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Bronwyn Isaacs

@find-bronwyn.bsky.social

530 followers 920 following 87 posts

Anthropologist in Aotearoa University of Waikato Chasing all things anthropology especially media, digital, visual life, work, production studies and politics.

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Bronwyn Isaacs @find-bronwyn.bsky.social · Sep 3

My paper in Urban Studies is finally out! Check it out to see how cheap digital infrastructures and technologies are used to bolster inequality and monarchical authority in Bangkok. doi.org/10.1177/0042...

Digital cities and their commercial aesthetics: The celebration of monarchy in Bangkok - Bronwyn Isaacs, 2025

This article argues that the expanding role of digital urban infrastructure in Bangkok has revitalised a visual aesthetic designed to uphold royal authority. Th...

doi.org

Bronwyn Isaacs @find-bronwyn.bsky.social · 21h

If you submit a report with fabricated sources and quotes as a University student, you would fail the assignment. Government and consultancy companies need to hire people to do serious plagiarism checks on the reports they produce when work relies on generative AI. apnews.com/article/aust...

Deloitte to partially refund Australian government for report with apparent AI-generated errors

Deloitte Australia will partially refund the Australian government for a report filled with apparent AI-generated errors.

apnews.com

Bronwyn Isaacs @find-bronwyn.bsky.social · 1d

"Discovering that forests are losing their colours was frightening and revelatory, says Spaniol. . . 'A decline in their colour diversity may reflect a loss of complexity in ecosystems as a whole, with potential cascading effects'" www.theguardian.com/environment/...

As forests are cut down, butterflies are losing their colours

The insects’ brilliant hues evolved in lush ecosystems to help them survive. Now they are becoming more muted to adapt to degraded landscapes – and they are not the only things dulling down

www.theguardian.com

Bronwyn Isaacs @find-bronwyn.bsky.social · 2d

David Karpf: "this is the year that tech companies have decided they don’t give a shit"
Emily Bender, "an oil spill. . .weakening and breaking relationships of trust”
Joan Donovan “It has no fidelity to history, it has no relationship to the truth,” www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

OpenAI launch of video app Sora plagued by violent and racist images: ‘The guardrails are not real’

Misinformation researchers say lifelike scenes could obfuscate truth and lead to fraud, bullying and intimidation

www.theguardian.com

Bronwyn Isaacs @find-bronwyn.bsky.social · 5d

" A robot-lead reality is unlikely, but a reality where we accept violence as the status quo is already here" tacticaltech.org/news/insight...

Part 10. It’s All Downhill From Here

What is technology actually facilitating?

tacticaltech.org

Reposted by Bronwyn Isaacs

Geoffrey Hughes @geofffhughes.bsky.social · 9d

Reports of modernity's disenchantment of the world were apparently wildly premature. "Science" has seamlessly replaced the "supernatural" as the preferred medium of magical thinking.

𝕍∃, Cyber closed shell syndrome relief fund coordinator @vortexegg.com · 10d

The thing about medbeds as a QAnon conspiracy theory is that the exact same *idea* of magical immortality-granting technology (though in different formats) is a dominant myth in Silicon Valley technofuturism and also taken seriously by many powerful elites in that space

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Bronwyn Isaacs @find-bronwyn.bsky.social · 14d

"One Piece, by Eiichiro Oda, holds the record for the most copies published in the same comic book series by a single author, with 500m copies printed worldwide" www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

‘A symbol of liberation’: how the One Piece manga flag became the symbol of Asia’s gen Z protest movement

Carried by a band of pirates that stand up to corrupt and repressive rulers, the meaning of the One Piece flag has resonated across borders

www.theguardian.com

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Bronwyn Isaacs @find-bronwyn.bsky.social · 20d

Want to work in the Waikato, New Zealand? My school is hiring a few positions in #Psychology:
Senior Tutor in Psychology
Lecturer in Clinical Psychology
Senior Lecturer in Behavioural Analysis
elhs.fa.ap1.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

University of Waikato Careers Careers

elhs.fa.ap1.oraclecloud.com

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Bronwyn Isaacs @find-bronwyn.bsky.social · 21d

"Why does this absolutely unfounded myth that the Family Court somehow always sides with women and always harms men have so much traction? Because it resonates with underlying stereotypes,” she says. “It’s familiar to us, because it’s the baggage that we all carry around"

Erin Harrington @ladyhorrors.bsky.social · 21d

A great piece from Alex Casey about the noxious soup: "It’s like men’s potential suffering is tragic, and women’s actual suffering is just our lot in life."

thespinoff.co.nz/society/17-0...

Decoding the ‘cult of masculinity’ around Tom Phillips

The support for the Marokopa fugitive reveals several pervasive myths about masculinity, fathers and the court system.

thespinoff.co.nz

Bronwyn Isaacs @find-bronwyn.bsky.social · 23d

Amazing guest lectures today in Protest Movements of the Asia Pacific class today from activist-scholar, Kerry Tabuni and from Assistant Professor dos Santos @eraldo.bsky.social. People in very different parts of the world - all speaking to the West Papuan Independence Movement. Waa waa waa!

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Bronwyn Isaacs @find-bronwyn.bsky.social · 23d

Rawe! 50 years of Maori language week today:
www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa... ""We've gone from a time when te reo Māori was barely heard in public, to a time when it's sung in stadiums, spoken in workplaces and celebrated in our homes."

Te Wiki o te Reo Māori celebrates 50 years

Māori Language Week has kicked off, with a parade, webinar series and a time capsule planned.

www.rnz.co.nz

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Bronwyn Isaacs @find-bronwyn.bsky.social · 27d

🚨 8 days left to submit an abstract for the ASAA/NZ conference this year in beautiful Raglan/Whāingaroa 🌊. 9-12 December. Thanks to @wennergrenorg.bsky.social participants from Low and Middle Income countries can apply for travel awards ✈️ #anthropology #conference
www.asaanz.org/conference

ASAA/NZ Annual Conference — Association of Social Anthropologists of Aotearoa New Zealand

ASAA/NZ ANNUAL CONFERENCE

www.asaanz.org

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Reposted by Bronwyn Isaacs

Éric leroux @encres.bsky.social · Aug 29

To kill is exhausting
Tuer fatigue

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Bronwyn Isaacs @find-bronwyn.bsky.social · Sep 4

Another lawsuit against the “virtual vending machine” www.theverge.com/news/772101/...

Warner Bros. Discovery sues Midjourney for generating ‘countless’ copies of its characters

Hollywood’s battle with AI is heating up.

www.theverge.com

Bronwyn Isaacs @find-bronwyn.bsky.social · Sep 3

Digital cities and their commercial aesthetics: The celebration of monarchy in Bangkok - Bronwyn Isaacs, 2025

This article argues that the expanding role of digital urban infrastructure in Bangkok has revitalised a visual aesthetic designed to uphold royal authority. Th...

doi.org

Bronwyn Isaacs @find-bronwyn.bsky.social · Sep 3

"Current debates about AI’s future potential take us into related territory around concepts like creativity or thinking. We need inalienability as a theoretical framework for articulating what is at stake" www.at-commons.com/pub/8wem4ske...

Reposted by Bronwyn Isaacs

Ken Mathis Lohatepanont @kenlmathis.bsky.social · Aug 29

Paetongtarn Shinawatra has been removed by the Constitutional Court. Here, I lay out four potential scenarios on what comes next. www.coffeeparliament.com/p/paetongtar...

Paetongtarn Shinawatra is Out. Who Will Succeed Her?

Four possible scenarios

www.coffeeparliament.com

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Bronwyn Isaacs @find-bronwyn.bsky.social · Aug 29

In which I compare AI content to 2 minute noodles. 🍜

www.1news.co.nz/2025/08/24/c...

Councillor or chatbot? First local election with AI technology

Local election candidates have mixed views on the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in campaigning.

www.1news.co.nz

Bronwyn Isaacs @find-bronwyn.bsky.social · Aug 27

🤣

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Reposted by Bronwyn Isaacs

eraldo.bsky.social @eraldo.bsky.social · Aug 26

I promise you.

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Reposted by Bronwyn Isaacs

Helen Birch - drawdrawdraw @drawdrawdraw.bsky.social · Aug 22

14 'Ua'u Hawaiian Petrel
Endangered species formerly found on all main Hawaiian Islands except Niʻihau. Now mostly restricted to Haleakalā crater on Maui. Birds travel as far as Alaska and Japan during two-week-long feeding trips.

#artYear #ArtChallenge #drawing #bird #watercolour #pen #sciart

0.25 black pen drawing of a flying bird against a loosely painted blue, watercolour sky. A similar loose, smoky grey wash adds tone to the seabird's outstretched wings, neck, top of head and beak. It has small pink legs and feet tucked backwards.

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Bronwyn Isaacs @find-bronwyn.bsky.social · Aug 24

"smoothed-out look to footage that makes it look “like plastic""

The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · Aug 22

YouTube is using AI to tweak videos on its platform—without creators' knowledge. Alex Reisner reports on the concerning experiment:

YouTube’s Sneaky AI ‘Experiment’

The video platform is quietly using AI to “improve clarity” in uploaded content. Why?

bit.ly

Bronwyn Isaacs @find-bronwyn.bsky.social · Aug 22

Robert Sullivan: A new NZ Poet Laureate!

From Waka 78:
"amid the context of a minor colony
draining Imperial coffers, Imperial forces,
amid the resistance of souls
to becoming the essence of souls
the Empire took the waka"
thebigidea.nz/stories/stan...

Stanza & Applaud - Passing The Torch To New NZ Poet Laureate

National Poetry Day has been ushered in with the announcement of the country's Poet Laureate - the departing Chris Tse interviews his successor Robert Sullivan (and vice versa).

thebigidea.nz

Bronwyn Isaacs @find-bronwyn.bsky.social · Aug 21

"There were interviews to conduct and transcribe, students to support, messages that needed to be sent. The urgency to bear witness outweighed the need to rest."

Dr Lynette Pretorius @drlpretorius.bsky.social · Aug 20

Powerful article by Ahmed Kamal Junina:
‘Too hungry to think, too weak to sit upright. Concentration slips away’: the struggle to stay focused as an academic in Gaza
#AcademicSky

‘Too hungry to think, too weak to sit upright. Concentration slips away’: the struggle to stay focused as an academic in Gaza

It is hard to keep the mind sharp when the body is thin and dehydrated, but solidarity is teaching starving students their thoughts still matter

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Bronwyn Isaacs

Elle @elleisanisland.bsky.social · Mar 31

In the 14th century, someone who didn't have a highlighter handy thought to use octopus tentacles to mark the most important parts. I love it so much

(Manuscript from the Bankcroft library, UC Berkeley)

An ancient manuscript. Along the left margin is a drawn-on octopus whose tentacles point out important sentences on the page.

34 570 2.1K

Reposted by Bronwyn Isaacs

Mara Wilson @marawilson.bsky.social · Aug 18

I’ve been using it for Spanish since this past winter, and the decline in quality since the inclusion of AI is striking. The things it’s teaching me make no sense anymore. As my best friend put it, “Duolingo’s goal is not to teach you a language, but to keep you using Duolingo.”

Sherwood News @sherwood.news · Aug 18

Despite customer backlash to AI focus, analysts see Duolingo on track for steady growth as it rolls out new features and expands into music.
https://sherwood.news/markets/duolingo-rises-after-ceo-defends-ai-first-strategy-in-ny-times-interview/

Duolingo rises after CEO defends “AI-first” strategy in NY Times interview

Despite customer backlash to AI focus, analysts see Duolingo on track for steady growth as it rolls out new features and expands into music....

sherwood.news

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