iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Fernanda Ferreira @fernandaedi.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

My view on the train ride from Berkeley to Davis.

View of the water and blue sky, with rocks in the foreground.

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Fernanda Ferreira @fernandaedi.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

This cartoon from The New Yorker made me laugh out loud and grimace a little.

Cartoon in which two people look out at a huge rectangular building and one says “This data center is set aside for storing accidental screenshots of your phone’s home screen.”

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Fernanda Ferreira @fernandaedi.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

This is the list of candidates for governor of California.

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Fernanda Ferreira @fernandaedi.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Finally, we find an effect of speech rate: when people talk faster, there are fewer strong prosodic boundaries, suggesting that speakers shove more words into a single prosodic phrase:

A graph showing average number of words per second on the x axis (from 0.75 to 3.75) and average % of strong prosodic boundaries on the y axis (from 10 to 50). Four lines are plotted, one for each of the four corpora. Each shows a clear negative relationship: as speech rate goes up, number of prosodic boundaries goes down.

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Fernanda Ferreira @fernandaedi.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

When we treat both as continuous variables, we see that the relationship between syntactic and prosodic boundary strength is nonlinear—in fact, it’s cubic:

Four graphs showing the same four tasks in four panels. The x axis is number of syntactic closing nodes, from 1 to 10, and the y axis is average prosodic boundary strength, from .6 to 1.2. The figures show a cubic relationship between the two variables.

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Fernanda Ferreira @fernandaedi.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

The key thing is that syntactic boundaries are prosodically marked about half the time: 53% for college students describing scenes, 53% under time pressure, 46% when giving descriptions of potential scene actions, and 42% for +60 adults.

Four graph panels: scene descriptions young adults, same but with time pressure, same but young adults provided action descriptions, and scene descriptions from 60+ adults. X axis is syntactic boundary (yes/no) and Y axis is prosodic boundary (y/n). The values show moderate alignment between syntax and prosody.

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Fernanda Ferreira @fernandaedi.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

City of Davis and UC Davis mainly use these. They're my favorite

three black bike racks of the kind that let you attach your top fender

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Fernanda Ferreira @fernandaedi.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

I'm usually not even aware of these messages but today I decided to glance at my junk folder and saw this. I have studied filler-gap processing - maybe they'd like something on movement?

An email from the Journal of Gastroenterology.

Dear Doctor. Ferreira Fernanda,

We hope you're doing well!

"World Journal of Gastoenterology (ISSN 2766-788X) (IF: 5.598) invites you to submit your papers for upcoming issue. As an esteemed researcher, we invite you to contribute your valuable work to our upcoming publication."

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Fernanda Ferreira @fernandaedi.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

When I was an undergraduate I did a weekly volunteer shift at Winnipeg's main progressive bookstore, Liberation Books. Someone just emailed me an image of the bookmarks we used to give out with our books. What a blast from the past!

A yellow bookmark with an image of Karl Marx and this text in red font:
FOR THE POLITICS IN YOUR FUTURE
Liberation Books
160 Spence St (at Broadway) Ph.774-0637
Books - Periodicals - Records - Lecture Series
Labour History, Women's Studies, Economics,
Literature, Ecology, Political Theory, etc.

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Fernanda Ferreira @fernandaedi.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

Canadian Mennonites have joined the resistance

Drawing of the inside of a church and above the text says “Canadian Mennonite University / SINGING RESISTANCE in solidarity with Minneapolis.” Then lists date and location in Winnipeg.

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Fernanda Ferreira @fernandaedi.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

One of my favorite things in Davis, California.

A red Unitrans bus. The front display says "BEEP BEEP I'M A BUS".

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Fernanda Ferreira @fernandaedi.bsky.social · 25/12/2025

I made filhoses / malassadas this Christmas - can I join? 😊

A bowl of filhoses / malassadas on a kitchen counter

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Fernanda Ferreira @fernandaedi.bsky.social · 21/12/2025

My mom used to make these - in my family we call them "filhoses", but I think they're also known as "malassadas". Sadly, she can't make them anymore, so I figured it was up to me to maintain the tradition of filhoses at Christmas. Here's my very first batch. Not too bad!

A scene from a kitchen counter. A bowl of filhoses or malassadas are in the foreground, nicely browned and sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon. In the background is a bowl of fruit.

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Fernanda Ferreira @fernandaedi.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

Note how different HRC’s emails are:

Email from Hilary Clinton to Noori Ali: Do you recall the ten year old Yemeni girl who got herself divorced? I met her at the Glamour awards last year. There was a CNN story last few days about how unhappy she is, still living at home, not attending school and quite angry that her life is not better. Is there any way we can help her? Could we get her to the US for counseling and education?

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Fernanda Ferreira @fernandaedi.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

In recognition of Neil Young's 80th birthday, here he is in Grade 10 at Kelvin High School in Winnipeg.

A smiling Neil Young standing behind some fancy looking audio equipment. He's wearing a turtleneck underneath a dark button-down shirt, long hair parted down the center.

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Fernanda Ferreira @fernandaedi.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

Manitoba is expanding its degree programs in Ojibwe and Cree. This is an example of the good that can happen when you elect a progressive, indigenous leader to run things.

Wab Kinew is with the University of Winnipeg and University College of the North. He says:

“Every day, all of us speak indigenous languages - even if we don’t realize it.
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

Now we’re taking action to keep those languages alive.

Starting in 2026, new indigenous languages degree programs at UWinnipeg and UCN will train the next generation of Ojibwe and Cree teachers.

Let’s lift up our shared heritage and build One Manitoba for all of us.”

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Fernanda Ferreira @fernandaedi.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

It's a privilege to work with these wonderful people. Here's the lab, 2025 edition.

About 15 members of Fernanda Ferreira's lab--undergraduates, graduate students, and postdocs--posing in front of the iconic UC Davis sign on campus.

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Fernanda Ferreira @fernandaedi.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

The final scene from The Way We Were is burned in my brain, probably because I‘ve watched the movie so many times. I love how this scene captures the way they clearly longed for each other while also recognizing their fundamental incompatibility. RIP, Robert Redford.

Robert Redford is on the left, Barbra Streisand is on the right. Her hand is gently touching the back of his neck and he’s holding her arm. They’re looking at each other longingly.

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Fernanda Ferreira @fernandaedi.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

I laughed out loud at the idea of a 17-year old newborn. Occasionally prescriptive rules of grammar are worth following.

A headline about Lauren Boebert’s son Tyler that says “Tyler’s son was born in 2023 when he was 17 years old…”

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Fernanda Ferreira @fernandaedi.bsky.social · 27/07/2025

Came across this pair of photos showing the University of Winnipeg in 1957 and today. Used to be standard to have all kinds of shops at street level, accessible by foot. The 15-minute city used to be how we lived. (Photo credit: Darryl Resch, Daily Then & Now)

Two photos of the area around the University of Winnipeg. The one above shows the area in 1957. There’s an old, beautiful building, the original university (then called United College), and at street level is a string of small businesses that can be accessed by foot. The photo below shows a modern building towering over a lower modern building. All the cute shops are gone.

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Fernanda Ferreira @fernandaedi.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

My Canada slippers are now cat toys and the cats will not be considering any counterarguments.

Bouba the cat in the foreground guarding his green froggie toy and his and Kiki's latest acquisition, my soft Canada slippers, which they retrieved somehow from the closet of my study.

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Fernanda Ferreira @fernandaedi.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

Honestly, I’d only ever do this to the smug New York Times.

Item reads: Breaking news from the New York Times: Angela Paxton Files for Divorce from Texas Attorney General. The announcement could have a significant affect <should be “effect”> on the race for U.S. Senate in Texas. Ken Paxton is challenging Senator John Cornyn in the Republican primary.

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Fernanda Ferreira @fernandaedi.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

Me when I hear someone on booktok refer to a novel set in the 1970s as “historical fiction”

Christine Baranski as Agnes from The Gilded Age, looking surprised and displeased

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Fernanda Ferreira @fernandaedi.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

I realize we have much more important things to worry about, but I’ll never understand why US coffee shop coffees have to be so huge. I mean this is a small cappuccino

An absurdly large cup of cappuccino sitting on a suitcase.

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Fernanda Ferreira @fernandaedi.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

I think we’d all be a lot happier if we appreciated an open window as much as cats do.

Two cats, Kiki and Bouba, looking out an open window in my study. Their view is of trees and plant, and the occasional bird.

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Fernanda Ferreira @fernandaedi.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

The obsolete technology section of my office

An HP printer/scanner and a landline office phone, with voicemail functionality

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Fernanda Ferreira @fernandaedi.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

I'd just like to note that California is stunningly beautiful.

My backyard in Davis, California. It's a beautiful sunny afternoon. In the foreground is a patio with some paving stones, a fire table and Adirondack chair, and some dark pink flowers. Further back is a path surrounded by greenery, trees, and flowers, leading to a bench that's highlighted by the beautiful sunshine. At the periphery are some redwoods.

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Fernanda Ferreira @fernandaedi.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

Fun with language: The highlighted sentence gave me a genuine reverse garden-path: the simple NP analysis evaded me initially because I assumed “realized” would be followed by a clause, as it typically is, and even though “dream” is a great object for “realized”. Also, Hacks is a fantastic show.

A screenshot of a review of Hacks in 4/10/2025 Washington Post. The highlighted sentence: “The new season picks up right where the last one ended, with Deborah having realized her career-long dream to be the first woman to host “Late Night,”, never mind that she’s now the storied show’s oldest new house, too.”

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Fernanda Ferreira @fernandaedi.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

"It's no use - there's definitely a screen in the way."

Two cats near an open window on a gorgeous spring afternoon. One cat is looking longingly outside, the other is looking back in as if resigned to the presence of the screen that prevents them from going outside. Outside the window you can see a beautiful tree already covered in leaves.

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Fernanda Ferreira @fernandaedi.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

That’s one heck of a garden-path sentence.

Headline in the New York Times, March 26, 2025: “Elmo and Elon Musk are Cited as G.O.P. Lawmakers Lay Into PBS and NPR”. Photo of politician holding up a picture of Elmo accompanies the story.

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Fernanda Ferreira @fernandaedi.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

Kiki and Bouba’s reaction when I told them about Chuck Schumer.

Kiki (left) and Bouba (right) cuddled together on a blanket, looking annoyed but not surprised.

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Fernanda Ferreira @fernandaedi.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

In recognition of the 5th year anniversary of covid-19, Kiki and Bouba are engaged in some social distancing

Kiki and Bouba on the back of a couch, one behind the other, as far apart as possible.

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Fernanda Ferreira @fernandaedi.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

Kiki hearing bits of this evening’s speech and thinking about the midterms.

Kiki the calico cat on her hind legs with front paws in prayer position.

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Fernanda Ferreira @fernandaedi.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

My street has an entrance to the bike paths. Often that entrance looks like this (from Feb.17, 2025): it’s treated as parking.

Two work trucks parked side-by-side, completely blocking the entrance to the bike paths that make up the Greenbelt in Davis California.

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Fernanda Ferreira @fernandaedi.bsky.social · 16/02/2025

When I was a kid my mother found me in the bathroom scrubbing my face with Comet scouring powder. I’d just noticed my freckles and was determined to get rid of them. A book like this would have reassured me that they were fine. This book is now banned from schools operated by the Dept of Defense.

The cover of the children’s book “Freckleface Strawberry” by Julianne Moore, illustrated by LeUyen Pham. The cover art shows a little red haired girl looking happy and confident.

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