Reposted by Stephen ChrisomalisStephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Interested in a graduate degree in a collegial, holistic, community-engaged anthropology department, or know someone who is? Wayne State is holding its annual Open House on Zoom on 10/19, 4:30pm EDT. See the flyer below, or register at tinyurl.com/3xdmcuwt. DM me with any questions. Share widely! 034
Reposted by Stephen ChrisomalisErin L. Thompson @artcrimeprof.bsky.social · 07/10/2026Top-tier weird little guy on an incantation bowl from Nippur, Iraq, c 500 BCE, in the Penn Museum. 221175287
Reposted by Stephen ChrisomalisRebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 08/10/2026A new Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology has just been published, in which it is claimed that the human species is polytypic: not only is race biologically meaningful but the races are distinct enough to be considered subspecies. Published by Elgar. In 2026. 60454130
Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 08/10/2026Thinking about the ethnographic work of Lucy Suchman and others at Xerox back in the day. Verbal "abuse" of technology is a longstanding social practice! 020
Reposted by Stephen ChrisomalisA secret third thing @secretthirdthing.bsky.social · 06/10/2026"chatGPT thinks I am a genuis" is just the modern version of "I think this stripper is in love with me" 251987394
Reposted by Stephen ChrisomalisFair Vote Canada 🗳️🍁 @fairvote.ca · 06/10/2026Quebec’s election saw one of the most distorted election results in Canadian history: the PQ won 46% of seats with 28% vote, while the CAQ got zero seats with over 500,000 votes. Read our write-up to see how proportional representation fixes this. www.fairvote.ca/06/10/2026/p...fairvote.caParti Québécois wins 46% of the seats with 28% of the voteQuebec election 2026 with first-past-the-post. Parti Québécois wins 46% of the seats with 28% of the vote. 14736
Reposted by Stephen ChrisomalisLinguistic Society of America @lingsocam.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Are you a student, new graduate, or early in your career? Under the LSA's new income-based dues, if you make less than $100K, your membership just got more affordable, so you can stay connected to your field without the financial strain. Join or renew today! www.lsadc.org/membership #Linguistics 075
Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 06/10/2026I learned that Jim Bakker, Dennis Hastert, and Jeffrey Archer all died in the last couple days. I thought they were all already dead. The ranks of ultra-privileged criminal shitbirds has been diminished by three. 093
Reposted by Stephen ChrisomalisAlison Gopnik @alisongopnik.bsky.social · 01/10/2026This is an excellent article by Leif Wetherby - why AI is a cultural technology not a collection of human-like agents (citing our work on this). And why the anthropomorphism is a distraction from the very real risks and dangers and the way to deal with them. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/01/o...nytimes.comOpinion | Stop Talking About A.I. Like a Human (Gift Article)If we want to figure out the proper way to control A.I. models, we need to recognize what they really are. 620890
Reposted by Stephen ChrisomalisStephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Nobody believes that "writing IS thinking". People do (correctly) believe that writing is a critical *form* of thinking, one that is cognitively useful, aesthetically powerful, and that cannot simply be substituted or abandoned without serious consequence. 072
Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Interested in a graduate degree in a collegial, holistic, community-engaged anthropology department, or know someone who is? Wayne State is holding its annual Open House on Zoom on 10/19, 4:30pm EDT. See the flyer below, or register at tinyurl.com/3xdmcuwt. DM me with any questions. Share widely! 034
Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Nobody believes that "writing IS thinking". People do (correctly) believe that writing is a critical *form* of thinking, one that is cognitively useful, aesthetically powerful, and that cannot simply be substituted or abandoned without serious consequence. 072
Reposted by Stephen ChrisomalisU of T Centre for Medieval Studies @uoftcms.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Congratulations to Shannon McSheffrey and Walid A. Saleh, who have been elected Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada. www.medieval.utoronto.ca/news/shannon... 0304
Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 30/09/2026I'm not saying that what I do is of no practical use (I promise!). But there is something to be said for spending an evening reading 100-year-old advertisements from the Mount Barker Courier and Onkaparinga and Gumeracha Advertiser. 021
Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Won't anyone out there please think about the poor folks of Anguilla? 011
Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Exactly right. I thought there was a law requiring contiguity, but apparently there is none, although that's really the only riding that disobeys it in a non-trivial way. And of course, part of the reason for the anomaly is that that NL-QC is still sort of contested. 010
Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 29/09/2026en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%B4...en.wikipedia.orgCôte-Nord—Kawawachikamach—Nitassinan - Wikipedia 110
Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 29/09/2026I assure you that water is entirely irrelevant to this particular geographical anomaly. 110
Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Water isn't really relevant to the district I'm thinking of, but no, you couldn't travel between the parts by water either, without going overland through another riding. 100
Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Right, not counting water / islands - the one I found is a riding where you could in principle travel by land to the other parts of the riding, but only by passing through one or more other ridings. 110
Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 29/09/2026(Discovered this evening by staring at electoral projection maps based on the most recent polling data and thinking 'that can't be right, must be AI' - but it definitely is true.) 000
Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Apparently there is no law in Canada that requires electoral districts to be geographically contiguous. There is a district that has inhabited parts you can only access by travelling through other ridings and then back in. Anyone care to puzzle out which one? (I'll answer yes/no questions). 220
Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Definitely I expose my senior undergrads and grad students to L&J; may not be right for this student but I'll mull it over as I think it's essential for linguists to think about cognitive issues. 000
Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026It really is wonderful, isn't it? Such a nice counterpoint to both sides of the 'anything goes' and 'rigid uniformitarian' false binary. 010
Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Thanks for the suggestion! Is that new? 100
Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Haha, yeah, you definitely don't need to sell me on Levinson - probably would be on the reading list one way or another regardless. 010
Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Ooh, that's a very cool idea! Maybe not the first book I'd put in a young teen's hands, but one that gives such a strong sense of the work, rather than just the rules. 110
Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026That's a really interesting idea. Steve's work is much closer to my own perspective than many others in linguistics and it would be interesting to see what a bright novice would take from it. Haven't actually read it but I can imagine what it says. 100
Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Part of my personal narrative is that linguistics in the early 90s was far too Chomskyan for my taste, hence me ending up in anthropology. But for some students that view of grammar is still very appealing. 120
Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026I do love that book. Weirdly enough, it may be too simple/popular for the student I'm thinking of - but probably still worth reading. 110
Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Oh, that's a blast from the past (for me). Not that that's bad necessarily! But good from a more developmental / cognitive perspective rather than super formal. 010
Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026This is exceptionally well deserved. Helen is incredibly missed across such a wide network of folks across multiple disciplines. 0100
Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Good idea, although I would need to balance it with something that is a little less rigidly Chomskyan, I think. 110
Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Anyone have any ideas of articles or books that a really bright, really interested, kid (roughly 12-14 yo) might read in linguistics, to help get them interested in the field? Probably stuff that is more cognitive / formal than socio? I have ideas (of course) but suggestions would be welcome! 1021
Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Good news! I woke up this morning and realized that a serious admin issue that would require my chair's immediate intervention was solely a product of my dream. Bad news! I woke up to an email that a different, more serious admin issue has arisen, and is very real. 140
Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026I have been working on the most personally appealing new course idea I've had in years, an interdisciplinary cognitive/historical seminar aimed at grad students across disciplines, including humanities and sciences, called "Human Minds and Cultures". Now if only bureaucracy doesn't get in its way. 1100
Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 24/09/2026This episode of @manymindspod.bsky.social featuring @damianblasi.bsky.social is IMO the best I've listened to, and I'm saying that despite having been a previous guest on the podcast! I'll admit to some bias as a fellow-traveller in this field, but still, it's absolutely a banger! 0104
Reposted by Stephen ChrisomalisLeah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 24/09/2026AP Stylebook warns against anthropomorphizing AI systems: “Avoid language that gives them human characteristics… Instead, explain what a system does, how well it performs, who built it and who could be affected by it.” 1970192261
Reposted by Stephen ChrisomalisSteven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz.com · 23/09/2026www.nytimes.com/2026/09/22/s...nytimes.comMathematics Isn’t Just a Game to Let A.I. Solve. History Shows Why. (Gift Article)In our field of applied mathematics, the long, human process of trial and error — not just the solutions themselves — is often what has led to progress. 15722
Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Yeah, I've read some of that and got the same takeaway, although as an outsider I don't have the mathematical chops to evaluate any of it. I would be very interested to know whether mathematicians outside those involved feel the same way about it. 010
Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 22/09/2026I mean this question earnestly; I don't know the answer. Do mathematicians who use LLMs to generate new proofs/results have a different view of the aesthetics of mathematical work, than those who don't? Are we just reliving four-colour theorem angst, on steroids? 220
Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 21/09/2026As an official professor of numbers, I can only marvel at this presentation by @paulrobalino.bsky.social on the latest @smartypants.dropout.tv and wonder what parts of it I can scam ... err ... repurpose for scholarly inquiry. 030
Reposted by Stephen ChrisomalisStandplaats Kraków could really use some cash! @standplaatskrk.pl · 14/09/2026 2856223
Reposted by Stephen ChrisomalisSteven (with a PH) @sjksalisbury.bsky.social · 20/09/2026Christening a baby is nothing like christening a ship. I know that now. Once again I can only apologise. 161191503869
Reposted by Stephen ChrisomalisKen Jennings @kenjennings.bsky.social · 18/09/2026I don’t usually meddle on the writing side of Jeopardy!, but tonight I called in a favor for our Bluesky viewers. 15710319785
Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 18/09/2026Mark Carney should wake up every morning and thank the powers that be that Donald Trump is an idiot. 70% approval rating. 70. What a world. 030
Reposted by Stephen ChrisomalisAlex Ip 葉清霖 @alexip718.com · 18/09/2026INBOX: Science retracted a news article this week after editors found that the author (likely an AI agent) impersonated the identity of an established science journalist, both with editors and sources in the story. Furthermore, two of the quotes provided were plagiarized: (h/t @wudan.bsky.social)science.orgYour heartbeat quietly shapes how your brain processes informationFrequently ignored bodily rhythms may be skewing neuroscience experiments 1012880