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June 2026

"‘I can’t believe this is happening at Exeter’, or ‘I thought Exeter at least was safe’."

Very few places are "safe". And if you thought, while others saw the cataclysm unfurl, "it won't happen at Russell Group universities", then that's part of the problem.

Perhaps these people did not think that. But the quote makes it sound as though they expected it of lesser institutions, but not to the RG. Perhaps, though, I am maligning the speakers, who are reported, at second degree, by an academic.

A remarkable, engaging, and interesting essay on the role of political violence and why it is deemed so unacceptable, even while, as the essay notes, "the United States commands the world from atop a mountain of skulls", incinerating children in faraway schools.

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/dangerous-dirty-violent-young-ayers-dohrn-weather-underground/

Reposting this will probably get me on some watchlist. At least I can honestly say that I am not, and will never be, now, in any position to commit any politically radical or violent act. I'm too busy navigating the health system/service for kidney failure!

Away on holiday with friends for my deferred 40th birthday week of celebrations. But first, I have arrived at the remote dialysis centre and all is going well!

As I have said before, there are so few centres in the whole UK with the capacity to take holiday patients. Thank goodness for this one!

A picture of me, a white, bald headed, 40-year old man with glasses, sitting in a dialysis bed. I am eating from a plastic container that has strawberries and kiwi in it. I am wearing a light bluey green shirt. Two tubes are coming out of my chest which is where the dialysis machine is connected. A blood pressure cuff sits on my right arm. I have a wry smile on my face. Just off to the right there is the edge of the dialysis machine visible.

Good heavens. Mentioned that I had installed a Linux distro and my replies are now full of people assuming I've never done this before, or criticising Ubuntu, or telling me that Windows is good for them.

0/10. Would not recommend.

I finally lost my rag with the Macbook M3. I just can't stand MacOS. I've tried it for months and just can't get on with it. Anyway, I now have Linux on Parallels working. And it's great. That's better.

An M3 Macbook Pro running Ubuntu Linux

One thing I hate is that all my writing now has to be double-checked for AI-like structures. It's written by me, but I have an anxiety that if I use, say, an em dash, people might think it was AI. Thus do LLMs modify human writing.

"So the 1% list reproduces the same prestige hierarchy with the same biases it claims to replace."

Of course, it could be that they really just are THE BEST.

Or it could be that this is a bad ranking 😂

I still find it appalling that in-centre haemodialysis patients get just 3 treatments per week, meaning that there is a 72-hr gap at some point in their week.

This gap is dangerous. Many more heart attacks and strokes take place the day after the gap (Foley et al., 2011, https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa1103313 )

Clinicians know this. But there are 2 reasons for the gap.

1. Cost. Every dialysis unit in the UK is rammed to capacity as is. The only way slots become available is when someone gets a transplant or dies.

2. Patients don't want more dialysis(!) I have heard this expressed myself.

I genuinely heard a fellow patient asking why he had to do a 4hr session when the person next to him only had to do 3.

Patients also talk resentfully of how the doctors are pulling them in for dialysis and they "aren't even sure it's necessary".

It is unbelievable. It is a lifesaving treatment. They certainly would not give it without good cause, for reason 1 above.

Of course, I wish I didn't have to spend the rest of my life doing dialysis. In that sense, I resent it.

But I am also incredibly grateful for it. I'd be dead without it.

Our healthcare system gives me this treatment, free at the point of access, and it saves my life.

But while I am on the 3-day per week in-centre for the IV feeding, I also do an extra haemodialysis session, at home, to avoid the 72hr gap.

Meanwhile, it disheartens me to imagine others turning this down, if it were offered. You would, I seriously believe, have a patient revolt on your hands.

"Wildly optimistic management may dream that the remaining staff can be stretched further, but in the real world that will just lead to further staff losses as the burden and stress on remaining staff increases."

I discovered Yasmine Hamdan through her work in the oeuvre of the Palestinian film-maker, Elia Suleiman, who turns out to be her husband. Really enjoyed her music in Soap Kills, too.

In more joyous news, I became a Great Uncle today! 😊

Of course, I have been a great Uncle for many years already 😂

This review of a book about Eric Hobsbawm manages to avoid saying where he worked for his whole career: Birkbeck.

He was (t)here from 1947-1982, then emeritus, then President, 2002-2012.

A university focused on giving education to working class people.

https://www.theideasletter.org/essay/the-century-of-eric-hobsbawm/

All we get is the "University of London" which is in apparent contrast to Oxford.

Would it have hurt to say it, or something? Cambridge is mentioned three times and deemed "formative".

Yet the place he worked for/was affiliated with for 65 years, is not.

One of the most important historians of the past century worked at Birkbeck his whole life.

Don't erase that.

Provision in the UK for holiday dialysis is dire.

My mother lives in Cambridge, so let's say that I want to visit her.

This site: nearest clinic is 62km away, in Colchester. But: there are no slots available, at all. I looked through their calendar to 2028.

Not a single, available slot.

So that's private provision. What about NHS?

Here's the NHS availability: https://dialysisfreedom.co.uk/dialysis-centre

It starts out with the unpromising statement: "Dialysis away from base in the UK is still limited to a small number of units across the UK due to limited capacity within most NHS units."

It continues: "Not all units on the map will offer holiday dialysis".

But there is a map! Let's look. There's a fair few! Perhaps I'm in luck.

I ask for the list of units with availability.

When I last asked: *not one of these units had any capacity for dialysis away from base patients*.

So, I can visit my mother, but I can stay for just one night, before I must travel back in time for dialysis.

A map of NHS dialysis centres around Cambridge. There are a fair few.

Ten years ago, @theblochian.bsky.social and I were speaking at Harvard University, in the Mahindra Humanities Center. David Armitage, our host, is an amazing intellectual.

Two precocious academics who wanted to shake up humanities publishing. Whence @openlibhums.org and @janewayolh.bsky.social.

The talk was totally packed. I thought that people must have made a mistake and gone to the wrong building! Why did so many people at this prestigious university care about what we were saying? Did they feel threatened by it? Or did they just wish to understand digital transitions in scholcomms?

Personal highlight was getting a question from Robert Darnton. This was academic hero territory for me. Like the first time I met Kathleen Fitzpatrick. And also scary as hell. Here's Darnton's Communication Circuit, just for the heck of it.

To be honest, I think that the attendance at the talk being so good was entirely due to David. We'd only ever corresponded by email before, but he had been very supportive of the idea of @openlibhums.org and given us a quotation to use to say he supported it.

Slight detour in story: We were in the US going to visit the Mellon Foundation in New York. That was where I first met Don Waters in person, and I can safely say that it was the most absolutely terrifying academic experience of my life. I now keep in touch with Don socially, as he has left Mellon.

If you want to talk about life-changing moments, that presentation was one of them. We didn't know whether we would be invited to submit a grant proposal, or whether we would go home empty handed. We got the former and that has dictated the course of my intellectual and academic life ever since.

Anyway, David heard that we were in the States and immediately suggested that we come to Harvard to give a talk. This was, of course, extremely exciting! He clearly did a fantastic job promoting the talk and getting the right admins to promote the talk throughout the institution.

He went on to write a controversial book with Jo Guldi (another _extremely_ generous host to me in the US, letting me stay in her house) called The History Manifesto. People in History didn't really like it very much -- and especially the title.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/publications/open-access/the-history-manifesto

But its examination of longue durée history and computational methods is, if not something for everyone, certainly still interesting. Obviously, this is pre-AI Digital Humanities stuff. But it is an excellent milestone monument in the history of normalisation (or rejection) of DH methods in History.

In any case, as the band Queen put it:

We was bad, we was blitzed
All in all, it was a pretty good trip
- (Khashoggi’s Ship, The Miracle, 1989)

I don't think I meant precocious.

I meant overly cocky and sure of ourselves at a relatively young academic age.

From left to right, a picture of Prof Caroline Edwards, me (Prof Martin Paul Eve) and Prof David Armitage, a Harvard historian. We are all standing and smartly dressed. There is a table in front of us with a bottle of water on it and a plate with some kind of foodstuff. There are two chairs behind the table and I, in the middle, have my hands on the top back of one chair. Robert Darnton's famous communication circuit. Black-and-white flowchart of the book-production and distribution system. Across the top, “Author” and “Publisher” are linked by a two-way arrow. The publisher points to “Printers: Compositors, Pressmen, Warehousemen,” which receives materials from “Suppliers: paper, ink, type, labor.” Printers point down to “Shippers: Agent, Smuggler, Entrepot Keeper, Wagoner etc.,” which points to “Booksellers: Wholesaler, Retailer, Peddler, Binder etc.” Booksellers feed into “Readers: Purchasers, Borrowers, Clubs, Libraries,” linked by a two-way arrow to a separate “Binder” box. A dotted arrow runs from readers back to the author. At the centre are three overlapping circles labelled “Intellectual Influences and Publicity,” “Economic and Social Conjuncture,” and “Political and Legal Sanctions,” with small arrows radiating outward to show their influence on the whole system.

This week I am on holiday! We are going to Somerset, where there is a dialysis unit that has a holiday slot; dialysis away from base. I had to book this 6 months in advance, then we had to confirm they'd still take me with norovirus and CPE. They have an isolation slot for me 😊

I intend, this week, to do lots of reading and writing. I always find this, oxymoronically, both calming and exciting. Stimulating, perhaps. But, also, I will meet up with friends, some of whom will have come from afar (Scotland), for my delayed 40th birthday celebrations.

But I always have to be careful with holidays. I'm terrible at just stopping. Hence, the reading and writing must continue. Everybody says: don't do that! Relax! You're on *holiday*!

But if I just stop dead, I feel very ill. Iller, even, than usual. I get migraines. I also become so edgy.

So, stopping isn't viable. Like an oil tanker with a 10km stopping distance, it takes much longer than this for me to safely wind down.

Also, unless I want to die, dialysis never stops, either. Ever. There is, as the patient community says, no holiday from dialysis. Not even a one-session break.

But it will be great to see some different scenery. We are staying with Helen's father. It will be good to see him. A friend is staying at our house and dogsitting with the menaces, errr, dogs. So, in all, this should be positive.

I grieve for the days when my travel was more exotic. Visiting Egypt, Ecuador, Kenya, Jordan, and even just the USA were highlights of my life. It's unlikely I'll ever see them again - because arranging haemodialysis there is nigh on impossible. Also, even if I could, I am too frail right now.

But Somerset is nice. It will do. And my reading can take me far away. A holiday for the mind, be it to a fictional world or an intellectual summit. And now I'd better stop this thread and go read or something.

Reading Mol is interesting, as a patient. I am sure her reasoning will develop, but the opening gambit is a huge provocation. Of course I want to have some choice! E.g. I wanted to try the less aggressive IV feeding form first, because I work full time. I look forward to being persuaded otherwise...

This is Mol, Annemarie, The Logic of Care: Health and the Problem of Patient Choice (Routledge, 2008)

It is curious. In radical open access circles, since the early 2010s, it has become accepted that one of commoning publication practices is, and should be, "care".

This is derived theoretically from Mol, Annemarie, The Logic of Care: Health and the Problem of Patient Choice (Routledge, 2008).

The thing that is not often mentioned is that Mol's premise is that "the logic of care" is starkly opposed to "the logic of choice". It is a fundamental call to set limits on autonomy.

Yet, at the same time, decentralised diamond OA thrives on autonomy and a type of individualism.

I think there is an interesting tension here, but, as far as I can see, nobody has articulated an answer to a basic question in OA: why "care"? I am writing about this now. But the further question then arises: what does this mean for individualism and "the logic of choice" in diamond OA practices?

Urgh. I've just seen a highly exploitative post asking for financial help because someone is at risk of dying/having seizures because she has been off dialysis for 2hrs. This is not how dialysis works. Also, if it's this critical, US ERs will perform lifesaving dialysis w/out upfront payment.

I am having a really bad evening.

Arrived at haemodialysis/IV feeding at 6pm. Was given a machine immediately (!) This never happens! Then: they couldn't find a blue-topped bottle for a blood test. They took 2hrs to fail to find one. So I am just finishing instead of being home.

But it gets worse.

I started feeling terribly sick about an hour ago. This is odd. I used to feel very sick doing dialysis. But that stopped. And the key factor was using a low-flux dialyser. The sickness became awful so I looked: yes, they gave me the wrong dialyser. 19H not 19L. FFS.

It just gets better! The transport needs to wait for another patient... For 45 minutes.

So, the other patient arrives, but I'm starting to feel... Odd. Breaking out in a sweat. Feeling very sick and weak. Heart racing.

My blood sugar had crashed to below 4. They gave me glucose shots.

Apparently, this can happen after IDPN (IV feeding through dialysis).

It happens because you adjust to the influx of glucose through the veins... Which then abruptly stops.

The problem is that the transport is a 1-woman crew, so it isn't safe to travel with this. Marvellous. So everyone is waiting for me to feel better.

In any case, I am feeling VERY nauseated and go to the bathroom... Where I have a severe norovirus episode.

We do a second blood-sugar test and it has gone up. I say: "let's go. But give me a sick bag". We depart.

I have rarely felt so bad while travelling. I really thought I was going to hurl - thanks to the wrong dialyser. This is how I used to feel after the 19H sessions, 3 years ago.

I closed my eyes, to avoid mismatched eye-gut nausea, and tried not to be sick.

It is now fading, but I'm not yet home.

My fault, I know, but I thought, from this title, that this would be about re-thinking prestige in scholarly book publishing, not just saying how you developed prestige as a diamond publisher. Of course, it's the pragmatic approach, but it doesn't fix a broken system.

Here's what we are up against.

Advertisement for a Co-Editor of a Cambridge UP journal. £48.8k-£61.7k salary. *Share of the profits from subscriptions*.

Co-option of editors into the subscription model with financial incentives. Uch.

Co-editors are expected to work around 3 hours per week in their journal roles, which can be arranged flexibly. The pay for the post is £48,822–£61,759 (Grade 8, 38–46), pro rata; annual salary (based on 150 hours) is £3,858–£4,881. Co-Editors also receive a share of the profits that BAAS receives from journal subscriptions, paid one year in arrears; in 2025, each editor received £3388.48.

I started a Business Management degree.

I quit and restarted next year, at a different university, doing English & Drama. I wanted to do something I'd enjoy and that was about art, not something just for work.

This was a momentous decision that has changed the course of my life for the better.

@earlymodlancs.bsky.social a story similar to your student - though computer science is at least really interesting (sometimes)

The 40 Thieves strike again!

But seriously (and very obviously). They scraped the open web and pirate book archives and have adhered to neither licenses nor copyright. Then they complain of theft?

I suppose there is no honour among thieves.

And yes, I know copyright violation isn't really theft.

There's been a new interview published by Amy White with Fluke's Jon Fugler and Mike Tournier, in Reloaded Collectors' Edition (a magazine focused on celebration of the 1990s electronic/rave scene).

https://fluke.fm/news/2026/new-interview-with-jon-fugler-and-mike-tournier/

Most interesting was the copyright situation for The Second Bite. Owning the copyright to the songs, then re-performing them, is a pretty bold move. With some pretty cool outcomes. https://fluke.fm/discography/fluke/the-second-bite/

You know who's good at thus fundraising thing and persuaded me to renew? The MLA. Persistent, polite, and doing good things with the money: like suing the US government to get our @kcommons.bsky.social retracted grant back.

I renewed 😂

Cc @kfitz.info

An unopened letter/envelope addressed to me that says "DUES RENEWAL INFORMATION ENCLOSED" on the envelope with clear markings of the Modern Language Association at the top left.

Geoffrey Bilder, an author of the Principles of Open Scholarly Infrastructure, maintains a dashboard of POSI self-audits showing who is actually bothering. Who is actually showing up?

Source code also available! Resilient to format changes.

https://gbilder.com/posi-dashboard/

https://codeberg.org/gbilder/posiwatch-go

Dryad, at 2,025 days since their last self-audit, is the worst offender. CORE, JOSS, OA Switchboard, and Sciety (eLife) all have over 1,000 days since their last self-audit.

It's easy to "commit" to POSI and do your exciting first self-audit. The hard work is in continuing to do so.

Also, self-audits don't have to be done on a periodic schedule. They can be done just WHEN THERE IS SOMETHING CHANGED. If you implement eg a patent non-assertion clause, you can do a quick self-audit update for that. You don't need to wait. But this rarely happens (see linked critique).

I love that the Canadian Social Knowledge Institute does these awards. I won in 2022, so perhaps I am biased, but they are a wonderful opportunity to celebrate people doing open work - like @brimwats.com !

This is actually a really good interview with the VC of Birkbeck, where she thoroughly shoots down the suggestion of BBK as a teaching rather than research university.

But: it's in ResPro. HE needs more exposure outside our insular publications.

https://www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-he-government-playbook-2026-6-wheeler-dealer/

I love ResPro. It has superb HE coverage. Really good reporting, often with a wry smile. Yes, often grim reading at the moment, but being informed is painful. And ResPro delivers the pain well.

But HE needs to be seen in more general spaces. This interview would be great on the BBC website.

Or, the Guardian, or whatever. But they rarely run HE stories that let universities explain themselves and set the record straight.

After all, most UK citizens have no idea universities are falling apart and no idea of the economic consequences of this.

Anyway, cool interview. Mentions awesome research in English and History depts.

In the endoscopy waiting room and another patient is relaying commands to his dog over a video camera.

Down! Vanda, down!

Well, except that the principle was enshrined under Blair's Labour, who introduced £1k fees and increased them to £3k. Once the principle had been abandoned, it was easier for the treacherous Lib Dems to help the Cons in 2010. Blair also ditched maintenance allowance.

I should also say that I thought, for a minute, that this was the Labour Party policy. They are pretty similar in terms of destroying universities.

I don't care if that Musk video is AI generated or not. My sentiment still stands.

Bill Gates put it mildly: “The picture of the world's richest man killing the world's poorest children is not a pretty one”.

My opinion of it is much worse than that. I find it physically sickening. Murderer.

"We're not on an anti-University crusade. We just want to destroy any course that looks like you're studying for interest and enjoyment and culture rather than sacrificing yourself on the altar of the economy. Aren't there too many universities anyway?"

I agree with this - amid all the creative ideas people have had for new assessments, we also need an explicit, robust defence of the essay. Writing essays does something to your thinking and improves your neural wiring. You can produce essays (as objects) with AI, but you don't get this benefit.

I know people already are. I'm just saying it, too.

@paregorios.bsky.social oh! I am sorry for not knowing your new blog location. But thank you so much for that post! It made my day!

Revisiting an old post: what is 'the scholarly record'.

"It includes references to artifacts that never existed or were never accessible, artifacts that were but are no longer accessible, artifacts that are confidential, [and] artifacts that do not exist YET"

https://eve.gd/2022/07/26/what-is-the-scholarly-record/

As I note there, previous work includes Dougherty, M. V., ‘Defining the Scholarly Record’, in Correcting the Scholarly Record for Research Integrity: In the Aftermath of Plagiarism, ed. by M. V. Dougherty, Research Ethics Forum (Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2018), pp. 19–57.

I love how "the scholarly record", always spoken about as though we know what it is, contains these phantom items, triangulated by reference but existentially complicated.

That was NOT a successful night. I was up a lot with norovirus symptoms. Mrs Eve then had a hacking coughing fit with the bug from which she's currently suffering. And then the ongoing thunderstorm scared the wits out of Luka (one of our dogs), who dashed upstairs whimpering and looking for us.

Having just watched Terminator 2: Judgement Day, I note that we are only 3 years away from the future from which the Terminators were sent *back*.

The nuclear strike instigated by AI in takes place in 1997. So it's too late for that, but we're still working towards the 2029 Terminators, I see.

I have had a very lovely afternoon writing. The pleasure of writing and thinking in a concerted mode of concentration is rewarding and enjoyable.

It is an entirely different mode or universe from the quick-flit supervision of 8 agents at a time encouraged by the AI tech/programming "vibe" model.

Concerted thinking within the logical space of the essayistic world you are building and rebuilding, holding and warping the mutable structures in mind as you demolish and remake them, is a refreshing change from the idea of "purchasing intelligence" from a machine. It's a different universe.

The two major projects are the discography and the resources. The discography presents a structured list of all Fluke albums, singles, EPs, remixes, comp. appearances.

It is a work in progress and currently incomplete. There are duplicate editions.

https://fluke.fm/discography/fluke/puppy/
https://fluke.fm/api/discography/releases/puppy/

We are trying to include covers, samples, & lyrics for all tracks in the discography. There is an open API for all entries. We are using HATEOS as the API linking format, so you (or a computer) can browse around the API and find related objects.

The Resource section is designed to archive material that has documented the fan community over the years, or that has no commercial value, only social relevance.

E.g.: the Marcolphus Fluke Discography, discontinued in 2005, but a canonical source for Fluke discography.

https://fluke.fm/resources/fan/marcolphus-fluke-discography/

Marcolphus gave permission for us to host this.

Another resource, hosted with permission from Mike Tournier (of Fluke), is the incredibly rare Australian single version of Amp. You can't buy it (SO rare). But you can download it, here.

https://fluke.fm/resources/official/fluke-amp/
https://fluke.fm/discography/fluke/amp/

One of my favourite things? I made it into the discography for having an officially released collaboration with Jon Fugler, from the band. On the mighty tici taci.

I haven't added the lyrics there yet, or samples, for my own work! Tssk!

https://fluke.fm/discography/martin-eve/night-train/
https://fluke.fm/api/discography/releases/night-train/

Of course, we're trying to keep up to date with the most recent releases (though I am aware we are missing Real Magnificent).

https://fluke.fm/discography/fluke/the-second-bite/

The new Daniel Avery mix has been going down a storm on Facebook (though it's not really my favourite...)

https://fluke.fm/discography/fluke/atom-bomb-daniel-avery-nuclear-summer-remix/

One thing that fans might notice is our styling of "Syntax" throughout as Mike Tournier/Jan Burton. There has been an ongoing legal spat between anyone using that band name and some dude who wants to spoil everyone else's enjoyment, but owns the trademark.

https://fluke.fm/legal/

Anyway, as I get time, more back-content will appear on the site. I have almost everything from the old site, and will be loading this up -- this time with better metadata and a custom CMS that drives it all.

Because I needed another project...

https://fluke.fm/

Also, here's a photo of me with Fluke, quite a long time ago! The chap at the front left is the other site admin, alias jUSTIN cREDIBLE, then it's Mike Tournier in the middle, Mike Bryant bottom right and Jon Fugler back right.

A good photo - no. A very cool photo for me? Yes. 😊

Screenshot of the Django REST Framework browsable API showing a successful GET /api/discography/releases/puppy/ request. The page heading reads “Release Instance,” with OPTIONS and GET buttons at top right. Below an HTTP 200 OK response header, formatted JSON describes the 2003 release “Puppy” by Fluke: ID 5, slug puppy, name and display title “Puppy,” and year 2003. Nested artist and artists objects include Fluke’s slug and name, plus HATEOAS-style links to the artist’s API endpoint, public HTML page, and the artists collection. A photo of me with Fluke. I am back left, jUSTIN cREDIBLE is front right, then Mike Tournier stands smiling in the middle. Mike Bryant looks sceptical at the front right and Jon Fugler peeps over his head. I have my mouth wide open in delight. I was so pleased to get this photo with Fluke.

I must stop browsing LinkedIn during haemodialysis sessions. It's a depressing FoMO space, seeing all the interesting, in-person conferences people attend. This is emphasised by having my blood supply wired to an extra-corporeal circuit. It keeps me alive, but makes travel to such events impossible.

Basically, I have for be back at base every other day for more dialysis. Or I die.

There are very few remote dialysis centres with space for remote patients... Because they are all operating at absolute capacity.

So dialysis is really also a kind of local house arrest.

Just reading about this https://keepright.info/

It's a set of declarations that you make about an object that specify custom terms about each item to which they are attached. It's not legally binding. It's just supposed to be an ethical request of those who take custody of your work.

Interesting, but problematic. We have a dearth of preservation. The difficult thing is not ensuring that your work continues to be used in the way you want, but getting anyone to take custody of it at all. It's far more likely that there will be nobody who cares enough to take such custody.

So do we want more specific, bespoke licensing per object we collect? Or do such terms simply present an encumbrance on those who try to preserve work?

Zhu, Y., (2026) “Review Essay: Capitalism, Exceptionalist Nationalism, and Alternative Communities in Contemporary Fiction”, C21 Literature: Journal of 21st-Century Writings 13(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.16995/c21.23367

Another piece that I enjoyed reading on such themes, recently, was Joseph Brooker, 'Amis's England', in The Cambridge Companion to Martin Amis, ed. Gavin Keulks (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2026), pp.107-121. Recommended!

Yes, I did just route my phone over hospital eduroam through a VPN server in New Zealand so I could get access to the new Fluke album 6hrs early 😂

Open scholarly infrastructures need *principles* in order to be worthy of trust. So here is Knowledge Commons's 2026 audit according to the Principles of Open Scholarly Infrastructure 2.0. With an opening short essay by me.

https://about.hcommons.org/2026/06/17/knowledge-commons-posi-audit-2026/

https://openscholarlyinfrastructure.org/

I have also made a pull/merge request to the main Gitlab repository for the POSI website, adding Knowledge Commons and our 2 existing audits to date.

Waiting for the merge...

https://gitlab.com/crossref/posi/-/merge_requests/29

Something cool I just wanted to share. My book on the underground pirate/Warez scene is only officially available in PDF and print. But because it's openly licensed, someone took the liberty of format shifting it to plain text and epub! Actual OA reuse, again 😊

https://github.com/gfscott/warez-the-infrastructure-and-aesthetics-of-piracy

Stuart Lawson previously did a transcription of my book on Open Access, so I am no stranger to this practice. But it is gratifying!

A total abuse of the concept of "academic freedom" and the right to expression. It's supposed, in my view, to be the freedom to express controversial or radical ideas without threat to your employment. Scholarly kitchen troll bait, I know. But hey.

Thought I had better start preparing for the upcoming SHARPIES festival by re-reading what I said in my own book and also re-reading Matthew's work. Gotta use that dialysis time somehow! We're kicking off the programme at 13.00 UTC on the 7th July.

Conference programme timetable in UTC for Tuesday 7 July to Thursday 9 July. Sessions are colour-coded by type, including interviews, keynotes, conversations, editor insights, author talks, and social events. Martin Paul Eve and Matthew Kirschenbaum’s “A Conversation about Digital-Textual Histories” is scheduled for Tuesday at 13:00 UTC. Other events run from 04:30 to 22:00 UTC across the three days.

This is just a classic case of "you and whose army?"

There's no enforcement. They can't even enforce the law on more serious violations.

Headline-grabbing nonsense.

This morning, first thing, it's back to the Urgent Treatment Centre to have the wound inspected. If it is still bleeding, which it was yesterday, I will be dispatched to A&E (the ER) as this is 6 days since the injury. First time it hasn't bled through, today, though

I am now in the Urgent Treatment Centre for the 5th time this week as my arm is bleeding, *again*.

They just aren't listening to me when I tell them that, beneath the skin wound, there's a deeper nick to something that is doing a slow bleed.

The thing that amuses me about the Vanderbilt report is the question: who do they think is going to read this?

It's addressed to University Chancellors and Presidents but then is written as a 27-page argumentative essay. Ps and Cs do not have time to, and won't, read that. There's no exec summary.

So my first surmise is that minions will simply tell Ps and Cs that the report says there's a problem with left-wing bias and political activism in the humanities and it will confirm what they already thought, as part of the prevailing political atmosphere. Some might ignore it. Others might not.

But they won't be looking at the detail of the report! Nor will they read the nuance and the debunking of detail! Just by existing, unread, the report does its job. It will strengthen the views and hands of those who want to regulate and interfere, and simply bounce off those who don't.

The other thing it will do is incense a bunch of humanities scholars and distract them for days, reading and discussing it, working to debunk it, frantically believing that their evidence-based argument could change minds. This, in turn, draws attention to it. And all publicity is good publicity.

It would've been better if it had died quietly, unheard of. Instead, now, it's in the news again. The Streisand effect. The critiques will be dismissed as sour grapes, rather than serious scholarship and factual truth, if seen at all. The report will still stand, hosted with institutional sanction.

I suppose we HAVE to retaliate with facts and argument and fact-checking and so on. That belief motivates scholarship, truth and all that education is worth. Without it, we have only the ilk of politics, tactics, corruption, and power. But truth doesn't work against these people, who use only those.

I have no good answer. I only observe, as an outsider from the UK, where the same debates will rage, even as our university sector is demolished, what I see going on.

Grim times.

"Reed–Solomon codes RS(n, k) are able to detect and correct multiple symbol errors. By adding t = n − k check symbols to the data, a Reed–Solomon code can detect... any combination of up to t erroneous symbols, or locate and correct up to ⌊t/2⌋ erroneous symbols..."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reed%E2%80%93Solomon_error_correction

Then the relative distance is δ = d / n = 1 − k / n + 1 / n = 1 − R + 1 / n ∼ 1 − R {\displaystyle \delta =d/n=1-k/n+1/n=1-R+1/n\sim 1-R}, where R = k / n {\displaystyle R=k/n} is the rate.

I LOVE these articles on Wikipedia that plunge in at the deep end.

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Today in Broadstairs it's the hilarious annual Dickens parade! We intend to go down to the High Street to watch the contemporary constructed Victorian imaginary 😂

It has been suggested, by Mrs Eve, that I could participate in the parade, going as a malnourished Victorian urchin.

Came on to Bluesky.

Saw all the scaffolding discourse and laughed because I, too, hate him.

Realised no other discourse was taking place on Bluesky.

Hit the road.

It's a grim question and one that, obviously, pales into insignificance beside the human cost if this happens, but: what happens to a university's institutional repository when the institution fails/goes bankrupt/closes? Has any university taken digital preservation precautions?

And an equally enormous loss: EThOS remains down, with plans to resurrect only a hugely degraded version, without downloads.

Access to the PhD theses here was crucial. I would always search it on a topic, because these PhD works can be really good. And they don't need to be a book to be cited.

Right. It's serious 'net/WiFi diagnostics time. I do NOT like it when the system goes down and won't come back up.

OK, so half the fuses for the house had blown, including the circuits for the WiFi router, modem, and switch. But now we're back in business.

I realise this is a *fascinating* thread, of great interest to many people. 😂

NHS transport for dialysis patients is contracted out to G4S, among the worst providers you can imagine. Patients are often left waiting hours before they can go home. And, of course, they stuff as many patients per pickup as possible, even if they live miles apart. Tonight was the best, though...

When G4S really can't do it and they can't even pretend to have a pickup option, they subcontract out to taxis. They've done this tonight for me. OK, that's fine. Driver picked me up and one other. I'm the second drop. But just as we've dropped off Patient 1 I get a text saying my cab is on its way.

Taxi driver turns to me in concern. It turns out that the intermediary who books the taxis has cancelled his job when I'm halfway home and given it to another firm. So he is obviously very concerned that he won't get paid. He said he'd take me home anyway, bless him. But I feel really bad.

It is eventually sorted, but the second taxi firm are calling me and blaming me, saying they are the only licensed cab firm to do pickups etc. I didn't book them! Or have anything to do with it! I just wanted to go home, given it's midnight. Urgh.

I've been working late tonight at dialysis and I've been routing my hospital eduroam connection through my home Linux PC, using TailScale. Suddenly, though, that box & my NAS storage devices have all gone dead. Uh oh. This is either an internet problem or a power cut at home. Hoping for the former.

It's an "uh oh" because sudden power loss can cause serious damage to computer systems. I do have protection, via uninterruptable power supplies, but I don't have it for everything...

OUP seems to be derelict in its duties towards some of its journals. The last issue of ALH Reviews was Dec 2025. I was told Jan for the publication of my review of @elikaortega.bsky.social's book. It's not out, half a year later.

Anyway, here's a preprint. https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/56315/

I don't suppose this is the editors' faults, but it's quite bad, in a book review context, when book reviews help so much with book discoverability etc. and the initial period matters.

Having to go back to hospital. Again.

Booked a taxi. Driver rang to say he was outside. I said I'll be 2 mins. I'm slow, I walk with a stick.

I get outside and he's nowhere to be seen. I look around. Then, out of the blue, his car speeds down the road, past my house, and off. Booking cancelled.

Registered as a no show. Won't answer my calls. Booking centre are sending another car. Apparently "urgently".

Appalling.

The wound I sustained at King's Cross/St Pancras Station due to the faulty lift closing on me on Tuesday continues to bleed, quite profusely, two days later, despite having emergency care on it yesterday. I am returning to hospital with it, now.

Today, in the post, I received a very kind 40th birthday gift from @theblochian.bsky.social - a pristine hardcover first edition copy of Thomas Pynchon's Vineland. This was very thoughtful and relevant given the recent success of One Battle After Another. Thank you!

It's just such transparent elitism and shuttering of HE.

And it's nonsense.

Birkbeck English department ranked 2nd in the country for research in the last REF.

Many other success stories from universities that this report would like to dismiss.

There was a not so great bit of the trip. As I was going into the accessible lift at St Pancras, the door closed on me. It scraped my arm and caused a cut that began bleeding.

This is the arm with my AV fistula (high-powered artery for dialysis). If I had cut the artery, I could have bled to death.

I am, at this stage, thinking: why me? The catastrophes just pile up. Unbelievable.

Anyway, the station wanted to send me to hospital. I'll get them to look at it on the dialysis ward.

This lift is, quite frankly, dangerous and the consistently worst part of my journey to London. It closes SO QUICKLY after the last passenger has left that a wheelchair user cannot easily get in. This is what happened to me. I was moving forward to get in and the door closed and collided with me.

It's the only lift available, too. So parents with prams, people with heavy luggage, those with mobility aids and wheelchairs all queue for the same lift. It's also tiny. You can't get 2 wheelchairs in. Or an electric wheelchair and a pram. It has taken me up to 20 minutes just to leave the station.

It was good to be in London today - and not for a hospital appointment.

Of course, I am now speeding home so I can go to hospital for dialysis.

A picture of me, outside the British Library.

Totally appalling. University "leadership" is utterly lacking at the moment - and has been for as long as I can remember. Sick.

Meanwhile, Luka (one of our dogs) is going to have his teeth cleaned today at the vets. This sounds trivial, but it's a general anaesthetic and so carries risks for him, as he is an old boy (11 years old). He also has to be in a crate/cage all day, waiting without food. I am very worried about him.

But at the moment, every next day, we start again, almost from scratch. He has "fresh eyes" every time.

But I will get there. I don't think he will ever love me as he does Mrs Eve. And I've decided that's fine. I just want him not to fear me and to understand that I am safe and so is he.

Today, I am heading to Birkbeck, University of London to attend a hiring/job presentation panel for a Lectureship (Assistant Prof) in Digital Media and Creative AI.

It's going to be interesting to see how candidates manage to sell a "critical" approach to a technology hated by pretty much everyone to whom they are presenting, without sounding clichéd or repetitious.

Tim is overly generous in this thread.

Taylor & Francis. APCs. Using the discourse of "purity" to discredit OA advocates.

I am grumpy.

Travelled an hour to the hospital for dialysis. When I arrive, the pharmacy team tell me that my Intradialytic Parenteral Nutrition (IV feeding) is not available today.

I could have done the dialysis at home if I'd known. The only reason I come in is the IDPN.

Stumbled across this photo again and I swear that I had an air about me, even from childhood, that signposted an academic future. It's the chair here, the casual lean, the geeky glasses etc. The dungarees help, too. Hilarious.

Me as a child with curly hair, sitting in a chair wearing dungarees

On the instruction of the hospital, I have just taken the bandages off my skin graft wound and moisturised it. It's looking so much better! But still looks like a shark has bitten me and would draw a gasp.

Helen says I can't go out in public with it uncovered as I'll scare people 😂

I was looking at this book re comics & AI.

But the announcement _really_ reads like AI!

"Drawn to Extinction isn't just a book about comics. It's about people, craft, and the quiet, relentless labour that turns blank pages into worlds you carry with you for life."

https://comicvault.cc/p/drawn26?code=BLUESKY26

“This isn't a rejection of technology. It's a question of what we value.”

I might just be being paranoid, but it is hard not to see this kind of phrasing as a mirror of common LLM language.