Pattern Boy
@amblr-arct.bsky.social
Roots in PNW & Alaska; currently living on an island in the Salish Sea. I like to grow plants & nurture ecosystems.
“Throughout the night, she watched strangers swapping stories about Frito turn to their common interests, building connection and then community.”
It Seems Like the Whole Central District Was at This Street Cat’s Holiday Party
Anyone who regularly finds themselves south of Madison Street and east of 17th Avenue probably knows Frito, a roving cat who does, in fact, have a home.
www.thestranger.com
January 2, 2026 at 8:08 PM
“Throughout the night, she watched strangers swapping stories about Frito turn to their common interests, building connection and then community.”
“Overall, Apple is prioritizing spectacle over usability”
Liquid Glass Is Cracked, and Usability Suffers in iOS 26
iOS 26’s visual language obscures content instead of letting it take the spotlight. New (but not always better) design patterns replace established conventions.
www.nngroup.com
October 14, 2025 at 3:30 AM
“Overall, Apple is prioritizing spectacle over usability”
iOS 26 Liquid Glass should be called iOS 26 Distraction
October 11, 2025 at 3:55 PM
iOS 26 Liquid Glass should be called iOS 26 Distraction
“Yes. That’s right. Eight years after the event itself, Apple finally entered the Worst Volume Control UI Experiment.”
The end of design
Or how Apple's Liquid Glass hates its users
open.substack.com
September 29, 2025 at 2:24 PM
“Yes. That’s right. Eight years after the event itself, Apple finally entered the Worst Volume Control UI Experiment.”
This is the shitty dystopia we live in. A random “public safety alert” suddenly appears on your device. There’s no useful information contained in the alert (see screenshot). But there is a helpful link! But…
June 26, 2025 at 7:37 PM
This is the shitty dystopia we live in. A random “public safety alert” suddenly appears on your device. There’s no useful information contained in the alert (see screenshot). But there is a helpful link! But…
iOS 18 design is just fine
June 10, 2025 at 1:39 AM
iOS 18 design is just fine
“Oregon and Washington trailed most states in adding renewable energy during the past decade, despite pledges to eliminate fossil fuels from power generation.”
Liberal Oregon and Washington Vowed to Pioneer Green Energy. Almost Every Other State Is Beating Them.
The Northwest states passed aggressive goals to decarbonize the power supply but left it to the Bonneville Power Administration to build the transmission lines needed for wind and solar. The agency ha...
www.propublica.org
May 14, 2025 at 1:49 PM
“Oregon and Washington trailed most states in adding renewable energy during the past decade, despite pledges to eliminate fossil fuels from power generation.”
Reposted by Pattern Boy
Dumb journalists think being a tough interviewer requires writing down gotcha questions in advance.
Smart journalists know that the trick is just listening and sometimes going, ‘how so?’
Smart journalists know that the trick is just listening and sometimes going, ‘how so?’
Chotiner is a legitimately good journalist but it’s wild that people think he’s some sort of evil wizard because he says “what do you mean by that”
April 23, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Dumb journalists think being a tough interviewer requires writing down gotcha questions in advance.
Smart journalists know that the trick is just listening and sometimes going, ‘how so?’
Smart journalists know that the trick is just listening and sometimes going, ‘how so?’
“He reiterated his belief that the ordering system we have today is not scientific but rather influenced by cultural, historical, and religious values…the hard boundary between the plant and animal world does not exist. He believes plants can experience sensations and even reflect on them.”
Plants Feel Pain and Might Even See
It’s time to retire the hierarchical classification of living things.
nautil.us
April 19, 2025 at 2:54 PM
“He reiterated his belief that the ordering system we have today is not scientific but rather influenced by cultural, historical, and religious values…the hard boundary between the plant and animal world does not exist. He believes plants can experience sensations and even reflect on them.”
Reposted by Pattern Boy
I think about this 2 minute speech a lot. Ella Baker with no time for applause and agreement, only time to remind everyone about what organizing and solidarity require
Ella Baker speaking in Puerto Rico at a Solidarity Rally (1974)
YouTube video by Heber Brown, III
youtu.be
March 7, 2025 at 5:16 PM
I think about this 2 minute speech a lot. Ella Baker with no time for applause and agreement, only time to remind everyone about what organizing and solidarity require
“This obsession with the immediate “unburdening” of a thing you created is common in non-Japanese contexts, but I posit: The Japanese way is the correct way. Be an adult. Own your garbage. Garbage responsibility is something we’ve long since abdicated…”
Garbage
Be a man, keep it in your pocket
craigmod.com
February 20, 2025 at 2:04 PM
“This obsession with the immediate “unburdening” of a thing you created is common in non-Japanese contexts, but I posit: The Japanese way is the correct way. Be an adult. Own your garbage. Garbage responsibility is something we’ve long since abdicated…”
Small harvest of elecampane & marshmallow roots
February 17, 2025 at 1:37 AM
Small harvest of elecampane & marshmallow roots
Reposted by Pattern Boy
Embracing responsibility and the inevitability (and moral neutrality) of failure means embracing the need for community.
None of us have all the answers, none of us has a universal perspective, and the only way for us to mitigate and minimize failure is to draw from our collective strength.
None of us have all the answers, none of us has a universal perspective, and the only way for us to mitigate and minimize failure is to draw from our collective strength.
January 17, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Embracing responsibility and the inevitability (and moral neutrality) of failure means embracing the need for community.
None of us have all the answers, none of us has a universal perspective, and the only way for us to mitigate and minimize failure is to draw from our collective strength.
None of us have all the answers, none of us has a universal perspective, and the only way for us to mitigate and minimize failure is to draw from our collective strength.
“Stop pointing out the hypocrisy. The other side does not care. Its content makes the people there feel powerful but ACTION IS THE ONLY REAL POWER.”
Opinion | Look Past Elon Musk’s Chaos. There’s Something More Sinister at Work.
Everything is content.
www.nytimes.com
February 12, 2025 at 3:04 PM
“Stop pointing out the hypocrisy. The other side does not care. Its content makes the people there feel powerful but ACTION IS THE ONLY REAL POWER.”
“At least understand the magnitude you’re not understanding”
The thing I desperately need my fellow white folks to understand about rap is how Shakespearean it is.
It is literally the closest thing we have in 2025 and it's not your fault you don't understand it, bc you are not its target audience. At least understand the magnitude you're not understanding.
It is literally the closest thing we have in 2025 and it's not your fault you don't understand it, bc you are not its target audience. At least understand the magnitude you're not understanding.
February 11, 2025 at 2:25 AM
“At least understand the magnitude you’re not understanding”
Reposted by Pattern Boy
“I have come to wonder whether these expressions of despair and surrender are really masking an irrational longing for a magical way out of this nightmare - a hope that some deus ex machina will swoop down and spare us what we are facing.”
open.substack.com/pub/sherrily...
open.substack.com/pub/sherrily...
Democracy is Crumbling. Is Anybody Doing Anything?
Yes. And You Can Too.
open.substack.com
February 11, 2025 at 2:09 AM
“I have come to wonder whether these expressions of despair and surrender are really masking an irrational longing for a magical way out of this nightmare - a hope that some deus ex machina will swoop down and spare us what we are facing.”
open.substack.com/pub/sherrily...
open.substack.com/pub/sherrily...
Reposted by Pattern Boy
The legacy of journalism in 2024 is that the public went into a fateful presidential election grossly, systematically ill-informed. It is so telling that not a single journalist even *mentioned* that basic fact.
December 31, 2024 at 7:21 PM
The legacy of journalism in 2024 is that the public went into a fateful presidential election grossly, systematically ill-informed. It is so telling that not a single journalist even *mentioned* that basic fact.
“Our networks are rotten, our information ecosystem poisoned with its pure parts ideologically and strategically concussed, our means of speaking to those we love and making new connections so constantly interfered-with that personal choice and dignity is all but removed.”
Lost In The Future
Soundtrack: Post Pop Depression - Paraguay
I haven't wanted to write much in the last week.
Seemingly every single person on Earth with a blog has tried to drill down into what happened on November ...
www.wheresyoured.at
November 13, 2024 at 10:23 PM
“Our networks are rotten, our information ecosystem poisoned with its pure parts ideologically and strategically concussed, our means of speaking to those we love and making new connections so constantly interfered-with that personal choice and dignity is all but removed.”
“We have been conditioned to reject long-term cooperation to solve major problems, if it’s presented to us as a short-term threat to our independence. Our fixation on freedom has been weaponized against us.”
johnlovie.substack.com/p/you-might-...
johnlovie.substack.com/p/you-might-...
"You might want to move your wells"
Adventures in Water System Consolidation
johnlovie.substack.com
October 31, 2024 at 3:34 PM
“We have been conditioned to reject long-term cooperation to solve major problems, if it’s presented to us as a short-term threat to our independence. Our fixation on freedom has been weaponized against us.”
johnlovie.substack.com/p/you-might-...
johnlovie.substack.com/p/you-might-...
Love the photos in this update, which show the crazy terrain the new bridge will span.
alaskacontractor.akbizmag.com/issue/fall-2...
alaskacontractor.akbizmag.com/issue/fall-2...
Pretty Rocks Progress
In August 2021, the Pretty Rocks landslide shut off access to a portion of Denali Park Road near Polychrome Pass.
alaskacontractor.akbizmag.com
October 28, 2024 at 12:01 AM
Love the photos in this update, which show the crazy terrain the new bridge will span.
alaskacontractor.akbizmag.com/issue/fall-2...
alaskacontractor.akbizmag.com/issue/fall-2...
“The privacy risks here will remain until Apple and Google permanently turn off their mobile advertising ID schemes and admit to the American public that this is the technology that has been supporting the global data broker ecosystem.”
krebsonsecurity.com/2024/10/the-...
krebsonsecurity.com/2024/10/the-...
The Global Surveillance Free-for-All in Mobile Ad Data
Not long ago, the ability to remotely track someone’s daily movements just by knowing their home address, employer, or place of worship was considered a powerful surveillance tool that should only be ...
krebsonsecurity.com
October 27, 2024 at 3:06 PM
“The privacy risks here will remain until Apple and Google permanently turn off their mobile advertising ID schemes and admit to the American public that this is the technology that has been supporting the global data broker ecosystem.”
krebsonsecurity.com/2024/10/the-...
krebsonsecurity.com/2024/10/the-...
“This is the quiet art of living well. It does not demand that we abandon the world, but that we engage with it more mindfully. It asks that we slow down, that we look more closely, that we listen more carefully.”
billwear.github.io/art-of-atten...
billwear.github.io/art-of-atten...
stormrider
billwear.github.io
October 25, 2024 at 5:07 PM
“This is the quiet art of living well. It does not demand that we abandon the world, but that we engage with it more mindfully. It asks that we slow down, that we look more closely, that we listen more carefully.”
billwear.github.io/art-of-atten...
billwear.github.io/art-of-atten...
“If you want to raise empathetic, imaginative children who can figure out how to entertain themselves, don’t keep their brains too occupied.”
Opinion | Parents Should Ignore Their Children More Often
The case for “mindful underparenting.”
www.nytimes.com
September 16, 2024 at 12:05 PM
“If you want to raise empathetic, imaginative children who can figure out how to entertain themselves, don’t keep their brains too occupied.”