January 2017

Isn't it odd how TV dramas claim to be sponsored by one particular company before showing many more adverts in every break?

My thanks to all out on protests this evening. I am afraid I am not well enough to attend in person but most grateful for your efforts.

Tonight at Birkbeck: my colleague Prof Jacqueline Rose in conversation with Baileys Prize-winning author Eimear McBride.

The opposite to facts isn't really fiction, no matter how good the soundbite. Fiction is sometimes more truthful than malicious falsehood.

Boy, it really is going to be fun being the example of how national economies crash when they leave successful international arrangements.

Just about to see Mark Rylance in Nice Fish. Or "Mark Rylance goes Fishing" as I've been calling it, to my wife's disdain.

Gives some respect for the difficulties policymakers face in the risks of unintended consequences with every small tweak.

For instance, answering the question on 0.2 contracts or on total number of outputs can depend on whether non-portability is implemented.

We did some work today responding to the REF consultation. I'm updating some of my personal responses on my blog as I think further about it

Just had an email for a webinar on "accommodating emotional support animals on campus". May now write to my dean about guinea pig demands.

Next Wednesday is my first talk of 2017, keynoting the CHASE Digital Humanities Winter School. Hope to see some of you there!

Today was great. OLH work, some fiction reading, some chapter writing, some College policy work, some grant writing, some editorial. Variety

Re-reading Angela Carter this eve: "in a secular age, an authentic miracle must purport to be a hoax, in order to gain credit in the world".

But, so far, I've never got to the stage of needing that offsite, more cumbersome recovery process. However, the moral is: backup your work!

Then, I use CrashPlan on the most frequently used machine, so even if my own replication strategy totally fails, I should be able to recover

I have 3 client machines + 1 server syncing between themselves. If I make a mistake & push to server, can pull on 1 client + still recover.

Just accidentally deleted nearly a month's worth of work from two of my three replicas. Spotted just in time! (Have further backup though.)

Friend's precis of Today prog: "Profit-making 'inevitable'. HE system 'wonderful' but 'change must come' so rich people can make more money"