the brandensite

Statement from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell 2026 Jan 11   federalreserve.gov

Good evening.

On Friday, the Department of Justice served the Federal Reserve with grand jury subpoenas, threatening a criminal indictment related to my testimony before the Senate Banking Committee last June. That testimony concerned in part a multi-year project to renovate historic Federal Reserve office buildings.

I have deep respect for the rule of law and for accountability in our democracy. No one—certainly not the chair of the Federal Reserve—is above the law. But this unprecedented action should be seen in the broader context of the administration's threats and ongoing pressure.

This new threat is not about my testimony last June or about the renovation of the Federal Reserve buildings. It is not about Congress's oversight role; the Fed through testimony and other public disclosures made every effort to keep Congress informed about the renovation project. Those are pretexts. The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the President.

This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions—or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation.

I have served at the Federal Reserve under four administrations, Republicans and Democrats alike. In every case, I have carried out my duties without political fear or favor, focused solely on our mandate of price stability and maximum employment. Public service sometimes requires standing firm in the face of threats. I will continue to do the job the Senate confirmed me to do, with integrity and a commitment to serving the American people.

Thank you.

Just your latest reminder that our president is a wannabe fascist dictator.

WORDS.ZIP 2026 Jan 10   words.zip
WORDS.ZIP is an "infinite collaborative word search game" that you play right in your web browser, and although in my opinion it works best on a computer, it will work on your mobile device. But what's interesting, is the meta aspect of it. Zoom in and you search for words, but zoom out – way out – and you will find patterns carved into the grid. Crude drawings, peoples' names, graffiti – all the usual nonsense that comes from any online anonymous collaborative artwork.

I love that the internet does this to people. It's glorious

Why I don't want a 3D printer 2026 Jan 5   youtube.com
Recently, my child requested a 3D printer. A request which I denied, due to my past experience of 3D printers being merely messy, inefficient ways of generating lots of plastic trash. Coincidentally, I came across this video today, which does a much better job of making my point than I do.

Star Trek 360 2025 Dec 31   mijofr.github.io
Someone revived a bunch of old Quicktime VR scans of 360-degree photos of Star Trek sets and put them on the web for us all to enjoy.

My Top Flickr Photos Of 2025 2025 Dec 29   flickr.com
Like I do every year, here's a collection of my 10 most best performing photos I shared on Flickr in 2025. (And for comparison, here are years previous: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012. Judge for yourself whether I've been improving.)

For what it's worth, eight of these, I shot with the Nikon Zf, and the other two, the Fujifilm GFX 50R. Nine of the photos were taken while traveling – three in Japan, four in London, one mid-flight, and one camping – and six were taken at night, with an additional two during the twilight hours.

Leaving my "top of the year" album up to the whims of Flickr's hordes is always a little bit a test to see whether the masses truly are asses, but I feel that this year's set is a decent group. Maybe not exactly what I would have picked myself, but not a bad showing.

Bo Diddley's influence on Johnny Marr 2025 Dec 24   radiox.co.uk
I've been poking my way through the Blues and it's leaving me dumbstruck how much Blues influence is obvious in the later generations of music I grew up with. There's a Bo Diddley song called Mona (I Need You Baby) from 1957 and when I first heard it last week, I immediately said, that's How Soon Is Now by The Smiths! So I looked it up, and whaddya know, I'm right. Turns out that just this last April (in the linked interview), Johnny Marr himself confirms that back in 1984, when he was composing the song, Bo Diddley was a direct influence.

XPan Modifications 2025 Dec 24   bobeckertphotography.com
This photographer modified the infamous Hasselblad XPan to take a, of all things, Samyang 8mm fisheye lens. And his results are far better than they have any right to be. I'm impressed.

Kol Isha: Forbidding Women's Voice 2025 Dec 24   womenofthewall.org.il
Kol Isha (literally: voice of a woman) is a Jewish teaching which says it is forbidden for men to hear singing from a woman other than his wife. Some even take it further, and say it is forbidden to even hear a woman speak publicly. The root of this prohibition is extracted most ridiculously from a single line in Song of Songs where Solomon praises his lover's voice, which the rabbis of the Talmud (Berakhot 24a) then take to mean that a woman's voice constitutes nakedness.

it's difficult for me, as a Reform Jew, to take this seriously. It reads like a gossamer-thin chain of tenuous logic backfilled in to explain after the fact why women are treated as second-class citizens. But (unfortunately) a Reform Jew's outrage doesn't stop religious zealots from using this restriction to silence the voices of women. Luckily we have organizations such as a linked Women of the Wall who are capable of arguing Jewishly, from an orthodox perspective, against teachings such as this.

Amir Zand 2025 Dec 24   amirzand.art
Check out the fricking amazing Mœbius-esque Digital illustration artwork of Amir Zand.

Judas Priest And Subliminal Messages 2025 Dec 24   grunge.com
Did Judas Priest songs contain subliminal messages which employed to young Colorado men to kill themselves in 1980? Well, obviously no. And yet the band was forced to defend themselves from said accusations in court. Grunge Magazine's Branden C. Potter (no relation) reports on all the details in this ridiculous incident in pop music history.