Ooooh, we are all rooting for @juancommander.scholcommlab.ca ! retractionwatch.com/2026/07/31/f...

Federal lawsuit accuses four major publishers of extorting article processing charges

iStock A lawsuit filed under the U.S. False Claims Act accuses four major publishers of perpetrating a decade-long scheme to defraud the government by charging exorbitant article processing charges…

retractionwatch.com

Bring back practical affects

Had a brief moment of mild panic that none of my emails were sending, then remembered it's the Tuesday after August long, literally no one cares what they say.

"Today is August 4, 2026" There Will Come Soft Rains By: Ray Bradbury

Aghhhhhhh maybe the internet isn't dead after all

ryan cooper@ryanlcooper.com · 4d ago

this owns www.inverse.com/input/cultur...

Half the planet is having a massive fight about how to correctly interpret an Ancient Greek poem but go ahead, close some more humanities departments.

Brusha brusha brush teeth, they are so dirty (teeth-ah, of the night)

I see zero flaws in this logic.

Marisa Kabas@marisakabas.bsky.social · last wk.

“Last month, Boy George launched a new company called Artist Included, which will use AI to allow artists to create new versions of earlier songs which resemble the originals, as a way of wresting back control of master recordings.”

When humans are thirsty they drink.

Zach Weinersmith@zachweinersmith.bsky.social · last wk.

Hey parents of bsky: What are some theories of parenting you were very confident in right up until you had your own kids?

I dunno, seems like something some of you might be interested in.... libraryjuiceconnections.org/events/a-cri...

I bawled my eyes out to the Beach Boys and sang a song from The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas as a hymnal for the first time today. (It worked SO WELL). I am grateful for friends who are so adventurous in life they are still introducing me to new things in death. ❤️

[we watched on delay] My father-in-law, not a soccer fan, started the game with the usual "these guys wouldn't last a minute in a hockey game", progressed to FULLY believing the ref was bribed, and was shouting "If Spain don't win it will be the greatest travesty in sport EVER" by the end.

Hahahahahahaha holy shit this thread is gold

Holden Thorp@holdenthorp.bsky.social · 3w ago

Hi, this is Holden emerging from my Bluesky hiatus to tell everyone that when checking the links in the piece, I used ChatGPT as my search engine (does anyone use Google anymore?). The piece was written by me and edited by humans. So all the links were checked by me and again by our copyeditors.

NEW: DHS plans to pay Thomson Reuters $125 million for access to its databases which includes peoples’ names, addresses, Social Security numbers, ethnicity, social media posts, and geolocation information — to help ICE investigate “voter fraud”, according to documents reviewed by 404 Media.

ICE to Pay Thomson Reuters $125 Million to Find ‘Voter Fraud’

A new procurement record says ICE wants access to personal data, including names, Social Security numbers, and ethnicity, to investigate in part what the agency calls “voters fraud.” It also plans to ...

404media.co

I can't decide if having a small human read every second Far Side comic from this anthology out loud is the worst Far Side experience or the best.

Mark Carney's made deep cuts to Natural Resources Canada that strip away science-based expertise on forest fires, "decimating capacity" to track wildfire activity. Only one forest pathologist now monitors the entire forestry system east of the Rockies. 5/ www.nationalobserver.com/2025/12/05/n...

Cuts at Natural Resources Canada ‘decimate’ wildfire and flood tracking capacity, unions warn

Carney's cuts have hit Natural Resources Canada, causing uproar from public sector unions warning the layoffs will hurt Canada's ability to respond to cliamte change and protect Canadians from wildfir...

nationalobserver.com

These British announcers had me convinced for a second Belgium had a player called Poirot.

The Netherlands' new open access strategy specifically name-checks 'scaling small' & puts community-driven publishing at its core - the very ethos the OBC was built on. Fantastic to see scholar-led values embedded into national policy! #OpenAccess #OAPolicy #ScalingSmall

When 'scaling small' becomes national policy

The Netherlands' new open access strategy echoes the principles the Open Book Collective was built on - 'scaling small' and community-led publishing

obc.copim.pub

Gonna have to install Kagi at work, so I can see how if our IR pages show up, I guess...

Our library has "summer camp" for staff to share their skills and passions, so I got to hear a concert of 17th c Scottish lute music by one of my colleagues. He's sitting in a chair he salvaged from an old barn and wove the seat himself (obviously).

"Summer cold" sounds fun, light, easy-peasy, but my family doesn't understand why I'm boiling myself in a hot bath in a heatwave.

It's a good time to announce this while we are all sweltering. We can... imagine Churchill?... instead of benefitting from shade and trees.

Winnipeg Free Press@winnipegfreepress.com · 4w ago

The City of Winnipeg is one step away from chopping $1.2 million from its tree planting program to fill a separate budget gap.

I was pleased to contribute to this collectively-authored book and to receive my physical copy earlier this week! The book was published using an experimental technical infrastructure and was one of the pilot projects that we nurtured over the course of the Open Book Futures project.

minor compositions@minorcompositions.bsky.social · 4w ago

Now available for direct order from Minor Compositions: Publishing as Collective Infrastructure. What if a book wasn’t an endpoint, but an infrastructure? A collective experiment in feminist servers, open-source tools, and autonomous knowledge production. www.minorcompositions.info?p=1918

Reject trumpist & fifa corruption, RETVRN to Original Rules Football (half of a whole working class town against the other half, played over several miles on Pancake Day, you're allowed to shank your neighbour if you write an apology to the pope, chance of the game starting a 6 month civil war)

Seems like a good day to re-up this...

Kirsten the (ex) Librarian@librarykirsten.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I have finally finished and posted the list of alternatives to Google Scholar, along with various thoughts about ethics and librarianship and why I'm not technically a librarian any more librarykirsten.wordpress.com/2026/06/18/t...

It is of course inevitable that, since I sung the praises of Qulipta this afternoon, I now have a crushing migraine.

I wonder if the City keeps track of hits on their mosquito control page, as a complement to the mosquito head count. Anyway, if you don't want to feed wildlife, don't go outside.

Ok, we use PlantNet for plants, and Merlin for birds - what is the insect equivalent?

Ok fine I'm in

Remarkable that my alma mater, the University of Winnipeg, has such extensive and ongoing Indigenization initiatives and yet makes the top 5.

Nathan Kalman-Lamb@nkalamb.bsky.social · last mo.

New report finds that of the 20 Canadian schools w/ available detailed financial statements, the most invested in Israeli genocide are: McMaster: 20.9% Western: 17.5% Queen’s: 16.8% (pooled investments) and 14.9% (endowment) Waterloo: 13.5% Winnipeg: 13.4% www.justpeaceadvocates.ca/new-report-h...