Alice Cann

I have all my mum’s Wyndhams, and am going to enjoy working my way through them again now. I think I did suggest The Chrysalids to my husband and so when then had just read John Christopher’s Tripods Trilogy (years ago), but my son didn’t pick it. Will enjoy my own rereading, and talk about it.

‘The good news is that the fix is not complicated, though it is time consuming and probably best achieved in smaller group teaching: read with your students.’ Excellent advice - and not a waste of time. Reading skills are key skills we give History students. So teach them.

I then got to go on about John Wyndham being known for writing cosy catastrophes. I’d like to find the essay I wrote on this topic 25 years ago…

When starting to reread The Midwich Cuckcoos the other day, I got my son to read the first page. And was please when he said it reminded him both of Hitchhikers and the first Harry Potter (the introduction of a mystery). He’s well immersed in literary and tv classics!

I would hope that Stranger Things series 3 would have introduced lots of people to Back to the Future. But maybe the people who were watching Stranger Things were more likely to have been introduced to it already.

This evening I’m thinking about how I’ve liked sitting at my desk, with two monitors, being able to see multiple things at the same time. It is very useful. I suppose I haven’t had many days recently where I’ve been on campus and actually sitting at my desk for long periods. #MajorMarch #Day9

Don’t mind me, Just writing a conference proposal on the way home… I love how I can look at the rough idea I wrote a month ago, start writing and find that the idea develops and becomes more and more exciting (to me anyway) as I get the words on the page.

This pops up just as I'm writing an editorial about how training people in AI should really be mostly training people about misinformation.

Library conferences on BlueSky A list of library and information science conferences, with links to their hashtags on the social media platform BlueSky.

Exciting news - I have actually updated the Library Conferences on BlueSky page, and it now has current and previous 2026 sections! Lots to do to add in events I have noted in screenshots and saved emails, but good progress.

Today I had lunch at my parents’. Which was really nice. No special occasion, which makes it even nicer in a way. #MajorMarch #Day8

Today I had lunch at my parents’. Which was really nice. No special occasion, which makes it even nicer in a way. #MajorMarch #Day8

‘It was a good evening, that left me wondering how one can be so careless as to let some people drift out of one’s life’ (The Midwich Cuckoos, John Wyndham, Chapter 4)

Feeling relieve that I’ve managed to pick up this passion project again, after a couple of months of neglecting it due to all the different things there are to focus on. Have added in lots more 2026 conferences this morning (& a 2027 one!). Still lots more to do, but this year’s list is lengthening.

I couldn’t resist Stephen Fry. Have borrowed, and am listening to chapter one on 1.5 speed, before maybe switching to 1.25 once I get to where I was at in my lovely old falling apart paperback.

Ooo - and it is available on BorrowBox! Tempting.

The Midwich Cuckoos, that should be!

*I say randomly, but I think someone did post on here about the film in the last couple of days.

I’ve randomly* decided to start reading The Midwich Cookoos (read many times before but not for years). I’m a page in, and already predicting that this is the start of a John Wyndham fest!

Feeling relieve that I’ve managed to pick up this passion project again, after a couple of months of neglecting it due to all the different things there are to focus on. Have added in lots more 2026 conferences this morning (& a 2027 one!). Still lots more to do, but this year’s list is lengthening.

Today (nearly yesterday now?) has been a busy mostly at home day (though I did go for a run - for the first time in 2 weeks - and do a supermarket shop). Not so #MajorMarch! #Day7

Today (nearly yesterday now?) has been a busy mostly at home day (though I did go for a run - for the first time in 2 weeks - and do a supermarket shop). Not so #MajorMarch! #Day7

Library conferences on BlueSky A list of library and information science conferences, with links to their hashtags on the social media platform BlueSky.

Exciting news - I have actually updated the Library Conferences on BlueSky page, and it now has current and previous 2026 sections! Lots to do to add in events I have noted in screenshots and saved emails, but good progress.

Today I did lots of Panopto editing - which is my happy place (or one of them). I still haven’t finished this one video, recorded several weeks ago, and I have three more from this week to do! But made significant progress and hope to be able to finish and promote on Monday #MajorMarch #Day6

Today I did lots of Panopto editing - which is my happy place (or one of them). I still haven’t finished this one video, recorded several weeks ago, and I have three more from this week to do! But made significant progress and hope to be able to finish and promote on Monday #MajorMarch #Day6

Most people also won’t finish your 500-word article. So write at whatever length is appropriate for the subject.

AI is not inevitable. Nothing in human societies is inevitable because we design them. Healthcare can be free for the public. Books can be bought instead of bombs. Universities can be free for students, and they can even receive a stipend to live off. Don't let companies dictate the future.

Weirdly it wasn’t working for ages for one particular video (the first in my SLR series, so kind of important), and then this morning it finally allowed me to open it in the editor so I could crop people’s video thumbnails out. Then comes the downloading and uploading and editing!

Zach Polanski’s letters are starting to remind me of the absolutely take-no-prisoners political pamphlets you used to get people publishing, and I am here for it.

There’ve been so many occasions recently (& I’m really not talking about a specific occasion) where I realise that so many people around me are using generative AI regularly, for so many things. My uncomfortableness around this makes me all the more confident at being open about the reasons I’m not.

Interesting piece. What gets to me though is this. The saying that we use these tools constantly. Why? Why use a tool constantly that demonstrates that it’s biased and dangerous, and is being used to replace human expertise and communication?