One of my biggest pet peeves is how five big publishers control most of the big research papers and demand obscene amounts of money for access to scientific articles. Considering that the job of editing and writing the articles is typically done by scientists for free, and that the research is often funded by governments, this is a RIP-OFF OF TRUMPIAN PROPORTIONS!
Last week, a consortium of European funders, including major research agencies in the UK, France, the Netherlands and Italy, published their “Plan S”. It insists that, from 2020, research we have already paid for through our taxes will no longer be locked up. Any researcher receiving money from these funders must publish her or his work only in open-access journals.
Yes, indeed! There's no reason to keep doing things the old way. Funny thing is, as far as I know, 50 years ago, when there was way more overhead, prices were less extortionate! It's just a fucking scam, that's all.
So I stumbled upon a Peter Cushing Dr. Who movie last night and I didn't know that was a thing. I guess he did two of them. The special effects were pretty impressive (in relative terms).
It came on yet another station that my cable provider just added. "Comet" which appears to be nothing but vintage low budget sci-fi. So... yeah, I'll be keeping an eye on that.
I can no longer be arsed with cable TV and regular TV. I download or stream whatever I want, no commercial breaks, no waiting. I never have the time to watch much TV (one hour a day, tops!), and I rarely get to decide what TV to watch.
The family's been watching the latest version of Anne of Green Gables. I think it kinda sucks, but wifey and little S. are fans, so I put up with it.
Lately, when I do find the time to watch something by myself, I've been watching the fourth season of Better Call Saul.
Yah, we've done stretches like that, but at some point our internet provider offered HBO and a modest batch of cable stations for $15 a month extra, so we bit.
It's like radio for me in some ways. Yes, I can put on any album in the universe at any time, but sometimes I want to just surf around what's being broadcast out there live.
My family conundrum is that A____ is now old enough for GoT but E____ isn't. Would love to get A____ up to speed in time for the final season, but just don't see that happening.
Our family conundrum is that Simon is at the cusp of being able to watch scarier PG-13 stuff but his mom keeps nudging him back. "THAT WAS TOO SCARY, RIGHT?"
As soon as the baseball playoffs end, we're canceling cable for a while. I got a pretty powerful attic-mount HDTV antenna and we'll roll with that, streaming services, and downloads for a while.
We're about halfway through Jaws but him seeing a bloated dead body about 30 minutes before bedtime put a hard stop on that. We'll have to finish during daylight hours.
I think I want to watch The Poseidon Adventure with him. Tilda hasn't seen it either and I love that one.
What's Simon's interest level? Eli couldn't wait to go dark. Two years ago, while Aaron was missing a lot of weekends with us, we journeyed into horror. He kept asking for the next level of scary.
Just reminded myself that he did the same thing with heavy metal music when he was a toddler. "That was great dad, but what is louder and harder and faster than that?"
Simon has become aware that he is missing out on cool stuff by not having graduated to watching scarier stuff. And he likes scary books. But he vacillates between trying to be gung ho to impress me and reverting back to timid/scared mode because it's what his mom seems to expect. He's hard to calibrate for.
Little S. hates transformations. Ghouls, vampires, monsters, no problemo. But people transforming into monsters? That shit makes her scream like Shaggy.
Interesting. Again, the sight of a human being unnaturally altered, whether through zombification or transmutation. I feel like this taps into the same revulsion category as the uncanny valley.
Comments
But things are slowly changing.
Scientific publishing is a rip-off. We fund the research – it should be free When I read this, I danced a little jig.
It came on yet another station that my cable provider just added. "Comet" which appears to be nothing but vintage low budget sci-fi. So... yeah, I'll be keeping an eye on that.
The family's been watching the latest version of Anne of Green Gables. I think it kinda sucks, but wifey and little S. are fans, so I put up with it.
Lately, when I do find the time to watch something by myself, I've been watching the fourth season of Better Call Saul.
It's like radio for me in some ways. Yes, I can put on any album in the universe at any time, but sometimes I want to just surf around what's being broadcast out there live.
As soon as the baseball playoffs end, we're canceling cable for a while. I got a pretty powerful attic-mount HDTV antenna and we'll roll with that, streaming services, and downloads for a while.
I think I want to watch The Poseidon Adventure with him. Tilda hasn't seen it either and I love that one.
Satanic stuff freaked me out when I was a believing child. I guess that's not surprising.
Doesn't seem to matter to them. Which makes a guy feel GREAT.
NERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
We are trying out a new Cuban place beforehand and got a hotel. So we're being sort of fancy.
And a visit to a couple of high schools: Little S. will start high school next year, so we're already going to open-door events.
I'm beat!
Know what I mean?