Maria Varmazis

I did it! Here's my new blog: mariamakesamess.com It's a static site, and I used Hugo to build it. It is extremely lo-fi and I am glad to keep it that way.

Something about me at the sewing machine makes Pumpkin very much want to roost on the fabric pile. I don’t get it, as she doesn’t hang out on it when I’m not at the machine, but this is my fate in life and I’ve accepted it. 🎃

My heart is heavy. Walter Koenig, our Ensign Pavel Chekov, passed away early today. Walter and I met on the bridge of the Enterprise in the 1960s, and we stayed friends for nearly six decades. When Brad and I married in 2008, Walter stood beside us as our best man.

🫡 Rest in peace to this incredible actor. Thank you for sharing your light with the world!

Shout it from the rooftops PLEASE!

"Both top-shelf reporting and top officials in the Trump administration, including Trump himself, have said that Musk made this decision on his own. That would be treason. The traditional way to figure out the truth of such a matter is with a trial." prospect.org/2026/10/26/d...

Sometimes I grumble about seemingly circuitous approaches to landing in Boston, but no complaints about the sunset tour of the city they gave us yesterday.

Space Force looks to build depth into its satellite-jamming arsenal Lt. Gen. Gagnon says units need more equipment to absorb wartime losses... https://spacenews.com/space-force-looks-to-build-depth-into-its-satellite-jamming-arsenal/

wrote about "Black October," the PHP vulnerability, and the AI-fueled dread and panic I'm seeing among almost all of the cybersecurity experts I've ever known. I think people w/ LLMs are brute forcing software the same way they brute forced social media w/ slop www.404media.co/php2shell-bl...

i think it would be great with the holiday season right around the corner if we skipped the "how to avoid talking about politics with your kooky uncle" articles and got a bunch of more useful "how to talk to older family members about setting a family codeword in case of phishing attempts" articles

Etsy finally getting serious about banning AI slop patterns. We'll see if that actually puts a dent in the runaway problem.

EXCLUSIVE: Pete Hegseth wanted Gen. Dwight Eisenhower’s globe for his office. His staff broke it. The Pentagon denied us access to take photos, but we obtained some anyway. A story in global affairs: wapo.st/3WF2YQo

shitposts aside, this one is serious, my loves: if you’re just waking up and you have any service online running PHP 5.4 to latest, you need to take it down RIGHT NOW and don’t put it back online until after it’s patched absolutely catastrophic vulnerability dropped in the middle of the night

Glad to see this story getting more attention. I learned about it through American Chestnut interest groups I'm in and could not believe what I was reading.

I've spent the last few weeks attempting to figure out what the hell is going on in WV, where a tiny grove of American chestnut trees is facing off against an AI data center. it's a complex and fascinating situation: www.404media.co/west-virgini...

Hell yeah, finally a chance to use this function

There really is a bit too much cybersecurity EVENT news today, huh. It won't make national headlines like the recent cyber-attacks on supermarket fridges in France, but both sets of vulnerabilities which have emerged in the last 24 hours could have an impact for a long time.

There is no such thing as art without a human on one end of the line and a human on the other end. In communication with each other.

AI shouldn't be able to fire you, fire a weapon, or deny you healthcare.

If only there was some form of document which enumerated the powers of the legislature.

Enjoyed seeing this woman's work. Sustainability isn't just about producer decisions, but also consumer decisions, namely their willingness to repair things when needed. This type of repair is easier on natural fibers, rather than stretch fabrics. Consider that when shoppping. IG loosethreadsrepair

eBay users! Don't ignore today's email, even though it looks like a boring standard update to the User Privacy Notice. They want to use your data to train AI models. If you click the link over the words "the right to object", it takes you to a page with a toggle button letting you opt out.

The culture that produced this ad is the same culture that keeps publishing handwringing takes about therapists “pushing” adult children to go no contact with their parents, despite it being well established that childhood sexual abuse is common.

And as today we're celebrating eight years since Bepicolombo left for Mercury, we've asked the team to describe the mission in three words. Can you guess which word came up the most? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy5dI11qqpw 🔭 🧪

Protestors Criticized For Looting Businesses Without Forming Private Equity Firm First https://theonion.com/protestors-criticized-for-looting-businesses-without-fo-1843735351/

After 2 days in close proximity (less than 5 km, possibly much less), Kosmos-2612 moved away from ICEYE X36 on Oct 18 and is now more than 100 km away, according to US Space Force tracking data

One of NPR's most gifted storytellers, his soft voice and vivid writing helped define the network's sound for a generation of Americans.

Brendan Larsen from Ngāmotu in Aotearoa and a member of the New Plymouth Astronomical Society took this stack over a couple of hours and estimates 14000 satellite trails. This is how bad it is now, it's set to get much much much worse - and then we lose Low […] [Original post on river.geek.nz]

I keep getting ads for this and I know my project queue is super long but dannnnnng this is so Meant For Me: legitkits.com/products/ear... I mean I could so easily see it as a video backdrop for my office! Space and sewing combined, it's very me! But I am busy enough and FPP is so intimidating...

And here is my write-up on completing this quilt, with a shoutout to Quiltsky folks: mariamakesamess.com/blog/hallowe...

Researchers at The Citizen Lab have for the first time released technical evidence of sophisticated mercenary spyware being distributed via online advertising.

My very first Hub on Wheels ride was in 2007. Here I am with my very janky bike back then - I rode the 25 mile route. I still have this 2007 jersey, maybe I should wear it for the 2027 ride!

Oct 14th - #Hackers of the world united to overload the Gibson, and prevent the Da Vinci virus from capsizing an oil fleet, designed to distract from "The Plague's" worm stealing $25m. 📽️📅 Hackers (1995)

And here’s the trailer for BEING HEUMANN. In cinemas Nov 6, streaming on AppleTV Nov 13. I saw it last night at the London Film Festival & it’s a triumph.

Greece always deserved much better. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

“Let the world see what Russia did to my family,” he said as he walked to the car. “I want to tell Europe and the United States that our kids also want to live.” He looked back at his wife’s and daughter’s graves. “They also wanted to live.” www.nytimes.com/2026/10/13/w...

Ian McGinty died in 2023 at 38 years old after being overworked and underpaid for his comics work his entire career.