Malcolm Toll

Horizontal bar graph with the title "Which of the following slang terms have you heard used a lot in the past two months?" (The question was specified to be about young people; so people over the age of 25 were asked to answer according to what they heard from their children/ students etc) The answers show that "Low key" and "Bruh/Bro" were most popular in January & February 2025, with around 73% of respondents saying they had heard these a lot. Rizz, Cringe, Slay, Brainrot, Sigma, Yapping and Skibidi were also popular. Heard very rarely were Cheugy, Fugazy and Basic. Here are all the percentages, courtesy of R: "Low key-74.2%, Bruh / Bro-73.4%, Rizz-68.8%, Cringe-66.4%, Slay-63.3%, Brainrot-60.2%, Sigma-57.8%, Yapping-56.2%, Skibidi-55.5%, GOAT-52.3%, Real-47.7%, Chat-46.9%, Aura-45.3%, Fire-45.3%, I love that for you-44.5%, Sus-44.5%, W-43.8%, Ate-43%, Era-43%, No cap-43%, Cap-42.2%, Mood-42.2%, Main character energy-40.6%, Gyat-39.8%, Baddie-37.5%, Simp-37.5%, Type shit-37.5%, High key-36.7%, Lit-36.7%, Mewing-35.9%, On God-33.6%, Say less-33.6%, Finna-30.5%, Fit (adj)-30.5%, Demure-29.7%, Drip-28.9%, Bussin-27.3%, It altered my brain chemistry-25%, Bop-23.4%, Fit-23.4%, Ahh-22.7%, Ohio-16.4%, Fanum tax-15.6%, Huzz-14.1%, Baka-13.3%, Based-11.7%, Poggers-10.2%, Cheugy-4.7%, Fugazy-1.6%, Basic-0.8%"

I did a pilot study for longitudinal slang research in February (128 respondents). Got discouraged because of methodological issues (too much slang!). Have now had an idea how to address these issues. Feeling encouraged again!

Also: having ChatGPT help you with R is FIRE.

The mosaic panel shows a rabbit as charioteer, holding the reins while two ducks pull the chariot. The rabbit’s look of fierce determination is evident. The scene is framed by a simple geometric border with decorative diamond elements in each corner and a red oval in the middle top and middle bottom.

🐇 A charioteer for the ages 🦆

What do good rabbits do in their spare time? Why it’s duck chariot racing! Purported to have been found at Hadrian’s villa in Tivoli, this scene sets the stage for great animal rivalries on the chariot racing circuit!

#MosaicMonday #AncientRome

Comic. [chessboard where one block of 2x2 sliding squares is shifted inward, with a blank next to it indicating the direction of the block’s movement] [caption] Sliding Number Puzzle Chess

Chess Variant

xkcd.com/3139/

Frank Lloyd Wright went for Usonian. And while he was a bit of a schmuck as is often the case with architects, I’m partial to expanding the term over eu-zhans, or oo-see-ans.

i stg every kink can be subtextually boiled down to:
-i am powerful/in control
-i am seen as desirable
-i am safe and can now be vulnerable
-i can explore taboo in a safe + controlled environment

once you realize that you realize that no kink can hurt you

Half of days, I think GUI was a mistake. The other half I think it’s a well intentioned albatross.

(Some day I need to write down the quibbles. They’re related to my somewhat quixotic belief that UNESCO should make Wikipedia the first pan-human intangible cultural heritage, and to my utterly deeply quixotic belief that the entity and servers should almost certainly be under UN jurisdiction.)

At this point, I might as well --
Here's an infographic showing different ways to include age as a predictor. The top shows two extremes, just as a plain old numerical predictor (imposes linear trajectory) vs. categorical predictor (imposes nothing whatsoever). And then three solutions in between!

I just discovered John Gluckman's The Science of Syntax on Pressbooks: pressbooks.pub/syntax/, and I already knew about Julie Doner's The Linguistic Analysis of Word and Sentence Structures (morpho-syntax) pressbooks.openedmb.ca/wordandsente...

Anyone know of other OA syntax titles?

It looks like Language Science Press has several syntax series langsci-press.org/seriesIndex

HOLY BIBLE Holy Bible © @Holy_Bible1 Follow Matthew 18:19 MATTHEW 18:19 "He prayed for her, she prayed for him and God smiled knowing that their names are already written next to each other."

AI slop now making up saccharine Bible verses that do not exist

Oh! Oh! Just an opportunity to say the phrase, nominative determinism.

Timeline cleanser

It’s great to see technology work.

I love how going to a different grocery store just across town is enough to briefly knock one out of the desensitization of protracted abundance. In “my” grocery store, I know where everything belongs and feel disappointed when it’s not there, but here across town, who knows what I will find?

📌

I hate myself for this.

The NYT's method of misleading readers is very canny. They ask questions about gender affirming care that could be asked of all medicine, all healthcare in America, or all healthcare for youth in a way that makes gender-affirming care sound like an outlier.

Looking Paco Yao up on 小红书(Rednote)—where he collaborated with the company to produce the images—the drawings are used to illustrate a high quality of life in spite of living alone.

Sure, everybody’s singular in their own space. But they can all see each other in context and contribute to a shared environment. There’s four people out on their balconies. There’s music. All of the balconies are decorated. They’re separate, but not devoid of evidence of proximity and care.

Canada’s Harper Government was an analogue I turned towards for understanding aspects of the first Trump Administration.

Good article. BlueSky comments and quote posts are a wild ride though.

I'm seeing a lot of "most women aren't attracted to bodybuilders" and that is 100% true.👍🏿

Some women are very attracted to bodybuilders. Also true.👍🏿

But then I'm seeing "Gym bros are more likely to judge your body?"

Um... No.

This in grey sweat pants no shirt ? Folding laundry

Oh my god he could ruin my credit except he won’t because he believes in spoiling me and equitable splits

So I have to sneak him presents but I haven’t paid for diner in three years

So instead of mind games we .. just have sex

a skeet from @jay.bsky.team that says: Guys, please don't let "skeets" stick The experiment in decentralized naming decisions has resulted in the worst possible term How about skoots? Can we bring back skoots? Bluesky OGs, help me out here, remember skoots? Apr 27, 2023 at 10:45 PM 136 reposts 756 likes

happy 2nd anniversary to the most important piece of bluesky lore

I finished @zevhandel.bsky.social's Chinese characters across Asia (2025) and it was great. What I wrote on goodreads:

This is a great and accessible introduction to how Chinese characters work, how it evolved, and how Korean/Japanese/Vietnamese/Zhuang made them work for themselves.

1/4

i don't really have any patience for the "buildings are clothes" argument. people insist that since cars are clothes, buildings must be as well. the important difference is that a car provides you with a belt to wear. that's an outfit. to insist a house is an outfit is absurd to the point of farce

Do you respond to “Alright now fellas?” or “OK now ladies?” in OutKast’s “Hey Ya”?

That is the only gender recognition certification that I need to see.

This is what @darthbluesky.bsky.social and I have been begging for. Put an olympian next to a bunch of normal people and let them race! OR put a normal person in an olympic race just to see how how fast these freaks are lol.

on the track and in the pool!