Dear database administrators: It's 2026. Your system should be able to handle hyphens. I should not need to spend two hours on the phone because you have my name with a hyphen in one place, a space somewhere else, and no space in some third system.
Dr. Jay Barchas-Lichtenstein (they/them)
@drnycnerd.bsky.social
Journalism researcher, linguistic anthropologist, fiction writer. Some things I discuss: language & social meaning, news media, #binders, puns, food. Now: @cnti.bsky.social Once: @knology.org My colleagues & I made: https://www.reportingwithnumbers.com/
A short and easy survey about nonbinary names: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... Closing date: 19th July 2026 #nonbinary #survey
Nonbinary names survey
Just a fun survey to find out about popular names and common naming trends among nonbinary people! You will get the chance to enter up to three names. If you go by more than three names and you're not...
docs.google.com
I love non-rhotic accents. "Pickford" and "Bigfoot" sound very different when I say them, but when a British announcer says them, they're interchangeable.
for Americans new to the sport, 3-2 in football is roughly equivalent to 817-620 in one of your sports.
Wonderwall as a victory song in the Azteca feels like a microaggression
Everyone in the bar is mad at the ref - both Mexico and England fans - so he must be good.
Aside from the truly sad end to Croatia's run, can we talk about the timekeeping? I don't understand how you can add 90 and 10 and get ... 109?
Mood: toddler in subway screaming with a look of sheer delight and mischief while their adult hopelessly repeats, "hey, bud, knock it off, you're annoying these nice people" and they nod acknowledgement before doing it again.
English-language soccer announcers are decidedly mid.
the gap between how AI is talked about from the podium and what it's actually being used for in the audience is the whole #tbd/con thesis in 48 seconds. Sept 23-24, free. Join the review crew or pitch a session: ask.gazzetta.xyz/tbdcon26 (video via @kennethudut on TikTok)
Come start conversations about hype, political economy, the gap between what people want and what we're being sold. What's exciting? What's terrifying? How do we get there but not *there*?
tbd/con@tbdcon.ai · 3mo agoAI isn't arriving cleanly, and the conversation about it shouldn't be either. #tbd/con is a free virtual conference for people who appreciate nuance, complexity, and figuring things out. Sept 23-24. Pitches open, reviewers wanted by May 31. ask.gazzetta.xyz/tbdcon26
🤔 "War?" "Hijack?" "Takeover?" Y'all use the weirdest vocab to describe voters calmly walking into a voting booth and filling in the bubble next to the name of the candidate that says things like "Childcare can be cheaper!" and "Let's fix that bike lane!" and "Elon should pay more tax than you do!"
Axios@axios.com · last mo."There's going to be a war": Centrist House Democrats plot Mamdani Caucus counterattack
New - I wrote about progressive Jewish ascendancy in Mamdanistan:
A new narrative for progressive Jewish New Yorkers
Judaism divorced from Zionism is now a winning political stance.
thehandbasket.co
NYC folks - has anyone seen youth turnout stats for this primary?
Even my bicycle is on the bandwagon.
Today in "automation can't handle everything": 20 minutes trying to cancel an insurance claim. Words that don't work: cancel, withdraw, human, person, agent, representative. ("Update" gets me an update from them; I can't give one.) Rare case? Sure. But closed menus need an exit for these cases.
Remember this scene the next time a corporate reporter tries to insist that a rural diner full of white men in their 60s is somehow a more authentically "American" place, somehow more representative of who we are as a nation.
Greg Pak@gregpak.net · 2mo agoKNICKS IN FIVE KNICKS PRIDE BROOKLYN
Meet our panel 👇 June 1 with News Creator Corps: No Newsroom, No Problem: Building Credibility on Your Own 🎙️ @philedwardsinc.bsky.social 🎙️ @rlobdell.bsky.social 🎙️ @drnycnerd.bsky.social 🎙️ @yafavtrashman.bsky.social RSVP: zoom.us/webinar/regi...
Such a useful table. "The term ‘Artificial Intelligence’ (AI) means many things to many people (see Table 1 for different types of meanings)." from Reclaiming AI as a Theoretical Tool for Cognitive Science (Iris van Rooij, Olivia Guest, et al. 2024) link.springer.com/article/10.1...
being right about bad things is deeply unsatisfying. especially when they're avoidable
Iris van Rooij 💭@irisvanrooij.bsky.social · 3mo ago" @anthonymoser.com , a software engineer and technologist, was among those who foresaw how chatbots could eventually hollow out educational institutions. (...) “I wish it had taken longer for this to become literally true.”" open access link: archive.ph/qt59c 5/🧵
Build credibility as an indie news creator. 🎙️ Join CNTI & News Creator Corp (NCC) for a free webinar on the future of independent media. 📅 June 1, 2026 🕛 12 PM EST RSVP: bit.ly/4uKLI8d @rlobdell.bsky.social @yafavtrashman.bsky.social @philedwardsinc.bsky.social @drnycnerd.bsky.social
TIL you can hail an ice cream truck like a taxi. Dangerous to know.
I'm at #IJF26 and it's my first time attending — if you're here, I'd love to meet up!
In Perugia for #IJF26? Join @bankonjustin.com, @lni.media's @davejorgenson.bsky.social, @cnti.bsky.social's Amy Mitchell and @codeforafrica.bsky.social's @justinarenstein.bsky.social at 5p Thursday to talk about the future!
A "fun" linguistic thing I learned this week. (Don't worry, everyone is ok.) Hospitalists reserve the term "sepsis" for TSS while "bacteremia" refers to a non-emergent blood infection. Other doctors call it all "sepsis." Not ripe for patient misunderstanding at all... cc @tnfalpha.bsky.social