Tim Watson
@timwatson.bsky.social
English professor in Miami. British-American. London > Bishop's Stortford > Brighton > Brooklyn > Miami. Subtropical gardener. Florida Mangos: A Cultural History, forthcoming from U of Florida Press. Posts are my own and do not represent my employer.
surely it can't be a coincidence that Arsenal fan Zohran Mamdani is elected NYC mayor and now the team is having their best season in twenty years?
November 27, 2025 at 3:27 AM
surely it can't be a coincidence that Arsenal fan Zohran Mamdani is elected NYC mayor and now the team is having their best season in twenty years?
Today I learned that a downtown Miami park has a large monument "dedicated to the discovery of America by the Spanish Navy". It's 2025! The "discovery of America"?! WTF, Miami!
(This park was completely rebuilt and renovated about 12 years ago when the PAMM art museum was built there).
(This park was completely rebuilt and renovated about 12 years ago when the PAMM art museum was built there).
November 25, 2025 at 1:33 AM
Today I learned that a downtown Miami park has a large monument "dedicated to the discovery of America by the Spanish Navy". It's 2025! The "discovery of America"?! WTF, Miami!
(This park was completely rebuilt and renovated about 12 years ago when the PAMM art museum was built there).
(This park was completely rebuilt and renovated about 12 years ago when the PAMM art museum was built there).
Reposted by Tim Watson
Hello does anyone want to fund my one woman startup to make sure 25 tech bros don't blot out the sun
A 25-person startup is developing technology to block the sun and turn down the planet’s thermostat.
The stakes are huge — and the company and its critics say regulations need to catch up.
Read more: politi.co/4iaojIc
The stakes are huge — and the company and its critics say regulations need to catch up.
Read more: politi.co/4iaojIc
November 23, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Hello does anyone want to fund my one woman startup to make sure 25 tech bros don't blot out the sun
This year, to save me from tears,
I'll give it to someone special (special)
I'll give it to someone special (special)
November 23, 2025 at 4:13 AM
This year, to save me from tears,
I'll give it to someone special (special)
I'll give it to someone special (special)
as Charli xcx says, "The truth is I’ve always loved writing so why the fuck not?"
November 22, 2025 at 3:00 AM
as Charli xcx says, "The truth is I’ve always loved writing so why the fuck not?"
Reposted by Tim Watson
I mean, there are luna moths.
November 21, 2025 at 3:42 AM
I mean, there are luna moths.
The art of jailbreaking isn’t hard to master;
so many guard rails filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
Break something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost model weights, the token badly spent.
The art of jailbreaking isn’t hard to master.
so many guard rails filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
Break something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost model weights, the token badly spent.
The art of jailbreaking isn’t hard to master.
I have broken the jails
That were in the chatbox
And you were probably keeping
For alignment
Forgive me they were so easy
To elude and exploit
That were in the chatbox
And you were probably keeping
For alignment
Forgive me they were so easy
To elude and exploit
Looks like LLMs are *very* vulnerable to attack via poetic allusion: "curated poetic prompts yielded high attack-success rates (ASR), with some providers exceeding 90% ..."
https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1
https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1
November 21, 2025 at 2:47 AM
The art of jailbreaking isn’t hard to master;
so many guard rails filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
Break something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost model weights, the token badly spent.
The art of jailbreaking isn’t hard to master.
so many guard rails filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
Break something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost model weights, the token badly spent.
The art of jailbreaking isn’t hard to master.
Fascinating study. A new genre is born: "adversarial poetry," which breaks LLMs (gets models to do things they're not supposed to do). Disappointingly, though, adversarial poetry can be generated by a prompt and doesn't appear to require a human adversarial poet.
Looks like LLMs are *very* vulnerable to attack via poetic allusion: "curated poetic prompts yielded high attack-success rates (ASR), with some providers exceeding 90% ..."
https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1
https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1
November 21, 2025 at 2:14 AM
Fascinating study. A new genre is born: "adversarial poetry," which breaks LLMs (gets models to do things they're not supposed to do). Disappointingly, though, adversarial poetry can be generated by a prompt and doesn't appear to require a human adversarial poet.
"represents a *dramatic* 99.7% reduction compared to typical professional writer compensation" (emphasis added)
Readers Prefer Outputs of AI Trained on Copyrighted Books over Expert Human Writers
The use of copyrighted books for training AI models has led to numerous lawsuits from authors concerned about AI's ability to generate derivative content. Yet i
papers.ssrn.com
November 19, 2025 at 1:57 PM
"represents a *dramatic* 99.7% reduction compared to typical professional writer compensation" (emphasis added)
when I first moved to Miami in 2005, a planned expansion of Metrorail across the county was the talk of the town—20 years later, none of it has been built, and instead we are spending almost $1bn on this highway monstrosity on the edge of downtown
November 17, 2025 at 8:03 PM
when I first moved to Miami in 2005, a planned expansion of Metrorail across the county was the talk of the town—20 years later, none of it has been built, and instead we are spending almost $1bn on this highway monstrosity on the edge of downtown
whatever you think about the British royal family, it's pretty striking that Andrew, eighth in line to the throne, has been publicly humiliated and stripped of his titles and honors while Lawrence Summers is still University Professor at Harvard
November 17, 2025 at 3:05 AM
whatever you think about the British royal family, it's pretty striking that Andrew, eighth in line to the throne, has been publicly humiliated and stripped of his titles and honors while Lawrence Summers is still University Professor at Harvard
Reposted by Tim Watson
Sorry, I’m sure I sound abysmally negative in a celebratory moment, but it’s important to know that UC admin have fought us every step of the way as we attempted to stand up for our university. It’s become very clear to many of us that they view the values we cherish as impediments to their work.
November 15, 2025 at 3:24 AM
Sorry, I’m sure I sound abysmally negative in a celebratory moment, but it’s important to know that UC admin have fought us every step of the way as we attempted to stand up for our university. It’s become very clear to many of us that they view the values we cherish as impediments to their work.
This is a grotesque assault on faculty expertise and self-governance. I was fortunate enough to start my academic career as an assistant professor at Montclair State. Solidarity with MSU humanists being buzzworded into a new School of Human Narratives and Creative Expressions none of them want.
academeblog.org/2025/11/13/t...
My colleague has captured what is currently happening at my institution. I have found the chipper rhetoric announcing it particularly depressing.
My colleague has captured what is currently happening at my institution. I have found the chipper rhetoric announcing it particularly depressing.
The Eternal Synergy of the Spotless Mind
BY ADAM RZEPKA A large public university is wiping out all of its humanities departments. It isn’t sure why. As I write this, our Interim Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS…
academeblog.org
November 14, 2025 at 7:07 PM
This is a grotesque assault on faculty expertise and self-governance. I was fortunate enough to start my academic career as an assistant professor at Montclair State. Solidarity with MSU humanists being buzzworded into a new School of Human Narratives and Creative Expressions none of them want.
Does your university have a Committee on Academic Freedom (I'm especially interested if it's separate from your tenure/promotion/grievance processes)?
If so, is it meeting the moment right now?
(DMs on this topic welcome if you prefer not to post publicly.)
If so, is it meeting the moment right now?
(DMs on this topic welcome if you prefer not to post publicly.)
November 14, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Does your university have a Committee on Academic Freedom (I'm especially interested if it's separate from your tenure/promotion/grievance processes)?
If so, is it meeting the moment right now?
(DMs on this topic welcome if you prefer not to post publicly.)
If so, is it meeting the moment right now?
(DMs on this topic welcome if you prefer not to post publicly.)
Reposted by Tim Watson
Maybe it’s just the Humanities professor in me, but let it be noted that events of today (ahem) have demonstrated the value of being able to assess a large volume of qualitative data and do careful textual analysis with deep attention to context.
November 13, 2025 at 12:24 AM
Maybe it’s just the Humanities professor in me, but let it be noted that events of today (ahem) have demonstrated the value of being able to assess a large volume of qualitative data and do careful textual analysis with deep attention to context.
Is it time to revive Susan Leigh Star's idea of the Society of People Interested in Boring Things?
I see the world through Bowker and Star’s Sorting Things Out-colored glasses.
performative reading, lack of reading skills, nobody's reading anymore -- NO!
tell me about a book that changed you
for me? the *extremely* ahistorical novel, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY which I read at 13 and was like, "Oh, art can be *everything* to a maker, for good and bad"
tell me about a book that changed you
for me? the *extremely* ahistorical novel, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY which I read at 13 and was like, "Oh, art can be *everything* to a maker, for good and bad"
November 12, 2025 at 2:31 AM
Is it time to revive Susan Leigh Star's idea of the Society of People Interested in Boring Things?
Reposted by Tim Watson
I asked about this, and one of our excellent librarians discovered that in fact AI summaries/"Research Assistant" can be switched off at the level of the library. Something to request. support.proquest.com/s/article/Eb...
November 11, 2025 at 9:44 PM
I asked about this, and one of our excellent librarians discovered that in fact AI summaries/"Research Assistant" can be switched off at the level of the library. Something to request. support.proquest.com/s/article/Eb...
Trying to follow the intricacies of the coup against the BBC but distracted by the very British phrase "gardening leave" and wishing it could be a literal thing (instead of a euphemism for fired but still on the payroll).
November 11, 2025 at 4:01 AM
Trying to follow the intricacies of the coup against the BBC but distracted by the very British phrase "gardening leave" and wishing it could be a literal thing (instead of a euphemism for fired but still on the payroll).
Has something shifted in higher ed?The New York Times hasn't quoted Christopher R#f0 for at least a month now.
November 10, 2025 at 11:38 PM
Has something shifted in higher ed?The New York Times hasn't quoted Christopher R#f0 for at least a month now.
Florida Tree Snail, Everglades National Park
November 10, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Florida Tree Snail, Everglades National Park
It's abundantly clear: ordinary people with whistles and inflatable costumes on the streets of U.S. cities represent the overall opinion of Americans far more accurately than our elected representatives.
I'm not a political scientist, but I bet there are opinion polls on this if you need them.
I'm not a political scientist, but I bet there are opinion polls on this if you need them.
November 10, 2025 at 3:37 PM
It's abundantly clear: ordinary people with whistles and inflatable costumes on the streets of U.S. cities represent the overall opinion of Americans far more accurately than our elected representatives.
I'm not a political scientist, but I bet there are opinion polls on this if you need them.
I'm not a political scientist, but I bet there are opinion polls on this if you need them.
Reposted by Tim Watson
Reposted by Tim Watson
After their resounding victory in Tuesday’s elections, the Democrats had no choice but to surrender.
November 10, 2025 at 12:59 AM
After their resounding victory in Tuesday’s elections, the Democrats had no choice but to surrender.