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Ian @ianchanges.bsky.social · 6d

just ordered a copy of @kristiedegaris.bsky.social ’s memoir,‘Drystone' - I’ve been excited and curious to read this for a while, and it’s nice to order a book from an independent publisher, Birlinn, that I’m not familiar with

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Ian @ianchanges.bsky.social · 20d

among the best things I’ve read in a while harpers.org/archive/2025... #pervert #art #writing

The Good Pervert, by David Velasco

A friend’s life, a brutal death

harpers.org

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Ian @ianchanges.bsky.social · 21d

did not expect reading this piece about toxicology and frog sex to be as riveting as it was ! #climate #🐸 #queer #biology

The Queer Lives of Frogs

What frogs teach us about sex, science, and why biology is messier than we think.

thereader.mitpress.mit.edu

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Ian @ianchanges.bsky.social · Aug 24

*while driving through krumville*

alex testere @alextestere.bsky.social · Aug 24

personally, i love to leave just a few crumbs so everyone can tell that i ate

Ian @ianchanges.bsky.social · Aug 9

my first time seeing a venomous eastern copperhead — it was coiled and not moving at all and definitely not a mushroom. spotted in the mohonk preserve a week ago. #🐍

an eastern copperhead wrapped in a tight coil just off a trail and tucked into a thicket of poison ivy

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Ian @ianchanges.bsky.social · Aug 9

a nice pair of lactifluus or lactarius of some kind. I’m still searching for a positive ID. any ideas? I think maybe L. piperatus or L. vellereus. Do you know these July-emerging #🍄 in a deciduous New York forest that ooze a whitish liquid from broken gills ?

two white mushrooms with pale yellowish gills poking out of a deciduous forest floor

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Ian @ianchanges.bsky.social · Jul 25

I’m curious to hear if others have seen stuff like this at other subway stops, in other cities, and where, as well as if there’s been reporting about it I ought to catch up on… (21/21)

Ian @ianchanges.bsky.social · Jul 25

… I start to wonder: was this a version of a tool intended for deployment in places like subway stops for use by DHS in the mass deportation effort Congress recently funded? (20/21)

Ian @ianchanges.bsky.social · Jul 25

… or at reporting from @carolinehaskins.bsky.social ‬ @wired.com listing a September 2025 delivery date for a prototype of software due from a subcontractor (Palantir…) which I can imagine being on the other side of that security camera www.wired.com/story/ice-pa... … (19/21)

ICE Is Paying Palantir $30 Million to Build ‘ImmigrationOS’ Surveillance Platform

In a document published Thursday, ICE explained the functions that it expects Palantir to include in a prototype of a new program to give the agency “near real-time” data about people self-deporting.

www.wired.com

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Ian @ianchanges.bsky.social · Jul 25

When I look back at the excellent reporting that folks like @jasonkoebler.bsky.social at @404media.co‬ have been doing about the kind of data to which a rig like this might have access (lots) www.404media.co/inside-a-pow... … (18/21)

Inside a Powerful Database ICE Uses to Identify and Deport People

The database allows filtering according to hundreds of different categories, including visa status, “unique physical characteristics (e.g. scars, marks, tattoos),” “criminal affiliation,” license plat...

www.404media.co

Ian @ianchanges.bsky.social · Jul 25

Maybe there’s a legal expert out there who can explain whether there’s any precedent for federal uses of surveillance in the subway by DHS like this, and how that fits in alongside use of surveillance by the MTA or NYPD? (17/21)

Ian @ianchanges.bsky.social · Jul 25

If none of the equipment being used belongs to either the MTA or the NYPD and instead belongs to the federal government or its subcontractors, how does that influence the legality of surveillance in the subway? (16/21)

Ian @ianchanges.bsky.social · Jul 25

The use of surveillance in the subway by either the NYPD or the MTA is a contentious subject with a long history. What about ICE — housed within DHS, a federal department that’s been around for just over two decades, and came about in response to 9/11? (15/21)

Ian @ianchanges.bsky.social · Jul 25

I kept thinking about it throughout the week and started to wonder whether what I saw was some kind of new, portable setup for running immigration-related facial recognition stings at subway stops — or anywhere with a lot of people. (14/21)

Ian @ianchanges.bsky.social · Jul 25

All I thought at the time was ‘that’s odd, never seen a group like that with a rig like that at a stop before.’ I walked toward the exit, and I turned to try to take a look at the screen, which was obscured by the column. (13/21)

Ian @ianchanges.bsky.social · Jul 25

The guy at the laptop seemed focused on whatever was on the screen. He seemed to be monitoring or operating the camera. (12/21)

Ian @ianchanges.bsky.social · Jul 25

The whole thing seemed very portable, like it could be setup or taken down within a few moments, and packed into a large backpack. (11/21)

Ian @ianchanges.bsky.social · Jul 25

In front of them was an odd rig I’d never seen with a subway crew before: It looked to me like a security camera, about chest height, mounted on a tripod with a wire running to a laptop, which was setup on a small portable table a few feet away and obscured behind a column. (10/21)

Ian @ianchanges.bsky.social · Jul 25

All but one were standing idly, although sort of focused, and they were all facing the turnstile and watching people exit the train. It was early afternoon, around 1pm, so it wasn’t crowded. (9/21)

Ian @ianchanges.bsky.social · Jul 25

I don’t remember any markings indicating whether they worked for the MTA, the NYC DEP, or some other department that I’m accustomed to seeing at work in subway stations. The absence is notable to me in hindsight (8/21)

Ian @ianchanges.bsky.social · Jul 25

It looked like what someone in a bad disguise or cosplaying in a construction role might wear. (7/21)

Ian @ianchanges.bsky.social · Jul 25

Underneath the vests, the men looked like they were wearing office clothes — chinos, polos — rather than, say, jeans, coveralls, boots with reinforced toes, or work shirts. (6/21)

Ian @ianchanges.bsky.social · Jul 25

On my way out of the station, I passed a group of five or six men wearing construction gear that looked so new it had never seen a day on a job site. The vests appeared to have visible creases on them as though they’d been removed from packaging and unfolded an hour before. (5/21)

Ian @ianchanges.bsky.social · Jul 25

I was in New York City taking the subway on Monday. I got off an F train at the Bergen Street stop in Brooklyn around lunch time. (4/21)

Ian @ianchanges.bsky.social · Jul 25

I’ve never tried to write a thread like this, so bear with me and let me know what you think. (3/21)