Josh Tong
@joshtong.bsky.social
UX content strategist and information architect at MERGE. Working to improve content ecosystems and experiences.
Hiker. Urbanist. Fan of literature in translation. Piano player and flutist. Opinions are mine.
Philadelphia | JoshTong.io
Hiker. Urbanist. Fan of literature in translation. Piano player and flutist. Opinions are mine.
Philadelphia | JoshTong.io
I appreciate how this sign lists both rollerblading and roller-skating, just in case you aren’t sure whether the wheels on your shoes are forbidden.
November 16, 2025 at 9:22 PM
I appreciate how this sign lists both rollerblading and roller-skating, just in case you aren’t sure whether the wheels on your shoes are forbidden.
The only turkey I want for Thanksgiving.
November 16, 2025 at 8:37 PM
The only turkey I want for Thanksgiving.
This year I learned enough Python to write scripts that revise and combine source content into structured content at scale with LLM APIs.
Then I used low-code tools to create an app that makes the scripts easier for colleagues to use.
Then I used low-code tools to create an app that makes the scripts easier for colleagues to use.
November 9, 2025 at 5:48 PM
This year I learned enough Python to write scripts that revise and combine source content into structured content at scale with LLM APIs.
Then I used low-code tools to create an app that makes the scripts easier for colleagues to use.
Then I used low-code tools to create an app that makes the scripts easier for colleagues to use.
Happy semiannual Google How to Reset Your Kitchen Appliance Clocks and Squint at PDF Manuals Day.
November 2, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Happy semiannual Google How to Reset Your Kitchen Appliance Clocks and Squint at PDF Manuals Day.
Quiet day in the Catskills.
October 24, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Quiet day in the Catskills.
I’m impressed by Screaming Frog’s new AI cluster analysis feature. Useful for:
—Discovering topics in a corpus when creating a taxonomy
—Identifying related content
—Finding outlier or duplicate content
Doesn't replace traditional methods, but it does make some initial analyses quicker and easier.
—Discovering topics in a corpus when creating a taxonomy
—Identifying related content
—Finding outlier or duplicate content
Doesn't replace traditional methods, but it does make some initial analyses quicker and easier.
September 30, 2025 at 12:44 AM
I’m impressed by Screaming Frog’s new AI cluster analysis feature. Useful for:
—Discovering topics in a corpus when creating a taxonomy
—Identifying related content
—Finding outlier or duplicate content
Doesn't replace traditional methods, but it does make some initial analyses quicker and easier.
—Discovering topics in a corpus when creating a taxonomy
—Identifying related content
—Finding outlier or duplicate content
Doesn't replace traditional methods, but it does make some initial analyses quicker and easier.
Sunrise in Philadelphia.
September 29, 2025 at 11:31 AM
Sunrise in Philadelphia.
This is one of my favorite places: a grove of dawn-redwood trees in Morris Arboretum.
Scientists thought the genus went extinct 2–5 million years ago. But a live tree turned up in China in the 1940s, a grad student brought several pounds of seeds to Philly, and now there are 48 dawn-redwoods here.
Scientists thought the genus went extinct 2–5 million years ago. But a live tree turned up in China in the 1940s, a grad student brought several pounds of seeds to Philly, and now there are 48 dawn-redwoods here.
September 29, 2025 at 1:36 AM
This is one of my favorite places: a grove of dawn-redwood trees in Morris Arboretum.
Scientists thought the genus went extinct 2–5 million years ago. But a live tree turned up in China in the 1940s, a grad student brought several pounds of seeds to Philly, and now there are 48 dawn-redwoods here.
Scientists thought the genus went extinct 2–5 million years ago. But a live tree turned up in China in the 1940s, a grad student brought several pounds of seeds to Philly, and now there are 48 dawn-redwoods here.
This little free library is not messing around.
September 26, 2025 at 12:53 AM
This little free library is not messing around.
As an undergrad, I wrote my junior-year thesis on Günter Grass’s “The Tin Drum,” a novel about a society’s semi-willing descent into fascism.
Friends in the US, that story is worth reading.
Friends in the US, that story is worth reading.
September 21, 2025 at 2:52 PM
As an undergrad, I wrote my junior-year thesis on Günter Grass’s “The Tin Drum,” a novel about a society’s semi-willing descent into fascism.
Friends in the US, that story is worth reading.
Friends in the US, that story is worth reading.
We visited Boulder Field in the Poconos today. Extraordinary landscape that formed 20,000 years ago. Repeated freezing and thawing carved 16 acres of boulders out of the bedrock near the edge of a glacier.
July 26, 2025 at 12:00 AM
We visited Boulder Field in the Poconos today. Extraordinary landscape that formed 20,000 years ago. Repeated freezing and thawing carved 16 acres of boulders out of the bedrock near the edge of a glacier.
What an incredible idea, really.
1. Request almost any book.
2. It arrives a few days later.
3. Take it home for free.
4. Just bring it back a few weeks later.
1. Request almost any book.
2. It arrives a few days later.
3. Take it home for free.
4. Just bring it back a few weeks later.
July 23, 2025 at 9:09 PM
What an incredible idea, really.
1. Request almost any book.
2. It arrives a few days later.
3. Take it home for free.
4. Just bring it back a few weeks later.
1. Request almost any book.
2. It arrives a few days later.
3. Take it home for free.
4. Just bring it back a few weeks later.
Rounding people up, putting them in concentration camps, and treating them like animals:
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
This is horrifying, and it's just the beginning unless Americans put a stop to it.
Organize and resist: www.mobilize.us/nokings/even...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
This is horrifying, and it's just the beginning unless Americans put a stop to it.
Organize and resist: www.mobilize.us/nokings/even...
Migrants at Ice jail in Miami made to kneel to eat ‘like dogs’, report alleges
Incident in which migrants were shackled with hands tied one of succession of alleged abuses at jails in Florida
www.theguardian.com
July 22, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Rounding people up, putting them in concentration camps, and treating them like animals:
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
This is horrifying, and it's just the beginning unless Americans put a stop to it.
Organize and resist: www.mobilize.us/nokings/even...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
This is horrifying, and it's just the beginning unless Americans put a stop to it.
Organize and resist: www.mobilize.us/nokings/even...
A family member invited me to a NASCAR race. I went and tried to keep an open mind.
It turns out that races are very loud and very long and sometimes very hot. If that doesn’t sound like fun to you, then you might want to suggest a different activity or politely decline. End of PSA.
It turns out that races are very loud and very long and sometimes very hot. If that doesn’t sound like fun to you, then you might want to suggest a different activity or politely decline. End of PSA.
July 21, 2025 at 3:30 PM
A family member invited me to a NASCAR race. I went and tried to keep an open mind.
It turns out that races are very loud and very long and sometimes very hot. If that doesn’t sound like fun to you, then you might want to suggest a different activity or politely decline. End of PSA.
It turns out that races are very loud and very long and sometimes very hot. If that doesn’t sound like fun to you, then you might want to suggest a different activity or politely decline. End of PSA.
First day of vacation and I find myself asking Gemini about applying a taxonomy with sentence transformer models and similarity functions.
Ack, enough of this. Time to go read Elizabeth Bishop on a beach towel.
Ack, enough of this. Time to go read Elizabeth Bishop on a beach towel.
July 19, 2025 at 1:34 PM
First day of vacation and I find myself asking Gemini about applying a taxonomy with sentence transformer models and similarity functions.
Ack, enough of this. Time to go read Elizabeth Bishop on a beach towel.
Ack, enough of this. Time to go read Elizabeth Bishop on a beach towel.
The Chinese Lantern Festival in Philly’s Franklin Square was such a treat last night. Actors and acrobats, food and craft vendors, cultural workshops, and 1,000+ illuminated sculptures in dozens of lantern displays.
July 13, 2025 at 2:22 PM
The Chinese Lantern Festival in Philly’s Franklin Square was such a treat last night. Actors and acrobats, food and craft vendors, cultural workshops, and 1,000+ illuminated sculptures in dozens of lantern displays.
“Making indiscriminate arrests based on race and denying detainees access to lawyers” is a description of a white supremacist police state in the US.
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/11/u...
No one is safe from this. Keep organizing against it.
indivisible.org
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/11/u...
No one is safe from this. Keep organizing against it.
indivisible.org
Judge Blocks Trump Administration Tactics in L.A. Immigration Raids
www.nytimes.com
July 12, 2025 at 2:13 PM
“Making indiscriminate arrests based on race and denying detainees access to lawyers” is a description of a white supremacist police state in the US.
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/11/u...
No one is safe from this. Keep organizing against it.
indivisible.org
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/11/u...
No one is safe from this. Keep organizing against it.
indivisible.org
This is the best little free library.
–Two stories of books.
–A miniature library of books, with a parrot on a book ladder, a pair of cockatoos, and a penguin reading a book to a baby penguin.
–Several books titled _Book_ and one titled _Universe_.
–Birds on the roof.
–Working gutters.
–Two stories of books.
–A miniature library of books, with a parrot on a book ladder, a pair of cockatoos, and a penguin reading a book to a baby penguin.
–Several books titled _Book_ and one titled _Universe_.
–Birds on the roof.
–Working gutters.
July 12, 2025 at 1:40 AM
This is the best little free library.
–Two stories of books.
–A miniature library of books, with a parrot on a book ladder, a pair of cockatoos, and a penguin reading a book to a baby penguin.
–Several books titled _Book_ and one titled _Universe_.
–Birds on the roof.
–Working gutters.
–Two stories of books.
–A miniature library of books, with a parrot on a book ladder, a pair of cockatoos, and a penguin reading a book to a baby penguin.
–Several books titled _Book_ and one titled _Universe_.
–Birds on the roof.
–Working gutters.
Today, cross-functional teams work together (or not) to create and improve artifacts and deliverables.
A new challenge: Working together to design the AI systems that create and improve the artifacts and deliverables.
A new challenge: Working together to design the AI systems that create and improve the artifacts and deliverables.
July 7, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Today, cross-functional teams work together (or not) to create and improve artifacts and deliverables.
A new challenge: Working together to design the AI systems that create and improve the artifacts and deliverables.
A new challenge: Working together to design the AI systems that create and improve the artifacts and deliverables.
I love it when bookstores introduce readers to independent publishers like this.
July 5, 2025 at 4:53 PM
I love it when bookstores introduce readers to independent publishers like this.
Afternoon caffeine is my weakness. I drink too much and set out to cross the alps on elephants.
July 4, 2025 at 10:35 PM
Afternoon caffeine is my weakness. I drink too much and set out to cross the alps on elephants.
When a generic mechanical system just won’t do.
June 29, 2025 at 8:29 PM
When a generic mechanical system just won’t do.
I was feeling down about (1) the State of the World and (2) my brother's flight to Philly got canceled without enough time to reschedule.
Michelle suggested a hike. We crossed the bridge to Valley Green Inn, walked along Forbidden Drive, and watched the merriment at Devil's Pool. Felt better.
Michelle suggested a hike. We crossed the bridge to Valley Green Inn, walked along Forbidden Drive, and watched the merriment at Devil's Pool. Felt better.
June 29, 2025 at 12:01 AM
I was feeling down about (1) the State of the World and (2) my brother's flight to Philly got canceled without enough time to reschedule.
Michelle suggested a hike. We crossed the bridge to Valley Green Inn, walked along Forbidden Drive, and watched the merriment at Devil's Pool. Felt better.
Michelle suggested a hike. We crossed the bridge to Valley Green Inn, walked along Forbidden Drive, and watched the merriment at Devil's Pool. Felt better.
Our neighborhood theater made the NY Times:
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/19/t...
Congratulations @quintessencephl.bsky.social!
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/19/t...
Congratulations @quintessencephl.bsky.social!
How Do You Adapt James Baldwin? Very Carefully.
www.nytimes.com
June 21, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Our neighborhood theater made the NY Times:
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/19/t...
Congratulations @quintessencephl.bsky.social!
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/19/t...
Congratulations @quintessencephl.bsky.social!
The FIFA Club World Cup is in Philly, and the fans are the best part. A global game in a nation of immigrants.
Fans of Morocco's Wydad AC brought a party like 'no one has ever seen' to Lincoln Financial Field
share.inquirer.com/bUSLBW
Brazil’s Flamengo roars past Chelsea
share.inquirer.com/JA8u3G
Fans of Morocco's Wydad AC brought a party like 'no one has ever seen' to Lincoln Financial Field
share.inquirer.com/bUSLBW
Brazil’s Flamengo roars past Chelsea
share.inquirer.com/JA8u3G
Fans of Morocco’s Wydad AC brought a party like ‘no one has ever seen’ to Lincoln Financial Field
In Wednesday's FIFA Club World Cup match between Morocco's biggest club and English giant Manchester City, the game itself was secondary to the experience.
share.inquirer.com
June 21, 2025 at 1:10 PM
The FIFA Club World Cup is in Philly, and the fans are the best part. A global game in a nation of immigrants.
Fans of Morocco's Wydad AC brought a party like 'no one has ever seen' to Lincoln Financial Field
share.inquirer.com/bUSLBW
Brazil’s Flamengo roars past Chelsea
share.inquirer.com/JA8u3G
Fans of Morocco's Wydad AC brought a party like 'no one has ever seen' to Lincoln Financial Field
share.inquirer.com/bUSLBW
Brazil’s Flamengo roars past Chelsea
share.inquirer.com/JA8u3G