1/ In 2024, I filed a false claims act lawsuit against Elsevier, Springer, Wiley & Informa alleging they systematically overcharged US federal grants for article processing. The gov declined to intervene and now it's public. Some thoughts on what this is, and what it isn't:

Assuming Will Wright kept 25% of his EA stock from the Maxis buyout, his shares were just cashed out for ~$25mil

Jason Schreier@jasonschreier.bsky.social · 21h ago

EA officially goes private tonight, meaning: - EA will no longer trade on the NASDAQ for the first time in 36 years - All stockholders of EA (including many employees) will receive $210/share - EA will take on $18 billion (!) in debt, putting it on the hook to pay ~$1.8 billion/year in interest

"This Clacton by-election is a contest between a joke candidate... and Count Binface!" is such a classic gag that no matter how many times I hear it I laugh every time

I feel that special interest groups who try to tell people how to answer personal questions in the census should simply mind their own business

i don't like to police genre, but it's not dark academia unless somebody gets squished in one of these bad boys

I feel like this article would have hit hard in like 2015

New York Magazine@nymag.com · yesterday

On social media, a broad consensus is that you can’t admit to struggle — at least not while you’re struggling. Doing so represents a failure so profound it’s almost existential. How did it become mandatory to demonstrate perpetual growth and progress online?

You know -- for kids!

This thread (which Robin pursues down a couple different, useful forks) is a great overview of the mess that is eBook licenses for libraries, especially 24-month expiring licenses for books in series! (Context: cost per circ = cost per each time it's checked out.)

Robin Bradford@tuphlos.bsky.social · 2d ago

Book 1 is $59.99 went out 4 times. Cost per circ $14.99 Book 2 is $59.99 went out 4 times. Cost per circ $14.99 I'm not buying book 3. If the cost per circ was $5 or $3, I wouldn't mind. But that is WAY too high, especially for a thing that expires after 2 yrs.

So much of librarian ebook math is depressing. Ebook: $59.99 x 150 copies = ~$9,000 Eaudio: $89.99 x 150 copies = ~$13,500 Lending model: 24 months, then we need to re-buy Current holds: Ebook: 1,281 ~20 week wait Eaudio: 1,522 ~21 week wait This is a single title.

Robin Bradford@tuphlos.bsky.social · 2d ago

Book 1 is $59.99 went out 4 times. Cost per circ $14.99 Book 2 is $59.99 went out 4 times. Cost per circ $14.99 I'm not buying book 3. If the cost per circ was $5 or $3, I wouldn't mind. But that is WAY too high, especially for a thing that expires after 2 yrs.

I remember hearing the similarly to "Rapper's Delight" in the chorus and thought I'd made a crazy discovery that could get Las Ketchup sued. Looked into it and not only was it intentional, but they're not even singing real Spanish! Disappointing.

Eryk Salvaggio@eryk.bsky.social · 2d ago

TIL Las Ketchup’s 2002 hit “Asejere (The Ketchup Song)” is about a drunk Spanish guy who loves Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight,” and the chorus is gibberish: Las Ketchup riffing on that guy bluffing his way through the “hip-hop the hippie the hippie to the hip” part m.youtube.com/watch?v=5llc...

public libraries ftw

Oh good they found another way to reinvent libraries but make it so you need to pay to use them

Inside Sydney’s hottest nightspot, where shoes are off, laptops are on and customers drink matcha

A ‘study cafe’ has opened on the site that once housed the radical Gould’s Book Arcade – and students are paying by the hour to be there

theguardian.com

I don't know how to read the room. I can't even read the writing on the wall

How is there a story like this every year

ABC News Bot (unofficial)@abcnewsbot.bsky.social · 2d ago

A prestigious Canberra private school is investigating after male students ranked female students according to appearance and shared the content online.

Median UK voter in 2026, as predicted by Hugh Laurie some decades ago:

I don't think people are ready for this kind of joke yet.

Pose as a divorced father and accidentally befriend a socially awkward pre-teen boy and go on a funny and heart-warming journey about growing up

Quorators@quorators.bsky.social · 2y ago

Kmart is selling home-brand pervert goggles for $89. (Pretty urgent we do something about all this eh?)

They’re married now! Perhaps everyone on Bluesky already knows this; if the reader isn’t, then they get to be one of today’s lucky 10,000. www.inverse.com/input/cultur...

The adorable love story behind Wikipedia’s 'high five' photos

Nearly 14 years later, the tale of this iconic couple can finally be told.

inverse.com

Soup of the day: garlic bread

Check out those Reform voters! (Source: www.ft.com/content/4932...)

Google didn't just add AI to Google Earth—it briefly turned one of the world's most trusted sources of evidence into a generator of plausible fakes. shirin anlen & Sam Gregory from WITNESS on a foreseeable fiasco, and why tech firms must consult civil society experts before launch, not after.

Google Earth AI Fiasco Underscores Why Tech Firms Must Listen to Outside Experts

It's just one more parable in a long line of product releases by AI firms with potentially dangerous consequences, write shirin anlen and Sam Gregory.

techpolicy.press

Hey, Crazy! It's Marvin! Your cousin, Marvin Frog! You know that new sound you were looking for? Well listen to THIS!

It would be lovely if Anthropic got a fraction of the pushback over destroying books that libraries do over basic collection maintenance.

I'm convinced that there is a huge Atmosphere-sized hole in the personal website market, and here's why that matters👇

Why websites?

Personal websites as an atproto onboarding strategy

anna.pckt.blog

They asked the whale how it felt about its new home, to which it said "there are no sex scenes, and all the food looks horrible."

jordan@jordantyranny.bsky.social · last wk.

The only taxidermied blue whale in the world, 1865 CE, now housed at the Natural History Museum in Sweden. The public was allowed to enter the whale up until a couple was found having sex inside it. Now the whale’s jaws are opened only for special occasions, such as Swedish election days.

ICAC needs to look into this waiver. Possible corruption.

ABC News Australia@news.abc.net.au · 7d ago

Book returned to NSW library 150 years after being borrowed