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February 2017

Off to Edinburgh tomorrow to give a DH workshop. Now I am a nominated Inspiring Leader™ may do a video sitting on the train floor.

I've been shortlisted for a Guardian University Award in the "Inspiring Leader" category. Thanks to the whoever did that; I'm flattered!

"And it's not like they're in trouble with Brexit or as though the government has just passed a bill that allows for them going bankrupt."

Which, in most cases of academic journal publishing, isn't a cost to the publisher, but to academic institutions or individuals.

Doing this rather than checking all *submissions* is a small cost efficiency for publishers. But at cost of many hours of reviewer time.

Another economic perversity of ScholComms. Publishers can save a few $ by only plagiarism checking papers accepted by academic referees.

True story: I am on a mailing list where we are being asked whether the term "paywall" for scholarly knowledge is too inflammatory.

One of my favourite recurring reading moments is when someone has written: in order to make this clearer we can turn to Heidegger.

Apparently school inspectors ask kids for a core British value. Assume "rejecting child refugees" & "killing the disabled through cuts"?

Just writing a section on risks in a grant application. Tempted by: "in the event of the PI's death, the Co-Is will have to do all the work"

As though: 1. welfare is so terrible; 2. those who can't work (long-term disabled for example) don't deserve state pension.

Thing going round on FB: some image saying "[state] pension isn't welfare. It's a reward for 40 yrs of hard work & paying taxes". Sigh.

Ace cryptic clue for university types in today's Times jumbo: University officer is evil, taking risk with list of names put up (4, 10)

That transfer window could do immense damage to institutions who have staff poached but still have to meet average at last minute. 4/x

For instance, helping with transport costs is great, but if every journey requires scanned receipts + a custom form there is huge overhead.

Something that came out really clearly yesterday: if support structures for disabled people require extra admin, it's a problem.

So, we had a fantastic meeting with Judith Butler at Birkbeck today to discuss disability activism and practical measures to take.

"I failed to grasp that this software may have a difficult-to-resolve issue precisely because its author cares too much re the humanities"

The crux of that last blogpost: is there an abstracted parsing logic that can distinguish citations from asides? What about "bell hooks"?

In fairness, it's not just pizza skiving. My rheumatoid arthritis does flare much more when reducing pred. dose. Also, pizza.

FOI today showing fuller Ward breakdown on Brexit. Local "will of the people" ignored by my MP, @joanryanEnfield, in her Article 50 vote.

Next fortnight's worth of talks now planned: Manchester & KCL on OA and one at Policy-UK forum on implementing the Stern review.