Sid Olufs
@sidster7.bsky.social
Professor Emeritus (Latin for not no more) of politics at Pacific Lutheran. 39 years there, 4 at U of Montana before that. Teaching tai chi these days, including sword and cane. Appreciative of the many smart and caring people on BlueSky.
Ah, made it to 95. Well done, Sir.
From Boo Radley to Jean-Pepe, masterful artist.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/16/m...
From Boo Radley to Jean-Pepe, masterful artist.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/16/m...
Robert Duvall, a Chameleon of an Actor Onscreen and Onstage, Dies at 95
www.nytimes.com
February 16, 2026 at 8:30 PM
Ah, made it to 95. Well done, Sir.
From Boo Radley to Jean-Pepe, masterful artist.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/16/m...
From Boo Radley to Jean-Pepe, masterful artist.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/16/m...
Reposted by Sid Olufs
Where are the masthead editorials about Republicans’ Denial of Reality & failure to provide moderate, unifying solutions?
February 16, 2026 at 4:08 PM
Where are the masthead editorials about Republicans’ Denial of Reality & failure to provide moderate, unifying solutions?
Yeah, this is going to go well. Let’s start by fighting over the logo.
www.timesofisrael.com/israel-pans-...
www.timesofisrael.com/israel-pans-...
Gaza technocratic committee replaces its logo with the PA’s; Israel fumes
'Israel will not accept use of Palestinian Authority's symbol, and the PA will not be a partner in the administration of Gaza,' Netanyahu's office says
www.timesofisrael.com
February 16, 2026 at 4:09 PM
Yeah, this is going to go well. Let’s start by fighting over the logo.
www.timesofisrael.com/israel-pans-...
www.timesofisrael.com/israel-pans-...
Hilarious. Not so warm and fuzzy.
arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...
arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...
Ring cancels Flock deal after dystopian Super Bowl ad prompts mass outrage
“This is definitely not about dogs,” senator says, urging a pause on Ring face scans.
arstechnica.com
February 16, 2026 at 3:43 PM
Hilarious. Not so warm and fuzzy.
arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...
arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...
If, big if, we are not alone in the universe, it is very unlikely we would ever detect the others. You might have better luck buying lottery tickets. Paper this describes has no paywall, have fun.
phys.org/news/2026-02...
phys.org/news/2026-02...
If alien signals have already reached Earth, why haven't we seen them?
For decades, scientists have searched the skies for signs of extraterrestrial technology. A study from EPFL asks a sharp question: if alien signals have already reached Earth without us noticing, what...
phys.org
February 16, 2026 at 3:26 PM
If, big if, we are not alone in the universe, it is very unlikely we would ever detect the others. You might have better luck buying lottery tickets. Paper this describes has no paywall, have fun.
phys.org/news/2026-02...
phys.org/news/2026-02...
I wish it wasn’t on every channel. I wanna watch something else.
February 16, 2026 at 3:12 PM
I wish it wasn’t on every channel. I wanna watch something else.
For the first time in years Highway 1, the coastal highway, is open. A few one lane spots. Maybe this Spring that 6 year old urge to drive it again will be fulfilled. Pandemic, hip replacements, road washouts…. always somethin’.
quickmap.dot.ca.gov
quickmap.dot.ca.gov
QuickMap
quickmap.dot.ca.gov
February 16, 2026 at 3:06 PM
For the first time in years Highway 1, the coastal highway, is open. A few one lane spots. Maybe this Spring that 6 year old urge to drive it again will be fulfilled. Pandemic, hip replacements, road washouts…. always somethin’.
quickmap.dot.ca.gov
quickmap.dot.ca.gov
It was all lies, the entire thing. And you fell for it, America.
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Trump donor who criticized offshoring to close Ohio plant and move work to China
Workers decried John Paulson’s plan after billionaire painted himself as advocate for domestic manufacturing
www.theguardian.com
February 16, 2026 at 2:42 PM
It was all lies, the entire thing. And you fell for it, America.
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Latest fair compendium of research on gun control legislation in the US of A. The page contains a summary of key points, and a link to the entire document. Which is 446 pages. Decide how much you wanna read about this.
www.rand.org/pubs/researc...
www.rand.org/pubs/researc...
The Science of Gun Policy, Fifth Edition
The fifth edition updates our synthesis of available scientific evidence for the effects of state firearm policies on outcomes including firearm injuries and deaths, violent crime, suicides, the gun i...
www.rand.org
February 16, 2026 at 3:18 AM
Latest fair compendium of research on gun control legislation in the US of A. The page contains a summary of key points, and a link to the entire document. Which is 446 pages. Decide how much you wanna read about this.
www.rand.org/pubs/researc...
www.rand.org/pubs/researc...
Reposted by Sid Olufs
Inside the Debacle That Led to the Closure of El Paso’s Airspace
www.nytimes.com
February 15, 2026 at 4:07 AM
Reposted by Sid Olufs
Growing pains or an existential threat? If not actually addressed, I’d say the latter. The entire point of citations is to provide a chain of knowledge provenance. Once that chain is broken, it is very difficult to fix and maintain.
A review of the proceedings from four major computer-science conferences showed that none from 2021, and all from 2025, had fake citations.
arxiv.org/abs/2602.058...
#AI #LLMs #Hallucinations #Misconduct #ScholComm
arxiv.org/abs/2602.058...
#AI #LLMs #Hallucinations #Misconduct #ScholComm
The Case of the Mysterious Citations
Mysterious citations are routinely appearing in peer-reviewed publications throughout the scientific community. In this paper, we developed an automated pipeline and examine the proceedings of four ma...
arxiv.org
February 15, 2026 at 2:01 PM
Growing pains or an existential threat? If not actually addressed, I’d say the latter. The entire point of citations is to provide a chain of knowledge provenance. Once that chain is broken, it is very difficult to fix and maintain.
Reposted by Sid Olufs
Just watched our Secretary of State laud the Scientific Revolution and deride climate science as a “cult,” almost in same breath.
The distorting effect of fossil fuel’s corrupt influence is astounding, like a warped fun-house mirror.
The distorting effect of fossil fuel’s corrupt influence is astounding, like a warped fun-house mirror.
February 14, 2026 at 1:40 PM
Just watched our Secretary of State laud the Scientific Revolution and deride climate science as a “cult,” almost in same breath.
The distorting effect of fossil fuel’s corrupt influence is astounding, like a warped fun-house mirror.
The distorting effect of fossil fuel’s corrupt influence is astounding, like a warped fun-house mirror.
One wonders why the Republicans aren’t working to *increase* voter turnout.
February 14, 2026 at 6:00 PM
One wonders why the Republicans aren’t working to *increase* voter turnout.
“Here is Martin’s north star, based on his first year at the DNC: proceed with extreme caution and commit no microaggressions.”
Herding Cats.
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
Herding Cats.
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
The Democrats Aren’t Built for This
They say they want to save democracy. First they’ll need to get out of their own way.
www.theatlantic.com
February 14, 2026 at 4:31 PM
“Here is Martin’s north star, based on his first year at the DNC: proceed with extreme caution and commit no microaggressions.”
Herding Cats.
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
Herding Cats.
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
Well, OK. But notice it elides the question of how to get to the ceasefire.
www.realcleardefense.com/articles/202...
www.realcleardefense.com/articles/202...
An America First Peace Plan in Ukraine
When Russian commentators watched the swift capture of Nicolás Maduro and his wife during Operation Absolute Resolve, their reaction was telling. “This is exactly how our ‘special m
www.realcleardefense.com
February 14, 2026 at 4:06 PM
Well, OK. But notice it elides the question of how to get to the ceasefire.
www.realcleardefense.com/articles/202...
www.realcleardefense.com/articles/202...
In this admin, highly suspicious. They have been firing people in significant roles who are not white guys, and firing people who object to orders to do illegal actions.
www.stripes.com/branches/nav...
www.stripes.com/branches/nav...
Navy fires commander of destroyer USS Mason
The Navy fired Capt. Chavius G. Lewis, who had commanded the ship since November 2024, “due to a loss of confidence in Lewis’ ability to command.”
www.stripes.com
February 14, 2026 at 3:58 PM
In this admin, highly suspicious. They have been firing people in significant roles who are not white guys, and firing people who object to orders to do illegal actions.
www.stripes.com/branches/nav...
www.stripes.com/branches/nav...
This tells you something about Curling. It is still a scandal if someone drops the F-bomb.
www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/f...
www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/f...
Canada warned after curling ‘F-bomb’ sparks emergency spot checks at Winter Olympics
Canada’s men’s curling team have escaped punishment despite appearing to have broken the rules in a bad-tempered victory over Sweden
www.theguardian.com
February 14, 2026 at 2:56 PM
This tells you something about Curling. It is still a scandal if someone drops the F-bomb.
www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/f...
www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/f...
Funny line:
“They distill a lot of things Gramsci had on his mind, so they are incredibly precise, at least for an Italian,” said Silvio Pons, the president of Rome’s Gramsci institute.
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...
“They distill a lot of things Gramsci had on his mind, so they are incredibly precise, at least for an Italian,” said Silvio Pons, the president of Rome’s Gramsci institute.
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...
‘The time of monsters’: everyone is quoting Gramsci – but what did he actually say?
Line handily sums up people’s bewilderment at state of world, but it isn’t quite what the Marxist thinker wrote
www.theguardian.com
February 14, 2026 at 2:47 PM
Funny line:
“They distill a lot of things Gramsci had on his mind, so they are incredibly precise, at least for an Italian,” said Silvio Pons, the president of Rome’s Gramsci institute.
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...
“They distill a lot of things Gramsci had on his mind, so they are incredibly precise, at least for an Italian,” said Silvio Pons, the president of Rome’s Gramsci institute.
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...
Reposted by Sid Olufs
The $38.3 billion they are going to spend for interment camps could fund the annual budget of NASA, the EPA, and all clean energy R&D at the Department of Energy—combined.
Breaking news: ICE expects to spend $38.3 billion on its plan to acquire warehouses across the U.S. and retrofit them into immigrant detention centers that can hold tens of thousands of people, according to agency documents.
ICE plans to spend $38.3 billion turning warehouses into detention centers
ICE plans to spend $38.3 billion converting warehouses into detention centers, according to planning documents, more than the annual budgets of 22 states.
www.washingtonpost.com
February 14, 2026 at 3:14 AM
The $38.3 billion they are going to spend for interment camps could fund the annual budget of NASA, the EPA, and all clean energy R&D at the Department of Energy—combined.
In Russia, the Putin files are heavily redacted.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/14/w...
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/14/w...
Navalny Was Poisoned With Frog Toxin, European Governments Say
www.nytimes.com
February 14, 2026 at 2:25 PM
In Russia, the Putin files are heavily redacted.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/14/w...
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/14/w...
Reposted by Sid Olufs
“The proliferation of chatbots where people are inputting sensitive legal information…has created ‘a discovery nightmare.’”
If you assumed your AI chats couldn't be used against you in court, think again
A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that prosecutors could access the Claude chat transcripts of a finance startup founder accused of fraud.
www.businessinsider.com
February 13, 2026 at 6:29 PM
“The proliferation of chatbots where people are inputting sensitive legal information…has created ‘a discovery nightmare.’”
This outfit is one of the best in the business.
www.pewresearch.org/methods/2026...
www.pewresearch.org/methods/2026...
Video: How do polls work when no one answers the phone anymore?
Ever wonder how we collect our data? Today, most polls are conducted online. But, most pollsters reject the idea that “one size fits all” when it comes to polling, so we still use phone calls or mail ...
www.pewresearch.org
February 13, 2026 at 7:04 PM
This outfit is one of the best in the business.
www.pewresearch.org/methods/2026...
www.pewresearch.org/methods/2026...
Prepping the anti-ICE equipment
February 13, 2026 at 3:47 PM
Prepping the anti-ICE equipment
Ah, the Olympics….
www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/f...
www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/f...
Love in a cold climate: Winter Olympic village runs out of condoms after three days
Free condoms for competitors at the Winter Olympics have run out within a record-breaking three days
www.theguardian.com
February 13, 2026 at 3:05 PM
Ah, the Olympics….
www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/f...
www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/f...
“The abolition of gender studies is a way of further guaranteeing impunity to the elite men whose contempt for and exploitation of women and girls apparently knew no bounds….
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Gender studies courses are shutting down across the US. The Epstein files reveal why | Joan Wallach Scott
Texas A&M University is the latest school to end women’s and gender studies programs and teaching race. We know why
www.theguardian.com
February 13, 2026 at 2:53 PM
“The abolition of gender studies is a way of further guaranteeing impunity to the elite men whose contempt for and exploitation of women and girls apparently knew no bounds….
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...