Driving north through the desert in Nevada we stopped to pee and explore a ghost town and found a microcosm of American culture wars playing out in an abandoned cement factory building. I took some photos. The star: a charred teddy bear wearing an American flag sweater we named Roosevelt.

We are hiring an assistant professor in cognitive neural systems in the department of psychology at the university of arizona. please use this link to check out the requirements and apply! arizona.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...

Not using ChatGPT is one of my favorite hobbies, it’s great!

Why is no one discussing Joscha Bach being an absolutely insane racist who discussed genetically modifying Black people with Epstein??? On top of being a misogynist??

🧵Register for virtual attendance at the #LSA2026 conference! You can filter the 2026 LSA Annual Meeting Program for the Track "Hybrid" and see the 45 sessions that virtual registrants will be able to attend. www.linguisticsociety.org. And some real talk below:

What are the virtual social plans for #lsa2026? So far: - Hangouts in the zoom after each plenary, discuss the talk or just catch up! - Sign up for "dinner with linguists" small group zoom hangs with hosts including me, @heidiharley.bsky.social, and maybe you? (Still looking for volunteers!)

LSA members! You will have gotten a link to a 'Member Satisfaction Survey' a couple of times now, and the deadline for submitting your feedback is Monday. Please do click and completing it! We want to provide satisfaction! @lingsocam.bsky.social #linguistics

Last Day to Save on Early Bird Registration! The #LSA2026 Program includes an impressive lineup of research presentations, thought-provoking plenaries, and specialized networking opportunities. Today is your final chance for early bird savings—register now! web.cvent.com/event/d45318...

Linguists! Write time Friday is hosted this Friday again by the stalwart Melissa Baese-Berk @m2b2.bsky.social ! 10-12 ET -- come get some work done! www.lsadc.org/ev_calendar_...

Bad news: Recklessly parking in a 20 min zone on campus on a Saturday earned me a $50 fine today. Good news: UAZ Parking and Transportartion apparently has partnered with a food bank and will forgive my fine in exchange for two boxes of cereal!

Linguists! Tomorrow's Write Time Friday is hosted by Melissa Baese-Berk again! 10-12 ET. @m2b2.bsky.social www.lsadc.org/ev_calendar_...

@m2b2.bsky.social hosting tomorrow at 10aET!

Linguists! This week's Write Time Friday is hosted by LSA EC member and AAAS Section Z chair Melissa Baese-Berk! Join us and get some work done! #linguistics www.lsadc.org/ev_calendar_...

Linguists! Tomorrow’s write time Friday is hosted by LSA grad student EC member John Starr! Come get some work done! 🐦🐦 @lingsocam.bsky.social www.lsadc.org/ev_calendar_...

Who’s your favorite Jedi? (Wrong answers only)

Linguists! This week’s Write Time Friday is hosted by LSA ExCo member Shabnam Alizadeh at 11ET! Shabnam is one of our two student representatives and would love to see you there! @lingsocam.bsky.social www.lsadc.org/ev_calendar_...

It’s raining in our part of the Sonoran desert today. It’s very soothing.

Clickbait headline but informative article The A.I. Prompt That Could End the World www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/o...

LSA members! I forgot to publicize this week's Write Time Friday, but if anyone wants some work buddies I'm hosting one right now! #linguistics www.lsadc.org/ev_calendar_...

A happy linguist brain day yesterday, teaching Grimshaw 1979 on selection, exclamatives, concealed questions...Wrote 'so cool!' by examples 113-114. Also learned that Markov used text by Pushkin as the dependent data for the first ever Markov chain. @veritasium.bsky.social youtu.be/KZeIEiBrT_w?...

Big news! Starting in 2027, @cambup-linguistics.cambridge.org will publish the Journal of Black Language and Culture (JBLAC)—a new LSA journal highlighting the richness of Black language & culture across the globe. Learn more: www.lsadc.org/content.asp?... @acharityhudley.bsky.social

"The main function of the compact is to replace such provisions of law with 'the deal'—that is, a piece of paper, signed by the university, that purports to entitle the Department of Justice, on the basis of its own 'finding,' to take away all of these 'benefits'". #AcademicSky

Linguists! Write TIme Friday tomorrow with LSA EC member (and AAAS Section Z chair!) Melissa Baese-Bork @m2b2.bsky.social at 10ET. Join Melissa and other linguists in a quiet zoom room and get some work done! @lingsocam.bsky.social www.lsadc.org/ev_calendar_...

turns out fixing AI slop code is a whole business model www.404media.co/the-software... vibecodefixers.com futurism.com/vibe-code-re...

Linguists! Another Write Time Friday with LSA Executive Committee member Kristen Syrett at 10a ET this Friday Sept 26! Come get some work done in a quietly supportive zoom room with other linguists! www.lsadc.org/ev_calendar_... #linguistics @lingsocam.bsky.social

Write Time Friday for linguists with LSA Executive Committee member Kristen Syrett tomorrow at 10AM ET! Come get some work done in a zoom room with fellow linguists! #linguistics @lingsocam.bsky.social www.lsadc.org/ev_calendar_...

Partner off on a prison-to-prison driving tour of southern Arizona to try to help a friend of a friend who was picked up by Homeland Security, me unexpectedly home with 8yo. We made a cake. Partner found friend’s friend and got to see him. Weird day.

I haven’t seen this on here but do any immigration lawyers know if it’s helpful for many people to call a detention facility and ask after someone in ICE custody, to let them know they’re on the radar (ala Amnesty International)? If so I might post info for friends to start calling… #ICE.

Come one come all! This Monday! 🐦🐦

Linguists! Another Write Time Friday coming up tomorrow @10am PT -- join me and others for community during two quiet hours of work time with other linguists in a zoom room! Be there! @lingsocam.bsky.social #linguistics www.lsadc.org/ev_calendar_...

Holy mackerel. "The queens store and clone sperm to produce hybrids with M. structor genomes and M. ibericus mitochondria ... [T]he queens rely on M. structor males exclusively for its worker caste, suggesting a “domestication-like process”. www.404media.co/the-biologic...

Being John Malkovich Everything everywhere all at once

Rabbit Proof Fence.

Linguists! After what I hope was a restful summer, we’re starting the LSA Write Time Fridays again! Write in a zoom room with other linguists. Now featuring some Pacific-Time Friendly scheduling! I’m hosting this Friday at 1-3 ET, 10-12 PT. Hope to see you there! www.lsadc.org/ev_calendar_... 🐦🐦

Epic California beach adventure early this morning hanging out with the sea lions, watching them surf, just vibing. So so good.

Time: 5:35 AM Jaxson (8): Mama! Me: …. * Jaxson: Did you know every moment is unique! You can never go back, even if you want to!! Your morning reminder that tempus fugit, brought to you by Jaxson. Take a deep breath; this moment will never come again.

Me: determined that each of child 1 and child 2 always receive equal value shares of everything. Unfortunately the only way child 2 knows to calculate the value of everything is “Does child 1 have it? Infinite value! Does child 1 not have it? No value!” Gah.

Everybody doesn’t know what I know! Must remember!! No assumptions! Oops.

Entropy was strong at our house last night. The windshield cracked on our newish car, and a random limb broke off our palo verde in the absence of any provoking weather event. I guess things fall apart.

Been watching Telemundo Noticias to help with my Spanish comprehension, and it’s like 20 solid minutes of phone video of brutal ICE arrests from locations across the country, some international news, some real weather, a clickbait story and a feel good story. A shared reality. It’s good.

The heartbreaking thing about this is that there’s already a proven way to invest lots of money in a knowledge machine that produces unforeseeable results that include fantastically profitable ideas (and some life-saving ones) and generally benefit society and this machine is called a university

Today I spelled my email address for a call center person and they asked me to spell it 'phonetically' and it took a long time for me to understand that they meant the NATO letter names, which this page calls the "International Phonetic Alphabet" gah. www.grupooneair.com/nato-phoneti...

The fact that the thing we're calling artificial intelligence *can't do math* and yet we're jamming it into programs that successfully *have done math* for decades, then warning people against using the AI to do math, seems like an excellent summary of where we are.

STAR's first issue is out! (STAR is an open-access journal publishing syntactic research from the same editorial team that brought us Syntax) #Linguistics star-linguistics.org

Linguists, espcially graduate students: Consider submitting an abstract for ALC18! Deadline tomorrow at midnight. ALC18 is a great place to present your research at any stage (just started through completed) and get feedback and ideas. easyabs.linguistlist.org/conference/A... #linguistics

“Mary saw the boy with the telescope” ambiguity in the wild! 🐦🐦

Maybe someone wants to lead a walking tour of New Orleans to recreate the event at the 2026 AM? 😂@lingsocam.bsky.social #linguistics

Congrats on the nice Thursday puzzle @benzimmer.bsky.social !!

I once again request that you please submit an abstract for the conference I'm planning. Pretty please?