Ida Tolgensbakk
@idatolgensbakk.bsky.social
Folklorist at Norsk Folkemuseum, Oslo, Norway. Migration history, folklore, childlore, netlore. She/her. ida.tolgensbakk@norskfolkemuseum.no
Dear readers, the correct figure is 0.4%. Nearly 100x less. www.varsity.co.uk/features/29235
Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · yesterdayPaddy O'Connell, asked on the programme to estimate what % of professors at Cambridge are black, estimated it at 30%. Seriously, 30%.
It's official! I'm *permanently* banned from X for tweeting "TLDR: Fascism." (appeal denied) What an honor—and a sign that the Silicon Valley billionaires feel threatened by my book. (One of my final viral posts featured this cover.) Pre-order here! www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Ne...
Gil Durán@gilduran.com · 4mo agoThe CEO of Palantir posted a fascist manifesto on X. I pointed out that it was fascist—which resulted in a permanent suspension from X (my second time!). So, when you hear the tweeters complaining that BlueSky is intolerant, remember why many of us came here in the first place.
Going through a colleague's comments on my grant proposal and it is really refreshing to also get *positive feedback* about what is good and should be kept in
The Hidden Road To Self-Help Tuesday 25 August 2026 Ross MacFarlane shows that developments in the late 19th century, communications technology, new religious movements and the occult revival, are key to our understanding of the Self-Help movement. Link: forteanlondon.blogspot.com/2026/07/the-...
So here we go then: the result of many years thinking about how dinosaurs make science and the imagination work together. It's written for both literary critics and scientists and my dearest hope is that it will help foster an academy where we talk to each other more
"If somebody comes to me in 20 years and says “Are these your original ideas and words?” about even a single sentence of my writing, I need to be able to answer yes—no reservations, no loopholes, no room for error." www.carlsonlab.bio/thoughts/the...
The only reason you’ll ever need not to write with AI — The Carlson Lab
Over the last year, our lab has been developing a policy on AI use. To do this, we did three main things: We read a lot of academic publications and tech news. We set up an #ai channel on our la...
carlsonlab.bio
i don't like to police genre, but it's not dark academia unless somebody gets squished in one of these bad boys
Our article on affirmative narration as an interactional strategy for chatbots is finally published in the special issue of Narrative Inquiry on AI and literature! doi.org/10.1075/ni.2... (An unpaywalled version is available here: jilltxt.net/txt/Roine-Re...)
“YES! YES! I absolutely love this insight!”
Abstract This article analyses narrative mechanisms that are common in dialogues with LLM chatbots. In combination, these mechanisms produce an interactional strategy for maximising user engagement, which we call affirmative narration. Affirmative narration serves to convince users of the chatbot’s utility. We analyse three narrative mechanisms that support affirmative narration in human-LLM dialogues: firstly, guiding the user to view chatbot as an intelligent and reliable character; secondly, activating masterplots, culturally significant and recurring story templates; and thirdly, using characters and masterplots not only to affirm, but also to isolate the user. The case studies range from a journalist’s unsettling chatbot experiment to cases where users have experienced delusions or even killed themselves after lengthy interactions with a chatbot. The analyses illustrate the worrying sides of affirmative narration, and the article thus concludes with the discussion of LLMs as a genre of narrative media which requires a new type of literacy.
doi.org
As someone who was born in 1980s and worked @ Condé Nast, I am required by elder millennial law to watch DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2. I found it very pleasurable (also ironic) to see Anne Hathaway’s character wearing a shirt with the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) logo. I want one!
It's been a busy year so far, and autumn will be worse. But I am so, so grateful for an academic job that mostly allows for me to leave the computer at the office & have the weekend actually off. Playing solitaire on a Sunday evening after doing almost nothing all day ❤️ #academicsky
Got a "your paper was cited" notification and checked it out. The sentence where my paper was cited has nothing to do with the content of my paper. Seems like AI did not hallucinate a reference for the authors but produced an unrelated one. Has anybody else experienced this? #academicsky #philsky
Has anyone written anything about the ethics of external reviewing? #AcademicSky
Hello I have made this due to a mutual having issues with some folks on here forgetting this fact and shouting at him for it. Feel free to use it as a handy PSA x
Reading this classic. Enjoying the way the Chileans use the term "the Empire" about USA.
'What changed from the abstract, and why' is the most Digital Humanities slide ever. So many presentations sharing honestly what didn't work as expected or yield useful results. This one is by Jiwoo Choi (I think) dh-daejeon.vercel.app/abs/65?q=New... (Here, 'bag of words' access was no good)
It has been brought to my attention that the forest fires around Bordeaux are burning up the pine plantations set up on drained wetlands there in the 19thC, a project widely admired and imitated around the world. In case someone wants to fund my global history of pine project.
Some historical background to the fires in southwestern France, drawing on reading I did for my 2019 book about the moorlands, and lamenting the deeply depressing reality that we have known many of the causes of this ecological disaster for 150years 🗃️ williamgpooley.wordpress.com/2026/07/30/u...
Unintentional Arson
The fires in southwestern France are an appalling demonstration of the reality of climate change in 2026. But this is not the first ecological devastation in the region, and the role of human actio…
williamgpooley.wordpress.com
#FolkWitchFriday: Handcrafted Harvest 🌽 From corn dollies and masks to woven grain, harvest rites rely on physical craft. What ritual tool or object do you make or use for this tide? Show or tell us about the crafted pieces anchoring your seasonal work! #WitchSky #FolkWitch #FolkMagic #Folklore
At least now I can give him an answer: Yes, I really want to hurt you.
lol. Scholars have never thought about the difference between popular entertainment forms & scholarship. @scmstudies.bsky.social doesn’t exist. Neither does @pcaaca.bsky.social! Robert Rosenstone? No such person. Yes, scholars‘ views don’t “map onto” discussing pop culture, amirite? 🙃
A common comment on my videos about LLM "hallucinations" is that this isn't as much of a problem because LLMs "cite their sources" now. This is a category error. Citing a source implies it was consulted. LLMs do not consult, even with RAG. A citation might be *included* but it's not *consulted*.
Conversation with my 73 year old dad: Dad: you know I've been using that 'Chat GTP' a lot lately, I don't even use google or bing anymore Me: as a search engine? Dad: yeah, you can ask anything and get the answer right away without having to click anything! Me: but you know it can be wrong?
15 years after the Norwegian mass murderer killed 77 people, mostly children, motivated by conspiracy theories about cultural marxists and white genocide, his race war manifesto is more or less repeated verbatim to millions of people by the world's richest man, Elon Musk. Let that fucking sink in.
David Klemperer@dmk1793.bsky.social · 4w agoWe must remember the Utøya massacre, and remember it for what it was: a far-right attack specifically targeted against democratic socialist activists. Today, the ideologies of its perpetrator are openly espoused by a global network of nationalist oligarchs as they wage war on democratic societies.
#OnThisDay in 2011, the Utøya massacre claimed 77 lives in a tragic act of hatred and violence. Today, we honour the victims and stand in solidarity with their families and loved ones.
These weeks are the main summer holiday in Norway. Although the museum is packed (USAmerican cruise tourists! Little old French couples! Children!), the research department is completely empty. I'm trying to concentrate on some peer reviews & not the heaviness of this date. #academicsky
