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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 4h

I can't help remembering that in Philip Pullman's books, the cops and soldiers mostly have dog daemons.

Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 5h

Yeah, the NHS page suggests that at my height, 5'2", and the age of 52 I would be healthy at the weight of a well built ten year old. Genuinely dangerous advice.

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 5h

Perhaps it's partly a time crunch thing? A lot of us have such a heavy teaching load that we struggle to make time to read and think, and universities demanding that we do more with less and make more money for them are unsympathetic.

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I can't help thinking that little girls are encouraged to read books with boys as protagonists, and little boys are discouraged from reading books with girls as protagonists; so how are they to learn?

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I've found that even some straight cis men who think they like women have never really thought of women as whole people with needs and wants and internal lives of their own.

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I got the same email and had the same reaction! Not saying I wasn't tempted, to be fair, for just a moment...

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Why are future models likely to be better at detection?

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

We can cast an eye in English too! Which I guess is the same as throwing it but fancier.

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I mean that's just a referencing problem, isn't it? Footnote it with "Revealed to me in a dream" and you're fine!

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Like.. is it a translation for the aliens from Arrival, where they want it less linear?

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Like... The problem here is the misinformation? Not the violent mobs?

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I have dreamt up two novels in my sleep, and I actually think both of them would work (although one of them has pretty much been done by other people). Sadly I've never actually _written_ either of them.

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

The phrase "wrongly targeted" really makes it sound as though she thinks there are people who _should_ be targeted by violent mobs, doesn't it?

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Yes, context is hugely important in communication; language _is_ context, after all, in that it is a learned pattern of symbols for shared understanding. But the original point, that the proportion of communication which is non verbal is greatly exaggerated, is certainly true.

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

You can, but often doing so relies on previously having communicated verbally, so that creatures and facial expressions can then be used as proxies for existing knowledge.

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Deacair é a míniú as Gaelige (níl mé líofa!), ach, mar shampla "Thug sé madra do Cailín" (he gave a dog to a girl) nó "Thug sé madra airnéis dom" (six dogs gave me fleas). No idea if/how it might be useful though!

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

My mum used to make the best roast potatoes, so good she ruined me for mediocre roasties. Today I served some up, noisily crunchy outside, perfectly fluffy inside, for lunch with my dad. Even he admitted they were as good as hers used to be.

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

I suspect I will need to take a little step stool to the apiary with me, as I'm 5'2", but the idea of controlling swarming without a brood break or halving the colony is tempting!

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

(and possibly also use it to harvest some queen cells and raise a couple of mating nucs)

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

I do still have questions but also I want to try a demaree on my favourite colony in the Spring, in hopes of a productive year.

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

It raises serious questions about whether white men are really fit for high-level educational roles, doesn't it?

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Today I shall mostly be making soup and granola. Might even do a bit of knitting. It's a good thing I've never aspired to be cool, isn't it?

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Nathan Cofnas also says he's a credible academic rather than just a racist who managed to fail upward, so we don't necessarily have to believe him.

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Thank you for the visuals which will now entertain me all day. I think this is actually worth a statue.

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Wait, your mum got stuck by lightning?

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Dolly Parton and Tim Curry were both icons, and they both absolutely hurled themselves into creating and sharing joy, with humour and generosity. They were both utterly themselves, out loud and deliberately, regardless of who was watching. We should all be more Dolly and Tim.

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

And the people they hanged (typically, rather than burned, other than in Scotland) as witches generally didn't do any tricks, because they were not in fact witches...

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Ooh, just spotted a nice garden path type sentence which would be great for psycholinguistics studies, except it's on Irish and I don't think anyone is investigating garden path processing as Gaeilge...

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

I hate this. We had one cohort just after covid who did this in every single lecture, and then gave me weirdly mixed feedback saying I was brusque and curt in calling it out while also complaining about the chatter being distracting.

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Oh, I've just spent two weeks in Glencolmcille, we may have walked past each other!

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

I've had a wonderful two weeks of Irish classes and stunning views in Glencolmcille, west Donegal. Was already planning to come back next year but the rainbow on my last night is a nice touch. #oideasgael

A lovely view of Slieve League in West Donegal, under a blue sky

A view of the beach at Silver Strand in West Donegal, from the clouds above. Golden sand slopes gently down to the sea.

A rainbow over Glencolmcille, even though it isn't raining.

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Seriously though, did no-one actually just _look_ at it at some point before putting it up in public?

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

The whole "my fascism is better than your fascism" fight is quite something, isn't it? Can we just shut them in a room together to duke it out? (And then just leave the door closed forever, I don't care who wins.)

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

I hit ten years at my institution, and was granted an extra day of leave, to be taken within one year. Sadly I was on sabbatical for the year so it didn't do me a lot of good, but it was a nice thought!

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

I found it interesting in the way it analyses the rhetoric in men's profiles; it didn't really change what I do, just how I think about it.

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

*gravel to maximum* "The city is dirty: he's here to clean the mean streets and rid the neighborhood of the rats that overrun it. He's The Binman"

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Jason Statham was a terrible Berkeley in that movie. The hives were out together wrong, his "beesuit" was not proper protective gear, and he didn't rest or filter the honey before bottling it. Dreadful.

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Or maybe just ban talks that use AI?

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Have you come across the Burned Haystack Dating Method blog and/or Facebook group? I don't suggest it would make your experience better, but it's quite funny sometimes.

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

But if the hobby is beekeeping, don't put the bees in the spare room. Bees can bring you inner peace but only if they stay outside. I will not be taking questions on this topic.

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

I feel like maybe researchers should be able to withdraw their work from somewhere it's cited in a situation like this.

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

I mean to be fair, he may claim that was something for nothing but do any of us really believe there was no quid pro quo?

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

"Legitimate concerns" as a cover for racism; how very original. Do better, Guardian.

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

A couple i only spotted because they work in Irish too: a secretary is someone who knows the secrets, and an author is authoritative.

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

And I mean we do actually _need_ food: we do not need AI slop.

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Has he had anything to say about William o Reilly, a white professor at Cambridge who was found to have plagiarised his students? If not, why not?

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Hester Duffy @wordlessreader.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Did you know that flushing your food straight down the loo is actually quicker than eating and digesting it yourself?

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