iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Rachel Burdin @rsburdin.bsky.social · 8h

Interviewer: Can you explain this gap in your CV? Phonetician: If you blow into it just right you'll get the Bernoulli effect going

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Rachel Burdin @rsburdin.bsky.social · 8h

(I'm certain an actual syntactician has already made this joke)

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Rachel Burdin @rsburdin.bsky.social · 8h

Interviewer: Can you explain this gap in your CV? Syntactician: Some had permanent positions, and others, temporary ones

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Steve Mullis @stevemullis.net · 05/10/2026

[car dealership waiting room] Me: [chanting] knobs, knobs- Other car buyers: knobs, KNOBS Car salesman: [pounding desk] KNOBS, KNOBS, KNOBS!

forbes.com

Knobs Returning To Some Automakers’ Vehicles, To The Relief Of Many

Auto companies are listening to the complaints of consumers, who want their knobs and buttons back.

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Rachel Burdin @rsburdin.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Getting ready for Phonetics tomorrow by finally making a lung model! Instructions here: www.uhi.ac.uk/en/t4-media/...

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Will Bennett @wmgbennett.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Little known Snapple fact: Cajuns are not originally from Louisiana, and the clue is in the name. Cajun is a shortening of ‘Akkadian’, which reflects the group’s history of being forcibly resettled from Mesopotamia by the French after the fall of Sumeria. #cuneiformdelafayette

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Rachel Burdin @rsburdin.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

This is especially funny after watching some AI bros fight with a sociologist on here because she pointed out that people have their own ways of doing things like grocery shopping and meal planning and AI agents/task-ification wouldn't cleanly fit into their lives as a "solution" for them

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American Dialect Society @americandialect.org · 30/09/2026

Submit your nominations for 2026 word-of-the-year: bit.ly/WOTYNOMS2026 You can make as many nominations as you want between now and New Year’s Eve. Winners will be picked live at our annual meeting in January. Will your pick be the next slop, rawdog, or enshittification? Only time will tell!

Title at top of image: Submit your picks for 2026 word of the year!
Underneath title: Scannable QR code
Underneath QR code in blue oval: American Dialect Society.

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Rachel Burdin @rsburdin.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I am very pleased to report someone made a picture book about the Ever Given.

A picture from a children's book, showing a very sad looking Ever Given, run aground in the Suez Canal, with two diggers trying to dig it out, and a dredger boat laughing at it.

"Still suck," sighed the cargo ship.

"Say," asked the dredger, "have you ever considered becoming a bridge? Bridges don't float."

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Rachel Burdin @rsburdin.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The Nor'Easter stayed just south of us for most of the day so we went apple picking, where we had to fend off a very good dog looking for some apple cider donuts

A sign, with a picture of a very good dog in front of an apple tree. The text says, If you see Farm Dog Mutsu, he's had plenty of donuts already!

Mutsu the Farm Dog attempting to get a donut

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Rachel Burdin @rsburdin.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

My favorite suggestion from the group chat:

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Rachel Burdin @rsburdin.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

You're right, the original game is still technically schedule for tomorrow with the Florida backup plan tentatively scheduled for Sunday, as far as I can see. That gives a little more wriggle room for getting down there if need be!;

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Rachel Burdin @rsburdin.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

What are the odds this would impact, say, trying to fly out the Red Sox and Cubs down to Florida tonight to play the game tomorrow down there instead of at Fenway? (That's apparently the back-up plan!)

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Rachel Burdin @rsburdin.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Update: the various New England WhatsApp and Facebook groups are sharing tips, some courtesy of Rabbis from Florida with experience with hurricanes, on securing sukkot from 50 mph winds

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Dread Pirate Sex Badger @badgercult.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

THE Ohio Snake University

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Rachel Burdin @rsburdin.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Absolutely gorgeous and clear example of a NORTH/FORCE distinction here that will make it into my regular slide deck rotation on Eastern New England English #linguistics

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Rachel Burdin @rsburdin.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Also, Sukkot's ability to attract rain remains unparalleled. We've got a Nor'Easter coming. In September.

A forecast showing 2 inches of rain Saturday through Monday

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Rachel Burdin @rsburdin.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Anyway, this led to a lifelong dislike of Young Life even before I really knew what it was and I felt exceedingly justified in my pettiness once I did

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Rachel Burdin @rsburdin.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I went to a Girl Scout camp on an island in a lake in upstate New York. There was a Young Life camp on the shore by us that (1) woke us up early in the morning by driving their parasailing boats around the lake and (2) sent kids out in sailboats they couldn't handle so we'd have to rescue them

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Rachel Burdin @rsburdin.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I think there might be variation here in the Mitwɜ́st region but it's just so difficult to disentangle the paralinguistic functions of F2 from the linguistic ones here! I mean how can I tell if the high F2 is signalling causality (so messy, meaning-wise!) or if they're smiling???

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Rabbi Emily Cohen @thatrabbicohen.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

(I know Beit Shammai says it's best to just drink normally until day of, take the 1 day awful headache over the week long mild headache, and break your fast with coffee, but I go with Beit Hillel on this one)

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Rabbi Emily Cohen @thatrabbicohen.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Coffee-drinking Jews: This is your annual PSA that if you plan to fast on Yom Kippur (note that you should absolutely *not* fast unless it's mentally & physically safe for you), you should start tapering your caffeine now. Your Yom Kippur self will thank you.

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Rachel Burdin @rsburdin.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Reposting with alt text, because it's glorious

Carol Burnett, in the parody sketch "Went With the Wind!". She is wearing green curtains, with the curtain rod straight across her shoulders like the world's most extreme shoulder pads, a gold curtain tie around her waist, gold fringes going down the center, and the back of the curtain going down her back like a cape. She has a giant gold and green tassel on her head. You can see a giant pink hoop skirt peaking out underneath. Harvey Korman, as Ratt Butler, looks like he's barely holding it together.

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Rachel Burdin @rsburdin.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Today in Jewish Life in NH, a president's message with an extended oyster farming metaphor ("Just don't eat them!") and a rabbi's sermon about choosing his vanity license plate. Shana tova, all!

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Rachel Burdin @rsburdin.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

And uptalk (using rising Intonation on non-questions) is a global phenomenon. It looks like at least one person has looked at this in HK English, so this spreading into Cantonese is definitely possible! www.cambridge.org/core/element...

cambridge.org

Gender and Uptalk in Hong Kong English

Cambridge Core - Sociolinguistics - Gender and Uptalk in Hong Kong English

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Rachel Burdin @rsburdin.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Yup! Tone languages have always had intonation (e.g. using pitch to signal things like questions vs statement), it just works differently than in eg English. Here's a paper that shows what happens to different Cantonese tones in different contexts. ling.cuhk.edu.hk/people/peggy...

ling.cuhk.edu.hk

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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

A group of 25 Fields Medalists, including myself, have made a joint declaration on Math and AI: mathandai.org . We welcome additional signatories. See also this article in the Economist announcing the declaration: www.economist.com/science-and-...

mathandai.org

Declaration — Math and AI

Read the declaration and add your name.

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Rachel Burdin @rsburdin.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

I am now the proud owner of a meat clarinet T-shirt; I haven't worn it to campus yet but it will be making an appearance

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Rachel Burdin @rsburdin.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Nottingham is less than 20 miles away from the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant and they just ran a data center out of town so, this tracks.

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Rachel Burdin @rsburdin.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Update I am now being treated to a saxophone sectional during my daughter's piano lesson

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Rachel Burdin @rsburdin.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Was feeling grumpy about the semester starting next week but then the campus rain gardens were in bloom and the drumline was practicing outside and the new coffee cart was getting set up so

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Jaya Saxena @jayasaxena.com · 26/08/2026

The best way to honor the two who have left us recently, imo, is to keep being as gay as possible

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Rachel Burdin @rsburdin.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Related, let me tell you just how many of my colleagues are into reality TV. Professors! We're just like you!

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Rachel Burdin @rsburdin.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

I got into romance *because* I'm a professor. Stuff that follows a formula and happy endings are a nice change from what I normally read which is usually a mix of "highly technical" and "here's how inequalities are reproduced linguistically"

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Rachel Burdin @rsburdin.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Market Basket donuts are an essential bribe to get the kids to come along and get out of the non-grocery shopping spouse's hair. Thank you for everyone's patience as they try to figure out which one they want.

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Allison Shapp, PhD @schwadevivre.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Another instance of Cot/Caught Merger trouble in the @nytimes.com crossword puzzle today! I've been seeing a lot of bewildered forum comments asking why this is the answer. #linguistics #NYTCrossword [SPOILER BELOW for just the one clue] . . . . . . . .

Screenshot of the bottom 3 rows of a crossword puzzle, with all the boxes whited out except for 55 Down: LON. The clue reads "Apt name for a groundskeeper?"

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The Gurgling Cod (he/him) @thegurglingcod.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

A reminder that this useful tool for figuring class meeting days for your syllabi exists: wcaleb.rice.edu/syllabusmake...

wcaleb.rice.edu

Generic Syllabus Maker

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Rachel Burdin @rsburdin.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

The Search and Rescue teams around here do a good job of putting out "hiker got hurt and called us but were able to self-rescue/didn't put us in harms' way because they had appropriate equipment and training" press releases to balance out the "this asshole attempted Mt Washington in flip-flops" ones

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Rachel Burdin @rsburdin.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semitic... Also fun fact the idea of "Semitic people" is in fact race science!!!

en.wikipedia.org

Semitic languages - Wikipedia

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Rachel Burdin @rsburdin.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

We got a survey at the end of the year asking for feedback on how to get faculty to attend more sporting events, and I used you as an example ("I realize this is a niche case, but I know someone at another institution who gets to play with the pep band and if you let me do that, I will be there.")

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Joey Stanley @joeystanley.com · 27/07/2026

📣‼️🔔Introducing VoxHumana: a "spiritual successor" to DARLA. 🎉 🗣💬 Upload an audio file to VxH and it'll transcribe it with Whisper, do forced alignment with MFA, and extract formants with new-fave. It's not live yet, but I hope to get it up and running soon. joeystanley.com/blog/voxhuma...

joeystanley.com

A teaser for VoxHumana – Joey Stanley

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

My man looks like a proud graduate of Duke University

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Rachel Burdin @rsburdin.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Oh hey that's me in the pilot data (definitely a lolsob moment when I read over the initial results and saw that infant mood was improved but not the parent's)

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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

ICE killed a person they weren't even looking for AGAIN. Second time in the past week.

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