There is a very small area of overlap in the Venn diagram of geeky stuff I pay attention to and stuff my 14 year old cares about, but a Sasquatch emoji is solidly in that space blog.unicode.org/2025/07/say-...

Now that I’m affiliated with Harvard I get to use their libraries, which is exciting enough. I took this book out of the Widener and holy cow will you look at that. The catalog record doesn’t say anything about it being signed. They do not even know what they have.

Here's a paleofuture for you. I'm reading a NASA report from 1987, as one does. There was a survey done at the @aas.org & @casca.ca.web.brid.gy 1987 joint meeting. Among other things, it asked what "remote data access network" was used on respondents' campuses. BITNET was the clear winner.

Another in my occasional series of "papers that I find entertaining," I give you:
Quantum Random Lunch Generator (QRLG)
dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG....

I've (separately) harped on standards, being anti-fascist, and being anti-capitalist... but low and behold! Someone has written about the intersections here.

What a lovely piece: "The anti-captialist case for standards"

h/t to @jonathanzong.com

thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-anti-cap...

Essay of the week!

Shaping everything from USB cables to internet protocols, our essay of the week contends that standards show what an anti-capitalist future could look like.

By @jpomerantz.bsky.social & @griffey.bsky.social in the @mitpress.bsky.social Reader

buff.ly/ZS8idmh

Zeker een primeur voor mij!

SCOOP: As the Trump administration continues its efforts to slash the US federal workforce, the team responsible for publishing data used in advanced research in astrophysics, nuclear fusion, and other fields appears to be on the chopping block.

I (and my co-author @pomerantz@mastodon.social) have an essay up at MIT Reader that's an extension of some of the ideas in the book. Would love any feedback, as we're still working the ideas out ourselves, but we both think there's something interesting there.

Probably should have just quote-posted...thanks to @jpomerantz.bsky.social for all the work and support in getting this out into the world.

@griffey.bsky.social and I have published a follow-up piece to our @mitpress.bsky.social book Standards. It’s… let’s just say it’s strongly worded. Three cheers for the press, for being so supportive. thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-anti-cap...

I've recently started working for the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, as a digital librarian for the Astrophysics Data System ui.adsabs.harvard.edu
And every once in a while I come across a paper or a citation that just cries out to be shared. So I will. Have some weird science, y'all

I’m really bad at self-promotion because so far all I’ve done is repost @griffey.bsky.social but today was the official release date of our new book from @mitpress.bsky.social! mitpress.mit.edu/978026254949...

Also new to our Essential Knowledge Series is @griffey.bsky.social & @jpomerantz.bsky.social's engaging introduction to standards, the invisible infrastructure that shapes the built and digital environments of the modern world: mitpress.mit.edu/978026254949...

Congratulations to our friend and colleague @griffey.bsky.social , whose new book on standards (co-authored with @jpomerantz.bsky.social and published by @mitpress.bsky.social ) arrived just in time for #NISOPlus25!
mitpress.mit.edu/978026254949...

It’s real! Order yours today!

mitpress.mit.edu/978026254949...

Librarian friends! Yellowstone National Park is hiring a research librarian, and it could be you! Or someone you know. An old friend of mine is the Archeologist for Yellowstone & I think that must be the coolest job on earth. Please share this posting widely. www.paycomonline.net/v4/ats/web.p...