Vic Kostrzewski (cost-CHEF-ski, he/him/his)

Hardboiled Blues: Rory Gallagher’s Blues Lyrics Revisited How are blues lyrics similar to crime fiction? Which books influenced musician Rory Gallagher’s music? Follow Dr Lauren O’Hagan’s investigation. Then see if you can tell blues lyrics apart from ...

Rory Gallagher's birthday!
Last year, I was delighted to help put together a piece on OpenLearn which discussed the parallels between Rory's lyrics and hardboiled crime fiction which he was a big fan of.
www.open.edu/openlearn/op...

Hannah Spencer walking into Westminster, sucking her teeth, tutting, and muttering "tell you what, you've had some cowboys in here."

YouTube video by Rolling Harmony Sing John Ball

Have a Friday, have a song
"John Ball" has the vibes I'm feeling, buoyed by this morning's news. And this recording by Rolling Harmony has all the sweet harmony & energy you need.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys1j...

Thanks for reminding me of this wonderful moment

"Hey boss, so it took me a week but I finally coded the conversion from twinkies cakes to bald eagles for the room planner like you asked."
"Awesome, ship it."
"Now that the hard bit is done, do you want me to also clone it for... you know... the rest of the world?"
"Nah, too much hassle."

I like to think that somewhere out there, Piers Morgan felt a sudden sharp sting of pain in his chest

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SYO...

RNIB Bookshare is a fabulous resource and underpins so much accessible text provision in UK higher education.

YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

Stay free

Mozilla is building an AI ‘rebel alliance’ to take on industry heavyweights OpenAI, Anthropic Mozilla is looking to deploy its roughly $1.4 billion in reserves to support "mission driven" companies and nonprofits, and is particularly focused on AI.

@mozilla.org choosing to pump billions into AI instead of making sure that Firefox and Thunderbird stay usable. 🤮
Gonna point to this post in a year or two when the bubble's gone and everyone's rushing to find people who remember how to maintain/develop their product.
www.cnbc.com/2026/01/27/m...

"Do not think that one has to be sad in order to be militant, even though the thing one is fighting is abominable. It is the connection of desire to reality (...) that possesses revolutionary force."
(Michel Foucault)

1. Went out to get flowers & chocolates. Occasion: Monday.
2. Pleased with the pattern I'm working with for my design course.
3. Discovered Internet Archive Scholar: a great website for archived research papers.
#ThreeGoodThings #3GoodThings
scholar.archive.org

Please tell me his character doesn't get killed off somewhere along Episode 5

Glad you liked it, thanks for sharing!

How to Uninstall America
"I wish this post could do more.
All I’m hoping to do here is this: in six steps, I’ll take you through a process of making the software you use every day less US-centric."
cost-chef.ski/2026/01/25/h...

Microsoft Reportedly Turned Over BitLocker Encryption Keys to the FBI Microsoft claims it receives about 20 requests for BitLocker keys a year.

Windows => Zorin OS
Office (sorry, *checks notes* Copilot somethingsomething) => Proton Mail / Calendar / Drive / Docs
Edge / Chrome => Vivaldi Browser
ChatGPT / Copilot => Mistral AI

Tested and used all of the above. Not perfect, but less evil.
Switch, don't snitch.

gizmodo.com/microsoft-re...

Open University transformation ‘to Northern Ireland’s third university’ hailed | Belfast Live "We’re very a cost effective type of learning, and people can drop in and out of it, which suits lifestyles now"

"Open University transformation ‘to Northern Ireland’s third university’ hailed | Belfast Live"

A perfect day: how well do you know your happiness hormones? How to have a good day? Do our choices have an effect on our happiness hormones? Try our interactive activity and see if you can help make Rowan's day better!

I heard there was a maths formula for Blue Monday, and I heard it didn't make sense.

Well, there are some things you *can* do about it, ways to make sure you have a good day. Last year, I helped prepare a game that lets you learn those!

#BlueMonday #LifelongLearning

www.open.edu/openlearn/co...

nope, sorry to disappoint, rent-free in my head now

Happy 2026, BlueSky. Trying to keep it social on this social meejum.
I'm going to be in London 21 Jan - attending BETT 26 from 10 a.m. to until AI agitprop's coming out of my eyeballs, and then Tate Modern/Britain. If you want to join me for either of these, DM

A game download screen for Clair Obscur

How your email finds me
See you in 2026, everybody

"So, er, do you want music? I can put on some music. What would -- Hildegard of Bingen. Sure, we can do that."

Children's Days - Words Without Borders This poignant selection of the late Polish writer Marcin Wicha’s droll columns paints an impressionistic portrait of parent-child relationships.

A selection of texts from Marcin Wicha's "Smallest Change" is now freely available from Words Without Borders. This is some of the best #writing and #translation work I've seen this year. Huge kudos to @martadziurosz.bsky.social !
wordswithoutborders.org/read/article...

#London friends and connections: let me know if you fancy a quick in-person chat soon :) Will be in town 16 Dec (evening), 17 Dec (most of the day) and 18 Dec (morning).

#Brexit effects:
GDP down 6-8%
Investment down 12 to 18%
Employment down 3 to 4%
Productivity down 3 to 4%
£40-80bn hole in UK budget each year
... but sure, scapegoat the refugees.

siepr.stanford.edu/publications...

Me: "30 Nov is way to early to start singing carols"
Also me: *is several mince pies & one Panettone deep into Christmas diet*
I will not be taking questions at this time

EU court orders Poland to recognise same-sex marriages conducted in other member states

The EU court has ruled that Poland must recognise the marriage of a Polish same-sex couple who married in Germany, even though Polish law does not allow such marriages.

The ruling requires Poland to change its system for recognising such marriages so as not to discriminate against same-sex couples.

‘We could have asked ChatGPT’: students fight back over course taught by AI Staffordshire students say signs material was AI-generated included suspicious file names and rogue voiceover accent

A prediction I heard this year was that, worldwide, #EdTech was heading for a split between those deemed worthy of human attention, connection and careful teaching - and those about to be fed AI slop.
The irony is that thousands of pounds of student debt still isn't enough to spare you the slop tube

A quote from Neal Ascherson: "The way a state treats its aliens is the way it would treat its own subjects if it dared."