Saturday, February 28, 2026

GET ME REWRITE: Duke University closes Center for Advanced Hindsight just when founder Dan Ariely needs it the most

 
Dictionary definition:  Merriam-Webster
Artley photo credit:  Wikipedia
Illustration courtesy of PhotoFunia
Headline:  The Chronicle,  2/26/2026

Nikhil Sethi reports:
Duke’s Center for Advanced Hindsight run by Professor of Business Dan Ariely is set to close, Provost Alec Gallimore’s office announced Thursday. 
The timing comes just one week after Ariely was named hundreds of times in connection with Jeffrey Epstein in the documents released last Friday through the Epstein Files Transparency Act. However, Duke has said the two are unrelated.  [emphasis added]
In the University’s Thursday press release, the decision is attributed to Duke’s ongoing strategic realignment and includes the sunset of two other centers — The Biodemography of Aging Research Unit and Center for Healthy Eating Research. A University spokesperson further said in a Friday email to The Chronicle that the decision was made in December.

Related posts:  
February 2028, 2026

February 10-19, 2026

February 1-9, 2026
Peter Attia shovels tons of bullshit in an effort to outlive his current Epstein files humiliation.  (2/2)

January 2026

December 2025
What are Trump and his lackeys at DOJ and FBI hiding?  (12/2)

November 2025. 
Why is Donald Trump acting like a cornered rat? ("But his emails" edition).  (11/13)
September 2025

August 2025

July 2025
More evidence that Donald Trump is in full panic mode (tanking poll numbers edition).  (7/25)
Donald Trump to Jeff Epstein in October 1997:  "YOU ARE THE GREATEST!".  (7/25)
The Epstein Files: "A pal is a wonderful thing" (Joined at the Hip Once Upon a Time, chapter 5).  (7/19)
The Epstein Files:  Donald Trump as con artist AND sketch artist (Joined at the Hip Once Upon a Time, chapter 4). (7/18)
The Epstein Files:  Trump doesn't understand, but everyone else does (Joined at the Hip Once Upon a Time, chapter 3).  (7/16)
And no doubt for some very good reasons (Joined at the Hip Once Upon a Time, chapter 2).  (7/15)

June 2025

2024
 

GET ME REWRITE: Another Trump business venture flounders


 
Headline:  New York Times, 2/27/2026

Stacy Cowley and Matthew Goldstein report:
Truth Social, which has lost money since it launched as Trump Media’s original product, has failed to gain significant market share or advertisers. It serves mainly as a platform for Mr. Trump to communicate policy proposals with the world and air his political grievances.


Related post:

Transphobia continues to run amok in Trump administration

 
Headline:  New York Times, 3/27/2026

The decision opens with a line from Mr. Trump’s executive order setting two immutable genders as U.S. policy. Federal law “permits a federal agency employer to maintain single-sex bathrooms and similar intimate spaces,” the 2-to-1 majority wrote. “And it permits a federal agency employer to exclude employees, including trans-identifying employees, from opposite-sex facilities.” 
The commission’s sole Democratic member, Kalpana Kotagal, issued a pointed dissent, describing the decision as rushed and legally suspect.

Related posts:

Chapter Mifflin student housing redevelopment on West Washington in Madison Wisconsin (February 2026 construction site visit)

 
Photos by Retiring Guy




Ethan Duran reports:
Real estate development and investment firm CRG on Tuesday announced the groundbreaking of a six-story development near the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The developer assembled a 1.5-acre site of 12 parcels at 416-436 W. Washington Ave. and 413-417 W. Mifflin St., mainly single-family homes and duplexes, and worked with the city to rezone parcels to high-density housing. 
Milwaukee-based CG Schmidt is the general contractor. Construction has started and the project is expected to be completed for the 2027-28 academic year. Pre-leasing will start in summer 2026. The total project cost wasn’t shared. 
The project, dubbed “Chapter Mifflin,” will offer 162 furnished units with amenities, outdoor terraces and a public walking path between West Washington Avenue and West Mifflin Street.

Google Maps views prior to demolition:




Siting and rendering:

Keeping tabs on authors in LINKcat: Edward Hoagland

 


New York Times, 2/29/2026

Margalit Fox reports:
Widely considered one of the country’s foremost essayists and often described as an heir to Thoreau, Mr. Hoagland was famed for transforming the modern nature essay into a vehicle for autobiographical introspection. 
His work simultaneously explored physical landscapes — including those of Africa, Alaska and British Columbia — and the terrain of his own life, from the speech impediment that isolated him throughout his youth to the blindness that overtook him in his 50s, the surgery that restored his sight for a time and his eventual return to blindness. 
In his hands, nature writing and personal history dovetailed impeccably, as if to declare that the subject matter of each was nothing less than life’s inexorable cycle.




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2016
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2014

2013

South Korea gets the lede in article about bird flu cases in Asia

 
Headline:  WATT Poultry, 2/27/2026

Jackie Linden reports:
The latest update on the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) situation in South Korea puts the country’s outbreaks in poultry at 50. 
This is the total since September of last year, according to the agriculture ministry (as of February 26). 
The most recent outbreak had just been confirmed, involving a flock of around 6,000 ducks in South Jeolla, the country’s southernmost province.

Related posts:
February 20-28
SHOCKER!!  Dead birds found in gated community.  Bird flu suspected.  (2/21)

February 10-19
February 1-9, 2026

January 21-31, 2026

January 11-20, 2026
New York tells resident don't touch those dead birds.  (1/17)

January 1-10, 2026
Bird flu strain of avian influenza:  "The picture has grown darker and stranger than most would have imagined".  (1/8)
Bird flu reported on Marthas Vineyard in Massachusetts. (1/8)Dozens of vultures die of bird flu in North Carolina.  (1/8)

December 16-31, 2025

December 1-15, 2025

November 15-30, 2025

November 1-15, 2025

October 2025

September 2025

April-August 2025