Sarah Barrett

This would solve a lot of my problems.

For the past six weeks, an AI Facebook account has been pulling my history posts on Instagram and slopping out new captions, so I’ve been feeding it poison pills and its followers are having meltdowns in the comments. It’s been pretty spectacular.

Damn, Margaret, that’s savage. Incidentally, the maddest I ever made people on the internet was when I suggested that there are disadvantages to going into fields populated by meek young women who never expect to be particularly valued.

Post by @terrypratchettestate · 1 image 💬 0  🔁 479  ❤️ 681 · The Roundworld year for 2026 shall be known as [FX Drum Roll]: The Year of the Curious Squid. Artwork by Discworld artist Paul Kidby.

Hey @brownorama.bsky.social 2026 is the year of the curious squid

This gets right at my core opinion about AGI: we're not going to get anything like actual "intelligence" from a brain in a jar (or a chip in a computer). Intelligence is ultimately about interacting with the world; only embodied creatures can develop it.

A tech critic’s guide to holiday gift-giving Maybe your grandma doesn’t need that Alexa smart speaker

Christmas is coming, and the Black Friday sales signal we’re in peak gift-buying season.

When you’re picking out gifts for friends and family this year, there’s a whole slew of tech products that are better to avoid. I put together a guide to help you through it.

I find mine most useful as a substitute for a huge pile of printed PDFs. I haven't figured out a way to automate this, but every time I save a citation in Zotero, I send the pdf to my remarkable. Finding isn’t easy, but it’s there and ready to be read.

Sticker with Product Centred Product Management at the centre. The ideas of things existing because they can be made around top and bottom

As UX died away, Product Management took over, as it progressed any idea of Human Centredness fell away too

AI is perfect product therefore for this period. There is no human need or capacity at the core, it is the technical & managerial capability to have a process of building & controlling 1/2

like we don't have to accept everything as it is except allow google to do a massive expropriation of public resources in the name of safety. We can make things better! Reduce VMT, slow down cars, change infrastructure. We know how! Other cities and countries have done it /

Conversational Design — MULE BOOKS The interaction design book that explains why chatbots tend to suck

The first edition of Conversational Design is available as a free download. I think more people should read it before they go making every interface into chatbots.

www.mulebooks.com/conversation...

I inadvertently watched the entire thing because I couldn’t look away. Thank you so much for reposting it.

This is such a delight!

Last week. I don’t drive, so I’m always out on foot/transit, and often have a little kid with me. I get asked about once a week.

Kobo?

Tweet saying in all caps, “ ONE TIME I HAD A COWORKER AT LUSH THAT WAS A CLOSETED STEAMPUNK AND THEY WOULD PLAY HOUR LONG ELECTROSWING MIXES AND WHEN MY BOSS HAD A TALK WITH THEM ABOUT IT MY BOSS SCREAMED "THIS ISNT FUCKING TOONTOWN" AND SHE CRIED AND WENT HOME EARLY AND I HAD TO STAY AND CLOSE”

It has an insane electro swing soundtrack that means we get to continuously quote this to each other

Bookish (TV Series 2025– ) ⭐ 6.8 | Crime, Drama Bookish: Created by Mark Gatiss. With Mark Gatiss, Polly Walker, Connor Finch, Elliot Levey. Gabriel Book, proprietor of an antiquarian bookshop, relies on his vast collection to unravel baffling case...

Half an hour in to the first episode of Bookish, and it is everything I want on a rainy November evening. British 1940s murder mystery, not too grim, excellent tweeds.

We are a social species, and we have always prevailed through cooperation. Caring for our sick. Raising children we didn't sire or birth because they were part of our village or extended family. We are not breeders and predators, we are communicators and survivors. We evolved to UNITE.

Man, I recognize that I’m an anti car radical, but I do think cars have done huge damage to childhood.

One more thing. When I wrote about this study showing one-third of Americans don't drive, people were messaging me saying this cannot be true for LA.

In LA County *23 percent* of the population is under 16. Kids are people! We must plan for their movement, just like all nondrivers. Hope that helps!

Hell yeah Katie

there's a priest who's job, twice a day, is to lift a floor stone in the nave and check the water level with a Holy Dipstick and communicate if the sluice needs adjusting

again, i am not exaggerating

I have complicated feelings about this as the parent of a first grader who is learning to read this way. I see no reason to doubt the reporting that it’s systemically flawed, but it sometimes gets portrayed as an assurance that no kid will learn to read, which isn’t what I see, at least.

Gravy doesn't need a recipe, it's between you and your ancestors.

I will warn you, don't try to make gougeres while you're also doing everything else. Any time before, you can pipe them onto parchment paper-lined baking sheets and freeze them, then transfer to a ziploc. Then you just have a gallon of gougeres ready to bake whenever, which is really the way to live

Tartine's Gougeres Choux Au Fromage - French Style Cheese Puffs Recipe - Food.com Crisp on the outside, and soft and custardy on the inside-- I can’t imagine anything more lovely to serve at wine tastings or with a glass of ch

8.) If you want to be very extra, which I do some years, gougeres are a great pre-dinner nibble to have with a Campari or something similar. I cut the milk by a few tablespoons.

Pecan Bars | America's Test Kitchen More often than not, this cookie-jar classic is bland and overly sweet. How do you make a pecan bar really worth eating?

7.) The other essential dessert is Cook's Illustrated's Pecan Bars. Everything that's good about pecan pie (pecans, sugar, booze, crumbly crust) and nothing that's bad (the gelatinous layer). Everyone routinely loses their mind over them. You can sub molasses for corn syrup and up the booze, too.

6.) b.) Use whichever pie crust recipe speaks to you. I do not waver from Ken Haedrich's All-butter crust recipe with half the water replaced with vodka, so you can manhandle it without worry.

6.) The absolute best pumpkin pie is Tartine's. Extremely simple, no evaporated milk, an incredible custard set by eggs, so you can adjust the sugar to taste without significantly affecting the final texture.

Fall Salad Recipe: Radicchio Salad with Green Olives & Parmesan There are salads for a crowd, and salads that kids adore. There are colorful slaws, and playful mescluns, salads crunchy and light. But then there are the distinctly grown-up salads, with heightened and complicated flavors. This is one of those. It has just five ingredients, but together they make a stunningly unusual composition of bitter, sweet, and salty-savory. Ready? This is fall salad, all dressed up and glamorous. I can take zero credit for this recipe.

5.) Controversial, I know, but I like a radicchio or similar bitter green on the table to contrast with all the richness. This is my usual, kids and boomers usually won't eat it, but it is great.

4.) Some people are mashed potato purists, which I understand, but I really enjoy the complexity of a mashed root vegetable. My favorite is about 2/3 celeriac to 1/3 parsnip, just cube and simmer in salted water until soft, puree and finish with butter and a little cream.