Benjamin Root

He needs to grow into them.

Meet O’Jizo, an Irish band from Japan Tokyo-born flutist Kozo Toyota fell for Irish music after hearing fiddle tunes in Tokyo Disneyland. He co-founded a Celtic trio, which marries traditional Irish repertoire with contemporary grooves an...

Tokyo-born flutist Kozo Toyota fell for Irish music after hearing fiddle tunes in Tokyo Disneyland. He co-founded a Celtic trio, and the band plays Club Passim on Friday.

System76 fighting for open source being excluded from Colorado age checks There's a lot of age checking / age assurance bills going around right now, and System76 have entered the fight in Colorado to help open source.

System76 fighting for open source being excluded from Colorado age checks
#Linux #OpenSource #LinuxGaming

Even as a cynical scholar of rape culture, I'm shocked that this isn't the headline story on domestic politics everywhere right now. It's just an unfathomable abuse of power, in clear violation of the law.

Trump just rolled out a cruel anti-trans prison policy doctors are calling ‘dangerous’ A new Bureau of Prisons move requiring that transgender inmates be tapered off their hormones could bring serious health consequences, physicians and advocates warn.

NEWS: The Trump administration is forcing transgender inmates to detransition by implementing a new policy that would withhold their medical treatment in a way that puts clinicians in conflict with ethics and patients in danger.

www.advocate.com/politics/nat...

Graphic of headline that reads, "Johnson says Iran supplemental funding bill 'inevitable.'" Background graphic is of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth with TV headline that reads, "Hegseth says Iran faces 'most intense' day of strikes yet.'" Full text of story linked in reply.

Americans are paying for this war at the pump. Americans are paying for this war with their lives. Now Trump and Republicans are asking Americans to foot the bill for more of this war with their tax dollars. No. No more funding for this reckless war.

White House plan to break up iconic U.S. climate lab moves forward Bidders have lined up to take over pieces of the National Center for Atmospheric Research

My latest for @science.org on the fraught future of NCAR as NSF's deadline nears. It can still go so many ways.

Oh, ffs.

US Navy tells shipping industry Hormuz escorts not possible for now The U.S. Navy has refused near-daily requests from the shipping industry for military escorts through the Strait of Hormuz since ​the start of the war on Iran, saying the risk of attacks is too high f...

Whoa. This is big. "The U.S. Navy has refused near-daily requests from the shipping industry for military escorts through the Strait of Hormuz since the start of the war on Iran, saying the risk of attacks is too high for now." www.reuters.com/world/middle...

Just walked by a Waymo that is blocking at least 10 cars from leaving a parking garage (took this after I crossed the street) in downtown LA.

It’s parked directly in front of the garage exit. No one has any ability to move it. So an entire parking garage is getting backed by an empty car

Holy shit - this would be very, very bad:
"The databases, called “Numident” and the “Master Death File,” include records for more than 500 million living and dead Americans, including Social Security numbers, places and dates of birth, citizenship, race and ethnicity, and parents’ names."

Tina Peters’ attorney says she 'has remorse' after governor says remorse is a requirement for clemency An attorney for the famously defiant election denier suddenly said she has remorse after Colorado’s governor said it was a prerequisite to receive clemency.

Tina Peters' attorney now says she "has remorse" (satisfying Gov Polis' requirement for clemency) while also claiming Peters is a "martyr" and "scapegoat" who is in prison to cover up the crimes of Colorado's top Democrats. www.9news.com/article/news...

I talked to dozens of experts in government, academia, cybersecurity, and industry about exactly this scenario last year and not only did not one of them think I was being alarmist, many brought it up unprompted and many said there was zero chance it hadn’t already happened

DHS Ousts CBP Privacy Officers Who Questioned ‘Illegal’ Orders Department of Homeland Security leaders removed top privacy officers who objected to mislabeling government records to block their public release, WIRED has learned.

Scoop: DHS ousted multiple privacy officers at CBP after they questioned orders to purposely mislabel records about government surveillance to prevent their release under FOIA.

Sure sounds like somebody at DOGE took the Social Security numbers and personal information of every American on record, and put it on a thumb drive to bring home to Elon Musk’s AI company.

A masterclass by @davidjbier.bsky.social on how to maintain your composure and principles in the face of people unable to do either.

We don't need to yell or mock because the facts, the law, and common decency are on our side, as David made apparent before someone unfit to hold the seat he's in.

Heh, later in the hearing, the forensics expert revealed that there was no major deletion, and the document was open for 25 minutes before getting a massive amount of text written all at once. I wonder if the guy even knows about "track changes"?

He said while continuing to intentionally deceive the court...

*cough*Bullshit*cough*

We got a two-fer excuse! The classic "the computer ate my homework" and the new-fangled "I used AI"

FWIW, this echoes a misquote that I caught in the Minnesota case I covered this morning — www.lawdork.com/p/posse-comi... — relating to the text of a federal law.

Trump’s Medicaid work mandate could kick thousands of homeless Californians off coverage On a brisk January morning, physician assistant Brett Feldman searched the streets of Los Angeles for patients, knocking on car windows and peering into tents.

On Medicaid Work Requirements, as required by HR-1 (2025):

"Meeting those requirements will be particularly challenging for the state’s roughly 180,000 homeless people. They often have no phones or internet to complete a job application. They have limited access to meals, showers or clean clothes."

Muslim Americans are our neighbors, friends, and family. Hate won't make us safer.

Ok, so I'm actually a fan of laser-based missile defense, but setting that aside...

All I'm thinking here are people on the sidelines using lasers to distract players while the Patriots try to win a game.

Trump on Cuba: "It may be a friendly takeover. It may not be a friendly takeover. It wouldn't matter."

More children were murdered or maimed in the past two weeks by his decisions than probably ever were "mutilated" by a doctor in the U.S.

Didn't the FBI just shut down the unit last month that tracks this sort of stuff?

Q: You said you have someone in mind to be the new Iranian leader. Someone internal?

TRUMP: I think the idear of eter -- internal and eternal, come to think of it. But I like the idear of internal because it workssssss well. I think we've proven that so far in Venezuela. We have a woman -- Delcy

Production is under 1 million barrels per day. It has been roughly 60 days. I have a hard time believing this... as usual.

SMBC 4-panel comic update. A man is walking down the alley of a store with a baby in a sling placed over his chest. The man is thinking "I love the way the world treats you when you have a baby." He continues in the next panel "a single guy alone isn't a welcome presence most places. Somehow, you're both ignored and distrusted." He looks happy in the third panel, and the background color brightens, as he thinks to himself "put a baby in his hands and everyone wants to know what's up with that guy!" In the final panel, the man is being arrested for kidnapping as he yells, smiling, "I matter!"

The baby also goes to jail and has the cutest little orange jumpsuit.

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