America’s 250th anniversary event being repurposed into a Christian Nationalist coerced mass baptism event SOUNDS unlikely, and yet…

Soon, all execs will claim they made mistakes going all-in on AI, but that no one could have predicted the outcome based on knowledge at the time. Bullshit. We all told them what would happen, repeatedly and with data, and they said “stop telling me that, I like my version better”.

Okay. How do we expose RFK Jr to the history of Bath Spa. It’s a Roman thing, his crew loves Romans, right? And people drink the spa water medicinally - the sulfur smell is part of it. So surely getting him to convince the Admin to take Reflecting Pool water with their sauerkraut is doable. Right?

Is the delay because they’ve incorprated the name removal into a preview of the revival of the musical STOMP?

I want every CEO to spend part of each day getting a complaint scenario and calling their company’s customer service line to sort it. Because yesterday my retiree father spent 10 hours setting up internet, then got an email claiming he’d filed a cancellation request, and now is stuck in AI hell.

Oslo Pride video 🥹 🏳️‍🌈 #Pride #LoveIsLove

I enjoy telling people about how I got a concussion and weeks later ALSO “aced” this test, but the way in which I answered one of the questions actually uncovered some TBI damage (then verified in another test). So… they’re seeing more than just right and wrong, buddy.

Every single thing about this is Black-Mirror-terrifying.

Identify the Good Aunts* early and make the most of them. They’ll stick with you for the long haul. * all Good Aunts are Fun Aunts, in some degree. But not all Fun Aunts are Good Aunts. Categorize mindfully.

Colbert inheriting Space Ghost’s mantle, with Jack White as Zorak? Yes please. (Brak TBD)

CIS PEOPLE TIME TO STEP UP it’s once again time to yell at our bad government via online comment form the FCC is trying to make trans and nonbinary content require special ratings on shows GLAAD has a good writeup on it below TELL ‘EM NO direct link to comment form: www.fcc.gov/ecfs/filings...

Witch stuff. Wood-based witch stuff. Secretly. I’d probably die early (and possibly violently as part of some sort of community bonding exercise), but I wouldn’t fucking die in childbirth and I count that as a win. I’d die doing what I loved: unsettling people for vague, unnameable reasons.

Have we considered that the moral code of the US is also rapidly falling apart because all our morality professionals got laid off in the last 5 years and now its most recent version was coded by AI and vibes?

Seems like the big speech went well. And considering how the timeline’s gone so far, I look forward to the US Congress discovering and joining King Charles’ inherited cargo cult en masse!

It appears I was coincidentally offline for a very exciting two hours, and may I just say how pleased I am about that.

Hey @bsky.app - who’s doing the UX research and usability testing for new features over there? Is it the product team, or do you have a third party or separate department handling this stuff? (Genuine question from a UXer, not a gotcha.)

Having taken the day to consider it: I do not like the new photo carousel. The usability swiping concern hasn’t turned out to be an issue (mistakenly swiping R/L meaning down/up) but I loathe swiping to see what used to be tiled. I preferred four images and choosing to tap, versus swipe to tap.

I just introduced my niece and nephew to Strongbad, Trogdor, Charlie the Unicorn, and Badger Badger Snake and they are utterly charmed. They can’t believe this is what the internet used to be. They are nostalgic for it.

I’m okay with women leaning in and learning about AI, as long as once they learn it and start saying “wait, who does final review to make sure this is correct” and “…you do know Sr engineers grow from Jr engineers, right? So you still need to hire those” and “this is literally wrong” people listen.

I once ran 25 yards and leaped onto the back of an accelerating London Routemaster bus, matching the velocity so exactly that I appeared to float gently onto the platform like a ballerina. I was wearing a summer skirt, which wafted cinematically. People already on the bus applauded.

Six round-trip sleeper train berths per year. m I love sleeping, I love trains, I love looking out windows that move, I love being seated for meals with random people I would never ever have interacted with, and I love the insane hyperlocal gossip I overhear in the corridors.

Regularly talk to people on the phone who may not be the person who can resolve your end need. Be engaging. Make them think you’re a charming individual. Do this to the person answering calls at the Subaru dealership, the Apple fraud rep, the local librarian. Like the 80s and house lines.

You know, this week is rapidly pushing me into flip-phone territory.

Called all my reps for the third time today, this time emphasizing that even if Trump’s backed down, I don’t care: he made the threats. He panicked nations for three days. He shaved years off our lives. Proceed as though he did it. Stop all work other than impeachment of him and Cabinet members.

I feel like people who read sci-fi and history (and sci-fi that is often history-based) have a better grasp of where things go from here, but the general public have a totally different risk metric. They think it’s too ridiculous to happen. Nerds know this is exactly how it usually does happen.

I am going to my sibling’s house tonight and will sleep over. Because this fucking lunatic country is actually at a place where I want to be around family when our stupid President does an entirely elective thing that apparently no elected official can stop. He’s destroying OUR civilization.

Great Easter so far: 1. Woke up 2. Saw President threaten what seems to be nuclear war against Iran 3. Binged creme eggs 4. Called every rep and senator to beg them to stop writing miffed letters to the editor and FUCKING STOP HIM.

Doing a full-on media ban tomorrow and bingeing a drama while making stew instead. My system absolutely cannot handle April Fool’s shenanigans this year.

Was going to go to the big festive metro No Kings march, but getting run down by a cold means I’m going local and quaint. Literally every body matters in these crowd counts. Even if you’re only there for 30 minutes, sniffly. It’s important, and you’ll wish you could say you were there later.

Or when you were on the internet, then your Dad picked up the phone downstairs and it broke the line and that was the internet done for you this evening, kiddo! Go play Mavis Beacon or print out a banner or something.

Elizabeth Banks

I have gone to great lengths to Battlestar Galactica my digital life away from the rest of humanity.

Those who did not learn the lesson of taxing New England’s beverage of choice are doomed to repeat it

The only people who should remain on X are a loose affiliation of Grok-whisperers, who feed these prompts to Grok 24/7. They may not listen to “libs”, but they’ll listen to Grok. Or they’ll turn against Grok. Win/win.

This energy, all the time, to get elected in coming cycles.

When I went out to clear off my car (round 1/x), a four year old in pajamas spent the entire time standing at the giant first-floor window of his apartment, banging on the glass and seemingly shouting instructions at me. Buddy, you don’t even have a license.

You know what’s going to be a real challenge to embroider on a prison uniform?

So here’s the thing with user adoption of new tech: you get one first bite at that apple. If the apple is sour or rotted or even just mealy, the user remembers. They launched the AI stuff too broadly and too soon. The tech is a gimmick, not a solve for user problems. Greed & user behavior fail.

All I hear is this:

This Brazilian woman is correct. The billionaire AI pitch is “separate but equal” all over again. And once again, the “but equal” part is a load of shit. Do not willingly sleepwalk society into this kid existence. 90% correct is not actually CORRECT, and functional humanity can’t run on vibes.

Every time I come back from my sibling’s very tech-centric and AI-enabled house, I am so pleased that I never adopted any of that shit. I mean, I was forewarned professionally, but still. To enter a space with no cameras or mics and turning on sets of lights with a literal remote: I am content.

If you haven’t updated to a RealID yet and you’ve got an appointment, I need you to know: they’re going to make you take a new photo, no matter when your license renewal is scheduled. I’m telling you this because no one told me, and now I’m going to jump-scare every time I open my wallet. Grim.

I watch the Winter Olympics with the knowledge that my event would be the luge, and that I would do really well for 3/4 of the course and then I would spectacularly die.

One of the sparkliest people I ever knew died of this in her 20s. It’s in my family and I made sure to get tested as soon as I was able. Largely because of Claire, not because of the family history. Drink the weird concoction and have the best nap you’ll ever know. Avoid this.

I have a vague but intense need to educate people about user experience, not in my usual mentoring/boss role, but in a way people can apply it in their personal life. Yes, the gadget is interesting. Let’s think about three steps down the line - what if it bricks? Does it actually help you?

We can’t keep doing this. Waking up every morning to discover the president has kidnapped a foreign leader, invaded a blue city, released files proving decades of pedophilic trafficking among elites, posted racist videos, revived political vendettas. This is killing us all. It’s been ONE YEAR.

Okay though, who is the gentleman standing behind Zohran? He won my regard when he chuckled about the library making Heated Rivalry available during the snowstorm, but now he’s also being benevolent and smiley to disruptive children. Is the whole administration made up of good vibes?

It’s increasingly clear that “fuck you” money isn’t money that lets you pursue authenticity and be true to yourself. It’s just money that lets you say “fuck you” without consequence to an ever-widening pool of people at increasing levels of callousness until you cease to be human.

Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again. #Pinks #ProudBlue