In-Between Moments

I do a lot of my best thinking in those kind of in-between moments that people now fill with online activity.

-- Christopher Nolan CBE (1970 -), British-American film director, producer, and screenwriter, "Christopher Nolan explains why he doesn't have a smartphone" at People.com (15 July 2023)

RIP Sam Neill

If I've made a film that turns out to be good, that's a good result.  If I've made a film that's good and made a couple of friends, that's a great result.  If I've made a film that's no good, but I made a friend, that's still another great result.

It’s at a time like now that the importance of other people is thrown into even sharper relief.  You realise who your friends are.  You know where the love is.

-- Sir Nigel John Dermot "Sam" Neill, KNZM, OBE (14 September 1947 - 13 July 2026), Northern Irish-born New Zealand actor, Did I Ever Tell You This?: A Memoir (2022)

Happy Birthday, Mel Brooks

Yesterday, in honor of Mel Brooks's (28 June 1926 -) 100th birthday, the local glorious old theater showed the movie "Young Frankenstein" (1974).  Tickets were just $7 and I was happy to attend.

There was a good crowd at the Virginia Theatre, though it wasn't packed.  Before the show, a live (adjective required?) organist played the Virginia’s historic two manual, eight rank Wurlitzer Hope-Jones orchestral pipe organ, installed during the original 1921 construction, to entertain us while we waited.  The organist sits at a console mounted on a podium in the orchestra pit that can be raised to stage height, as it was Sunday, and lowered again, as it was while the organist played his last tune of the day.

The crowd applauded the organist, and the beginning and end of the movie.  Mel Brooks would be happy to know that there was laughter in the theater, and audience members saying they had seen the movie in this theater in its original release. 

Climate.us

Climate.us today launched the full version of its new independent, nonprofit climate information website, creating a public-backed home for trusted climate science at a time when access to federal climate resources has become increasingly vulnerable to disruption.

Built by former members of the team behind the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's popular Climate.gov website, Climate.us will keep climate information accurate, accessible, scientifically rigorous, and useful for the people who rely on it, including educators, students, journalists, scientists, community leaders, local and state decision-makers, and members of the public.

The website features Climate.gov's 15-year collection of climate news and stories, expert blogs, visual status reports on key climate indicators, maps and data pathways, climate literacy resources, classroom materials, and restored access to the Fifth National Climate Assessment.

-- Launch announcement from Climate.us, a non-profit created to host information formerly available at Climate.gov (23 June 2026)

Stormy Weather

For the second night in a row I lost power at my house Thursday evening due to heavy thunderstorms in the area. As it happened, I lost Internet access and ended up a little late with my Trvth. The image shows the local weather radar at the time we lost power (for about 6 hours).

Cheers.

Buzzword Sandwich

[This decision] aligns with N.S.F.'s wider strategy to have a nimbler approach to prioritizing support for evolving scientific priorities and emerging technologies as well as a deliberate approach to smart life cycle management within its portfolio of research infrastructure.

-- Michael England, spokesman for the National Science Foundation, justifying the decision to dismantle the Ocean Observatories Initiative, a $368 million network of more than 900 deep-sea instruments collecting data in both the Atlantic and Pacific that has been critical to climate and ocean research, NY Times (1 June 2026)

Collective Decisions

My working definition of politics is, Helping people make collective decisions, especially when they disagree.

-- Galen Druke on the GDPolitics podcast (May 2026)

A Comedy In Long-shot

Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.

-- Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE (1889 - 1977), British comedic actor and director, as quoted in his obituary in The Guardian (28 December 1977)

RIP Ted Turner

If I only had a little humility, I'd be perfect.

-- Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III (19 November 1938 - 6 May 2026), American media mogul and philanthropist, known as founder of the Cable News Network more popularly known as CNN, the first 24-hour cable news channel, and for his $1 billion gift to support the United Nations, as quoted in "At Long Last, He's Citizen Ted", Forbes (30 January 2003)

A Vast Bazaar

Literature is a vast bazaar where customers come to purchase everything except mirrors.

-- James Branch Cabell (1879 - 1958), American author of satirical fantasy works, The Certain Hour (1916) "Auctorial Induction"

They're Back

Well, they're back.  This time about a picture of seashells on a North Carolina Beach a year ago, and this won't be the end of it.  But nothing has changed with me.  I'm still innocent,  I'm still not afraid, and I still believe in the independent federal judiciary.  So let's go. 

But it's really important that all of us remember this is not who we are as a country.  This is not how the Department of Justice is supposed to be.  And the good news is we get closer every day to restoring those values.  Keep the faith.

-- Former government person James Comey, in a video posted to his Substack responding to a felony indictment alleging that Comey did knowingly and willfully make a threat to take the life of, and to inflict bodily harm upon, the President of the United States, based upon a 2025 social media post of an image of seashells (28 April 2026)

Efficacy

A report showing the efficacy of the covid-19 vaccine that was previously delayed by the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been blocked from being published in the agency's flagship scientific journal, according to three people familiar with the decision who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.  The report showed that the vaccine reduced emergency department visits and hospitalizations among healthy adults by about half this past winter.

The report, which had cleared the agency's scientific-review process, had been delayed.  It now won't be published at all, people familiar with the decision told The Post.

-- Lena H. Sun, writing for the Washington Post, "CDC won't publish report showing covid shots cut likelihood of hospital visits" (22 April 2026)

A Child's Understanding

We're marching through the world, we're cleaning out the bad guys, we're gonna have relationships with new people that will make us prosperous and safe.  I've never seen anything, anybody like it, this is Ronald Reagan plus.  Donald Trump is resetting the world in a way nobody could've dreamed of a year ago, he is the greatest commander in chief of all time, our military is the best of all time, Iran is going down, and Cuba is next.

-- Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), gleefully celebrating chaos on Fox News (9 March 2026), showing a child's understanding of foreign affairs

Meta 45

Meta.  Today it's been 45 years since the 24 February 1981 birth of Trvth.  I reflected on this a bit at the 40-year mark here.

I noted then that on 22 July 2019 I had counted 5450ish published Trvth entries.  Since that 2019 date another 1697 have been published, for a grand(?) total today, 24 February 2026, of 7147ish.

The most recent 4753 are all available at trvth.org beginning 3 March 2005 (more than 20 years on the Interwebs)

And, for your amusement, I present from the archives the original Trvth:

***** appearances ~appleman / chanute ~2/24/1981 ~13:50

While nothing may seem to be as it first appears, there
are in fact some things which appear to be as they are,
amidst the other things which only appear to be as they
aren't.

RIP World Factbook

One of CIA's oldest and most recognizable intelligence publications, The World Factbook, has sunset.  The World Factbook served the Intelligence Community and the general public as a longstanding, one-stop basic reference about countries and communities around the globe.  Let's take a quick look into the history of The World Factbook.  

Over many decades, The World Factbook evolved from a classified to unclassified, hardcopy to electronic product that added new categories, and even new global entities.  The original classified publication, titled The National Basic Intelligence Factbook, launched in 1962.  The first unclassified companion version was issued in 1971.  A decade later it was renamed The World Factbook.  In 1997, The World Factbook went digital and debuted to a worldwide audience on CIA.gov, where it garnered millions of views each year.

-- Article at cia.gov announcing, but not explaining, the abrupt termination of the CIA World Factbook (4 February 2026); I'll miss it

The Will To Believe

As a rule we disbelieve all the facts and theories for which we have no use.

-- William James (1842 - 1910), pioneering American psychologist and philosopher, The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy (1897) "The Will to Believe" p. 10

A Line Of Demarcation

When the government kills, it has an obligation to demonstrate that it has acted in the public interest.  Instead, the Trump administration is once again engaged in a perversion of justice.

The administration is urging Americans to reject the evidence of their eyes and ears.  Ms. Noem and Mr. Bovino are lying in defiance of obvious truths.  They are lying in the manner of authoritarian regimes that require people to accept lies as a demonstration of power.

Truth is a line of demarcation between a democratic government and an authoritarian regime.  Mr. Pretti and Ms. Good are dead.  The American people deserve to know what happened.

It is premature to reach conclusions about what exactly happened on that Minneapolis street.  The Trump administration should not have done so, and we will not do so.  What is clear, however, is that the federal government needs to re-establish public faith in the agencies and officers who are carrying out Mr. Trump's crackdown on immigration.

-- Editorial board of the New York Times, "The Trump Administration Is Lying to Our Faces.  Congress Must Act." (25 January 2026)

Political Terminology

Today's political terms to know:

caprice (noun)

ca·​price kə-ˈprēs 
1a : a sudden, impulsive, and seemingly unmotivated notion or action
policy changes that seem to be motivated by nothing more than caprice
1b : a sudden usually unpredictable condition, change, or series of changes
the caprices of the weather
2 : a disposition to do things impulsively
a preference for democratic endeavor over authoritarian caprice

vanity (noun)

van·​i·​ty ˈva-nə-tē 
1 : inflated pride in oneself or one's appearance : conceit
2 : something that is vain, empty, or valueless

-- Definitions from Merriam-Webster retrieved 22 January 2026

Delusional

Dear Jonas:

Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.  Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a "right of ownership" anyway?  There are no written documents, it's only a boat that landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also.  I have done more for NATO than any person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States.  The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland.  Thank you! President DJT

-- Letter from President Trump to Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, 19 January 2026, the latest and purest evidence that Mr Trump is detached from reality

Desensitization

Can I make an insane, possibly totally true claim, which is that, when your officials, from the president on down, lie about what happened in a shooting in the middle of the street, and therefore force everybody to go watch a shooting in the street -- my guess is there's desensitization that happens.

-- John Dickerson (6 July 1968 -), American journalist, contributing writer at The Atlantic, and past co-anchor of CBS Evening News, speaking on the Slate Political Gabfest podcast (8 January 2026)