One of our King County councilmembers (for our most conservative district) is trying to vilify county employees doing remote work. (yes, he's up for re-election...) I don't appreciate being besmirched so unfairly and un-factually. While ranting against taxes, he notes we're still getting paid […]

My kid just showed me a little songbird in their bird field guide called a Beardless Tyrannulet and not only is that a BADASS name, it straight up just sounds like a Shakespearean insult. Perfection.

Spotted this visitor at the grain terminal along the Seattle waterfront, taking on a big load before heading to Taiwan:

Oh hey look, every scientific paper I ever coauthored was probably used to train LLMs -- and probably not legally. Sign me up for the class action settlement against Anthropic! Fellow #scientists, #researchers, and any #author who's ever #published anything -- the LLMs have been scraping not […]

Out doing fieldwork on Beaver Lake and made a new friend!

On today’s episode of the “This Week in #Kirkland” #podcast, I take a deep dive into the science and the communications of #beach closures in the #seattle metro area. Want to learn how we test the water or what we test for? Curious about how we know that the problem is goose poop, not sewage? […]

When I first learned #cpr a few decades ago, there were a lot of caveats. But since then, studies have shown that the details aren't super important. Nowadays, the golden rule for CPR is: Just Do It. Not sure if they have a pulse? Start CPR anyways; you won't hurt anything. Don't want to put […]

Oh dear. The Simple Sabotage Field Manual describes two tactics that I immediately recognized as common attributes of internal government bureaucracy: "Apply all regulations to the last letter." and "See that three people have to approve everything where one would do." Yeah, that's sabotaging […]

In the symphony of spring, bumblebees are the percussion section. Outside, it's the gentle buzz as they lift from one flower to the next. But inside, it's the PING! and THUMP! as they bonk into the windows, over and over and over. Sometimes mixed up with a THWANG! when they bonk into the window […]

Some time last week, the stereo-pair speakers stopped talking directly to each other. They've been using the thermostat as a repeater -- a fun, unexpected use for a mesh network with fully interoperable protocols. Today I tried to fix things, but wow that problem runs deep! I had no idea that a […]

Dear #sciencefiction authors: Environmental collapse is a poor reason to flee into space. It's one thing if you're heading for another habitable planet, or as an incentive to explore. But I'm tired of it as the reason to live always in a generation ship or a space station or a moon/Mars/asteroid […]

Most people think bureaucratic requirements are like barnacles. Tough. Inscrutable. Immovable. "Encrusted" comes to mind. But they've never seen it when it's newly hatched and still figuring out its shape. Before the third or fourth molt, before its shell hardens, a bureaucratic process is […]

Today's view of Mt. Rainier, flying out from Seattle:

I know, I know, language keeps evolving. Grammar is descriptive, not prescriptive. Meanings shift. But damn if it isn't hard to let go of what I grew up with. It's like I hear the meaning from my childhood for a second, before I translate it into what it means these days. "We come in peace" […]

Rep. Zooey Zephyr - My Wife - just gave an incredible speech against a drag ban in Montana. It was so strong that a Republican rose to speak passionately against the bill, chastising the sponsor. The drag ban dies in Montana, flips 10+ Republican votes! This is the power of representation.

So I decided to give the library's new recommendation service a whirl. I told it about the stories I've been enjoying, what I'm itching to re-read, the sort of mood I'm looking for. It asked some useful questions, and we settled on a vibe: something dark, dystopian, creepy is fine but no gore […]

What does it look like when the US government tries to erase transgender people? Like removing every instance of "transgender" from the displays and website of the Stonewall National Monument, and replacing LGBTQ with just LGB. Which is especially egregious given that Black trans women started […]

New account....hmm, says account already exists with my email. Reset password, receive and click reset link. "Please enter the code we texted you" -- oh wait, that's not my number, nor one I've ever had. Read help page. Call help center. Explain problem, get transferred, explain again. They […]