Philip Luke Johnson
@phillegitimate.bsky.social
Studying how gangs and govts do things with words. Teaching students to do things with words. Very occasionally doing things with words. Lecturer @ Flinders Uni
Updates: https://philipljohnson.com/
🐈⬛🐈⬛🐈⬛
Updates: https://philipljohnson.com/
🐈⬛🐈⬛🐈⬛
NYT copies Tiny Desk concerts, but makes employees work through the whole set.
November 12, 2025 at 4:56 PM
NYT copies Tiny Desk concerts, but makes employees work through the whole set.
Editor: You get that frontispiece for Leviathan?
Etcher: Sure did boss, real fucking sexy just like you asked.
Etcher: Sure did boss, real fucking sexy just like you asked.
Hobbes must’ve felt like a fucking god telling the illustrator about this insane cover concept
November 10, 2025 at 12:09 AM
Editor: You get that frontispiece for Leviathan?
Etcher: Sure did boss, real fucking sexy just like you asked.
Etcher: Sure did boss, real fucking sexy just like you asked.
Reposted by Philip Luke Johnson
I'm excited to share my piece in Los Angeles Review of Books @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social, which examines OpenAI's claims about ChatGPT's creative writing skills, Big Tech's weaponisation of grief and nostalgia, and the collapse of the academic humanities. lareviewofbooks.org/article/lite...
Literature Is Not a Vibe: On ChatGPT and the Humanities | Los Angeles Review of Books
Rachele Dini discusses OpenAI’s “A Machine-Shaped Hand” and an academic sector in crisis.
lareviewofbooks.org
October 31, 2025 at 5:11 PM
I'm excited to share my piece in Los Angeles Review of Books @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social, which examines OpenAI's claims about ChatGPT's creative writing skills, Big Tech's weaponisation of grief and nostalgia, and the collapse of the academic humanities. lareviewofbooks.org/article/lite...
Bora Chung asking the big questions in “The Midnight Timetable.”
(Many thanks for the translation to @antonhur.com)
(Many thanks for the translation to @antonhur.com)
October 28, 2025 at 10:14 AM
Bora Chung asking the big questions in “The Midnight Timetable.”
(Many thanks for the translation to @antonhur.com)
(Many thanks for the translation to @antonhur.com)
What if the problem is not reading but the way we expect students to read? Couldn’t be that, not at all.
Here is what hasn’t been a problem: My students. I worried they would be resistant. They haven’t been. They have been game since day one, all in on the project. If I had to guess, I think they like how serious it feels. Like they are being taken seriously as scholars
October 26, 2025 at 12:37 AM
What if the problem is not reading but the way we expect students to read? Couldn’t be that, not at all.
Reposted by Philip Luke Johnson
Yep - using the USA as an excuse to gut environmental approvals.
Text of Aust/US critical mineral deal.
www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-st...
No 3 looks like an attack on requisite permits (probably environment)...the old red/green tape reduction trick.
www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-st...
No 3 looks like an attack on requisite permits (probably environment)...the old red/green tape reduction trick.
October 20, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Yep - using the USA as an excuse to gut environmental approvals.
I taught a little module on Ned Kelly for three years, but never read one of the most famous tellings of his story. Finally doing so and it’s an adjectival delight.
October 15, 2025 at 11:10 AM
I taught a little module on Ned Kelly for three years, but never read one of the most famous tellings of his story. Finally doing so and it’s an adjectival delight.
🎶 You bring me closer to guard! 🎶
why does Stanley Milgram look like he's about to release the best industrial noise 7" of 1981
October 8, 2025 at 2:36 AM
🎶 You bring me closer to guard! 🎶
Love this read on dark academia.
We need a name for the vast majority of academic institutions, which are extremely dark but look nothing like dark academia.
I’d have said dank academia, but now that sounds too cool.
We need a name for the vast majority of academic institutions, which are extremely dark but look nothing like dark academia.
I’d have said dank academia, but now that sounds too cool.
October 4, 2025 at 1:31 PM
Love this read on dark academia.
We need a name for the vast majority of academic institutions, which are extremely dark but look nothing like dark academia.
I’d have said dank academia, but now that sounds too cool.
We need a name for the vast majority of academic institutions, which are extremely dark but look nothing like dark academia.
I’d have said dank academia, but now that sounds too cool.
This is pretty poor from @insightcrime.org, opening with the misleading assumption that the drone strike is reliable evidence of drug trafficking. The strike prevents gathering any proof at all, it does the opposite of what this article suggests.
🇻🇪 | In September, a boat that set sail from Sucre, Venezuela, was attacked by a US missile, highlighting its strategic role in drug trafficking. Read our article to learn about the implications of the attack and the dynamics of local drug trafficking. http://bit.ly/4nxaYvC
October 3, 2025 at 5:43 AM
This is pretty poor from @insightcrime.org, opening with the misleading assumption that the drone strike is reliable evidence of drug trafficking. The strike prevents gathering any proof at all, it does the opposite of what this article suggests.
Have to give it to @themonthly.com.au for nailing 3/3 #Auspol cover story titles. All three covers going straight to the pool room.
October 1, 2025 at 6:42 AM
Have to give it to @themonthly.com.au for nailing 3/3 #Auspol cover story titles. All three covers going straight to the pool room.
E is for Extremely big coincidence.
E is for... Elephant bird egg! This is the largest bird egg known to have existed. It is so large that it could hold the contents of up to 7 ostrich eggs. The elephant bird went extinct about 1,000 years ago not long after humans arrived on the island of Madagascar.
September 30, 2025 at 10:20 AM
E is for Extremely big coincidence.
Reposted by Philip Luke Johnson
now that eric adams has ended his campaign for mayor it’s time to stroll down memory lane
September 29, 2025 at 2:34 AM
now that eric adams has ended his campaign for mayor it’s time to stroll down memory lane
Reposted by Philip Luke Johnson
People always ask me : “Cristi, how do you manage parenting a baby while going up for tenure?”
It’s easy. The secret is *flow-based-scheduling*. Here are its three core strategies for new academic parents:
Sleep when the baby sleeps
Cry when the baby cries
Publish when the baby publishes
It’s easy. The secret is *flow-based-scheduling*. Here are its three core strategies for new academic parents:
Sleep when the baby sleeps
Cry when the baby cries
Publish when the baby publishes
July 4, 2025 at 5:04 PM
People always ask me : “Cristi, how do you manage parenting a baby while going up for tenure?”
It’s easy. The secret is *flow-based-scheduling*. Here are its three core strategies for new academic parents:
Sleep when the baby sleeps
Cry when the baby cries
Publish when the baby publishes
It’s easy. The secret is *flow-based-scheduling*. Here are its three core strategies for new academic parents:
Sleep when the baby sleeps
Cry when the baby cries
Publish when the baby publishes
This is truly the saddest looking game of cards. Place the six of red on the table, stare at it silently until someone plays a five of black.
If you need another reason to oppose corporate academic publishing, AI slop cover art might be one. Wonder what Marx would have said (or Hegel, for that matter) …
September 27, 2025 at 12:06 PM
This is truly the saddest looking game of cards. Place the six of red on the table, stare at it silently until someone plays a five of black.
I wrote about deadly US strikes in the Caribbean. A lot has been said about the illegality of the strikes, but impunity (and not legality) is the whole point.
Two airstrikes in recent weeks have been aimed at ‘narcoterrorists’, according to the White House. They’ve been deadly, dangerous and likely ineffective.
US strikes on Venezuelan ‘drug boats’ have killed 14 people. What is Trump trying to do?
theconversation.com
September 20, 2025 at 7:19 AM
I wrote about deadly US strikes in the Caribbean. A lot has been said about the illegality of the strikes, but impunity (and not legality) is the whole point.
Reposted by Philip Luke Johnson
Australia's universities are blighted by a "culture of consequence-free, rotten failure", according to the former chair of a senate inquiry examining governance at public universities. ... "There's no other sector in the country where failure is rewarded so handsomely and with so little scrutiny."
'Rotten' Australian university culture lashed in long-running senate inquiry
Australia's universities are blighted by a "culture of consequence-free, rotten failure", a senate inquiry has found.
www.abc.net.au
September 19, 2025 at 9:08 AM
Australia's universities are blighted by a "culture of consequence-free, rotten failure", according to the former chair of a senate inquiry examining governance at public universities. ... "There's no other sector in the country where failure is rewarded so handsomely and with so little scrutiny."
Reposted by Philip Luke Johnson
From yours truly and Chelsea Estancona
New #firstview: "From Cocaine to Avocados: Criminal Market Expansion and Violence," Chelsea Estancona & @tiscornia21.bsky.social ask when criminal groups seek control of markets for licit goods such as avocados & lemons, and how these attempts affect patterns of violence.
cup.org/4n4MAkD
cup.org/4n4MAkD
From Cocaine to Avocados: Criminal Market Expansion and Violence | International Organization | Cambridge Core
From Cocaine to Avocados: Criminal Market Expansion and Violence
cup.org
September 12, 2025 at 8:24 AM
From yours truly and Chelsea Estancona
Reposted by Philip Luke Johnson
RALLY TO SAVE MEANJIN
Thursday 11 Sep 9am
Outside the Melbourne University Publishing office, 715 Swanston St, Carlton.
A number of Australian writers and editors will speak in support of this vital cultural institution
Thursday 11 Sep 9am
Outside the Melbourne University Publishing office, 715 Swanston St, Carlton.
A number of Australian writers and editors will speak in support of this vital cultural institution
September 8, 2025 at 8:53 AM
RALLY TO SAVE MEANJIN
Thursday 11 Sep 9am
Outside the Melbourne University Publishing office, 715 Swanston St, Carlton.
A number of Australian writers and editors will speak in support of this vital cultural institution
Thursday 11 Sep 9am
Outside the Melbourne University Publishing office, 715 Swanston St, Carlton.
A number of Australian writers and editors will speak in support of this vital cultural institution
This is so very surprising and so very cool! Of course Enriquez would choose Tasmania, but I did not see Launceston coming.
“Horror and humour are actually very close because of their hyperbolic nature. Humour works by voicing the unvoiced; people laughing at prejudices finally being exposed. Horror, too, works by exposing the darkness of our unspoken fears.” satpa.pe/QKBlOpv
Argentine author Mariana Enríquez’s new life in Tasmania
Argentine writer Mariana Enríquez, who has swapped the chaos of Buenos Aires for the calm of Launceston, reflects on the closeness of horror and humour.
satpa.pe
September 4, 2025 at 3:23 AM
This is so very surprising and so very cool! Of course Enriquez would choose Tasmania, but I did not see Launceston coming.
Reposted by Philip Luke Johnson
The loss of Meanjin is devastating news for Australian writers and readers. Always meant so much to see my work there. Some of my best experiences of being edited. An entirely avoidable disaster.
September 4, 2025 at 12:56 AM
The loss of Meanjin is devastating news for Australian writers and readers. Always meant so much to see my work there. Some of my best experiences of being edited. An entirely avoidable disaster.
It's not going to get that much press, but Bolivia had an election which upended the longstanding MAS dominance in the country, but then upended the predictions about who would replace MAS. The (self-inflicted) end of a political era in the country.
www.ojala.mx/en/ojala-en/...
www.ojala.mx/en/ojala-en/...
A surprise vote in Bolivia disrupts politics as usual — Ojalá
Unpacking the election results that favored Christian Democrats and the right.
www.ojala.mx
September 1, 2025 at 11:21 PM
It's not going to get that much press, but Bolivia had an election which upended the longstanding MAS dominance in the country, but then upended the predictions about who would replace MAS. The (self-inflicted) end of a political era in the country.
www.ojala.mx/en/ojala-en/...
www.ojala.mx/en/ojala-en/...
I was one of these foreign PhD students. I had to take 2.5 years of classes (while teaching undergrad classes) as part of my program. I only started doing my actual doctoral research in my 4th year.
I know there's a lot happening today, but this is sneaking in under the radar. This proposed new rule would absolutely crush foreign PhD students, potentially making it impossible for them to enroll with any certainty of their ability to finish www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
August 28, 2025 at 10:59 AM
I was one of these foreign PhD students. I had to take 2.5 years of classes (while teaching undergrad classes) as part of my program. I only started doing my actual doctoral research in my 4th year.
Reposted by Philip Luke Johnson
I'm genuinely surprised @aunz.theconversation.com would publish such a misleading article. This is not 'journalism you can trust' it's propaganda.
theconversation.com/australia-co...
#auspol #climate
theconversation.com/australia-co...
#auspol #climate
June 19, 2025 at 8:30 AM
I'm genuinely surprised @aunz.theconversation.com would publish such a misleading article. This is not 'journalism you can trust' it's propaganda.
theconversation.com/australia-co...
#auspol #climate
theconversation.com/australia-co...
#auspol #climate
Why bother to entertain this question when we should be asking who is suffering because of AI?
Can AIs suffer? Big tech and users grapple with one of most unsettling questions of our times
Can AIs suffer? Big tech and users grapple with one of most unsettling questions of our times
As first AI-led rights advocacy group is founded, industry is divided on whether models are, or can be, sentient
www.theguardian.com
August 27, 2025 at 11:57 AM
Why bother to entertain this question when we should be asking who is suffering because of AI?