Feeling hopeless? This is worth a listen.
(And if you're *not* feeling hopeless, where have you even been?)
Worker-ownership is the future (if we humans are going to have a future at all). So proud and excited for this movement to be gaining momentum in #Cascadia
rss.com/podcasts/new...
I just read the phrase "progressive billionaire" in @theguardian.com and laughed out loud.
"Liberal" I'd accept with a smirk. But hoarding money and assets while the rest of the world burns is just not compatible with progressive values. Like, at all. Smdh
Need some food for thought today? youtu.be/eKlEeKC8qLk?...
Martin Hilpert has you covered. 👇
#BLinguistik #linguistics
Starting from next year, my current department will have a mandatory "Writing with AI" course for first year students.
And in a way, I'd like to thank them. Because if I still had any whispers of regret about leaving academia, this silenced them for good.
Byeeeee
Hand holding up a brightly colored paperback book entitled "Venomous Lumpsucker" by Ned Beauman. A black cat lays quietly below the book on the lap of the reader.
I've never been so amused and horrified simultaneously. Recommend reading with a cat on one's lap for emotional resilience.
#CliFi
A small yellow duck figurine held on the palm of a hand.
A kind quiet stranger on the train gave me this tiny duck. Shortly after, I snagged the last ticket on the last Eurostar to the Netherlands that wasn't cancelled for the day. Free upgrade to first class no less. So, I believe I've finally met my fairy godmother. And this duck is my glass slipper.
The meaning of words is to be decided not by their use, usefulness, or history, but by their commercial benefit to the most powerful lobby groups. I have a recipe for almond milk in a cookbook from 1226. It has been used as a term in English for hundreds of years.
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Plus the aesthetics of Fitzcarraldo are perfect and basically make every publication of theirs a kind of fetish object. So darn beautiful on a dark stained oak shelf...
🫂
If you think about a PhD not as a step in a career, but as your last real chance to get paid (a teensy tiny bit) to think and be creative and do something that actually interests you, getting a PhD still makes sense. Admittedly, in a very very sad way.
Finally. Since hearing the buzz around it, I had a hunch it was probably more linguistic trickery than a cognitive reality. (with flashbacks to grad school and learning about the whole absolute v. relative spatial cognition debate)
Holy crap. That's not a parody account? Such desperation. 🤦🤦🤦
Either they really think we're all incredibly stupid, or they are incredibly stupid. Probably both.
How are we still doing the "no first person" thing in academic (humanities/social science) writing? The researcher exists. Their interpretation is a part of the research, and their experience as an individual contributes to that. Own up, be honest.
Grumble positivist delusions grumble grumble
A couple weeks ago a friend, who knows my objections well, asked if I would be willing to train an AI to summarize humanities papers better (blood money good pay too). And the first thing I thought was... You realize that's like trying to pay a vegan to work for a meat lobbyist, yeah?
An AI decision tree that explains why you shouldn't use AI - because it doesn't make work faster, because it's bad for IP and privacy concerns, because it hurts the environment, and because the content is not reliably accurate.
Should you use AI for that?
Our new post is about how and when to use AI in arts and culture work (and why the answer is almost always no).
It comes complete with an AI decision tree for cultural workers to help you make hard choices!
sidracollaborative.com/2026/01/29/i...
Screenshot of text from article reading: "Here are some examples: Dell ($18.8 million contract with ICE for Microsoft software licenses, expiring March 2026) UPS ($90,500 small-package delivery contract with ICE, expiring March 2026) FedEx ($1 million delivery services contract with ICE, expiring March 2026) Motorola Solutions ($15.6 million tactical communication infrastructure contract with ICE, expiring May 2026) Comcast ($24,600 Internet services contract for ICE Seattle office, expiring May 2026. This could be a great fight for newly elected Mayor Katie Wilson to take on.) AT&T ($83 million IT and network contract with ICE, with a potential end date of July 2032) LexisNexis ($21 million data-brokerage contract with ICE. This company is particularly vulnerable to pressure from university students and professor unions, since much of its revenue comes from colleges.) Home Depot and Lowe’s are using AI-powered license plate readers and feeding this data into law enforcement surveillance systems accessible to ICE. Their parking lots are also regular sites of ICE raids targeting day laborers. (Update, 1/16/26: A spokesperson for Home Depot told The Nation, “Like many retailers, we use license plate reader technology in our parking lots. These cameras are used for the purpose of detecting and preventing theft and protecting the safety of our customers and associates. We do not grant access to our license plate readers to federal law enforcement.”)
Yes! And here's a good article on that with strategies and a starter list (though they also highlight that smaller regional businesses like hotels housing agents make very effective targets)
www.thenation.com/article/acti...
Hard to find a more fitting metaphor for the state of the USA than the federal government murdering a VA ICU nurse on the street
This is why organizing that reaches for relationality is central, not secondary - it breaks the capitalist idea of us as atomized, individual consumers and compels us to act in solidarity with others. And, perhaps more than anything, it's a politics more rooted in cultivating belonging than ideology
I have been actively involved in protest movements for 24 years. I have never seen anything approaching this scale. Minneapolis is not accepting what's happening here. ICE fucking murdered a woman for participating in this, and all that did is bring out more people, from more walks of life.
As academic publishing seems more and more pointless, at least poetry still feels alive and meaningful (perhaps to the detriment of any chance I have left at an academic career. Ah well)
Excited to contribute to this eco-poetry project 🌿🌳🌞
natureofourtimes.poetsforscience.org/the-live-oak...
The government is shooting unarmed civilians in the streets. We’re gonna hear from the NRA any minute now, right?
A person holding a green paper back book called "Monk and Robot" over a cat who is curled up on their lap
If you're in need of something nice, just something easy and good, a kind of spiritual hug, an existential cup of tea, I recommend Becky Chambers' Monk & Robot. Ideally read with a cat on your lap, in a comfy chair, with a real physical cup of tea within reach.
A collage within a window frame showing people arriving via boat and train into a garden. On the windowsill sit lemons and potted plants. Below is a handwritten title "Refugees welcome"
New year, new windows!
outsidemywindow.org/everyone-eve...
Today though, Lexy's window reimagining feels especially important.
Undocumented immigrants are our neighbors, friends, lovers, and helpers. The domestic terrorists are the ones shooting us in the head in broad daylight on the street.
A rectangular social-media card with a light beige background and minimalist design. At the very top, a thin horizontal line spans the width of the card. Below it, in small uppercase text, it reads: “READ IN CADERNOS DE LINGUÍSTICA” in gray. Centered on the upper half of the card is a small illustration. The illustration shows a stylized, cartoon-like dwarf standing inside a rustic wooden cabin. The dwarf has a large round nose, a white beard, and a blue hat with small dark dots. His arms are crossed, and he has a stern, displeased facial expression. The background includes warm amber lighting from a window, wooden barrels, shelves, and simple household objects, all drawn with bold lines and earthy tones. Below the illustration is the title in bold uppercase letters: MEANINGS THAT REDUCE BODIES Under the title is a block of text in gray, aligned left, reading: “Across adaptations of traditional narratives, dwarfism is often framed through exaggerated features: large ears, an oversized nose, a protruding belly. These elements operate as semantic cues for comic effect, shaping how audiences interpret these bodies and constraining the meanings they are allowed to carry.” In the bottom-left corner of the card, there is a small minimalist decorative icon composed of short radiating lines, resembling a stylized fan or burst.
How do classic stories teach us to read certain bodies in limited ways? Drawing on Paulo Freire, this new article examines how narrative traditions keep reinforcing narrow interpretive paths. Read it here: doi.org/10.25189/267...
Yesterday we sent physical copies to our wonderful zine contributors - artists, activists, and academics across 3 continents and 7 countries! It feels very special for this little mycelium network, grown from a random idea with a couple of friends into a small conference last year, to reach so far.
Hand holding three zines up in front of a leafy plant. The zine covers read "Climate Hope: Growing Better Worlds"
Feels pretty incredible to have our #ClimateHope zine finally out existing in the world.
Here's to hope, not as a passive state, but as a call to collective action!
🌳🌻✊❤️🌻🌳
At least the idea of getting someone discount airport parking as a gift made me giggle. 😂
I truly feel that the COP summits have become actively harmful. (And don't really believe they were ever particularly helpful)
