I used to blog daily, but I started this before most social media were active. In fact I didn't realize a blog was part of social media when I started.
I didn't intend to be a curator, but Bluesky, Spoutible, and other sources often unearth interesting articles that are worth sharing. So here's another menu of interesting readings that taught me things I didn't know or know about.
1. Card Catalog - Teaching you how to think like a librarian in the age of AI.
Google Has a Secret Reference Desk. Here's How to Use It.
40 Google features to find exactly what you need, the alternative search engines that do things Google won't, and the reference desk framework underneath all of it.
HANA LEE GOLDIN, MLIS FEB 24, 2026
These really are shortcuts on google searches. Some examples:
"The minus sign
removes a word from your results entirely. Put it directly before the word with no space: jaguar -car returns the animal, mercury -planet returns the element or the musician depending on your other terms. Precise, effective, and useful any time a word you’re searching carries more than one meaning.
The asterisk *
works as a wildcard for any missing word or phrase. Try: “the * of artificial intelligence”. The asterisk stands in for whatever word you can’t remember or want to explore. It’s invaluable for chasing down half-remembered titles and quotes, and it surfaces the full range of ways a phrase gets used across different contexts, which is useful for research that starts from a concept rather than a specific source.
intitle: and inurl:
let you filter by the structure of a page rather than just its content. intitle:”media literacy” returns only pages where that phrase appears in the actual title, not just mentioned once in passing. inurl:gov intitle:”AI policy” finds government pages where AI policy is the stated subject. Combined, they’re considerably more precise than keyword searching alone."
I tend to use DuckDuckGo as my browser and I was wondering if these would work there. Turns out there is a list of alternatives to using google. Here's what it said about DuckDuckGo:
"DuckDuckGo is free, doesn’t track your searches, and supports all the operators covered above. It also has a feature called !bangs: type !w before any search to go straight to Wikipedia, or !scholar for Google Scholar. It turns the search bar into a shortcut launcher for wherever you want to land, without a company logging where that is."
Lots of useful tips. I've bookmarked the page because I know I'll want to look at it to remind me of shortcuts I'm not using. I'm going to try out at least three a day.
2. The Situation: But Wait! There’s More! (From Lawfare blog)
Katherine Pompilio, Benjamin Wittes
Tuesday, April 7, 2026, 2:46 PM
About their interactive chart to document habeas corpus cases in the United States courts that the Trump administration is not in compliance with.
Sorry, the image isn't big enough. It's just a screenshot, but here is the link to the interactive chart.
3. STRENGTH THROUGH NUMBERS (his website and the title of his book)
The Strategist’s Fallacy in American politics
The average American voter does not think about politics the way elite strategists and pundits do
G. ELLIOTT MORRIS
OCT 28, 2025
This one is for those of you who rather not read too much - It only has the introduction in front of the paywall.
4. RUMINATO POLITICS
The People vs. Donald J. Trump
This presentation to a jury of his peers is also a handy, comprehensive reference to his crimes when you debate those somehow still on the fence about this maniac
CHARLES BASTILLE APR 06, 2026
"On behalf of all decent Americans, I am calling for a citizen’s arrest.
Let us waste no more time. Let the proceedings begin. This post includes a comprehensive list of 39 separate crimes against the people of the United States. There are more, either not appearing here or not yet uncovered.
Defendant: Donald John Trump.
Charges: High crimes and treason. Nary a misdemeanor to be found because they’re all felonies. Felonious like a mafia boss, with loads of Diddy thrown in for extra effect. The worst human in the public realm.
Jury: The jury is you.
The judge in this case: Whoever happens to be wearing a nice, black, terry cloth bathroom robe while reading this."
It then goes on to list crimes committed by Trump and his entourage, with links.
5. 'AI Is African Intelligence': The Workers Who Train AI Are Fighting Back
Jason Koebler March 16, 2026
"Every day, Michael Geoffrey Asia spent eight consecutive hours at his laptop in Kenya staring at porn, annotating what was happening in every frame for an AI data labeling company. When he was done with his shift, he started his second job as the human labor behind AI sex bots, sexting with real lonely people he suspected were in the United States. His boss was an algorithm that told him to flit in and out of different personas."
There's a 45 minute video interview with Michael Geoffrey Asia. If you open it at the website, there are no ads. If I embed it from Youtube, it's got ads. So it's better to just go to the website.
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