Karlin Lillington

No Help and Few Options for Travelers Stranded by Mideast Conflict

One woman who called the State Department helpline looking for help said they told her to "stop ranting and raving" and hung up on her.

Another woman said they asked her how to spell Oman.

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/t...

ICE taking steps to close detention center at Fort Bliss, document shows Preparations to shutter Camp East Montana in El Paso come less than eight months after facility’s opening, according to an internal ICE document.

Camp East Montana was supposed to be the Trump administration's model for a new breed of large-scale, makeshift immigrant detention centers. Eight tumultuous months, 60 violations and three deaths later, ICE is preparing to close it. New from me: t.co/jOIIRAMJCo

ICE taking steps to close detention center at Fort Bliss, document shows Preparations to shutter Camp East Montana in El Paso come less than eight months after facility’s opening, according to an internal ICE document.

Exclusive: ICE is taking steps to close Camp East Montana, a massive immigrant detention camp near the Mexican border that opened less than eight months ago, according to an internal document reviewed by The Post.

Big tech is hungry for consumer data. Mass. needs privacy legislation now The heart of the privacy bill that the Massachusetts legislature is now considering is a simple but firm rule that companies should collect and use only the personal information that they need to prov...

Woodrow Hartzog & Neil Richards: "The Legislature should ignore the high-priced lobbyists and pass a law that actually protects us from data-hungry business practices that benefit no one but big tech." @hartzog.bsky.social www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/...

Sam Altman admits OpenAI can’t control Pentagon’s use of AI CEO’s claims come amid increased scrutiny of US military’s use of the technology and ethics concerns from AI workers * Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told employees on Tuesday that his company does not control how the Pentagon uses their artificial intelligence products in military operations. Altman’s claims on OpenAI’s lack of input come amid increased scrutiny of how the military uses AI in war and ethics concerns from AI workers over how their technology will be deployed. “You do not get to make operational decisions,” Altman told employees, according to reports by Bloomberg and CNBC. Continue reading...

Sam Altman admits OpenAI can’t control Pentagon’s use of AI

Congratulations, you just passed Political Science 101. 🙄

the german word for this is lebensraum

‘Thought it was a collapsed drain’: golf course sinkhole exposes lost wine cellar Groundsman stumbles across room, sealed for more than 100 years, that was part of 12th-century Manchester hall

But of course www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Firefighter/Paramedics from Tara Street assisted with the delivery of a baby boy on Monday morning.

#DidYouKnow our maternity kits on our ambulance now come with a special Dublin Fire Brigade hat for newborns.

A minor league hockey team had a wiener dog race. Zero thoughts, just vibes and absolute chaos. A thing of beauty

Indefinite Book Club Hiatus Today in “Things that ‘AI’ has ruined”: No, I won’t be able to show up to your book club’s online/offline gathering, and the reason for this is simple: I, and li…

I get asked to show up to book clubs, online and offline. Here is why from now on the answer is always "no." If you think this might have something to do with "AI" ruining yet another thing for everyone, you're absolutely 100% correct.

whatever.scalzi.com/2026/03/03/i...

Tile, Safavid dynasty, Persia, 17thC (British Museum)

thanks Google, absolutely nailed it.

Terrible Economist cover with that guy who was PM after the lettuce, standing next to a vintage PC setup with a union flag in ASCII and the headline 'BritGPT: how to make Britain an AI superpower'.

Oh god remember this. June 2023.

Or just retire there myself 😄 📚

Or even THE first

I know, I already had tue first :)

I really want to meet all the residents that dropped these ones to the giveaway shelves and grab a coffee and have a book chat!

This was the stack I collected this visit.

Then they have so many residents donating used books to the in-house library that there's now three shelves dedicated to books available to take and keep, in the mail room. I always grab a few to read while there and return them, or take home. They REALLY want you to take them as they get so many.

Here's a couple of more cool things about the retirement place where my mom lives. First off -- this is pretty typical of the kind of weekly talks they have there. One time I visited, it was Obama's former tech security guy! I would have loved to hear this one, but I was leaving that day

"GDPR is ruining everything"

It was utterly insane

Children need anonymity and encryption! In recent weeks, two of the oldest issues on the internet have reared their ugly heads again: the demand that people use their ‘real names’ on social media, and the suggestion that we should underm…

From 2021: why children need anonymity and encryption…

paulbernal.wordpress.com/2021/09/16/c...

I watched Everything Everywhere All at Once on the flight home overnight yesterday and had to stifle a few intense bouts of laughter into the tiny airline pillow to keep from waking people up

‘No to war’: Sánchez doubles down after Trump threat to cut off trade with Spain PM says his country will not be complicit in growing conflict in Middle East ‘simply out of fear of reprisals from someone’ * Middle East crisis – live updates * Europe live – latest updates The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has responded to Donald Trump’s extraordinary threat to cut off all trade with Spain over his government’s refusal to facilitate the US’s ongoing attacks against Iran, comparing the growing conflict in the Middle East to playing “Russian roulette with the destiny of millions”. Sánchez, who has been one of the most vociferous European critics of Israel’s conduct in Gaza, said his government’s position on the widening instability could be summed up in three words: “No to war.” Continue reading...

‘No to war’: Sánchez doubles down after Trump threat to cut off trade with Spain

As many people have correctly pointed out: the worst outcome of this war is nuclear annihilation.

I made this point earlier: Trump's Iran invasion is completely inconsistent with both his National Defense Strategy (discussed here) and his National Security Strategy, both of which effectively say, "We've solved the Middle East!!!"

Quotes Falsely Attributed to Winston Churchill These fake quotes make for good storytelling, but popular myth has falsely attributed them to Winston Churchill.

A lot of the bon mots attributed to Churchill are things he didn't say. Don't take my word for it, listen to what the International Churchill Society say: share.google/RYLuiiuddQKL...

On Thursday 5 March at 4.30 our visiting Boston College Irish Studies scholar, Marcus Breen, will be speaking about 'The Struggle for Meaning in Irish Cultural Studies: Kneecap and Sinners'. All welcome in-person (Lanyon 01/052) or online. www.qub.ac.uk/schools/Iris...