Bookwyrm

All names sound familiar. All faces look familiar. Then the patron mentions a title I helped them find, and it's "Oh, yes. You. I remember you!" How does my brain work???

#ProTip for librarians, archivists, curators & historians: there are mobile lightbox apps for viewing slides & negatives. Turn obsolete tablets into light boxes & it's no big deal if they get damaged or stolen. 📚🗃️📜

The first genuinely honest ad for generative AI I've ever seen, from Microsoft / CoPilot A mediocre white guy sees his non-white colleague getting praised for good work, he asks AI to *literally copy it*, and then he gets all the praise instead: www.ispot.tv/ad/SoDi/micr...

An absolutely fucking wild thing I just learned: In 2020 DNA-sequencing of human remains from c. 3,000 BCE identified two first cousins once removed. One had been buried near Rostov-on-Don by the Black Sea, the other in the Altai Mountains of the Mongolian borderlands, about 2,000 miles away.

I've mentioned before I've updated my contracts to make sure everything in the production of my books is done by humans and not "AI"; if you're wondering what such a thing looks like, here's a clause covering that from a recent contract.

A Research Journey: The Backbone of Research Rationale 💡🎓 Structuring a solid research project comes down to answering four key questions: #Research #AcademicChat #PhDLife #HigherEd #Methodology #AcademicSky

🚨 URGENT: Canadian MPs have a chance to fix Bill C-39 before it becomes law. Bill C-39 would make it easier for the government to interfere in and shut down legal strikes, putting workers' rights in danger. Send a message now to protect our right to strike Canada! #CdnPoli #CanPoli

I'm having too much fun with the unlimited version of this game. Notwordle 1753 7/10 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬆️⬇️⬇️9️⃣⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬆️⬇️⬇️9️⃣🟨 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬆️⬇️⬇️9️⃣⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬆️⬆️⬇️7️⃣🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬆️⬆️⬆️6️⃣🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬆️⬇️⬆️6️⃣🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🎯🎯🎯0️⃣🟩 notwordle0.netlify.app

Relaxing is a lot of work. https://thedevilspanties.com/archives/17229 https://store.thedevilspanties.com #ADHD #AttentionDeficitDisorder #cleaning #stress

Alberta (& Saskatchewan) are blaming immigration to cover up for the fact that they dropped the fucking ball on housing and healthcare.

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

I've never had an easy time discerning sound medical advice from quackery, and it seems to be getting even more difficult.

Have any of you experienced less pain due to a low carb diet (or other change in diet)?

Here's my proposed AI Rights Charter for Authors: 1. No AI in books Books are the lifeblood of our culture. They allow us to think across time & space. Readers & writers have the right to AI-free literature - books made by humans, for humans. Books forged by human intention, built word by word.

Some wires are crossed in my brain. My body sends the signal, "I need a nap", and my brain receives the signal, "I don't deserve to live". This is unhelpful.

Citymgr: When a report comes to council, there will be people in the community who believe you have a say in what goes on and you do not. This is happening in the RM of Sherwood. #yqrcc

So… storytime… When Safeway was trying to get community buy-in for their new store in Cathedral, one of the concerns was the garbage chute so close to houses. Safeway swore up & down that that garbage chute was next-generation garbage chute technology that you would never smell anything from. #yqrcc

Sometimes it is more obvious than others that my completely unwarranted reputation for quick wit is based solely on the same ridiculous things happening in my life again and again. Within a groundhog day scenario, anyone can eventually appear fast on the uptake.

Bell: We care about being a good neighbour. This isn't the only facility we're going to build. We need the social license to do this. This is a marquee campus that will set the standard. We are building these to the highest standard. #yqrcc

The #Alberta referendum in a nutshell. Vote NO to the 9. Yes to #Canada. #yyc #yeg #ableg #cdnpoli #daniellesmith and #ucp are #separatists

Since the colours are all spring pastel tones, I felt a bit like the Easter bunny, hiding eggs. My favourite moment? When a bombastic older gentleman came in and called out loudly to the poll worker, “Which ones are the trick questions? I heard on CTV that there were trick questions!”

When did Goodreads start allowing partial stars in their ratings?

Who gave my spine a knife, and why is said spine wielding it in an inwards direction?

Please don’t judge what you can’t understand Try and realize it’s your own fear and denial that makes you need to believe everything is “fixable”… because you can’t fathom getting sick and never getting better Disability comes for almost everyone… help us build a better world

In an age defined by AI slop content, quick "answers" and profit hoarding corpo bullshit. Learning new skills and going to your local library are acts of rebellion. Be rebellious.

I was just thinking about the time someone got so upset about a bat they saw in the snow, that they wrapped it up in a newspaper, brought it into the public library I was working in, and tried to make it my problem. I don't imagine the bat's circumstances improved from there.

People just think science is bigger than it is because science has such unreal outcomes for our lives. There just aren't enough scientists, there isn't enough funding, there isn't enough time and there isn't enough resource for our needs. People think their countries fund it much more than they do

The thing I keep hammering about copyright is it's not just money. It's your right to say what you want to be associated with. Copyright doesn't always protect you well enough, but it's what we have. And if you sell yours, and your art winds up in a fascist rag, you can't do anything.

these people would say it was "unclear" why more people in germany didnt openly identify as jewish in 1942

This is an essay worth reading if you’re like me and not feeling confident in calling yourself autistic. The experience described in here could have been pulled from my own experiences I need to reconsider my understanding of my experience with depression now.

It's not a topical comic in that I suspect I'll be posting it every few years for a long time. COMIC ◆ www.smbc-comics.com/comic/woops PATREON ◆ www.patreon.com/ZachWeinersm... STORE ◆ smbc-store.myshopify.com

It seems like the big tech innovation of the 21st century has been “breaking the law.” Uber=violating taxi regulations AirBnB=violating hospitality and zoning regulations AI=mass IP theft turned into automated crime at scale

Canada is not actually 'battling for survival' in the context of secession, because in both Alberta and Quebec secession has relatively small amounts of public support. What we're battling is dipshit far-right populist politicians enabling/pushing for this destructive bullshit.

I broke this story in 2011, about the first major publisher-imposed loan restrictions on ebooks (the only truly big story of my trade journalism career). It’s been 15 years, and the only major difference is that public library budgets are lower and what publishers charge libraries has gone up.

Hey, I’m just asking questions. Ignorant questions, bigoted questions, questions that have been repeatedly answered for many years. Sorry, but I’m not listening to answers right now; I’m far too busy asking questions. It’s called being intellectually curious.

LibreOffice is free, open source & available for windows, ios & Linux. It does everything that MSoffice does except cost a fortune, spy on you & interfere with your work with AI nonsense.

The Alberta chapter of the Canadian Bar Association has published an analysis of Premier Smith's nine referendum questions. They find that most of these proposals would invite immediate court challenges, and several of them are not legally clear at all.

If you're selling handmade jars or boxes, please post the dimensions on your website. Or include something in the photo that gives a sense of scale. Please.

I've been traveling today, but I understand we've been talking about to do lists and meal prep services and in More Than Words, I just so happen to use meal prep services as an example of how something that seems like it could be useful, doesn't help us build capacity in the long run.

But you gotta stop acting like there’s a wrong kind of human being. I see it every time I log on here. Someone’s insulting someone else’s perceived mental faculties. Using incontinence as a joke. Laughing at people who wear masks. Eugenics stuck around, and some of you laugh at its naming.

The impacts of divide and conquer as a strategy for eugenicists can’t be overstated. If we’re busy fighting each other, we aren’t going to be able to unite to fight them. So what happened? Well, America accidentally united to fight them. Germany and Japan took it “too far,” you see.

There are only five shows on this list I watched more than one episode of, two that I watched a whole season of, and one (The Good Place) that I watched all of. I can't say I feel I've missed anything.