Virginia S. O'Possum

Peter Finn Joins ProPublica, Spearheading Washington Bureau Expansion

HUGE NEWS at @propublica.org: Peter Finn Joins ProPublica, Spearheading Washington Bureau Expansion

As usual in this administration, I struggle to imagine what someone who deliberately styles himself every day to look like that would consider unflattering. The photographer did not style your hair that way. They did not put that sneer on your face. Is his custom Pentagon makeup studio failing him?

wow, a rare depiction of the coolest guy who ever lived.

Since March 2025, at least 1,243 people, incl. 17 children, were killed by drone strikes carried out by #Haiti |an security forces and private contractors working with them. 👇

Public health is a wild field to be in because when things go right, people assume we're not doing anything useful, and when things go wrong, people assume it's our fault.

This pattern dates back to the beginning of public health.

Thomas Massie has a degree from MIT. He understands what pasteurization is. He just believes that parents should have the right to risk poisoning their children based on unscientific lies they’ve been told by online grifters whose content has been algorithmically amplified for profit by billionaires

I'm only being mean about my manager because she's an editor and it can mean a mark of punctuation and editors should know the marks of punctuation.

Admit I have not been to the Seaport. Is it windy and bleak? That's how I imagine it, like the financial district on a Sunday in 1980.

Much older term, though.

Dear historians, my manager thinks the word "ditto" comes from the spirit copiers.

They would like to sell you a zipper but they want you to have the zipper you actually need. This shouldn't make them such a standout, but they are like this about everything.

Dear everyone,

As per the post from the Bodleian librarian below, AI bots and scrapers are putting just about every website under great pressure, British History Online included.

A lot of excellent tech staff are working hard to keep everything working, but outages and siruptions are inevitable.

pieces of linen fabric from prehistoric pile dwellings in Molina di Ledro (Trento #Alps)

Museo della Natura e dell’Uomo - Università di #Padova

pieces of linen fabric from prehistoric pile dwellings in Molina di Ledro (Trento #Alps)

Museo della Natura e dell’Uomo - Università di #Padova

A message saying “I bought your new book today and it is amazing a like amazing beyond words. I chair the special education team at my school and do a lot of emotional regulation and calming strategies for our kids in crisis and this book is going to become a staple in the office. I really cannot tell you how much I love it and how perfect it is.”

Stack of books titled “Look Out! Here Comes…The Mope!” by Dave Dellecese. Pink cover with a muppety doodle of a furry monster angrily walking off.

Getting a message like this means a lot.

It takes a certain kind of…narcissistic nihilism to look across the country at people self-organizing against something that is generally a fairly good material symbol of the intangible class warfare that has alienated them and say, “what a silly distraction from what *really* matters.” And yet…

That or they know his obsessions and inflated their sizes.

Apparently I am watching the bottom of the 9th, US-Italy, on fricking MLB Gameday. I should go to sleep.

Srsly?

Merchant vessel Seaway Hawk transporting decommissioned U.S. Navy Avenger-class Mine Countermeasures Ships USS Devastator, USS Dextrous, USS Gladiator and USS Sentry in the Delaware Bay to unload in Philadelphia tomorrow - March 9, 2026 SRC: FB- Delaware River Shipping / Andy Wyrick 📷

We live in a world beyond parody. The United States has had four minesweeper vessels in the Persian Gulf for 35 years. Just yesterday these ships arrived in Philadelphia to be decommissioned, a day before Iran announces that they are mining the Strait of Hormuz.

...any of the thousands of US Navy members current and former who have transited the Strait of Hormuz while Iran trolled the ship for shits and giggles can describe for you at least 3 ways they can close the Strait without attending any briefing.

Universal Basic Income

Have you really, tho?

I want this not to be true.

Sun Tzu (D-NY) - “When your enemy is making a mistake, fix it for him at great cost to yourself.”

For those keeping score at home:

I informed Grammarly via email precisely what I thought of their appropriation of my name and reputation and received an email from their head of litigation promising a full response by the end of the week.

To be continued...

I might have just blocked someone for EXPLAINING TO ME WHAT LOREM IPSUM IS AS IF I DON’T KNOW WHAT LOREM IPSUM IS, FFS.

Is this real?

I am now getting spam emails from my new health insurance third-party administrator. I do not want advice on choosing the right cooking oil. I would like you to pay the $2K in claims you're still yanking around.

I have never met anyone who is more adept at tracking every last cent they have than people who live or have lived in poverty

it is a skill developed out of necessity and it never leaves you