“Digital computing was an extraordinary invention; the constellation of technologies we now just call ’the internet’ even more so … But the question that Enshittification doesn’t ask, doesn’t want to ask, is what if none of this was a good idea to begin with?”

This is, of course, true, but Canadians managed it to a degree. Don’t buy Jack Daniel’s though, don’t visit the US, don’t fly on US carriers, don’t import direct from the US. Don’t use cruise ships registered in the US. Ban X. I’m an amateur astronomer & I wouldn’t buy a US made telescope now.

Today on the blog! Digital #Dostoevsky: Fiona Bell recaps the 2025 North American Dostoevsky Society @aseees.bsky.social panel: bloggerskaramazov.com/2026/01/16/a...

Our ASEEES panel in the spotlight! Featuring some stylometry work and visualizations from @fyodor76.bsky.social and myself (including this intense cloud of 19th-century author "neighbourhoods")

Today, @wikipedia.org turns 25 years old. It's never been more important — or under more attack from authoritarians. Here's what to know about how we got here, and what we can do to push for its future. There's no better example of the web we make together. www.anildash.com/2026/01/15/w...

The whole issue is excellent, though! Check them all out here: cuny.manifoldapp.org/projects/jit... with big thanks to the editors for their good work putting this issue together! :)

I keep forgetting to share! But @fyodor76.bsky.social and I published an article in the most recent issue of @jitp.bsky.social, a special issue on minimalist DH pedagogy. It's all about our wonderful undergrad TEI workshop from a few years ago! cuny.manifoldapp.org/read/a-dosto...

📷 Studio Portrait of Three Boy with a Handwritten Note: “As our lives have changed from day to day, I wonder whether, as you look at this photograph which I had issued on its thirteenth anniversary, you remember those days.” September 14, 1918 Signature: İsmet

“When I speak about making our city more affordable, my vision is not limited to the homes that we live in or the child care that we’re making universal — it’s also a vision where we make it possible for working people to afford lives of joy, of art, of rest, of expression.”

Such a good quote!

feels weird given everything but apparently I’ve retained the ability to be shocked

Being profoundly upset about the 51st state stuff was not an unreasonable reaction.

Happy New Year, Europe!

My 2025 in culture. Part 1: Reads. It was a year of Turkish novels, from an Ottoman Bildungsroman, the entertaining Felatun Bey and Rakim Efendi, through the brilliant Time Regulation Institute to Pamuk and Shafak. I read a couple of great Irish novels and ended in Zanzibar and Dar-es-Salaam.

"I recently spoke with Santa Claus, who is currently coordinating his staff of immortal blue-collar elves, about the morality of children and his friendship with a creature whom many carolers consider a war criminal: Krampus." www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the...

#IzolyatsiaMustSpeak Before Russia’s war against Ukraine, “Izolyatsia” was a vibrant cultural space housed in a former factory in Donetsk. Its Cold War-era bunkers, administrative buildings and warehouses became an international hub for contemporary art. 1/4

Apparently the #TTCRiders streetcar summit killed me!

To “my students and to anyone who might listen, I say: Don’t surrender to AI your ability to read, write and think when others once risked their lives and died for the freedom to do so.” www.huffpost.com/entry/histor...

Mamdani embodies a pro-Palestinian politics that truly distinguishes between the state of Israel and the Jewish people, and truly takes antisemitism seriously as its own problem. That makes him a threat to those who want to absolutely conflate antisemitism and anti-Zionism, whether the ADL or WoL.

Essential reading. Donald Trump dispatches as his ambassador to Copenhagen a man who has been established by Danish intelligence to be deeply engaged in secret plans financed privately by Peter Thiel for an American invasion and occupation of Greenland, writes Danish intel analyst Jacob Kaarsbo.

What's notable about vile shit like this is that they never have the courage to stand up and actually defend the proposition they are oh-so-provocatively putting forward with the framework. They love to be "just asking questions" so they can *suggest* what they're too craven to actually argue.

This government's signal legacy in higher education is going to be "we torched whatever we could right across the country because we couldn't figure out how to control the southern Ontario housing market". Ford can't/won't build houses? Better knife some more rural colleges in NB or BC.

I will support any New York mayoral candidate who admits bodegas are just convenience stores and everywhere in the world has them

Svidrigailov, Stavrogin, or Smerdyakov

Can we at least give Canada a break on the tariffs now?

I reviewed Ilya Kligers's Sovereign Fictions in the latest Russian Review

Cultural highlights of the week in Toronto: Can Stage's production of the equal parts devastating and hilarious Slave Play, and taking the kids to see Opera Atelier's period-faithful Magic Flute at the Elgin.

do yourself a favor & read @annakornbluh.bsky.social & @isanchezprado.bsky.social hyperallergic.com/1049388/how-...

prose style that anyone who has ever graded undergraduate papers can immediately identify as "roommate's Adderall, 3 AM"

Dr. Katherine Bowers and Dr. Kate Holland (U of Toronto) have received a SSHRC Insight Grant for the project “Computational Dostoevsky.” This funding will support the project through 2029. @katiabowers.bsky.social @fyodor76.bsky.social cenes.ubc.ca/news/dr-bowe...

Polish public higher education spending in billions of 2024 zloty. These guys know what they are doing.

If you’re an Islamophobe you don’t get to complain about antisemitism And if you’re an antisemite you don’t get to complain about Islamophobia. It’s really that simple. (So many shameless hypocrites around.)

We have a job going in my department! jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-...

In Germany, a Neo Nazi cellist who adores Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump triggers outrage. www.ft.com/content/8f68...

Today, Canada recognises the State of Palestine.   My statement: www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/stat...

Boomers think their wealth came from wise choices – this myth needs busting

Fearful Americans Stockpiling Facts Before Federal Government Comes To Take Them Away https://theonion.com/fearful-americans-stockpiling-facts-before-federal-gove-1819579589/

Three people arrested in Essex on suspicion of assisting Russian intelligence service

Trump is cynically exploiting Jews as the public face of a crackdown on higher education in the US, a role we did not ask for and which most of us oppose, which is every bit as antisemitic as anything the administration claims to be fighting. www.latimes.com/california/s...

"I urge every government, every leader and every citizen to ask: What will we say when our children and grandchildren ask what we did while Gaza was burned to the ground? Every act of genocide is a test of the humanity that binds us." www.nytimes.com/2025/09/16/o...

When I was placed on the Professor Watchlist in 2021, people sent death threats about my children. I had security officers monitor my 8yo at school. Where is all the outrage for those of us who have been targeted for years? Where is the outrage for our families? My own colleagues are silent.

Portland Japanese Garden #PDX #portland #Portlandoregon #oregon #nature #naturephotography #landscape #landscapephotography #maple #japanesemaple #Fall #photo #photography #travel #travelphotography #leaves #Bluesky #asian #autumn #garden #leaf #PNW #moss #trees #rain #red

As the MSM remembers Charlie Kirk and speaks out against his horrific assassination, let’s recall the Minnesota Congresswoman who was assassinated on June 14th 2025 along with her husband and their dog. Do you even remember her name?!

Are they willing to do the work that foreign workers do?

How about extending the King streetcar line out to Parkside, then up Keele to turn around at the Stockyards. That would slow traffic down, and open up the route for more transit-related density, too.

If drivers can’t behave on Parkside Drive, ban drivers. Enough of this speed camera nonsense.

Margarita Vaysman & I have been working on this for the past 5 (!) years, but it's finally done- the online version is up and the hardcover should be out later this month! Welcome to the Oxford Handbook of Global Realisms, feat. 41 chapters and beautiful cover art: academic.oup.com/edited-volum... 🎉

Since this is apparently a resigning matter, I’ll just leave this here… www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

This one is trickier than you would think.