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January 2019

Alternative headline for that recent Science piece: "few journals currently working under outcome of plan that aims to transform how journals work".

"We will be calling on all institutions to reject this policy and make clear their own position so staff are fully informed about the values of the institutions that employ them". Institutions need to get this in their own codes of practice, now. https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/9920/Allowing-REF-submission-of-redundant-staffs-research-is-a-breach-of-faith-says-UCU

But how do you get around the fact that this will mean divulging sensitive HR data to non-HR staff?

Thought about being productive on the flight, then thought, nah, I'll do the crossword instead. Not too bad. A bit rusty. Can't see why 6 down is Elysium.

This bin lorry's neon display signalled that it is available to hire in order to convey valentine's wishes to one's paramour. Because nothing says "I love you" like it being lit up on the side of a filthy garbage truck.

This morning's marking soundtrack is Secret Squirrels vol. 3

These are anonymously released disco re-edits. It's blatantly Peza, though. :P

The old tech support acronym PICNIC (Problem in Chair, Not in Computer) has a whole new resonance when dealing with academic Profs.

I have added to my Plan S response letter: monographs, REF and Plan S, infrastructural support, "time of publication", "quality", repository requirements, publisher deposition, and pursuit of defamation suits for wrongful attribution under CC BY 4.0 https://eve.gd/2019/01/23/additional-points-in-my-plan-s-response/

I think the last of these is what many historians have said for years, but never phrased it in a way that was clear to me: if someone modifies your work, but attributes it to you, in a defamatory way, do you still have legal recourse if you waived moral rights under CC BY 4.0?

A friend sent me this passage - Alan Bennett writing about Stewart Lee - this morning and now I'm hoping for a future 45 minute segment on Goffman and Austin the next time I see SL.

Current article with the headline: "poetry sales soar as political millennials search for clarity". The article may have some worth - I haven't had time to read it yet - but the headline is odd. I've never found any clarity in poetry. Beauty & shock & interest, perhaps.

Quick informal poll for humanities academics: if you need digital/OCR copies of works for funded projects, would you be interested if there was a service to provide a quote for this for your application? Or do you already know of such services?

Could @ImpossibleFoods please, please, please get their stuff out in the UK? It would almost certainly get me to 100% vegetarianism. (I've got a long way towards this from the dedicated carnivore I was years ago...)

Read @BobEaglestone's latest in one go on the train home. A persuasive case for literary studies that I hope will be read by many school leavers. Those not already dissuaded by our government's disastrous curricula interference and who still might find pleasure in literature.

Rounding off the week by heading to the book launch of /THE ROUTLEDGE COMPANION TO TWENTY-FIRST-CENTURY LITERARY FICTION/. @BobEaglestone

Today is marking day. Some stunning work here. Really lifts the task beyond the routine when it's such a pleasure to read.

An author today on @openlibhums and working with our ace editorial officer @helenksaunders: "This has been one of the best publishing experiences of my career".

It's hard to see what could happen now re. Brexit except a no deal exit. I can't see the HoC having enough unity to repeal or extend Article 50 and without action, we just crash out. Really, really terrible.

This winter seems to have been brought to you by the ridiculous virus that never gives up. Just when you think it has gone: WHAM, I'M BACK. Everyone I know seems to have it!

Parliamentary business this morning:

1) Prime Minster's Question Time
2) A debate on the problems caused by low level letterboxes
3) A debate on confidence in Her Majesty's Government

"The DUP has confirmed that it will vote for the government in the no-confidence motion". It's amazing what a billion quid can buy you.

As a member of the CHASE doctoral funding consortium, Birkbeck has sponsored industry placements. I just think it's a shame they're not called chasements.

Today's reading is another book on which I've cheated before and just read the introduction: Lauren Berlant's /Cruel Optimism/.

"Universities should give offers after results day, says study"... Ok. But could you please help us out with some financial certainty then? You made us dependent on student recruitment to survive and we need to know we can pay our staff ASAP in the year... @GordonMarsden

Today's reading is really properly getting down to @zara_dinnen's The Digital Banal rather than just the intro to which I've turned before :P

Doing the customer feedback survey for St Pancras International Station. The question "what best describes your reason for visiting St Pancras International" has "recommendation from friend or family member" and "convenient location" but not "it's where my train runs from"...

"How do you keep up with what's happening at St Pancras International". "Follow us on Twitter" / "Follow us on Instagram". Who does this stuff and doesn't realise that people visit stations because trains run from them?

Spent a lot of this evening working on the new website for the British Association of Contemporary Literary Studies (BACLS) and am pretty pleased with how it's turning out :)

Guinea pigs set up a total racket this morning, squeaking their heads off. We rushed in thinking something must be wrong. No. They just wanted the servants to bring their breakfast!

Some of the neoliberal-ese language of grants advertised to me is just totally appalling but also incomprehensible. "This aims to strengthen cluster management excellence and facilitate exchanges and strategic partnering between clusters and specialised eco-systems". What?

Today I started @roopikarisam's New Digital Worlds. So far, verdict: a must read for anyone who ever thought digital humanities were under theorised but also for those comfortable in thinking that it's "all ok". That's everyone then. Beautifully written, too.

It puts the whole thing backwards. Instead of saying that highly flawed and selective schooling lets those from more backgrounds into highly selective universities, consider it the other way around and what the comprehensive university looks like and can do. https://t.co/rshHYoGi3B

(One of my family members failed the 11+ exam. She now has a Ph.D. in neurobiology from Cambridge. Writing children off at 11 is barbaric and doesn't work.)

Today I am heading to Egham to speak at Royal Holloway's Technē Congress. I always forget, but my word it's a trek to get there.

I love that the Janeway team, in true Trek fashion, doesn't have a "developers meeting", or a "programmers meeting". Oh no. It's the "engineering department meeting" :P

@ajrbyers

I've just seen an article entitled "make your own distraction-free Twitter interface" and, although I haven't read the piece, I'm not sure the author actually knows what Twitter is.

Chronicle article comes in re. academic monographs with subtitle: "For most of us, success isn’t about the sales". Just as well.

Do you know what's tedious? Being at a neurology appointment instead of at exciting sounding events in Chicago. Oh well, I'd guess it's warmer here!

It is, at least, just a routine appointment. And tedium is preferable in such appointments.

Although it's a bit of a cheat as I started reading it last year, I'm kicking off 2019 by reading the brilliant and hilarious The Hollywood Meme by @iainrobertsmith

@iainrobertsmith I should note that there's a very serious analytical framework behind the book and how it de/re/centres Hollywood and the political implications of it all. But I just so love reading of the films Iain chooses to write about. They all sound fantastic and, as above, some hilarious.