Coral, yr Bird Friend

Someone smashed some keys in a shared document yesterday, and I was forced to admit that it might have been a pet bird.

Thinking about this wrt how LLMs are being posited for archival scanning/digitization, creating records, and doing research. LLMs distract from the actual systems problems of a lack of funding, lack of resources, and lack of staff paid at a liveable wage.

worth remembering, David Lynch directed “fix your hearts or die” specifically at transphobes. it wasn’t a generic “no mean people allowed” statement, it was said by his Twin Peaks character in defense of a trans woman he cared for and deeply respected.

Screenshot on Ticketmaster’s Policy and Terms of Use webpage: COVID-19 WARNING: An inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any place where people gather. COVID-19 is an extremely contagious disease that can lead to severe illness and death. You assume all risks, hazards, and dangers arising from or relating in any way to the risk of contracting a communicable disease or illness-including, without limitation, exposure to COVID-19 or any other bacteria, virus, or other pathogen capable of causing a communicable disease or illness, whether that exposure occurs before, during, or after the event, and regardless of how caused or contracted—and you hereby waive any and all claims and potential claims against Ticketmaster, Live Nation, and the Event Organizer (as defined in our Purchase Policy) and against any companies affiliated with Ticketmaster, Live Nation, or the Event Organizer-relating to such risks, hazards, and dangers.

If you want to know the true state of Covid risk today, look to liability clauses & insurance policies.

Even Ticketmaster warns “COVID-19 is an extremely contagious disease that can lead to severe illness and death. You assume all risks, hazards, and dangers…”

May the odds be ever in your favour🤘😷

why did we even domesticate peeves

I stopped going to Starbucks during the strike, and this does not make me eager to go back

I honestly think we should all make/order the most complicated coffee drinks we can, all to spite Dr Jakub Grygiel,
Because according to him, its not war, militarism, rampant uncontrolled capitalism, the destruction of social spaces, that make us lonely/destroy society, its froofy coffee drinks

It's also a bad use of fossil fuels when there's the option to meet online.

We don't need to fly all over the place to gather, when there's a perfectly good option that takes *significantly* less energy (and much of the energy used for online meetings can come from renewables, unlike jet fuel).

We simply can't all attend, some because of disability, some due to caregiving responsibilities, some (increasingly many) because their institution won't fund travel.

It was *already* unethical to hold in-person conferences.

I've been arguing as much since 2014, so it isn't *just* about the ongoing pandemic that permanently damages the immune, circulatory, nervous, and renal systems of the human body, or about the recent increase in measles and TB.

Masked men from three-letter agencies are grabbing whomever they like and throwing them into concentration camps. Ours is not a safe border to cross anymore.

I need the library field to please catch up with and accept reality: in-person conferences in the US can't be a thing anymore. (Or outside the US, if you want Americans there.) #libraries #CritLib #CripLib

Here's a lovely photo of my fabric art spirits. There are six of them. The one on the far left is a white spirit with a gray face, seven black eyes, and a grinning mouth full of five sharp teeth. She has two twirly white wisps coming out of her head. She's sitting on a small pink chair. Next is a black spirit with a gray face, large round golden eyes, and purple lips. She's covered with embroidered purple flowers. She has two black twirly wisps coming out of her head. Next is a green spirit with a red face, large twinkly yellow eyes, and an open mouth with two sharp teeth. He has two green antennas with red veins. He's covered with embroidered red flowers. Next is a pair of ghosts. One is white with a gray face, twinkly black, and an open mouth full of teeth. She's covered with pink flowers and yellow markings. She has two twirly white wisps. Standing on her head is a tiny white ghost with a gray face, pink flower eyes, and a little frown. She has two little arms. Next to them is a black spirit sitting on a chair with a gray face, twinkly red eyes, and a little frown. He's covered with white, yellow and purple stars of various sizes. He has two black wisps embroidered with a line of white stars. There's green fur in the background of the spirits, and they're on a galaxy print fabric.

Meet my newest creations: the Gloom-Wilders. I designed and hand-sewed them, and I hand-embroidered all their flowers, stars, and markings. They're a family of spirits who live in a haunted woodland (haunted because they live there).

jeremycreature.bigcartel.com

AOC came out swinging against age verification legislation and somehow the entire tech press seems to not have noticed?

a brindle greyhound curled up on the bed

do you need snuggles

The person *who made the choice to use AI for picking targets* is the person who needs to be dishonorably discharged from the military.

You use a technology you don't understand the limitations of, for life-or-death decisions? You lose your job.

Just walked by a colleague's classroom after my class finished and he was talking about Elvis, getting blank stares and so he had to ask "Does anyone know who Elvis Presley is?"

It's rough out here on these teaching streets.

If the Dems who win in the 2026 midterms get squeamish about prosecuting this administration, we'll need to elect a bunch of new people running on Nuremberg shit for 2028. This isn't a joke. It's the law. It's justice. Biden let Trump back in the WH and this happened because Joe didn't do his job

Hot take: don’t hate-read books. One wild and precious life, and you want to spend it mad? DNF and go find something you like.

Hasbro’s CEO on J.K. Rowling. We just published our new Decoder interview with Chris Cocks, the head of Hasbro. I asked him directly about how he thinks about author J.K. Rowling’s politics and what it’s done to the Harry Potter f...

cannot stress enough that "separate the art from the artist" was meant for private individuals reconciling the art they love with its flawed creators and not meant for the ceo of a company driving a dump truck of money up to a bigot's front porch

www.theverge.com/podcast/8914...

90s Captain Ahab: Thar she blows. Thar she blows again.

Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles doesn't belong in American society.

People get onto Beyonce's internet to yell about people not reading enough but when romance readers do it suddenly they're reading too much or not the "right" kind of books.

As we all know everything always goes great when venture capital takes over a company 🫤

A goat who lives behind my house, who is angling her neck awkwardly in a rather pathetic and desperate attempt to see my television set and catch the finale of season 7 of The Gilmore Girls.

THREAD.

A collection of photographs of excellent goats I have met during walks in the British countryside.

You will find the all-important captions to each photo in the alt text.

Yep. Married women have always worked. Many had jobs outside the home, many more did piecemeal work at home to supplement the family income. There are dozens & dozens of books by historians about this. I know because one of my comps fields was History of the American Family & I had to read them all

Most common was a situation where the lower earning partner did work that wasn't recognized as work. Tutoring, sewing, laundry, domestic labor that people perceive now as worthless. It brought in 20 to 40% of the household income. And often the land or furnishings for that house came from her.

And now as climate change threatens the survival of coffee and chocolate, I'm seeing articles about decaf life. (Not that this is supposed to impede your grind.)

Give it up voluntarily to prove you're a good person, so you won't notice when it's TAKEN FROM YOU.

This is actually quite brilliant, up to and including the final sentence 🔥

I don't hate the exterior, but those red highlights(?) on the seats would bug the shit out of me.

(I mean, that's why the goddex gave us seat covers, it's fine.)