Odds and Ends — 18 February 2026

Adventures in Round Number Bias:

Yesterday, I passed the 100,000 Hive Power mark.

Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, AI, and Debt:

Bitcoin's plunge signals coming AI crisis, but massive Fed response will drive new record high: Arthur Hayes

https://twitter.com/books_rum/status/2023755920719945973

The great computer science exodus (and where students are going instead)

https://twitter.com/aakashgupta/status/2023639820007064020

California Begins Enforcing State-Level Crypto Licensing With DFAL

Flash Fiction:

”Preparations are on schedule. All systems are nominal.”

”Um, why are you talking like someone at NASA’s Mission Control?”

”Ten, nine, we have ignition sequence start. The engines are on. Four, three, two, one.”

”Well guess what! The grill is ready for steaks.”

”We have commit. We have liftoff!”

Written for this prompt.

Coronavirus and Public Health:

FDA reverses course and will review Moderna’s mRNA flu shot

Politics:

https://twitter.com/StarbuckUA/status/2023853692408263063

Trump's immigration approval hits new low, according to Reuters/Ipsos poll

https://twitter.com/loganb/status/2023795633736610292

———— Minnesota Under Siege ————

ICE officials knew use of force was rising well before Minneapolis shootings

Internal agency emails show a surge in reports of ICE officers using more force going back nearly a year, but DHS leadership did not see it as a concern to be addressed.

https://twitter.com/JessicaLBurbank/status/2023795037017145429

https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/2024132718687064094

https://twitter.com/MinneapoliSam/status/2023835241249652853

———— Jesse Jackson ————

https://twitter.com/JoeMurphyLondon/status/2023753582932079005

https://twitter.com/DannyDeraney/status/2023800692360835511

———— The Epstein Coverup ————

https://twitter.com/cem_uk_/status/2023855161802965421

https://twitter.com/BadgerStew/status/2023806113922068952

———— Palantir ————

https://twitter.com/MmisterNobody/status/2023780218650194110

https://twitter.com/TheBTCTherapist/status/2023818483398811997

https://twitter.com/NastyOldWomyn/status/2023540745119097234

https://twitter.com/EwanMacKenna/status/2023862523192369439

———— Lindsay Graham ————

https://twitter.com/OJoelsen/status/2023874646492192892

https://twitter.com/Mpolymer/status/2023891198772199882

https://twitter.com/NormOrnstein/status/2023861444849348736

———— Concentration Camps————

https://twitter.com/PabloReports/status/2023783585296064964

Trump’s Deportation Goals Collide with Reality

Trump campaigned in 2024 on overseeing ‘the largest deportation in the history of our country.’ He has frequently said that his Administration is deporting ‘the worst of the worst criminals.’ Yet those two goals have proven to be incompatible.
In reality, tens of thousands of people with no criminal record or pending criminal charges have been being pulled off the streets by immigration agents and put into detention centers. If that pattern were to stop, the Trump Administration’s deportation stats would likely plummet.

https://twitter.com/MoiraDonegan/status/2023737113666072913

https://twitter.com/karlykingsley/status/2023819921621479793

https://twitter.com/BlisterPearl/status/2023755627068301522

https://twitter.com/EllenBarkin/status/2023801169299337502

———— Autocracy R Us ————

The cruelty is the point:

https://twitter.com/garykoepnick/status/2023842267589665050

https://twitter.com/MotherJones/status/2023502701561106869

ICE Expands Watchlist Effort

https://twitter.com/BlueATLGeorgia/status/2023884817251676200

https://twitter.com/PETEKEELEY/status/2023847783569178872

Angry Trump Humiliated as Effort to Prosecute Dems Backfires Again

A grand jury laughed Trump’s prosecutors out of court—but new details about these nakedly political prosecutions reveal serious abuses of power that are no laughing matter.

https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/2023839038755770749

———— Blatant In-Your-Face Corruption ————

https://twitter.com/adamscochran/status/2023936115703476501

———— Putin&Krasnov vs. Ukraine ————

https://twitter.com/joni_askola/status/2023424440709890101

https://twitter.com/McFaul/status/2023802758533705736

https://twitter.com/yasminalombaert/status/2023904019878658462

Even Stevie Wonder can see that Russia has no interest in peace: 'Difficult' Russia-Ukraine peace talks end without breakthrough

https://twitter.com/Kasparov63/status/2023836449507086683

https://twitter.com/wrmead/status/2023743339908997594

North Korean POWs stuck in Ukraine as Seoul hesitates

https://twitter.com/mouvement33/status/2023648593920618674

https://twitter.com/Daractenus/status/2023845598726873333

———— Iran ————

https://twitter.com/Angry_Staffer/status/2023748041820287253

———— Melon Husk ————

Elon Musk says it's 'highly likely' humans figure out how to reverse aging — but there's 'some benefit to death'

https://twitter.com/travisakers/status/2023875603850817955

———— Hegseth on the Rocks ————

https://twitter.com/halbritz/status/2023897929677705287

https://twitter.com/jimstewartson/status/2023912069452730708

———— Mors Imperii ————

https://twitter.com/Kasparov63/status/2023804365023453190

https://twitter.com/JuddLegum/status/2023755177237365110

Europe and Canada Are Like the Kids in an Ugly Divorce

Europe and Canada seek “strategic balance” between Washington and Beijing but often just get caught in the middle.

https://twitter.com/MarcoFoster_/status/2023858823002550489

https://twitter.com/DowdEdward/status/2023876789567979705

Serendipity:

https://twitter.com/WiscoGrant/status/2023769450298626346

https://twitter.com/1776General_/status/2023671261310718123

https://twitter.com/AmericanGwyn/status/2023820821182247127

https://twitter.com/dccommonsense/status/2023839265176932379

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