being anti ai is making me feel like in going insane. "you asked for thoughts about your characters backstory and i put it into chat gpt for ideas". studies have proven its making people dumber. "i asked ai to generate this meal plan". its causing water shortages where its data centers are built. "ill generate some pictures for the dnd campaign". its spreading misinformation. "meta, generate an image of this guy doing something stupid". its trained off stolen images, writing, video, audio. "i was talking with my snapchat ai-" theres no way to verify what its doing with the information it collects. "youtube is impletmenting ai based age verification". my work has an entire graphics media department and has still put ai generated motivational posters up everywhere. ai playlists. ai facial verification. google ai microsoft ai meta ai snapchat ai. everyone treats it as a novelty. every treats it as a mandatory part of life. am i the only one who sees it? am i paranoid? am i going insane? jesus fucking christ. if i have to hear one more "well at least-" "but it does-" "but you can-" im about to lose it. i shouldnt have to jump through hoops to avoid the evil machine. have you no principles? no goddamn spine? am i the weird one here?
Free RPG day is on the 22nd of June! To celebrate I'm spotlighting a free RPG each day, culminating in a new release of my own on the 22nd.
June 10th 2024: Mutant Possum Cowboys
Talking possums wander from town to town saving people from monsters, gangs, jealous pianists and wealthy widows. Inspired by Lasers and Feelings and Crash Pandas, this one-page rpg is quick to learn and play.
This is my friend's project, and it's incredibly fun to play! Check out Mutant Possum Cowboys, and check out Anne Farris' other artwork; both Anne and Parker are brilliant!
Mem., get recipe for Mina: a food guide to Dracula Daily
Inspired by There and Snack Again (in which you eat along with the LOTR movies), this is your guide to eating and drinking along with Dracula Daily.
All under a cut because there's no way I can do this without extensive spoilers. I strongly recommend not reading this unless you already know what happens in Dracula. Also only if you're comfortable reading about alcoholic drinks - there's a lot of booze in this novel.
Let's eat!
2 May
We start with the famous paprika hendl. Google "chicken paprikash" and choose whichever recipe most strikes your fancy.
3 May
For breakfast, choose from mamaliga (cornmeal porridge, similar to grits), "impletata" (vânătă umplută - stuffed aubergine) or anything with more paprika in it.
4 May
For dinner, Jonathan has robber steak: "bits of bacon, onion, and beef, seasoned with red pepper, and strung on sticks and roasted over the fire".
5 May
Slivovitz, if you'd like it (Jonathan declines). Then, for dinner, Dracula serves up roast chicken, with some cheese, a salad and a glass or two of Tokaji wine.
6 May
"A cold breakfast" for Jonathan. In Romania a cold breakfast might include boiled eggs, telemea (sheep's cheese), franzela (bread) with assorted spreads, sliced cucumber and tomatoes, and sunculita taraneasca (sliced smoked pork). Jonathan also has "an excellent supper", but doesn't tell us what that includes.
16 May
Would it be too bleak if I suggested eating a symbolic Jelly Baby?
26 May
A glass of wine as Quincey and Jack congratulate Arthur and drown their sorrows.
18 June
There's a kind of Scottish fruit slice called "flies' graveyard". That might make a suitable snack given Renfield's meal today.
24 June
I guess a gingerbread woman, for the wolves? IDK, it turns out doing this for a horror novel is a bit grim.
8 July
Thankfully the internet has hundreds of ideas for spider-themed cakes so you can eat along with Renfield.
18 July
The voyage of the Demeter begins! Celebrate by eating like a sailor: have some salt pork, or make ship's biscuit.
20 July
Renfield has just eaten several sparrows. Provide redress by feeding birds near you, bird flu guidance permitting.
24 July
Imitate the "feet-folk" from York and Leeds by drinking some tea or eating some cured herring.
10 August
Lucy and Mina enjoy a "severe tea". There are lots of severe teas in Victorian literature, but few writers actually describe what's in it - e.g. the Churchman's shilling magazine, 1868, has a story with a severe tea "which implies coffee, tea, and muffins, with substantials". What are substantials? I have no idea, but that's what you should eat today.
11 August
Dracula has a little nibble on Lucy. I don't suggest doing this for every vampire bite in the novel, but given this one is particularly significant, how about marking the occasion with some black pudding?
30 August
No food details for a while, but in this entry, Lucy notes that she "has an appetite like a cormorant" and "Arthur says I am getting fat". Celebrate with some cake.
3 September
Van Helsing has been! And surely he wouldn't have come all the way from the Netherlands empty-handed? Acknowledge his visit with some gouda or a stroopwafel.
4 September
Eat some sugar, which Renfield has requested for his flies.
7 September
To stay in line with what the characters actually eat and drink, have a glass of port (though ideally not if you've just given blood). But for the real spirit of the day, consider a corn-on-the-cob.
9 September
Free space! Jack has "an excellent meal" but doesn't say what it is. Dig into your favourite dinner.
10 September
A sip of brandy, with which Van Helsing wets Lucy's lips.
11 September
The garlic flowers arrive. There's lots that you can make with wild garlic - personally, I like it in risotto.
17 September
A boxful of garlic flowers arrive for Lucy every day. Time to make chicken with 40 cloves of garlic. Other options for today include more black pudding (in honour of Renfield lapping up Jack's blood) or sherry.
18 September
The Zookeeper enjoys a teacake, and so shall we.
20 September
No food, but the labourers have "a stiff glass of grog". This is rum diluted with water, but you could also add lemon or lime juice, sugar, and/or cinnamon.
25 September
Nibble another Jelly Baby for the Bloofer Lady.
29 September
A lot happens in this entry, but there's not a lot of food. There are thirsty labourers, however. Maybe have a beer?
30 September
Mina makes everyone a pot of tea. Also, we don't know what they have for dinner, but they eat it at 7pm, if you'd like to time your evening meal accordingly.
1 October
More tea! Since this is being gulped down by a working man, make it builder's style - strong, sweet, lots of milk.
2 October
Jonathan visits the Aërated Bread Company. He only has a cup of tea, but you could have whatever you like best from their menu:
(source)
3 October
Dracula forces Mina to drink his blood like "a child forcing a kitten's nose into a saucer of milk". You could either have some more black pudding, or drink a glass of milk in solidarity with Mina.
15 October
The Crew of Light aren't focusing much on meals any more, but they have travelled on the Orient Express. Here's the 1887 dining car menu.
(source - I can't vouch for the accuracy of a random person on Twitter but it looks plausible)
29 October
No one is thinking of food in this bit of the novel (though Mina makes yet more tea), but as they're heading to Romania, have some sarmale. These stuffed cabbage rolls are the Romanian national dish.
31 October
Mina and Van Helsing have "a huge basket of provisions". Have a picnic in their honour, if it's warm enough where you are.
1 November
Mina and Van Helsing have "hot soup" into which the local cooks have put an extra amount of garlic. Consider having a truly extra amount of garlic with this 44-garlic-clove soup.
7 November
The Crew of Light return to Transylvania. No details of food, but in honour of their journey, I would suggest a final round of chicken paprikash, to bring us back to where it all began.
Someone just reblogged this, which is a helpful reminder to me to do the same. If you want to do this in 2024, probably time to start thinking about shopping for ingredients.
New Research Article: Creating Inclusive Linguistics Communication: Crash Course Linguistics
This handbook chapter is a behind-the-scenes of how the Crash Course Linguistics video series came together. I’m really proud that this article includes contributions from the linguistics writing team, including my co-writer Gretchen McCulloch, and our fact checker Jessi Grieser, but also from members of the Complexly team, who produced the show, including Nicole Sweeney, Rachel Alatalo, Hannah Bodenhausen and Ceri Riley. As with the actual videos themselves, this was a dream team. Lingcomm that is inclusive doesn’t just happen as an accident - in this article we discuss some of the ways we set things up to make the best series we could.
This chapter is also a dream project, because it’s part of the excellent double feature: Inclusion in Linguistics and Decolonizing Linguistics, both edited by Anne Charity Hudley, Christine Mallinson, & Mary Bucholz for Oxford University Press. These books are both be available through digital open access. They include some of your new favouite classics about the state of linguistics in research, education and outreach, even if you don’t know that just yet.
Abstract
This case study vignette provides an insight into the choices made in the writing of Crash Course Linguistics (Complexly/PBS 2020). This series of sixteen 10-minute videos cover core introductory level topics for English speakers who consume online content. We discuss how the topics were selected and arranged into a series order. We also discuss the ways we actively built inclusion into the series workflow and content, including in the team that worked on the content, the language examples selected and topics covered. Throughout we discuss the challenges and benefits of working in a collaborative team that includes a media production company and linguists with a commitment to public engagement and communication linguistics to new audiences. Sharing these observations about putting Crash Course Linguistics together is part of our commitment to using public communication to advance the standard of public engagement with the field, and the field’s approach to inclusive practice.
Reference
Gawne, Lauren, Gretchen McCulloch, Nicole Sweeney, Rachel Alatalo, Hannah Bodenhausen, Ceri Riley & Jessi Grieser. 2024. Creating Inclusive Linguistics Communication: Crash Course Linguistics. In Anne H. Charity Hudley, Christine Mallinson, and Mary Bucholtz (Eds), Inclusion in Linguistics, 383-396. Oxford University Press. [Open Access]
See Also:
Open Access for the whole Inclusion in Linguistics volume
Crash Course Linguistics on YouTube
Mutual Intelligibility posts for Crash Course Linguistics
People frequently get stuck in my head for days on end, not in a romance-y way, but because they did something interesting with a vowel and I am trying to figure out WHAT it was. There are no butterflies in my stomach, but there are copious amounts of wugs on the brain.
we should talk more about cities that are vampires. cities that are cold and wet and sink into your bones and stay there. cities that are hungry and want to live. dead cities that dont know they're dead and suck the life force of their people to maintain the delusion. cities with harbors that are actually mouths; one-way entries. cities that are devastatingly lonely and see consumption as love
Random bee behavior fact for those who wish to read, just because I feel like it and because it’s late and I’m stalling on sleeping:
Bumblebees may seem like passive, cuddly, and docile creatures, but they won’t hesitate to defend themselves if they feel as if their warnings aren’t being read or taken seriously.
I.e. the photo and diagram below, when a bee feels threatened they will raise one or more of their legs into the air, signaling to whatever or whomever may be bothering them as a message essentiality saying: “hey, back off, too close!”
species pictured: bombus pascuorum, bombus impatiens
If their defensive posture goes unnoticed or ignored, they may be pushed into defending themselves by stinging (which is also a stressful experience for not only one such as yourself, but also for the bee.) If you ever find yourself getting close to a bumblebee while taking pictures, walking close to them, or just admiring them, remember this posture! If a bee does this, it is simply asking you to take a step back as it feels it is being threatened.
Now you can understand and use this knowledge to your advantage if you ever come across one in the future. (Of course, because it’s very hard not to anthropomorphize animals, I do have to admit that they do look pretty cute when doing it. Just remember to respect them though!)
when i have to do the captchas that ask you to pick all squares that have, say, a bus in them, but the bus is broken up over different squares, my brain goes through a horrible detour of a mix between Wittgenstein's duckrabbit and Quine's gavagai: is a square that has the edge of a bus's mirror "a square with a bus"? surely it's a) a question of interpretation as to when a piece of a bus becomes enough of a bus to call it a bus and b) a question of idiolect, mediated through common usage, as to whether that detached bus part is a bus. this all takes about half a second. then i fuck up the captcha for unrelated reasons.
In case you’re a buffoon (like me) and thought someone was out here meticulously hand-poisoning applesauce:
An FDA spokesperson said that one of the agency’s theories for the WanaBana cinnamon applesauce contamination was “economically motivated adulteration.” (…)
Economically motivated adulteration, or “food fraud,” can occur when a cheaper ingredient is added to a product to enhance it or bulk it up, but is not disclosed, according to the FDA. One example, the agency said, is when lead-based dyes are added to spices to give the product a certain color.
We love cutting corners to maximize profit at the expense of our consumers
Turmeric is also frequently affected by this. A lead compound with a bright yellow color can be used.
I'm not gonna dox myself by saying precisely what I do for a living, but I am involved in public environmental health, and in the past have conducted home investigations in child lead poisoning cases. For years, foreign spices have been a problem, particularly for immigrant families who visit relatives overseas and bring spices back from south asia in particular.
During and immediately after covid, however, we started finding domestically sold spices coming back from lab testing with high lead results. Sam's club, wal-mart, etc. We used to tell families to buy domestically instead of bringing things back from India, Pakistan, etc, but even that isn't safe anymore.
You might - might - be safer with higher end organic products but I really just don't trust anything anymore. This isn't a new issue, but it's definitely becoming more widespread.
if the spice you're using is water-soluble, you can mix it with water and then use a water testing kit. they sell water-testing kits at the hardware store; ones that you send off to a lab are more reliable (but also more expensive).
you can also buy lead-testing swabs on the Internet. some of these are not reliable, so I'd recommend testing the lead-testing swabs. use a swab on something that you know is lead (a fishing sinker, a car battery, etc) and another swab on something that you know is lead-free (most things in your home, hopefully) and make sure you get the expected results.
note that lead-testing kits are not food-safe, so you should not just put pipettes / test swabs / etc into your spice jar. spoon out a small amount (onto a plate or whatever), test that small amount, and then throw that small amount away. (and then wash the plate.)
gonna add this consumer reports investigation from a couple of years back that made the rounds. they looked into a bunch of american spice brands and found that this is a huge problem across brands, regardless of whether or not it's organic (exact quote: "CR’s tests could not determine whether one brand was consistently better or worse than any other. And organic products did not have consistently lower levels than conventionally grown ones").
