A company that makes a no-tech, repairable tractor is having trouble keeping up with demand from farmers sick of John Deere's repair monopoly and simply want a tractor that turns on and works: www.404media.co/demand-is-bo...

I am so wildly outside my expertise here but I read this report from Amnesty and they do seem to just go through, with a fairly good amount of referencing, how actively seizing information en masse can directly breach human rights? They go into expression / equality in a fair amount of detail!!

Helsinki Society for Historical #Lexicography online lecture, 4 June: "Bringing slang into the academy: Issues in the making of the #Dictionary of Jamaican Slang" by Dr Joseph T. Farquharson and Dr Byron M. Jones (The University of the West Indies, Mona) blogs.helsinki.fi/hellex-socie... #hellexsoc

The only example in captivity of an anamorphic signature! The Holbein’s skull of penmanship. Is there work on /with signature forms as historical sources? Bacon styled his so many ways… or can they reveal e.g. day-by-day health trajectory of an epistolomaniac like Burghley?

I'm obsessed with this 18th Century signature. Look at it. Ridiculous. (I'm still not 100% sure, but I think it says Sam Wilding)

Bit of a long shot but does anyone happen to have access to a copy of an undated letter from Katherine of Aragon to Princess Mary in the British Library's Arundel MS 151 fol. 194r-v? Thank you!

Paikallisen sopimisen uudistus myös järjestäytymättömille perusteltiin sillä, että työehtosopimukset ja laki asettavat kuitenkin tason, jonka alle ei voi sopia. Nyt työnantajat vaativat eduskuntavaalitavoitteissaan, että lain ja TES:ten minimit on voitava alittaa. Yllätys!

Someone actually did a study a while back that showed the most effective way to get women out of TERF groups wasn’t people trying to change their minds, it was them getting literally any benign hobby, like learning other languages or taking up needlework

🇫🇮 44 000 allekirjoitusta saavutettu – 6 000 puuttuu! Nyt on aika kiristää vauhtia! Aikaa on kaksi kuukautta jäljellä, ja kesälomat ovat tulossa. Jokainen allekirjoitus vie meitä kohti tavoitetta. #DigitaalinenItsenäisyys 1/

I wish I could write like this. And I wish Lindy West wrote tutorial papers in psychometrics. (Source: Lindy West, 2019 essay collection 'The Witches Are Coming')

Loistoidea 👇. Tähän asti oikeisto ja suurpääoma ovat aina valjastaneet kaikki mahdolliset ideat oman agendansa ajamiseen - huoltovarmuus, turvallisuus, julkinen talous - nyt vasemmiston ja hyvinvointitalouden täytyy omia nämä agendat itselleen ja yhteisen hyvän eteen.

So for many of us, the experience of AI "art" went from, "Wow, there's a person in the machine that's trying to tell me something," to "Wow, that is an impressive feat of software design, but it doesn't say anything to me." 21/

well, here's a nice metaphor as we work on dreaming the next chapter after this one:

Puolustusrahoituksesta esitettiin parlamentaarisesti rohkesti rahoituksen tuplaamisen tarvetta. Miten minusta tuntuu, että parlamentaarinen sote-rahoitustyöryhmä ei tule esittämään hyvinvointialueille lisärahoitusta?

If you, like me, have been wondering what the hell you can do in relation to the relentless stripping away of trans rights, this is one clear concrete action.

A lot of attention is paid to craft traditions in Western Europe and North America, such as handsewn Hermes leather goods and bespoke Savile Row suits. But the uneven focus leads some to believe that things made outside of these places are low quality. This is not true. 🧵

Now this, my friends, is an a finding aid that makes you want to see what the hell is in that box.

"Toimipaikasta luopuminen on välttämätöntä vuokrakulujen alentamiseksi" Kansallisarkisto perustettiinkin tunnetusti juuri vuokrien maksamiseksi. #järjettömienmielipuoltenlogiikkaa kansallisarkisto.fi/-/kansallisa...

'Despite the increase on the previous programme, the Commission emphasised that 70 per cent of 2021-25 proposals deemed good enough to be funded were not able to be supported due to a lack of budget.' 2/2

Humallahden siltaa on vastustettu useilla huonoilla argumenteilla, mutta täytyy sanoa, että niistä heikoin on ”tuhoaa peruuttamattomasti Helsingin viimeisen luonnontilaisen kalliorannan”. Veljeni Kristuksessa, siinä rannassa oli 1950-luvulla iso uimala, joka on sittemmin siististi purettu.

Happy Pride Month. If you know a young person (age 13-26) in the US who is getting their access to queer library books restricted because of local small-minded folks, please refer them to the Books Unbanned program. More people should know about it. #pride booksunbanned.com/card

Ja jos tämä kuulostaa tutulta, niin ei tarvitse ihmetellä. Koska tämä on ajan henki kaikkialla. Riittää, että kääntää päätänsä ja katselee ympärilleen myös Suomessa. Samanlainen henkinen petollisuus on edennyt komeasti täälläkin, aina hallitusvastuussa oleviin puolueisiin asti.

Every week, another Pillar of the Liberal Establishment turns out to be a pile of shit.

An artist I like succumbed to using Slopinator 5000 output. Hurts since real photographs of them eat down all the time. I will never forgive these incellionaires for bringing this into society. The most antisocial losers having the time of their lives being architects of destruction in the arts.

yet, the number of businesses and orgs that are integrating genai for "security and privacy" reasons is staggering

They're also on here as bsky.app/profile/aalt...

The Anglo-American Legal Tradition (AALT) is a remarkable digital resource providing access to thousands of medieval and early modern English legal records from the UK National Archives. (1/2) #siteoftheweek

Happy Strait of Hormuz Opening Anchored for Simplicity Day to those who celebrate.

'According to the Swiss university, rankings often focus on measurable output, creating an incentive to increase the number of publications rather than prioritise the quality of content.' Kudos to Zurich. The Sorbonne decided to withdraw from the THE World Rankings in 2025, and is still standing.

last year the UN "ai for good" flagship conference mistreated me and censored my talk because i made the link between the ai industry (their sponsors) and genocide explicit. this year, ITU issues "content guideline" that, on a close read, sounds like a licence to silence criticism of ai/the industry

NO. AI. FOR. WAR. CRIMES!!!

There aren't a lot of West African manuscripts older than 400 years because they quickly disintegrate once they're taken out of storage This 350-year-old manuscript was nearly intact when it was collected in the 1960s, but only fragments of it remain today

📊 Tens of thousands of studies depend on it. Every major drug pipeline uses fluorescent reporters. Shimomura, Chalfie, and Tsien shared the 2008 Nobel for making "the previously invisible, visible." All from jellyfish on an NSF grant. #YourTaxDollarsAtWork

Kaksi asiaa tapahtui Ukrainassa toukokuussa, ja molemmat aiheuttivat kansainvälisiä protesteja. Jälkimmäinen, allaoleva uutinen on tuore, ja huomioitu Suomessakin. Mistä on kyse? Tässä voi taas vaihteeksi ainakin yrittää olla hyödyksi historiantutkijana, joten teen nyt näistä ketjun. Hyvin pitkän.

Before I forget: does anyone know of a good single-volume book on Chinese astronomy? Just a brief-ish overview? Can be in Chinese but English would be better

Laittakaahan nimiä alle, jos ette ole vielä ehtineet!

France has opened up €1 university meals to every student. The subsidised 3 course meals are now available regardless of income after a survey found almost half of students had skipped meals for financial reasons. The Guardian buff.ly/ri032oB #ShareGoodNewsToo

Amnesty International understanding that this "generative AI" shit as currently conceived and deployed is a project which enables fascism and endangers the already vulnerable and marginalized populations of the world.

I’m a climate scientist. Let me fix this headline. “Nearly a century ago, scientists showed that burning fossil fuels warms the planet. Today, we know human emissions account for over 100% of the warming. Yet dark money and disinformation still work to keep Americans addicted to fossil fuels.”

Swiss trains are just on a whole other level. This ordinary IR38 service between St. Moritz and Chur has a “photo compartment with lowerable windows for outdoor shots” and boy does it ever.

And *boy* did Canadians find a Third Way bullshitter to move into 24 Sussex Drive: Mark Carney, an austerity-crazed central banker who will endorse *incredibly* progressive policies...provided he never has to *do* any of them. 7/

"Third Way" liberal politics involves *saying* things that working people love, but *doing* things that sociopathic plutocrats love. It works ...right up until voters notice that you're not *doing* the things. That realisation breeds cynicism and fury and paves the way for fascist strongmen. 2/

This thread is really interesting re: limiting the impact & severity of Covid & other infections.

For context: due to popular demand, I'm now growing... 6 different varieties of eggplant? We got your classic dark purple Chinese-type eggplant

I'm really excited to share the programme for a workshop on Portable Archives that @anastruillou.bsky.social and I have put together! We are looking forward to welcoming such an exciting group of speakers to Oxford! There are still places to attend the workshop on 5 June.