@franklinsayre.bsky.social
Makerspace Librarian & Department Chair at TRU. Focused on hands-on learning, belonging & community. Always up for conversations about learning through doing, critical making, and why your first project should be a gift. franklinsayre.com
Going through old notes and discovered this from July 20, 2023
“A law passed in November 2011 mandates that all of Fukushima’s radioactive soil, roughly 15 million cubic meters, will be removed from the prefecture by 2045. With no place having volunteered to take any of the soil, the government has decided to spread it across Japan.”
we're over 25 years into the millennium, and RSS is perhaps still the technology that I am most straightforwardly excited about
I’ve been dying to test out the chonky new wood type & borders we brought to @skeuomorphpress.org & tomorrow we have admitted @ischoolui.bsky.social LIS students visiting @skeuomorphpress.org, so it seemed fortuitous
Made the most dramatic C19-style poster I could manage—look at those wild fonts!!!
And internally within universities there is a lot of administrators and faculty pushing AI that are talking over scholars from different disciplines as if they no longer believe disciplinary expertise has any meaning. I don’t actually hate all AI but it’s going to be a debate within each discipline.
just as astonishing to me is that those same administrators don’t seem to understand that by undermining disciplinary expertise they’re basically admitting that universities have no reason to exist
None. Not even one.
This is a big deal in Vancouver politics circles.
@fabulavancouver.bsky.social has been reporting on Vancouver politics for decades. You can make a good case that no one knows the city's politics better than she does.
A real get for OneCity.
The story ends with people complaining that the waived rental fees only amount to $11,000 when the cost of relocating will be $18,000. Imagine if landlords waived your rental fees for 2 years while you looked for a new living situation?
This is the story btw (this report is fine, but is being decontextualized and amplified on X). It's reserve land, the 50 year lease is expiring, the Nation has previously warned they may not renew, they are now giving 2 years notice and waiving pad fees until then
cheknews.ca/residents-at...
I still need to build the companion website, but I finished the data jacket!!
The circle on the cuff is an NFC tag that will direct folks to a website that helps explain the visualizations.
#DHmakes
SFU Contract workers said for years they face bullying and harassment at work.
Requests I made under BC's FOI Act turned up WorkSafeBC records showed they tried to go through the right channels. They told their union. They told SFU. They told media.
Nothing changed.
thetyee.ca/News/2026/02...
The ACRL 2027 Call for Proposals in now open! We welcome you to share your academic research and innovative projects April 7-10, 2027, in Portland, Oregon, and online. Contributed paper, panel session, and workshop proposals are due on June 6. https://bit.ly/3OOtC5y #ACRL2027
[whispers: the steam clock is a lie]
In light of Sim saying that he said Orr dealt drugs based on seeing a mystery photo from a mystery person, I think it’s important to reflag this.
If this is an uncharitable interpretation, the mayor is free to provide more details of how he ended up seeing such a photo and believing it.
OpenAI posted the terms of the deal. Reveals that it absolutely does allow for domestic surveillance. EO 12333 is how the NSA hides its domestic surveillance by capturing communications by tapping into lines *outside the US* even if it contains info from/on US persons.
openai.com/index/our-ag...
a little
Imagine being a loaf of sourdough and poisoning your own starter because you think croutons are the future
The abject nihilism of tenured faculty not bringing on new PhD students because they think AI is better
If I’ve learned one thing from the last two decades it’s that we can trust tech companies to regulate themselves
A thought I had while reading this: many people seem much less threatened by GenAI making things like code than making things like language? Which seems weird and possibly related to a bunch of bias ppl have about making (& the meaning baked into making/code)
www.techpolicy.press/stochastic-f...
What does it mean to make something… and who is the work for?
newsletter.bijanstephen.blog/what-does-it...
🌼My new game is here!🥀
"She danced in the wind like a holographic dream before the world died."
alienmelon.itch.io/flower
A game poem and interactive fiction about The End.
You play the very last flower left on Earth, bringing peace to long dead soil.
#IndieGame #VideoGame #GamePoem #Game
The really great parts of working in a university are the moments of real reciprocal connection with students who are exploring their unique perspectives & interests & GenAI won’t change those much. OTOH it seems likely to make the mediocre and painful parts of working in a university much worse.
This this this! Students act very rationally within systems designed to extract value from them in exchange for promises of future wealth and if that no longer holds true we’re going to have to find entirely new models and it’s likely to be less lucrative for everyone (but maybe more fun!)
Truly uncanny to see universities all doing the same suicidal things: centralizing decision-making, erecting bafflingly expensive new buildings, stacking the board with money guys, hiding info about the budget, throwing money at consultants. Atriums everywhere! They all got the same memo.
😬
I am probably 20 months into a 6-month sabbatical (let’s say I started 12 months before and it’s been over for 2 months) and I flip between feeling exhilarated and insane.