This has been the best day. 🤩

How easily can you tell if text such as a hotel review is by a human or AI? You can test your skill in this survey run by Lancaster University: lancasteruni.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_... (Tried after fascinating talk on this by forensic linguist @drclaireh.bsky.social at CYBERUK 2025 last week.)

Forensic linguistics is definately* on the agenda in this blog by EMC's language neek @englangblog.bsky.social englishandmedia.co.uk/blog/forensi... (* Could the writer of this post really be the mysterious 4th man... H?)

The forensics summer school run by @drclaireh.bsky.social can be found here too: www.lancaster.ac.uk/linguistics/...

GUESS WHAT?? The sixth episode of Slowburn Shakespeare finally, finally happened. Find it now wherever you get your podcasts. What is Slowburn Shakespeare? Settle in, it's quite a ride...

Language, Speech, and AI: FACTOR Summer School 2025 📅 28-30 July 2025 📍 Lancaster University, UK 💼 Theme: Fraud & the (Mis)use of AI Countless frauds and scams are being perpetrated all around us right now, and AI has made it easier than ever. And we'd like to fight back...

🗣️ It's the last FACTOR talk of the academic year! Join us for Dr. Tharindu Ranasinghe's discussion of the challenges of offensive language detection in political discourse, including how human and machine moderators often disagree on what's considered offensive.

I suppose one way to start here is to share a new publication. Here it goes: '‘I am still unsure’ - Spontaneous expressions of vaccine indecision on Mumsnet' with @vaclavbrezina.bsky.social @elenasemino.bsky.social @williamdance.bsky.social @drclaireh.bsky.social et al. #healthcomm #vaccinations

the follow-up to Samuel L Jackson's narration of "Go The Fuck To Sleep" (a book i own, obviously)

i feel like we haven't had enough content like this in a while

the fact that i have spent some considerable hours today staring at this and trying to figure out the tune

Did you miss the MSc Forensic Linguistics & Speech Science (FLiSS) face-to-face info session in December? Don't worry - we're running another one, and this time it's online! 🕵️‍♀️ Dr George Brown and I talk about FLiSS, funding, and how to tackle the interview. ⬇️ Details ⬇️

We're thrilled to announce our next talk: Sophie James (LUMS, SPS) and Prof. James Cronin (LUMS) will present: "Digital Dreamscapes & The Spectralisation Of Reality" Exploring digitally networked horror as a new frontier in dark tourism.

people who've ever had to OCR large numbers of poor-quality image-based PDFs quietly sobbing at this story…

yeah but hear me out 1) collect a corpus of the bible, coding manuals, historical fiction, and product reviews 2) write a string generating the four components 3) bot-post these affirmations daily… "Hark ye! Your sysadmin RDP setup is most bewitching. Delivered on time."

deleting more apps than i'm downloading these days

lemerenguin was right there

bet you didn't think a plant pot would make *you* cry today either, did you so that makes two of us

So that’s the first run of the Foundations of Speech Science module done (and the first term of our inaugural MSc Forensic Linguistics and Speech Science cohort!) What a term it’s been 😮‍💨

Thinking ahead to your dissertation? Looking for a project idea that’s creative and innovative? 👀 One of our students, Bella, has designed a survey with a clever twist - perfect for sparking your inspiration! But you’ll need to follow the steps carefully to uncover it.

how forensic linguistics can unwittingly make you feel like a dinosaur: this seems to neatly divide the population into those who knew Tupperware was (once) a trademark, and those who don't 😭

forensic linguistics klaxon: when impersonating a famous lexicographer, you might want to do a tiny bit more homework… 😬

godspeed to everyone else waiting that last hour before they start committing tiny acts of Elf on the Shelf hooliganism around their own homes for us, December will open this year with an inebriated Erica Elf in charge of a rogue glitter cannon 🥲

in case you needed any more reasons to become a forensic linguist: the infinite magic of pragmatics

🚨 Exciting news from FACTOR! 🚨 Dr. Hansi Hettiarachchi (Lancaster University) will explore how temporal word dynamics can inform event detection from social media streams. From crisis management to market analysis, learn how this approach tackles vast, unstructured data. Why is this important? ->

god i'd forgotten how much i love this chart. if you've never seen it before, it's illustrating how many murders have been committed both before and after Florida enacted its "Stand Your Ground" law the question i like to ask my students: "is the chart deceptive?"

Polygraphs & policing in England & Wales. Article based on FOI analysis accepted/forthcoming in Legal Studies journal. We argue for independent review of police polygraph use & 'police law for tech' covering all policing contexts. Comments welcome researchportal.northumbria.ac.uk/en/publicati...

Today's @factor-lu.bsky.social talk is by Greta Esposito, a FACTOR PhD student in LAEL. Greta explores the critical role of interpretation and translation in law enforcement and how sub-optimal language services can impact the criminal justice system. #ForensicLinguistics

SNOW AND ICE SERVICE CANCELLED POINTS FAILURE THREE MINUTES TO GET A TICKET FOR AN ALTERNATIVE SERVICE VIA PRESTON wait yes whilst you print those new tickets please can i get a picture of your mug thank you CHANGE PLATFORM FLOODED LINES TRAIN DELAYED BROKEN RAIL TRACK SIGNAL BOX VANDALISM-

okay if the otters-on-campus video is a deepfake i am going to cry but also if they're real, how fast are they giving up aquatic life for a diet of Greggs and Coastal

if the other accounts were (more) your thing, you can find shiny new @en-clair.bsky.social and @factor-lu.bsky.social profiles all set up and ready to go

hello did we all move here or

2024 is the year you can finally pursue an MSc in Forensic Linguistics *and* Speech Science, right here at Lancaster!

New paper introducing the 'Victorian anti-vaccination discourse corpus' - a corpus of 19th century pamphlets opposing compulsory smallpox vaccination in England (www.lancaster.ac.uk/vaccination-...). We use it to show parallels with present-day vaccine hesitancy. academic.oup.com/dsh/advance-...

LAEL students, want to put your forensic linguistics and crime-solving skills to the test this Halloween? Then this is for you. On 30th Oct, LAEL Society are running a Murder Mystery Night. Have LAEL staff been out criming? Am I the killer?? Or is it... someone else...?

New publication alert! I'm guest-editing with David Wright a special issue in #forensiclinguistics for the International Journal of Semiotics of Law, out in February. Here's one of the open access advance articles. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

The CREST Security Review has today released an issue focusing on misinformation and how the behavioral sciences play a critical role in tackling this growing problem. Read on: crestresearch.ac.uk/magazine/mis...

Much as I'm deeply cynical about the lifespan and reach of all these new platforms, here we go again. It took something pretty significant to make me get up the effort though. And that thing is: In the coming weeks, we may have some interesting news... 😏