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Simon J. Greenhill

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Simon James Greenhill is a New Zealand scientist who works on the application of quantitative methods to the study of… more

H-index: 42
Computer science 19%
Communication & Media Studies 19%
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by Simon J. Greenhill

simongreenhill.bsky.social
Wow, a junk spam email written in Comic Sans from a .biz email address. It's like the 90s again!
two men are sitting on a couch playing guitars and dancing in a living room .
ALT: two men are sitting on a couch playing guitars and dancing in a living room .
media.tenor.com
3

Reposted by: Simon J. Greenhill

diffendale.bsky.social
If you remember last autumn when I was live-skeeting excavations at Rossano di Vaglio, the first report of that work has just been published (in Italian). Happy for it to see the light of day, and also very pleased to present five new Oscan inscriptions to the world...
🏺
#ArchaeologyBluesky
Rossano di Vaglio, santuario italico: cronaca e nuovi dati dalla campagna di scavo del 2024 | Quaderni di ACMA
acma-digitale.it
2 8 30

by Simon J. Greenhill

simongreenhill.bsky.social
“war on science” = Universities are slowly dying world-wide but I’m angry because a one time a woman told me to shut up
rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 8d
However bad you thought the whingefest “War on Science” book was going to be, it’s worse. The contributors are somehow the most ridiculous and among the most high profile scientists out there. If “cancel culture” were actually real, the former would preclude the latter, but nope 🤷‍♀️
shaunvids.bsky.social
shaun @shaunvids.bsky.social · 14d
video www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyU5...
8

Reposted by: Simon J. Greenhill

latimes.com
Jane Goodall, the trailblazing naturalist whose intimate observations of chimpanzees in the African wild produced powerful insights that transformed basic conceptions of humankind, has died. She was 91.

Read more about her legacy www.latimes.com/obituaries/s...
3 67 150

Reposted by: Simon J. Greenhill, Suresh Venkatasubramanian, Peter Thorne , and 30 more

merriam-webster.com
We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.
650 8.2K 25K

by Rebecca Sear — Reposted by: Simon J. Greenhill

rebeccasear.bsky.social
However bad you thought the whingefest “War on Science” book was going to be, it’s worse. The contributors are somehow the most ridiculous and among the most high profile scientists out there. If “cancel culture” were actually real, the former would preclude the latter, but nope 🤷‍♀️
shaunvids.bsky.social
shaun @shaunvids.bsky.social · 14d
video www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyU5...
The War on Science
YouTube video by Shaun
www.youtube.com
2 5 20

Reposted by: Simon J. Greenhill, Julia Lynch, Jason Williams

danielbolnick.bsky.social
We've got hundreds of signatures in five hours... but if we can cross 1000 by morning when I send this to NSF that'd be great. The stories from past, current, and future applicants in the comments section are hearbreaking. Keep up the pressure, and please please sign!!!
danielbolnick.bsky.social
Daniel Bolnick @danielbolnick.bsky.social · 8d
NSF unexpectedly changed (at the last minute) who is eligible to apply for the Grad Research Fellowship, dropping 2nd year students. We started a petition to reverse this unfair change, Sign here:
laurenkuehne.github.io/grfpChanges/
and please spread the word!!!!
Petition to NSF to Restore Eligibility for the 2026 Graduate Research Fellowship Program Competition
laurenkuehne.github.io
15 15

Reposted by: Simon J. Greenhill

johnbasil.bsky.social
Social functions of language may drive faster change and faster diversification in some features.
Thanks to growing diversity in variationst sociolinguistics, I gathered studies of 63 languages from 28 families. Here I sketch some potential patterns
compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Linguistic Diversification and Rates of Change: Insights From a Diverse Sample of Sociolinguistic Studies
Language diversification and change can be studied using phylogenetic modelling of families over thousands of years, or by close observation of changes unfolding over a few decades at the community l....
compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
10 16

by Simon J. Greenhill

simongreenhill.bsky.social
Richard got my vote very quickly.
1 2

by Simon J. Greenhill

simongreenhill.bsky.social
Yes -- and this particular journal has all articles on jstor back to its inception. I can download the original version of the reprinted article right now.
1 1

by Simon J. Greenhill

simongreenhill.bsky.social
90s?
1

by Simon J. Greenhill

simongreenhill.bsky.social
is it strange for a journal to republish old articles from their archives?
2

by Mark Rubin — Reposted by: Simon J. Greenhill

markrubin.bsky.social
Paywall: www.afr.com/policy/healt...

Reddit version:
www.reddit.com/r/Anu/commen...

#AcademicSky #HigherEd #UKHE
Opaque, conflicted, overpaid: The shabby state of uni governance
A major senate report into the quality of governance at Australian universities has delivered a blistering attack on how they are run and overseen.
www.afr.com
1 3 5

by Mark Rubin — Reposted by: Simon J. Greenhill, Mark Rubin

markrubin.bsky.social
Report on Australian Higher Education finds:

🔹️ Council members have no lived experience of universities

🔹️ Council members have COIs with consultancy firms

🔹️ Council meetings are closed affairs that lack transparency

🔹️ Leaders' exorbitant salaries could not be justified
One submission said leaders’ salaries could not be “justified by the quality of executive decision-making, nor by the scope of executive duties. The core business of a university – teaching and research – is co-ordinated virtually entirely by ordinary non-executive staff”.
3 25 53

by Simon J. Greenhill

simongreenhill.bsky.social
IF SIGN STILL HERE, STORM IS NOT TOO BAD 👍
4

Reposted by: Simon J. Greenhill

pittriversmuseum.bsky.social
Maori scholar, Makereti Papakura writing at her desk c.1910. The room is decorated with a mix of Maori & European mementoes whilst the rafters are painted with traditional kowhaiwhai patterns. Makereti will be awarded a posthumous degree in Oxford tomorrow, almost a century after she died in 1930.
21 430 2.3K

Reposted by: Simon J. Greenhill, Brian A. Nosek, Lisa Larrimore Ouellette , and 2 more

mattsclancy.bsky.social
New research by Pierre Azoulay, Danielle Li, Bhaven Sampat and me.

Earlier this year, the President’s budget proposed a 40% cut to the budget of the NIH. This motivated us to ask: what if the NIH had been 40% smaller?
2 17 24

by Simon J. Greenhill — Reposted by: Joanna Bryson

simongreenhill.bsky.social
here's an AI-harm that popped up on my newsfeed this morning 😱: bsky.app/profile/404m...
404media.co
404 Media @404media.co · 13d
The channel, named Woman Shot A.I, started on June 20, 2025. It posted 27 videos, had over 1,000 subscribers, and had more than 175,000 views, according to the channel’s publicly available data.

🔗 www.404media.co/ai-generated...
1 1

by Simon J. Greenhill

simongreenhill.bsky.social
yes, a lot of my non-english-as-L1 undergrad students are using english grammar checkers (i.e. grammerly) which is AI-fixing their text. They just want to write better english.
1

Reposted by: Simon J. Greenhill

404media.co
The channel, named Woman Shot A.I, started on June 20, 2025. It posted 27 videos, had over 1,000 subscribers, and had more than 175,000 views, according to the channel’s publicly available data.

🔗 www.404media.co/ai-generated...
5 30 120

Reposted by: Simon J. Greenhill, Elizabeth Stokoe, Cathy N. Davidson , and 7 more

beebrookshire.bsky.social
Some people think ChatGPT has a place writing things like news briefs, stuff written to a specific style and tone and, y'know, kinda boring.

So Science did a study.

ChatGPT failed.

Why? It got stuff wrong. "Also, extensive editing for hyperbole was needed." www.science.org/content/blog...
Can ChatGPT help science writers?
www.science.org
11 210 420

by Simon J. Greenhill

simongreenhill.bsky.social
Just deleted my account academia.edu
hystericalblkns.bsky.social
Ordinary Notes @hystericalblkns.bsky.social · 20d
If you’re on academia dot edu, let me suggest that you strongly consider deleting your account.
The new TOC from academia dot edu. By creating an Account with Academia.edu, you grant us a worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable license, permission, and consent for Academia.edu to use your Member Content and your personal information (including, but not limited to, your name, voice, signature, photograph, likeness, city, institutional affiliations, citations, mentions, publications, and areas of interest) in any manner, including for the purpose of advertising, selling, or soliciting the use or purchase of Academia.edu's Services.
1 7

by Simon J. Greenhill

simongreenhill.bsky.social
www.scientificamerican.com/article/gene...
Languages Have Mixed through History. Our Genes Can Reveal How
New research shows that wherever human populations mix, their languages blend as well
www.scientificamerican.com
2 5

Reposted by: Simon J. Greenhill, Robert Böhm, Brendan Nyhan , and 15 more

jamiecummins.bsky.social
Can large language models stand in for human participants?
Many social scientists seem to think so, and are already using "silicon samples" in research.

One problem: depending on the analytic decisions made, you can basically get these samples to show any effect you want.

THREAD 🧵
The threat of analytic flexibility in using large language models to simulate human data: A call to attention
Social scientists are now using large language models to create "silicon samples" - synthetic datasets intended to stand in for human respondents, aimed at revolutionising human subjects research. How...
arxiv.org
12 150 330

by Simon J. Greenhill

simongreenhill.bsky.social
HEY GUYS Let's take money from basic science and use give it the outcome of basic science 🤡
#NZGovtAntiScience
www.nzherald.co.nz/business/ret...
Govt's $70m boost for AI
Funding will be over 10 years and will be rolled out in two phases.
www.nzherald.co.nz
1 1 4

by Simon J. Greenhill

simongreenhill.bsky.social
Another day, another hour debugging BioConductor install problems. Just why? #R
1 1

Reposted by: Simon J. Greenhill, Wouter Poortinga, Ana S. L. Rodrigues , and 27 more

hystericalblkns.bsky.social
If you’re on academia dot edu, let me suggest that you strongly consider deleting your account.
The new TOC from academia dot edu. By creating an Account with Academia.edu, you grant us a worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable license, permission, and consent for Academia.edu to use your Member Content and your personal information (including, but not limited to, your name, voice, signature, photograph, likeness, city, institutional affiliations, citations, mentions, publications, and areas of interest) in any manner, including for the purpose of advertising, selling, or soliciting the use or purchase of Academia.edu's Services.
83 1.3K 2.1K

by Simon J. Greenhill

simongreenhill.bsky.social
Zipf is very readable, I went through that book a few years back.
1

by Simon J. Greenhill

simongreenhill.bsky.social
Kropotkin perhaps (but if ever there was a time for anarchy...). Nice to see Bateson, Wiener, etc
1 1

by Simon J. Greenhill

simongreenhill.bsky.social
Realised I'd been searching for 'stochastic character napping" rather than '*m*apping'. I'm so confused I need a nap now.
1 1 7

References

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