Spam pro tip.

When a spam message gets past my shields and lands in my inbox, the first thing I do is look at the SpamAssassin headers to see if some rule fired whose priority I should bump up. Usually the answer is "Uggggghhhhhh no". It used to be...
https://jwz.org/b/ykkV

For those of you who write dates the US way, today is Pi Day. Celebrate at 1:59 (am or pm, your choice).

If you want to be more exact, here are the first 50 digits of Pi: 3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751

@cR0w @TindrasGrove aye. local is local, but I kind of think any domestic-centric conference runners should be very explicit about how dangerous it is to come into the U.S., especially if you're (the traveler) a decent human being.

I'm making an assumption any conference runners reading this must also be decent humans.

***** MAJOR ALERT regarding Social Security and DOGE *****

Please forward widely!

MAJOR ALERT: Changes announced by DOGE to the Social Security Administration will inevitably result in many seniors not receiving their payments as expected.

For anyone who isn't computer literate, comfortable using computers, or otherwise does not access their Social Security accounts online, changes announced by Elon Musk's DOGE to SSA support could be devastating.

Originally, it was reported that DOGE planned to shut down or vastly curtail virtually all SSA phone support services -- generally considered to be among the best staffed and most helpful of federal government call centers.

After that report leaked, it was announced that instead of a major close down of phone support, it would henceforth not be possible to change direct deposit payment information by phone, instead requiring use of the Internet with two-factor authentication, or a physical visit to an SSA office.

This alone will be a disaster for many seniors and other Social Security beneficiaries.

SSA (under DOGE control) claims that 40% of SS deposit fraud is conducted via changes made by phone. Perhaps that figure is accurate. But there are many reasons to doubt any figures that relate to anything DOGE does. Reports indicate that their claims of savings across the federal government are vastly less than they are claiming, and Trump/Musk continue to claim that accounts associated with long dead persons are still receiving SS payments -- a claim that has been totally discredited.

But the bottom line is even simpler. People who aren't using computers to access their SSA accounts are going to be the very same people who will be most at risk of not receiving payments after these DOGE changes, since their only alternative to update their information after changes or problems with their checking accounts or other deposit accounts would be physically going in to SSA offices.

Many SSA recipients are infirm and with limited (if any) mobility -- traveling to SSA offices would be impossible for them. Meanwhile, DOGE is CLOSING nearly 50 SSA offices, making reaching SSA offices physically even more difficult.

I haven't seen specific discussion regarding any changes related to SS recipients who choose to receive their payments by physical checks, but in any case this would seem to be an impractical and not timely fallback for direct deposit users affected by these DOGE changes, given the likely delays and other DOGE impacts on SSA, even assuming switching to physical checks could be done by phone.

This is a DISASTER in the making. Many SS recipients depend on these payments every month to even minimally survive. Trump/Musk/DOGE is putting these persons lives at risk.

This must be stopped.

L