Sarah Polkinghorne
@sarahpolk.bsky.social
Researcher, librarian. My account is a grab-bag -- libraries, info sci, qual research, science, film, art. Lift heavy/knit fast. 🇨🇦
https://www.sarahpolkinghorne.ca/
https://www.sarahpolkinghorne.ca/
Pinned
New Media & Society - Volume 27, Number 10
Table of contents for New Media & Society, 27, 10
journals.sagepub.com
New Media & Society's issue on artificial sociality is out! Super relevant in re: AI "girlfriends," etc. I'm looking forward to reading!
journals.sagepub.com/toc/nmsa/27/10
Inside, our paper applies Hochschild's feeling rules to interactions w/ ChatGPT, Tessa, Replika.
doi.org/10.1177/1461...
journals.sagepub.com/toc/nmsa/27/10
Inside, our paper applies Hochschild's feeling rules to interactions w/ ChatGPT, Tessa, Replika.
doi.org/10.1177/1461...
Reposted by Sarah Polkinghorne
I was fortunate enough to bear witness to the signing of Victoria’s Treaty. This is what I saw and felt. www.thespencerstreetend.com.au/publish/post...
On the banks of Birrarung
History all at once, the signing of the Treaty.
www.thespencerstreetend.com.au
November 14, 2025 at 9:35 PM
I was fortunate enough to bear witness to the signing of Victoria’s Treaty. This is what I saw and felt. www.thespencerstreetend.com.au/publish/post...
Reposted by Sarah Polkinghorne
READ THIS!
www.canadianaffairs.news/2025/11/12/o...
$200K to litigate a case against a social assistance recipient who *may* have received $10K in CERB overpayments is not an "inefficiency", but collecting unpaid taxes on luxury yachts or planes *is* a waste of bureaucratic time?
MAKE IT MAKE SENSE
www.canadianaffairs.news/2025/11/12/o...
$200K to litigate a case against a social assistance recipient who *may* have received $10K in CERB overpayments is not an "inefficiency", but collecting unpaid taxes on luxury yachts or planes *is* a waste of bureaucratic time?
MAKE IT MAKE SENSE
Op-Ed: Ottawa's costly pursuit of the poor
The government cites inefficiency as a reason to end taxes on vacant homes and yachts — yet keeps pouring money into futile litigation over pandemic-era benefits
www.canadianaffairs.news
November 13, 2025 at 6:16 PM
READ THIS!
www.canadianaffairs.news/2025/11/12/o...
$200K to litigate a case against a social assistance recipient who *may* have received $10K in CERB overpayments is not an "inefficiency", but collecting unpaid taxes on luxury yachts or planes *is* a waste of bureaucratic time?
MAKE IT MAKE SENSE
www.canadianaffairs.news/2025/11/12/o...
$200K to litigate a case against a social assistance recipient who *may* have received $10K in CERB overpayments is not an "inefficiency", but collecting unpaid taxes on luxury yachts or planes *is* a waste of bureaucratic time?
MAKE IT MAKE SENSE
Reposted by Sarah Polkinghorne
who has the recipe for the perfect coffee quickbread or loaf cake? (coffee as ingredient not coffee as accompaniment)
November 14, 2025 at 11:49 PM
who has the recipe for the perfect coffee quickbread or loaf cake? (coffee as ingredient not coffee as accompaniment)
Reposted by Sarah Polkinghorne
Nov 25 is the UN's Int'l Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
Dec 6th is Canada's National Day of Action and Remembrance on Violence against Women in commemoration of the Montreal Massacre.
Want to do something tangible to mark the dates? Let me teach you bystander intervention!
Dec 6th is Canada's National Day of Action and Remembrance on Violence against Women in commemoration of the Montreal Massacre.
Want to do something tangible to mark the dates? Let me teach you bystander intervention!
@julieslalonde | Linktree
Come learn bystander intervention with me - It's free!
linktr.ee
November 7, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Nov 25 is the UN's Int'l Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
Dec 6th is Canada's National Day of Action and Remembrance on Violence against Women in commemoration of the Montreal Massacre.
Want to do something tangible to mark the dates? Let me teach you bystander intervention!
Dec 6th is Canada's National Day of Action and Remembrance on Violence against Women in commemoration of the Montreal Massacre.
Want to do something tangible to mark the dates? Let me teach you bystander intervention!
Reposted by Sarah Polkinghorne
The truly maddening thing is that, unlike when I was a young man in science and the materials and engineering just weren’t there yet, the future is *right there.* The problem is *solved*. What’s holding us back is not just greed, but this bizarre nostalgia, an obsession with petro- masculinity.
Australia has so much electricity from solar power that it is going to start offering free electricity to everyone for at least three hours during the day as the wholesale price of power goes negative
electrek.co/2025/11/04/a...
electrek.co/2025/11/04/a...
Australia has so much solar that it's offering everyone free electricity
Australia's extensive solar power penetration makes so much energy that the government wants to offer free electricity at peak hours.
electrek.co
November 6, 2025 at 2:08 PM
The truly maddening thing is that, unlike when I was a young man in science and the materials and engineering just weren’t there yet, the future is *right there.* The problem is *solved*. What’s holding us back is not just greed, but this bizarre nostalgia, an obsession with petro- masculinity.
Reposted by Sarah Polkinghorne
Not sure what kind of plaudits Carney is expecting for bragging that asylum claims are down.
It's grotesque. Ghoulish. Trumpian.
It's grotesque. Ghoulish. Trumpian.
November 5, 2025 at 12:19 AM
Not sure what kind of plaudits Carney is expecting for bragging that asylum claims are down.
It's grotesque. Ghoulish. Trumpian.
It's grotesque. Ghoulish. Trumpian.
Reposted by Sarah Polkinghorne
OpenAI pirated large numbers of books and used them to train models.
OpenAI then deleted the dataset with the pirated books, and employees sent each other messages about doing so.
A lawsuit could now force the company to pay $150,000 per book, adding up to billions in damages.
OpenAI then deleted the dataset with the pirated books, and employees sent each other messages about doing so.
A lawsuit could now force the company to pay $150,000 per book, adding up to billions in damages.
November 4, 2025 at 3:30 PM
OpenAI pirated large numbers of books and used them to train models.
OpenAI then deleted the dataset with the pirated books, and employees sent each other messages about doing so.
A lawsuit could now force the company to pay $150,000 per book, adding up to billions in damages.
OpenAI then deleted the dataset with the pirated books, and employees sent each other messages about doing so.
A lawsuit could now force the company to pay $150,000 per book, adding up to billions in damages.
Reposted by Sarah Polkinghorne
Reposted by Sarah Polkinghorne
Maybe the thing that gives me a pulse-pounding throbbing headache is when I think of how techbros sold ChatGPT to universities as ‘revolutionizing’ higher education and our institutions just forked over money without even asking for actual evidence
When people learn with ChatGPT instead of following their own searches, they end up knowing less, caring less, and producing worse advice, even when the facts are the same.
Friction is an essential ingredient for learning! Convenience makes us shallow.
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
Friction is an essential ingredient for learning! Convenience makes us shallow.
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
Experimental evidence of the effects of large language models versus web search on depth of learning
Abstract. The effects of using large language models (LLMs) versus traditional web search on depth of learning are explored. A theory is proposed that when
academic.oup.com
October 28, 2025 at 7:32 PM
Maybe the thing that gives me a pulse-pounding throbbing headache is when I think of how techbros sold ChatGPT to universities as ‘revolutionizing’ higher education and our institutions just forked over money without even asking for actual evidence
Reposted by Sarah Polkinghorne
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings. Look on my works and let me know if you have any questions! 🤗
October 29, 2025 at 9:16 PM
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings. Look on my works and let me know if you have any questions! 🤗
Reposted by Sarah Polkinghorne
BREAKING: economist discovers “second shift,” a concept coined by sociologists almost 50 years ago; gives it new, stupider, and less explicitly labor-oriented name
October 26, 2025 at 1:58 PM
BREAKING: economist discovers “second shift,” a concept coined by sociologists almost 50 years ago; gives it new, stupider, and less explicitly labor-oriented name
Reposted by Sarah Polkinghorne
The AI industry wants us to believe AI superintelligence is the real threat from generative AI.
But that narrative was crafted to distract from the many ways genAI is being used to tear our societies apart, as we saw this week when a deepfake video rocked the Irish election. It must be reined in.
But that narrative was crafted to distract from the many ways genAI is being used to tear our societies apart, as we saw this week when a deepfake video rocked the Irish election. It must be reined in.
Generative AI is a societal disaster
Governments are deluding themselves into believing investment justifies allowing AI to upend society
disconnect.blog
October 24, 2025 at 10:12 AM
The AI industry wants us to believe AI superintelligence is the real threat from generative AI.
But that narrative was crafted to distract from the many ways genAI is being used to tear our societies apart, as we saw this week when a deepfake video rocked the Irish election. It must be reined in.
But that narrative was crafted to distract from the many ways genAI is being used to tear our societies apart, as we saw this week when a deepfake video rocked the Irish election. It must be reined in.
Reposted by Sarah Polkinghorne
✍️CFP!
We are inviting submissions to our special issue on Libraries, Humans, Machines: Old Relationships, New Entanglements.
Read more and submit by Dec. 18: cjal.ca/index.php/ca...
#AcademicSky #LibrarySky #OA
We are inviting submissions to our special issue on Libraries, Humans, Machines: Old Relationships, New Entanglements.
Read more and submit by Dec. 18: cjal.ca/index.php/ca...
#AcademicSky #LibrarySky #OA
Call for proposals: CJAL special issue on Libraries, Humans, Machines
| Canadian Journal of Academic Librarianship
cjal.ca
October 15, 2025 at 12:05 PM
✍️CFP!
We are inviting submissions to our special issue on Libraries, Humans, Machines: Old Relationships, New Entanglements.
Read more and submit by Dec. 18: cjal.ca/index.php/ca...
#AcademicSky #LibrarySky #OA
We are inviting submissions to our special issue on Libraries, Humans, Machines: Old Relationships, New Entanglements.
Read more and submit by Dec. 18: cjal.ca/index.php/ca...
#AcademicSky #LibrarySky #OA
Hi, it's me, I'm the et al. I'm so happy this paper's finally out, and I hope it finds its readers.
New open access article by TASA member Alexandra Ridgway et al.
‘I think I misspoke earlier. My bad!’: Exploring how generative artificial intelligence tools exploit society’s feeling rules
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
‘I think I misspoke earlier. My bad!’: Exploring how generative artificial intelligence tools exploit society’s feeling rules
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
journals.sagepub.com
October 21, 2025 at 12:59 AM
Hi, it's me, I'm the et al. I'm so happy this paper's finally out, and I hope it finds its readers.
Reposted by Sarah Polkinghorne
#DHMakes is anyone doing anything like this?
Okay new idea for a library service: leave a hobby take a hobby. When people get bored with a hobby they can come and leave their supplies and books and half-finished things, and exchange them for someone else’s supplies and books and half-finished things. Hobby swap.
October 19, 2025 at 10:43 AM
#DHMakes is anyone doing anything like this?
Reposted by Sarah Polkinghorne
Shoutout to whoever was like the news sucks, let’s spice it up by doing a jewel heist at the Louvre
October 19, 2025 at 9:49 PM
Shoutout to whoever was like the news sucks, let’s spice it up by doing a jewel heist at the Louvre
Reposted by Sarah Polkinghorne
In social movement studies, we talk about how marches and protests expand the threshold of acceptable risk so that people take more and bigger social risks IN PUBLIC, EN MASSE. This is extremely important for the bourgeois white folks holding signs and building social rapport.
Not a shitpost: #NoKings is feel-good performative activism for comfortable mostly upper and upper middle class white folks and that’s good, actually. Millions of people in the streets protesting a fascist regime is good. It is good for the normie baseline to be massive displays of public dissent.
October 19, 2025 at 1:44 AM
In social movement studies, we talk about how marches and protests expand the threshold of acceptable risk so that people take more and bigger social risks IN PUBLIC, EN MASSE. This is extremely important for the bourgeois white folks holding signs and building social rapport.
Reposted by Sarah Polkinghorne
Friends and colleagues! I am looking for suggestions for literature on failure. I know Halberstam, but anything else – from queer studies or not, will be welcome.
October 17, 2025 at 11:56 AM
Friends and colleagues! I am looking for suggestions for literature on failure. I know Halberstam, but anything else – from queer studies or not, will be welcome.
Reposted by Sarah Polkinghorne
This is so significant: a new comprehensive report detailing the myriad modalities of Canadian university complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
static1.squarespace.com/static/68bf2...
static1.squarespace.com/static/68bf2...
October 15, 2025 at 12:03 AM
This is so significant: a new comprehensive report detailing the myriad modalities of Canadian university complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
static1.squarespace.com/static/68bf2...
static1.squarespace.com/static/68bf2...
Reposted by Sarah Polkinghorne
Tomorrow!
Oct 16
7-8pm ET
Fast paced and interactive but cameras/mics are off, so you're never on the spot.
You leave with 5 super practical techniques to de-escalate and safely intervene.
Not recorded, so don't miss out!
Registration: zoom.us/webinar/regi...
Oct 16
7-8pm ET
Fast paced and interactive but cameras/mics are off, so you're never on the spot.
You leave with 5 super practical techniques to de-escalate and safely intervene.
Not recorded, so don't miss out!
Registration: zoom.us/webinar/regi...
We are not powerless in the face of rising hate, harassment and violence. If we take the time to learn effective de-escalation and intervention skills, we CAN keep each other safe.
Give me 1 hour of your time and I'll teach you how. It's free and open to anyone aged 12+ ✊
zoom.us/webinar/regi...
Give me 1 hour of your time and I'll teach you how. It's free and open to anyone aged 12+ ✊
zoom.us/webinar/regi...
October 15, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Tomorrow!
Oct 16
7-8pm ET
Fast paced and interactive but cameras/mics are off, so you're never on the spot.
You leave with 5 super practical techniques to de-escalate and safely intervene.
Not recorded, so don't miss out!
Registration: zoom.us/webinar/regi...
Oct 16
7-8pm ET
Fast paced and interactive but cameras/mics are off, so you're never on the spot.
You leave with 5 super practical techniques to de-escalate and safely intervene.
Not recorded, so don't miss out!
Registration: zoom.us/webinar/regi...
Reposted by Sarah Polkinghorne
my latest investigation for @consumerreports.org is based on months of reporting and 60+ lab tests of leading protein supplements
we found that most protein powders and shakes have more lead in one serving than our experts say is safe to have in a day (🧵)
www.consumerreports.org/lead/protein...
we found that most protein powders and shakes have more lead in one serving than our experts say is safe to have in a day (🧵)
www.consumerreports.org/lead/protein...
Protein Powders and Shakes Contain High Levels of Lead - Consumer Reports
CR tests of 23 popular protein powders and shakes found that most contain high levels of lead.
www.consumerreports.org
October 14, 2025 at 4:37 PM
my latest investigation for @consumerreports.org is based on months of reporting and 60+ lab tests of leading protein supplements
we found that most protein powders and shakes have more lead in one serving than our experts say is safe to have in a day (🧵)
www.consumerreports.org/lead/protein...
we found that most protein powders and shakes have more lead in one serving than our experts say is safe to have in a day (🧵)
www.consumerreports.org/lead/protein...
Reposted by Sarah Polkinghorne
When I was your age, searching for a phrase in quotes returned results for that exact phrase
October 10, 2025 at 2:52 PM
When I was your age, searching for a phrase in quotes returned results for that exact phrase
Reposted by Sarah Polkinghorne
cry havoc and let slip the frogs of war
October 11, 2025 at 12:32 AM
cry havoc and let slip the frogs of war
Reposted by Sarah Polkinghorne
Can anyone recommend an academic audiobook that was well done? Looking for a good example of how to handle citations, footnotes, bibliography, etc. in audiobook format. Ideally an academic monograph. Please only recommend if you've read the audiobook and thought it was well done.
October 7, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Can anyone recommend an academic audiobook that was well done? Looking for a good example of how to handle citations, footnotes, bibliography, etc. in audiobook format. Ideally an academic monograph. Please only recommend if you've read the audiobook and thought it was well done.
Yes, like all forms of leisure.
I see pieces like this a lot, often w/ a spin of lamenting cultural degeneration, but reading is a LABOR issue, it’s declined because so many people are working overtime or two jobs & employers expect after hours work. France has Earth’s highest reading rate b/c long lunch breaks & labor protections
October 7, 2025 at 12:40 AM
Yes, like all forms of leisure.