Alice Goldfarb
@alicegoldfarb.com
Thinking about messy data.
[Unbreaking](https://unbreaking.org/) & [CU Boulder's Info Visions Lab](https://infovisions.github.io/)
(extricated from afgoldfarb on 🐦, was once goldfarb.bsky.social 🦋)
[Unbreaking](https://unbreaking.org/) & [CU Boulder's Info Visions Lab](https://infovisions.github.io/)
(extricated from afgoldfarb on 🐦, was once goldfarb.bsky.social 🦋)
Reposted by Alice Goldfarb
not quite what this thread is getting at but once at the LOC reading room, i saw a husband & wife duo straight out of central casting, by which i mean she was doing all the physical & intellectual labor, while he was simply looking at whatever individual documents she put in front of him
I think we need a mega thread of everyone's craziest archive stories.
December 23, 2025 at 9:38 PM
not quite what this thread is getting at but once at the LOC reading room, i saw a husband & wife duo straight out of central casting, by which i mean she was doing all the physical & intellectual labor, while he was simply looking at whatever individual documents she put in front of him
Is there a way to block / remove the AI overview "Know before you go" section from google maps in iOs? I've looked around but haven't seen suggestions ...
December 20, 2025 at 8:37 PM
Is there a way to block / remove the AI overview "Know before you go" section from google maps in iOs? I've looked around but haven't seen suggestions ...
Reposted by Alice Goldfarb
Talking to somebody yesterday about a Cdn oral history archive that disappeared - turns out LLMs were scraping it so much it crashed their servers so it’s offline. Vile vulture technology.
December 9, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Talking to somebody yesterday about a Cdn oral history archive that disappeared - turns out LLMs were scraping it so much it crashed their servers so it’s offline. Vile vulture technology.
Reposted by Alice Goldfarb
I cannot tell you just how *tremendously hard* various volunteers have worked on this massive @unbreaking.org update: sifting through awful, terrible news every single day, identifying connections and themes, all to build a clear picture of the harm the federal government’s caused.
20,000 words, 150 footnotes, 100+ timeline events = our attempt at documenting and synthesizing all the ways that the federal government has attempted to destroy access to gender-affirming care since January unbreaking.org/issues/trans...
Transgender Healthcare: Explainer — Unbreaking
How the administration is breaking the government, and what that means for all of us.
unbreaking.org
December 19, 2025 at 7:54 PM
I cannot tell you just how *tremendously hard* various volunteers have worked on this massive @unbreaking.org update: sifting through awful, terrible news every single day, identifying connections and themes, all to build a clear picture of the harm the federal government’s caused.
@skeuomorphpress.org Exciting mail day! Gorgeous, and while I'm feeling a little grumpy about it getting ripped in transit, I'm also appreciating that that's part of the materiality of the print.
December 19, 2025 at 7:29 PM
@skeuomorphpress.org Exciting mail day! Gorgeous, and while I'm feeling a little grumpy about it getting ripped in transit, I'm also appreciating that that's part of the materiality of the print.
Reposted by Alice Goldfarb
Almost certainly the best thing I was ever told about owls was when I met an owl handler at an owl sanctuary and he told me that the wild owls who lived near the sanctuary worried about the tame show owls there and sometimes stopped by to leave them shrews and mice as presents.
December 13, 2025 at 8:58 PM
Almost certainly the best thing I was ever told about owls was when I met an owl handler at an owl sanctuary and he told me that the wild owls who lived near the sanctuary worried about the tame show owls there and sometimes stopped by to leave them shrews and mice as presents.
Reposted by Alice Goldfarb
This is a reckless and self-destructive decision by ACM. It violates trust to cover up the peer-reviewed abstract with a lousy, error-ridden counterfeit. It sets a bad example for the community, implying that LLM "summaries" have epistemic value and that reading isn't necessary.
The ACM Digital Library, where a LOT of computing-related research is published (I'd say at least 75% of my own publications), is now not only providing (without consent of the authors and without opt-in by readers) AI-generated summaries of papers, but they appear as the *default* over abstracts.
December 17, 2025 at 5:18 AM
This is a reckless and self-destructive decision by ACM. It violates trust to cover up the peer-reviewed abstract with a lousy, error-ridden counterfeit. It sets a bad example for the community, implying that LLM "summaries" have epistemic value and that reading isn't necessary.
Reposted by Alice Goldfarb
Learned from New School friends this evening that the university is planning its own version of a “school for civic thought.” A university founded by Columbia faculty who rejected the call for “unqualified loyalty” to the US govt during WWI, is now embracing patriotism, + Isaacsonian hagiography?
December 17, 2025 at 4:03 AM
Learned from New School friends this evening that the university is planning its own version of a “school for civic thought.” A university founded by Columbia faculty who rejected the call for “unqualified loyalty” to the US govt during WWI, is now embracing patriotism, + Isaacsonian hagiography?
Reposted by Alice Goldfarb
Most of the scientists at the nonprofit that I cofounded, including my two cofounders, came from NCAR. It’s hard to overstate the importance of this place for climate science.
Exclusive: The Trump administration is moving to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, according to a senior White House official, taking aim at one of the world's leading climate research labs.
Trump moves to dismantle major US climate research center in Colorado
The Trump administration is breaking up the National Center for Atmospheric Research, taking aim at one of the world's leading climate research labs.
bit.ly
December 17, 2025 at 5:16 AM
Most of the scientists at the nonprofit that I cofounded, including my two cofounders, came from NCAR. It’s hard to overstate the importance of this place for climate science.
Reposted by Alice Goldfarb
The ACM Digital Library, where a LOT of computing-related research is published (I'd say at least 75% of my own publications), is now not only providing (without consent of the authors and without opt-in by readers) AI-generated summaries of papers, but they appear as the *default* over abstracts.
December 16, 2025 at 11:31 PM
The ACM Digital Library, where a LOT of computing-related research is published (I'd say at least 75% of my own publications), is now not only providing (without consent of the authors and without opt-in by readers) AI-generated summaries of papers, but they appear as the *default* over abstracts.
Reposted by Alice Goldfarb
BEIGNET BLANC
Thanks to Sesame Street, we have a Knives Out puppet mystery.
Benoit Blanc Gets Puppety in KNIVES OUT x SESAME STREET Short
nerdist.com
December 2, 2025 at 10:00 PM
BEIGNET BLANC
You know you're having a great Saturday night when researchgate dot net "notices unusual activity" and asks you to confirm that you're a person.
November 30, 2025 at 5:21 AM
You know you're having a great Saturday night when researchgate dot net "notices unusual activity" and asks you to confirm that you're a person.
Reposted by Alice Goldfarb
I feel like the environmental impact of a reusable shopping bag is kinda canceled out by all the excess resources that go into an AI making the design. Maybe that’s just me tho.
November 27, 2025 at 7:07 PM
I feel like the environmental impact of a reusable shopping bag is kinda canceled out by all the excess resources that go into an AI making the design. Maybe that’s just me tho.
I watched Twitch City when it aired on Bravo and ... yeah. Every time I think about it I wonder if I've misremembered but no, just the weirdest (complimentary).
I think if Canada wants to have a strong cultural identity we need to go back to doing what we're best at, making the weirdest fucking TV shows you've ever seen
November 26, 2025 at 9:03 PM
I watched Twitch City when it aired on Bravo and ... yeah. Every time I think about it I wonder if I've misremembered but no, just the weirdest (complimentary).
Reposted by Alice Goldfarb
Sooo many folks I’m excited to work with on Mamdani’s technology transition committee. All hands on deck to bring the Affordability Agenda to life: childcare, housing, transportation.
While its easy to get swept up in personality, this is a group focused on peoples real needs. LETS KEEP THE FOCUS.
While its easy to get swept up in personality, this is a group focused on peoples real needs. LETS KEEP THE FOCUS.
November 25, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Sooo many folks I’m excited to work with on Mamdani’s technology transition committee. All hands on deck to bring the Affordability Agenda to life: childcare, housing, transportation.
While its easy to get swept up in personality, this is a group focused on peoples real needs. LETS KEEP THE FOCUS.
While its easy to get swept up in personality, this is a group focused on peoples real needs. LETS KEEP THE FOCUS.
Reposted by Alice Goldfarb
No AI or algorithms here - just 141 human beings [131 reviewers, 3 editors 👋, 1 producer, 1 reporter, 1 standards editor, 2 copy editors, 1 developer, and 1 graphics editor] who really wanted to tell you about some books they loved this year. ❤️📚 apps.npr.org/best-books/
Books We Love
Here are 380+ great reads from 2025 handpicked just for you by NPR staffers and trusted critics.
apps.npr.org
November 24, 2025 at 3:51 PM
No AI or algorithms here - just 141 human beings [131 reviewers, 3 editors 👋, 1 producer, 1 reporter, 1 standards editor, 2 copy editors, 1 developer, and 1 graphics editor] who really wanted to tell you about some books they loved this year. ❤️📚 apps.npr.org/best-books/
Reposted by Alice Goldfarb
🎉📚Happy books day! NPR's Books We Love 2025 (formerly the Book Concierge) is up. apps.npr.org/best-books/#...
Books We Love
Here are 380+ great reads from 2025 handpicked just for you by NPR staffers and trusted critics.
apps.npr.org
November 24, 2025 at 2:35 PM
🎉📚Happy books day! NPR's Books We Love 2025 (formerly the Book Concierge) is up. apps.npr.org/best-books/#...
Reposted by Alice Goldfarb
A question for scientists (construed as broadly as you like) of BlueSky: What makes something data?
(Question inspired by a talk I listened to this morning, and of course I have thoughts, but I wanted to throw this out there first.)
(Question inspired by a talk I listened to this morning, and of course I have thoughts, but I wanted to throw this out there first.)
November 21, 2025 at 6:00 PM
A question for scientists (construed as broadly as you like) of BlueSky: What makes something data?
(Question inspired by a talk I listened to this morning, and of course I have thoughts, but I wanted to throw this out there first.)
(Question inspired by a talk I listened to this morning, and of course I have thoughts, but I wanted to throw this out there first.)
Reposted by Alice Goldfarb
I don’t know how abruptly this little newspaper closed, but the galley trays were absolutely full of locked up stories, including the score tables for the women’s bowling league during what must have been the last days of printing.
November 22, 2025 at 9:24 PM
I don’t know how abruptly this little newspaper closed, but the galley trays were absolutely full of locked up stories, including the score tables for the women’s bowling league during what must have been the last days of printing.
If i ever opened a bakery, I think I will call it CAVEAT EATOR
I’ll see myself out now
I’ll see myself out now
November 22, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Reposted by Alice Goldfarb
I love this interview and the parallels between what he discovered as a historian making a thing and realizing all the little decisions a weaver makes in the process, and all the many things DH staff know about doing projects that just don't get written into the record of scholarship. #DHmakes
An interview with a historian who set out to weave a textile of the type that would have been sold to plantations for use by enslaved people, using period equipment.
www.publicbooks.org/cloth-and-co...
www.publicbooks.org/cloth-and-co...
Cloth and Complicity: Seth Rockman on Plantations, Textiles, and the Art of Weaving - Public Books
“But I had found a set of instructions in the archives of one of New England's leading manufacturers of low-end woollen cloth for enslaved wearers.”
www.publicbooks.org
November 22, 2025 at 3:58 AM
I love this interview and the parallels between what he discovered as a historian making a thing and realizing all the little decisions a weaver makes in the process, and all the many things DH staff know about doing projects that just don't get written into the record of scholarship. #DHmakes
Reposted by Alice Goldfarb
a Friday surprise! my beloved book, Other Networks: A Radical Technology Sourcebook, is now officially back in print AND ON SALE! #othernetworks if you know folks who have been trying to track down a copy, I'd love it if you'd repost shop.mexicansummer.com/merch/495898...
Lori Emerson - Other Networks: A Radical Technology Sourcebook. Mexican Summer & Anthology.
Buy Other Networks: A Radical Technology Sourcebook by Lori Emerson on Mexican Summer & Anthology.
shop.mexicansummer.com
November 21, 2025 at 8:11 PM
a Friday surprise! my beloved book, Other Networks: A Radical Technology Sourcebook, is now officially back in print AND ON SALE! #othernetworks if you know folks who have been trying to track down a copy, I'd love it if you'd repost shop.mexicansummer.com/merch/495898...
Reposted by Alice Goldfarb
Mixtapes given to one's romantic interests or received from suitors had strange titles like (as pictured here) "Psychomorph," "Andrea's Hostage Tape," "The Moo Tape," and "Don't Lose Your Temper," because everyone had to act somewhat disinterested.
November 22, 2025 at 1:37 AM
Mixtapes given to one's romantic interests or received from suitors had strange titles like (as pictured here) "Psychomorph," "Andrea's Hostage Tape," "The Moo Tape," and "Don't Lose Your Temper," because everyone had to act somewhat disinterested.