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samplereality.bsky.social
Professor of Film, Media, and Digital Studies at Davidson College. Maker of @mobydickatsea.bsky.social and @clipart.bsky.social. Teaches, researches, and practices computational creativity. Other things I've made: https://samplereality.itch.io
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UNC-Chapel Hill hasn't granted tenure to any faculty outside Health Sciences all year. Faculty are in limbo. The BoT is simply refusing to consider the cases put forward. It's clear the board is testing the waters to see if they can get away with what is essentially a pocket veto on faculty tenure.

submitted 5 hours ago • 2 comments

I have many thoughts about this Chronicle article on the dearth of faculty salary raises. For starters, I can't help but noticing that while inflation-adjusted pay for full professors has decreased over 3% from 2013 to 2023, for full-time staff—i.e. administrators—it has increased by 4%.

submitted 11 days ago • 1 comment

I hate to be a hater but…the first two episodes of Andor were so bad as to be nearly unwatchable.

submitted 11 days ago • 1 comment

It's possible that making rocks do math...was a bad idea.

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

Do yourself a favor and create a free MST3K account on the official site and stream Joe Don Baker in "Mitchell" today. www.gizmoplex.com/videos/mst3k...

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

one more reason to ride a bike as much as possible, to as many places as possible

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

🐉 British libellulinae, or, Dragon flies: . London: Printed by J.C. Bridgewater, 1845.. [Source]

submitted 14 days ago • 1 comment

This post by @anetv.bsky.social synthesizing ten recent studies about college students and AI is essential reading. It cuts through both the hype and the doomerism with research-backed evidence. The situation is far more complex and varied than the headlines would have you believe.

submitted 15 days ago • 1 comment

The extent of my pope commentary is this: in 1982 Marvel issued a comic-book version of the life of Pope John Paul II. And I own a copy.

submitted 20 days ago • 5 comments

Three cheers for the humble dangling participle, the surest sign something was written by an actual human undegrad.

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

Classes are over, exams are about to begin, and graduation is days away. And once again I realize that the true joy of teaching, especially at a small liberal arts college, is watching—and perhaps even helping—students grow in mind and spirit over the course of four years.

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

Welp. I think that’s the end of the baby bluebirds.

submitted 25 days ago • 4 comments

The print version of @theonion.com is just killing it with its full-page ads.

submitted 25 days ago • 0 comments

How did "relatability" become the ideal characteristic of social media personas, or really, personalities in general in the digital age? I cannot relate to anyone online, and I sure as hell hope nobody finds me relatable. This is not for you.

submitted 25 days ago • 0 comments

computer science profs should be teaching that op-ed by a computer science prof as an example of why they don't teach computer science like that computer science prof

submitted 25 days ago • 0 comments

current mood

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments

So that's where it went.

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments

If character is what you do when no one is watching, then thinking is what you do when no AI is chatting.

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments

🐔 The book of poultry New York, The Macmillan Company, 1921. Polish Chickens do not actually originate from Poland but likely the Netherlands. 2day they're primarily show birds [Source]

submitted 27 days ago • 1 comment

Fuck. This is a punch in the gut.

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

I’ve been teaching a creative coding class the past few years at Penn’s Dream Lab and it’s always a blast. This year I’m framing the class around the politics and poetics of working with your own bespoke small language models…

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

You're free now, Toad.

submitted 29 days ago • 0 comments

Ah, yes, the pungent swamp stink of mindex. The game isn't called "A Mind Forever Voyaging" without reason.

submitted 30 days ago • 0 comments

Defund the police was a bad slogan, which is why it took massive expenditures of political and financial capital along with the deployment of widespread state violence to suppress it, and also why everyone knows it and we're still talking about it five years later

submitted 31 days ago • 12 comments

For a fun, distracting read on a Sunday morning, here is Nick Montfort 15 years ago doing a deep dive into the origins of the word "Zork." Be sure to read the comments, where Infocom founders Marc Blank and Dave Lebling pop in to share their own recollections.

submitted 31 days ago • 2 comments

I've registered domain names you people wouldn't believe. Dot nets on discount from the likes of GoDaddy. I watched dot orgs glitter in the dark unused. All those domain names will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to expire.

submitted 32 days ago • 0 comments

A 2-year-old citizen cannot be “deported.” The right words to use are “illegal rendition.”

submitted 32 days ago • 1 comment

The small North Carolina liberal arts college St. Andrews just announced its shutting down operations entirely in two weeks.

submitted 33 days ago • 0 comments

In the bleakest of times, one noble voice rises above the lost and forlorn masses and lifts us out of darkness, bringing forth a new dawn of hope and enlightenment. That voice is Reviewer #2.

submitted 33 days ago • 0 comments