Ethan Plaut
@ethanplaut.bsky.social
1.6K followers 960 following 490 posts
Research: Disconnection, tech refusal & beautiful, broken media. Sometime coder & dusty journo. Now Aotearoa NZ, always Chicago, formerly Stanford, SF, Phnom Penh, Fukui. Silence when I can. Music when I can't. Tangata Tiriti, Jew, he/him. ethanplaut.com
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ethanplaut.bsky.social
🚨 New Pub! 🚨 Our augmented reality museum installation about data surveillance & rights in Aotearoa NZ used by 128,000x visitors over 2 yrs — we interviewed visitors & present conclusions on how to get the public thinking about problematic technologies!

doi.org/10.1145/3706...

#OpenAccess #chi2025
Surveillance on Exhibit: Using Problematic Technology To Teach About Problematic Technology | Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
doi.org
Reposted by Ethan Plaut
mikeananny.bsky.social
Dunno if it's helpful to anyone, but I offer this in the spirit of academics not talking enough about rejection & students sometimes not getting mentoring on the point.

A student (primary author) & I just had a paper rejected from a journal, & I wrote this reply to them sharing the news with me.
Abbreviated text of screenshot of email:

"When I get a decision like this---I've had plenty of rejections, btw, it's a common experience!---I like to:

    give myself a few days to just sit with the answer;
    go to the reviewer comments with fresh eyes and hopefully a constructive attitude;
    read the reviewer comments and classify them into 3 types of feedback: big / structural things that might necessitate fundamentally re-thinking the paper; mezzo-level things that could be addressed within the scope / frame of the project; minutiae that are easy to do (e.g., points about language / grammar / adding citations)
    for each of those, I think about:
        what do I agree with and think was a reasonable reading of the paper;
        what do I think is not reasonable / doesn't require further consideration / is something that the reviewers didn't get / is something that was particular to that journal;
        what do I *want* to work on / make the paper into / where am I willing to invest energy
    finally, with this distance and structured thinking, I think about other venues for the piece (where to submit it to next) and what kind of changes (if any!) are required before submitting to a different venue.  While it's usually good to make some changes based on reviewers' feedback (they're smart people who gave this consideration and the comments are largely thoughtful), it could be that a different venue would be a better fit and not require (or even want) the changes suggested by reviewers for the journal that rejected the piece.

I'm happy to talk about this in our next scheduled meeting / before then / any time.

And just to reiterate: I truly hope that you don't take this news too hard.  It's a very common part of this whole academia business, it's ideally how work gets better and makes stronger contributions, and it's zero reflection on your standing or future as a scholar.

    All best,
    -- M."
ethanplaut.bsky.social
“Like the flour to the roux /
Like the RZA to the Wu…”

Count Bass D one of those dudes in his 50s who’s been building a deep underground discography since the 90s with this off-kilter nonchalance, like a friend who’s gently teasing you
God’s Gift, by Count Bass D
track by Count Bass D
countbassd.bandcamp.com
ethanplaut.bsky.social
"I just think they could've tried harder to make good art, you know?"
qwantz.com
the best unpopular opinions make everyone mad but nobody hurt: a truly victimless crime

www.qwantz.com/index.php?co...
Narrator: T-REX SHARES HIS MOST UNPOPULAR OPINION:
T-Rex: I think the cave paintings are pretty crappy!
T-Rex: I'm sorry, but it's true!

T-Rex: Their use of perspective is nonexistent, and sense of place is sketchy AT BEST!! Dromiceiomimus: Of COURSE they don't have good perspective: that hadn't been invented yet! They're CAVE PAINTINGS, T-Rex!
T-Rex: I just think they could've tried harder to make good art, you know?
Dromiceiomimus: THEY WERE LITERAL CAVE PEOPLE WHO HADN'T YET INVENTED PAINT! They were trying harder than any previous cave people in history!! T-Rex: I hear you, and I respect you, but you have to admit: they're HELLA amateurish.
Utahraptor: What?!

Utahraptor: Of course CAVE PAINTINGS are amateurish! They're done by people who haven't even invented HAVING JOBS yet, much less the job of PROFESSIONAL ARTIST! The WHOLE WORLD was amateurs!!
T-Rex: I'm just saying - they could be better. I could do WAY better, no problem. Off panel: You have the benefit of literally THOUSANDS OF YEARS of EDUCATION and KNOWLEDGE and TECHNOLOGY!!
T-Rex: YES! And you know what those thousands of years of education, knowledge, and technology tell me??
T-Rex: These guys SUCKED
ethanplaut.bsky.social
“PC STYLING”
pirateradiomap.bsky.social
Yard Sale Find Du Jour

#computer #radio #brooklyn
ethanplaut.bsky.social
now that’s the kind of innoventive thinking a modern university needs to restructure backward overflow and smash our KPIs!
ethanplaut.bsky.social
Dunno man I heard those DH people are doing critique and statistics and stuff
ethanplaut.bsky.social
“Syracuse University…announced the establishment of its new Center for the Creator Economy…including podcasters, streamers, influencers, and digital artists…The shift…follows a recent decision to pause admission for 20 undergraduate majors, including fine arts and digital humanities…”
Betting on the Creator Economy, Syracuse University Opens Academic Center for Podcasters and Influencers
The shift in course offerings follows a recent decision to pause admission for 20 undergraduate majors, including fine arts and digital humanities.
www.artnews.com
ethanplaut.bsky.social
excited to see if my 11yo thinks Bob Newhart is funny but also woah 50¢ for that Sergio mendes record!
ethanplaut.bsky.social
Solid haul from annual Bookarama sale!!
Pile of books and records and a DVD incl Bob Newhart and Sergio Mendes
Reposted by Ethan Plaut
ethanplaut.bsky.social
I built a meth lab out of LEGOs
Reposted by Ethan Plaut
drdrehistorian.bsky.social
12/ Meet George Vernon Hudson, an entomologist and astronomer who lived in Wellington. You can blame daylight saving on him and his shift work. No, really, DST is another Kiwi innovation. The fella wanted more sun!
Photo of Hudson seated and holding what appears to me to be a newspaper (National Library of NZ, PAColl-6301-20)
ethanplaut.bsky.social
seasons really seasoning oucherrrre in auckland today
Reposted by Ethan Plaut
paris.nyc
this skeet is the tipping point
mims.bsky.social
A bit of wishful thinking I see everywhere these days, maybe it's just an artifact of what does numbers on social media:

People declaring that any given event / finding / breakthrough will be *the* tipping point in a larger trend.

That just does not happen. Go read a history book.
ethanplaut.bsky.social
cannot believe the government’s “cameras everywhere” initiative turned out to be surveillance
ethanplaut.bsky.social
They literally called it “SCREENS EVERYWHERE” why are people surprised
Reposted by Ethan Plaut
daveexmachina.bsky.social
"your social media is just a bubble of groupthink" buddy, my mute list is three miles long and I still have to hear about every shitty person and every shitty event multiple times