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Ergative Absolutive

@ergative-abs

SFF booknerd; calligrapher; Islamic geometric art doer; figure skating appreciater; coffee-drinking, granola-baking, tofu-eating wokeratum; psycholinguist by vocation, fretful porpentine by aspiration. Contributer at Nerds of A Feather

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15.11.2024
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Latest posts by Ergative Absolutive @ergative-abs

It actually happened! There was a roll of thunder followed a second later by the sound of rain coming down! I thought it only happened in the movies! But it actually happened in real life!

11.03.2026 08:40 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

The reason it's worth looking at that particular survey is because Ipsos used the exact actual precise questions Sir Humphrey gives for his thought experiment, and replicated the result he predicts.

10.03.2026 14:00 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Yes Prime Minister, questionnaire design matters An Ipsos poll asking the same series of questions asked in the BBC comedy series Yes Prime Minister, series 1, episode 2, "The Ministerial Broadcast" as posed by Sir Humphrey Appleby to Bernard Woolle...

Do you also follow it up with this ACTUAL STUDY done by Ipsos, which confirms the claims of the episode?

www.ipsos.com/en-uk/yes-pr...

10.03.2026 13:47 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

My father was the primary earner, but my mother often had one sort of part-time (adjunct faculty, literary magazine editor, etc.) job or another.

And I still remember that my grandparents helped us with the down payment on a house.

10.03.2026 09:49 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

But students don't have the expertise to supervise an unreliable research assistnat. Students ARE the unreliable research assistant. We need to teach them how NOT to be that, before we can give them a robotic unreliable research assistant and expect them to get any use out of it.

10.03.2026 09:41 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

This is something I'm constantly facing as a uni lecturer. A colleague says that we should be teaching our students to use AI as if it were an unreliable research assistant.

10.03.2026 09:41 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Mr Absolutive and I don't watch a lot of movies. Once we decided to change that, and started choosing Best Picture winners. Then we came to Crash, turned it off after half an hour, and deserted the project.

10.03.2026 07:57 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Every Author as First Author We propose a new standard for writing author names on papers and in bibliographies, which places every author as a first author -- superimposed. This approach enables authors to write papers as true e...

Yes, academic publishing is broken. But these heroes have a plan to fix it...

arxiv.org/abs/2304.01393

#academicChatter

09.03.2026 15:39 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
A graphic from your ai slip bores me in which I request β€œplease draw me” the picture is a stick figure with a smiley face with a black hat, green shorts,an orange shirt, and purple shoes scribbled on.

A graphic from your ai slip bores me in which I request β€œplease draw me” the picture is a stick figure with a smiley face with a black hat, green shorts,an orange shirt, and purple shoes scribbled on.

This site is pretty fun!

07.03.2026 14:20 πŸ‘ 21 πŸ” 7 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 9

Whoda thunk it! A tech solution to a problem that ACTUALLY exists!

06.03.2026 08:56 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I can't wait to try this! I'm always futzing around saving plots to different dimensions and aspect ratios, then opening the files to see if they're ok, then forgetting to close them and getting errors because the filename is in use when I try to re-save with different parameteres.

06.03.2026 08:56 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Anyone who hasn't read this fanfic in which Isaac Chotiner interviews the man who administers The Lottery from the Shirley Jackson short story, you should definitely read it!

archiveofourown.org/works/733964...

05.03.2026 06:14 πŸ‘ 131 πŸ” 36 πŸ’¬ 4 πŸ“Œ 6
Post image
04.03.2026 06:52 πŸ‘ 8803 πŸ” 3288 πŸ’¬ 30 πŸ“Œ 47

with strappy sandals!

04.03.2026 11:28 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Thanks! So have I! It's really freeing not to have to think about spoilers and plot summaries, but just say what I think about some corner of each book.

04.03.2026 11:02 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Look! I wrote this!

04.03.2026 10:43 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

No further demonstration of the arbitrariness of fashion is needed than the fact that THIS PARTICULAR OUTFIT, of all options, was selected for a photograph illustrating the epitome of brawny masculinity.

04.03.2026 07:25 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Post image

requiem for vanished birdsong

03.03.2026 21:01 πŸ‘ 8413 πŸ” 2919 πŸ’¬ 48 πŸ“Œ 18

This is so true!

04.03.2026 06:59 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Villain Has a Point - TV Tropes Whether good or bad, almost everyone has a reason for the things that they do. That doesn't necessarily mean that their actions and reactions are valid. In this trope, a villainous character's reasoni...

tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwik...

03.03.2026 15:27 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
gradient.horse Draw a horse, watch it run!

omg everybody go draw a horse this is what the internet was made for

gradient.horse

09.02.2026 23:11 πŸ‘ 7013 πŸ” 3610 πŸ’¬ 35 πŸ“Œ 154

Remember in Star Trek: TNG, when Geordie makes a hologram of Dr Leah Brahms, and then falls in love with the hologram, and everyone's like, 'ew, Geordie, that's hella gross', and then he later meets the real Dr Leah Brahms, and she's like, 'EW THAT'S INCREDIBLY GROSS EW EW EW EW EW EW'?

03.03.2026 14:48 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

#ShareGoodNewsToo

Also, here's a link to an article confirming the screenshot.
www.yahoo.com/news/article...

03.03.2026 14:41 πŸ‘ 145 πŸ” 50 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 4

Ok, Down Cemetary Road is lots of fun, but the bit that has me scratching my head is when they catch a train from King's Cross that announces it's 'non-stop to Glasgow'.

EXCUSE ME? I would VERY MUCH Like a non-stop train to Glasgow. Please may I have such a train? Please may it exist?

03.03.2026 10:48 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I swear, the frisson of *excitement* that runs through the Student Conduct team when a student submission is reported for 'classic plagiarism' (rather than 'misuse of AI') is dramatic and disheartening.

02.03.2026 15:39 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Who wants Reviewer 2 to follow you home? The book is PUBLISHED. It's DONE!

Beloved authors, if you ever get an email from me about your work, it's only ever going to be gushing praise.

02.03.2026 07:43 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

During the family zoom last night, I was going off on my nonsense about how an author of a book I was reading made a choice i didn't agree with.

And, like clockwork, my family suggested, as they always do, 'you should write to them and tell them what you think!'

NO! I'M NOT GOING TO DO THAT!

02.03.2026 07:43 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Hail, Pterry, full of rage, the muse is with thee. Blessed art thou among authors, and blessed is the fruit of thy brain, Discworld.

Hail Pterry, Father of Great A'Tuin, who channeled rage into compassion blessed are thy words.

01.03.2026 20:09 πŸ‘ 116 πŸ” 32 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 1

May I please join the party?

01.03.2026 16:15 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

There is no marketing I'm more susceptible to these days than any company saying they don't use generative AI in their projects. I'm a sitting duck for that promise even if they're selling graham crackers or masking tape.

28.02.2026 22:11 πŸ‘ 2962 πŸ” 461 πŸ’¬ 29 πŸ“Œ 22