Maja Bäckvall
@skrivafel.bsky.social
Runologist-for-hire, librarian, PhD in Scandinavian languages. Translator into Old Norse for Civ VI, God of War (but only the good runes), AC Valhalla. I infrequently make text games.
Reposted by Maja Bäckvall
Here are some things that Charlie Kirk said in his life.
The man is dead, and so it only seems fair to share his legacy by cataloguing the values he spread while alive.
The man is dead, and so it only seems fair to share his legacy by cataloguing the values he spread while alive.
September 10, 2025 at 11:52 PM
Here are some things that Charlie Kirk said in his life.
The man is dead, and so it only seems fair to share his legacy by cataloguing the values he spread while alive.
The man is dead, and so it only seems fair to share his legacy by cataloguing the values he spread while alive.
Reposted by Maja Bäckvall
We need a Star Trek episode about how the invention of the universal translator caused people to stop valuing actually learning languages, while they fatally overestimated the UT's accuracy and the resulting misunderstandings led to a massive war that tore the quadrant apart
August 13, 2025 at 8:17 PM
We need a Star Trek episode about how the invention of the universal translator caused people to stop valuing actually learning languages, while they fatally overestimated the UT's accuracy and the resulting misunderstandings led to a massive war that tore the quadrant apart
Om någon i Göteborg undrar varför det är en rökpelare nära Götaplatsen så är det bygget bredvid min svärfars lägenhet som råkat sätta eld på gummimattorna (?) under en sprängning.
August 14, 2025 at 6:58 AM
Om någon i Göteborg undrar varför det är en rökpelare nära Götaplatsen så är det bygget bredvid min svärfars lägenhet som råkat sätta eld på gummimattorna (?) under en sprängning.
Reposted by Maja Bäckvall
May 21, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Reposted by Maja Bäckvall
openai’s new ghibli “generator” is explicitly an intentional attempt at humiliation of a prominent objector
openai is culturally fascist as well as functionally fascist
it’s not an accident
openai is culturally fascist as well as functionally fascist
it’s not an accident
March 27, 2025 at 7:39 PM
openai’s new ghibli “generator” is explicitly an intentional attempt at humiliation of a prominent objector
openai is culturally fascist as well as functionally fascist
it’s not an accident
openai is culturally fascist as well as functionally fascist
it’s not an accident
Jag uppskattar bojkotten mot de stora kedjorna men tycker också det är lite roligt att jag och min sambo av ren pengabrist har fått ha vår egna lilla bojkott den här månaden.
March 16, 2025 at 11:40 AM
Jag uppskattar bojkotten mot de stora kedjorna men tycker också det är lite roligt att jag och min sambo av ren pengabrist har fått ha vår egna lilla bojkott den här månaden.
Reposted by Maja Bäckvall
En sak jag hoppas ändå kommer med den amerikanska apokalypsen är att folk i Europa ser och förstår vad radikalhögern faktiskt vill. För ingen tror väl att det skulle bli annorlunda om SD, AfD eller Nationell samling fick total politisk majoritet (med vissa lokala detaljer olika)?
March 16, 2025 at 10:50 AM
En sak jag hoppas ändå kommer med den amerikanska apokalypsen är att folk i Europa ser och förstår vad radikalhögern faktiskt vill. För ingen tror väl att det skulle bli annorlunda om SD, AfD eller Nationell samling fick total politisk majoritet (med vissa lokala detaljer olika)?
Och tågen skulle gå i tid
March 13, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Och tågen skulle gå i tid
Me: "I wouldn't want to go to the US, I can't support that country"
My (trans) partner: "I mean, I straight up can't go"
My (trans) partner: "I mean, I straight up can't go"
Between this and a permanent resident being disappeared...I would not visit the U.S. right now if you have another option. A tourism collapse would be devastating to so many Americans who *are* on the right side of history, but if you won't be safe, you shouldn't come.
Becky Burke of Book Island (a picture book publisher in the UK founded by my fellow Tokarczuk translator Greet Pauwelijn) was "detained" by ICE at the Canadian border on 2/28. Her father asked that her story be shared in case someone can help her. He writes:
March 10, 2025 at 12:28 PM
Me: "I wouldn't want to go to the US, I can't support that country"
My (trans) partner: "I mean, I straight up can't go"
My (trans) partner: "I mean, I straight up can't go"
Reposted by Maja Bäckvall
Between this and a permanent resident being disappeared...I would not visit the U.S. right now if you have another option. A tourism collapse would be devastating to so many Americans who *are* on the right side of history, but if you won't be safe, you shouldn't come.
Becky Burke of Book Island (a picture book publisher in the UK founded by my fellow Tokarczuk translator Greet Pauwelijn) was "detained" by ICE at the Canadian border on 2/28. Her father asked that her story be shared in case someone can help her. He writes:
March 9, 2025 at 10:28 PM
Between this and a permanent resident being disappeared...I would not visit the U.S. right now if you have another option. A tourism collapse would be devastating to so many Americans who *are* on the right side of history, but if you won't be safe, you shouldn't come.
Reposted by Maja Bäckvall
Really can not exaggerate how dire it is that the US flat-out disappeared a foreign student
March 10, 2025 at 12:07 PM
Really can not exaggerate how dire it is that the US flat-out disappeared a foreign student
Some fun PhD student positions now available in Visby, both in archaeology and cultural heritage. www.uu.se/om-uu/jobba-...
Lediga jobb
- Uppsala universitet
www.uu.se
March 10, 2025 at 12:02 PM
Some fun PhD student positions now available in Visby, both in archaeology and cultural heritage. www.uu.se/om-uu/jobba-...
Breaking my hiatus just to say that Sweden will finally be sending something really goofy to Eurovision. About time!
March 8, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Breaking my hiatus just to say that Sweden will finally be sending something really goofy to Eurovision. About time!
Reposted by Maja Bäckvall
Elon Musk: Why isn’t there enough water in California?
Grok (burning through an entire lake to generate an answer): Wokeness
Grok (burning through an entire lake to generate an answer): Wokeness
January 9, 2025 at 3:15 AM
Elon Musk: Why isn’t there enough water in California?
Grok (burning through an entire lake to generate an answer): Wokeness
Grok (burning through an entire lake to generate an answer): Wokeness
Reposted by Maja Bäckvall
More talk this week on AI vs human indexing. The book ‘INDEX, A History of the’ by @djbduncan.bsky.social has two indexes – a computer-generated one by automated software, and an index created by a human indexer (me). They are really not the same.
(See also @indexers.bsky.social and #IndexSky.)
(See also @indexers.bsky.social and #IndexSky.)
![A sample of the first page of the human indexer's index from Dennis Duncan’s INDEX book, set in two columns.
Index
Note to the gentle Reader: Page numbers in italic indicate figures. Page numbers in the form 273n1 indicate endnotes. Entries are sorted in letter-by-letter order, except where noted. This index was created by Paula Clarke Bain, who is a professional indexer and a human being. [PCB]
A, a, a 77,78,79
abbreviations 38, 40, 72, 78, 79, 242
ABC Murders, The (Christie) 39
abecedaria 28, 29, 35
Abish, Walter, Alphabetical Africa 39
abstracting 4, 245, 248
accuracy 15, 64, 98, 100, 178, 252
acrostics 29, 30, 147, 311
active indexes 254
Addison, Joseph 30, 156–7, 159, 174, 186
loathes acrostics 30
portrait 154
Remarks on Several Parts of Italy 156–7
Spectator indexes 173–7
addresses to reader see introductory notes
‘Adventures of a Quire of Paper’ 171–2, 174
advertisements 42, 101, 176, 183, 186, 214, 249
Aeneid (Virgil) 39, 242, 243
Aesop's Fables 144, 146
agencies, indexing 260, 296–7n22
Age of Distraction 9, 251
Age of Enlightenment 170
Age of Industry 205-6
Age of Search 51, 233, 251 see also search
Agoa, Helen S. 243
AI (Artificial Intelligence) 2, 254
aide-mémoire 66, 126
Aitken, Jonathan, goes to jail 137
Akraiphia stones 36
Aldus Manutius, Dictionarium graecum 110
Alexander of Ashby, De artificioso modo predicandi 49
Alexander the Great 30, 93
Alexandria see Library of Alexandria
algorithms 100, 233, 251, 258
Alice stories (Carroll) 177–8, 180, 181
alphabet
Cyrillic 45–6
Greek 29, 36, 71, 89
Hebrew 29
history of alphabets 28–30
Latin 29](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:gzwmosuuqyrfklzlp75d55ur/bafkreid5z5vuy7hshmszd54xlxffju2lxlbasjncg7vd5zhpjlpi6s4sja@jpeg)
January 7, 2025 at 2:29 PM
More talk this week on AI vs human indexing. The book ‘INDEX, A History of the’ by @djbduncan.bsky.social has two indexes – a computer-generated one by automated software, and an index created by a human indexer (me). They are really not the same.
(See also @indexers.bsky.social and #IndexSky.)
(See also @indexers.bsky.social and #IndexSky.)
It took me a couple of episodes before I figured out what was bothering me about The 100, which everyone around me loved. It was that everyone was the exact same flavour.
Part of why I no longer know current celebrity names is because folks cast the same faces and I simply cannot tell them apart
Diversify so we know who tf your characters are I am BEGGING YOU 😂
Diversify so we know who tf your characters are I am BEGGING YOU 😂
I want characters with interesting faces, proportions and imperfections.
Why on earth would we want everyone look like airbrushed mannequins?
Why on earth would we want everyone look like airbrushed mannequins?
January 8, 2025 at 9:52 PM
It took me a couple of episodes before I figured out what was bothering me about The 100, which everyone around me loved. It was that everyone was the exact same flavour.
Reposted by Maja Bäckvall
Happy Christmas to everyone celebrating old calendar Christmas today!
January 7, 2025 at 9:57 AM
Happy Christmas to everyone celebrating old calendar Christmas today!
Gamers: adding a difficulty slider compromises the artistic vision of the game devs
Also gamers, apparently: I need an AI filter over every face in my game
Also gamers, apparently: I need an AI filter over every face in my game
excuse me but if I create a face a certain way I would like our players to be shown it as intended
Uhhhhhh can we pay less for a 50xx that specifically does not come with any of these features
January 7, 2025 at 9:46 AM
Gamers: adding a difficulty slider compromises the artistic vision of the game devs
Also gamers, apparently: I need an AI filter over every face in my game
Also gamers, apparently: I need an AI filter over every face in my game
Reposted by Maja Bäckvall
some things on the internet get old and cringy but I do not think I will ever get tired of watching Tom Holland's Umbrella performance for the rest of my life
instant smile on my face, every single time
instant smile on my face, every single time
I mean, if a guy did this in front of me, I would marry him too. Congrats to Zendaya and Tom Holland for their engagement🙏
Lip Sync Battle - Tom Holland
YouTube video by Comedy Central Latinoamérica
m.youtube.com
January 6, 2025 at 10:07 PM
some things on the internet get old and cringy but I do not think I will ever get tired of watching Tom Holland's Umbrella performance for the rest of my life
instant smile on my face, every single time
instant smile on my face, every single time
Reposted by Maja Bäckvall
folks, when you ask a chatbot about how it's programmed, it doesn't actually give you accurate answers - it gives you a series of predictive guesses drawn from a corpus of what other people have said about AI and the way you asked it. Meta's 'AI' personalities are not spilling secrets to you.
January 6, 2025 at 8:59 PM
folks, when you ask a chatbot about how it's programmed, it doesn't actually give you accurate answers - it gives you a series of predictive guesses drawn from a corpus of what other people have said about AI and the way you asked it. Meta's 'AI' personalities are not spilling secrets to you.
So very tired of an acquaintance of mine who keeps posting "funny" memes about gaining weight ("The more you weigh, the harder you are too kidnap" etc). As you might have guessed, she's your average person who weighs 5-10 kg more than she did at 20 and now has to be self deprecating about it.
January 6, 2025 at 9:41 PM
So very tired of an acquaintance of mine who keeps posting "funny" memes about gaining weight ("The more you weigh, the harder you are too kidnap" etc). As you might have guessed, she's your average person who weighs 5-10 kg more than she did at 20 and now has to be self deprecating about it.
My old PhD advisor, Henrik Williams, wrote a short article about this passage. Litr means "colour" and is a pretty unusual dwarf name. Henrik argues that this is what's left from a story about how fire got so many colours.
I was reading up on mythological dwarfs for lore inspiration and came across this hilariously unexplained detail.
January 6, 2025 at 9:06 PM
My old PhD advisor, Henrik Williams, wrote a short article about this passage. Litr means "colour" and is a pretty unusual dwarf name. Henrik argues that this is what's left from a story about how fire got so many colours.
Reposted by Maja Bäckvall
Notch is a racist. Notch is a misogynist. Notch is a homophobe and transphobe. Do not give Notch your support. Do not give Notch your money.
Original Minecraft creator Markus “Notch” Persson has “basically announced" Minecraft 2.
vgc.news/news/minecra...
vgc.news/news/minecra...
Minecraft 2 has been ‘basically announced’, says creator | VGC
Markus “Notch” Persson claims he’s working on a spiritual successor to Minecraft…
vgc.news
January 6, 2025 at 10:09 AM
Notch is a racist. Notch is a misogynist. Notch is a homophobe and transphobe. Do not give Notch your support. Do not give Notch your money.
I'm so sorry, but I can't afford to donate to more than a few people every month. I wish I could.
January 6, 2025 at 8:25 PM
I'm so sorry, but I can't afford to donate to more than a few people every month. I wish I could.
Reposted by Maja Bäckvall
Självklart är det fullt möjligt att få ned utbetalningarna till sjuklön om man ändrar reglerna så att det är svårare att få tillgång. Men det finns alltså absolut inget som tyder på att fler då börjar jobba. Det som händer är att fler sjuka blir fattigare. Då får man vara tydlig med att det är målet
January 6, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Självklart är det fullt möjligt att få ned utbetalningarna till sjuklön om man ändrar reglerna så att det är svårare att få tillgång. Men det finns alltså absolut inget som tyder på att fler då börjar jobba. Det som händer är att fler sjuka blir fattigare. Då får man vara tydlig med att det är målet