Skeptibrarian

Of surprise to absolutely no one.

SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems... SIMON: What? SHAPIRO: ...Or saying... SIMON: You imagine that? SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over. SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level. SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this. SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

#qfmft

Do I detect some dirt on those schnoops as well?

If you’re upset with the government shutting down or dissatisfied with government in general, don’t blame “Washington, DC.” The people of DC, all 700k of us, have no voting representation in Congress. This falls on the 535 chuckleheads the American voters sent to Congress. #DCStatehood #FreeDC

CSU faculty's privacy at risk after CSU Los Angeles complied with a request with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to hand over employee contact information. Please get in touch with us immediately if you receive matters related to this issue.

I have taken
the Tylenol
that was in
the medicine cabinet

and which
they think probably
is the reason
you like trains

forgive me
but that’s bullshit
you got autism
from your dad

Such amazing work!

4Chan tries to block Indians from returning to the US - MAGAReport 9/20/25 4Chan and MAGA are trying to book up the flights to H1-B visa holders cannot return, calling it "Operation CLOG THE TOILET"

On Friday, Trump signed a proclamation raising fees for H1B visas to $100K. It takes effect tomorrow. H1B workers who are out of the country have been told to return to the US immediately lest they be denied entry. 4Chan & MAGA is trying to block them🧵 magareport.news/p/4chan-trie...

"I'm not telling you to shoot heroin. But if you want to try it, we recommend just snorting it first."

Looks like LinkedIn is updating its policies again.

Great time to make sure "Data for Generative AI Improvement" is set to off if you're into that kind of thing.

I was reliably informed by a (white male) colleague that this sort of thing would never happen in California. 🙄

Charlie Kirk, Redeemed: A Political Class Finds Its Lost Cause By ignoring the rhetoric and actions of the Turning Point USA founder, pundits and politicians are sanitizing his legacy.

Ta-Nehasi Coates is doing a lot of things with this essay, but one of the most important is fearlessly using examples of anti-trans hate to describe Charlie Kirk's politics.

The contrast between his choices and those of other writers for major legacy outlets is revealing.

They are going after teachers and professors. THEY ARE GOING AFTER TEACHERS AND PROFESSORS. You all see what's happening right?

"Harvard can't use race as a factor in admissions, but ICE can use race as a factor in detentions" is a retrenchment essentially to a pre-Civil War understanding of the Constitution. It's vanishingly few steps removed from "Latinos have no rights which the white man is bound to respect."

While I'm not a big fan of the patronizing attitude toward librarians here or the idea that disciplinary faculty should get to decide library functions, I am well familiar with the sense of instability created when you find out a colleague is no longer there by a bounced-back email.

Glad I’m not the only one who read that email and thought WTF.

In the former official’s opinion, it was more likely that the vessel was carrying migrants on a human smuggling run. It would be impossible to know for sure, however, given that any evidence of drug smuggling was destroyed in the attack.

You know that boat the administration blew up? A former law enforcement official told the NYT the boat seemed to be carrying not drugs but *’migrants *
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/03/u...

#calstate people will especially be interested in this. Women’s studies and gender studies aren’t just being eliminated from red state institutions.

✏️ Happy Labor Day! 🖌️

Did you know that AI “art” is labor theft?

Hi. I’m a professional traditional artist of over 15 years & I was able to make a decent living until 3 years ago.

In May 2023, over 50 of my paintings had been scraped without my consent to fuel AI image generators like Midjourney.

Word.

One of my favorite flower bloom periods

Twice today I’ve heard people discussing the utility of rubber cement.

In that unfortunate interregnum between knitting projects. No wonder I’ve felt of this week.

Donate to Fobazi’s road to recovery: Kidney and liver transplant, organized by Ysabel Gerrard Hello all, my name is Ysabel and I’m fundraising for my friends … Ysabel Gerrard needs your support for Fobazi’s road to recovery: Kidney and liver transplant

I’ve posted an update on Fobazi. Thank you all so much for all of the love and support! ❤️❤️❤️ -Elena

Update here:
gofund.me/506f89f9

I can smell the Sea Breeze in my mind.

So many canned peaches!

I would love if anyone creating surveys about using AI in librarianship would include the option "I have never used it and I will never use it" instead of just assuming it is a thing we should be and are using