The Tale of Silyan reminded me of All That Breathes: Two great documentaries about wild birds (storks, kites) and people who bond with and care for them.

On the Kortum Trail above Wright's Beach, I looked down and saw a man on one knee slipping an engagement ring onto a woman's hand. They are just barely visible in this photo taken a minute later, but if you happen to know them, they might want to see it.

I received a PDF form that was locked for editing. Claude recreated it as an HTML page, I filled out the form, saved as PDF, and sent it back.

It's funny when people say things like "that's a false chanterelle" or "a Douglas fir is not a true fir" as if the mushrooms and trees are trying to fool us.

I feel seen. https://mastodon.social/@gvwilson/115630334903994434

I am two episodes into Jad Abumrad's new twelve-parter on Fela Kuti, it is excellent. https://www.npr.org/2025/10/15/nx-s1-5539126/fela-kuti-podcast-fear-no-man

Just a typical item in today's news that would, as recently as 2015, have seemed like a passage from a work of dystopian fiction.

"Or imagine instead that you are the vice-president. Your grift is that you claim to understand poor people, whose problems, you say, are the fault of gays, immigrants, and billionaires; and then you rise to power thanks to the money and support of a gay immigrant billionaire."

Well this is the coolest BYTE archive ever. The home page, a grid with cover pages down the left side, functions as an infographic that charts the rise and fall of the magazine. (I arrived long after the glory days of 450-page issues.)

"if this kind of infrastructure doesn’t exist yet, it can be built. “I think the most important lesson from Chicago right now is that anyone can do this and everyone should do this”" https://organizingmythoughts.org/in-chicago-we-run-toward-danger-together/ #Chicago #Resistance

"The tractor beam that pulled me in was the special exhibit of Ray Harryhausen’s orginal animatronic models and drawings. Here’s the Kraken from Clash of the Titans." https://blog.jonudell.net/2025/11/02/release-the-kraken/ #Miniatures #HarryHausen #Dynamation

"I’m not sure you’ll see a bank robber assessed as having made “a startling departure from traditional cash withdrawals.” Nice essay on the media's startling departure from plain language. https://newrepublic.com/post/202475/media-euphemism-trump-sanewashing-departure

"In a series of experiments, chimpanzees revised their beliefs based on new evidence." If only more humans could learn that trick. https://www.404media.co/chimps-are-capable-of-human-like-rational-thought-breakthrough-study-finds/

There's nothing like a big dose of the majesty of California, a friend likes to say. It sure was powerful medicine today. https://blog.jonudell.net/2025/10/30/a-day-in-sequoia-national-park/

Cars are fundamentally anti-social. As we transition to a world with fewer of them, how might we improve the sociality of automous EVs? https://blog.jonudell.net/2025/10/25/reimagining-car-culture/

This lovely paean to the roundabouts in my former home town omits the traffic disaster at Keene's core. Central Square (which is a circle) awkwardly combines a roundabout with intersections and traffic lights: the worst of both worlds. I love you anyway, Keene!

Good overview of how TikTok-style moderation has led to wider enshittification. But the defeatist tone annoys me, and a nod to the fediverse would have been appropriate. https://radiolab.org/podcast/content-warning

Thanks! I signed up and am looking forward to it. The von Hippel principles are top of mind for me in my current project. #DemocratizingInnovation https://ruby.social/@bracken/115414726225149327

"Success depends on convincing people that opposing tyranny is just the first step in a program dedicated to changing the fact that some of us live too well while many others cannot live well at all." https://mastodon.online/@xankarn/115412582784682138

"Fight truth decay" Good one! #nokings #santarosa

I sure hope the Frogs and Sharks will show up for #NoKings in Santa Rosa tomorrow.

"We are saving God." Like Marshall McCluhan in Annie Hall, God steps out from behind a potted plant to say: "You know nothing of my work." https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:twjze4qqf6fgxz33ct52wlnl/post/3m363pzny4s2y

A good goal to aim for here in America. Perhaps our public health leaders can visit the Pacific island countries to learn how it was accomplished. #measles #vaccines https://wandering.shop/@adapalmer/115362271190176360

Note to self: always bring a real map. https://blog.jonudell.net/2025/10/04/maps-old-and-new/ #maps #navigation

I have long admired ourworldindata.org for its comprehensive data and analysis, much of which is the work of Hannah Ritchie. Her new book, Not The End of the World, synthesizes what she has learned over the past decade and delivers a credible, much-needed message of hope.

To those who heed this message: thank you for your service. https://kolektiva.social/@Voline/115285852310095053

"One reason techno-utopians don't worry about the loss of human meaning is that they're not particularly attached to humans." - Bill McKibben

"The number of far-right attacks continues to outpace all other types of terrorism and domestic violent extremism.

"The demonstration is widely considered to be the longest continuous act of political protest in U.S. history. It has survived seven presidents, countless global conflicts, hurricanes and blizzards, heat waves and floods. It has outlasted several U.S.

All I hear about is the Target boycott, which is important, but now it's time to organize a large-scale boycott of CBS/Paramount (Colbert) and ABC (Kimmel). I cannot be the first person to entertain this thought. Who is working on this and how can we help? #CBS #Paramount #ABC #Boycott

Here's how to make an XMLUI table responsive: https://docs.xmlui.org/howto/make-a-table-responsive I just added the example to the Howto section in the docs. Now when I ask an agent how to do this, the XMLUI MCP server should guide the agent to the working example and cite the URL. I tested.

Bright engineering students in China used to flock to American universities. That flow will now reverse. And we'll need to train our students in spycraft. https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:twjze4qqf6fgxz33ct52wlnl/post/3lyve2jrvts25

The Fresh Air interview with Billy Strings is deeply moving. Hearing he is from Ionia, Michigan added a layer for me. Two of my college roommates were from there. It wasn't an artsy town when I visited in the 70s, nor was it during his troubled childhood.

I last updated this DEI tracker in April. A scan of recent headlines suggests little change since. Boycott is arguably the only effective lever for #resistance between now and the midterms.

The infinitely wise @r0ml once spoke of the moment when he understood pasta to be a sauce delivery platform. I hereby extend the category to include spaghetti squash.

Journos please avoid the phrase "vaccine skeptic". Try writing "gravity skeptic" and you'll start to see why. I suggest "vaccine denier". Again, how does "gravity denier" sound? #vaccines

"They were lovely, kind people who turned their heads as their neighbors were dragged away." I heard the same story from two Auschwitz survivors I knew as a child. I never thought it would happen in America, but never assumed it couldn't.

Powerful story indeed. I wish he didn't use Substack to tell it. I guess for them it isn't about income it's about reach. That's a tough call. https://robertreich.substack.com/p/life-in-the-shadow-of-the-american

The word crackdown is common in headlines. Writers: Please reframe. It connotes legitimate authority and necessary enforcement. Don't be stenographers. Consider alternatives: harassment repression intimidation persecution

The #PickettFire near Calistoga from Taylor Mountain in Santa Rosa.

This is spectacularly well done. https://strongsongspodcast.com/blogs/episodes/s07e08-every-little-thing-she-does-is-magic-by-the-police

"Remember Kilmar Albrego Garcia, the family man legally residing in the US who was grabbed by ICE and sent to that gulag? First the Trumpians said they had no power to get him back. Then one of his senators flew down to visit him, the courts spanked them, the Administration brought him back.

I asked Claude and ChatGPT to react to this chart. Both initially applauded. I told them to read Tufte and reconsider. Both regurgitated Tufteisms but missed the main flaw. I told them they missed the main flaw. Finally they got it: The Lie Factor.

Watching a flock of starlings attack a hawk is a study in resistance.

"Your job as a citizen is to work harder to find these truth-telling journalists, a growing number of whom have gone solo." https://www.inquirer.com/columnists/attytood/trump-cbs-paramount-media-press-freedom-authoritarian-censorship-20250729.html

Don't look up! https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:hf7ezrajxadu7v3tzcyij424/post/3lv4uyvzelk2r

The project I joined in January just went public. XMLUI aims to empower developers who aren't React and CSS pros to create and maintain effective browser-based user interfaces. #XMLUI #React #CSS https://blog.jonudell.net/2025/07/18/introducing-xmlui/

Elapsed time on this hike, in seconds, between thinking blackberries would be nice and having a mouthful of them: 30.

That feeling when you open the new Atlantic magazine to a full page Palantir ad. And immediately close it.

"Over the coming weeks, the food will be destroyed at a cost of $130,000 to American taxpayers (on top of the $800,000 used to purchase the biscuits)" Feed starving children? No, burn the food and let them eat ash. The cruelty is the point. I can't decide if this is or isn't an example of the