My name is George Retes. I was born and raised here in Ventura, California. I’m 26 years old and I am an Iraq combat veteran. I was going to work like normal. I show up. ICE is there. There’s kind of like a roadblock. I get out. I identify myself — that I’m a U.S. citizen, that I’m just trying to get to work. I’m trying to leave. I’m getting ready to leave and they surround my car, start banging on it, start shouting these contradictory orders. Even though I was giving them no reason, they still felt the need to — one agent knelt on my back and another agent knelt on my neck. And during that time, I’m just pleading with them that I couldn’t breathe. I was in isolation. I was in basically this concrete cell. I was stripped naked in like a hospital gown. And they leave the lights on 24/7. They just came out and they said that I was violent and that I assaulted agents. Why lie when it’s on video of everything that happened? Why lie?”

PBS News Hour: U.S. citizens detained by immigration agents describe how they were treated.

Watch the segment here www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMgC...

I'm clipping transcripts of the citizens speaking in this thread 1/3

Fact check: True.

So far we can summarise META's testimony as - 'they are going to sweet FA about climate BS' #auspol

SBS Seminar Series 2026. Professor Carl Bergstrom. Seminar 1: Information foraging in a social media world. 11am-12pm Seminar 2: Modern day oracles or bullshit machines: How to thrive in a ChatGPT world. 1 pm -2 pm Venue: 114-G14 Time: 11 am - 2 PM Thursday 19 February Light refreshments 12pm-1pm

Hi Auckland friends, I'll be in town and giving a couple of seminars this coming Thursday. Details below.

"The reality is, ..., chaos and collapse is not something they fear but rather aim to create. The Brexit debate, Trump, the Voice referendum, climate change, Israel’s genocide, and many other events involve one side which actively desires collapse – and is ready to profit from it."

In 1949, WHOI researchers recorded what ended up being the earliest-preserved whale song—without realizing what they'd captured! 🐳🎶

Nearly 80 years later, that sound has resurfaced!

🎉Celebrate World Whale Day with the full story: go.whoi.edu/whoi-1949

Denise Meyer's article is a good read.

archive.md/0lVqN

thepoint.com.au/opinions/260...
Kirsty is an excellent factual journalist on ecological matters and I recommend you read this

WA to introduce new protests laws in bid to protect 'social cohesion' The WA premier flags new legislation on hate speech and protests in a bid to protect "social cohesion" in the wake of "multiple threats across Australia" over the summer.

Federal and State Labour govts in Australia seem to have forgotten how they got their strength (or perhaps it's just that they're constantly shifting further to the right).

Reducing your right to protest is a slippery slope that they seem to be happily sliding down.

www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02...

Broken bones, burning eyes: How Trump's DHS deploys 'less lethal' weapons on protesters Federal immigration officers have repeatedly used force in ways that appear to violate their own policies or general policing guidelines, NBC News found.

www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

Why we keep ignoring the physics of climate change At a Time of Climate Crisis – Carbon budgets are a physical reality, not political slogans

This is well worth a read.

"every bit of warming matters, every year matters, and every choice matters."

hannahdaly.ie/2026-01-02-i...

Four lessons NZ should take from another summer of weather disasters Another summer of extreme weather has destroyed and damaged homes, cut off communities and, in the most tragic cases, left families mourning their loved ones.

I’d add two more.

We need government that will end fossil fuels, NOT invest in more, and will shift NZ away from intensive dairy to plant-based organic food production.

Four lessons NZ should take from another summer of climate-charged weather disasters www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

He's so 19th Century!

"Moderna's CEO announced the company will no longer invest in new Phase 3 vaccine trials for infectious diseases: 'You cannot make a return on investment if you don't have access to the U.S. market. Vaccines for Epstein-Barr virus, herpes, and shingles have been shelved.” 9:12 AM Feb 12, 2026 604.8K Views

In terms of what cures are being lost:

- Epstein-Barr virus is perhaps the major trigger for multiple sclerosis
- herpes simplex virus causes cold sores, genital herpes, infections in babies, deadly meningitis
- shingles virus causes an intensely painful disease

Qld coalmine expansion approved by Albanese government will clear habitat and fuel climate crisis, scientists say Conservationists estimate coal exported from expanded mine to release CO2 equivalent of about half Australia’s annual carbon footprint

The utter sham of offsets, yet again...

“Destroying the equivalent of 40 MCGs worth of greater glider habitat and then attempting to relocate all hollows and claim this somehow offsets the harm to greater gliders is genuinely deluded, and contemptuous.” - me

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The newly Albo govt-approved Middlemount Coal Mine is jointly owned by Peabody & Yancoal

Not to be confused with Glencore's Hail Creek Coal Mine which is also applying for an extension, & that will also kill koalas (probably more, 👀 next post)

There're 42 Coal mines in the pipeline

Fri 13 Feb:

@albomp.bsky.social's Labor govt talks up renewable energy in Australia while approving new/extensions of Coal & Gas projects for climate-destroying exports

Today they approved an extension of Middlemount Coal mine (to 2044) that'll also kill greater gliders & koalas

We can move beyond the capitalist model and save the climate – here are the first three steps | Jason Hickel and Yanis Varoufakis Capitalism cares about our species’ prospects as much as a wolf cares about a lamb’s. But democratise our economy and a better world is within our grasp, say Jason Hickel and Yanis Varoufakis

Capitalism cares about our species’ prospects as much as a wolf cares about a lamb’s. But democratise our economy and a better world is within our grasp | Jason Hickel and Yanis Varoufakis www.theguardian.com/environment/...

YouTube video by 10 News Does Australia Get More Tax From Beer Than Gas?

Does the Australian government raise more money from beer than it does from the tax on our gas exports?

YES

And the look on their faces is priceless.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZln...

A digital twin for real-time biodiversity forecasting with citizen science data - Nature Ecology & Evolution Citizen science data are increasingly used in biodiversity monitoring. This study applies a digital twin approach to biodiversity monitoring using a large citizen science dataset on birds from Finland...

A digital twin for real-time biodiversity forecasting with citizen science data 🌎🌐🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Whilst much of Australia floods, rainfall in parts of southern SA and Vic is still 'lowest on record' over the last 2 years. And haven't had a drop of rain since November at the arboretum.

reg.bom.gov.au/climate/maps...

In the Netherlands, cycling and public transport aren’t competitors—they’re teammates. Invest in one, and the other gets stronger.

Nowhere is this clearer than at railway stations, where every design decision sharpens the bike infrastructure network and makes the door-to-door journey even smoother.

The Govt claims to be pro-market yet: $200m subsidy for oil exploration; Uncapped subsidies to decommission old oil fields; $1billion subsidy for LNG imports; Fonterra faces zero price for emissions under ETS. There is a pattern here. They are using the state to support and subsidise pollution.

And in Australia!

Never feel guilt because you borrow our books from the library rather than buying them. We love it!

How a warming planet could turn Iceland into a glacier The disruption of a current that carries heat north from the tropics would make much of the world hotter while turning Iceland into “one giant glacier.”

"In October, the government classified the AMOC collapse as a national security risk. It amounts to a reckoning with national survival."
And a major #AMOC change would seriously impact the world at large, even the tropics - not just Iceland. 🌊
www.adn.com/nation-world...

It appears you no longer have the right to protest | First Dog on the Moon Police charged at people who could not flee due to being kettled. As always police say that is not what happened

No more protesting thanks, that's it wrap it up it's not cohesive. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Interaction?

𝘐𝘕𝘛𝘌𝘙𝘈𝘊𝘛𝘐𝘖𝘕?

The woman was assaulted by the Police, @australia.theguardian.com.

There were witnesses on the ground.

Stop the whitewashing. #auspol #nswpol #PoliceViolence