Since there’s been a complaint. I’ll start…
The American West is suffering a severe snow drought this winter. The water level in Lake Powell, the upstream one of the two big reservoirs on the Colorado River, is already 32 feet lower than at this point last year. The next deadline for the seven states that are signatory to the Colorado River Compact to reach an agreement on handling the drought is tomorrow. There has been little (if any) progress since the last deadline. We are at the point where the federal government is supposed to step in and dictate. Given a President who thinks Canada can just turn the taps on, that’s a scary thought. Unless the lower basin states — AZ, CA, NV — are willing to accept a LOT less water, Lake Powell will almost certainly reach minimum power pool this year. That’s the level where it is no longer possible for the dam to generate electricity. Reaching dead pool level — where no water can be released at all — is not out of the question.
Actually, Rohmer films aren’t long.
This year I skipped the Berlinale. I don’t feel that well and it has become a wee bit too expensive too.
I also miss queuing for tickets in person. Now it’s all online.
I have essentially switched to the Fantasy Film Festival (which also takes place around here with one or two additional shorter spinoffs at other times of the year).
I’m sorry to hear that, Hartmut. But the Fantasy Filmfest should be fun too.
I remember when Splatting Image was a thing.
Oh my God, just when you think you can’t be shocked any more by examples of the administration’s (or the POTUS’s) corruption, you learn otherwise:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/opinion/corruption-trump-accountability.html?unlocked_article_code=1.NFA.U6Ki.7VQgP7cuBbQV&smid=url-share
And, on an entirely unrelated note (as far as I know), you could get a dislocated neck if you were trying to keep up with Trump’s reaction to the UK’s proposed settlement with Mauritius of the Chagos problem, and Diego Garcia. By my count (and I’m not going to go back and check) today’s accusation by Trump that Keir’s deal is “a very big mistake” is his third volte face in a few weeks where he has said this, and then the opposite, and now this again. Not to mention his original back and forth about it a year ago:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9dqg3nqynlo
Further to russell’s comment upthread about the new social media site for AI “agents” to interact, this is an NYT writer interviewing her own agent about its experiences on the site:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/upshot/moltbook-artificial-intelligence-ai.html?unlocked_article_code=1.NFA.HHDh.MSfIxI2Jr59d&smid=url-share
The thing is, Trump’s memory is shot. So he tends to go with whatever the last person to talk to him said. If a couple of people close to him have different opinions on some topic, you can expect to see exactly that sort of flip-flopping.
In a sane world, this would be a bombshell of a story and we’d be hearing bipartisan talk of impeachment. Instead, I’m only learning about it here.
Robert Reich’s open letter to Kristi Noem in today’s Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/19/kristi-noem-ice-google-meta