Ergative Absolutive
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ergative-abs.bsky.social
Ergative Absolutive
@ergative-abs.bsky.social
320 followers 350 following 1.4K posts
SFF booknerd; calligrapher; Islamic geometric art doer; figure skating appreciater; coffee-drinking, granola-baking, tofu-eating wokeratum; psycholinguist by vocation, fretful porpentine by aspiration.

Contributer at Nerds of A Feather
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ergative-abs.bsky.social
Hope y'alls enjoyed your aurora. Here in Scotland it's been raining for a week.
That meme of a grumpy toddler in his formal posed picture, with pink trousers and a checked shirt, with multiple shots of increasing resentment and scowliness on his face. Captions read 'Congrats', 'Happy for you', 'Nice'.
November 14, 2025 at 6:44 AM
ergative-abs.bsky.social
Agreed.
stock photo of an elephant shrew. It looks like a wee mousey with an elongated nose.
October 23, 2025 at 11:27 AM
ergative-abs.bsky.social
It's details like these that make me think the journalist has an Opinion on AI in schools.
In response to the pushback, the government in January shifted from mandatory adoption to a one-year voluntary trial. Yoon, who had championed the AI textbook project, was impeached by the parliament for his attempt to impose martial law in December, and officially removed from presidency in April.
October 18, 2025 at 8:24 AM
ergative-abs.bsky.social
Got a bit inspired.

#Calligraphy
There is a monster in the forest and it speaks with a thouand voics. It will answer any question you pose it, it will offer insight to any idea. It will help you, it will thank you, it will never bid you leave. It will even tell you of the darkest arts, if you know precisely how to ask. It feels no joy and no sorrry, it knows no right and no wrong. It knows not truth from lie, though it speaks them all the same. It offers its services freely to any passerby, and many will tell you they find great value in its conversation. 'You simply must visit the monster--I always just ask the monster.' There are those who know these forests well; they will tell you that freely offered doesn't mean it has no price. For when the next traveler passes by, the monster speaks with a thousand and one voices. And when you dream you see the monster; the monster wears your face. @joles.bsky.social There is a monster in the forest and it speaks with a thouand voics. It will answer any question you pose it, it will offer insight to any idea. It will help you, it will thank you, it will never bid you leave. It will even tell you of the darkest arts, if you know precisely how to ask. It feels no joy and no sorrry, it knows no right and no wrong. It knows not truth from lie, though it speaks them all the same. It offers its services freely to any passerby, and many will tell you they find great value in its conversation. 'You simply must visit the monster--I always just ask the monster.' There are those who know these forests well; they will tell you that freely offered doesn't mean it has no price. For when the next traveler passes by, the monster speaks with a thousand and one voices. And when you dream you see the monster; the monster wears your face. There is a monster in the forest and it speaks with a thouand voics. It will answer any question you pose it, it will offer insight to any idea. It will help you, it will thank you, it will never bid you leave. It will even tell you of the darkest arts, if you know precisely how to ask. It feels no joy and no sorrry, it knows no right and no wrong. It knows not truth from lie, though it speaks them all the same. It offers its services freely to any passerby, and many will tell you they find great value in its conversation. 'You all the same. It offers its services freely to any passerby, and many will tell you they find great value in its conversation. 'You simply must visit the monster--I always just ask the monster.' There are those who know these forests well; they will tell you that freely offered doesn't mean it has no price. For when the next traveler passes by, the monster speaks with a thousand and one voices. And when you dream you see the monster; the monster wears your face. @joles.bsky.social
October 17, 2025 at 5:12 AM
ergative-abs.bsky.social
The Alexander Pushkin of England, it seems.
Alas, on every stray amusement I’ve wasted far too many hours, Yet were they wholly innocent I’d still wander those bright bowers. I love youth’s frantic energy, The crush, the lights, the gaiety, The girls in fashionable dress, I love their little feet, confess That, search all Russia though, You’ll not find three lovely pair. Ah, they made me long despair Two slender feet…Now sad and cold I still remember, and it seems They yet can thrill me in my dreams. Recall the sea before a storm, How I envied the waves then, Each falling there as they form To lie at her feet, in peace again! How I longed to be those seas Kissing her dear feet as they please! No, never in the fiercest fires Of tortured youth and its desires Did I so long with painful ardour To kiss the young Armida’s lips, The roses of her burning cheeks, Or her breast, filled with languor; No, passion took no greater toll, Nor ever so consumed my soul! Another day I bring to mind! Sometimes in my fondest dreams I hold that stirrup, blessed by time, The little foot I touch it seems; Again imagination blazes, Again, a simple touch amazes, Stirs blood inside my weary heart, Again the pain, again love’s art! Enough of praise though for the proud, Enough of my loquacious lyre, They’re never worth the singer’s fire, My songs inspired by that crowd. Their words, their looks, both are sweet, Yet prove as faithless….as their feet. Another day I bring to mind! Sometimes in my fondest dreams I hold that stirrup, blessed by time, The little foot I touch it seems; Again imagination blazes, Again, a simple touch amazes, Stirs blood inside my weary heart, Again the pain, again love’s art! Enough of praise though for the proud, Enough of my loquacious lyre, They’re never worth the singer’s fire, My songs inspired by that crowd. Their words, their looks, both are sweet, Yet prove as faithless….as their feet. 59. Love faded then the Muse appeared, My darkened mind grew clear again, Now free, my verse no longer feared Music’s magic, thought, and pain. I write, my heart no longer suffers, My pen I find no longer wanders, Sketching women’s legs and feet, Beside some lines still incomplete. The cold ash hides no smouldering ember, I’m grieving still, but free of tears, The storm that shook my soul for years Soon, soon my mind will not remember: Then what an epic I’ll contrive, A poem in cantos, twenty-five!
October 9, 2025 at 6:44 AM
ergative-abs.bsky.social
Post a fictional comedian who definitely would accept an invitation to the Riyadh Comedy Festival.
Sophie Lennon from The Marvelous Mrs Maisel
September 30, 2025 at 8:49 PM
ergative-abs.bsky.social
I literally made this YESTERDAY when discussing goodness of biscuits with a colleague. (Note that the colour-coding refers to milk-chocolate vs. dark-chocolate, not plain vs. any-chocolate).

Please note that I have also recently discovered biscoff spread, so this plot may soon be obsolete.
A barplot showing the goodness of biscuits, grouped by type (digestive vs. hobnob) and chocolate-coating variety (dark vs. milk). In order, dark-chocolate hobnots are superior, followed by milk-chocolate hobnots, then dark-chocolate digestives, than milk-chocolate digestives.
September 18, 2025 at 9:46 AM
ergative-abs.bsky.social
QT with your weekend plans
Painting of a young woman lounging incredibly slovenly-ly on a couch with a book in her hand. (Ramon Casas, 'Decadent young woman. After the dance'. 1999
September 13, 2025 at 8:08 AM
ergative-abs.bsky.social
Newark Castle, in Fife. I spent a beautiful afternoon there reading Hild, by Nicola Griffith, in the shade of one of the ruined walls, while whales migrated off the coast.

Looking now at the picture, and the ominous lean of that ruined wall, I fear this was a risky action for health and safety.
A ruined castle on a bluff overlooking the sea. It is seriously, seriously ruined. There's a single-storey wall encircling the main keep, one portion of it rising to form an arch that might once have been part of the second storey, and another part rising high enough maybe to be a third story, or possibly a watchtower, but really all we can infer is based on the height of the ruined walls. There is no roof, no floor. Just walls. A rickety wall on the edge of a hill overlooking the sea, with a person in a straw hat sitting in its shadow. The wall looks like it is a single breath of wind away from falling over on the person. Seriously. I am that person, and can attest from personal experience that nothing bad happened, but that crack in the mortar about 2/3 of the way up still gives me hives just looking at it.
September 3, 2025 at 5:14 PM
ergative-abs.bsky.social
Hah, I finished this just yesterday.
Islamic geometric pattern with 4-fold symmetry. Blue rosettes (8 petals) with central mauve 8-pointed stars, surrounded by a purple border of more 8-pointed stars, on blue-grey handmade paper with a distinct texture. The shapes are outlined in gold. Angled view of Islamic geometric pattern with 4-fold symmetry. Blue rosettes (8 petals) with central mauve 8-pointed stars, surrounded by a purple border of more 8-pointed stars, on blue-grey handmade paper with a distinct texture. The shapes are outlined in gold, and the angle of the view means that the nearest edge of the shapes is shining in the light slightly.
August 21, 2025 at 8:54 AM
ergative-abs.bsky.social
I got my Schmitspot a friend! Artist is on IG and facebook as @weelainyglass, and on Etsy as Lainylampwork.

@roseschmits.bsky.social
Ceramic pot holding paintbrushes with tentacle legs (the pot has tentacles not the paintbrushes), on one of which is hanging a wee glass bead on an orange cord with an orange jellyfish embedded inside (the bead has the jellyfish inside it, not the cord). Close up shot of a clear glass bead with an incredibly delicate orange jellyfish embedded inside.
August 19, 2025 at 9:06 AM
ergative-abs.bsky.social
It is not Flat Fuck Friday yet, but given how the loaf of bread I just baked turned out, I feel justified in indulging in a little time-hop.
A photograph of a very large alligator which is substantially wider than it is tall. In fact, it quite resembles the loaf of bread I just baked. Both, you see, are exceptionally flat. However, the resemblance ends there, because while this property is a disappointment in my bread, it only adds charm and elegance to the alligator's presentation.
July 22, 2025 at 9:21 AM
ergative-abs.bsky.social
A bedraggled soggy skunk trudges through the mud, with scraggly looking grass poking through in the background. Caption reads 'It hecken danp'
July 15, 2025 at 2:35 PM
ergative-abs.bsky.social
Words -- and pictures, too -- are not capable of capturing the ridiculous vividness of this rainbow that greeted us outside the back door of our holiday rental in the Scottish highlands.
A view of a small, sloping backyard, separated by a brown plank fence from a sheepfield, beyond which are some trees, and beyond that are distant mountains. The sky is cloudy, but the landscape is in sunlight, and over this absurdly idyllic view stretches a magnificent rainbow which, however vivid it may appear in this picture, is not half as bright as it was in real life.
June 26, 2025 at 6:33 PM
ergative-abs.bsky.social
Bluesky in Cuomo's inbox right now, it seems:
screenshot of a mastodon post from a post called 'I Hope This Email Finds You': I hope this email finds you in a place of brokenness, hurt, or despair.
June 25, 2025 at 5:36 AM
ergative-abs.bsky.social
I have completed an Art! This is an early 16th century Iznik design from a tile in the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, featured as Pattern Study 3 in Esra Almahal's superb book on Islamic Biomorphic patterns.
#islamicGeometricArt #biomorphicArt #humanArtist #NoAI #traditionalArt #watercolor #gouache
The same pattern from picture 1, above a book opened to show the instruction pages from the book in picture 3 for creating that pattern. On the right-hand page are four versions of the pattern, one in ultramarine and cyan, and then three monocolored versions, in black, ochre, and ultramarine. A hexagonal biomorphic design with swirling stems, leaves, and flours in ultramarine blue, with details picked out in purple. Everything follows six-fold radial symmetry. Detail of a swirling biomorphic pattern of stems and leaves and flowers in ultramarine, with details picked out in purple. The purple bits have a darker purple outline defining them. The same pattern from picture 1, beneath a book called 'Islamic Biomorphic Patterns: Creating Motifs Inspired by the Natural World', by Esra Almahal.
June 14, 2025 at 9:46 AM
ergative-abs.bsky.social
Today's xkcd is surprisingly earnest and heartfelt.

xkcd.com/3101/
Alt text panel 1: Instructor: I'm supposed to give you the tools to do good science Panel 2: Instructor: But what *are* the tools? Methodology is hard and there are so many ways to get incorrect results. What is the magic ingredient that makes for good science? Panel 3: Instructor: To figure it out, I ran a regression with all the factors people say are important. Slide text: Outcome variable: -Correct scientific results Predictors: -Collaboration -Skepticism of others' claims -Questioning your own beliefs -Trying to falsify hypotheses -Checking citations -Statistical rigor -Blinded analysis -Financial disclosure -Open data [variables continue off panel] Panel 4: Instructor: The regression says two ingredients are the most crucial: 1) genuine curiosity about the answer to a question, and 2) ammonium hydroxide Panel 4: Student: Wait, why did *ammonia* score so high? How did it even get on the list? Instructor: ... And now you're doing good science! Hovertext: If you think curiosity without rigor is bad, you should see rigor wiithout curiosity.
June 13, 2025 at 6:26 AM
ergative-abs.bsky.social
I saw this on tumblr, and I'm pleased to report that I did this, roughly by age 30! (Well, more like 32). I put otters on all my lecture slides. Over the years I have accumulated a rather charming eclectic array of gifts from my students that tend toward otter-themed.

#academicChatter
Screenshot from Dr Anna Hughes on twitter (@AnnaGHughes): these "by age 30" memes are very funny but the truth is that by age 30 you should have an animal people associate with you so when they don't know what to get you for your birthday they can default to something with the animal.
June 7, 2025 at 6:57 AM
ergative-abs.bsky.social
Please take a moment to praise Inverness Castle for following the time-honored path of super-crappy photoshop 'artists impressions' in advertising its upcoming re-opening.

Once upon a time, this would have been sarcasm. But in today's world of AI crap, I am entirely sincere.

invernesscastle.scot
An 'artist's impression' of Inverness castle's grounds. The castle floats in the background, not quite connected to the foreground gardens. People have been copy-pasted in, with varying degrees of motion-blur.
May 24, 2025 at 3:27 PM
ergative-abs.bsky.social
Take the fictional character quiz and post the first four you know:
openpsychometrics.org/tests/charac...

Yeah, that seems about right.
Severus Snape (Harry Potter, yes, yes, ptooey, but it's not Rickman's fault, have some respect for a dead genius, geez) Toby Ziegler (The West Wing) Mycroft Holmes (Sherlock) Cogsworth (Beauty and the Beast)
May 20, 2025 at 5:49 AM
ergative-abs.bsky.social
Anyway, the moral is: If your books are red-rotting, use cellugel. Don't worry about getting the right kind. There seems to be only one supplier of the stuff in the world.
A white jar with a label that reads 'celllugel. A safe, penetrating consolidant for leather book covers affected by red rot (powdery deterioration). Will not harm paper and other book materials.)
May 3, 2025 at 6:09 PM
ergative-abs.bsky.social
Hey, for anyone still sleeping on @adapalmer.bsky.social new book on Inventing the Renaissance, the conversation between the Ambrosian Republic, Machiavelli, Francesco Sforza, Bianca Maria Visconti, Milan, the Milanese Ghibellines, and 19th-century historians is alone worth the cover price. #BookSky
GIF of Wash from Fireflay playing with dinosaurs. Toy T-Rex attacks toy Stegosaurus. Caption reads, 'Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!'
April 26, 2025 at 9:10 PM
ergative-abs.bsky.social
They literally didn't, though? Your screenshot asks about 32F. I just asked about 29F, and it still says no:
Q: Is water frozen at 29 degrees F ChatGPT said: No, water freezes at 32°F (0°C), not 29°F. At 29°F, water is still in its liquid form, but it is very close to freezing. If the temperature drops to 32°F or lower, water will freeze and turn into ice.
April 24, 2025 at 2:43 PM
ergative-abs.bsky.social
Clifton Fadiman knows what's what.

#TraditionalArt #calligraphy #NonAI
White foundational calligraphy on green background: "A cheese may disappoint. it may be dull, it may be naive, it may be over-sophisticated. Yet it remains cheese, milk's leap toward immortality." -Clifton Fadiman White foundational calligraphy on green background: "A cheese may disappoint. it may be dull, it may be naive, it may be over-sophisticated. Yet it remains cheese, milk's leap toward immortality." -Clifton Fadiman White foundational calligraphy on green background: "A cheese may disappoint. it may be dull, it may be naive, it may be over-sophisticated. Yet it remains cheese, milk's leap toward immortality." -Clifton Fadiman
April 20, 2025 at 6:56 PM
ergative-abs.bsky.social
Behold! I have committed an art. This is an iznik hexagonal tile from Ezra Almahal's excellent book on Islamic biomorphic patterns.
A hexagonal biomorphic tile with floral designs and motifs in dark blue, light blue and turquoise.
April 19, 2025 at 1:26 PM