@aiainetwork.bsky.social is hosting Vauhini Vara at Emory on Thursday Oct 16 for the talk, “If Computers Can Write, Why Should We?” Vara was a Pulitzer finalist for fiction in 2023. Her latest, Searches, investigates what is at stake for writing with the rise of AI www.eventbrite.com/e/vauhini-va...

So so sad to learn about the death of Jonathan Lear. His work on Aristotle and Freud was formative for me. He was a model of philosophical intelligence and curiosity. More importantly he was a human human, with rare integrity and sharp judgment. It's hard to imagine the world without him in it.

I’m so sorry to learn of this. I remember him as one of the most intellectually generous professors I’ve known—luminously curious and unfailingly humane. It’s there in his work too. What a loss.

"higher ed is an economic engine, health-care engine, technological-innovation engine. it should be a common public good for everyone. the vast majority of Americans of any political stripe need education for their kids, their families, in order to move forward." www.chronicle.com/article/is-t...

dudes rock

if you have a Christian family you’ve been wanting to wordlessly abandon tomorrow would be a great day to do it

My 2.5 year old vomited on us both tonight for the first time. She'd spat up hundreds of times, obviously. But this was her first time getting sick with a stomachache all day that didn't give until I was holding her and she sent the blue, "smurf" ice cream back up all over us

They would get better overall results by scattering this money in various parks.

will just add that if anybody wants a copy, you can get it for $24.50 with the code UCPNEW here, or email me and i'll get you a pdf copy asap for nothing. solidarity all.

It's been too long since I've shared a blog series featuring recently scholarly books that have stood out to me. But there's no time like the present--& since the present time is so damn fraught & frustrating & fragile & fucked-up, I'm focusing this week's series on books that offer inspiration. 🗃️

Is anyone keeping track of the full list of college and university professors who have been fired for social media posts over the last two weesks?

Shanah Tovah, New York City. Here's to a sweet and hopeful New Year.

Hey look if Pynchon's new one is getting nicked for a smegma joke, we'll be in damn good shape "His comedic sense is considerably more fallible—'Shadow Ticket' is not the first of his novels with a sophomoric smegma joke—but, when it lands, it lands" www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

It has been brought to my attention that not everyone knows about Ben Franklin's virtue-tracking app

in education, creative industries, caring professions, and LABOR ORGANIZING, people are doing things, there's a movement against-a-i.com www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/the-luddit...

Working on virtue ethics for close reading, reclaiming virtue (human flourishing) for the left: gentleness (will, ethics); accountability (mind, epistemology); sensibility (body, aesthetics). Talking about it on Thursday for the Naseeb Shaheen Lecture at U of Memphis www.memphis.edu/english/news...

They should make an international franchise out of Murder She Wrote called Murder She Translated, where Jessica Fletcher's various translators in different countries also happen to solve crimes in their spare time

Reading—and thoroughly enjoying—TONI AT RANDOM by @danaawilliams.bsky.social on Toni Morrison’s long and rich and career as an editor at Random House. Was taken by this passage describing Morrison’s work with George Land in his book, GROW OR DIE: THE UNIFYING PRINCIPLE OF TRANSFORMATION. 1/

This is so sad.

I talked about editing Austen for Penguin w/ @folger.edu www.folger.edu/podcasts/sha...

fuck you for "thanking me in advance"

Wow we should base our entire economy on this technology

i saw goody proctor making inflammatory posts about charlie kirk

It's Pizza Friday. We've earned this.

We’d be in a much stronger position right now if mainstream Democrats had taken a common sense stand for First Amendment principles instead of piling on undergraduate standing up for Palestine.

ICE continues to assault us. We are peacefully protesting. They are kidnapping and hurting us.

Might as well defend your faculty.

We’re like five minutes away from Jeopardy! being canceled because it had a category of the Civil War that featured correct answers

I'm not sure about this branding but I'm not the billionaire business genius

At some point in the last nine years we slipped from "c'mon Trump is awful but comparing him to Hitler is hyperbolic" to some version of "yeah, Brendar Carr is doing a Goebbels" every day

Best household decision my wife and I made was to buy one of those basic fridges, freezer on top, cheapest kind, no water dispenser, no gadgets, just a fridge, the kind known to last forever with the fewest problems, and, yeah, also the cheapest. No fucking AI, no fucking ads, christ.

This sucks so much www.theverge.com/news/780757/...

I don’t know what a lot of emojis mean. Here’s what I believe. 🤌: That’s upsetting / Say more 🤣: I almost certainly fucking suck 😳: You just scared me / You’re gross / We should hook up 🔥: I’m the sort of easily amused that needs a check in / You look hot

This is a massive, history making abuse of your power. It will define your legacy and one day you will come to regret punishing free speech and trying to destroy democracy.

Every major talent that works for ABC and Disney should refuse to show up for work until Jimmy Kimmel is reinstated. Marvel movies need to shutdown. Ditto the sitcoms. Collective boycott. Corporations love money more than anything,& this will harm them and force them to do the right thing.

Sorry, folks. The only comedy that's fully legal now is specials called TRIGGERED: THE UNWOKE, UNCENSORED TOUR with a thumbnail of a guy with a piece of duct tape over his mouth. Everything else will be placed under review for content by the FCC.

Jimmy Fallon Executed After Ending Show's 20 Minute Moment of Silence for Charlie Kirk 8 Seconds Early

Oops, our app destroyed art. Sorry about that

Academia dot edu licensing agreement says it can use your likeness and voice and publications in any manner they want, world wide.

Anna Muenchrath and I are organizing an ACLA seminar on Literary Translation and Its Institutions. If you’re a translator or scholar of translation, we’d love to have you join us! www.acla.org/seminar/b718...

The amazing genius of @mitchtherieau.bsky.social’s essay is that it appeared before this photo, which it perfectly explains.

I’m so excited about this! come say hi!

Atlanta! The AIAI Network is hosting the fabulous journalist and novelist @vauhinivara.bsky.social on Thursday, October 16. She will give a talk at 4PM in Atwood 360 titled “If Computers Can Write, Why Should We?” Come out!

Very cool piece from Jed Kudrick and @sdileonardi.bsky.social on the history of translation in the US literary scene!

New at PB: Jed Kudrick & @sdileonardi.bsky.social use data from the NYT bestseller list to map 3 popular waves of literature in translation in the US: the postwar popularity of European titles, the "Latin American boom," & the more recent explosion of Nordic noir.

“The three waves of translated bestsellers suggest that, despite the persistently low share of published translations in the US, when available resources come together to bring international works to market, readers are eagerly standing by.”

One of these rich dudes invested in a food company with all proceeds going to kids in need. The other started Sundance Institute, boosting the lives of countless artists. Hey modern rich dudes, don't be a typical greedy AI crypto-prick, be like these two.