Caroline, doing the work

I do not have PAX Aus money, alas.

(Some family and friends are going to WorldCon but it's pricey especially since I'm wayyyy behind on reading. PML is funded by work and PAX is funded by tabling for an org.)

a cat with its paws up in front of a purple background that says the more you know Alt: a cat with its paws up in front of a purple background that says the more you know

DYK? You can request for a flat $5 microbatch fee:

🍵 +/- or sub an ingredient in a blend (great for allergies/preferences/mixing things up)

🍵 Change a label to your own name for a tea (great for custom gifts/events)

🍵 Put your tea in pyramid teabags (not teas with common allergens/glitter)

Places I will be in August:
- On vacation
- Around (but probably not in) WorldCon in Seattle
- Play Make Learn Conference
- PAX West (probably, need to confirm)

Places I will not be:
- Gen Con

We got a visit from @seattletimes.com on Monday at KidsTeam. You can try Aayushi Dangol's AI Puzzlers for yourself!

@hcde.uw.edu @ischool.uw.edu @juliekientz.bsky.social @jasoncyip.bsky.social

This puzzle game shows kids how they’re smarter than AI University of Washington researchers developed the game AI Puzzlers to show kids an area where AI systems still typically and blatantly fail: solving certain reasoning puzzles. In the game, users get....

UW researchers Aayushi Dangol and Julie Kientz (HCDE) and Jason Yip (iSchool) created AI Puzzlers—a game to show kids where AI systems still typically and blatantly fail: solving certain reasoning puzzles.
www.washington.edu/news/2025/07...

It's kids vs. AI in game created by UW researchers. Guess who wins? Children often see AI as "magical," but a game developed by UW researchers is hoping to highlight its pitfalls.

Children often see AI as "magical," but a game developed by UW researchers is hoping to highlight its pitfalls.

Engineers transform dental floss into needle-free vaccine New method places inactivated viruses directly into mice’s gums

Y’all. They used dental floss on mice.... for vaccine delivery!!!
Not kidding. This is the type of research that keeps me so excited about science and innovation and why we should not be defunding science.
www.science.org/content/arti...

Oh hey @thatsrickperry.bsky.social.

A grocery bag of apples and a grocery bag of clementines.

Word problem:
If Caroline buys 10 lbs of clementines and 6 lbs of apples, and Jason buys a large amount of other snacks, how soon will Caroline have to go back to the store if there are 18 children at KidsTeam camp, about half of whom descend upon clementines like a horde of locusts?

btw did you know you can subscribe to PBS for only like $5/mo or a $60 one-time for a year donation, and get access to their Passport streaming service? They mail you a little live programming guide and everything, too. The 40-something seasons of NOVA alone are worth it.

Talk about The Wire, Sopranos, Game of Thrones all you want, but the greatest US television program ever made is Sesame Street. It's not even close. 50+ years of treating kids across class, ethnicity, religion not as mini-consumers...but as citizens with a stake in this world.

Any friends/mutuals going to the D20 show Sunday?

Debating if I want to head down early. (I have something on Monday so no late night hangs for me, alas.)

The Astronomer CEO's Coldplay Concert Fiasco Is Emblematic of Our Social Media Surveillance Dystopia Facial recognition and crowdsourced social media investigations are constantly being used not just on cringe CEOs, but on random people who are simply existing in public.

The gleeful doxing of someone cheating in public is bad even if they are a CEO and even if they are a Coldplay fan. It's bad because this kind of thing is happening to random people on TikTok for such crimes as "sitting silently on a plane" or "being attractive"

www.404media.co/the-astronom...

... I'm liking and commenting because you can't stop me.

Presenting the BRAND-NEW season - @dimension20.bsky.social On a Bus! 🚌

DM'd by Katie Marovitch, and as players: Aabria Iyengar, Brennan Lee Mulligan, Jasmine Bhullar, and Mark Mercer!

I want a whole episode of @dimension20.bsky.social on a bus. Nay, a 4-episode arc.

Please, @gamechangershow.bsky.social.

#gamechanger

No kings in this country!

...except a few of the nice people we found walking along the Venice Beach Boardwalk 👑

"Be kind to yourself and hard on the system."

A sad version of the European/Scandinavian open-faced sandwich?

I had a bunch for breakfast in Iceland but usually with condiments and sliced veggies and such, not for dinner.

Research reveals a paradox: the more people understand AI, the more hesitant they may become to embrace it.

paradox, you say

"There are so many Discworld novels!"

Not when you're an introverted and awkward middle school speed reader.

No streaming. No bingewatching. No social media.

If I didn't want to be alone with my thoughts I just read SO MUCH.

... honestly I should get back to that.

A Google Calendar invite for July 14th at 3:45pm that reads "GET READY for a Game Changer."

I don't know if my housemate finds this as funny as I do but...
CC: @gamechangershow.bsky.social @dropout.tv

(Luckily most of my work meetings aren't on Mondays so I can be a little flexible.)

(Also bought several lovely artsy things that I cannot show you yet because they are gifts and thus must be SECRET.)

Multiple ladies at the art show told me that they liked my outfit (sunhat, long flowy blue dress, blue and white striped linen shirt, matching earrings).

"Getting a good grade in [art show outfit], something that is both normal to want and possible to achieve."

When you are feeling weary or despairing, remember that there are people in every corner of the world taking life affirming action in the direction of more justice. The fact that you can't see it all is a comfort because it means there is an excess of positive actions happening all at once. #onwards

there's a really important playtesting phase that a lot of ttrpg designers are scared to wallow in, which is the "this game is 100% unplayable without the designer present" phase

Part of my work that is mine to do is to write about all the things that didn’t work on the road to the stuff that blew up “out of nowhere”