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Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them)

@bookjockeyalex.bsky.social

13K followers 530 following 12K posts

librarian, archivist, historian, author, Ignyte award-winning & Hugo-nominated writer and critic, rat obsessive, hella queer words in reactormag.com, locusmag.com, npr, reader's digest, and elsewhere bookjockeyalex.com

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Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · Nov 11

Greetings new followers! I'm a high school librarian and book critic specializing in speculative fiction. I'm also a historian and archivist who has written two books on marginalized history in California. Also do some sensitivity/authenticity reading. Link in profile.
bookshop.org/shop/bookjoc...

Alexandria Brown Bookshop

A queer Black librarian, local historian, writer, and author. They write about speculative fiction and young adult literature for Tor.com and Locus Magazine, as well as on their blog, bookjockeyalex.c...

bookshop.org

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Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 1h

hate it

Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 1h

Elsevier continues to be the worst. Last month they assured me that the AI research assistant on ScienceDirect was opt in, so I did not. Now an AI reading assistant is popping up on every article and it cannot be removed globally. There's no way to remove it as an admin!

Screenshot of an excerpt of an email from tech support: "Please note that the Reading Assistant feature on ScienceDirect is cookie-based and settings are applied per individual user. Unfortunately, there is currently no option to disable this feature at the institutional level.

If users wish to turn off the Reading Assistant, they will need to do so individually through their own browser settings on the article page."

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Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 2h

Setting aside NYT's centrist "flaw" assertion, something JGL never actually says, this is a very good video. JGL is must more aggressive in this video about AI companies being manipulative, craven assholes.

New York Times Opinion @nytopinion.nytimes.com · 14d

Mark Zuckerberg has a vision for how A.I. could be used in Meta's universe.

But the actor and filmmaker Joseph Gordon-Levitt is here to point out a flaw in the technology: an apparent lack of guardrails around how the company's chatbot interacts with underage users. nyti.ms/3ILwCNo

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Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 2h

lol girl came back from space a changed woman

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Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 2h

I mildly disagree, but only because so much genre fic gets packaged as lit fic that the sample size is too large.

Reposted by Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them)

Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 9h

"Sapiens" is so normal for the first 70,000 years of human history but then goes absolutely buckwild as soon as it gets to colonialism

Had the Aztecs and Incas shown a bit more interest in the world surrounding them - and had they known what the Spaniards had done to their neighbours - they might have resisted the Spanish conquest more keenly and successfully.

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Reposted by Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them)

Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 19h

a lot of what gets considered "literary" is actually just speculative fiction. like it or not, you're probably reading genre fic.

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 1d

Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat

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Emissary Of Night | ليلى @diplomatofnight.com · 2h

I don't even get what she means by biases here, Coates writes in the book that he used to cite Israel as a positive political project and then changed his mind once he saw the state up close and personally. That's literally what a free thinker does.

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Emissary Of Night | ليلى @diplomatofnight.com · 2h

Ta Nehisi Coates went to a country that imposed a military dictatorship onto five million people on the arbitrary basis of race and came away thinking that that's bad and some people are still angry with him because of that

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Dan Sohege @danielsohege.bsky.social · 2h

Just as a not so insignificant point, such a level would mean that the majority of people born in the UK would not be able to meet this criteria, considering the percentage (fewer than half) who actually complete A levels, let alone ones which effectively demonstrate an A Level standard of English.

András Forgács W @andraswf.bsky.social · 4h

Well this will certainly do it www.gov.uk/government/n...

Migrants will be required to pass A Level standard of English

Migrants will be required to pass tough new English language requirements under a law introduced in Parliament today.

www.gov.uk

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Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 2h

"Starting this season, Spectrum’s SportsNet channel will be offering its Los Angeles customers several Lakers games in an immersive video format that can be streamed through an Apple Vision Pro device. The technology will give users a courtside view of the game at Crypto . com Arena."

a man wearing a striped shirt and a hat says no thank you

Alt: Kel Mitchell in a silly wig shakes his head and says "No, thank you."

media.tenor.com

Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 2h

"Pay TV companies are also offering voice-controlled remotes to help consumers find what they want to watch, whether on streaming or a traditional channel." I can already talk to my remote and I don't. This is old, unnecessary tech. Way to swing big, cable companies.

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Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 2h

The issue of what to do with cord-cutters is real (I'm one, only stream). Offering permanent discounts to individual streaming services through a cable subscription could be helpful, but I'm far less convinced that jamming AI into cable is going to bring viewers back. www.latimes.com/entertainmen...

How cable and satellite TV are trying to win back cord-cutters

Stung by the loss of subscribers, cable and satellite services are aggressively developing ways to court cord-cutters.

www.latimes.com

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Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 3h

That I can't comment on. I'm ace/aro and never notice people's cleavage. It doesn't even occur to me that cleavage is a thing. Might as well ask me if I noticed her elbows.

Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 3h

You'd think Bezos would be all over this given that at a low estimate 80% of their products are made in China and sold by Chinese companies. What's the point of paying off a dictator if you don't benefit from it?

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Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 3h

Love to see this at the start of the holiday buying season and prepping for the spring changeover in retail. Great job everyone!

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 3h

The Trump administration has started imposing fees on Chinese ships docking at U.S. ports, a measure aimed at countering China’s dominance of commercial shipbuilding and helping to revitalize the U.S. industry.

U.S. Starts Charging Chinese Ships to Dock at Its Ports

The measure is aimed at countering China’s dominance of commercial shipbuilding and helping to revitalize the American industry.

nyti.ms

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Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 3h

That and they think they're solving a problem with AI, that AI can do the same job but costs less than a human. Except it can't. But even when it fails, they don't see the failures. All they see is the interaction and the customer not continuing. Either way, it's a win-win for Amazon.

Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 3h

What also made it nice is the guy was totally off script. We chatted about personal preferences most of the time. It was the kind of small talk you make at work. It felt genial. He wasn't reading just the text Amazon gave him. We sent 5 minutes treating each other like people rather than obstacles.

Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 3h

I should also note, Amazon makes you talk to an AI chatbot online, then another AI chatbot on the phone before you get get to a human. It's such a waste of time. So much for solving a problem. Their AI actually created new problems the real guy had to untangle.

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Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 3h

Spent all weekend trying to get an AI chatbot to refund me for an item it said didn't qualify for a refund. Finally googled called them and spoke to a human. The guy was not only very nice to chat with, he resolved the problem in under 5 min. I got the refund and a pleasant conversation.

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Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 3h

As far as lateral reading goes, she certainly needs another lesson in how to not let it sink your research from confirmation bias.

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Reposted by Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them)

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 4h

i don’t do this often but some good folks are dealing with some serious medical bills and could use your support if you have a few dollars to spare. thank you!

Donate to Help a Beautiful Little Girl After a Traumatic Dog Attack, organized by Alfred McGuire

Help a Beautiful Little Girl Heal After a Traumatic Dog Attac… Alfred McGuire needs your support for Help a Beautiful Little Girl After a Traumatic Dog Attack

www.gofundme.com

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Reposted by Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them)

Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 4h

I know it is beside the point because this administration simply wants resegregation but conferences for Black professional associations have always been open to everyone. Typically, the started as a response to white exclusion, and did not replicate that.

Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 4h

Very bad: OSU unilaterally cancelled the registration of grad students attending the joint conference of the National Society of Black Physicists and the National Society of Hispanic Physicists. And OSU won't fund recruiting at the Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science.

Ohio State changes policy on group conferences after Trump administration threats

A federal investigation into potentially discriminatory practices at Ohio State prompted the university to change its policies regarding conferences.

www.dispatch.com

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School Library Journal @slj.com · 4h

South Carolina School Librarians Sue State Superintendent
www.slj.com/story/South-...

South Carolina School Librarians Sue State Superintendent

South Carolina Association of School Librarians past president Jamie Gregory says the lawsuit is not political, it's fighting for the constitutional rights of students and librarians.

www.slj.com

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Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 3h

Lateral reading is an important skill for students to learn how to evaluate sources. It's not journalism. I'm sure it's part of the larger journalistic process, but googling names and reading other NYT articles about your topic can't be the whole job.

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