Timothy Shortell

In my data analysis class we're reading Massimo Airoldi's Machine Habitus: Toward a Sociology of Algorithms.

Tonight, I get to talk about one of my favorite sociological things: Actor-Network Theory.

#Sociology #DataAnalysis #HigherEd #ActorNetworkTheory

A blue jay perched on the table on my deck next to piles of sunflower seeds and peanuts. The jay looks directly at the camera.

Good morning from the bird bistro and portrait studio. #BirdsOfMastodon #BirdWatching #BirdPhotography #SunflowerSeeds #Peanuts #BlueJay

My cat, a grey and brown tortie, sleeps on the couch in a tight potato-shaped ball.

My little baked potato. #CatsOfMastodon

A red-bellied woodpecker on my deck. Nearby a chipmunk collects sunflower seeds. I couldn't tell if the woodpecker was eating seeds or hunting for insects on the deck.

A new visitor to the seed pile. #BirdsOfMastodon #SunflowerSeeds

#Windows10 reaches EOL today. Microsoft's message is clear: buy new hardware or pay.

For millions of users worldwide, perfectly functional computers will suddenly become "obsolete" - not because they can't run an operating system, but because #Microsoft says […]

[Original post on fosstodon.org]

A blue jay lands on the table on my deck to eat sunflower seeds and peanuts. in the background, a squirrel looks for seeds on the deck.

Good morning from the bird bistro and portrait studio. #BirdsOfMastodon #BirdsOfPixelfed #BirdWatching #BirdPhotography #SunflowerSeeds #Peanuts #BlueJay #Squirrel

At least ten wild turkeys eat clover in my yard. They live in the woods surrounding my house.

Winter is on the way. Cold enough last night to freeze the bowl of water I put out for the birds and squirrels. Turkeys gathering in large numbers to eat clover. I might get the woodstove fired up this afternoon. #RuralLife #WinterIsComing

I put out sunflower seeds and unsalted peanuts for the birds, chipmunks, and squirrels. When the squirrels finish eating, they often take extra peanuts and bury them in the yard. Today I watched a blue jay hop around the yard and eat the contents of some of the peanut caches. Corvids are smart […]

Ok, ok. Since you asked, I will agree to become the next Prime Minister in France. (I understand that the gig will only last a few days.) I hope they are open to remote work.

#GlobalPolitics

Throughout history, each iteration of fascism came with its own particularities. Political theorist R. Griffin posits that the one thing they have in common is palingenetic ultranationalism. (Picture : Mussolini giving a speech) Palingenetic ("born again in ancient greek) ultranationalism is a far right narrative that frames the nation as decadent, as having lost its way, as being betrayed by dark elites. To save it, it needs to be destroyed, then reborn. (Picture: Trump giving a speech in front of a MAGA flag) with that goal in mind, an authoritarian power with divisive rhetoric channelsbthe population's anger towards a scapegoat demonized outgroup: migrants, religion, sexual and gender minorities... (picture : three masked ICE agents are handling someone.) Fascism is like a chameleon : it constantly adapts to eras and cultures. It is vital to learn to identify it and call it out. (Picture: a chameleon)

"What is fascism?"

Overview of DiverCity and global patterns in urban road networks. (a) Example of a trip with low DiverCity (2.18) in Mumbai. Near-shortest routes significantly overlap, leading to low route diversity. (b) Example of a trip with high DiverCity (9) in Tokyo, characterized by multiple spatially diverse near-shortest routes. For panels (a) and (b), inset bar plots show the travel time of each alternative route, with NSRs in blue and non-feasible routes (exceeding the near-shortest threshold, shown as a dashed line) in red.

Nice project: A computational framework for quantifying route diversification in road networks
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.02582

Interactive: https://divercitymaps.github.io/

Cover of a book entitled Labor Evangelicals by Ken Estey. The cover includes a photo of rusting tanks from the site of a closed steel mill in Pennsylvania.

Just finished reading Labor Evangelicals: Faith, Authority, and Resistance at Work, by my friend and colleague Ken Estey. I'll be serving as discussant at the book talk on Tuesday. The event is part of a series in the college's Studies in Religion program […]

[Original post on sciences.social]

Masked KKK.

Masked Patriot Front.

Masked ICE.

Some groups that have sought to hide their members' identities.

It is what it is.

Jane Goodall, conservationist renowned for chimpanzee research and environmental advocacy, has died - The Boston Globe She was 91. She died of natural causes, the Jane Goodall Institute said in a statement.

Rest in power, Dr Goodall.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/01/world/jane-goodall-dies/

What are some of your favorite free online Python tutorials? I'd like to point my introductory data analysis students to some reliable sources for help. #DataAnalytics #Python #IntroductoryStatistics

#USPol

I hope that people remember, whenever we are able to rid ourselves of this fascist government, that almost all of our institutions are run by absolute cowards.

A grim reminder: these people will never be satisfied. There’s no point at which they will say “we’ve won, let’s enjoy life.” They will always be looking for someone else to punish, to revile, to dehumanize. They’re empty without that.

"Education report calling for ethical AI use contains over 15 fake sources."
https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/09/education-report-calling-for-ethical-ai-use-contains-over-15-fake-sources/

PS: No, this slipshod practice is not declining on its own. Or not yet.

#AI #Hallucinations #Irony […]

‘Radicalized’ Evergreen High School shooter appeared to hold antisemitic, violent views in online accounts Social media accounts that appear to be connected to the 16-year-old shooter are littered with references to mass shootings and antisemitic views, The Denver Post found.

An antisemite shot two kids in Colorado, at least one of whom is Jewish.

The White House “fighting antisemitism” doesn’t care, because the shooter was a student radicalized online into far right beliefs, which the regime is cool with, rather than a student verbally criticizing Israeli govt policy.

My cat, a brown and grey tortie, sits on my laptop keybord on my desk. On the computer screen the login page records her attempt to login by sitting on the keys on the right side of the keyboard.

Good thing my login password is not "oijlllllllllllllllllllllllllll" or she'd have been able to take over my account. #CatsOfMastodon

My cat, a brown and grey tortie, sneaks up on a bird on the deck outside. She is hunched down as she approaches the glass door. The cardinal is eating sunflower seeds on my deck, underneath scaffolding that has been set up.

Ready for action. #CatsOfMastodon #Caturday #BirdWatching

We've reached the time of the year when I have to relearn to wear shoes all day.
#HigherEd

How Many Days Until Hockey?

46 days till hockey starts

#nhl #hockey #hnom

https://howmanydaysuntilhockey.com/

My expertise is in text as data and quantitative discourse analysis, but the students tend to be more interested in mapping.

(Spatial data analysis is cool too.)

My university switched to Brightspace as the content management software for our classes. I just finished creating the site for my course in data analysis & visualization. It was pretty easy to pick up the basics of course content creation and structure. I had everything for the course in a […]

I hope the Microsoft engineer who thought it would be a good idea for the program icons to jump around in the taskbar is no longer employed in technology. #HumanComputerInteraction

The Globe gets it right: Tariffs are collected when foreign goods arrive at the border and are paid by the business bringing them into the country. So they amount to a back-door tax increase on US businesses and consumers, and in particular hit lower-income people harder.

“Tariff is basically a […]

Three slicing cucumbers, one beefsteak tomato, and about two dozen sungold cherry tomatoes freshly washed from my garden.

Good harvest this morning. #Gardening #Zone5 #Cucumber #Tomato