Deb Chachra
@debcha.bsky.social
Engineering professor. Author of HOW INFRASTRUCTURE WORKS (on Riverhead in the US+, on Torva in the UK+). Interested in embodiment, materiality, metacognition, and systems. All enthusiasm is 100% genuine.
Reposted by Deb Chachra
Good morning! Just wanted to let you all know that Rian Johnson subtly rickrolled us with a scene in Wake Up Dead Man. [bsky.app]
Jay Hulme (@jayhulmepoet.bsky.social)
Just watched the new Knives Out and I think it’s really important you know that the scene in the Seminary’s Gym is filmed in the same place Rick Astley filmed the music video for Never Gonna Give You Up. I saw the window tracery and immediately made my friends pause the film so I could tell them.
bsky.app
December 29, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Good morning! Just wanted to let you all know that Rian Johnson subtly rickrolled us with a scene in Wake Up Dead Man. [bsky.app]
Reposted by Deb Chachra
And to be clear: the action one does if one is feeling guilty tonight or tomorrow is give cash to organizations feeding the hungry and sheltering the houseless. It is not to show up at a shelter and ask to serve food.
You gotta get vetted to volunteer, so you start with cash, put a reminder —
You gotta get vetted to volunteer, so you start with cash, put a reminder —
Pope Leo said in a Christmas Eve sermon that the story of Jesus being born in a stable because there was no room at an inn should remind Christians that refusing to help the poor and strangers today is tantamount to rejecting God himself. For @reuters.com
Pope Leo, on Christmas Eve, says denying help to poor is rejecting God
Pope Leo said in a Christmas Eve sermon on Wednesday that the story of Jesus being born in a stable because there was no room at an inn should remind Christians that refusing to help the poor and stra...
www.reuters.com
December 25, 2025 at 2:36 AM
And to be clear: the action one does if one is feeling guilty tonight or tomorrow is give cash to organizations feeding the hungry and sheltering the houseless. It is not to show up at a shelter and ask to serve food.
You gotta get vetted to volunteer, so you start with cash, put a reminder —
You gotta get vetted to volunteer, so you start with cash, put a reminder —
Reposted by Deb Chachra
girl who is a library
the longer she stays in a place, the more bookshelves, mysteriously populated, slip into being around her, never when you're looking
the longer she stays in a place, the more bookshelves, mysteriously populated, slip into being around her, never when you're looking
December 24, 2025 at 1:45 PM
girl who is a library
the longer she stays in a place, the more bookshelves, mysteriously populated, slip into being around her, never when you're looking
the longer she stays in a place, the more bookshelves, mysteriously populated, slip into being around her, never when you're looking
Reposted by Deb Chachra
Just saw "Swiftian" used in a puzzling way in a sentence, and it suddenly made sense when I realized the writer meant "like Taylor", not "like Jonathan".
December 23, 2025 at 10:10 PM
Just saw "Swiftian" used in a puzzling way in a sentence, and it suddenly made sense when I realized the writer meant "like Taylor", not "like Jonathan".
Reposted by Deb Chachra
In case you missed it Canada changed their citizenship laws recently.
If you have Canadian ancestry you may be eligible for citizenship by descent.
I need to look into it some more but this is amazing.
immigration.ca/claiming-can...
If you have Canadian ancestry you may be eligible for citizenship by descent.
I need to look into it some more but this is amazing.
immigration.ca/claiming-can...
Claiming Canadian Citizenship by Descent Under Canada’s New Citizenship Act Bill C-3 - Canada Immigration and Visa Information. Canadian Immigration Services and Free Online Evaluation.
Learn how Canada’s new Bill C-3 restores citizenship by descent, removes the first-generation limit, and allows multigenerational claims for those born abroad.
immigration.ca
December 23, 2025 at 3:28 AM
In case you missed it Canada changed their citizenship laws recently.
If you have Canadian ancestry you may be eligible for citizenship by descent.
I need to look into it some more but this is amazing.
immigration.ca/claiming-can...
If you have Canadian ancestry you may be eligible for citizenship by descent.
I need to look into it some more but this is amazing.
immigration.ca/claiming-can...
Reposted by Deb Chachra
Someone asked what's happening here - the watered tree is lit on fire a full 30 seconds before the dry tree, but you can barely tell because it's burning so slowly. The dry tree goes full inferno in a matter of seconds. Water your tree. Make sure you have working smoke alarms in your home.
December 19, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Someone asked what's happening here - the watered tree is lit on fire a full 30 seconds before the dry tree, but you can barely tell because it's burning so slowly. The dry tree goes full inferno in a matter of seconds. Water your tree. Make sure you have working smoke alarms in your home.
Reposted by Deb Chachra
You might be thinking, "CPSC, does a dry Christmas tree really burn that much faster than a well-watered tree?"
Friend, let's find out together by watching this PSA.
Friend, let's find out together by watching this PSA.
December 19, 2025 at 2:31 PM
You might be thinking, "CPSC, does a dry Christmas tree really burn that much faster than a well-watered tree?"
Friend, let's find out together by watching this PSA.
Friend, let's find out together by watching this PSA.
Reposted by Deb Chachra
If you have never worked inside a big high-functioning human knowledge organization, this is a good rundown of what that feels like
we are strictly zero tolerance absolutely forbidden to use genAI at work. we have large caseload and a specialized area. Know what we do other than use resources on the intranet? We are constantly on teams asking the brain trust of our department.
December 22, 2025 at 5:03 AM
If you have never worked inside a big high-functioning human knowledge organization, this is a good rundown of what that feels like
Reposted by Deb Chachra
what scares me the most is that knowing things is not very helpful if you can't combine the different things you know to make new things. I stock up on knowledge like I'm filling a pantry and I can make so many new ideas out of them!
I don't want a brain full of only inflexible frozen dinners!
I don't want a brain full of only inflexible frozen dinners!
The point is not to put more fact shaped things in your head than anyone else. It’s to understand the ones that are there on a deep and meaningful level.
December 21, 2025 at 11:24 PM
what scares me the most is that knowing things is not very helpful if you can't combine the different things you know to make new things. I stock up on knowledge like I'm filling a pantry and I can make so many new ideas out of them!
I don't want a brain full of only inflexible frozen dinners!
I don't want a brain full of only inflexible frozen dinners!
Reposted by Deb Chachra
When we say "no, everything hasn't been digitized," I need you to understand that we really mean is that virtually nothing has been digitized. This is because the realm of primary sources that historians use is incomprehensibly large.
Seems like it's worth posting this one again.
Why Do Historians Still Have To Go To Archives?
Why do historians go to archives? Hasn’t everything already been digitized?
contingentmagazine.org
December 22, 2025 at 1:40 AM
When we say "no, everything hasn't been digitized," I need you to understand that we really mean is that virtually nothing has been digitized. This is because the realm of primary sources that historians use is incomprehensibly large.
The work that scholars and researchers actually do is the work that people *think* AI is doing. You read all sorts of things. You make connections. You notice where the holes are — what *hasn’t* been observed, questioned, investigated. You synthesize it into something that has never existed before.
December 22, 2025 at 2:07 AM
The work that scholars and researchers actually do is the work that people *think* AI is doing. You read all sorts of things. You make connections. You notice where the holes are — what *hasn’t* been observed, questioned, investigated. You synthesize it into something that has never existed before.
Reposted by Deb Chachra
I tend to think we've invisibilized work that involves sensemaking in the interests of pushing solutions. Thinking of @debcha.bsky.social's 2015 essay "Why I am not a maker"
www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
December 21, 2025 at 9:47 PM
I tend to think we've invisibilized work that involves sensemaking in the interests of pushing solutions. Thinking of @debcha.bsky.social's 2015 essay "Why I am not a maker"
www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
Reposted by Deb Chachra
Will happily move my business to whichever bank sponsors “Men! Are they people?”
Why decline all these chances to defend feminism? Because to participate would be accepting the premise that our rights and humanity are up for debate in the first place.
Once you’ve conceded that it’s reasonable to ask whether women’s equality was a mistake, you’ve already lost.
Once you’ve conceded that it’s reasonable to ask whether women’s equality was a mistake, you’ve already lost.
December 21, 2025 at 12:50 AM
Will happily move my business to whichever bank sponsors “Men! Are they people?”
Reposted by Deb Chachra
This essay by the author of a recent well-reviewed book about Tolkien starts modestly and then stabs you with a Morgul-blade halfway through, where you are pinioned by a twist in the telling. You may never recover. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/o...
Opinion | Why I Keep Returning to Middle-Earth
www.nytimes.com
December 19, 2025 at 4:46 PM
This essay by the author of a recent well-reviewed book about Tolkien starts modestly and then stabs you with a Morgul-blade halfway through, where you are pinioned by a twist in the telling. You may never recover. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/o...
Reposted by Deb Chachra
From the Metro Toronto Planning Board's 1959 draft Official Plan (voted down by Metro Council). You could not say something this obvious in Toronto's Official Plan anymore.
December 19, 2025 at 7:41 PM
From the Metro Toronto Planning Board's 1959 draft Official Plan (voted down by Metro Council). You could not say something this obvious in Toronto's Official Plan anymore.
Reposted by Deb Chachra
no one asked but just so everyone who follows me knows, real psychrolutes (blobfish) look like this normally
December 19, 2025 at 9:29 PM
no one asked but just so everyone who follows me knows, real psychrolutes (blobfish) look like this normally
Reposted by Deb Chachra
(not) sorry to keep hammering the point, but this really is the thing: as AI-generated video becomes more sophisticated, it will only become harder for non-experts to tell what's real and what isn't based on incongruous details, but an old-fashioned "source??" will always give the sloppers away.
December 19, 2025 at 9:18 PM
(not) sorry to keep hammering the point, but this really is the thing: as AI-generated video becomes more sophisticated, it will only become harder for non-experts to tell what's real and what isn't based on incongruous details, but an old-fashioned "source??" will always give the sloppers away.
Reposted by Deb Chachra
I regularly get asked if I’m hopeful. Or optimistic.
My answer is always the same.
What I am, is determined.
My answer is always the same.
What I am, is determined.
December 18, 2025 at 6:25 AM
I regularly get asked if I’m hopeful. Or optimistic.
My answer is always the same.
What I am, is determined.
My answer is always the same.
What I am, is determined.
Reposted by Deb Chachra
I can’t believe it’s going to be 2026 soon. What an absurd number. Where are the spaceships. Where did the last ten years go. How am I living here in the future that is also somehow the distant past?
December 18, 2025 at 6:34 AM
I can’t believe it’s going to be 2026 soon. What an absurd number. Where are the spaceships. Where did the last ten years go. How am I living here in the future that is also somehow the distant past?
Reposted by Deb Chachra
This is extremely important
December 16, 2025 at 12:48 PM
This is extremely important
Reposted by Deb Chachra
On FB, Yukon Geological Survey posted some spectacular photos of landslides & snow avalanches triggered by the magnitude 7.0 earthquake on Dec 6 in the St Elias Mountains. Here are some of my favs. @geocron.bsky.social @theronfinley.bsky.social @davepetley.bsky.social @ksvenenvig.bsky.social 🧪⚒️
December 15, 2025 at 10:44 PM
On FB, Yukon Geological Survey posted some spectacular photos of landslides & snow avalanches triggered by the magnitude 7.0 earthquake on Dec 6 in the St Elias Mountains. Here are some of my favs. @geocron.bsky.social @theronfinley.bsky.social @davepetley.bsky.social @ksvenenvig.bsky.social 🧪⚒️
Reposted by Deb Chachra
This collection of 45 Adapters reminds me of the Holotypic Occlupanid Research Group's Database of Synthetic Taxonomy (plastic bread bag clips) www.horg.com/horg/
45 adaptors | The ARChive of Contemporary Music
Here are some 45 adaptors, aka; adapters, centering devices, centers, inserts, single posts, spiders and things you place inside the large hole of a 45 rpm seven-inch disc to play it on a standard tur...
arcmusic.org
December 16, 2025 at 5:28 AM
This collection of 45 Adapters reminds me of the Holotypic Occlupanid Research Group's Database of Synthetic Taxonomy (plastic bread bag clips) www.horg.com/horg/
Reposted by Deb Chachra
my favorite thing about the benoit blanc movies is that they aren't really about benoit blanc. he is not grappling with demons from his past. we are not getting flashbacks to the husband whose murder he never solved. he just shows up and does his job like mary poppins for homicides
December 14, 2025 at 1:24 PM
my favorite thing about the benoit blanc movies is that they aren't really about benoit blanc. he is not grappling with demons from his past. we are not getting flashbacks to the husband whose murder he never solved. he just shows up and does his job like mary poppins for homicides
@tcarmody.bsky.social Just need to make sure you see this: bsky.app/profile/uber...
cookie monster, crying, as the body of christ just crumbles and falls from his mouth
the line is actually "no JESUS for us meeses," an oblique reference to the fact that, as muppets are unable to take communion, they are forbidden from entering the kingdom of god
December 14, 2025 at 7:29 AM
@tcarmody.bsky.social Just need to make sure you see this: bsky.app/profile/uber...