Brainwashing, 2026 edition. This paper shows how X's algorithmic feed shifts people's views rightwards. It's a sophisticated, highly effective form of reorientation. And it is utterly chilling. If you're still on that platform, unhook yourself now. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The political effects of X’s f...

Quietly, the Trump administration is now ending even the life-saving aid that they promised would be preserved

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/2026/02/trump-state-department-ending-aid-seven-african-countries/686106/?gift=hVZeG3M9DnxL4CekrWGK3xzCPg7Z1oVNh5eTu3qO-Zc

No, as someone who has given up millions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of followers on that site, and lost two jobs now to do the right thing, I think I grasped it entirely. That ain’t leadership.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:guwuxmggenz5ecxqhwesuxi2/post/3mfj2bzypws2g

A Voice Sounding Like Trump Called Into C-SPAN And His Name Was A Pseudonym Trump Has Reportedly Used (Paige Skinner/HuffPost)

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-c-span-pseudonym_n_699b3818e4b0f41da8cd83c1
http://www.memeorandum.com/260222/p55#a260222p55

They can’t figure out how to spend the extra $500 billion they gave themselves for the military, but cut our healthcare and food assistance because they said they couldn’t afford it.

I think the #ActivityPub client-to-server API is extremely important and underrated. I’m glad to see the SWF and W3C group prioritizing it, because I think it has the potential to fix something that’s kind of broken on the #Fediverse: too many accounts, on too many platforms that really ought to be clients.

Here’s the rub, though: you need the big players in the space to support it. Mastodon needs to support it. Pixelfed and PeerTube need to support it.

So, how do you get the big existing projects to all implement it? How do you justify it?

A whopping 96% of Volkswagen workers at the Chattanooga plant voted for the first major union contract at a Southern auto plant in decades. https://www.dworkinsubstack.com/p/heres-why-trumps-having-an-absolute?publication_id=392745&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email-share&triggerShare=true&r=49qi9

@jerry @zackwhittaker Pulse Secure's problems started way before Ivanti. I was at NetScreen when we acquired Neoteris in 2003 - back then, the SSL VPN product was *fantastic*. The Juniper acquisition was the beginning of the decline - Pradeep didn't give a shit about anything that didn't run JunOS, so ScreenOS and Secure Access were among the many red-headed stepchildren that came into the product portfolio by acquisition and then were completely neglected.
When we found out the (rebranded) Pulse Secure line was being sold, I was initially excited at the chance to be something other than a wart - but Siris was chasing that 10x return and when they couldn't get it by generating more revenue, they started cutting headcount. Many of the developers, QA, and support engineers who understood the products were let go long before the Ivanti acquisition... which compounded the problem of an aging codebase and increasingly complicated set of bolt-ons as Siris chased the latest buzzwords.
This whole China debacle was *entirely* predictable and *entirely* avoidable. The incentives in the security industry are just fucked. (@haroonmeer absolutely nailed this back in 2019, btw: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GHuQC1qLnJ4 )

The Trump administration eliminated a nutrition education program that saved more money on healthcare costs than it spent, even as government agencies stress getting Americans to eat healthier.

https://theconversation.com/trump-administration-axed-nutrition-education-program-that-saved-more-money-than-it-cost-even-as-government-encourages-healthier-eating-272002
#MAHA #health

New GOP laws in North Carolina require local sheriffs to work with ICE. Research confirms that a large share of ICE arrests take place in jails, and that many more immigrants are arrested where local governments are cooperating.

https://boltsmag.org/north-carolina-2026-primary-immigration-policy/

Google continues to take money for malware pretending to be Homebrew installation.

There’s nothing Homebrew can do about this. Google needs to fix it.

Please put me in contact with someone at Google high enough level to actually fix it.

https://github.com/Homebrew/install/issues/1074

@ai6yr
This should be massively illegal, with severe consequences:

'... she kept hearing the same thing from them: that ICE officers are paid a bonus every time they detain someone. “Individual ICE agents get money per head that they detain – the guards told me that,” Karen says.'

In February 2023, Jonathan Elwing publicly argued that creating a database of pastors credibly accused of sexual abuse would "be the end of the SBC."
Fourteen months later, he was arrested for allegedly doing the very thing such a database was designed to expose.

https://churchleaders.com/news/2213969-trial-date-jonathan-elwing-csam.html

An OR family is mourning the loss of their father shortly after they say he was deported. Detained:➡️caught Covid & pneumonia in a cold cell➡️deported➡️hadn’t lived in MX for >30 yrs➡️💔died alone there. The family blames #ICE. Given his treatment in #detention➡️deported while sick:➡️warranted.

The fed govt is committing #CrimesAgainstHumanity in its quest to deport millions of ppl. Imagine the 10s of 1000s💔of #immigrants who’ve met similar fates‼️

#DHS #Protest #USPol
https://www.whsv.com/2026/02/21/no-one-deserves-this-father-dies-shortly-after-being-deported-by-ice-loved-ones-say/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=snd&utm_content=whsv#

Study shows how rocket launches pollute the atmosphere
Is the global atmospheric commons destined to be an industrial waste dumping ground?
https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/02/study-shows-how-rocket-launches-pollute-the-atmosphere/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

@inpc Oof 🖥️ 💔

Remember that #aws #outage in December? AI engine decided to delete and recreate environments in total autonomy. There was no change management approval, as the AI was given operator permissions. Who in the hell even does this? Jeff Bezos, that's who. LOLOL... I guess just get the popcorn out and watch the world burn... https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/amazon-ai-aws-outages

This is insane! A few researchers from UCSD and UMCP scanned bunch of satellite links, found much of the traffic is not encrypted, and went on to decode them. It's amazing what came out.

- T-Mobile backhaul: Users' SMS, voice call contents and internet traffic content in plain text.
- AT&T Mexico cellular backhaul: Raw user internet traffic
- TelMex VOIP on satellite backhaul: Plaintext voice calls
- U.S. military: SIP traffic exposing ship names
- Mexico government and military: Unencrypted intra-government traffic
- Walmart Mexico: Unencrypted corporate emails, plaintext credentials to inventory management systems, inventory records transferred and updated using FTP

While it is important to work on futuristic threats such as Quantum cryptanalysis, backdoors in standardized cryptographic protocols, etc. - the unfortunate reality is that the vast majority of real-world attacks happen because basic protection is not enabled. Lets not take our eyes off the basics.

Great work, Wenyi Zhang, Annie Dai, Keegan Ryan, Dave Levin, Nadia Heninger and Aaron Schulman!

https://satcom.sysnet.ucsd.edu/docs/dontlookup_ccs25_fullpaper.pdf