alierak

Posted by Matt Kiser

https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2026/04/28/day-1925/

Day 1925

Today in one sentence: U.S. gas prices rose to their highest level in nearly four years; the Government Accountability Office will investigate the Justice Department’s handling of Jeffrey Epstein files; the Justice Department indicted former FBI Director James Comey over a 2025 Instagram photo of seashells arranged as “86 47”; the FCC ordered an early review of Disney-owned ABC station licenses after Trump demanded – again – that Jimmy Kimmel be fired; federal prosecutors indicted NIH official David Morens with conspiring to hide COVID-19 research records from public records requests while serving as an adviser to Anthony Fauci; the State Department plans to issue a limited run of U.S. passports featuring Trump’s portrait and gold signature to mark America’s 250th anniversary; and 64% of Americans disapprove of the job Trump is doing as president.

1/ U.S. gas prices rose to their highest level in nearly four years, reaching $4.18 a gallon as the Iran war has left the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed. Prices are up $1.19 since late February. While Iran has offered to reopen the strait if the U.S. lifts its blockade, Trump was reportedly dissatisfied because the proposal delays talks over Tehran’s nuclear program. Trump also claimed, without evidence, that Iran said it was in a “State of Collapse” and wanted Hormuz opened “as soon as possible.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Iran cannot decide “who gets to use an international waterway.” Analysts, meanwhile, warned that supplies remain strained and the summer demand could bring “a day of reckoning” the stock market is “ignoring.” (Reuters / New York Times / ABC News / Politico / CNBC / CBS News / Axios / Bloomberg / Reuters / ABC News)

U.S. intelligence is studying how Iran would respond if Trump declared unilateral victory. The review comes as the two-month war has killed thousands, closed much of the Strait of Hormuz, and become a political liability for Trump. (Reuters)

2/ The Government Accountability Office will investigate the Justice Department’s handling of Jeffrey Epstein files, including how officials reviewed, redacted, and released the records. A bipartisan group of senators said the Justice Department had exposed victim information while shielding alleged co-conspirators, calling it a failure that “re-victimize[d]” survivors and violated the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The department has, so far, released about 3.5 million pages while withholding millions more that officials claim are duplicates or exempt from disclosure. The review has no completion date and will run alongside a separate Justice Department inspector general audit. (Politico / Washington Post / NBC News / CNBC)

3/ The Justice Department indicted former FBI Director James Comey over a 2025 Instagram photo of seashells arranged as “86 47.” The indictment charges Comey with threatening Trump and transmitting a threat across state lines, saying a “reasonable recipient” would view the post as “a serious expression” of intent to harm Trump, the 47th president. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche claimed, “You are not allowed to threaten the president.” Comey deleted the post at the time and said he opposed “violence of any kind.” The case follows a failed 2025 prosecution that accused Comey of lying to Congress, which fell apart after a judge found that Trump’s hand-picked prosecutor had been unlawfully appointed. (CNN / Reuters / New York Times / Wall Street Journal / NBC News / Bloomberg / Axios / Associated Press / Politico / Washington Post)

4/ The FCC ordered an early review of Disney-owned ABC station licenses after Trump demanded – again – that Jimmy Kimmel be fired. The FCC claimed the review concerns ABC’s diversity practices and possible “unlawful discrimination,” but the timing follows Kimmel joking that Melania Trump looked like an “expectant widow” several days before a gunman tried to enter the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Disney said ABC complies with FCC rules and is prepared to defend its licenses under the Communications Act and the First Amendment. (Semafor / Reuters / Wall Street Journal / CNN / Washington Post / Axios / CNN / New York Times)

5/ Federal prosecutors indicted NIH official David Morens with conspiring to hide COVID-19 research records from public records requests while serving as an adviser to Anthony Fauci. Prosecutors said Morens used a personal Gmail account to evade FOIA searches for communications about bat coronavirus grants, EcoHealth Alliance, and the origins of the pandemic. The indictment cites a 2021 email where Morens said he had learned “how to make emails disappear,” though he denied in 2024 that he tried to evade transparency laws. The indictment doesn’t accuse Fauci of wrongdoing. (Associated Press / Reuters / Politico / New York Times / Washington Post)

6/ The State Department plans to issue a limited run of U.S. passports featuring Trump’s portrait and gold signature to mark America’s 250th anniversary. The design will be the default for in-person applicants at the Washington Passport Agency, while online applicants and those using other offices will receive the current version. The Trump passport follows a 2026 national parks pass showing Trump beside George Washington, newly printed paper currency with Trump’s signature, a planned 24-karat gold commemorative coin with his likeness, the renamed “Trump-Kennedy Center,” the renamed “Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace,” the $5 million “Trump Gold Card” visa program, “Trump Accounts” savings plans for children, TrumpRx prescription drug discounts, and a large “MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN” banner with Trump’s face on the Justice Department headquarters. Officials didn’t say how many passports would be issued. (Associated Press / Politico / CNN / CBS News / Washington Post)

poll/ 64% of Americans disapprove of the job Trump is doing as president, while 34% approve. (Reuters)

The 2026 midterms are in 189 days; the 2028 presidential election is in 924 days.

Today last year: Day 1560: "They know me now."
Four years ago today: Day 464: "A small price to pay."
Five years ago today: Day 99: "Investments in our future."
Six years ago today: Day 1195: "Can't imagine why."
9 years ago today: Day 99: Weak.

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https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2026/04/28/day-1925/

Title: filter
Fandom: Marvel Comics - 616
Rating: G
Content notes: None apply
Summary: icons of Foggy Nelson with a 'warm' filter

( filter )

Last week I:

finished weaving in the ends on A's gloves (before we hit site for the first event of the year)
read more She's A Beast
ate a bunch of food I didn't have to cook (current experiment: do Lichfield brownie bars only taste That Good in a field?)
explored Steeplechase LRP Centre when it had PEOPLE on it (and also when it didn't)
including seeing a green woodpecker!
and SO many birds of prey
made a bunch of unilateral decisions about where tents would go directly affecting two other departments in response to external constraints, and redesigned internal tent layout on the fly in response to different external constraints, and... it all worked???
rethought several steps in the lost property process and goodness that works way better and is much less stressful

and then today has been about half and half "sleep" and "endless lost property paperwork". And Now: To Bed.

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vital functions

I called today to check -- the parts have come in! Calloo, callay! So I may get the call to come pick it up tomorrow or Thursday, definitely this week.

That's such a relief. I had asked a friend to check on when I needed to pay rent on my place in Second Life and it has two weeks to go (it's a three-month thing). Probably the first thing I'll do once I get the computer back, and upload the backup just in case, is go inworld and put down more Lindens (local currency) on that. It's a little Irish-style thatched stone cottage with a fireplace, on a hill next to an Acorn stop (think cable car), and I'd really hate to lose it.

I want a project I can sink my teeth into that isn't under a deadline. In the last few years that's been costuming, because even though I don't have anywhere really to wear them, I do think I'm good at it and I enjoy the making and the wearing.

The problem is there is nothing that I'm enthusiastic enough to actually do. I'd like to make some armor this year, but I don't have anything I want to do. I'd like to finish Karlach, but the effort vs enthusiasm is way off there, since there is SO much to do on her. I think I would look decent, but otherwise, there's not much there.

Finishing the Nightstalker would be nice. There is not much effort there left, but I also don't think there's a lot of wow factor in that costume. It would make an excellent TKD costume party costume.

I would love to make Demon Hunter Sombra because I love the costume design and think I would look good in it and it would be fun to wear, but even though it's been 6+ years, I feel anything Blizzard/Activision is still tainted.

I wish I played Marvel Rivals, but even then the two costumes I'd want to do there show too much mid-rift for me to feel awesome in.

Nothing else really sparks interest. I really wish AoA Loki sparked more, because I'd love the play with scale mail and again, I think I'd look good in it.I love me a long coat. Silvie has no interest in being finished, even though it's 70% done. I don't have faith in my original design. Grace in Rocky's ship visiting suit would be WAY to hard for the pay off. A rock with google eyes (EEAAO) feels too gag. Not quite enough interest to do Lily's dress (Legend.)

Tags:

costumes

Though I went and looked up that Love Among the Butterflies Victorian lady who had a very close relationship with her dragoman and that was based on diaries discovered in the 1970s, so very much an outlier.

And possibly Jane Digby does not qualify as a lady explorer? though she covered a lot of ground as well having a really spectacular love-life.

Female explorers of the 19th century demolished Victorian notions of stay-at-home women. But why were they so vehemently anti-feminist?

(And do we in fact have to invoke Wollstoncraft even if she did publish a travel journal???)

Article tends to argue that it was partly in the cause of maintaining an aura of the feminine in spite of their masculine pursuit and partly in order to dissociate from the shadow of Wollstonecraft (which also loomed among suffragists, do admit).

Maybe.

And maybe they were invested in being Not Like Other Gurlzz and therefore not identifying with the Struggles of Their Sex.

Or maybe they were doing that thing whereby if a lady-person does something notable in one sphere, she had to balance that out in some way by not being an all-rounder, or doing careful respectability-maintenance, or whatever. (Translating Greek and being able to cook....)

Also, surely C19th British women explorers (wot no Isabelle Eberhardt?) were a very small group - not enough for a subset to be designated 'many'? Do they include e.g. missionaries or those women like Isabel Burton who followed their husbands?

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Blogtor Who: Video of the Day – Doctor Who: Victory of the Daleks, 2018
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Discussion & Miscellany

nwhyte on Timeless, by Stephen Cole

Fanfiction
Completed
Lost and Found by

badly_knitted (G | Martha Jones, Tenth Doctor)

If you were not linked, and would like to be, contact us in the comments with further information and your link.

Title: the same deep water as you
Fandom: Wiseguy (tv)
Content notes: I noticed the matching pinky rings somewhere around episode 6; otherwise, no spoilers.
Challenge: Obstacle
Length: ~300 words

Summary: Another present.

( Read more... )

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Alchemist of the Wilds: An Ex-Assassin's Guide to Cozy Romantic Brews by A. T. Valentine

A slightly misleading subtitle -- but only slightly. The first volume

( Read more... )

Title: Religious Icon
Fandom: Babylon 5
Author:

badly_knitted
Characters: G’Kar, Ta’Lon.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 300
Spoilers/Setting: The Ragged Edge.
Summary: G’Kar had never intended knowledge of his writings to become so widespread.
Content Notes: None needed.
Written For: Challenge 513: Amnesty 85, using Challenge 14: Performance Anxiety.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Babylon 5, or the characters. They belong to J. Michael Straczynski.

( Religious Icon... )

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

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Posted by Andre Heller

https://restofworld.org/2026/irc-signpost-humanitarian-ai-refugee-assistance/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feeds

As rising conflict and forced displacement drive unprecedented humanitarian needs, adoption of artificial intelligence in humanitarian work has the potential to scale services for some of the most vulnerable populations...

https://restofworld.org/2026/irc-signpost-humanitarian-ai-refugee-assistance/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feeds

painted this a couple weeks ago. It’s acrylic on paper. Last year I had some traumatic health issues and as a result was unable to paint or draw anything. This painting broke that block so, I thought I would share it.

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Happy birthday,

felinejumper!

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Title: Cuckoo
Author: Gretchen Felker-Martin
Genre: Horror

Wrapped up yet another horror novel last night, Gretchen Felker-Martin’s Cuckoo. This book is about a group of kids in 1995 who are sent to a conversion camp, experience The Horrors, and then reunite many years later to have another crack at taking The Horrors down.

First, I have to say the decision to set a horror novel in a conversion camp is kind of galaxy-brained, because it is a place that by design is traumatizing and horrifying. This book will make your skin crawl and your eyes tear up well before the monster enters the scene. There are seven protagonists and they come from all walks of life—gay kids, trans kids, kids from Christian families, kids from Jewish families, white kids, Asian kids, Latino kids, fat kids, mentally ill kids—but they all come from families who were willing to stuff them, sobbing and kicking and begging, into the back of a van and ship them off with a bunch of strangers to be “cured.”

And then there’s the monsters.

Generally I’m not a fan of “body snatcher” kind of horror stories, in the same way I’m not a fan of conspiracy theory stories, but I think it largely works here, because this is what the families want isn’t it? For their problem child to go away for a while and come back a new person, without all those icky traits mom and dad didn’t want. For the teens, watching the queer kids around them succumb to “curing” would feel like a kind of body-snatching—who are you and what have you done with the queer person I knew?

The book is also very gross, and I mean that not pejoratively, but factually. If you have a low tolerance for grossness, this one may not be for you. The monster and its ilk are nasty galore (see minor complaint below) and Felker-Martin does not pull punches about the grossness of human existence, particularly as an angry, horny, repressed teenager in a desperate situation. The characters here puke, piss, make out in public bathrooms, masturbate amidst their sleeping peers, eat pussy during menstruation, and are generally grody in the way teenagers are grody. I think grounding the book in these bodily realities works well given the nature of the horror, which is incredibly personal and physical.

I liked the teens themselves and I felt like they represented a decent spread of attitudes and behaviors from people in circumstances both similar and diverse. They exhibit many of the kinds of irritating and off-putting behaviors you’d expect from a group of young people who’ve already learned they must hide their true selves or be punished for it.

There were a couple of things that didn’t totally land for me though. First, I think the descriptions of the monster(s) are overdone sometimes. Not because it grossed me out too much but because yes okay, we get it, the thing is nasty, it’s ugly, it smells bad, it’s inchoate; can we move on? Also, I never felt like I had a real idea of what the thing(s) looked like, despite all the descriptions.

Second, the book jacket description makes it sound like the majority of the book will be the teens as adults, returning to the horrors they faced when they were young, but two thirds or more of the book is the actual events of the conversion camp. It makes the final third in their adulthood feel somewhat rushed.

However, on the whole, I liked this book and I’d be open to reading more from Felker-Martin. There are so many moments here where you want to hug these kids and take them somewhere safe, and I enjoyed the book’s balance of the power of love with the grim reality of the cost of life.

Tags:

Wrapped up yet another horror novel last night, Gretchen Felker-Martin’s Cuckoo. This book is about a group of kids in 1995 who are sent to a conversion camp, experience The Horrors, and then reunite many years later to have another crack at taking The Horrors down.

And then there’s the monsters.

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author: f

https://xkcd.com/3238/

The inpatient epilepsy monitoring is boring and uncomfortable. I had realized I'd be stuck in a hospital room, but underestimated the extent of being stuck in bed. I need to ask for help to get out of bed for the bathroom, and use those excursions to charge my phone or get a different book from my suitcase. After the first couple of days, they moved the pulse oximiter from my fingertip to my toe, making it easier to crochet as well as to wash my hands. I'm 5 days in, currently trying to see what fatigue will trigger.

[Insert image: A couple of blanket-covered feet sticking up in a hospital bed with padded side bumpers. Nearby clutter includes The Bride of the Rat God,, a tangle of very bright blue yarn, a juice box of soymilk, A red light glows through sock and blanket at the apex of one foot.]

Robert Louis Stevenson wrote of a time before videogames:

When I was sick and lay a-bed,
I had two pillows at my head,
And all my toys beside me lay
To keep me happy all the day.

And sometimes for an hour or so
I'd watch my leaden soldiers go,
With different uniforms and drills,
Among the bed-clothes, through the hills.

And sometimes sent my ships in fleets
All up and down among the sheets
Or brought my trees and houses out
And planted cities all about.

I was the giant, great and still
That sits upon the pillow-hill
And sees before him, dale and plain,
The pleasant land of Counterpane.

Day 1925: “A day of reckoning.”

Warmth challenge : Marvel Comics : icons : filter

vital functions (ish)

the continuing stooooory of the computer in the shop

It's never too early to think about costumes

Possibly a leeetle selective?

Tuesday, 28th April 2026

Obstacle: Wiseguy: fanfic: the same deep water as you

3W4DW Icon Request Fest

3W4DW Icon Request Fest

Alchemist of the Wilds

Performance Anxiety Challenge: Babylon 5: Religious Icon

Humanitarian aid turns to AI as crises outpace capacity

My last painting

(no subject)

this is my emotional support hockey player

Book review: Cuckoo

Recent Reading: Cuckoo

Soniferous Aether

Lighthouse over Counterpane

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