NY Times' 6 month-long investigation built on more than 10,000 pages of FOIA records pinpoints the locations of the 71 coal plants, 71 chemical plants, 40 sterilizers, 19 steel-related facilities and 1 copper smelter exempted from clean-air regulations.

"The exemptions represent the biggest presidential intervention in enforcement of the Clean Air Act in the half-century since President Nixon signed the bedrock environmental law."

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/24/climate/trump-epa-chemical-air-pollution.html?unlocked_article_code=1.LFE.oERv.sDOtmwuSmKWz&smid=nytcore-android-share
#UsPol
2/n

Today I saw one of the weirdest and coolest sea slugs I've ever seen and it was in New Hampshire. This is Elysia chlorotica, a slug that eats algae and steals its chloroplasts to use for photosynthesis. Yes, this slug is solar powered!

#seaslugs #underwaterphotography #macro #om1 #NewEngland 🦑 📷

fuck Loblaws very much for this

> The CEO of Canada's largest grocery retailer is apologizing to about two million shoppers for a data breach earlier this year where hackers accessed private information, including names, addresses, phone numbers, birthdates and purchase details.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/loblaw-data-breach-apology-9.7393626

RE: https://beige.party/@adub/117495774729793043

Sign up for that loyalty card, get your identity stolen.

Also, while I'm posting about South African history:

It's pronounced Up-Hard-Hate, with the stress on the second syllable. I've heard some foreigners, doubtless well-intentioned, pronouncing it Appar-Theyd. It's a compound word, where the t is the last letter of "apart", and the h is the first letter of "heid". You don't pronounce the "th" like you would in "thick" or "with", but pronounce them separately like in "butthead".

Oh dear dear me.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/christopher-luxon-pictured-with-black-power-members-at-abuse-apology/5RT63DQBRBBT3MWXEBEYDOPZEM/

This isn't the whole story, but this graphic makes the really important point, that behind low levels of job satisfaction & ongoing health issues, we need to focus on the shift(s) in the economic system, not the changes in jobs (although, unlike this graphic I'd want to argue that these too are significant drivers of people's negative experiences of the world of work & life more generally).

#Workers #politics #capitalism

h/t Paolo Gallo/LinkenIn

Genocide is still on.
Principled action - from states, companies, institutions and people - is needed to stop it.
Worldwide strike- Oct 30.

#Spotted on Market Day in Aotearoa New Zealand

A man (80s?) with a prodigious bushy moustache takes a bite from a cream donut and SQUISH.
Cream covering his moustache and squootling up his nostrils.
His wife howling with laughter.

A tiny human (2?) is crouched next to a culvert, peering inside and pointing.
Asking Mum: "What's IN there?"
Mum says: "Probably some bugs."
Tiny Human Culvert Scientist looks offended at the lack of rigorous evidence to back up this statement. "NO MUM! There's not enough ROOM!"

A tiny human (1.5?) has got Dad's car keys in his hands and is off!
Toddle-galloping through the markets.
Dodging and weaving!
Chortling and giggling!
Will he get away?!
(Dad in hot pursuit!)

A young human (8?) is RACING through the markets.
Holding a paper bag out in front of him.
Expression urgent as he passes his Mum's stall while bellowing: "IT'S AN EMERGENCY! DAD NEEDS HIS COOKIE!"

A woman (60s?) is addressing a herd of ice-cream covered small humans (3-6?)
Hands on hips, she says: "Okay my little fraggles, how about we take you all to the park and wear you out?"
Little Fraggles think this is a marvellous idea.

Any typos spotted in this post are very much looking forward to the Ngatimoti Festival tomorrow. If typos spotted, they'll be happily munching a cookie they got at the markets. (It was an emergency!)

BREAKING: Photos emerge of David Seymour associating with a pedophile.

Which as we all know must mean he supports it

#NZpol

BREAKING: Photos emerge of Luxon associating with a convicted fraudster, rapist, and war criminal

#NZpol

Indian Supreme Court rules that cancer drug markups are extortionate, orders them to drop

Prices are expected to drop about 70%

Sadly the woman who sued to bring the case to court did not live to see it. RIP Sarojam Radhakrishnan

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/oct/23/india-cuts-cost-cancer-drugs

#India

By the way, this part of the eMudhra story doesn't get the attention it deserves: Google hired Daniel Bleichenbacher, he wrote a tool to identify insecure cryptographic artifacts, and Google did not use it regularly to check certificates and intermediates trusted by Chrome's root store.

“Israel has been using “hasbara” trolls on social media platforms to manipulate public debates in Britain for years – the thrust of the accusation against Russia. But in Israel’s case, it goes much further than that….

thanks to the work of the French security services – maybe MI5 was too busy chasing Russian bots to notice – that an Israeli cyber agency called Blackcore targeted the SNP in May’s Scottish elections, as well as meddling in elections in France and New York.”

https://dorseteye.com/worried-about-russian-meddling-in-uk-politics-wait-till-you-see-what-israel-is-up-to/

Computers were not a mistake.

The Internet was not a mistake.

The mistake was allowing everything to be about money and power rather than community building.

As of yesterday, you can view an STL model of the 2×4 Lego-style brick on Wikimedia Commons. I started this project back in late August, then took a hiatus sometime in mid-September due to boredom before staying up almost all night yesterday to complete it. Surely, it might have been bad for my sleep cycle, but, you know, dopamine. Anyway, I really like how the result turned out. Oh, and it's available under the free Creative Commons Attribution license.
#Blender #Lego #CreativeCommons

🔵 This week's Tom the Dancing Bug
🤡 D'oh! A Simpsonian look at Putin/Trump/Musk's Ukrainian War
-
Brought to you by the Inner Hive, including long-time member Auntie Freeze and new member Josh Finder! Join us at tomthedancingbug.com/the-inner-hive/
READ IT RIGHT HERE👇

Every party has history of gang interactions. Both Lab & Nat govts have directed funding to gang-adjacent groups and met regularly. This isnt something to be ashamed of; when the Nats point fingers, point them back - don't cower in a corner and lose a good candidate. Terrible precedent.
#nzpol

They thought they were taking part in a patriotic documentary. In reality they were the punchlines of a new Ali G film.

Sacha Baron Cohen tricked a bunch of MAGA fans into making fools of themselves, including a Republican Party Chairman from El Paso and disgraced Republican George Santos.

The plot gets quite dark when team MAGA have no problem gassing the babies of immigrants.

Not everyone enjoys this man's humour, but you have to admit he's good at getting Republicans to expose their true selves.

The Guardian story includes a trailer for the film.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/oct/22/republican-leader-embarrassed-by-ali-g-film-says-he-plans-to-sue-sacha-baron-cohen-a-liar-and-a-pervert

#SachaBaronCohen #AliG

I got hauled into a data center today because Claude was used to spec it and screwed up badly. At least 2,500 GPUs were in an impossible upside down and backwards plan.

😱

I had to pause the call because I couldn't stop laughing. AI had sabotaged the AI datacenter spec for building more AI.