Ros Jackson @rosjackson@wandering.shop

New mask design.

Butter wouldn't melt...

I expect recycling is up because of more home deliveries. I find brown cardboard composts very well so long as you let it get wet and take off any glue strips or tape. Worms love it.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/17/household-recycling-surge-raises-costs-england-councils

ALLi has issued a warning about OctaGroup, with a useful guide on how to avoid getting scammed by those targeting indie authors.

https://selfpublishingadvice.org/octalogo-writing-crew-watchdog-advisory/

Acedia seems like a useful word for this year.

It tastes a lot more bread-like than I was expecting. I'll definitely try it again, even though it was a bit of a clat to make.

This is my first attempt at keto bread. Almond flour, duck eggs, a bit of nutritional yeast for flavour, a tiny bit of coconut flour, bicarb, cream of tartar, salt. Now I'm waiting for it to cool and speculating how it will taste.

Eddie Van Halen, rest in peace. I'll be listening to Van Halen and remembering the good times and big hair rock.

How should we regulate and fund academic publishing? This petition was launched by librarians who are fed up of publishers price gouging UK libraries for academic ebooks.

I can see the other side, as many academic books can't expect a big audience. But books aren't *that* expensive to produce, and we should be doing all we can to make knowledge, especially academic knowledge, available students, and also to the general public.

https://academicebookinvestigation.org/

SERCO are sending out texts to lots of people asking them to download the App. I got mine this evening.

It comes from NHSTracing, and I suspect they're going out as a blanket text to every phone in the UK, whether you've downloaded or not, and whether or not your phone is compatible.

The Social Dilemma throws up interesting questions for those trying to build a new kind of social network that's less awful than Facebook. It highlights the mental health issues and stats, and that people are addicted by constantly coming back for that dopamine hit from likes, shares, and attention.

How do you dampen that dopamine oversaturation, without removing the social aspect? Would it help to ration some notifications to daily or weekly? I hope @Gargron is considering #TheSocialDilemma

There are bonuses to most conferences being online now. As someone living in Lincolnshire, with long distances to travel and poor transport links, I've been able to "attend" far more events this year than would otherwise be possible.

I signed a letter in support of the Alliance For Full Employment's campaign to get the UK government to rethink the furlough cliff-edge.

https://labourlist.org/2020/09/1200-local-labour-leaders-urge-pm-to-rethink-end-of-furlough/

Life is one thing, it's almost easy with enough time and hydrothermal vents. Complex multicellular life is another, a freak event that may or may not happen in several billion years and the odds are stacked against it. That's the takeaway I have from just having read Nick Lane's The Vital Question - which is excellent.

Still, it's good news there are signs of life on Venus.

I don't know why I didn't think to code this at the start of lockdown, but I made a randomly-generated addition worksheet with answers at the bottom that prints out pretty cleanly. Some other parents may find it useful, so here it is: https://www.rosjackson.co.uk/random-maths-addition.php

#maths

Gutenberg has a new website. I was hoping that meant you can finally search by date, or at least the author's dates which are definitely in their database, but not yet.

I've been doing intermittent fasting for the past month. Mixed in with this is a move to a lower carb diet, although not completely keto yet because we have too many apples.

It's too early for definitive results, but I feel less bloated, less hungry, and on fasting days I usually sleep better. I've done the whole calorie-restricted diet thing, which works for losing weight but is hella tedious and is easy to drop when you're stressed. Fasting is way easier.

A Dream So Dark, the sequel to A Blade So Black, is a worthy sequel that makes me keen to read A Crown So Cursed when it comes out. It's Wonderland, but with a lot more martial arts and love, um, pentacles? More tangled than love triangles, anyhow.

http://www.warpcoresf.co.uk/a-dream-so-dark.php