iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Piers Kelly @pierskelly.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I no longer accept peer-review requests without a signed author declaration on their use of genAI. I feel like that's not too much to ask? Anyone with me? bravenewwords.info/personal-sta...

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Piers Kelly @pierskelly.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

My partner is involved in this case. Forensic linguistic analysis points to this being a likely instance of police verballing. Please sign if you're New South Welsh so that the review can move forward. It has been endorsed by 43 forensic experts.

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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

"Besides being deeply cynical, Chomsky’s supposed pragmatism has not stood the test of time...We may have manufactured consent once upon a time, but America has long since transitioned to a post-manufacturing economy." Very harsh but worthwhile read. strangematters.coop/noam-chomsky...

strangematters.coop

Chomsky After Epstein - Strange Matters

Noam Chomsky – friend of Epstein, defender of dictatorships – was no model anti-imperialist. Can we do better?

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Piers Kelly @pierskelly.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Our uni has been running another Staff Wellbeing Survey It kicks off with such meaningful questions as: "Are you aware of the vision Senior Executive has for the university?" Really can't wait for the findings! And yet shockingly only 29% of staff responded by deadline

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Piers Kelly @pierskelly.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Unpopular opinion on bluesky but as a parent I bloody LOVE Australia's social media ban for under 16s! People keep citing the same NY times article as evidence that it's failing. But the article itself concedes that the ban is succeeding in all the most important respects

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Piers Kelly @pierskelly.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

My eleven-year-old's feedback on the people who wrote the Old Testament: you don't know how to do suspense. Fair.

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Piers Kelly @pierskelly.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

National Geographic announces fantasy crossover

National Geographic headline "Our ancient 'hobbit' cousins ate dragon leftovers"

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Piers Kelly @pierskelly.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Despite their quirkiness, self-published memoirs can be wonderful resources for researchers. But one quirk I find infuriating is the near universal absence of an imprint page with a publication date! Amateur writers go to so much trouble to document their stories and forget this one vital detail

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Piers Kelly @pierskelly.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

If journalists call Hanson out they automatically validate her narrative of media persecution. If they treat her as just any other ordinary politician they help to normalise extremism. Populism is bullet-proof

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Piers Kelly @pierskelly.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Tombekai Sherman has produced a translation of a portion of Proust in the Vai script. It's the Madeleine excerpt. (Somewhere out there you will also find the Koran, the Bible and the Iliad in Vai)

Madeleine excerpt of Proust in the Vai script of Liberia

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Piers Kelly @pierskelly.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Found in my photos from a few weeks ago. An incredibly realistic reproduction of the engraved Taï bone, from Magdalenian period. It looks like a couldn't finish eating it! Part of research by Neemias Santos da Rosa, Lila Geis, Lloyd Courtenay, Alain Queffelec & Francesco d'Errico

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Piers Kelly @pierskelly.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

A Yolŋu flyer spotted in Nhulunbuy servo. Audition for Bluey episodes? I don't know! @ffnotes.bsky.social

Bluey-Puy Dhäwu. [A flyer in Yolngu about Bluey]

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Adrian Daub @adriandaub.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

University administrators two years ago: we can’t allow social justice movements to change the university as we know it University administrators today: in order to accommodate the new probabilistic bullshit generator no one likes we must change everything about the university

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Lauren Deschain @thatnerdchick.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Thanks, Vonnegut. 💜

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Hell Frasier: Bloodline @babadooknukem.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Just found a subreddit that pairs people with fucked up balls of string with people who love detangling balls of string and it is *very* wholesome

The most jacked up pile of yarn barf you've ever seen in your life. It looks like pastel ramen noodles

Several replies from volunteers who want to help

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Piers Kelly @pierskelly.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

The Origins and Evolution of Writing: A Very Brief Synthesis My talk last week at the Faculty of Classics, Cambridge, for the VIEWS project @viewsproject.bsky.social youtu.be/SRC6QkiKtSo?...

youtu.be

Piers Kelly: The origins and evolution of writing: a very brief synthesis

YouTube video by Visual Interactions in Early Writing Systems

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Piers Kelly @pierskelly.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Was there ever another independent writing system in the ancient Middle East? "Curious sequences [that] ... would make more sense if the signs instead represented syllables..." Great work by Kelley and colleagues (and some supporting remarks from lesser-Kelly!): archive.is/pbVRm#select...

A proto-Elamite tablet, annotated by Jacob Dahl

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Piers Kelly @pierskelly.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

"The origins and evolution of writing: A very brief synthesis" at Cambridge 16:30, 20th May. Zoom in, if you're in a compatible time zone!

Flyer:
20th May: Piers Kelly (in-person/hybrid) "The origins and evolution of writing: a very brief synthesis

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Piers Kelly @pierskelly.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

I endorse this excellent-looking project!

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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

Archduke Franz Ferdinand has entered the chat

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Piers Kelly @pierskelly.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

University of Western Australia's archeologists are smokin', especially Dr Bandit Heeler

First up in the 2026 UWA Archaology Seminar Series: Meet the Archaeologists, featuring a range of fictional archaeologists from Indiana Jones to Lara Croft and Bandit Heeler

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Piers Kelly @pierskelly.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

Judy Kroo (UniMelb) and Matt Tomlinson (ANU) are starting a #linganth reading group, modelling it on CaMP anthroplogy but for Oz time zones. It's called CaMP Down Under and will be zoomed on the last Friday every month at 10:30AM AEST. Sign up here: forms.gle/MqGx7HrVPqC9...

forms.gle

CaMP Down Under

Enter your name, email and institution to sign up

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Piers Kelly @pierskelly.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

'Some Account of My Intercourse with Madame Blavatsky' (1885) This is going to be hot

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Piers Kelly @pierskelly.bsky.social · 08/02/2026

The circular dance of bureaucracy everywhere: UNI ADMIN: In order to proceed you MUST provide us with your unique project code! ME: What is my unique project code? UNI ADMIN: KellyX34 ME: Alright, "KellyX34" UNI ADMIN: Thank you for informing us!

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Piers Kelly @pierskelly.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

Today I learned that Charles Darwin wrote a 348 page book on 'The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms with Observations on their Habits'.

Title page of Darwin's book: "The formation of vegetable mould through the actions of worms, with observations on their habits"

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Piers Kelly @pierskelly.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

The banality of good ...read this from Gal Beckerman www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/0...

But I see something else in that lone figure carrying two shopping bags: a man who is perhaps heading home to prepare dinner

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Piers Kelly @pierskelly.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

I once game a live presentation, after which somebody in the audience advised me to engage with the work of Piers Kelly

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Piers Kelly @pierskelly.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

Totally normal seasonal notice from my rural Australian university

Screenshot of an email from the Executive Dean including the words "A short time ago a brown snake fell from a colleague's bookshelves and slithered around their office [LG7] on the Lower Ground floor of the Arts Building, E11 [...] I recommend vacating E11 if you can, and working from some other location"

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Piers Kelly @pierskelly.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

What the hell is this creature? Cross between a dingo and a drop bear? (Reminiscences of Australia, 1846)

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BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

one of the biggest arguments against AI dependence is that the strongest proponents of its use have become visibly *dumber* in the last few years.

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Piers Kelly @pierskelly.bsky.social · 20/07/2025

I've just read W. E. H. Stanner's 1953 essay 'The Dreaming' for the first time. I'm surprised by how well it holds up after 72 years.🧵

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Roland Meyer @bildoperationen.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

Most humanist critique of #genAI falls into the ideological trap of treating machine learning systems as less perfect quasi-human subjects, by claiming that human «creativity» or «intelligence» will always surpass machinic ones. That’s not the point, the comparison is flawed from the beginning 1/

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Will Sebag-Montefiore @wsebag.bsky.social · 26/05/2025

Jordan Peterson on lasagne

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Piers Kelly @pierskelly.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

Every academic gets submission-request spam from predatory publishers, but what about requests to review a submitted manuscript? If you're predatory, why bother going through the charade of peer-review? I've received two requests in the past month and I'm confused.

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leon @leyawn.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

“is my calculator horny?“ our tech columnist asks. “i entered 5318008 into it and turned it upside down. what i saw surprised me”

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Research Professional News @resprofnews.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

We've made this article from @cash4questions.bsky.social free to read, as it is proving very popular. University funding crisis: How to stay serene when wellbeing sessions are offered. "Beware employers bearing yoga mats..." www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-funding-k...

researchprofessionalnews.com

Coping with the university funding crisis - Research Professional News

Positive steps in uncertain times, including how to stay serene when wellbeing sessions are offered

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Piers Kelly @pierskelly.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

As someone who is fascinated by intellectual history, I'm well aware that crackpots and fanatics have existed in all times and places. They are abundant, usually harmless, rarely achieve success and tend to disappear without leaving much of a trace. 1/

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Deborah @deborahzafer.bsky.social · 30/03/2025

For #smallpoemsunday, this beauty. Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

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Piers Kelly @pierskelly.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

I'm not going to use generative AI. I don't see any legitimate role for it in unis. It's OK if you like it! I won't let students use it, and I won't read synthetic text if I can knowingly avoid it. Here's my personal policy, drafted with help from colleagues. bravenewwords.info/my-policy-on...

bravenewwords.info

My policy on AI

What I will not do In the interests of transparency about my methods, it is important for you to know that I will never publish any text that was generated by AI, nor any text produced with assista…

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Piers Kelly @pierskelly.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

Wild illustration from F. M. van Helmont's 'Alphabeti vere naturali Hebraici' (1657), attempting to demonstrate that Hebrew letters are derived from their places of articulation in the mouth. This is 'alef' א

Side view of head in cross section showing speech organs reproducing 'aleph'. Below it each part of the mouth is decomposed. The figure is where a head dress with numbered glyphs, one of which is 'aleph' א

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