Pls enjoy these pics of my sister’s cattes. Had to help wrangle them to the vets for their checkup. poppy, the one with short fur, yelled a lot in the car but was fine otherwise. Inca, the large fluffy cat absolutely kicked off 😂 both getting in the carrier and actually at the vets.

I've got a new piece at @lseimpactblog.bsky.social today following on from my previous piece about the British Library cyberattack and arguing that, since the UK Government clearly doesn't care about the UK knowledge sector, we need to develop our own community-led tech and infrastructure solutions.

Keep thinking about the lady Di battle jacket I saw in Covent Garden today

One of my colleagues went to a seminar at Berkeley and when someone asked a question Derrida brushed it off saying ‘what you ask may be important but it is not interesting’.

Anyway I only seem to use this account for commute whinges, so have some nice old book covers that I stumbled across at work instead.

Now three guys have been talking loudly across the aisle for about 45 mins about jujitsu and Bitcoin and it’s like some pieces of foam board have been made sentient. Protein shakes! Training! Stocks! SHUT THE FUCK UP.

Netsuke of a Rat Grasping a Soybean Pod, 19th century Japan

This evening’s train treat: a man whipping out a can of lynx deodrant and spraying himself with great abandon. The train carriage smells like a school disco from 1998.

Was trying to speak to a group of students at work earlier and was disrupted by the sounds of this.

The start to the morning you want: a woman getting on the train with her kid and saying “it’s good this carriage is empty as nobody will be able to smell Mummy’s horrible egg sandwich…oh the carriage isn’t empty, oh well!” Now everything reeks of evil fart. Too early for this shit.

This week: absolute train hell for 2/4 of my commute days and reaching my absolute limit due to various things at work. Last night was DELIGHTED when I remembered this prebatched martini was in the fridge.

AI is really ruining the art of badly photoshopping something

Letraset inspired blanket. www.thedesignersfoundry.com/goods/goodma... Very good. Via @its-nice-that.bsky.social

Full credit to @simonxix.com for spotting that the French translation of 'radical librarianship' is 'bibliothéconomie militante'... watch out for our forthcoming article with the ever wonderful @sluginkpress.bsky.social.

When Bruce Springsteen sang "at night, we ride through mansions of glory in suicide machines", he was talking about people who log on to LinkedIn after 6pm to write fanfiction about how good they are at their job.

the password to the louvre surveillance server was "louvre" www.thesocialpost.it/2025/11/02/f...

NOVEMBER 2025's punk listings zine is out now! A few plans, a few videos in the 'newsletter for the newsletter' below: buttondown.com/anothersubcu...

Are you a cataloguer or interested in cataloguing and have a view on whether LCSH is fit for purpose in a UK context? CILIP MDG @cilipmdg.bsky.social are hosting a Worldcafe event (a big meeting basically!) to discuss ideas at Wellcome Library in London Wed 26th Nov www.cilip.org.uk/events/Event...

This post has been in draft a while but it feels particularly timely given the strike over pay that starts tomorrow (27th Oct) at the British Library. If you've ever despaired at the low salaries at the BL now is the time to act in solidarity www.pcs.org.uk/news-events/... #BritishLibraryOnStrike

We could be in for a classic year

The risible wages are well-known in the wider field of the library, museum, gallery and archive world. I’d like to think public opinion is with the people who make the place click day-in-day-out; they deserve better. Knowledge may be free but labour isn’t: spread the wealth and pay the workers!

No scabbing, please. Support your striking library workers.

Nothing but respect for these legends.

Monday: no direct trains from Brighton to Victoria. Tuesday: no direct trains from Brighton to Victoria. Today: had to try to go into work at short notice. Standing on the platform waiting for a train: they’re cancelled due to points failure. Price of season ticket: £5.5k

I wrote about my five days in Israeli prison for the LRB. Remember with every paragraph that this is the cosseted version of the experience; it is infinitely worse for Palestinians www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/oc...

'The British Library...has taken years to recover from a major cyberattack that disrupted its services and restricted access to its collections. The walkout is set to take from 27 October to 9 November, coinciding with the two-year anniversary of the cyberattack.'

What the shit, Clarivate! Anyone using Ebook Central MARC records, be warned. They're jamming those records with AI generated metadata. Auto-enabled but you can disable it.

Author and filmmaker Justine Bateman on generative AI

Today's the day for my anti-AI zine volume 2: "Human Perspectives on the Latest AI Hype Cycle" 🎉 Enjoy the fruits of my focus these past few months and learn from many great people! Scanned zine to print your own and the full text and references are available at padlet.com/laurenUU/antiAI

At Lambeth Archives we are recruiting a Borough Archivist, details: effe.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid... Please share!

Spent the last 3 days sick in bed and just looked out out of the window to see…a pheasant sitting on the fence in our garden. In central Brighton. Thought I was hallucinating.

This whole thread, God help us.

MAKE ZINES CHEAP AGAIN

The irony of this policy being announced on the same day as Reform getting 33% in a poll is overwhelming. Just imagine what a Farage-led Doge will do to our personal data? And that’s before the really sinister shit kicks in.

Brit card shit card. Also anyone else remember the ‘NO2ID’ Campaign from early 00s?

“dial-a-poem.org brings all Dial-A-Poem recordings together. The original recordings by John Giorno exist alongside [those] in other languages from all international editions—captioned, accessible, and in randomized order.”

Ahhh it’s commuter men refusing to blow their nose properly or put their hand over their mouth when they cough season!

thinking of my many colleagues without citizenship and thinking about what a vile worm this man is.

the old man who lives in one of the houses bordering our garden is back on his bullshit (throwing leftover bread onto OUR shed roof for the gulls) again.

We’re also deeply scary, violent, communist terrorists who’ll call you a nazi and/or gun you down at the drop of a hat. Make up your mind.

Me, months ago: Yes sure I will write a short journal article. Me now, a week before deadline: I HATE WRITING.

This morning I witnessed the pigeon equivalent of winning the lottery #BrightonScumCity

🎶*Richard Dawson voice* “I don't want to go into work this mornnnnnnnniiiiiing”🎶

landlord special-ing the leaking velux in our bathroom with electrical tape. I do not welcome these winds/this rain.

Could have done without the 5am The Velux in the bathroom is leaking wake-up call

Very amused by the image that our library catalogue has pulled in to accompany the record for Ian Hamilton Finlay's 'Canal Game'

This morning: getting up in the dark & walking to the station in the rain. Months of this to look forward to!