Notices by Robert Dale Parker (robertdaleparker@mstdn.social), page 2

Now that Microsoft has made stealing your writing to train AI an almost unnoticeable default for Microsoft Word, here's how you can turn it off.

https://medium.com/illumination/ms-word-is-using-you-to-train-ai-86d6a4d87021

#FootpathFriday

I ended my subscription to the Washington Post. Bezos has trashed things I cherish: bookstores and responsible journalism. Journalism and democracy need to uphold each other. Without democracy, journalism is at risk, and without responsible journalism, democracy is at risk.

Vote!

#WashingtonPost #Journalism #Bookstores #Books #Bookstodon #Election2024 #KamalaHarris #Trump #Democracy #WaPo

9 grumpy critiques of US election coverage:

With apologies to those, especially outside the US, who are sick of US election coverage. Aren’t we all. It will get worse before it gets better.

1) These 7 states will decide the results. No. Every state counts. If you take out any state, you change the calculation.

1 out of 9

#Election2024 #KamalaHarris #DonaldTrump #Kamala #Harris #Trump

2) The American people chose Trump in 2016 and Biden in 2020. No. A frighteningly large number of US citizens don’t even vote. Most US voters chose Clinton in 2016 and Biden in 2020. Who gets the most votes won’t determine who wins in 2024. It should, but it won’t.

2 out of 9

#Election2024 #KamalaHarris #DonaldTrump #Kamala #Harris #Trump

3) This election is really close, or Harris or Trump is leading in this state or that state. No. We haven’t started counting the votes, and most voters haven’t voted yet. Right now, the polls are close, not the election.

3 out of 9

#Election2024 #KamalaHarris #DonaldTrump #Kamala #Harris #Trump

#FensterFreitag #WindowFriday

#Chicago street scene

#FensterFreitag #WindowFriday

Library window. (Enlarge to see the writing on the wall—er—on the window.)

Bilbao, Spain

#Libraries #Books

'The first serious restrictions on men have come as a surprise to many in Afghanistan. In a society where a man’s voice is often seen as far more powerful than a woman’s, some men now wonder whether they should have spoken up to defend women's freedoms.'

Surprise surprise. The lesson: We're all in it together. And when we vote, we need to think about what's best for everyone, not just ourselves.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/09/22/afghanistan-taliban-restrictions-men-beards/

For those who don't know the poem, here it is:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_...

"The Failed Migration of Academic Twitter"

https://arxiv.org/html/2406.04005v1

Academic Twitter was great, & it breaks my heart that the community I found there has done so little to rebuild on Mastodon, even tho Mast is far better. I loved learning abt new research & pubs (& occasionally posting abt my own). A fair # of people migrated to Mast but most didn't stay, at least in my field of literary studies.

What can academics do to build & rebuild academic exchange on Mastodon?

#Academia @LitStudies

Scam alert for aspiring writers from Writer Beware.

The gall of these scammers is breathtaking. You'd have to be pretty green to fall for it, but some people are green.

https://writerbeware.blog/2024/08/16/the-latest-fake-literary-agencies/

#Books #Writers #Writing #Publishing #Scam

#FensterFreitag #WindowFriday #Chicago

Amid the cornucopia of windows in this photo, don’t miss the commuter #train windows at the bottom.

I recently returned from the American Literature Association conference in Chicago, so expect some FensterFreitag and WindowFriday photos, over the coming weeks, from the city of big shoulders.

"Nearly everything Americans believe about the economy is wrong": headline from Catherine Rampell in the Washington Post.

Much to blame here: the shoddy state of "journalism," yes, but also the shoddy communication skills of public officials and the underfunding and defunding of education.

We could make the same complaint for many other areas besides the economy, including #elections and #AmericanHistory

https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/catherine-rampell/

#Economy #Journalism #Education #History

#FensterFreitag #WindowFriday

Beinecke #Library, #YaleUniversity

#Libraries #Books #Bookstodon #Reading

So now they are censoring the critique of censoring by censoring this Doonesbury cartoon?

https://www.cracked.com/article_41196_conservative-newspaper-conglomerate-proved-their-opponents-point-when-they-banned-this-doonesbury-comic-strip.html

Here is the cartoon, but don't read it, because they don't want you to read it.

#Censorship #Florida #Doonesbury #History #BlackHistoryMonth #Education #Libraries

#Magnolia #Bloomscrolling #Spring #Blossoms #Pink

From today's #walk on a Midwestern prairie.

#SilentSunday #Walking