Maureen Babb 🍁
@librarian-m.bsky.social
Science Librarian. Fond of Classics, Archaeology, Paleontology, Comics, and of course Library Stuff. Queer.
Finally, there's an *economic* coin-trick: "AI will destroy jobs." Sure, yes, AI is destroying jobs. But there's a vast difference between "You got fired because an AI can do your job" and "You got fired because your boss was convinced that the AI can do your job, even though it *cannot*." 45/
Happy #FossilFriday from the special surprise found inside the last stupid Xiphactinus that i discovered this spring: a complete Micropycnodon! This poor little guy was eaten right before the Xiphactinus (nicknamed Brown Sugar) died, and is forever trapped in fish rib jail. 🧪🐟
There are a lot of important things going on. Maybe this isn’t a top twenty concern. But, this is actually workplace harassment, the kind that can get people killed.
@carmenlynn.bsky.social · 6d agoThe Koch Nazis are back “A shadowy network of conservative activist groups, backed by Koch-linked dark money, is deploying hidden cameras and mass public-records requests to hunt down and destroy the careers of college professors and administrators — and it's working.”
Worth noting that this is *exactly* what we warned people would happen if they passed age verification laws for online pornography.
Mike Stabile@mikestabile.bsky.social · last wk.The Missouri Attorney General is threatening librarians with arrest over an LGBTQ+ story hour for kids, suggesting that a picture book about gay dinosaur dads is "pornography." The Secretary of State says he'll pull funding if the event happens, citing the state's new age verification law.
The Missouri Attorney General is threatening librarians with arrest over an LGBTQ+ story hour for kids, suggesting that a picture book about gay dinosaur dads is "pornography." The Secretary of State says he'll pull funding if the event happens, citing the state's new age verification law.
This is a well-produced segment. I encourage you to watch so you can hear the noise for yourself. The professor of environmental health science that they interviewed called it an “unprecedented new noise source.”
Neighbors say noise from Michigan data center is 24/7 and upending their lives
One Michigan community has been experiencing the reality of a data center next door for a couple of years now, and they say the sound has changed their lives.
wxyz.com
I die a little more inside every time I see a librarian refer to their community members as customers.
We are all Non Player Characters to the billionaire class
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C)@doctorow.pluralistic.net · 2w agoI have previously written about one reason that billionaires find the AI story so compelling: at root, many billionaires just don't believe most other people are actually, fully real. How could they? Achieving billionairehood requires that you inflict pain on vast numbers of people. 13/
From the perspective of a cynical AI investor, the question isn't, "Can AI do your job?" The question is, "Can an AI salesman convince your boss that an AI can do your job?" 23/
We are given only a limited number of truly perfect summer days in our time on Earth. One of the more insidious cruelties of fossil fuel greed is how it slowly strips those days from us, more and more throughout our lifetimes, perhaps without us even realizing what we have lost.
Another stolen summer day
What are we still waiting to learn?
heated.world
For those wondering if it’s real: www.cbc.ca/player/play/...
N.B. politician seems to leave AI prompt in speech
New Brunswick MLA Bill Oliver is under scrutiny after delivering a speech at the Legislative Assembly that seemingly included an AI prompt. Critics online are raising questions around acceptable use o...
cbc.ca
Robert Komaniecki@komaniecki.bsky.social · 2w agoThis utter muppet of a conservative Canadian politician in New Brunswick forgot to remove the LLM text from his floor speech and read it out loud.
Freehand or can we use an atlatl for the baguette?
Sophie Hall@sophlouisehall.bsky.social · 2w agoFinally, someone asking the important questions
Mayor Gillingham focuses on provincial responsibility. Doing so, he ignores *what he's done* to make this situation worse. He evades responsibility for his past actions and his failure to work closely with the province to build better systems. This includes both long and short term actions. 2/9
#Winnipeg I'm frustrated by the Mayor's response to homelessness & addiction & the explosion of open drug use www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews... My thoughts are informed by understanding the present is the result of people's past imaginations that they worked to make a reality. 1/9
West Broadway residents demand Winnipeg mayor take action on drug crisis
The laughter of children playing outside has been replaced by open drug use, vandalism and incidents of theft that have put residents of West Broadway on edge.
winnipegfreepress.com
Patty Thille@pattythille.bsky.social · last mo.I've been imagining what #Winnipeg could be, with a municipal election this fall. Ruha Benjamin's book, Imagination: A Manifesto stresses that we live in the products of people's imagination. So we need to strengthen & bring into reality our own.
Trying not to get wound up by this use of GenAI on CILIP's website... (Were I overthinking it, I'd think it says: are librarians principled enough to take a stance against GenAI? No. But are they competent enough to use it well? Also no. Ah, but can they proof-read websites? Still no.)
Huddersfield Exposed@huddersfield.exposed · 2w agoJust waiting 'til you check out the binding on this book 🤯
Canadian arts and culture folks: the federal government has launched a (methodologically flawed) survey on "the Cultural Sector's readiness for Artificial Intelligence". If you're ready to resist or refuse genAI, here's your chance to let them know. pch.research-recherche.ca/f/s.aspx?lan...
National Survey on the Cultural Sector’s Readiness for Artificial Intelligence
Powered by SimpleSurvey.com | Build and manage your own online survey, voting, form and panel management applications.
pch.research-recherche.ca
www.winnipegfreepress.com/this-just-in...
Librarian to run in North Kildonan ward
Labour leader Orvie Dingwall is throwing her hat in the ring to unseat Coun. Jeff Browaty in North Kildonan. Dingwall, a librarian, was previously the president of the University of Manitoba Faculty.....
winnipegfreepress.com
Historian friend was reading a civil war era letter in an archive, the letter said “In this envelope I include my smallpox scabs” and sure enough there they were. Had to call CDC for a hazmat team.
Trump sees getting everything he wants as "I can demand even more"
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C)@doctorow.pluralistic.net · 2w agoTrump has no coherent reason for this new tariff. Canada has bent over backwards to give Trump everything he wants and more. Despite some high-minded words at Davos about the need for "middle powers" to decouple from the USA, PM Mark Carney has given Trump everything he could ask for. 12/
Yeah. We really need to stop giving in to this guy.
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C)@doctorow.pluralistic.net · 2w agoTrump has no coherent reason for this new tariff. Canada has bent over backwards to give Trump everything he wants and more. Despite some high-minded words at Davos about the need for "middle powers" to decouple from the USA, PM Mark Carney has given Trump everything he could ask for. 12/
Republicans really are doing everything they can to poison attitudes towards Canadians, huh?
If you want to reduce crime rates, don’t invest in policing. Invest in libraries.
In those 6 months, crime in the neighborhoods around those libraries went down. I’ll reiterate that NOTHING changed except that the local library was open until midnight, and crime went down (3/ )
