New York — An apparent cyberattack shut down an education platform used by universities and K-12 schools across the US Thursday, depriving students and teachers of essential classroom materials – at a time when many are taking or prepping for final exams.And of course there are monitoring (spying on faculty, eroding any pedagogical freedom) and intellectual property (all your lectures belong to us) issues.
Canvas, a popular, cloud-based digital hub for classrooms, has more than 30 million active users globally, with more than 8,000 institutions as customers, parent company Instructure says on its website.
Friday, May 08, 2026
I Gotta Admit This Is Funny
I left long before universities were overpowered by mandatory ed tech, but I don't know a single faculty member who actually likes being forced to use this stuff. It's one thing to make tools available, another thing to squeeze everybody into them and make it impossible for them to use anything else.
Thursday, May 07, 2026
So Much Winning
(WaPo reporter)
U.S. intel also indicates that Iran retains about 75% of its pre-war inventories of mobile launchers & about 70% of its pre-war stockpiles of missiles, per a U.S. official. The regime has also been able to recover underground storage facilities & repair damaged missiles
— John Hudson (@John_Hudson) May 7, 2026
Kavanaugh Stops
Kavanaugh is an idiot, so I can believe it actually didn't occur to him that an immigration stop would never be a one-time thing, like you get your name checked and never have to do it again.
This wasn’t the first time ICE agents stopped and held Garcia Venegas. In fact, Saturday’s encounter marked the third such incident, according to court filings. Garcia Venegas, whose parents are originally from Mexico, had twice before been detained after ICE raided construction sites where he was working, and twice before he was let go after proving his American citizenship. This third detention, Garcia Venegas wrote in his statement, had caused him emotional distress and anxiety. “I live in constant fear that I will be subjected to further baseless detentions just for going about my daily life,” he said, adding, “I only wish to live my life in peace.”
He gave full license to terrorize Latinos constantly forever, and while I doubt that bothers him at all, I can, as I said, believe he didn't get what he was enabling.
Unreality
I don't know if it's really worse than it used to be, but I do think everyone used to put a bit more work into their bullshit. Now, powerful people lie like crumb-faced kids saying that they didn't eat a cookie, and think it's extraordinarily rude if you don't pretend to believe them.
HERSHEY, Pa. — Chief Justice John Roberts on Wednesday defended the Supreme Court from what he believes are misconceptions held by the American people that he and his colleagues are “political actors” who are making decisions based on policy, not law.
Mr. Trump, Sir, Your Advisers Have Led You Astray
Nothing will shake Trump from his few core beliefs (racism, his own inerrancy), but it would be nice if he got mad at the people who convinced him he could conquer Iran in 24 hours.
Where All My Bed Unshitters At
Our "allies" are getting a bit tired of being turned into a war zone for no reason.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s abrupt reversal on his plan to help ships go through the Strait of Hormuz came after a key Gulf ally suspended the U.S. military’s ability to use its bases and airspace to carry out the operation, according to two U.S. officials.Countries are realizing they can, actually, just say no.
Trump surprised Gulf allies by announcing “Project Freedom” on social media Sunday afternoon, the officials said, angering leadership in Saudi Arabia. In response, the Kingdom informed the U.S. it would not allow the U.S. military to fly aircraft from Prince Sultan Airbase southeast of Riyadh or fly through Saudi airspace to support the effort, the officials said.
Wednesday, May 06, 2026
Brain Geniuses
It's funny how much Rubio was pushed as The Next Great (And Good) Republican once upon a time.
Yes Iran should get Congressional authorization for its minelaying operations.SECRETARY RUBIO: You know what’s an act of war? Iran putting mines in the water. Why doesn’t Congress complain about that? pic.twitter.com/WJOIjkh30W
— Department of State (@StateDept) May 5, 2026
At Least We Cured Woke Cancel Culture
I'm not saying this particular reporter deserves it, but it is "funny" that the magazine which spent years documenting every time a college student violated the constitution by objecting to the presence of a highly paid campus speaker is experiencing this.
The FBI has launched a criminal leak investigation focusing on an Atlantic magazine journalist who wrote a deeply unflattering account last month of Director Kash Patel’s work habits, two people familiar with the matter told MS NOW.
Is That Good
He thinks that's good.
Hassett on American consumers: "Credit card spending is through the roof. They're spending more on gasoline, but they're spending more on everything else too."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) May 6, 2026 at 2:19 PM
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Seems Bad
I think having kids makes a lot of people crazy (I don't mean this derogatorily, I just mean it is a big fucking deal that breaks their brains a bit, understandably), and part of coping with that is convincing themselves they've found the secret tricks to parenting which have eluded other people.
Sadly, sometimes that includes potentially fatal crackpot health care choices.
Their autopsies, which took place over the last several years, all came to the same conclusion: The deaths were caused, in whole or in part, by a rare but potentially fatal condition known as vitamin K deficiency bleeding.In almost every case, the babies’ deaths could have been prevented with a long-standard vitamin K shot. But across the country, families — first in smatterings, now in droves — are declining the single, inexpensive injection given at birth to newborns to help their blood clot.Many of them are doing so out of a well-meaning but ill-informed abundance of caution. In the hopes of safeguarding their newborns from what they see as unnecessary medical intervention, they have shunned fundamental and scientifically sound pharmaceutical intervention. The trend is also fueled by a contradictory pairing: families’ fierce desire to protect their babies and a cascade of false information infused into their social media algorithms.
Much Shorter Than A Scaramucci
But I was told that the US had control.
The US operation to guide stranded vessels through the Strait of Hormuz will be paused for a "short period of time", President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday evening.
Trump said that "Project Freedom", which began days earlier, would be halted by "mutual agreement" because "great progress" had been made toward a deal with Iran.
Project Freedom is over already. The writers are getting too cute.
Good chance something not great happened that we aren't being told about. Could be related to this!
Trump humiliated Rubio by having him defend Project Freedom to the hilt at a presser today, only to unilaterally suspend the “project” this evening
Per the Eurasia Group, Trump pulled the plug on it because 1) Iran sank a South Korean tanker and nearly took out two other ships despite US naval protection, and 2) Trump was informed by a liaison to the international shipping insurance consortium that none of their members would support it without Iran agreeing not to shoot.
I think they disabled the Korean tanker and didn't sink it but...
They're floating another deal that no one has agreed to. Stock market goes zoom!
Tuesday, May 05, 2026
My Clanker Buddy
How many hours per day do we think Egghead Andreessen spends talking to his computer God?
"Competing Claims"
Determining the truth, or close to it, is an exercise for you, dear reader, as so much journalism is today.
The United States and Iran made competing claims over which side controlled the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, adding pressure to their shaky cease-fire after the U.S. Navy launched an effort to protect vessels through the vital oil shipping route.
The strait itself remains effectively closed: Only two ships were known to have passed through the waterway on Monday, and none had made the trip on Tuesday. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the U.S. effort to free trapped vessels is ongoing, adding “We’re ensuring that we have control of that strait, which we do.” Iran’s state broadcaster dismissed the U.S. effort as a failure and said Iranian control over the strait had “intensified.”
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