We knew this was coming, but now the clock is running. From Privacy International:

"Yesterday the Trump Administration announced a proposed change in policy for travellers to the U.S. It applies to the powers of data collection by the Customs and Border Police (CBP)."

"If the proposed changes are adopted after the 60-day consultation, then millions of travellers to the U.S. will be forced to use a U.S. government mobile phone app, submit their social media from the last five years and email addresses used in the last ten years, including of family members. They’re also proposing the collection of DNA."

PI linked to and summarized a Federal Register entry describing the proposed requirements:

-All visitors must submit ‘their social media from the last 5 years’

-ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorization) applications will include ‘high value data fields’, ‘when feasible’
‘telephone numbers used in the last five years’
-‘email addresses used in the last ten years’
-‘family number telephone numbers (sic) used in the last five years’
-biometrics – face, fingerprint, DNA, and iris
-business telephone numbers used in the last five years
-business email addresses used in the last ten years.

https://www.privacyinternational.org/news-analysis/5713/trump-administration-wants-your-dna-and-social-media

The Federal Register entry says comments are encouraged and
must be submitted (no later than February 9, 2026) to be assured of consideration.

Federal Register entry: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2025-12-10/pdf/2025-22461.pdf

@vicgrinberg pilates is the best. I bought a 3rd hand reformer and never looked back. Ghetes something remarkable about pilates that sings to me, almost like meditation.

@vicgrinberg I try to run but I plod it doesn't matter how much I try or adjust my gait I plod. I feel like a great plodding elephant and I trip up on my own feet. Weirdly I don't experience any of that when I dance. Bodies are fun, aren't they.

#Polarlights / #Polarlichter / #AuroraBorealis North Germany, what a show, froze my fingers but well worth it. The auroras danced.

Just so tired.

@sergio_101

There used to be a thing called National Novel Writing Month, which was a non-profit which ran an event every November encouraging people to write a novel in a month. 50,000 words, one month. This is not _that_ difficult to achieve, mind you; it's 1650 words a day, roughly. I, personally, can write that many words in 20 minutes or so, but that's a pure function of my writing speed and has nothing to do with the work of "actually thinking about what story you want to tell".

Last year, the organization that ran NaNoWriMo, which had been doing so for over two decades, self-destructed in a few months. It was a sad thing, truly. It was a real force for good in the world, in my opinion. The volunteers and rank and file that made it special did not deserve to be put into the line of fire when their leadership decided to go on a full-on AI bootlicking rampage, complete with comparing AI skepticism to _ableism_.

So now, some folks who really liked the spirit of NanoWriMo have started using the tag #WritingMonth as a stand-in for the old event. One such individual, the inimitable @amin, decided to be the change they wanted to see, and made https://writingmonth.org, which has a dedicated core team of contributors (myself included) expanding and extending the site to try to bottle some of the lightning that NaNoWriMo tapped into for all those years.

The task is simple: Pick a goal, a number of words, chapters, blog posts, scenes in a play, _whatever_ that you want to write in a month, and then _do it_.

Here's my progress: https://writingmonth.org/~b4ux1t3/

:) Feel free to add me as a buddy if you sign up.

@markmccaughrean most excellent!

@markmccaughrean see you there am bringing my book.

Protesting over Gaza’s starvation feels like screaming into a void – but we mustn’t stop | Nesrine Malik
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#GazaMEWS #Israel-gazaWarMEWS #IsraelMEWS #BenjaminNetanyahuMEWS #PalestinianTerritoriesMEWS #KeirStarmerMEWS #DavidLammyMEWS #PoliticsMEWS #MiddleEastAndNorthAfricaMEWS #WorldNewsMEWS #MEWS
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Political platitudes and a few trucks of aid won’t save the children dying now. But the...

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/28/gaza-israel-aid-starvation-children

@markmccaughrean this little critter was happy burrowing in the plant we were buying at the baumarket. We stood and waited while it did its thing before heading inside to buy.

@markmccaughrean been a great deal of that sort of weather up hear and the humidity is insane. Just meh.

@markmccaughrean yikes

@markmccaughrean that's fun!

For German-speaking folks with a subscription to @DerSpiegel, my interview with @chs42 about my book, “111 Places in Space That You Must Not Miss” is now online 🇩🇪

We covered a lot of ground (& space), not least our shared love of Douglas Adams &, well, not love for you know who … 🤷‍♂️🙂

https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/weltall/astronomie-mark-mccaughrean-ueber-seinen-reisefuehrer-fuers-weltall-douglas-adams-und-elon-musk-a-78504108-f1e1-4b29-9e44-6a176430c7d6

@markmccaughrean It's a lovely lovely book!!!!

@markmccaughrean zoom zoom

Tamir Rice would have been 22 today
Ruby Dee died 11 years ago Wednesday
Ice Cube is 56 today
Ella Fitzgerald died 29 years ago today
Che Guevara would have been 97 yesterday
Gregory Peck died 22 years ago Thursday

#blackmastodon

@markmccaughrean am not complaining about getting it early! Happy happy in what has become a kind of grim world.

@markmccaughrean I pre ordered direct, maybe that's why it arrived today?

@markmccaughrean right choice!