We’re not surprised to learn the DHS’s own Inspector General has found serious flaws in how the TSA protects its facial recognition data.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/10/dhs-inspector-general-finds-tsa-not-properly-safeguarding-passenger-facial

Anyone taking a car from the airport to the hotel should know that the main road between them is a parking lot. Give yourself extrrra time. #AoIR2026

Every time I see the sign for Pachuca, I want to go north and visit the university again lol

Paying more than I want for a cab but tbh I’m not picky. I’m hot, tired, and just want to crash.

The cab situation at T-1 is much easier imo.

We are living through what I would call a great unlearning, and therefore the death of expertise. @pluralistic summarizes this political and economic dimension in another scorcher.

We are not training juniors, we are substituting them with AI. Students in school will be cognitively impaired through consistent AI use, eroding their expertise and reducing their lived experiences to prompts. We are deflating our capacity to make sense of theory-free model output.

https://pluralistic.net/2026/10/06/nonfungible/

#AI

Flight into ATL must’ve been full of transfers- the pilot taxi’d like a fiend to get us to the gate, and the crew asked anyone not transferring to remain seated while we all scrambled off.

Had a lovely power walk to my outbound gate, though. ;)

On to CDMX!

A bill going through Canadian Parliament would set metadata surveillance requirements for internet and technology firms. Since Signal doesn't retain convresation metadata, this actually would weaken the service. Once again, they'd rather leave. https://freedom.press/digisec/blog/signal-we-wont-comply-with-canadian-surveillance-bill/

In Europe, you choose what you see and how long you scroll:​

✅ Non-personalised feed​
✅ No endless scrolling ​
✅ Effective screen-time tools​

​Rules in action: https://link.europa.eu/R84FFw

I used my new digital Virginia drivers license in Apple Wallet for the first time to get through TSA security. Definitely frictionless!

(Of course, I also opted out of the photo testing scheme they’re currently running at the checkpoints, because of course I would.)

Why do I somehow think I’m gonna come back from #AoIR2026 with a bridged Bluesky account even though the last thing I want to deal with is another social media feed?

I left Twitter because I was permanently banned for writing about fascism. . .

. . .Because Twitter is now a fascist platform controlled by the richest fascist in the world.

Some of us aren’t allowed there. So, the pro-X discourse seems like desperate (fascist) propaganda.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:waplkqr2wuy2c4qbge6h6ed4/post/3mky5taqg3222

RE: https://flipboard.com/@cnn/politics-17jf08kfz/-/a-uG9uW5x0Rdm2WQEVhvkksg%3Aa%3A132361178-%2F0

Ladies & Gentlemen: the President of the United States of America, someone with virtually unlimited access to information & intelligence from across the globe, has only just now figured out that the guy whose murder they were planning to livestream is a paraplegic.

#Kakistocracy #Trump

metaphor /mĕt′ə-fôr″, -fər/
noun

A figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison, as in “a sea of troubles”, sayeth The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

I tell you that story to tell you this one. The SS United States will be intentionally sunk in November. (To create an artificial reef, but still...the metaphor is inescapable.)

https://www.stripes.com/history/2026-10-13/uss-united-states-largest-artificial-reef-23144494.html

Happy #AoIR2026 Eve to those who observe…,

For a few days I’ve been getting this weird antiseptic/chemical smell periodically when I walked around my flat, but I couldn’t pin it down.

Turns out it was a new bottle of Drano that had apparently sprung a leak just sitting on the shelf.

Glad I found it before I left town tomorrow and the shelf area is only slightly discolored.

Blergh.

Oh, no.

https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/13/europe/pope-hospital-lung-surgery-intl

Def Leppard is playing an indoor arena show here in DC next March.

I've done the B'more trip twice to see them indoors, and also twice to Jiffy Lube Live (I hate hate outdoor concerts, especially in summer.)

This one's an arena, convenient, and during Spring Break. 👍

So...yeah, I may have splurged for uber-VIP ticket experience as a gift to myself for reasons. (Skipping the opening acts, though.)

⸙࿔*:・༄˖

Laura Miers: The United Nations General Assembly adopted a new Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness, and Response (PPPR) declaration.

The United States, Israel, & Argentina stood alone & voted against it.

They are going to kill us.

https://healthpolicy-watch.news/un-adopts-political-declaration-on-pandemic-preparedness/

Closer to Ukraine through deeper cooperation on cybersecurity.

We held our 5th EU–Ukraine Cyber Dialogue in Brussels. It was an important opportunity to discuss operational cybersecurity cooperation, alignment with EU norms and policies, cyber defence and diplomacy, including sanctions.

The Dialogue confirmed our shared understanding of cyber-related issues and our commitment to deepen cooperation, with a focus on concrete operational results.

https://link.europa.eu/GBch6x