Ada Palmer

A bonobo’s pretend tea party is rewriting what we know about imagination A bonobo named Kanzi surprised scientists by successfully playing along in pretend tea party experiments, tracking imaginary juice and grapes as if they were real. He consistently pointed to the…

A bonobo’s pretend tea party suggests that imagination predates humans. A study in Science shows that Kanzi, a 43-year-old bonobo, could track imaginary juice and grapes in during a tea party, reliably distinguishing pretend from real objects. buff.ly/7ysy0fq
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Franklin Research Center Announces the Opening of the Sylvia Wynter Papers, Exhibition, and Symposium - The Devil's Tale Post contributed by John B. Gartrell, director John Hope Franklin Research Center  The John Hope Franklin Research Center is pleased to share that the archive of philosopher, scholar, and author Sylvi...

"The John Hope Franklin Research Center is pleased to share that the archive of philosopher, scholar, and author Sylvia Wynter will be opened to the public beginning March 3." Alt text: photograph of Sylvia Wynter.

Silhouette of a woman with an enormous updo hairdo, long 18th century gown, and an absurd hat perched atop.

How can you be talking about HISTORY with everything that's going on. 18th century history? Women's history? Waves hands.

Friends, it is precisely because of everything that's going on that we need to talk about history much, much more.

UNC-CH Will ‘Scrap’ New Recording Policy, Chancellor Says The move comes less than three weeks after the controversial rules were enacted.

Congrats to @ncaaup.bsky.social & all who fought against this surveillance policy that would've allowed admin to hijack microphones in the classroom for secret recordings.

This move would've chilled classroom discussion & suppressed students' willingness to ask questions & take intellectual risks.

Minister for Communications Patrick O'Donovan (L) and US Ambassador to Ireland Edward Walsh

Early American printing history.

John Dunlap printed the first copies of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia July 4th, 1776.

www.rte.ie/news/ireland... #C18th

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Perfect choice!

@adapalmer.bsky.social is right.

Wisdom from @adapalmer.bsky.social : “Only a few dozen institutions on Earth are more than 900 years old, and the vast majority are universities…. We are the rocks that have sheltered the knowledge, hope, and truth through tumults which have toppled kingdoms while classrooms endured.”

As the Green brothers have often stressed, hope is materially useful.

(Also, you should read @adapalmer.bsky.social's Terra Ignota series if you haven't--they're amazing!)

Please do!

One of the things I like about @adapalmer.bsky.social is her sincere belief in the better angels of human nature.

Washoe Tribe buys 10,000 acres in one of California’s largest ever land returns Tribe, which was forcibly removed from its lands near Lake Tahoe, used $5.5m grant and private donations for purchase

The Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California has completed the purchase of more than 10,000 acres of ancestral territory near Lake Tahoe — a historic land return that expands tribal land stewardship, supports cultural revitalisation, and enables ecosystem restoration.
buff.ly/oUsMCgv
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This excellent photo from @amybrown.xyz inspired my husband to remind me that Gene Wolfe (yes, the sciencce fiction writer) helped invent Pringles.

www.foodandwine.com/gene-wolfe-p...

Yes, I’m already working on the lit fig follow-up essay

Flatiron building in front of bluesky at sunset

Flatiron - Blue Hour - New York City #FridayPhoto 🗃️📷📸

A red glass tankard with pink and yellow peace roses, on a table with a fringed scarf, and behind, very 1970s wooden shelves with a green glass bottle, and behind that a painting with stripes.

#SomethingBeautiful another still life by my aunt, Mary Lace, Peace Roses.

Why All Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Are Historians SFF authors are the front-line practitioners who put the fruits of history’s craft into daily practice, sharing it in doses the public can consume, combining, treating, administering, customizing, …

At FHI I used to have a running debate with Nick Bostrom where he suggested I should read more history and I suggested he should read more SF. This great essay by @adapalmer.bsky.social gives a great argument for both.
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...

Wow, that would be great! 😍

That's a really insightful essay. I've become fascinated by the appearance of historians (professional or otherwise) in SFF novels. Though the most famous example is probably Asimov's Hari Seldon, he's far from the most interesting.

Yes

Trump is completely failing to kill renewable energy, which now accounts for more than 25% of US electric power. At most, he has caused a small increase in coal at the expense of natural gas

A small brown and gray Bewick's Wren with a distinct white eyebrow stripe, perched on a green plant bud with its head tilted slightly back.

A Bewick's Wren posing on a leaf bud.

#birds #nature #wrens

Regret to announce that we’ve reached Wrong Coat season. Every coat you wear from now til mid April will be The Wrong Coat for the weather

Sounds like you’ve sensed the forthcoming companion essay. There was a much longer discussion of lit tic but I was encouraged to remove it to make it a separate essay, forthcoming. & the Romance essay is in the “Trace Elements” connection coming out this month I hope you’ll enjoy chewing on them too

I agree the examinations of lit fic & romance are very incomplete. It needs its two companion essays to feel like a full piece, the essay on romance is in my collection “Trace Elements” co-authored with @bluejo.bsky.social which is coming out from Tor next week. The one on lit fic is forthcoming.

When you include the voices of more stakeholders than just the “usual suspects,” whole new understandings of #history can blossom. I think I need to read this #book!

Great read.

Inside you there are two Finnish icons