Heather Gray (she/they)

International Womens Day 2026

We're looking for 15 women in tech from all over the world to interview live on International Women's Day in our livestream! Sign up on our site. Let me know if you have any questions.

www.underrepresentedintech.com/iwd26/

Introduction (Subtleties of Color, Part 1 of 6) - NASA Science The purpose of data visualization—any data visualization—is to illuminate data. To show patterns and relationships that are otherwise hidden in an impenetrable mass of numbers.

Looks like my full series on using color in #dataviz finally made the migration to the new NASA science website: science.nasa.gov/blogs/earth-...

If you’re new to visualization, or just want a refresher, it covers the basics of color theory, how to build a palette, plus some tips & tricks.

I say this but you're in BC? There must be some excellent specialty coffee roasters in Vancouver. I've only been to Vancouver once, so I can't recommend any, but it's Vancouver. There has to be good coffee there

Nucleus Torréfacteurs Nucleus offers sustainably roasted coffees with a 100% electric roaster. Thanks to our lab, we can get the best out of every coffee.

Nucleus Coffee in Quebec is excellent.
And Planet Bean, near me, has a lovely light-medium blend, Morning Glory, that is great.

Kicking Horse is also good and available in most grocery stores so it's easier to find

kickinghorsecoffee.com
planetbeancoffee.com

nucleuscoffee.com/en

I feel you, ancient Mongolian ceramic hedgehog. I feel you.

Screenshot of text: unfuck google drive by shooting gemini Hey folks! Google is fucking you via sneaky enshittification again! Want the shit in your google drive to load instantly again, instead of taking for-fucking-ever? Open your gdrive (web OR app) Settings > Manage Apps Gemini was checked "use as default" (and i sure the fuck didn't set it that way, this was a silent push) Nuke that, and suddenly, folders that took up to a minute to populate and sort do so in a fraction of a second.

friend shared this, immediately updated my settings

HTML’s Best Kept Secret: The output Tag Make your dynamic content accessible by default with the HTML tag that time forgot.

Huh, TIL there’s an <output> element, and it can be used to display the result of user inputs in a screen-reader-friendly way! I can think of a bunch of places I should be using this 😄

denodell.com/blog/html-be...

Donate: Parents Against Censorship We’re launching a new organizing effort to bring together a dedicated group of parents who demand REAL solutions to the harms of Big Tech, like privacy and antitrust legislation, while pushing back ag...

@fightforthefuture.org is currently trying to create a group called "parents against censorship", but they need funding for it. www.fightforthefuture.org/donate/campa...

Planning the obsolescence of Canada Post There is an unwillingness to entertain a future in which Canada Post’s role can evolve to serve the needs of Canadians. The degradation of delivery work by Amazon is accepted as a fait accompli, inste...

Canada Post is in trouble—and bad actors are trying to use it to gut the institution. We need to defend the post office and expand its role in our communities, but it’s also essential that we end Amazon’s ongoing attack on delivery and warehouse work, writes @parismarx.com.

kermit the frog is sitting at a desk with his feet up and using a cell phone . ALT: kermit the frog is sitting at a desk with his feet up and using a cell phone .

Young people being unhappy is a failure on older generations…we can blame social media all we want but the fact that a $595 apartment went to $2000 is nasty work for the young people..

The Return of the Dire Wolf Colossal Biosciences has genetically engineered the first dire wolf to live in over 10,000 years. Here's what that means for other extinct species.

TIME's cover story this week is about using genetic engineering to bring back a recently-extinct species.

I don't know the technical details of this case, which may or may not be as awesome as it sounds. But some thoughts on this topic in general as a conservation biologist:

🧵

🧪🌎

"Pleiades: Dance of the Seven Sisters" / 8" x 8" acrylic on wood panel. There's something about Pleiades that's always given me a peaceful sensation. In a time filled with turmoil, I find myself focusing on this beautiful little cluster a lot lately.

VOTE PALESTINE LET'S MAKE PALESTINIAN HUMAN RIGHTS AN ELECTION ISSUE A non-partisan campaign galvanizing Canadian voters to raise Palestinian human rights in the federal election.

Hey fellow Canadians! There is a federal election coming up and I know I would love to hear from candidates how they plan to help Palestine. So, let's ask them!

votepalestine.ca

Be Wary of Accessibility Guarantees from Anyone TL;DR: anyone promising you that a total solution to digital accessibility is coming, and they are the ones bringing it, may be lying. Background In 2016 I wrote Be Wary of Accessibility Guarantees fr...

“Be Wary of Accessibility Guarantees from Anyone”
adrianroselli.com/2025/03/be-w...

I updated it a couple days ago with a link to @yatil.net’s post on same and two LinkedIn discussions (one from @karlgroves.bsky.social). If you have links to others, let me know.

#a11y #accessibility

Fine, Let's Talk About Trans Athletes But let's dispense with the pretense that this is actually about sports at all

My thoughts on this topic are laid out here: www.readtpa.com/p/fine-lets-...

Canada announces 2025 Express Entry category-based draws, plans for more in-Canada draws to reduce labour shortages Immigration is essential to supporting Canada’s economic growth. As labour requirements in key sectors continue to evolve, it’s important that Canada’s immigration system is nimble and responsive to o...

Ready to head to Canada? Canada announces 2025 Express Entry category-based draws, plans for more in-Canada draws to reduce labour shortages.

Healthcare and construction are big ones.

www.canada.ca/en/immigrati...

I've added a dark/light mode toggle to my website. There's a bit of FOIT because it uses JS. But I can only notice the flash if my OS is in light mode & the site is in dark or vice versa. If they match, it seems fine.

I'm almost at the point where I can stop fussing with my site 😄

soon

(maybe)

Rewatching Midnight Mass. It's so, so well done. But now I've had Neil Diamond stuck in my head for days! 😄

Holly Holy is so perfect for that scene but out of that context the lyrics are ...just... what? (what does this mean?)

"Take a lonely child, and the seed, let it be, full with tomorrow" 🤔

Time to delete Firefox from all my computers. O well.

There weren't many people there when I went. Makes me wonder if turn out is low

A yellow Elections Ontario sign in the snow, that says, Votez

Hey Ontarians! Don't forget to vote today, if you haven't already

Votez maintenant

How to Dehumanize Accessibility with AI | Ashlee M Boyer Hire disabled people, not AI-generated caricatures.

To be honest, feeling pretty dehumanized while watching #axecon as a self-employed disabled person that works in accessibility.

ashleemboyer.com/blog/how-to-...

"AI" is, purely, a marketing term and a (poor) umbrella phrase for a number of different types of computerized statistical analysis, iteration and synthesis. If something is being touted as "AI" to me, it's because someone wants me to buy it, and also I probably don't need it.

The grocery store delivered entirely the wrong order to me this morning. They can't take back a food order and told me to keep it -- so I split it with the delivery driver. My correct order is being delivered later on.

Wacky morning but now I have donuts 😄

Thanks so much!

My live website is now powered by #Hugo 🎉

treadlightly.ca

There are still some odds and ends that I need to clean up but it's up. It's also faster, more secure and roughly 17000 files lighter! Phew!

New blog post: on strategies for digital resistance. heatherburns.tech/2025/02/19/s...

Apparently I took a little break from socials because I was busy but also the news was pretty overwhelming.

Anyway, I've recreated my site in Hugo and I think it's ready to go live. I hope to switch out the current version of the site next week or next weekend --Well, soon anyway!

So exciting!!

Over to you, Canadian educational institutions.

oooh right! It's our turn for an election this year