This makes me sad (been there). From Joe Menn at WaPo: "Most of the Washington Post’s tech reporters were laid off today, including me. I have loved my time at the paper, which is where I wanted to work from age 15. I take some consolation in not being among the survivors who will have to work harder with less for fewer readers. On to better things."

So, rather than watch the rest of the performers bow out of gigs, he's just going to close it down for construction? Can't wait to see what he does with the place. From WaPo: "Trump plans to close Kennedy Center for about two years, starting in July Under the proposal, the Kennedy Center could close on July 4, coinciding with America’s 250th anniversary." “I have determined that The Trump Kennedy Center, if temporarily closed for Construction, Revitalization, and Complete Rebuilding, can be, without question, the finest Performing Arts Facility of its kind, anywhere in the World,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “In other words, if we don’t close, the quality of Construction will not be nearly as good, and the time to completion, because of interruptions with Audiences from the many Events using the Facility, will be much longer. The temporary closure will produce a much faster and higher quality result!” https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2026/02/01/kennedy-center-trump-closure-construction/

According to the Epstein files, he had a "personal hacker" working for him. The FBI document says Epstein's personal hacker was an "Italian citizen born in Calabria who developed zero-day exploits and offensive cyber tools and sold the tools to governments." 📄.pdf "[Redacted] sold a zero-day to Hebollah. [Redacted] was known as the first person to hack and find vulnerabilities in Blackberries and iOS. He was known for finding Firefox vulnerabilities. [Redacted] former company was acquired by CrowdStrike in fall of 2017 and was currently a vice president there." "S//NF= was very good at finding vulnerabilities was friends with "old school" European hackers. "Received a trunk of cash from Hezbollah when was in Italy; drove the money to Switzerland and deposited it in another ba [redacted]. [redacted] owned a theater company in California and he used the theater company to launder his zeroday money "Made six figures from the sale of his zero-days. He sold his tools to United Kingdom GCHQ and provided training to the organization. He also sold his zero-days to a Central African government, as well as Hezbollah for political reasons. The Italian Government asked for help, but [redacted] declined because he felt the Government was incompetent. Calabria was mob-controlled an did not have much loyalty for his birth country. "[Redacted] sold his exploits to the United States and United Kingdom, but he would not sell to Asian countries because he a is racist. He was also anti-Semitic. [Redacted] was terrified of Russia, however, and would never travel there. He lived in Dubai at one time, and was acquainted with the [redacted] lived in Oman as well. He may have an Iranian and Israeli passport, in addition to his Vatican City passport" Looks likely the top commenter here is correct about "Epstein's hacker": https://www.reddit.com/r/cybersecurity/comments/1qsi6ds/informant_told_fbi_that_jeffrey_epstein_had_a/

ICYMI, the Small Business Administration (SBA) has suspended more than 1,000 small business contractors in the 8(a) Business Development Program, designed to provide contracting opportunities and training to small business owners that are socially and economically disadvantaged. https://www.forbes.com/sites/nataliemadeiracofield/2026/01/27/1000-firms-out-65-in-whats-happening-to-the-8a-program/ On December 5th, SBA announced that every 8(a) firm would be required to provide detailed financial information to the agency with limited guidance. The SBA initially provided just 31 days to comply with their request, over the holidays, before extending the deadline to January 19th. On Monday, Defense News said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Jan. 16 "lambasted a decades-old contracting program that provides business opportunities for small and disadvantaged businesses, calling it a breeding ground for fraud and disparaging it as a “DEI” effort." "In a video posted on social media, Hegseth described the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) Business Development Program in harsh terms, connecting it with diversity programs he has strongly criticized and ordering a strict review." “We’re actually taking a sledgehammer to the oldest DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] program in the federal government,” Hegseth said. “A program few people outside of Washington have ever heard of, that I hadn’t heard of. It’s called the 8(a) program.”

Defense News

Critics see ‘chilling effect’ of DOD crackdown on 8(a) small-biz deals

“I’d hate to see the baby thrown out with the bathwater,” one executive said of the Trump administration's scrutiny of small-business 8(a) pr...

Finally got around to learning the song "Breathe" by Pink Floyd on the piano. The chord sequences are just dripping with chill. This song reminds me of Zepplin's "Rain Song," in that I could listen to it and play it for hours on end. Pink Floyd recorded this song with a guitar mostly doing the chords. It sounds amazing with the keyboard filling in, especially with some funky preset like 70s funk. Breathe: Quick and dirty tutorial on the chords (you can mess around within the chord in the right hand for a melody):

Virginia Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine sent a letter to the DHS inspector general, regarding what they called "a muddled patchwork of technology procurements that have significantly expanded DHS’ ability to collect, retain, and analyze information about Americans." "We are deeply concerned that ICE’s surge in brutality against American communities is being facilitated by the inappropriate and unsupervised use of surveillance technology." "DHS law enforcement agencies have moved to amass potentially sensitive personal data with the unprecedented $165 billion DHS was allocated during last year’s partisan reconciliation process. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) alone received $75 billion, more funding than that allocated to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), an agency responsible for investigating violations of a significantly greater number of laws." "To date, DHS has: 1. Issued a Request for Information (RFI) to Big Data and Ad Tech providers to support ICE’s investigation activities; 2. Published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), Collection and Use of Biometrics by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, that would expand the types and amount of biometric data the agency can – including allowing collection of biometric data from children under 14; 3. Issued a RFI to hire 30 social media surveillance contractors to collect information from social media and commercial databases and build profiles on individuals for the Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) division; 4. Issued a Notice of Intent for licenses from Bi2 Technologies - used for scanning individuals’ irises; 5. Entered a contract with Palantir to upgrade the Investigative Case Management (ICM) system – which has access to information from across the federal government – to include the Immigration Lifecycle Operating System (ImmigrationOS); 6. Reactivated a contract with Paragon Solutions under the FAR 6.302-1 rule, which is reserved for the most unique services." 📄.pdf

IDK why, but I usually feel compelled to like someone's comment on LinkedIn before I tear into it with an opposing view. Feels more civil that way, I guess.