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Chris Stokes

@nisaccom.bsky.social
212 followers 348 following 2.9K posts
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Chris Stokes @nisaccom.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
'Data... shows a rapid descent... just two hours after take-off, descending more than 17,000 feet... in less than two minutes...' www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Israel-bound flight diverted after fight between pilots
Despite a brief emergency alert signalling a hijacking, the Israeli prime minister's office confirmed this had been ruled out.
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Chris Stokes @nisaccom.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
'Taking an average, statistically the "L" is safe for an average of 639 days or 21 months.' So in Sheffield, the locals instantly report the vanishing of the L and the highways maintenance contractor responds within seconds to restore it. They do things properly in South Yorkshire.
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Chris Stokes @nisaccom.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Et tu, Brute.
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New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Source (credit where it's due etc.): mastodon.scot/@gl33p@masto...
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David Edgerton @davidedgerton.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Burnham claims to be providing a more serious and thought- through prospectus for Britain, but believing Britain is the world's innovation nation; trusted world leader in AI; leading the next industrial revolution, is neither serious nor new.
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Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
David Quammen's essay in The New York Times today closes with this paragraph. It's both a scientific falsehood, and an incredibly dangerous narrative. If you're willing to give me five minutes of your time, I'd like to explain why.
The Ebola virus doesn’t need to spill back. It abides in its reservoir host, and awaits its next opportunity. A virus can’t climb out of a bat or a monkey and fly off in search of human prey. It can only spill over. If humans left the reservoir host alone — not hunting it, not capturing it, not eating it, not exporting it live, not disturbing its forest habitat — the virus wouldn’t re-emerge in humans. It would remain where it is, harming no one. But of course that’s not what happens. And when viruses spill, they often spill into us, because the human population is such a big, busy target.
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Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
It's time to stop letting a small number of white American journalists who write airport books about scary diseases set the policy frame for pandemics. And it's unbelievably galling to do it - and this is always how it happens - in the middle of an ongoing Ebola virus epidemic.
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Mic Wright @brokenbottleboy.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
What’s your best sleeping story? Mine is probably falling asleep under a piano at Gare Du Nord after reporting on the Bataclan attacks and being woken up by armed police.
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Chris Stokes @nisaccom.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
AI triage of grant applications! Appears to have been the work of one of EPSRC's Place Based Impact Acceleration Account programmes. www.ukri.org/news/researc...
ukri.org
Research and innovation clusters to boost UK regional growth
From digital healthcare and rehabilitation technology to offshore wind energy, the seven new projects will kickstart economic growth and address regional needs.
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Chris Stokes @nisaccom.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
There's another call with distributed peer review and it's already open. This one's from EPSRC. Deadline less than a month off. www.ukri.org/opportunity/...
ukri.org
Next generation artificial intelligence (AI): explainable AI
Apply for funding for projects focused on speculative and high-risk fundamental research with the potential to deliver high reward and a step change in the explainability of future AI systems.
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Chris Stokes @nisaccom.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Distributed peer review has now appeared in a UKRI research funding call. It opens in a week. www.ukri.org/opportunity/...
ukri.org
UKRI Enabling AI adoption across science and engineering
Apply for funding for ambitious and exploratory projects bringing together AI and domain expertise. Projects will have the potential to unlock new opportunities for applying AI to research challenges ...
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Chris Stokes @nisaccom.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Alice Sara Ott & the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra performing Grieg's piano concerto in A minor live on BBC Radio 3 competing with the loud ringing of a phone for about 15 seconds there.
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Tony Jackson @jacksont0ny.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
When I was around nine years old I saw The Wombles at Preston Guildhall. One of them fell off the stage (and allegedly broke their arm). It was the talk of our village school for years ;) #rocknroll
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Anton Hur @antonhur.com · 16/09/2026
Got to very edit the remaining 200 manuscript pages of a novel I translated in seven hours (or more). Thought it might be fun to livesky how a book is edited while I do it. A thread!
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Darren Dahly @statsepi.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Rightly so. cc @wiringthebrain.bsky.social @deevybee.bsky.social www.the-scientist.com/wellcome-s-5...
the-scientist.com
Wellcome’s $50M Microbiome-Autism Project Gets a Serious Gut Check | The Scientist
A massive research program investigating causal links between the gut microbiome and autism sparked fierce pushback from scientific critics and advocacy groups.
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Kirsty Grainger @kirstygrainger.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I heard from a UK University yesterday that they have built their own closed AI Agent to undertake grant application assessment. They are running it alongside internal demand management panels; refining the model as they go to see whether they can get to a point of dropping the panels of people.
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Stuart Drunsfield @stuartdrunsfield.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Swiss government is getting ready to replace Microsoft 365 with openDesk
cybernews.com
Swiss government openDesk pilot to replace Microsoft 365 across 3,000 workstations
3,000 workstations will test the Swiss government openDesk pilot as officials weigh costs, data protection, and Microsoft dependence. See what it reveals
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World Bollard Association™️ @worldbollardassoc.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Easy. #WorldBollardAssociation
A brick wall topples over but is held back by 2 bollards.
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Chris Stokes @nisaccom.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
The only pets I smoke are little mice with clogs on.
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Chris Stokes @nisaccom.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Ian Sansom, sorry Professor Ian Sansom ('novelist, journalist and broadcaster', as his potted bio styles him), might have been the model for Count Arthur Strong, it seems. But the book this pops up in, ostensibly about the Auden poem, is bostin—at the 30-odd-page mark.
Photo of a paragraph from page 32 of Ian Sansom's book 'September 1, 1939—A biography of s poem'. It reads: 
'(Some years ago, invited to give a reading at a library, I was introduced as C. J. Sansom – the bestselling author of histor-ical crime fiction, and no relation. When I explained that I was not, alas, C. J. Sansom, two women in the audience got up and left. Which was fine, really. The other half of the audience remained.)'
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Aylwyn Scally @aylwyn-scally.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
I'm tired of hearing this stuff from politicians. 'McDonald said prime minister Andy Burnham had personally told him he wants more of the UK’s “world-class research” to foster growth and jobs.' www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-p...
researchprofessionalnews.com
New science minister: funding system ‘destroying’ value of research - Research Professional News
Chris McDonald says he wants fewer and longer-term grants, plus a “smoother and simpler system”
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Chris Stokes @nisaccom.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
What doesn't kill you...
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Ian Butler @drbutty.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Always important to remember that UUK is an organisation that represents the vice chancellors of universities, but *not* the universities. And we all know what a bang-up job they've done of financially managing the institutions that they head-up.
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Europe PMC @europepmc.org · 09/09/2026
Researchfish closes in July 2027. When UKRI last went to tender, it found no viable alternative product. Kyle Deme (OpenAlex) and I think that was the wrong question, read this blog to find out more blog.openalex.org/after-resear...
blog.openalex.org
After Researchfish: Europe PMC & OpenAlex on the future of grant outcomes reporting - OpenAlex blog
Researchfish is closing on 31 July 2027. For the more than 90 funders that relied on it, including UKRI, NIHR, and many of the UK’s largest research charities, the question of how to track what their ...
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Research Professional News @resprofnews.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Jodrell Bank’s e-Merlin network still faces closure in 2028 Government says it will not save telescope network, despite Burnham pledge www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-p...
researchprofessionalnews.com
Jodrell Bank’s e-Merlin network still faces closure in 2028 - Research Professional News
Government says it will not save telescope network, despite Burnham pledge
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Anna Grey @annamgrey.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Thanks to @kirstygrainger.bsky.social for flagging this one up. www.ukri.org/news/ukri-mo...
ukri.org
UKRI modernises grant assessment for the age of AI
UKRI is updating its grant assessment approach to speed up grant decisions, respond to generative AI and ensure we continue backing the best talent and ideas.
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Chris Stokes @nisaccom.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Stranger than fiction. Were .22 Mossbergs ten a penny in Massachusetts back in the day?
Screenshot of part of an article in LRB on 23 April 2026 by Paul Theroux. It reads:

'Father Burns sighed whenever he saw me stowing my bolt-action Mossberg .22 calibre rifle in my locker and slipping on my cassock and surplice. But he accepted it, because I was in the church-sponsored Boy Scouts, Troop 25, which gathered weekly at the parish hall.'Photo of a paragraph on the back cover of a paperback edition of Paul Theroux's novel 'My Secret History'. It's a quote about the book from Jonathan Raban. It reads as follows. (Parent, by the way, is the surname of the main character.)

'Nothing on the shelf has quite prepared the reader for My Secret History... Parent saunters into the book aged fifteen, shouldering a .22 Mossberg rifle as earlier, more innocent American heroes used to tote a fishing pole. In his pocket is a paperback translation of Dante's Inferno He is a creature of naked and unquenchable ego, greedy for sex, money, experience, another life

'Jonathan Raban, Observer'
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Chris Stokes @nisaccom.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Godin's entartement of Bill Gates— classy. youtu.be/xcDplOHUBAE?...
youtu.be
L'entarteur Noël Godin est décédé à l'âge de 80 ans
YouTube video by BX1
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Daniel Sugarman @danielsugarman.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
The world's most notorious custard-pie thrower is dead. What an obituary. He got Bernard-Henri Lévy seven times.
​Known to his army of fans as L’Entarteur or Georges le Gloupier, Godin launched his career as a serial deflator of egos in 1969, when he planted a tarte à la crème on the face of the French novelist Marguerite Duras (“She has a kind of intelligence and cleverness that serves only her own vanity,” he complained), and he went on to “pie” a cast list of celebrities for sins ranging from pomposity to “choosing to function in the service of the capitalist status quo”.The same could not be said of Bernard-Henri Lévy, one of France’s “new philosophers,” whose provocative views on sex, frequent appearances on television and penchant for white silk shirts unbuttoned practically to the navel, had made him a cult figure – and one of Godin’s most satisfying victims.

Levy once declared: “I am the most gifted writer of my generation,” and often boasted of his reasonableness and tolerance, but he was forced to endure footage being repeatedly shown on French television of himself, covered in cream, during a visit to the Belgian city of Liège, trying to strangle Godin and shouting: “Get up, or I’ll kick your head in.”Noël Godin was born on September 13 1945 and came to pie-throwing after a rebellious youth in which he scandalised the priests in the confessional by speaking of his “horrible sexual life”, and was thrown out of Liège University after emptying a pot of glue over the head of a law lecturer who had helped write the constitution for the Portuguese dictator António de Oliveira Salazar.

He found work at Friends of Film, an obscure magazine published by the Belgian Catholic League. It had a tiny readership, which was just as well, as Godin made up most of his articles. In one he claimed that Louis Armstrong had once been a cannibal and had invested in a film called The Vegetables of Good Will in which Claudia Cardinale played a giant endive.

In another he conjured up a fictional blind Thai filmmaker named Vivian Pei, describing her film, The Lotus Flower Will Never Again Grow on the Edge of Your Island, in such convincing terms that an Asian film specialist travelled to Thailand in an effort to track her down.“We’re very careful not to hurt people,’’ he explained. “Well, they are hurt, but always in their amour-propre.”

In 1995 Godin published an autobiography, Cream and Punishment. His other targets over the years included the New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard (who charmed his assailant by hailing the attack as a homage to silent film), the French politician Nicolas Sarkozy, the choreographer Maurice Béjart and the Ryanair chairman Michael O​’Leary. He tended not to pick Belgian victims, he explained, because few would notice if he did.
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Chris Stokes @nisaccom.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Should be read while watching Orr in action: youtu.be/aXut3s90rUI?...
youtu.be
Undercover: Exposing Reform's secret donations plot
YouTube video by Channel 4 News
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richard mortimer @richardmortimer.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
#WindowsOnWednesday Cambridge #aofoto
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Sodslawyer @sodslawyer.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Ohai
A swan peering over the tide wall by the shore of the Thames, against a sky full of rainclouds.
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Chris Stokes @nisaccom.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Heck of a bus ride thread:
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Dr. Jeroen W.P. Wijnendaele @drdragases.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Just checked with people who sit at Ghent University's board of governors: Fake News. Disciplinary proceedings against Nathan Cofnas are still ongoing. (Make of the other communication what you will)
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five commas a pound, can't say fairer @commamonger.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Wooden Nail Brush
Directions for use
Use this nail brush to keep your nails clean.
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Chris Stokes @nisaccom.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Cilla Blacklers
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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Cofnas had a Leverhulme early career fellowship "I called the Leverlhulme Trust this morning, and was surprised that this was, apparently, the first inquiry they had had about Nathan Cofnas" - Afua Hirsch afuahirsch.substack.com/p/a-tale-of-...
afuahirsch.substack.com
A Tale of Two Racists
and the forever war against black bodies
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Tony - Pod Guy - Groves @tonygroves.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
BBC invited Palestinian writer, researcher and analyst Muhammad Shehada on to talk about Israel’s decision to investigate the killing of Hind Rajab. Below is Muhammad’s account of what happened next. Full disclosure: I know him years and he’s a regular on the pod. So naturally I believe him 100%.
@muhammadshehad2
Disappointed the BBC cancelled my interview on
Israel's killing of Hind Rajab
2 producers eagerly reached out. They confirmed the time & one called to prepare a brief for the anchor
She asked me whether Israel's announcement is positive, I explained in detail it was a cover up.
The IDF is blaming the killing of Hind, her uncle, aunt & 4 cousins on the family itself for trying to flee by car & on the ambulance sent to rescue her for "failures in the co-ordination of the movement."
None of this is remotely true! The Red Cross immediately informed the IDF about 5-year-old Hind who was hiding in that motionless car, & they requested permission from Israel to allow an ambulance to rescue them.
After multiple long hours, Israel granted greenlight to the ambulance & provided them with a designated route on a GPS to drive on.soon as the ambulance reached Hind's car, the IDF ambushed & bombed them immediately with an American made anti-tank missile then opened fire on Hind's car. The car was hit with 355 bullets.
Israel then kept that area under lockdown for 12 days, & prevented anyone from approaching.
Hind's mom went daily to the Ahli baptist hospital hoping to find her daughter, until her lifeless body was brought in along with the charred remains of the ambulance men.
Israel then claimed after an "initial investigation" that its troops were NEVER in that area to begin with. They maintained that claim for 2 years despite ample recordings & satellite images debunking this lie.
The only reason Israel is now making this new announcement of a deeper investigation is to shield its soldiers & generals from the International Criminal Court by invoking the principle of "complementarity;" that the ICC cannot investigate a state that is already investigating itself in good faith.I told the BBC producer Israel today also quietly shut down the investigation into the triple tap killing of American, Canadian, British, Australian & Polish citizens in the WCK massacre. Israel blamed the massacre on the aid workers themselves for "deviating from the predesignated route" & for hiring an armed security guard "without informing the IDF" (both claims where debunked by WCK themselves, who had coordinates their every step with the IDF).
I told the producer the Israeli commander responsible for this massacre, Nochi Mendel, is a fanatical settler who had signed a petition calling for starving Gaza & that he was celebrated by settler leaders & supported by Israeli government leaders after what he did.
Mendel even received a box of chocolate from the settler council's leader & a letter of support for what he did.
Mendel was initially dismissed by the IDF & blamed for the massacre, but was quickly & quietly reinstated & promoted in the Defence Ministry as the head of the settlements and notionol infroctrunturo unitIt's abundantly clear Israel is NOT serious about prosecuting any of the atrocities committed in Gaza. Since the genocide began, only two soldiers were punished by the IDF; one for microwaving a living frog & another for cooking sausages in the army kitchen on Shabbat.
The producer asked me: What about the 150 cases the IDF said are pending review?
I answered: it's just a number designed to give the appearance of seriousness, but it's essentially meaningless.
If it took the IDF two whole years to admit the simplest of facts that the entire world had already known, which is that their troops were the ones who fired on Hind Rajab's car, how do you expect them to do with the remaining cases that are not as high profile?
Five minutes after the call, the producer wrote me that they decided to cancel the interview & will not even host anyone else to comment on the issue, & instead they'll play archival footage!
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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
'A Royal Society fellowship scheme for mid-career research leaders has been branded a “policy failure” over the seniority of its latest cohort of winners.' 1/3
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Chris Stokes @nisaccom.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Beach reading for the discerning aficionado of true crime—in a bookshop near you.
A cropped photo of the books on a bookcase in a bookshop. It shows the front covers of the uppermost copy of each of a single row of five titles side by side:

INSIDE THE MIND OF THE YORKSHIRE RIPPER
THE FINAL INVESTIGA...
by CHRIS CLARK AND TIM H...


INSIDE THE MIND OF MYRA HINDLEY
MONSTER OR MANIPULATED?
[by] TANYA FARBER AND JERE...

INSIDE THE MIND OF THE GOLDEN S... KILLER
[by] JOSEPH JAMES DEANGELO

INSIDE THE MIND OF CHARLES MANSON
CULTS, MURDER, MADNESS
[by] ...UNTER

CLARKSON—Don't Stop Me Now
[by JEREMY CLARKSON]

Prominent underneath the row of books is a sign bearing the words: 

'Adult Non-Fiction
'Mix & Match
'3 for £7.50'
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 11/08/2026
1. This is a very interesting story. But this is not a matter of researchers learning how to understand what the LLMs are doing. It is researchers learning how to get around the companies’ attempts to hide what the LLMs are doing to prevent other companies from training off of their models.
wired.com
A New Trick Reveals AI Models’ Inner Thoughts
Researchers devised a way to extract “reasoning traces” from Claude, GPT, and Gemini. What they found, they say, indicates that some Chinese AI may be trained on leading US models.
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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Plenty to reflect about re: the Arday affair, but I'm going to repeat this one thing. The playbook the right used here is effective even though it's not especially sophisticated, as it relies on the audience to do the dirty work. I've been calling it "Trojan horse propaganda", let's go with that. 1/
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World Bollard Association™️ @worldbollardassoc.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
⚠️BREAKING NEWS IN AUSTRALIA - BOLLARDS FLIP A TESLA⚠️ #WorldBollardAssociation
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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
PHOTO OF THE DAY: The graves of a Catholic woman and her Protestant husband, seperated by a cemetery wall in the Netherlands (1888). 📷 google images
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Ian Duhig @ianduhig.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
The poet's nightmare
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George Merchant Ballentyne @gmballentyne.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
“The future ain’t what it used to be.” – Yogi Berra (1925–2015) 🧐
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Anthony Etherin @anthonyetherin.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Friends, Submissions to “Elementary Penguin: A journal of Words, Wordplay, Poetry, and Puzzles” are now open! Details here: anthonyetherin.wordpress.com/wp-content/u...
anthonyetherin.wordpress.com
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Chris Hewson @chrishewson.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
I've done it. I've found the worst take.
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Aidan McGlynn @aidanmcglynn.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
The preface to Chierchia and McConnell-Ginet's textbook 'Meaning & Grammar: An Introduction to Semantics' finishes with "We have written this book for the same reason we chose this field for a living: we want to be rich and famous". The preface to the second issue ends with:
Readers of the original preface have probably already guessed the other reason we agreed to prepare a second edition. We still cling to the hope that semantics will some day make us rich and famous.
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David Bradley @sciencebase.com · 08/08/2026
160 of 50 species in a slightly cooler, 13C, Cambs #teamMoth
Turnip Moth on egg carton in the sun
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