James Benjamin

ICE Confirms Agents Do Not Have Faces Beneath Masks WASHINGTON—In response to legislation that would ban officers from obscuring their identities during arrests and raids, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed Thursday that beneath their m...

ICE Confirms Agents Do Not Have Faces Beneath Masks

Is there anyone here who read the original Millennium Trilogy (starting with "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo")? The series continued after Larrson's death. The latest ("The Girl With Ice in her Veins") almost reads like it was written by AI. Definitely a bit of a letdown.

🚨 Federal prosecutors have indicted Naasón Joaquín García, the “apostle” of La Luz del Mundo and leader of 5 million followers, on racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges.
open.substack.com/pub/theintel...

Didn’t the Soviets build Bagram?

“But why aren’t American women having more babies?”

Such a conundrum.🙄

currently at record-high search interest for canceling disney plus. pulling kimmel is a bigger deal to the company's bottom line than any of the "woke" scandals of the past 5 years. i think news & entertainment corp execs need put more work into understanding their audience, & get off twitter

Not surprised. That thug is corrupt as f*ck

Poem based on “First they came Martin Niemöller, rewritten by kamimagic

First, they blamed immigrants, taking jobs, etc.

Then they stripped women of medical care.

Then they targeted LGBTQ, crying about marriage.

Then they gut universities, crippling science.

Now they are silencing media, punishing journalists and comedians.

When will enough, be enough?

#ProudBlue

Becoming increasingly clear we’re gonna have to build a parallel infrastructure for all the media we really love. The reason all of this is happening under the color of law is hyperconsolidation, dissent being traded straight up for merger approval, or fear of harassment.

Before knowing all the facts, voices on the right are now exploiting the tragic death of Charlie Kirk & calling for all-out war on the left. This is sad, but not surprising, at a time when we should all be denouncing political violence. They were not so upset when Minn. Democrats were assassinated.

Trump and Republicans spent 8 months calling this the Big Beautiful Bill over and over like a mantra, but it’s so unpopular across the country that their solution is to start calling it something different hoping they can fool voters.

High cirrus clouds at sunset, with colors ranging from off-white to an almost orange. The sky at the top of the photo is deep blue but gets somewhat lighter as one looks downward.

Clouds at sunset.

This was just a quick shot I took while I was taking out trash and recyclables. Sometimes I simply appreciate scenes like this in the moment. Other times I choose to share them with others through photography.

YouTube video by Billy Rancher and The Unreal Gods - Topic Rocky Road

Some music for my night owls:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Vik...

YouTube video by robatsea2009 Billy Rancher and the Unreal Gods on REV 1983

A nod to the two years I spent in Tacoma back in the early 1980s:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQG8...

...fundamentally different conclusions is a story worth telling in its own right. And when it comes to that part of the story, I have the receipts. I obsessively hoard emails and texts for a reason. So, the next several years should be interesting, and if I play it right, fun. Cheers.

...If I can write a few articles and complete the book I have in mind, I think I can at least offer a counterpoint to what is still taken as prevailing wisdom on that phenomenon. I think there is a story to be told. The fact that a former coauthor and I can look at the same analyses and draw...

I want to see how this final chapter of my career unfolds. I think this could be fun, and Tolman was right about the point of this endeavor: it's to have fun. So, you have at your disposal one of a handful of weapons effect researchers still active. I just happen to be the skeptic of the group...

...climbing up to at least an R-2 university in my country. I'd say the events of 2018 put an end to that. I am now at the beginning of the end of my career. I figure I have a good 15 years in me before retirement. I actually feel I have the freedom to present my work with no f***s left to give....

We'll see where that set of validation studies ends up. I am hopeful. I've gone through periods where I do get a lot of data collected and written up (given I don't exactly work at a research-oriented university) before, but this time will hit differently. In the 2010s, I still had ambitions of...

...I'm working on it. The easiest part was done in 2020. The next step which is also not difficult should be done by the end of this semester. The more involved piece of that project will require others with lab space to collaborate. There are some folks I'll reach out to as time permits this year..

I'm done reflecting. I have several data sets that I have been sitting on for far too long and I am writing them up and seeing what happens with them. The next couple years should look fairly prolific for me. I also have an obligation to finish something I started with a friend in 2019...

...peer review publication I've had in six years. Yes, I have been silent that long. The pandemic didn't help. The reality is that after I successfully published a couple peer review articles in 2019, I needed to take some time to reflect and lick my wounds after the events of early 2018. So...

So, the manuscript revisions are done, along with a note addressing the concerns brought up in peer review. It will be good to see this one in print, especially since it is 1) part of the groundwork I am laying for the book I am still in the beginning stages of writing, and 2) it marks the first...

A tree-lined bicycle and pedestrian path in Rotterdam. To the left there are parked bicycles. To the right there are tables and chairs belonging to a restaurant, as summer is the perfect season for outdoor cafes. The leaves on the trees are green. There is a bicyclist in the background, riding away from the position of the photographer.

I took this photo in Rotterdam in early July 2019 outside a restaurant I ended up enjoying, Steak & Bier. One of the great things about the SIPS conference that year (in addition to all the awesome people I met) was being able to wander around after hours w/plenty of daylight well into the evening.

Centraal Station in Rotterdam in the evening.

Centraal Station in Rotterdam. This was taken in early July 2019, so it was fairly late in the evening.

A coastal photo. One can see the sky as it meets the ocean, and the sky blue hue of the ocean turning to white foam as the waves wash to shore. The sand is a tan color. The coastal bluffs have chaparral typical of southern California and have a vaguely green hue. There are distant clouds in the background, and signs of human activity on the beach proper.

This was a photo I shot at Crystal Cove State Beach earlier this month. This particular lookout practically tees up a good to perfect shot with minimal effort. I am grateful as that gave me more time to just live in the moment and experience this for what it was.

....I have never taken the time to just stop and soak it all in. I was glad I gave myself the chance to just stop and enjoy the view for a bit. I'll do my best to get a shot of the marker the next time I get a chance (probably not for another year or two).

A shop with light yellow paint with a sign that says "Continental Divide" and "Indian Market" above the entrance. The parking lot is mostly abandoned, and there are a couple trees in the background. The sky is blue with some high puffy clouds.

I took this earlier this month while I was on the I-40 between Gallup and Grants New Mexico. This shop is across from the continental divide marker. I took some photos of the marker as well, but I was disappointed with how they turned out. As many times as I have driven by this location....

Near the center are 4 palm trees with the sun setting behind them. The trail, sand, and pier are obscured by the shadowing and the coastal haze.

A sunset photo taken at Huntington Beach a little ways south of the pier. This was from July 2018.

A photo of railroad tracks taken on the grounds of the Fort Smith National Historic Site just south of the Harry E. Kelley River Park. The grass is mostly brown as are the remaining leaves on many of the trees.

For additional context, here is a similar shot I took in the same location in early November 2017. Although I can get some really beautiful shots in that area in the summer, I actually prefer autumn due to much more comfortable temperatures.