ABrockwell @aebrockwell@qoto.org

Decent people resist Gestapo.

In light of the Royal Society's continued inaction on Elon Musk, it seems appropriate to share this again.

I wrote it last March when I resigned my position as associate editor at a Royal Society Journal.

Things haven't got better since then.

https://kityates.substack.com/p/why-im-resigning-my-editorship-at

Ten years ago, if someone had told me that tech policy bloggers would be calling for ICE to be abolished, I would have thought it very unlikely.

"Abolish ICE" is an increasingly mainstream and extremely correct position.

https://www.techdirt.com/2026/01/08/abolish-ice-before-they-kill-again-impeach-trump-noem-before-they-incite-more-murder/

I need university administrators (and probably some other people too, but definitely university administrators) to understand something: you cannot motivate your faculty to do more research or better teaching.

They are already maximally motivated people. They did not get the job by being unmotivated. A good chunk of them have more motivation than is healthy for them.

Any action you take to "motivate" them is going to be demotivational. Any of them. Yes, even that one that you just thought of. Yes, even the one you heard about from one of your peers at a different institution that you're jealous of.

Lean in close, here's the secret: all you have to do is (a) support them in doing their jobs, and (b) not fuck things up.

#US

Remember, when something in the news upsets you, you are *not obligated* to spend the next hour hunched over your phone reading live updates and social media hot takes.

You *can* stay informed without succumbing to this urge -- an urge deliberately conditioned into us for decades by the 24-hour news cycle and exploitative for-profit social media.

Step away from your screens, let your psyche absorb the blow, and read about it in a newspaper tomorrow morning if you like. You have permission!

Linux is good now. The author had enough of Windows and Microsoft shenanigans. I'm brave enough to say it: Linux is good now, and if you want to feel like you actually own your PC, make 2026 the year of Linux on (your) desktop

https://www.pcgamer.com/software/linux/im-brave-enough-to-say-it-linux-is-good-now-and-if-you-want-to-feel-like-you-actually-own-your-pc-make-2026-the-year-of-linux-on-your-desktop/

Guess what? If you supported the alcoholic Fox News pundit to become Secretary of Defense, the anti-vaccine sexual abuser to become Secretary of HHS, the PDFile protector to become AG, and the WWE actor to become Secretary of Education, you get to have zero opinions on anyone Zohran Mamdani has appointed to his Mayoral cabinet.

@dwm @losttourist @cstross @tek the same humans that breathe an atmosphere that contains rocket fuel, chemically burn food within their bodies for energy (not to mention breaking it down first with strong corrosive acids) and regularly consume known poisonous substances for fun.. no wonder aliens avoid us.

50% of the population being able to process Marmite is just the nail in the coffin IMHO!

Once again, the Guardian's journalism shows the way:
Donald Trump in his own words – the year in racism and misogyny
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/29/donald-trump-racism-dei-misogyny-2025-review

The exploitative character of academic publishing in a single cartoon.

#publishing #universities #research #academics

h/t Alexandra Kupferberg/LinkedIn

original illustration: Thailand by Tawan Chuntra.

https://www.irancartoon.com/site/artists/tawan-chuntra#&gid=1&pid=30 #TawanChuntra #Thailand

Website idea: enter the year you left school and the website will generate a list of outdated facts and concepts that you were taught at school and which have since been disproven.

That’s accurate.

Trump dragging the US away from the free world, feels more and more like Nigel Farage pulling the UK out of the EU:

Based on lies, never delivering on its promises, and strongly supported by The Kremlin.

it's truly amazing what LLMs can achieve. we now know it's possible to produce an html5 parsing library with nothing but the full source code of an existing html5 parsing library, all the source code of all other open source libraries ever, a meticulously maintained and extremely comprehensive test suite written by somebody else, 5 different models, a megawatt-hour of energy, a swimming pool full of water, and a month of spare time of an extremely senior engineer

‘It was a matter of conscience’: Ahmed al-Ahmed’s family reveal why he risked his life to disarm alleged Bondi shooter
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/dec/15/man-who-tackled-alleged-bondi-gunman-couldnt-bear-to-see-people-dying-cousin-says-ntwnfb

A few years ago I really struggled with the icing for my gingerbread barn and it accidentally became a gingerbread slaughterhouse.

The fact that far too many people cannot recognize fascism unless it looks exactly like Nazi Germany is very dangerous.