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December 2018

Me: "Helen, there's something wrong. We've just watched three great episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation in a row"

Next episode comes up: Ferengi and Troi's mother.

Helen: "this is your fault.

Eurythmics' _We Too Are One_ is probably among my favourite albums of all time, but the mastering on the 1989 edition is terrible and I have always thought how poor it sounds. Bought the remastered vinyl and the accompanying download version sounds no better :(

Probably worth trying out the actual record, I guess

Can report: nope. I don't know how you do a remaster in 2018 that seems to have worse loudness than a (great nonetheless) 1989 record, but hey.

OK, it looks as though it's a result of artefacts on the original analogue tape recordings. There are a few peaks that seem to push towards clipping. A shame these couldn't be cleaned up.

This is interesting and I like the idea. But I also get concerned when "red tape"/bureaucracy is dismissed out of hand. The idea of at least some of those procedures is to reduce discrimination and make criteria transparent. https://x.com/homophonous/status/1078936476975595520

Moving to a system of "you did well, so you'll be promoted" can make it harder for those who don't "fit" -- and are thus subject to conscious and unconscious biases in these processes -- to be rewarded. It can also make the process seem arbitrary.

Of course, bad metrics like impact factors etc. help nobody. Bean counting is not good. But I do think that all criteria for promotion should be thoroughly specified in a way that is clear to all parties. No moving the goalposts at the time of decisions.

I must say that although I'm sure it's as hard as ever to make a living out of making music, Bandcamp is the most extraordinarily brilliant space for discovering independent artists and supporting them. Also for finding those with similar tastes & going on to meet in RL.

The fact that Michael Caine is a Conservative does somewhat ruin Muppet Christmas Carol. I mean he practically supports workhouses in the present.

If I wanted to project exactly what was shown on my android phone screen (a OnePlus 6) onto a wall -- i.e. any app that is open -- what could I use to do this?

The Daily Telegraph: "Tube drivers being paid £100k is what happens when you have a union that can hold us all to ransom"

Me: "People doing a highly responsible job, underground, at anti-social hours are being paid well. This sounds bad. Better not have any more unions" 🤔

And with that brief foray into the grimness of HE Twitter I'm now going to have to stagger back to bed. Christmas lurgy has just hit and I feel terrible. Tis the blooming season.

Just arrived today - it's @RoseHarrisB's book in the series I edit with @CheyetteBryan! Full of never-before-seen interviews with David Mitchell and others around his work alongside a brilliant analytical framework. Really thrilled to see this out.

Times reporting more leaks from the Augur review, including a minimum tariff for university entry. Extremely regressive. And besides, many mature @BirkbeckUoL students don't even have a UCAS tariff; the system was entirely different when they went to school.

ONS reports next week on student finance. Basically: looks likely that government will no longer be allowed to account for interest on student loans as income in the present while kicking the outlay can 30 years down the road. Seismic implications for HE funding. Massive.

Top module feedback evaluation comment from my great MA class this term: "pineapple does not belong on pizza". They have truly met the learning objectives.

There's some piece going around called "The Liberal Arts May Not Survive the 21st Century" and I'm thinking: we're going to be lucky if _humanity_ survives the 21st Century at the current rate of global warming.

Ok. The obscenity/decadent opulence of this first-class flight and lounge have convinced me that I never want to do it again. (Which is just as well as I could never afford it without Airmiles.) It's not right.

Segregationism is total. There's even a separate gate for boarding so the wealthy classes don't have to accidentally encounter anyone else.

In 45 minutes I'll be speaking at #cni #cni18f about our next plans for @openlibhums, involving learned societies and Plan S. Do come along!

Thanks to years of accumulating air miles, I am flying business out and first class return for my final trip of 2018 to Washington DC. Made the classic error of gorging on the free food in the lounge and feel a bit sick already, but hey!

This is the first and probably last time I have/will ever flown/fly in the posh classes.

I think it's just part of my slightly manic hyperactive personality, but this evening - for no reason whatsoever, nothing special happening etc - I just feel really excited about waking up tomorrow for another day.

Bleep bleep bloop. Tomorrow's teaching is on machine-generated poetry (Heldén & Jonson) and neural networks that can write academic prose.

Some interesting stuff here. "Journals taking novelty and anticipated impact into account when assessing manuscripts are indeed associated with more retractions". Also makes some claims about double-blind, though I'm less sure of this. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11192-018-2969-2#Sec11

The double blind comments are less persuasive since retractions seem far rare in the humanities disciplines, where they locate some of these comments.