Maria Damkjær

steam is apparently allowing "this game had AI in it that it didn't disclose" as a valid return statement, so if you or anyone you know actually paid $70 for slop, get that money back

The Robert and Vineta Colby Scholarly Book Prize – RSVP The Colby Book Prize was endowed in 2006 in memory of Robert Colby by his wife, Vineta Colby, distinguished scholars and long-time members of RSVP. In 2011, following Vineta’s death, the Board of…

📖 Colby Book Prize nominations open today! We're accepting nominations from now until 31 Jan. 2026. The Colby Prize recognizes original book-length scholarship published in 2025 that most advances our understanding of the long #19thC British press. More info: buff.ly/LIi76WJ

Star Trek The Next Generation scene. Ok so we're off starship here and we're in a older style structure/setting, like concrete walls with inlaid designs and some stained glass maybe in the background. Centered on camera is a guy. He's wearing a white turtleneck shirt under a ruffly sikly black robe, but it all looks formal and fancy. He's a redhead, his hair is buoyant, and he has a thick and spongy red beard. Could easily be a yacht rock artist from the 80s. He's looking forward with a 'manifest destiny' kind of fire in his eye. Closed caption reads, "I am the anarchy of lust."

Yes, this is a reference to Kadue's brilliant contribution to Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century:

LOVED this chapter 😍

she’s a 10 but Excel thinks she’s October

HOLY SHIT. They found the genes for fibromyalgia - and it's *not* autoimmune, it's the central nervous system. It's very cool to see some progress made on the thing that's ruined my life since late teenage years!

I’m just never going to sign on to an idea for fixing [insert here: higher ed, your field, classroom, university, library] that adds more labor. *Reduce* labor. Supplant labor. Waste it.

What would happen if you had more time to [insert here: think, read, stare, cook, sleep, muse, exercise]?

I find the phrase “makes history” nonsensical. Have you seen the stuff historians study? Just dropping an old piece of farm equipment down a well or accidentally freezing to death in a glacier gives you a good shot at the history books

[Scene is a kitchen - a middle aged woman called JANET is boiling peas at the stove. A younger more colourfully dressed woman named LIZ approached her.] JANET: Ugh... LIZ: What's up? JANET: I am so bored of cooking peas! LIZ: Have you tried... AI peas? JANET: AI peas? LIZ: They're peas with AI! [Liz holds up to us a packet of peas labelled: Pea-i AI - Peas with AI]. LIZ: Al-powered peas harness the potential of your peas JANET: What LIZ [Now a voiceover as we cut to a whizzy technology diagram of peas all connected by meaningless dotted lines] Why not take your peas to the next level with Al Peas' new Al tools to power your peas? [Show a techno diagram of a pea with a label reading 'AI' pointing to a random zone in it] LIZ: Each pea has Al in a way we haven't quite worked out yet but it's fine [Show Janet and Liz now in a Matrix-style world of peas] LIZ: With Al peas you can supercharge productivity and make AI work for your peas! JANET: What LIZ: Shut up LIZ: Our game-changing Pea-Al gives you the freedom to unlock the potential of the power of the future of your peas workflow From opening the bag of peas to boiling the peas to eating the peas To spending millions on adding Al to the peas and then having to work out what that even means. JANET: Is it really necessary to- LIZ [Grabbing Janet by the collar]: THE PEAS HAVE GOT AI, JANET [Cut to an advert ending screen, with the bag of peas and the slogan: AI PEAS: Just 'Peas' for god's sake buy the AI peas. [Ends]

Every ad now

"Everyone should have the right to refuse to engage with technologies that harm them, their students, and the planet."

It's so wonderful so I write it like this for my students

#BookHistory

Screen grab from Dropbox saying Emojis in file names are finally here!

No no no begs every archivist. You are never going to be able to find anything. Please don’t start using emojis in file names. Who asked for this? What fresh hell is next?

I feel like I need you to see the texts my dad sent me this week

Full-color image of the Cathedral of Barcelona, composed on a typewriter by Montserrat Alberich Escardívol. Image from WikiMedia.

Holy shit, just learned about the typewriter art of Montserrat Alberich Escardívol, a Catalan typist. Using an extra wide typewriter and 180 color ribbons, she built up elaborate images from simple characters like 'm' and '.' and ';'. Here is her typewritten painting of the Cathedral of Barcelona.

If anybody would like to, or knows anybody who might like to, do a small amount of paid research work for me at the National Records of Scotland in Edinburgh, I would be very glad to hear from them.

I love this nerd ass website

Can anyone recommend a good text / source for sea monsters and imagined marine life in early modern period? Niche request. Cheers!

Identifying the Relationship between personal concerns and enjoyment of horror films (Denmark) Online surveys is a powerful, easy to use tool for creating online surveys. Run by Jisc, online surveys is used by over 300 different organisations in the UK...

HORROR FANS WANTED!

My friend and colleague Mathias Clasen desperately needs horror fans to help with his new study. The survey below doesn't take long to complete, and your participation is appreciated by him and his collaborators.

Details 👇
app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/brighton/i...

I asked about this, and one of our excellent librarians discovered that in fact AI summaries/"Research Assistant" can be switched off at the level of the library. Something to request. support.proquest.com/s/article/Eb...

the entirety of the british press talked themselves into believing this woman is trans based almost entirely on JK Rowling's judgement of the athlete's appearance.

Reminder: If you use generative AI for *any of your writing tasks* you are a Slopper not a writer and should be ashamed of yourself. The end.

Another sleeping student from the image.

I repeat, not a single student fell asleep! Ever.

China’s CO2 emissions have been flat or falling for past 18 months, analysis finds World’s biggest polluter on track to hit peak emissions target early but miss goal for cutting carbon intensity

Good morning to all those people who wasted the last decade saying, "there's no point tackling climate change in the UK, because China."

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...

A reminder that we're hosting the first European Conference on the Fantastic, Fantasy's Present Pasts, in Glasgow next summer (23rd-25th June 2026). The Call for Papers and Sessions can be found here: fantasy.glasgow.ac.uk/index.php/20.... Closes 12th December. Please do consider submitting!

A professor from the image talking.

No slides, just words. Many words. Those were the days.

Austen all day

Does anyone in the #bookhistory or #history space know of a good article about the “publishing war” between the Old Farmer’s Almanac and the Farmer’s Almanac?

Bluesky posts from Joseph Rezek explaining that he now loves Jane Austen's NORTHANGER ABBEY.

Bluesky post by @profchander describing his newfound appreciation for Alexander Pope.

But on the bright side, the 18thC is clearly winning. @rezekjoe.bsky.social & @profchander.bsky.social bearing witness: