Activity

Posted:

Update on the arm I bought to hold my e-reader for me: have just discovered this enables me to knit (simple patterns) while I read

Last night I finished The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and half a sock

A half-knit sock (cuff-down) using yarn that pools into black and white stripes, intermixed with browns and yellows
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“We just launched a 16TB archive of every dataset that has been available on data.gov since November. This will be updated day by day as new datasets appear. It can be freely copied, and we're sharing the code behind it to help others make their own archives of data they depend on.” Harvard Library Innovation Lab (via BlueSky)

"Announcing the Data.gov Archive".
in Harvard Library Innovation Lab.
Today we released our archive of data.gov on Source Cooperative. The 16TB collection includes over 311,000 datasets harvested during 2024 and 2025, a complete archive of federal public datasets linked by data.gov. It will be updated daily as new datasets are added to data.gov. This is the first release in our new data vault project to preserve and authenticate vital public datasets for academic research, policymaking, and public use. We’ve built this project on our long-standing commitment to preserving government records and making public information available to everyone. Libraries play an essential role in safeguarding the integrity of digital information. By preserving detailed metadata and establishing digital signatures for authenticity and provenance, we make it easier for researchers and the public to cite and access the information they need over time.
Posted:

was pretty jazzed to hear bookshop.org started selling e-books, but that DRM is a bummer 😞

kind of sucks that the best way to "buy" digital books at the moment is typically to pirate the book, then buy some shitty DRM-locked e-book you never open

even doing that i feel gross, like i'm encouraging these publishers to keep selling e-books this way

Read:
"GUEST COLUMN: The current 'mindf*ck' of being a trans journalist".
Katelyn Burns in The Handbasket. Published .
I will never stop covering the harm done by Trump’s anti-trans orders, but there is already so much of it. I learned in the first Trump term how to separate the personal from the professional, at least when on deadline. But once the draft is done, and edits are in the can, and I’m laying in bed at night trying to fall asleep, it all comes back to me: Do I need to plan for a quick getaway if some Trump lackey decides the loudmouth tranny journalist needs to go? How do I prevent myself from burning out again like I did during the first Trump term? How do I deal with the guilt of not being able to cover everything? These are the thoughts that haunt me when I’m not pouring myself into work or whatever movie or video game I’m playing to distract myself. ... I worry about the future of my community, but there’s no time for that now. There are too many stories to write.
Read:
"A Coup Is In Progress In America".
Mike Brock in Techdirt. Published .
A coup is underway in the United States, and we must stop pretending otherwise. The signs are unmistakable and accelerating: in just the past 48 hours, Elon Musk’s DOGE commission has seized control of Treasury payment systems and gained unauthorized access to classified USAID materials, while security officials who followed protocols were removed. Career civil servants across agencies are being systematically purged for having followed legal requirements during previous administrations. The president openly declares he won’t enforce laws he dislikes, while Congress watches in complicit silence. This isn’t happening through tanks in the streets or soldiers at government buildings—it’s occurring through the systematic dismantling of constitutional governance and its replacement with a system of personal loyalty to private interests. Those who resist are being removed, while those who enable this transformation are being rewarded with unprecedented control over government functions. The time for euphemisms and careful hedging has passed. We are watching, in real time, the conversion of constitutional democracy into something darker and more dangerous. To pretend otherwise isn’t prudence—it’s complicity.
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White women are about to be the latest to learn that when you support fascists because "they'll go after other people and improve things for me", "other people" always shifts to include you eventually

(Tweet by Trump's new Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs)

Tweet by Darren J. Beattie on October 4, 2024: "Competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work. Unfortunately, our entire national ideology is predicated on coddling the feelings of women and minorities, and demoralizing competent white men."

White men who think you won't be next on the chopping block: I guarantee you have a lot more in common with the "other people" than you have with the people in power.

Beattie was fired from his position as a speechwriter under Trump's previous administration when a past appearance on a white nationalist panel came to light. This time around that same thing probably strengthened his application.