Elsa Birch
LightNews LightNews
banner
elsabirch.bsky.social
Elsa Birch
@elsabirch.bsky.social
4.4K followers 6.2K following 1.7K posts
Living in the SF cloud and engineering in the data cloud. Also: plants, coffee, cooking, a chemeng microbio phd, she/her, via Portland and Boulder. Are these views even mine? We just don’t know. Same handle most other spots.
Posts Replies Media Videos
elsabirch.bsky.social
Who among us can cook lentils without listening to UK Hun? #bimini
Screenshot from the Uk drag race girl group challenge of the j tied king dolls
November 4, 2025 at 2:56 AM
elsabirch.bsky.social
I think my lake tiers would be duct tape -> wd-40 -> jb weld -> 3d printed -> machined
anarchonurzox.com Sarah McC Stephens @anarchonurzox.com · 13d
Forget bronze -> silver -> gold data architecture, I've got stubble -> hay -> wood -> precious stones -> silver -> gold in my data lake.

(it's already on fire, obviously)

#dataBS
November 3, 2025 at 3:35 AM
Reposted by Elsa Birch
karaman.is
For this week's #TidyTuesday, rainfall from 12 UK weather stations 2012-2024. I’ve been wanting to try the idea of using letter heights to show data for some time, now possible thanks to {flexfont} by @coolbutuseless.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy

Code: github.com/gkaramanis/t...

#RStats #dataviz
A data visualization showing median annual rainfall at UK weather stations from 2012 to 2024. The chart displays twelve weather stations (Ballypatrick Forest, Bradford, Camborne, Cardiff Bute Park, Chivenor, Dunstaffnage, Eskdalemuir, Hurn, Lerwick, Newton Rigg, Stornoway Airport, and Tiree) arranged in two columns. For each station, the years 2012-2024 are shown along the x-axis, with rainfall amounts in millimeters on the y-axis (ranging from 0 to 200+ mm). Eskdalemuir recorded the highest rainfall (213.3 mm in 2020), while 2022 was notably dry across most stations. Each station's name is visualized by repeating its letters across the years, with letter height corresponding to that year's median rainfall. The most recent complete station name appears in dark blue, while earlier repetitions are shown in light blue. Blue bars at the bottom of each panel represent the year markers. A horizontal red line at the top of each panel indicates the maximum rainfall recorded for that station during the period.
October 26, 2025 at 2:30 PM
elsabirch.bsky.social
Bike bouquet Sunday
Two large bunch's of flowers, both in the back baskets of a bike: classic yellow sunflowers and creamy light near chartreuse tinged marigolds
October 19, 2025 at 9:29 PM
Reposted by Elsa Birch
tomtomorrow.bsky.social
somewhere in portland, there's one person, or a small handful of people, who came up with the inflatable costume idea, and I feel like they deserve our immense respect for defining the obvious developing aesthetic of the contemporary battle against fascism
October 18, 2025 at 11:19 PM
elsabirch.bsky.social
I miss the days when getting iced was just a peer pressure ritual around insipid malt beverage
October 18, 2025 at 4:16 PM
elsabirch.bsky.social
it just hits different
The setting is a cluttered garage pegboard and wire shelf, in the center is a portable spaceship shaped tape and CD boombox labeled Toshiba with a glowing lcd counter
October 13, 2025 at 11:09 PM
elsabirch.bsky.social
@ whoever tossed gross rottable *whatever that was* into my recycling bin before I returned it to the garage
October 12, 2025 at 2:41 AM
elsabirch.bsky.social
Personal style goals+inspo:
alaskaken.bsky.social Ken Marsh @alaskaken.bsky.social · Oct 5
SPRUCED UP FOR DINNER ... an American three-toed woodpecker forages for grubs hidden in the bark.

#woodpecker #birds #nature #photography
October 5, 2025 at 11:18 PM
elsabirch.bsky.social
That's some well treated anxiety you've got there, it'd be a shame if something were to happen to it... like say trying to color match the white ceiling paint in your old house
October 5, 2025 at 6:33 PM
elsabirch.bsky.social
Bike bouquet Sunday
Back of a bike with baskets containing various bags, a jug of foggy fresh apple cider, and wrapped in brown paper intensely red orange crocosmia in full bloom
October 5, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Reposted by Elsa Birch
brookejamieson.bsky.social
Huge PSA: framed art cat beds are a thing, and you can just swap out the art to make it into the best wedding photo display of all time
Harry the cat in a wedding photo frame bed
October 5, 2025 at 12:43 AM
Reposted by Elsa Birch
yhg1s.bsky.social
Let me post a *non*-subskeet for once... We made a thing!

discuss.python.org/t/pep-810-ex...

#Python #PEP
PEP 810: Explicit lazy imports
👋 Hi everyone, We are very exited to share with you PEP 810: Explicit lazy imports: We’re proposing an opt-in lazy import syntax that defers module loading until first use, aiming for faster startup,...
discuss.python.org
October 3, 2025 at 12:04 PM
elsabirch.bsky.social
Spooky Season 🤝 Soup Season
Looking though water in a stainless steel pan to see lightly roasted chick feet which are the first ingredient added to this batch of broth
October 4, 2025 at 2:20 AM
Reposted by Elsa Birch
chrisdeleon.bsky.social
today is the last day for AOL dial-up. 90s kid chris can finally sign off. he's now free to roam the earth offline

*extremely aol voice*: goodbye
youtu.be/F2Z2CklSxM0?...
Me as a kid at a computer taking a selfie with an old camera, shaved hair and glasses, blue striped shirt, computer style suggests mid 90s.
September 30, 2025 at 3:55 PM
elsabirch.bsky.social
Anyone else on the N Muni that roller coaster exited at Duboce and Noe today and couldn't stop for a few blocks?
September 24, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Reposted by Elsa Birch
jelvisweinstein.bsky.social
I know antifa isn't a real organization because I don't get 40 texts a week from them asking for donations.
September 22, 2025 at 11:21 PM
elsabirch.bsky.social
Shakey quakey wakey
September 22, 2025 at 9:58 AM
elsabirch.bsky.social
Bike bouquet Sunday!
Back of a small electric bike with cargo baskets full of shopping bags, produce like a leek stick out. Wrapped in newspaper in the middle are some purple and pink cosmos
September 21, 2025 at 5:49 PM
elsabirch.bsky.social
Question of the morning is if I should make a shrub with this or just turn the Shiso in my ume up to 11?
Picture down at a sidewalk, part of a figure is there in slate gray overalls and Birkenstocks. The focus is on the grey plastic laundry basket held in hand full of vibrant purple leaves with feathery edges overflowing the basket Trays along a counter in the kitchen filled with freshly washed vibrant purple leaves
September 21, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Reposted by Elsa Birch
mikegrunwald.bsky.social
Feeling solidarity with Jimmy Kimmel, who once aired this awesome video (cited in my book) making fun of liberals at an LA farmers market who all agreed that GMO’s were awful, and also that they didn’t know what GMO’s were. Groupthink of all kinds is bad:

m.youtube.com/watch?v=EzEr...
What's a GMO?
YouTube video by Jimmy Kimmel Live
m.youtube.com
September 18, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Reposted by Elsa Birch
janus.bsky.social
lately when i’m feeling hopeless i just think of the Katamari cat wearing scuba gear. if she can survive in an inhospitable environment then so can i
September 9, 2025 at 8:01 PM
elsabirch.bsky.social
special shoutout to the boomer parents all my genx and elder millennial friends are being drained by as they age especially ungraciously
elsabirch.bsky.social Elsa Birch @elsabirch.bsky.social · Sep 17
treating accommodations as weakness is a gun you will inevitably shoot at your own foot
September 17, 2025 at 4:03 PM
elsabirch.bsky.social
treating accommodations as weakness is a gun you will inevitably shoot at your own foot
September 17, 2025 at 3:57 PM
elsabirch.bsky.social
Why yes Apple Watch and Oura ring, my heart rate has elevated suddenly without increased activity. I'll take that moment for mindfulness when there's less than a whole colony of ants claiming my desk as their new home.
September 17, 2025 at 3:44 AM