hugs spud

Can you tell I have a paper due today to a journal and I think the paper is garbage (I think everything I write is garbage) and I dislike myself and want to live in a cave forever? Am I disguising myself enough?

And by.... many, many, many other metrics. Love of books (not really), cardigans owned (zero), cats owned (zero). Why am I even in this profession, he asks himself

Related: I have been *invited to speak*, specifically me invited, to exactly one conference as well in all that time. I am a shitty librarian, by these metrics.

So when I hear about people in libraries getting headhunted a lot, I'm like "Yes, I know I suck ass. No need to rub it in."

I have been actively recruited for a management role at another university library exactly once in my entire 30+ year career, and the invite I got was *massively insulting* -- less pay than the job I already had in a place where the cost of living would easily be 2-3x as much.

When ChatGPT was launched, almost all users were men – but now, women are the majority

www.update.news/p/will-ai-dr...

Orange fluffy cat inside my car.

I have to go to work and this is not my cat.

This Data Center Is Getting a $77 Million Tax Break to Create One Job No other project in the country has gotten such a large subsidy to create so few jobs, according to watchdogs.

NEW: In return for nearly $77 million in tax breaks, the expansion of a JPMorganChase data center in Orangeburg, NY promises to create exactly one permanent job.

The subsidy is the largest of its kind, per job, in the country.

yeah like good lord the "do you have any questions for us" is *a trap*. Like a trap in a good way; we *want you to ask us stuff*. You absolutely gotta prep for it.

One thing that's worth repeating: There is *zero* evidence that "substack helps you get readers". The only thing that we've ever seen that helps grow an audience is other authors mentioning your blog or newsletter, which is not the platform's doing. Substack just takes credit for that!

Why your AI assistant is suddenly selling to you Sponsored chats are changing the way digital advertising works

Why Your #AI Assistant Is Suddenly Selling to You www.economist.com/business/202... @economist.com) ||| Archived Version archive.ph/MMEzd

Matt Gurney: Captain Canada loses his plane in his latest pathetic wimp-out moment But sure, this guy will stare down the Americans in a trade war.

It’s not that he was thinking about buying a jet, and now realizes that would be a bad idea. It’s that he bought a jet, and now wishes he hadn’t, so he wants to sell it as fast as he can to make the problem go away.

But sure. He’ll stand up to Trump. www.readtheline.ca/p/matt-gurne...

Dude who made it is on current series of Taskmaster and is a delight!!!!

I LOVE THAT MOVIE SO MUCH

Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex X.com #ArtificialIntelligence systems increasingly shape and permeate our mentality and social environments. Like every great historical transformation, this too calls not only for technical competence, but also for a humanistic formation capable of making visible the logic behind economics, embedded biases and forms of power that shape our perception of reality. 1:31 PM • 4/17/26 • 91K Views

Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex X.com Within digital environments — structured to persuade — interaction is optimized to the point of rendering a real encounter superfluous; the otherness of persons in the flesh is neutralized, and relationships are reduced to functional responses. Dear friends, you, however, are real persons! Creation itself has a body, a breath, a life to be listened to and safeguarded. 1:31 PM • 4/17/26 • 209K Views

Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex X.com When simulation becomes the norm, it weakens the human capacity for discernment. As a result, our social bonds close in upon themselves, forming self-referential circuits that no longer expose us to reality. We thus come to live within bubbles, impermeable to one another. Feeling threatened by anyone who is different, we grow unaccustomed to encounter and dialogue. In this way, polarization, conflict, fear and violence spread. What is at stake is not merely the risk of error, but a transformation in our very relationship with truth. 1:31 PM • 4/17/26 • 696K Views

Pope Leo on AI:

“Within digital environments — structured to persuade — interaction is optimized to the point of rendering a real encounter superfluous; the otherness of persons in the flesh is neutralized, and relationships are reduced to functional responses.”

This short thread is worth reading:

Starting July 1 there will be new limits on student loans for MLS students under the limited understanding of what fits as a "professional" degree.

This limit is going to further restrict access to the field.

I haven't seen anywhere near enough discussion of this (truthfully, none) by pro orgs. 📚

Recipe for ramp dip plz

Make whatever criticisms, warranted or unwarranted, about generative AI, but one absolutely unalloyed Good Thing is it pretty much killed off *that* particular bon mot.

It's been a number of years now since someone, upon hearing that I have an English degree, told me to "learn to code". Ahhhhh

Personally I'm a little shocked that Doug Ford can apparently feel shame. I thought that politicians - especially conservative ones - had pretty much excised that portion of their brains.

Literal chat btwn me and my editor after publishing Friday's column:

Ed: You need to write about the Gravy Plane next

Me: Hang on, let's see if they dig in on this or bail before Monday

There's a metal band called Glyph that kicked out their lead singer when they found out he was beating his now ex-wife. That same ex-wife is now the lead singer of Glyph. I think a lot of men could learn from their example.

Record profits are unpaid wages and unpaid taxes.

A large white waterfowl with orange feet stands in front of a door. On the door is a cardboard sign secured with tape that reads, "DO NOT LET THE DUCK IN." Adding insult to injury, I think the duck might be a goose.

Whatever you do,

At this point I want the bubble to burst *even more* than normal because I just want all of the detractors to take a goddam victory lap and chill, touch the metaphorical grass. The possible destruction of OpenAI et al at this point would be a nice *ancillary* benefit.

Things can be good or bad or newsworthy or whatever and have nothing to do with generative AI. I know it's hard to believe these days, but it's true!!!

Extremely exhausted at people shoehorning AI criticism into completely unrelated things. Saw someone post a link to an article about some hockey social media influencers, zero mention of AI explicit or implicit, and say "THIS IS JUST LIKE AI" like oh my god, listen to yourself

Reposting with alt text

Guardrails on the 'notwithstanding clause' are way overdue.