How are those federal data sets going?

We gathered metadata from the US Department of Health and Human Services, CDC, and Veterans Affairs database harvest sources (metadata inventories of the agency datasets), and selected databases that were modified between Jan 20 and March 25, 2025. We excluded duplicates, datasets that had no archived copies for comparison or were otherwise unavailable, and datasets routinely updated monthly or more frequently. The final cohort included 232 datasets. We manually compared each dataset to archived versions hosted by the Internet Archive. We tracked alterations to words only, not numbers in the data....

We found that 114 (49%) of the 232 included datasets were substantially altered. Of these, the vast majority (106 datasets [93%]) had the word gender switched to sex (appendix p 2). Only 15 (13%) of the 114 altered datasets logged or otherwise indicated that the change had occurred. Alterations in 89 (78%) of the datasets were to the classification or categorisation of the data, such as column headers or stratification categories, and alterations in the remaining 25 (22%) were to descriptions of the data such as tags or narrative introductions to the dataset.

The alterations span the studied period. Of the 114 datasets with substantial changes, 4 (4%) were altered between Jan 20 and Jan 31, 2025; 30 (26%) were altered between Feb 1 and Feb 28, 2025; and 82 (72%) between March 1 and March 25, 2025. In 28 (25%) of the altered datasets, the change made the data descriptions more consistent. In these cases, the word gender had been applied to data also labelled as sex (eg, a stratification category labelled gender while the underlying data column was titled sex; after the change, only the word sex remained).

To me, this reads like fed workers scrambling to preserve data sets, and not RFK or DOGE actually fudging data, but I really wish they'd also tracked alterations to data.

Anyway, there's lots of crazy administration shit always going on, from paving the rose gardens and hosting UFC fights to signing cartoon genitals to your best pal Jeff. Have at it.

So I gather Trump wants five more congressional seats from the already-skewed Texas district map. Right now the GOP has 25 of 38 seats (ie 65.7%), and the state went for Trump 56.3%-42.4%.

If they want to have a majority in 30 districts (78.9%), and they're using 2024 Trump voter data to carve up the state into districts... this is really whetting my appetite for a midterm Texas blue wave. Please please, that would be so great.

I don't actually think Texas is on the brink of becoming purple. I'm strictly saying that I think they might bungle their way into giving Texas an isolated blue event.

First off, what a delight to catch a break in the news cycle to watch MAGA eat its young old.

Second, I still can't get past the perplexing part: that all of the Epstein dirty laundry has been out for years and years? The meme I saw said, "This is like being shocked to learn that Snoop Dogg smokes pot."

Third, it's hard to imagine this will finally be the straw that takes down Trump. But let's enjoy this while it lasts. I heard that Trump got turned down by 14 year old girls and had to make a pee tape with a hamburger.

I visited an old friend over the weekend. We did a ropes course and went roller skating, among other things. Notes:

1. I miss doing focused or interesting exercise. At the ropes place, you could choose courses with different difficulties, and the one that really challenged me was so much fun. It's been a long time since I combined exercise with heavy concentration.

2. Roller skating to good music also tapped into something I miss. It felt like the most fun parts of dancing at a night club, but in an all-ages wholesome way.

3. There's a certain casual way of roller skating where you look super relaxed, and leisurely swing one leg out and place it in front of the other when you're shifting your weight, and it all looks super cool and mellow.

4. I ended up throwing my back out the next day, and I think the soreness from the ropes course was the proximal trigger, because it went out at the top, near my neck, and the ropes course targeted the top of my back, whereas I felt the roller skating in my lower back. Anyway the next few days have kind of sucked.

Mossy Character sends in Imperial Oil faces multiple environmental assessments without comment.

An Imperial project to replace pipelines at its Norman Wells facility - the Line 490 project, which the company said was vital work to unlock access to more oil and keep the facility going - was referred to environmental assessment by the Sahtu Secretariat last month.

The Sahtu Secretariat represents the regions Sahtu Dene and Métis. The decision to refer the pipeline work was not unanimous among the secretariat's members, but a letter from Sahtu Secretariat Chair Charles McNeely said the drilling technique proposed beneath the Mackenzie River "clearly calls for a full environmental assessment."

Now, the regulatory record shows a second environmental assessment has been opened covering Imperial's licence to operate the entire facility for the next five to 10 years.

I know Mossy has great confidence in me to say something smart, but I think I'm missing something here.

But my flight is boarding! Byeeeeee.