"Besides being deeply cynical, Chomsky’s supposed pragmatism has not stood the test of time...We may have manufactured consent once upon a time, but America has long since transitioned to a post-manufacturing economy." Very harsh but worthwhile read. strangematters.coop/noam-chomsky...

Chomsky After Epstein - Strange Matters

Noam Chomsky – friend of Epstein, defender of dictatorships – was no model anti-imperialist. Can we do better?

strangematters.coop

Our uni has been running another Staff Wellbeing Survey It kicks off with such meaningful questions as: "Are you aware of the vision Senior Executive has for the university?" Really can't wait for the findings! And yet shockingly only 29% of staff responded by deadline

​New article!: The Origins and Evolution of Writing www.annualreviews.org/content/jour... 🧵1/

The Origins and Evolution of Writing

For centuries, scholars have debated the etiology and evolution of writing. The most persistent concerns relate to the relationship between writing and social organization, linguistic structure, and c...

annualreviews.org

Unpopular opinion on bluesky but as a parent I bloody LOVE Australia's social media ban for under 16s! People keep citing the same NY times article as evidence that it's failing. But the article itself concedes that the ban is succeeding in all the most important respects

My eleven-year-old's feedback on the people who wrote the Old Testament: you don't know how to do suspense. Fair.

National Geographic announces fantasy crossover

Despite their quirkiness, self-published memoirs can be wonderful resources for researchers. But one quirk I find infuriating is the near universal absence of an imprint page with a publication date! Amateur writers go to so much trouble to document their stories and forget this one vital detail

If journalists call Hanson out they automatically validate her narrative of media persecution. If they treat her as just any other ordinary politician they help to normalise extremism. ​Populism is bullet-proof

Greg Jericho@grogsgamut.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Hanson said Austrlaia should be a monoculture and not one journalist thought to question that position #npc

Tombekai Sherman has produced a translation of a portion of Proust in the Vai script. It's the Madeleine excerpt. (Somewhere out there you will also find the Koran, the Bible and the Iliad in Vai)

Found in my photos from a few weeks ago. An incredibly realistic reproduction of the engraved Taï bone, from Magdalenian period. It looks like a couldn't finish eating it! Part of research by Neemias Santos da Rosa, Lila Geis, Lloyd Courtenay, Alain Queffelec & Francesco d'Errico

A Yolŋu flyer spotted in Nhulunbuy servo. Audition for Bluey episodes? I don't know! @ffnotes.bsky.social

University administrators two years ago: we can’t allow social justice movements to change the university as we know it University administrators today: in order to accommodate the new probabilistic bullshit generator no one likes we must change everything about the university

Thanks, Vonnegut. 💜

Just found a subreddit that pairs people with fucked up balls of string with people who love detangling balls of string and it is *very* wholesome

The Origins and Evolution of Writing: A Very Brief Synthesis My talk last week at the Faculty of Classics, Cambridge, for the VIEWS project @viewsproject.bsky.social youtu.be/SRC6QkiKtSo?...

Piers Kelly: The origins and evolution of writing: a very brief synthesis

YouTube video by Visual Interactions in Early Writing Systems

youtu.be

Was there ever another independent writing system in the ancient Middle East? "Curious sequences [that] ... would make more sense if the signs instead represented syllables..." Great work by Kelley and colleagues (and some supporting remarks from lesser-Kelly!): archive.is/pbVRm#select...

"The origins and evolution of writing: A very brief synthesis" at Cambridge 16:30, 20th May. Zoom in, if you're in a compatible time zone!

Here is my response to the recent Bentz & Dutkiewicz paper on Upper Paleolithic marking systems and their presumed relationship to writing bravenewwords.info/2026/03/20/t...

Thoughts on “Humans 40,000 y ago developed a system of conventional signs”

Another paper on Upper Palaeolithic marking systems has been getting a lot of attention, and various colleagues have been asking my opinion on it. I am not any kind of expert on this period but I d…

bravenewwords.info

I endorse this excellent-looking project!

John Mansfield@johnbasil.bsky.social · 6mo ago

I'm hiring! 2 x postdocs in Cognitive Anthropology, Archaeology and Linguistics, to work on the cultural history of Australia and Papua. More details in link below, and please do repost or share elsewhere! www.isle.uzh.ch/en/jobs/post...

newlinesmag.com/argument/the...

The Academic Justification for Male Supremacy

From Noam Chomsky to Larry Summers, elite intellectuals shared more than they want to admit with Jeffrey Epstein

newlinesmag.com

Archduke Franz Ferdinand has entered the chat

Thor Benson@thorbenson.bsky.social · 6mo ago

I swear these people don't have object permanence

University of Western Australia's archeologists are smokin', especially Dr Bandit Heeler

This makes so much sense now

McSweeney's@mcsweeneys.net · 7mo ago

"The strategic initiative has a bigger plan for us all. You’re suffering now, but if you fight through the pain and work extra hard in support of the new strategic initiative, you’ll taste the sweet afterlife of a successfully executed strategic initiative." www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/int...

Judy Kroo (UniMelb) and Matt Tomlinson (ANU) are starting a #linganth reading group, modelling it on CaMP anthroplogy but for Oz time zones. It's called CaMP Down Under and will be zoomed on the last Friday every month at 10:30AM AEST. Sign up here: forms.gle/MqGx7HrVPqC9...

CaMP Down Under

Enter your name, email and institution to sign up

forms.gle

'Some Account of My Intercourse with Madame Blavatsky' (1885) This is going to be hot

​The circular dance of bureaucracy everywhere: ​UNI ADMIN: In order to proceed you MUST provide us with your unique project code! ME: What is my unique project code? UNI ADMIN: KellyX34 ME: Alright, "KellyX34" UNI ADMIN: Thank you for informing us!

Today I learned that Charles Darwin wrote a 348 page book on 'The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms with Observations on their Habits'.

The banality of good ...read this from Gal Beckerman www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/0...

I once game a live presentation, after which somebody in the audience advised me to engage with the work of Piers Kelly

sam@samthielman.com · 8mo ago

I just thought everyone should see this

Totally normal seasonal notice from my rural Australian university