The Facts in the Case of Dr Dedman

MAJESTIC REALTY CO. STATEMENT RE: BUILDING IN HUTCHINS, TEXAS “While we were contacted about the potential sale of our building in Hutchins, Texas, Majestic Realty Co. has not and will not enter into any agreement for the purchase or lease of any building to the Department of Homeland Security for use as a detention facility. We’re grateful for the long-term relationship we have with Mayor Mario Vasquez and the City of Hutchins and look forward to continuing our work to find a buyer or lease tenant that will help drive economic growth.”

BREAKING: Majestic Realty, who owns one of the warehouses ICE was planning to purchase to create a detention camp, announced today that it would not sell to the agency. More at DMagazine.com shortly.

Federal bureaucrats accepted 1,026 gifts with a total value of $540,000 last year Gift givers include foreign governments, corporations and lobbyists — as well as AI companies such as OpenAI, which hosted several dinners for senior government officials.

Foreign governments, corporations, lobbyists and industry associations were among those to share their generosity with senior public servants in 2025.

I've never seen it on stage, but I love the movie. The only problem I have with it is whenever I watch Jesus Christ Superstar and the apostles sing, "Then we retire, we can write the gospels" I hear it as "Then when we retire, we can star in Godspell."

And the DJ from The Warriors.

Thousands of paywalled research papers could be freed with this simple fix ‘Green open access’ has existed for decades – and it’s not hard to get academics to use it more.

theconversation.com/thousands-of...

It's like ICE is completely ignoring every lesson that moderately competent police forces are forced to learn, like "don't do high speed chases in densely populated areas with low risk targets"

I think that cozying up to a convicted child sex offender, taking his money for your projects, and talking to him about how great he is are all worthy of moral condemnation even if they are not crimes.

The limits of good behavior do not start and end with what’s legal.

Taunts, harassment and assaults: landmark report finds racism at Australian universities is ‘systemic’ Survey by Australian Human Rights Commission found universities failed to meet duty of care, while complaints processes were ‘Kafkaesque’ * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Racism is “systemic” at Australia’s universities, according to a landmark report found students have mocked their Palestinian peers with shouts of “terrorism”, some students have been followed by campus security and First Nations students have been compared to “petrol sniffers” in lecture halls. The report also found Jewish students were fearful to attend classes, with one harassed for wearing their kippa walking to class and another who described people screaming “send them to the camps” at a group of Jews on campus. Continue reading...

Taunts, harassment and assaults: landmark report finds racism at Australian universities is ‘systemic’

Speaking of whistles... it's just a countdown now to see how many hours it takes us to cross 750,000 whistles. Shortly after that we'll cross 500,000 for February.

When @courtneymilan.com told me we were going to ship half a million in February I was like "lol ok" but I should not have doubted her.

A worker was sacked over his side hustle. Here are 5 tips for employees with second gigs

Know the rules so your side gig doesn’t spill over into your main employment.

Leaders: The problem is complex and multi-layered The problem: Lobbyists Politicians Voters

Should we seize homes left empty for years and turn them into public housing? Come chat about it on Tuesday 24 Feb at 6:30pm at the Queensberry Hotel in Carlton!

Goodbye and Good luck, David Brooks His musings about personal morality have been thoughtful; his views about public morality and our political economy, far less so.

Goodbye and Good luck, David Brooks
open.substack.com/pub/robertre...

Men flock back to the Coalition now that it's Taylor time — and bad lady go away Men are beginning to swing back to the Coalition now that Angus Taylor has become the Liberal leader. What does that say about male voters?

Men flock back to the Coalition now that it’s Taylor time — and bad lady go away www.crikey.com.au/2026/02/17/s...

We just started watching Starfleet Academy and I just yelled “oh my god, it’s one of the black and white people from “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield!” which proves that I am so very old and very geeky.

every shot-on-video, made-with-a-camcorder horror movie that's just some teenage friend group fucking around in the woods with some fake blood and a monster mask contains more artistic merit, human joy and creative light than anything AI has ever made or will ever, ever make

‘Landmark’ greenwashing case against Australian gas giant Santos dismissed by federal court Legal bid by shareholder advocacy group over alleged misleading ‘net zero’ and ‘clean energy’ claims fails * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Sign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter here Gas company Santos has successfully defended a landmark greenwashing case in which it was accused of making misleading claims about its net zero plans and being a producer of “clean” energy. In a blow for climate activists, the federal court on Tuesday dismissed the case brought by the shareholder advocacy group the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR). Continue reading...

‘Landmark’ greenwashing case against Australian gas giant Santos dismissed by federal court

The drunk uncle theory.

You don’t argue with the casually homophobic uncle at Thanksgiving dinner to change his mind; you argue so that the closeted cousin at the kids table knows there’s safe people and better possibilities out there

Men flock back to the Coalition now that it's Taylor time — and bad lady go away Men are beginning to swing back to the Coalition now that Angus Taylor has become the Liberal leader. What does that say about male voters?

Men flock back to the Coalition now that it’s Taylor time — and bad lady go away www.crikey.com.au/2026/02/17/s...

With Sussan Ley gone, the Farrer by-election is the AEC's nightmare come true A by-election was the one thing the AEC didn't need right now. Then Sussan Ley announced she was planning to retire.

The AEC's 'very challenging' task of implementing new donation disclosure rules may be able to get a lot harder if Sussan Ley's seat of Farrer goes to a by-election before July 1.

agree with this (hah) but also think a particular mistake the left made for a long time online, and still makes to an extent, is failing to understand that the person whose mind you may actually change is the one reading the argument you're having, not the one you're arguing with

Personal Interlude: “A Date With Density”

Modest Proposals On Dragging Literary Conventions Out of the 20th Century, Part 2 (Remember how, in the days of standard episodic television before streaming and binging, many dramas and some comedies would give a thumbnail update starting with “Previously…

So when thousands of women (and children) were being duplicated--including in non-consensual AI porn--it was no big deal. But it took "only a 15-sec clip" of these two famous white men to draw outrage and fear. Gotcha. Cool cool.

"We will need writers who can remember freedom." -Ursula K. Le Guin

Ugghhh, these fuckers forcing AI slop into everything. It's true, the attached screenshot is my Insta when I went to check. They have no permission to use our voices.

A legacy to challenge and inspire: farewell Lionel Fogarty, poet and activist

Novelist Alexis Wright has described Lionel Fogarty as Aboriginal literature’s ‘poet laureate’. His was a life of energy, art, yarning, poetry and politics.

Personal Interlude: “A Date With Density” Modest Proposals On Dragging Literary Conventions Out of the 20th Century, Part 3 (Remember how, in the days of standard episodic television before streaming and binging, many dramas and some comed…

New Personal Interlude installment, featuring the hope of a litcon world free of everyone's least favorite attendee: stremedius.com/2026/02/16/p...

A remember to all to not buy AI-written yokai books!

There are so many great books on yokai written by humans, like Zack's translation of Mizuki below. My own books, of course, and books by other flesh-and-blood authors.

We work hard to make sure you get real information, not hallucinated slop.

Bush literally taught the American public what military and government torture means.

bsky.app/profile/bikn...

Long-term, we need to make Congress a functional and truly co equal institution but also in that world I want federal judges to keep the energy they have gotten in touch with the last few months.