the small language model arrived

I'm conceding to the world, and putting in an optional module on linguistic anthropology and artificial intelligence for my grad class next semester. The new JLA issue tipped me over the edge. Here's what I've tentatively got for readings. Other suggestions?

Some folks here may know that I was director of research for Math Corps for several years and authored several papers. A tremendous program well deserving of this recognition!

Some folks here may know that I was director of research for Math Corps for several years and authored several papers. A tremendous program well deserving of this recognition!

A nice shout out from the lovely folks at Futility Closet! www.futilitycloset.com/2025/12/05/e...

I recommend that MS Word not deprecate the subjunctive.

"How do you feel about capitalism and socialism?" Socialism is a better approach: 29% Capitalism works best: 28% Capitalism is good in theory, but is doing more harm than good today: 43% Spark Insights / Nov 11, 2025 / n=2895 / Online

The bronze statue depicting the eponymous cybernetic star of Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 set-in-Detroit sci-fi satire was installed in Eastern Market on Wednesday, nearly 15 years after someone proposed it in a viral social media post.

Join us in congratulating 2025 Society for Anthropological Sciences Fall Meeting H. Russell Bernard Student Paper Prize winner Al Lim, Yale University, for their paper "Protocol, Project, and Community..."! www.societyforanthropologicalsciences.org/p/past-stude...

Putting together this whole special issue has been an adventure, but one of the most rewarding parts has been the opportunity to write with one of my very favorite cognitive anthropologists - I'll let @schrisomalis.bsky.social sell it for us below!

At last, the final publication in 'Cognitive Technologies and their Histories': the editorial introduction to the issue in TopiCS, by myself and @helenamiton.bsky.social. 4.5 years since our initial @cogscisociety.bsky.social panel. Free access! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

CatCh ‘eM aLL? DIsCoVerIes In VeXIng seCret sIgns glossographia.com/2025/06/16/c...

In light of record submission rates and a large volume of AI-generated slop, SocArXiv recently implemented a policy requiring ORCIDs linked in the OSF profile of submitting authors, and narrowing our focus to social science subjects. Today we are taking two more steps: /1

When a Canadian says “It’s a bit of a gong show down there," what are they talking aboot? defector.com/how-a-campy-...

The Society for Anthropological Sciences Carol R. Ember Book Prize 2025 was awarded to Manvir Singh for Shamanism: The Timeless Religion. Join us in congratulating Dr. Singh for this outstanding work of anthropological science. www.societyforanthropologicalsciences.org/2025/11/2025...

New on Language-on-the-Move: fascinating longitudinal linguistic landscape study by @sarapatra.bsky.social and team, chronicling the shifts from Texan English to Qatari Arabic in a Middle Eastern university www.languageonthemove.com/from-howdy-t...

It's an accessible and encompassing overview of human mobilities over the millennia—where we come from, why we move, how it changes us, what the future holds—drawing on anthropology, history, folklore and allied fields www.wiley.com/en-us/World+...

The NSF Bio Anthro Program DDRIG, Cultural Anthrpology DDRIG, and Archaeology DDRIG have all been archived (as of yesterday afternoon). Please speak with your grad students and plan accordingly. To say I am angry and depressed about this is an understatement.

Got a couple dozen new followers overnight. Has there been some new exodus from the old place? Or is there some less savory interpretation (though most of these at least appear to be real accounts)?

This 'pique assiette' umbrella stand has been in my family for four generations - it was my mother's grandmother's and was in my childhood home. Must be late 19th or very early 20th century - could be English or Canadian. No obvious marks. Now to figure out if I can learn anything more about it!

How number systems shape our thinking and what it means for learning, language and culture theconversation.com/how-number-s...

Looking for a new notes app with a good web interface and a strong Android app. Evernote, my go-to for a decade, keeps getting worse and now much more expensive. Willing to pay, but not nearly $300 a year. Help!

There's definitely still time to apply for this TT position in Great Lakes / Midwest US archaeology in our department here at Wayne State. Ask me for any details (I'm not on the search comm though) - happy to help! Feel free to redistribute.

How number systems shape our thinking and what it means for learning, language and culture theconversation.com/how-number-s...

I just figured out that at least several of these editorial queries on these page proofs I'm doing have been generated by a really stupid AI system.

As a Canadian in an era of threat from the south, I should be a good person and prefer homegrown Canadian things. But I will never, NEVER get behind Vancouver citation style. Doesn't make a lick of sense to me.

Indiana University has reversed course on its decision to stop student journalists from including news coverage in the print version of their college newspaper, after weeks of intense criticism from the community and accusations of censorship. #USA www.nytimes.com/2025/10/31/b...

geddy lee claps for the blue jays in 7/4 time

Really great to see my old MA advisee @arbray.bsky.social today who is doing amazing sociophonetic work on the speech of American hockey players and will be teaching here at Wayne State next semester!

Okay but it is very funny to make a LIVING EDITION of your academic zombie handbook

Anyone who is really surprised that Justin Trudeau is dating Katy Perry should look up the list of who his dad Pierre was involved with throughout the 70s and 80s.

I just wrote my response to reviewers *before* making (mainly minor) revisions to a manuscript, so that I can use my response letter as a template for the revisions I'm about to do. (I'll add page numbers etc. later). Is this madness? Has anyone else tried this?

Just in the past day or so, various social media places are throwing ads for this game at me. Feels like too much, don't you think? Maybe too likely to lead me to tears to be enjoyable? Has anyone actually played this thing? publishorperish.games

It's remarkable, in the micro-field of numerals, where there might be 5 good new papers in an average year, to foresee the impact of 17 great new papers coming out in the same day in this major journal. If I cared about citation counts, by that metric it's by far the most impactful day of my career.

We have gathered some resources for creating and presenting posters at conferences. These resources include examples of past posters presented at AAA or SfAA, as well as websites with additional information on guidelines and advice. www.societyforanthropologicalsciences.org/p/poster-pre....

I don't know how things work in American municipal elections, but based on my experience, getting the endorsement of a widely reviled former candidate who called you horrible names in the recent past is pretty much guaranteed to hurt you rather than help.

The Indian scammer who just called me had a phone exchange number from the community of Delhi, Ontario. Coincidence or someone's idea of a joke? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delhi,_...

Well I'm not much of a baseball fan anymore, but I sure can tell (here in Windsor) who just won the game.

My paper "Base structures across lexical and notational numeral modalities" (PhilTransB) addresses a whole class of questions around the role that semiotic modality, and specifically number words vs. number symbols, plays in the structure of numerical systems.

My paper "Base structures across lexical and notational numeral modalities" (PhilTransB) addresses a whole class of questions around the role that semiotic modality, and specifically number words vs. number symbols, plays in the structure of numerical systems.

New special issue of #PhilTransB today, "A solid base for scaling up: The structure of numeration systems", to which I am a contributor. We have had only a shockingly fuzzy idea what a numerical 'base' is, and this interdisciplinary set of papers addresses that big question, and many smaller ones.

"In reality, AI erodes academic freedom, weakens critical reading, and subordinates the pursuit of knowledge to corporate interests." www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/a... (archive: archive.ph/Y6855)

I am thrilled that we're hiring a tenure-track archaeologist in my department, focused on Great Lakes / Midwest US archaeology. My department is amazing and we'd love to have you as a colleague. I'm not on the search committee but would be happy to answer questions. Share widely!

I am thrilled that we're hiring a tenure-track archaeologist in my department, focused on Great Lakes / Midwest US archaeology. My department is amazing and we'd love to have you as a colleague. I'm not on the search committee but would be happy to answer questions. Share widely!

Bibliometrics folks: I know about Price's law about relative productivity in some field. But is there similar (Zipfian?) work on individual scholars' citation counts on their various publications? I.e., is a person's most-cited work cited 2x as often as their second-most-cited, or some such?

Four down. Five to go. Let’s go. Join our National Teach-In on Trump’s Loyalty Oaths. Register Here: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi... #DefendHigherEd

Join us this Thursday for ‘The Social Life of Food’ with Tamara L. Bray from Wayne State University 📅 Thursday 16 October 2025 ⏰ 4pm 👉 More info and how to join online: bit.ly/garrodseminars2025 Organised by @mirandaevans.bsky.social, Akshyeta Suryanarayan and Alex Weide

WOW! Our survey of scientists who stopped using Twitter and started using Bluesky is now the #1 most-shared on social media article in the history of the journal Integrative and Comparative Biology! Thanks for reading it, everyone! @sicbjournals.bsky.social doi.org/10.1093/icb/... 🧪

NEW on Numberphile A "killer sudoku" with a stroke of genius youtu.be/eB0-vG6rSM4