- It’s almost time for the Diagram Prize for the Oddest Book Title of the Year! James Folta has links to the shortlist for this year’s prize, past winners, etc. (LitHub)
- Lincoln Michel has thoughts about “The AI Turning Test” and what it really says about human preferences and AI “creativity.” (Counter Craft)
- I had no idea that there was a veritable army of women detectives in Victorian fiction. Olivia Rutigliano enlightens us. (Crime Reads)
- Julia Webster Ayuso has us wondering if forensic linguistics, or stylometry, is useful for solving crimes or just another pseudoscience. (The Dial)
- Bartle Bull delivers a rapid-fire history of the Sumerian development of one of the world’s oldest, if not the oldest, writing systems. (LitHub)
- Pair with: Margherita Bassi discusses a recently published study about an alphabetic writing system discovered in Syria that’s hundreds of years older than previously known alphabets. (Gizmodo)
- Sarah Asch looks at a partnership between the Dallas Public Library and the Dallas Morning News that’s meant to help locals learn important information literacy skills, notably those skills that help people figure out what’s true and what’s mis- or disinformation. (Texas Standard)
- Ross Perlin argues against the idea that AI can help preserve endangered languages. (The Dial)
- John Sharp points to “all-access” library cards for children as a sign that parents even in very conservative areas of the US trust libraries and librarians. (AL.com)
- Andrew Albanese reports that book bans in US schools are not slowing down at all. (Publishers Weekly)
- …and more censorship news from the good people of Book Riot.
