ergative

ergative, 3 months ago to ukteachers

Hey, Mastodon! Indiana's attorney general has created an anti-teacher snitch portal for people to report school teachers for being too woke. It allows you to upload files and everything!

There appears to be no safeguard against entering any text you want in any of the boxes, and no location/residence checking.

Dare I ask you to do your thing?

https://www.in.gov/attorneygeneral/education-liberty/

Boosts welcome!

#academicChatter #education #bts #taylorSwift

ergative, 4 months ago to random

Hey, friends, a quick reminder that although Make America Kittens Again (MAKA) has been blocked from Chrome, it still works on Firefox:

Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/make-firefox-kittens-again/

(MAKA is a browser extension that replaces all images whose metadata includes the word 'Trump' with a creative-commons picture of a kitten. Here's what it did to the front page of today's NYTimes for me.)

ergative, 9 months ago to Scotland

Hey, Mastodon, I have a student who needs some #Scottish English speakers to do an online linguistics experiment. Can you help out? Boosts appreciated, or you can just click the link if you qualify!

#Scotland #experiment #linguistics

https://research.sc/participant/login/dynamic/40FE9D0B-2C90-47F9-9F47-B72F35A68CBA

ergative, 2 months ago to random

My sister, who is a few weeks away from being a registered RN told the following story about a very Good Boy.

A patient with schizophrenia suffered from periodic hallucinations of people who weren't there. He got himself a service dog, and one of the service dog's chores was to go up and greet people on command.

So: if the dog went up to greet a person, the person was real. And if the dog did not greet a person when commanded, the person was a hallucination.

Service dogs are all goodbois.

ergative, 1 month ago to random

A propos of #dogsAtPollingStations, here is a photo that Mr Absolutive found, of all places, at the Daily Mail (ptooey).

(please don't infer anything untoward about him; he checks all the newspapers on election day now that twitter is gone)

ergative, 5 months ago to bookstodon

For #DecRecs 18, allow me to DecRecommend Ed Yong's book 'An Immense World', which is a fascinating exploration of how animals perceive the world, and what sensory perception is, anyway. I picked it up a year and a half ago, because I LOVED 'I Contain Multitudes' and respect Yong's work as a scientific journalist enormously. But I've never cracked it until now, and I don't even regret delaying, because now it means I get to enjoy his work over this break!

@bookstodon #bookrecs @amReading

ergative, 5 months ago to linguistics

It's only just occurred to me decades late that the joke of 'The Addams Family Values' is based on ambiguous phrase structure. We could have [Addams Family] modifying 'values', as in Fig 1 -- the intended interpretation, but there's also the alternative bracketing which is automatically invoked by the highly frequent collocation 'family values'.

It's rather a brilliant film title!

(don't come at me for using X' schemas. I like 'em, they serve my non-syntactician needs)

#linguistics

Fig 2: Phrase structure tree of the bracket structure [NP [D the] [N' [Adj?? Addams] [N' [NP [N Family ] ] [N Values ] ] ] ]

ergative, 17 days ago to fountainpens

I'm rather charmed by the community convention on r/fountainpens where people tag pictures of mangled nibs NSFW.

#fountainPens

ergative, 3 months ago to random

TIL that the counterpart of nibling is entle, and I think that is just the best word.

ergative, 1 month ago to random

oh, no, AI is taking young finance bros' jobs!

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/10/business/investment-banking-jobs-artificial-intelligence.html

ergative, 5 months ago to fantasy

Ok, typically #DecRecs are books, but I'm going to break the mold and point all y'all towards this series of DELIGHTFUL conversations between Caroline, a fantasy writer, and Rosamund, her generic white-girl heroine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-axbuh6v68

#fantasy

ergative, 2 months ago to random

I'm please to report that my Make America Kittens Again browser extension is doing its job. What a lovely combination to greet my eyes.

ergative, 2 months ago to fountainpens

I'm reading a book that mentions inherited #FountainPens, but also is set before railways to Inverness opened, so I'm doing a bit of research into relative timelines to see if this is even possible.

Turns out it is, just barely: First railway to Inverness opened 1854, while eyedropper fountain pens were patented in 1809. So if this takes place 1850, fountain pen is 30 years old, it's possible. (But not if pen is self-filling, patented in1832.)

Did the author check dates, or just get lucky?

ergative, 2 months ago to random

Once on a forum for #FountainPen fanciers, someone posted that anyone who uses an ink colour other than black is trying to hide the fact that they have nothing serious or worthwhile saying. Modern tendencies for atrocities such as glittery inks are a sign of the degredation and downfall of civilization, unlike the good old days when monks were SRS BUSINESS and used only BLACK.

1/..

ergative, 5 months ago to fantasy

Happy #DecRecs 17, my friends! Today's recommendation is 'Scales and Sensibility', by Stephanie Burgis, a delightful regency romp with magic, imposters, romance, and of course dragons. Incontinent dragons.

@bookstodon #fantasy #romance #bookRecommendations

ergative, 5 months ago to bookstodon

Happy #DecRecs 16th, y'all!

Today's recommendation is the Raven, Fisher, and Simpson series, by Ambrose Parry. Set in 19th century Edinburgh, it follows the crime-solving adventurers of a medical apprentice and a housemaid, both of whom work in the household of Dr James Simpson, a real historical obstetrician who also discovered chloroform.

Very well researched, well-written, atmospheric books. Start with 'The Way of All Flesh'.

https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/5aba1d46-ae02-4357-a962-fde2a0f925b4

@bookstodon

ergative, 3 months ago to fountainpens

Bwah, the Lamy Dark Violet kerfuffle has made the NYTimes!

#fountainPens
#FountainPenInk
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/01/style/lamy-dark-lilac-ink.html

ergative, 5 months ago to fantasy

I haven't finished The Virtu yet, so today's entry in #DecRecs is Labyrinth's Heart, book 3 of the Rook and Rose trilogy by M. A. Carrick (half of whom is @swan_tower )

Oh, you haven't read the first two? Lucky! You get to read all three for the first time! The only thing I so much as reading that trilogy for the first time was re-reading books 1 and 2 in preparation for book 3 when it dropped this year.

Start with Mask of Mirrors.

https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/924306a0-aaaa-4456-a6c5-2953282d9048

@bookstodon #fantasy #sff

ergative, 5 months ago to bookstodon

Good morning, Mastodon! Today's entry into #DecRecs isn't quite a #BookRecommendation as it is a report:

I started Katherine Addison (Sarah Monette)'s 'Melusine' yesterday, stayed up late reading, and got up early to finish it this morning. I was utterly engrossed. Enthralled. Captivated.

I also read several 1* reviews on Goodreads and, to be honest, I kind of agree with them all.

I still bought the other three in the series, though.

Anyway. Thought y'alls should know.

@bookstodon

ergative, 6 months ago to bookstodon

Good morning! On this day, The Fifth of #DecRecs, allow me to suggest The Library of the Dead, by T. L. Huchu.

Set in parallel modern-day Edinburgh, where magic is part of life, living cheek-by-jowel with iphones and podcasts, and serves as yet another domain in which societal iniquities can play out. This version of Scotland is in rough shape, following vague Catastrophes, and young Ropa is just trying to look after her sister and gran, and kick ass.

@bookstodon
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/548b9788-939d-47cf-9c5b-c815fcc825ea

ergative, 1 month ago to animals

FYI, friendos, if you have a UK-based Netgalley account, this MASTERPIECE of title + cover design is now available:

(I haven't read it yet, but I'M GOING TO!!)

https://www.netgalley.co.uk/catalog/book/379156

@bookstodon #sff #catsofmastodon #sciencefiction

ergative, 5 months ago to random

Happy Day 9 of #DecRecs, for those who celebrate! Today's recommendation I haven't even finished yet, but that doesn't matter, because I'm having a blast and a half reading it. It is T. Kingfisher's newest Saint of Steel book, 'Paladin's Faith'.

Just as much fun as the others, standard bantery light comfy T Kingfisher reliable fluff. If you haven't read any of her work, you can start with The Clockwork Boys, where I started, or with Paladin's Grace. Or, y'know, anywhere. She's great.

ergative, 1 month ago to random

Look, just click through for the pictures of the wee miceys.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-68788690

ergative, 5 months ago to bookstodon

Happy 10th of #DecRecs, my friends! Today's is the Countess of Harleigh mystery series by Dianne Freeman.

Is it sophisticated and nuanced? No.

Is it clever and witty with a twisty twiney mystery plot?
Not as much as Freeman thinks

Is it reliable fun, with friendly characters, comfortable interiors, and an appropriate appreciation for Hollywood-Victorian vibes?

You betcha.

Start with 'A Lady's Guide to Etiquette and Murder', and go on from there.

#mystery @bookstodon #BookRecs #BookReview

ergative, 5 months ago to fantasy

Hey, #DecRecs isn't quite over yet! I haven't been doing it so much recently because the Absolutive house got hit with covid, but things are improving, and I just observed that Owen King's extremely interesting book about an ill-fated proletariate revolution in a fascinating magical city is on sale for 99p on uk amazon today.

I wrote a review of it on my blog here, if you want to know more

https://dampskunk.wordpress.com/2023/11/05/the-curator-2023-by-owen-king/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Curator-Owen-King-ebook/dp/B0BG4N1LVK

@bookstodon #BookReview #fantasy #sff