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October 2018

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"We’ve discovered that one of the best ways to promote your book is to put it in the 'Further Reading' section of relevant Wikipedia articles" <-- solid publisher advice with no conflict of interest, for sure.

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Learned something at my neurology appt today. According to the consultant I saw, the cheese/chocolate migraine trigger is a myth. She said causation is the other way around: a 24hr pre-migraine phase induces cravings for choc & cheese, which people then blame for the migraine.

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Think we've reached peak USS pension technocratic discourse. Colleague yesterday referred to waiting for the green light at a pedestrian crossing as "de-risking".

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A long day headed up by 4am insomnia is coming to a close. Got a lot of research done (at 4.30am) and enjoyed hearing about colleagues' work over a research lunch, but I expect tomorrow to be hard work.

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I really enjoyed @SimonXIX's talk this evening on open source software and the benefits of open systems for libraries. But I had also spent 3 hours today wresting with a broken Linux initramfs so was also like "don't talk to me about this".

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Research* playbook good this morning on subject level TEF and the hype around grade inflation: 'Put simply by one panel member, the metric “is premised on the idea that improved attainment is a problem”.'

You basically can't measure this if you think there's any correlation between how well people are taught and their degree outcome. Measure it and an institution might inflate grades. Try to counter that and you're saying that when people do better it's not because of teaching.

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Some jottings on academic freedom and Plan S/open access

The announcement of Plan S -- an ambitious undertaking to mandate open access in Europe by 2020 on most funded research, but also now expanding overseas, potentially to the States and beyond -- has prompted debates about the place of academic freedom in the selection of publication venue and…

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This seems to work amazingly well on my solo efforts. Collaborative work seems to rely on group sharing, though it will apparently cite correctly from an individual's library. You just can't edit it. https://x.com/zotero/status/1053357817149689857

Although: "When working collaboratively on a document, you and your coauthors should avoid inserting or editing citations at the same time."

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Subtweet deluxe. I love it when peer review feedback contains _blatantly and verifiably inaccurate statements_. Just read one that tells me I have identified the wrong character in a novel for a specific point. But the reviewer is wrong.

This does not give me great faith in the quality of the review.



It's how I'm getting through this reader report

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Ach, it's so nice to feel a bit better. Preparing a mini-lecture on Wittgenstein, the Foundations of Mathematics, and trying not to go off on an hour-long tangent about the Private Language Argument.

"Are our laws of inference eternal and immutable?"

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Think I am on the mend. First evening this week of feeling a bit better. And I avoided hospital.

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A response to USS’s reply to @MikeOtsuka's claim that their valuation rests on a mistake
https://medium.com/@mikeotsuka/a-response-to-usss-reply-to-my-claim-that-their-valuation-rests-on-a-mistake-6aad4f10eec7

@MikeOtsuka "USS can’t have it both ways. Th[ey] can’t tell scheme members to buzz off and engage via their union or their employer, and then turn around and complain that we have not shared and discussed our views with them directly."

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Thank you everyone for the kind messages re. illness. A little better today, I think... Perhaps.

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Quick PSA, with apologies for more health tweeting: I am currently suffering a bacterial chest infection on top of the shingles. Not really answering emails as signed off work, so apologies for delays. Determined not to end up hospitalised last year so taking rest and care.

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Conservative speaker at King's yesterday: “I think anyone that strikes is absolutely deplorable... you are paid to work, so work.” 1. You're not paid when you're on strike. 2. Our recent strike resulted in a new approach to pensions that wouldn't have happened without the strike.

How does this mindset think that labour should just cede to those who have capital without any demand for fairness? Without unions and strikes we'd have no weekends, minimum wage, or any other labour law.

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My university, @BirkbeckUoL, is leaving UK league tables. These reward: 1. entry tariffs (measuring inputs not outputs); 2. retention rates (counting against our widening participation efforts); and 3. spend per student (we don't have a swimming pool). http://www.bbk.ac.uk/news/league-tables

The Master of BBK said "The tables struggle to deal with anything other than a campus university catering to 18-year-olds who have just moved away from home. We're poorly served by these tables & so are students who glance at our position and may be put off from studying here".