"When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” intheweights.com

Annoying myself by singing "Andy Burnham looks a scream" to nobody in particular. When, in fact, the evidence suggests Andy Burnham does not look a scream.

I would write to my MP about this social media ban, but I'm an anarchist so instead will be writing to the lead singer of Echo and the Bunnymen. Dear Echo....

Let's ban harmful social media for boomers and Gen X while we are at it...

This is just seasoning, but: "kids must find their way in a world where technology intrudes into every area of their life" while we wave AI into every school is just adds to the aroma of the policy turd.

In a stinging rebuke to FIFA, I have decided I'm not doing a wall chart.

To me the Master good: "Thou dost not ask What spirits these, which thou beholdest, are? Now will I have thee know, ere thou go farther, That they sinned not; and if they merit had, 'T is not enough, because they had not Recommendation: Accept Submission.

What I find baffling about this is are they thinking the situation with X, and social media agitation in general, is going to get better without action? Like, if we do nothing it is just going to go away? Because that seems to be the strategy here.

Work with one of the best.

The absolute head banging nonsense I have to go through to buy things online -- username, password, active phone number to hand, text code -- and they're just handing it over to the sycophancy machine that can't add up.

Ohh an open letter. Let's hope they escalate this to a strongly worded letter next time. Then we might get close, tut, eye roll, and sigh of disapproval.

That's why he has to go.

I do not like being exposed on the internet. But yes,

The performances in this thread! Look, @zotero.org is an open source marvel, and using it does not dilute the purity of your anti-AI stance. Just read the thing you're citing and follow the standard. Personally, I inscribe my references on calfskin vellum using a black swan quill and sumi ink.

FIFA, of course, issued a statement conde...HA! Of course they didn't.

Couple of hmmms here. Sounds like government again trying to tech away a problem rather than address underlying causes. Two, seeing the phrase "safety tech firm" in here. Three, "providing proof of age" - more ID ransom. Four, Grok/X is still allowed to operate: predators don't need actual nudes!

The other point here is, is this a "debate"? Signs point to "No" and nor should it be. One thing that I have learnt in the last 15 years or so is that one side seeking to open a "debate" or "discussion" isn't interested in either. It's using those terms to open a space to impose their views.

"[citation needed]"

That's the way the money goes. Pop goes the weasel.

"And every day it's my pleasure to meet The great league of bald-headed men."

📚The Midwest Data Librarianship Symposium 2026 call for proposals is now open!! Here's the proposal submission form: go.iu.edu/9Tb3Zh And as a reminder, MDLS will be *fully* in person in West Lafayette, IN this year. We're excited to welcome everyone to the Hoosier State 🌽🏀

A couple of years ago i converted a bunch of Orson Welles interviews into audio so I could listen to them like podcasts. That man could talk.

What Abigail is saying here, but wider. If you're not prepared to do the thinking, if you're not prepared to do the reading, if you're not prepared to be doing the checking, you're not doing the work.

If anyone has an in with the Vatican, the call for #idcc27 posters is open. His Holiness is welcome to apply (there's a prize for best poster), and I might even extend it to a keynote invitation. Rest of you can click here: www.dcc.ac.uk/events/idcc27

I reposted on the arXiv policy banning authors for sloppy slop use the other day. I'm concerned the policy isn't effective. Over on the world's worst website the world's worst academics bleat it's unfair as they are far too important to be doing basic minimums of scholarly publishing.

Welcome, of course, but naturally the burden of proof here is only going to pick up the incompetent and stupid.

Friday afternoon typos caught just in time: "...and look forward to seeing some familiar faeces"

I try to keep my professional and personal reading separate, but I just finished the brilliant Say Nothing by @praddenkeefe.bsky.social, and towards the end up pop the Boston Collage (aka Belfast Project) interviews. A classic RDM fail!

This is an example of why the UK PM is (hopefully) on his way out. Governments love banning stuff, people like governments banning things, and these perv specs should be banned! But it's Meta, and we don't want a fight with big tech.

A thread on the US federal government data removal and manipulation. The article linked featuring the @datarescueproject.org bsky.app/profile/us.t...

"Well I, see you got your Brand new Abraham Lincoln-ChatBot Top-Hat" resobscura.substack.com/i/195782005/...

Number Go Up! Meanwhile I'm taking time checking every reference in a submission because I don't want to send out something with psychedelic citations to peer review. (This would have been something left for the [human] copy editor, and still is, but more for reference errors)

FBPE was an eye opener for me. It was the first time a group that I agreed with on objective could be corrosively irritating and evidently mendacious.

This #RDAP26 is quite an adventure for me. I don't know if I should laugh or cry that there is another FAIR out there: the Financial Accountability in Research (FAIR) model. So you could use FAIR to support FAIR. 🤯 The other FAIR: www.aau.edu/key-issues/f...

Correlation something something something causality.

In the same spirt, I've just had an offer to ship IJDC to China by rail. Says they'll bypass "Red Sea/Hormuz security risks entirely". True. True.

This, of course, plus the oh you want to join a meeting? Let me get round to opening up sometime in the next hour or two.

As seen at #RDAP26 today: AI-Ready Data Pilot Project Report by Shannon Sheridan et al. I can see this report and its checklist getting a lot of citations. doi.org/10.2172/3020...

As usual at online conferences, I find my attention drawn away by the day job/real life, but I'm glad at #RDAP26 today I got to hear @adam42smith.bsky.social and Dessi Kirilova from the QDR show results from their survey of Qualitative Data Analysis Software. Definitely one to dig into.

Contemplating the great mysteries. What is dark matter? Who built Stonehenge? How does Word formatting work?

Late stage capitalism and the collapse of customer service.

Every week we seem to smash through another barrier that would have been unthinkable and disturbing a while ago, and I shrug, and scroll on towards the apocalypse.

Just about to send an email. Intended a "hello all" introduction, unintentionally left a "hell all" typo. I think I prefer the latter.

Hegel remarks somewhere that all great everything apps and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as Excel, the second time as ChatGPT.

Good to know our university, probably yours too, has spent lots of money on licensing an entertainment product. I'd have preferred a sports package myself.

Diving into the Gil Scott-Heron catalogue tonight #WhiteyontheMoon

I think this should be one of those things that is a "law" (if not already).

I have not written a book or conducted a major academic study either. But I know that if you ask someone to look at your work, that's not "peer review"; that's a favour.

*Ok, set up account* You need a password *Yes, password, OK* Thank you for entering a password, we will send a code to your email *Right, I just did the password, but ok* Thank you for entering the code, we now need you to set up verification with a phone num... *You know, I'll just not bother*