Darius Baktash

Dear Alex, We are writing to share an important update coming to Ebook Central that will help improve ebook discoverability. At the end of October 2025, Ebook Central Express MARC records will include AI-generated metadata when publisher metadata fields are not available. Why are we introducing AI-generated metadata to Ebook Central records? Most publishers include subject information in their metadata, but there are times when this information is not included, leading to limited search availability in discovery systems. For this reason, we are providing AI-generated Library of Congress subject headings only when not available from the publisher to improve the completeness of our metadata and discoverability of Ebook Central titles.  

Which AI-generated fields are included in Express MARC?  The AI-generated fields will include Library of Congress Subject Heading (LCSH) (6XX); Library of Congress Classification (050); Dewey Decimal (082); Description (520); and Source of Description (588). To learn more, please visit our FAQ page.

What the shit, Clarivate! Anyone using Ebook Central MARC records, be warned. They're jamming those records with AI generated metadata. Auto-enabled but you can disable it.

But, ironically, it's sticking in and continuing as best we can (while still being healthy and housed) that's more important than ever.

Don't let the rage or drama around you push you down. Take the time you need to setup supports, plan for necessary pauses, but also plan how to unpause too.

I don't know if I've reached out to you or others before (so many folks hurting), but we're in multiple decades of multiple crisis. There's less and less time and opportunity to even reach out to folks these days, much less hire them.

It's not you.

It's not any of you.

It's the world.

Acquaintance of mine rolled for stats for a game that, due to scheduling issues, may not continue. "Okay, and?"

104. She rolled 104.

If schedule gremlins gnaw out the supports on this game, this post is proof she isn't lying and should get to bring that character over.

It’s Bad Actually for the blue billionaire savior to feel so comfortable lying about the excessive force his state police are using in Broadview.

His relative superiority to Newsom, and the desperation for real opposition to Trump, discourages open criticism or even critical thinking re: Pritzker

Check out these fall fashion tips!

Making amends not because the political left is a threat, but because the political right is trying to shoot everyone (including each other), and the solution is to stop giving the right more and more ammunition.

Every nomination that Trump was allowed to get was a proverbial bullet added to a magazine. Those bullets were all going to be aimed at democracy and human rights, every single one. The political center needs to start apologizing and making amends instead of saying "how could we have known!"

Oh we knew that she had the overt qualifications. We criticized the political "Center' because we also knew that she had the covert ones too. The ones Trump and Project 2025 wanted, but didn't want to say out loud.

The ones that involve looking a blind eye to, or outright breaking the law.

Exposure to mining fossil fuel linked to ALS, new research finds A major pollutant from fossil fuels has been linked to an increased risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), according to new research.

In related news: abcnews.go.com/Health/expos...

But we're not allowed to say the "p" word, because that might hurt an innocent mining conglomerate's feelings!

And yes, I'll forever continue to argue that Nazis shouldn't be allowed to steal names, symbols, etc., from our daily lexicon (because fuck them for stealing "Aryan" and corrupting it into a bullshit racist theory), but it's kind of hard to argue when the phoneme is contextually important today.

Federal Government's Growing Banned Words List Is Chilling Act of Censorship Banned words list 2025: The federal government is banning a growing number of words to comply with executive orders from President Trump.

George Carlin, eat your heart out.

The federal government's list of words to be scrubbed is more than seven, and it is growing fast.

pen.org/banned-words...

In yet another moment of "racists ruin everything," I ran through an old, beloved, and familiar language database (yes, admittedly for cat names). I just came across what should be a totally innocuous phoneme meaning "gift."

lrc.la.utexas.edu/eieol_englis...

I hate this timeline.

A JAMA Network webpage features a viewpoint article titled "The Clinical Indications for Mifepristone Go Beyond Abortion" by Jessica Chen, MD. Published online August 28, 2025.

💬 Viewpoint: Mifepristone is frequently mislabeled solely as the "abortion pill," overshadowing its critical and diverse medical uses in managing various pregnancy-related complications and beyond.

ja.ma/4pUUsH5

There's a very fluffy, very insistent, very cuddly new kitten here. She's determined to sleep on my chest, and will not take no for an answer unless burritoed after falling asleep.

Give a libertarian a rake and they can step on it once. Give a libertarian a rake factory and they can burn it down while contaminating the adjacent water supply and destroying the local economy... While also hoarding all the rakes so that they can proudly step on them at the next VC funding round.

I hear he has a custom auto-immodesty setting to his autocorrect, just in case he adds a Freudian "I" and "m" when texting about his current masculinity.

“No one man can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices.” -Edward R. Murrow

Journalism needs a new style guide for these times. As a start: if the basic material facts of the situation don’t align whatsoever with the official claim, you don’t have to repeat that claim. You are not mandated to cover the lies meant to obscure the facts, only the facts themselves.

I have a feeling I'm about to research some very problematic lore about Brown, and as sad as I'm going to be about that fact, better to know.

Halloween Homemade Candy Corn Recipe | Alton Brown Made with sugar and food coloring, Alton Brown's surprisingly simple homemade candy corn is bright, chewy, and fun for Halloween.

altonbrown.com/recipes/home...

I hear you can make very interesting flavors with things like drink mixers (e.g. bitters) as long as you keep the same liquid ratio at the "add vanilla" stage.

Am I a terrible person? Yes.

She called out world leaders for sitting by and watching a live-streamed genocide without taking action.

Reminder: When you support someone on Patreon, please don't use the apple store app. Just go through the website. The iOS version of the app holds funds for up to 75 days.

As I recently wrote, "globalist" has long been a term that antisemites have used to attack and demonize Jews.

link.motherjones.com/public/41852...

You may not be paying attention to this story,

but a white police officer was caught on camera tampering with a witness and other evidence for the express purpose of framing LSU football player Kyren Lacy for a vehicular manslaughter he had NOTHING to do with.

Kyren took his own life in April.

CBS was the network of Edward R Murrow, Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, Katie Couric…. all journalists who earned their spots through doing actual journalism for YEARS

And it’s now led by Bari Weiss who *checks notes* an opinion writer who was a book review editor

I'm not averse to deep dives on any given topic (when I have the time), but usually there's at least one vague Internet Archive term to go from!

Any Indigenous American folks out there who have a lead, throw it at me! The Anglicization of fauna is bullshit and I'm not one to please that beast.

Pyrrharctia isabella - Wikipedia

In looking up the etymology of wooly bear caterpillars, I figured "well, what about local Indigenous names?"

Despite pages on pages from on one myth, there's not a single reference to Indigenous names about it. A species only in North America and nothing.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrrhar...

Meal, Refusing-to-Exit — scientific study backs long-held belief that MREs make it harder to defecate Defacation reportedly returned to normal once participants resumed their regular diet.

www.militarytimes.com/off-duty/mil...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megacolon

I hear that DOGE could save money and keep ICE agents safe from poisoning by insurgents by feeding them only MREs.

Apropos of nothing, I also hear that MREs are well known for something known as MAGA colon. I'm sure that's an important part of transforming into true manliness.