Chicago river bridge lifts start again Wednesday. blockclubchi.co/48fq8jo

When I was working on curiosity, our budget decreased by 5-10% every year, our power output from the RTG decreased by about the same, and we managed to do just as much science over time—sometimes even more—than when the mission started.

A 50% cut out of nowhere would kill missions like curiosity.

In other news, my workplace continues to be completely enamored by AI and is forcing everyone to start using Claude.
If anyone is looking for a software engineer with 9 years of experience, a focus in web accessibility, and who is not on the AI train please hit me up.

Happy Earth Day. It should go without saying, however things are incredibly stupid right now and that is not the case, so.. Fuck AI

Oil painting of a male piping plover on a beach. A small, round bird with light brownish/grayish on top, a black brow line and neck ring, an orange beak with a black tip, and white undersides. It’s Monty, the legendary patriarch of Montrose Beach.

A loose oil study of a piping plover on a beach in profile

Photo of an oil painting in progress of two piping plovers on the beach. Monty on the right is walking left, and Rose and a plover chick are hunkered down in the sand. Beach grass and lake and waves are in the background.

Lettering done in the manner of a baseball jersey logo saying 'Plovers' in gradated orange with a big swoosh underline within which is the word 'Chicago'. On top of the Plovers lettering is a vector illustration of a piping plover with its feet on the 'o' and the 'v'.

it is Earth Day and also Plover Fever is heating up in Chicago so here are some Piping Plover things I have made

Same 🎩!

Photo from inside a United Boeing 737-800W over the left wing. The city of Chicago and the beginnings of a sunset are visible among the clouds.

They looked like this

Would

A tiny plastic buff man with dark skin in his underwear is propped up in a corner of a wooden hotel tv nook. His eyes are very big.

There's a weird little guy in my hotel room.

This Is Just To Say

I have turned off
the AI features
that were in
the update

and which
you were probably
hoping
to monetize

Fuck you
they were stupid
so unnecessary
and so annoying

Magical trash animal girls! Who is your favorite? #magicalgirls #trashanimals #cute

The first panel shows a crow with the title "How to live a good life". The second panel shows a crow cawing at itself in the mirror with the subheading "Make friends". The next panel says "Explore" and shows a crow looking into a commercial waste bin. The next says "Try new things" with a crow eating something vile. The next one says "Be curious" and shows the crow grabbing a hissing cat's tail". The final frame says "Get a hobby" and shows the crow looking closely at a book of matches.

How To Live A Good Life #oldknees

Brass snail

Brass snail mesuring tape

The best thing ive ever found in a garadge sale, a snail that is also a mesuring tape

Heyyy! 👋

Sitting in the airport waiting to board my flight to Portland, Seasons of Glass & Iron by Amal El-Mohtar loaded up on Libro.fm
It's going to be a good flight.

Internet friends - please hit me with your Portland (Oregon) food, coffee, etc recommendations. I'll be visiting soon and always love to get recommendations!

hi 5 fellow stevia hater. It's the worst super power ever, being able to detect the smallest amounts of stevia in stuff.

I just wanted to say I *LOVE* this, and I love the way you pained this bear. 🤩

Counterpoint: I use em dashes with abandon and will not let "AI" steal them from me. I was overusing them first and will continue to do so long after "AI" is a crater in our financial system, or our merciless overlords, or both

A painted digital illustration of a grizzly bear sniffing the camera. His nose is huge due to the forced perspective.

*intense loud sniffing sounds*

#myart #digitalart #animalart #brownbear #grizzlybear #animalartistry #animal #art

Oof, yeah. I've been there, it sucks. Some of the time I was able to talk with someone (on a call) to work through it and explain why the suggestion they were making wasn't the right solution and we were able to find a different approach. Sometimes I had to give in because my boss decided to give in

Ooh I hope it's not the one I've worked with before and disliked because they were clearly using AI and/or programmatic issue flagging without actually verifying the (incorrect) results. And then arguing because "the system flagged it"

Either way, my sympathies.

Looking for #a11y advice -- if you see an accessibility audit that contains recommendations in conflict with standard community guidelines and best practices, and the auditor isn't willing to listen, what would you do next to address the issue?

It also depends on a lot of other factors. Who is using the thing they're auditing, do they own it, etc. I've had clients ask for an "accessibility" change that was actually a "we want it to work this way" change, and sometimes you just have to keep saying no if you have that power in the situation.

BLUESKY IS A WEBSITE THAT TURNS (post by jay.bsky.team claiming that bluesky is made with AI) INTO (picture of bluesky not working)

Is this a VPAT auditor or a client doing their own auditing?

If it's the former and they're not listening to you throwing the proverbial book (WCAG standards) at them, then I got nothing. 😬
If it's the latter, I've had success just continuing to dump the standards on them until they given in.

Two shorebirds, a piping plover and a long-billed dowitcher, resting on a beach. Migration is energy-intense.

It's Your Daily Imani+!☀️
Thursday, April 16, 2026

Imani and Pippin are confirmed present at Montrose today.

📸: Joe Purcell (Imani giving a Long-billed Dowitcher a moment's peace, Montrose Protected Beach, April 14, 2026)

Internet friends - please hit me with your Portland (Oregon) food, coffee, etc recommendations. I'll be visiting soon and always love to get recommendations!

A very happy Steamed Hams day to all who celebrate 🍔🥂

Fortunately we're still mostly remote, but it helps that everybody is spread out all over the country/world. I love my job, but also ..not this direction. It sucks ass and I don't know what to do yet.