Odds and Ends — 17 February 2026
Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, AI, and Debt:
Gemini stock plunges after it parts ways with COO, CFO and Chief Legal Officer months after IPO
https://twitter.com/Osint613/status/2023539910591033600
Decentralization works at scale only when it brings in money
Flash Fiction:
”I understand that she doesn’t want to see it. I even understand that you might be squeamish about opening the box.”
”Boss, I can do it. Give me a minute, okay?”
”How you ever became a made man never ceases to amaze me. Lift the lid and show her! It’s just her husband’s finger. Man up and do it.”
Written for this prompt.
Coronavirus and Public Health:
Vaccine Makers Curtail Research and Cut Jobs
When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was picked in November 2024 to become the next health secretary, public health experts worried that the longtime vaccine skeptic would wreak havoc on the fragile business of vaccine development.
Those fears are beginning to come true, according to executives and investors involved with companies that develop and sell vaccines and the technology that is best known for the Covid vaccines.
Politics:
https://twitter.com/murphymike/status/2023413579941290285
Colbert Says CBS Banned Talarico from His Show
“He was supposed to be here, but we were told in no uncertain terms by our network’s lawyers, who called us directly, that we could not have him on the broadcast.”
“Then I was told, in some uncertain terms, that not only could I not have him on, I could not mention me not having him on. And because my network clearly doesn’t want us to talk about this, let’s talk about this.”
———— Minnesota Under Siege ————
https://twitter.com/seth_kaplan/status/2023422780029718879
https://twitter.com/davethul/status/2023496370859233593
https://twitter.com/preparedwombat/status/2023508784623366243
———— The Epstein Coverup ————
https://twitter.com/CWJediMaster/status/2023431338683187561
https://twitter.com/stealthygeek/status/2023423961493868991
https://twitter.com/cem_uk_/status/2023208273613033826
———— Autocracy R Us ————
Judge Cites George Orwell in Ruling Against Trump
A federal judge, evoking the dystopian world of George Orwell’s novel 1984, ordered the Trump administration on Monday to return a long-standing exhibit on slavery it removed from a popular historical museum in Philadelphia.
Wrote U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe: “As if the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s 1984 now existed, with its motto ‘Ignorance is Strength,’ this Court is now asked to determine whether the federal government has the power it claims—to dissemble and disassemble historical truths when it has some domain over historical facts. It does not.”
https://twitter.com/Cathy2NotToday/status/2023373780177793495
The Trump administration’s white nationalist project was on full display this weekend at the 62nd Munich Security Conference that took place from February 13 to 15, 2026. The Munich Security Conference is the leading international forum for discussions of security policy. It was begun in 1963, at the height of the Cold War, to be an independent venue for experts and policymakers to discuss the most pressing security issues around the globe…
At the Munich Security Conference last year, just after Trump had taken office for the second time, Vice President J.D. Vance announced the U.S. was switching sides in global affairs. Henceforth, it would work to destroy the values of representative democracy and the global systems of trade and security that the U.S. and partners constructed after World War II.
https://twitter.com/micyoung75/status/2023419850631021017
———— Blatant In-Your-Face Corruption ————
https://twitter.com/FPWellman/status/2023546873668399471
https://twitter.com/mouvement33/status/2023558562262511628
———— Putin&Krasnov vs. Ukraine ————
https://twitter.com/biannagolodryga/status/2023139740396998718
https://twitter.com/FuriousManiati/status/2023437918602490082
Ukraine’s goal is to make the war futile for Russia by minimizing territorial losses, pushing Russian casualties higher than the numbers Moscow can recruit, and increasing the economic costs such that the war is unsustainable. With advances in its long-range strike capabilities and a scaled-up strike campaign against Russia’s energy export infrastructure, Ukraine seeks to make 2026 the year when Russian finances reach a breaking point…
https://twitter.com/michaeldweiss/status/2023446297076772883
Russia’s Economy Has Entered the Death Zone
As Russia’s war against Ukraine enters its fifth year, the economy that sustains it has been transformed in ways that will be difficult—perhaps impossible—to reverse without another crisis. Westerners keep waiting for the Russian economy to collapse. It won’t.
But nor will it recover. It has entered what mountaineers call the death zone: the altitude above 8,000 metres at which the human body consumes itself faster than it can be repaired.
https://twitter.com/a_libutti/status/2023325598693671298
https://twitter.com/mhmck/status/2023438755307356508
———— Melon Husk ————
Ireland's Data Watchdog Joins Global Regulators Probing X Over AI Image Risks
Elon Musk’s whims now decide life or death on Ukraine’s frontlines
———— Mors Imperii ————
https://twitter.com/TheMaineWonk/status/2023523939302220096
https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/2023401972498624653
https://twitter.com/Yam_Nivek/status/2023327968534118715
Serendipity:
No idea if this is true or apocryphal:
https://twitter.com/MorbidKnowledge/status/2023527006122528873
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Gross.