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Sallymander 🦎

@narwhallibrarian.bsky.social

1.2K followers 1.1K following 12K posts

Co-founder of Dark Times Academy @darktimesacademy.bsky.social Pottery at tilburyavenue.felt.co.nz Counter disinfo 🗣 Critical tech 📵 Climate 🌀 Community education 📚 Words 🖋 Art 🎨

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Sallymander 🦎 @narwhallibrarian.bsky.social · Feb 6

For DECADES now we have inflated the egos of techbros into the sky & beyond.

We elevated them as geniuses & visionaries. It's our job now to deflate those egos & bring these jerks to heel. Knowing how to code or get VC funding does not mean you know anything IMPORTANT about how the world works

Rob Honeycutt @robhon.bsky.social · Feb 6

This one and NOAA really hit home.

There is no possible way Musk’s cadre of young’uns has the first clue about how complex either the aviation system or the climate system are. This is like handing a six year old the keys and saying, “You drive for a while, I’m going to take a nap in the back."

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Sallymander 🦎 @narwhallibrarian.bsky.social · 3h

Does anyone know how the electoral commission handles snail eaten ballots that have been very very wet and dried out so the glue on the envelope had to be ripped and then sort of folded down?

Sallymander 🦎 @narwhallibrarian.bsky.social · 12h

Snails ate our ballots.

Sigh.

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Sallymander 🦎 @narwhallibrarian.bsky.social · 5h

Yes and that is so important. Without the respect and listening, things fall apart.

Sallymander 🦎 @narwhallibrarian.bsky.social · 10h

Oh that's a good idea! I should do that too. It's like a snail house right now and that's not great. 🐌

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Sallymander 🦎 @narwhallibrarian.bsky.social · 10h

Same! The snails love paper apparently!

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Sallymander 🦎 @narwhallibrarian.bsky.social · 12h

I may have ground my teeth to dust while voting this morning.

Sallymander 🦎 @narwhallibrarian.bsky.social · 12h

Snails ate our ballots.

Sigh.

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Reposted by Sallymander 🦎

Juno Rylee Schultz @junoryleejournalism.com · 1d

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems...
SIMON: What?
SHAPIRO: ...Or saying...
SIMON: You imagine that?
SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over.
SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level.
SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this.
SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.

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Sallymander 🦎 @narwhallibrarian.bsky.social · 13h

We do like to talk alot! Very chatty group here at the bottom of the world.

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Sallymander 🦎 @narwhallibrarian.bsky.social · 13h

True--would be super interesting to see some research about why some groups show better cooperation and culture than others online . . .

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Sallymander 🦎 @narwhallibrarian.bsky.social · 14h

It really does--we may interact online, but we exist in a social reality based on the actual world. It changes how we behave. Wonder if Japan's slice of Bluesky is similar?

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Sallymander 🦎 @narwhallibrarian.bsky.social · 14h

It sounds right to me. I think for us that fact that most of us sort of know each other and live in the same professional and offline social spaces makes a huge difference.

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Sallymander 🦎 @narwhallibrarian.bsky.social · 14h

The rankings are based on bullshit, serve bullshit purposes, and should be thrown into the bin.

Sallymander 🦎 @narwhallibrarian.bsky.social · 14h

Yes yes yes

Excellent news all around and I very much hope to see New Zealand universities follow.

Samuel Moore @samuelmoore.org · 14h

“These rankings, built on selected quantitative indicators amalgamated into a single score, are not designed to evaluate research nor reflect the breadth and depth of the missions of research and higher education institutions.”

Why Sorbonne pulled out of university ranking

France’s Sorbonne University plans to leave the Times Higher Education (THE) Rankings, adding its name to a growing number of universities rejecting lists that play one institution off against another...

sciencebusiness.net

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Reposted by Sallymander 🦎

NZ Council for Civil Liberties @nzccl.org.nz · 1d

Launch: Protect Protest Aotearoa.

We're joined up with other groups to resist attacks on the right to protest. protectprotest.nz

Join the launch event with a screening of Operation 8 at 4:30pm October 15th in Wellington. More details: nzccl.org.nz/launch-prote...

Protect Protest Aotearoa – Defend the right to political protest in Aotearoa!

protectprotest.nz

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Sallymander 🦎 @narwhallibrarian.bsky.social · 1d

Real 'they just tweeted it out' moment here

Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 1d

From Donald Trump's Roundtable on Antifa just now —
"Antifa has been around in various iterations for almost 100 years in some instances, going back to the Weimar Republic in Germany."
— special guest Jack Posobiec

Reposted by Sallymander 🦎

Corey @coreysoper.bsky.social · 1d

We had years of debate about whether Trump's movement was a fascist one - I never expected them to openly identify themselves with historical fascism.

Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 1d

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Sallymander 🦎 @narwhallibrarian.bsky.social · 1d

I once wrote 40+ pages on the legal codes of ancient Mesopotamia as they relate to women. In 12 hours, starting the night before it was due.

Got an A+.

And a margin comment: "You've been spending too much time with this material."

Readers: I had not been spending too much time with the material.

Dane 🔜 NYCC AA L-34 @monkeyminion.com · 1d

I wrote a 15 page report on heraldic symbolism in medieval armor and weapon design for my art history class the night before it was due (8am class). Made up 90% of it (only found one book for reference) and got an A. GenAI could fucking never.

wrote 20 pages on Faulkner's The Bear four hours before final papers were due on trucker pills and coffee and cigarettes and got an A, fuck you.
You people couldn't hang with real slackers.
finn
wokeupchic • 4d
It's fuck Al till your homework due in 25 minutes

Sallymander 🦎 @narwhallibrarian.bsky.social · 1d

Have heard good things about ASB, but never tried them.

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Reposted by Sallymander 🦎

Dr Dean Knight @drdeanknight.bsky.social · 1d

WTF?

www.beehive.govt.nz/release/gove...

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Reposted by Sallymander 🦎

redrum scare(d) corncob (no one said it made sense) @inquiline.myatproto.social · 1d

Hey some nerd (me) is quoted here in this @columjournreview.bsky.social story about how low-power FM radio stations weathered federal funding cuts by being too small to be eligible for federal funding... in contrast to NPR. The invulnerability of the truly grassroots? 📻💚
www.cjr.org/feature/publ...

Against the precipitous backdrop of funding cuts to public media, low-power radio emerges as a lesser-known source of inspiration.

www.cjr.org

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Sallymander 🦎 @narwhallibrarian.bsky.social · 1d

Not a trustee but a former CE. Would that help? And is it KiwiBank, because they were a nightmare.

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Sallymander 🦎 @narwhallibrarian.bsky.social · 1d

I cannot reliably picture numbers. I can do numerals, but not the quantity, I just get swimmy impressions.

Reposted by Sallymander 🦎

Dark Times Academy @darktimesacademy.bsky.social · 1d

We had so much fun in Direct Action! class today with Joel Bellman!

Thanks to Joel for coming along and talking about his work reporting on Lyndon LaRouche and his movement--and the days when Nixon was as bad as anyone could imagine. 😱

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Sallymander 🦎 @narwhallibrarian.bsky.social · 1d

I think it's super interesting that we are using words like "vibe" and don't have a better and older vocabulary to talk about this stuff.

It really shows how rarely we talk about the meta aspects of thought.

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Sallymander 🦎 @narwhallibrarian.bsky.social · 1d

Yeah I tried everything I had on hand, including the eco-oven cleaner. But ultamitely the scary stuff with all the warnings worked a treat.

I did it all outside and let it sit outside in the garbage bag.It did work--the pot got clean and restored to baseline.