"Details, in their singularity and idiosyncrasy, point to the capaciousness of human experience." New today in the Society's journal 'Transactions': Joe Moran 'On Detail in Historical Writing': bit.ly/44UMi8C Now available OA @joemoransblog.bsky.social @massobsarchive.bsky.social #Skystorians 1/2
I decided I never wanted to use Word again in late 2018, as I was trying to generate the final version of my PhD thesis. It had a *lot* of references and, when I came to put all the chapters together, the Word+Zotero combination ground to a halt.
Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ@olivia.science · last mo.I dunno if this is offensive to say because I seem to upset people when I say this, but humanities people should consider joining us, or at least join us in decoupling from Word and other MS products where we can... and @acollierastro.bsky.social says it more convincingly than I can!
#OtD 7 Jun 2020 Black Lives Matter protesters in Bristol, UK, pulled down a statue of enslaver Edward Colston and threw it into Bristol Harbour. Colston's Royal African Company transported more than 100,000 enslaved Africans in the 17th century stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1072...
Seems that I re-skeet this earlier and earlier each year …
Philip R. Conway@prconway.bsky.social · 12mo agoAnother summer, another procession of record-smashing heatwaves. After the heatwave of July 2022, I wrote this piece on dread, anger, and the duty to critique. Re-reading it for the page proofs, I was struck by some things I wrote that already seem out of date, but also some that seem timely. 🧵
Universities: Britain’s secret border guards.
Jim Dickinson@jimdickinson.bsky.social · 3mo agoNEW on Wonkhe: With refusal rates spiking, withdrawals surging, and universities pre-emptively retreating from high-risk markets, Jim Dickinson finds an international contraction engineered through plumbing rather than policy buff.ly/kU3B0te
To be fair, if there is a formula for academic success, as I have observed it, it is basically this: Do decent quality research. Parcel that research into as many strategically positioned papers as possible. Never put in more effort (or expend more material) than is necessary for any given paper.
I mean… it's wrong, but it's not irrational. If your decision making process is basically a risk/reward calculation designed to maximise your chances of professional success, then cutting corners (actually reading your sources/actually writing your manuscript) is probably beneficial, up to a point.
no brain, only alison@alisonborealis.bsky.social · 3mo agoI just do not understand this. Why are people including citations they haven't read in the first place??? You citing a paper because something materially in the paper (generally in the results or methods) emphasizes or supports something you are saying. How do you get there without reading?
These people must just waft through life, surrounded by peers and sycophants, their self-assurance matched only by their ignorance.
Cabel Sasser@cabel.panic.com · 3mo agothis graduation speech moment is notable, and her amazed shock at having failed to read the room feels instructive. when you're inside the bubble, you think everybody else is. but everybody isn't.
Their party is losing, but their side is winning.
Jessica Elgot@jessicaelgot.bsky.social · 3mo agoWithout minimising the dire results for Labour, it’s extraordinary how chipper the Tories are. They’ve lost 500 seats from a low watermark, lost historic major councils to Lib Dems and Reform, show no signs of recovery in the esp LD areas they need to win. But MPs seem to think it’s going well.
I was in Budapest four years ago, on the day of the previous election. I saw Viktor Orbán leaving a fancy restaurant at lunchtime, looking very pleased with himself. It seemed unthinkable at that time that he could be out, but here we are. Congratulations Hungary.
Thought of a funny bit. DuckDuckGoed it. Already exists: em-dash-appreciation.org
Em Dash Appreciation Society
em-dash-appreciation.org
It would be so easy to tell a university-based story that is both dramatically interesting and realistic: Dishevelled twenty-something wakes up in stealthily parked car; gingerly exits. Sneaks in back door of public gym; showers and brushes teeth. Walks out onto campus. “Oh, hi Dr Smith!” Etc.
Phillip Maciak@pjmaciak.bsky.social · 4mo agoWhat might THE PITT for higher education look like? Two new shows are definitely *not* interested in finding out! I wrote about ROOSTER and VLADIMIR and the problem of college caricature for @newrepublic.com newrepublic.com/article/2081...
Our podcast has landed! Electric World Order: ep 1 - looks at the second wave of the energy transition, and why & how China is making it happen
pod.link
I wrote about being unemployed, middle-aged, and trying to find a creative voice in a world ever more dominated by self-satisfied mediocrity polycritical.substack.com/p/letter-to-...
Letter to a friend (who definitely isn’t just me in a trench coat)
On being unemployed and middle-aged, with aspirations of creativity
polycritical.substack.com
The “good enough” attitude —valuing productivity for its own sake, pursuing quantity over quality, and generally having low intellectual standards — has long been a path to academic success. AI merely supercharges this. Amazing to see people so openly proud of their own mediocrity though.
Alexander Kustov@akoustov.bsky.social · 5mo agoSorry, Bluesky, but I have to say it: AI can already do social science research better than most professors with PhDs. And, for the first time in my life, I really have no idea what happens in five years. Things are changing already, we just need to wake up.
World powers are deep in a fight over critical minerals. But for a clutch of lawmakers in Britain's quiet Cornwall, they mean something else: Votes.
Trump wants critical minerals. So do Cornwall’s MPs.
Global leaders are going head to head over critical minerals and national security. For some U.K. lawmakers, it is chance to grab both investment and votes.
politico.eu
New piece for @phenomenalworld.bsky.social, written with @jacktaggart.bsky.social and @tomchodor.bsky.social! It's an attempt at grasping the dismantling of multilateral global governance, in light of intensifying geopolitical rivalries, resurgent state capitalism, and hegemonic crisis. Link below:
There’s this big yellow thing in the sky that’s making everything hot. What the hell is it?
“Lynn, idea for Farage meeting. Jim Davidson hosts the 9 o’clock news. Stop migrants taking taxis.”
Toby Buckle@polphilpod.bsky.social · 6mo agothis labour government man . . .
It’s difficult to express in words the contempt with which the McSweeney cabal deserve to be regarded, but Ian does a good job in approximating.
Ian Dunt@iandunt.bsky.social · 6mo agoWhy is every scandal existential for Starmer? Because he has actively worked to eradicate his own support base. And that, along with the Mandelson decision, can be laid at McSweeney's door iandunt.substack.com/p/starmers-m...
Why is every scandal existential for Starmer? Because he has actively worked to eradicate his own support base. And that, along with the Mandelson decision, can be laid at McSweeney's door iandunt.substack.com/p/starmers-m...
He's finally done. They'll hang him out to save themselves, now. But I think it's important to emphasise that Mandelson had and kept power *because* of being a creepy, corrupt spittle-licker. That was his job, and he excelled at it. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
‘Where r u? I miss you’: how vivid new Epstein emails sealed Mandelson’s fate
The latest revelations and reaction to them may mean he has finally encountered a scandal he is unable to outrun
theguardian.com
Have to say, I’m getting such Hackers (1995) vibes from our political class these days. They haven’t got the faintest idea what’s actually going on, but they’ll believe whatever some billionaire in a leather jacket tells them. So desperate to be seen to be on the cutting edge. The perfect mark.
Peter Stefanovic@peterstefanovic.bsky.social · 6mo agoBREAKING: Free AI training will be offered to every adult in the UK, with short courses to teach people how to use simple AI tools effectively in the workplace. Technology Secretary Liz Kendall tells #BBCBreakfast about the scheme
The great political contradiction of Trump: he gets a knee-shaking ego-thrill from posing as a callous, imperturbable tough guy, but he also deeply, viscerally needs his people to like him.
Jason Linkins@dceiver.bsky.social · 6mo agokayfabe
Every day it becomes clearer and clearer that the actual political convictions behind what became demonised as “woke,” from 2020 onwards, were pretty much spot on, and those Very Serious People who participated in its demonisation owe us all a series of grovelling apologies.
Caught up with the last season of The Righteous Gemstones: Utterly bonkers (indeed, Bible Bonkers). Large parts make absolutely no sense. The satirical edge is dulled with sentimentality. And, I repeat, it’s bonkers. But when you’ve got John Goodman doing John Goodman things, anything seems possible
