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janis.bsky.social
@janis.bsky.social
340 followers 380 following 590 posts
Vancouver librarian, writer, music and radio type (etc.), often worrying about mis/disinformation and AI. (Opinions are my own.)
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janis.bsky.social
[sighs]
A cartoon: A woman at a computer says to herself: "There's no way I can finish this 20-page report tonight. ChatGPT, please generate a report from these 10 bullet points." Then we see a man at a computer: "Has Anna just sent me a 20-pager? I don't have the time to read that. CoPilot, summarize the report Anna just sent me into 10 bullet points."
November 6, 2025 at 11:30 PM
janis.bsky.social
wtaf nyt
A New York Times headline: “Did Women Ruin the Workplace?”
November 6, 2025 at 5:04 PM
janis.bsky.social
I'm not sure a workshop is really "free" if the sign-up form has 11 required fields.
An online registration form with 11 required fields for name, email, library/company name, job title, job function, institution type and address, and phone number.
October 27, 2025 at 5:39 PM
janis.bsky.social
I’ve been a librarian for a long time and seen some bad things come around.

But this moment is so demoralizing.

Maybe for the first time in my career I can see the perspective of the librarians who retired when we got rid of card catalogues and went online.
Questions: we may not have answers but we will certainly commiserate. With meme: “My buddy lost his job to AI. It was his job to chug thousands of gallons of water at a data centre.”
October 17, 2025 at 5:02 PM
janis.bsky.social
Now this is a fun Thanksgiving night TV lineup.
Four movie titles from TCM on tonight’s schedule: That Thing You Do, This is Spinal Tap, Eddie and the Cruisers, and A Hard Day’s Night. (None of this is about the harvest or family dinners but then again TCM is an American channel and they’re not celebrating Thanksgiving in the US today.)
October 14, 2025 at 1:51 AM
janis.bsky.social
Just me going on about this again.
From Reddit's technology sub: 3mo ago I recently heard about a teacher who instead of trying to circumvent students using ai, which is impossible, she made assignments by going "ask ChatGPT to write a report on this subject, and then research how and why it's wrong". Not only did the students discover that chatGPT is extremely wrong a lot of the time, it also lead them to realize that they should not use it as a primary source.
October 2, 2025 at 9:15 PM
janis.bsky.social
Uh, no.
Cocktail Recipes with Benedictine and Lemon Juice Ever wonder what cockails you can make with Benedictine and Lemon Juice? These are the best cocktails, created by AI, that utilize Benedictine and Lemon Juice.
September 15, 2025 at 2:17 AM
janis.bsky.social
My oooold band (1990s) will be playing a few songs this Friday at a birthday party for two beloved friends.

I've been listening to the old tunes again to relearn them, and wow, did we really play that fast?

If this ends up being a train wreck, I hope it's a pretty one.

touchandgos.bandcamp.com
An old contact sheet showing multiple small photos of a garage-punk-pop band playing in a small club in the early 1990s. The text says "Touch & Gos: Now on Bandcamp." There is a QE code linking to the Bandcamp page.
September 10, 2025 at 2:14 AM
janis.bsky.social
Spam call transcription du jour. Absolute poetry. “Why she only tongue jumping” indeed.
“Service press one Chinese press two Yo honey, haul you a deal why she only tongue jumping, but should you yell shouting in your fooling and eat on earth? Your phone number will be out of service today for details English service press, one Chinese press two Your phone number will be out of service today for details English service press, one Chinese press two Yo honey, you need a deal why she only tongue, jumping panting, but die should you yell shouting in you fooling and you doing lunching on earth…”
September 7, 2025 at 8:53 PM
janis.bsky.social
SERIOUSLY?
Globe & Mail: Laid off with $2.5-million in savings, should Jake and Wanda retire ... Jul 4, 2025Jake and Wanda, both in their mid-40s, have two children, a mortgage-free house, a rental condominium and $2.5-million in savings and…
August 23, 2025 at 5:24 AM
janis.bsky.social
It's clearly too darn hot, because *this* should not have caused me to struggle so much with a webpage, but here we are.
A screen capture showing a wall of html code: repeated   (non-breaking space).
August 12, 2025 at 8:40 PM
janis.bsky.social
Also coincidentally Emily Brontë’s birthday! So thank you to Kate Beaton for this, “Dude Watching with the Brontës”: www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id...
Cartoon where the Brontë sisters check out men.
July 30, 2025 at 1:36 PM
janis.bsky.social
It is too hot to waste all that water on A.I. Blast me with a firehose of cold water and let me answer things incorrectly.
July 17, 2025 at 2:25 AM
janis.bsky.social
Well!
One person has been arrested after a small passenger aircraft was allegedly "hijacked" and landed at Vancouver International Airport Tuesday, according to Richmond RCMP.
July 16, 2025 at 12:02 AM
janis.bsky.social
Here we are trying to turn OFF the unwanted AI "features" that just slow us down, but here are the pop-up ads they're giving me.
Screenshot of a pop-up saying "Unlock AI for 50%" off, showing a graphic of wrapped presents.
July 15, 2025 at 3:02 PM
janis.bsky.social
Bastille Day might be a good day to point out some of the very serious problems that need action and our leaders are not talking about.
From the CBC: Nearly one-third of forests in northeast B.C. could burn by year's end: province
July 14, 2025 at 2:24 PM
janis.bsky.social
Oh wow.

I sure am appreciating The Onion these days. According to Rebecca Solnit this is a full-page ad in today's NYT.

(Take a lot at the signatures at the bottom too if you can.)

theonion.com/letter-to-co...
Congress, now more than ever, our nation needs your cowardice. Published: June 20, 2025 Who will stand up for our democracy? This question, fraught in even the most peaceful times, has only grown more pressing as our country approaches its 250th anniversary. Each passing day brings growing assaults on essential liberties like freedom of speech and due process. Meanwhile, our delicately assembled legal system faces a constant barrage of threats. Even as this issue reaches publication, the U.S. military has been deployed against peaceful protestors. We teeter on the brink of collapse into an authoritarian state. That is why, today, The Onion calls upon our lawmakers to sit back and do absolutely nothing. Members of Congress—now, more than ever, our nation desperately needs your cowardice. Our republic is a birthright, an exceedingly rare treasure passed down from generation to generation of Americans. It was gained through hard years of bloody resistance and can too easily be lost. Our Founding Fathers, in their abundant wisdom, understood that all it would take was men and women of little courage sitting in the corridors of power and taking zero action as this precious inheritance was stripped away—and that is where we have finally arrived. Now is not the time for bravery or valor! This is the time for protecting your own hide and lining your pocket. Now is not the time for listening to your idiotic constituents drone on about what’s happening to their precious democracy. This is the time for getting down on all fours and groveling. Now is not the time to say, “Enough is enough,” and have the tough conversations about resisting the ongoing assaults on American liberty. This is the time to let the wave of apathy and indifference roll over you as you think about getting a really nice renovation to your house in Kalorama. But what can I, one coward, do alone? you might ask. It’s true. As a solitary person, your fecklessness will make little impact. But if you joi…
June 23, 2025 at 12:58 AM
janis.bsky.social
I remember a couple of years ago excitedly telling my friends that Bandcamp was holding a Juneteenth fundraiser.

Not this year though, as far as I can tell...
Screen capture of search results: "On June 19, Join Bandcamp to Support Racial Justice, Equality, and ... Jun 12, 2023. On June 19 (from midnight (PT) June 19 to midnight (PT) June 20), we'll hold our annual Juneteenth fundraiser, where we donate 100% of our share of sales* to the Legal Defense Fund to support their ongoing efforts to promote racial justice through litigation, advocacy, and public..."
June 19, 2025 at 9:24 PM
janis.bsky.social
I sure wish it was easier to switch off. And that this meme wasn’t always so accurate.
Meme showing a two girls, one playing a tuba that is over the face of another. The girl forced to listen is labeled “me.” The girl playing tuba is labeled “every company.’ The tuba is labeled “unwanted AI.”
June 11, 2025 at 5:44 AM
janis.bsky.social
Walter Masterson: Any protest they don’t like will be deemed a riot, any riot they do like will be labeled a peaceful tour of the Capitol.
June 9, 2025 at 4:53 PM
janis.bsky.social
Tthis annoys me no end.

No, I don't want your stupid summary. And I don't think other people relying on your stupid summary is a good thing either.
"This appears to be a long document. Save time by reading a summary."
June 6, 2025 at 4:35 PM
janis.bsky.social
From @dlmayfield.bsky.social — something to keep coming back to.
D.L. Mayfield Here’s my pep talk after studying authoritarianism: 1). They never truly expect a long-term resistance movement bc they think people are a collection of trauma triggers who are easily controlled thru terror 2). If they can’t terrorize you 24/7 in your mind, they have already lost the war 3). The single best way you can resist fascism is to not let them terrorize you constantly. Protect your mental health to ensure you are not constantly in a terrorized state 4). Keep connecting to who you are at your core. Your values, preferences, ethics, and beliefs. Build up capacity to resist 5). Remember they are like abusive parents: they only see us extensions of them. They have no clue how powerful joy and community and self-expression can be. We can use this to our advantage — we can be the strong-willed child they never saw coming. Spending time connecting to your true self is not selfish in these times — it’s intricately connected to a resistance movement that is tied to honoring our bodies, our communities, and to the land. We have to build capacity to resist by being exactly who we are!
May 27, 2025 at 6:38 PM
janis.bsky.social
Habeas corpus in Canada.

www.constitutionalstudies.ca/2019/07/habe...
“Habeas corpus: Existing since the 13th century, habeas corpus is both a free-standing right and, more recently, a right protected under section 10(c) of the Charter.[1] Habeas Corpus translates to “produce the body”.[2] A habeas corpus application is used by persons who feel they are being wrongfully detained. Upon application, the individual is brought before a judge who will determine whether the detainment is lawful. Provincial courts must hear these applications quickly. The right is available to all individuals in Canada, including refugees and immigrants.[3] “
May 21, 2025 at 9:40 PM
janis.bsky.social
EB White, early work-from-home advocate.

(Source: Wikipedia)
"In 1925, after The New Yorker was founded, White began submitting manuscripts to the magazine. Katharine Angell, the literary editor, recommended to editor-in-chief and founder Harold Ross that White be hired as a staff writer. However, it took months to convince White to attend a meeting at the office and additional weeks to convince him to work on the premises. He eventually agreed to work in the office on Thursdays."
May 10, 2025 at 2:09 PM
janis.bsky.social
I'm very disappointed in about 9900 people right now, but it is so good to see the PPC at the *absolute* bottom in our riding.
April 29, 2025 at 3:15 PM