C. E. M. Henderson
@cemhend.bsky.social
PhD@UToronto CMS. Palaeography, codicology, forensics skeptic. Also Chaucer and video games. Wikipedia editor (AMA). AuDHD. 🏴🏳️⚧️
Also @cemhend@scholar.social and cemhend on birdsite
Also @cemhend@scholar.social and cemhend on birdsite
Pinned
C. E. M. Henderson
@cemhend.bsky.social
· Nov 12
Hi new folks! 👋
I’m in my last year* of dissertation-writing about Medieval English scribal identification. Can we do it: by consensus (no); with some help from forensics (also no); at all (unclear); with the help of machine learning (surprisingly maybe yes)?
*if I can stop getting in car crashes
I’m in my last year* of dissertation-writing about Medieval English scribal identification. Can we do it: by consensus (no); with some help from forensics (also no); at all (unclear); with the help of machine learning (surprisingly maybe yes)?
*if I can stop getting in car crashes
Reposted by C. E. M. Henderson
The incredible, indomitable, inspirational Alice Wong has left us.
I'm so grateful to have known her on social media, and so grateful for all the words she shared with us and all the actions she encouraged us into making.
May we live up to her example.
(so you don't have to go to Instagram)
I'm so grateful to have known her on social media, and so grateful for all the words she shared with us and all the actions she encouraged us into making.
May we live up to her example.
(so you don't have to go to Instagram)
November 15, 2025 at 6:13 AM
The incredible, indomitable, inspirational Alice Wong has left us.
I'm so grateful to have known her on social media, and so grateful for all the words she shared with us and all the actions she encouraged us into making.
May we live up to her example.
(so you don't have to go to Instagram)
I'm so grateful to have known her on social media, and so grateful for all the words she shared with us and all the actions she encouraged us into making.
May we live up to her example.
(so you don't have to go to Instagram)
Reposted by C. E. M. Henderson
it is exceptionally fun to stumble onto a discourse about "the dark ages are real" discourse by 2 dudes, both historians, who are neither of them medievalists
both are, you'll be shocked, military and political historians
anyway, just gonna post this until the heat death of the universe i guess
both are, you'll be shocked, military and political historians
anyway, just gonna post this until the heat death of the universe i guess
You Gotta Do the Reading, Man
Why does the idea of the "Dark Ages" mean so much to econobros?
buttondown.com
November 14, 2025 at 5:03 PM
it is exceptionally fun to stumble onto a discourse about "the dark ages are real" discourse by 2 dudes, both historians, who are neither of them medievalists
both are, you'll be shocked, military and political historians
anyway, just gonna post this until the heat death of the universe i guess
both are, you'll be shocked, military and political historians
anyway, just gonna post this until the heat death of the universe i guess
Reposted by C. E. M. Henderson
what people think medieval history is: wars! kings! cathedrals! filthy peasants!
what medieval history really is: bills, wills, monks crashing out
what medieval history really is: bills, wills, monks crashing out
I find the phrase “makes history” nonsensical. Have you seen the stuff historians study? Just dropping an old piece of farm equipment down a well or accidentally freezing to death in a glacier gives you a good shot at the history books
November 14, 2025 at 8:49 PM
what people think medieval history is: wars! kings! cathedrals! filthy peasants!
what medieval history really is: bills, wills, monks crashing out
what medieval history really is: bills, wills, monks crashing out
Reposted by C. E. M. Henderson
So here's what we have: An AI-powered encyclopedia that heavily leans on a volunteer effort that Musk has repeatedly attacked, which selectively edits a subset of topics to recast based with an undisclosed set of instructions. For those pages, citations to conspiracy sites and hate groups go up.
Grokipedia cites a Nazi forum and fringe conspiracy websites
A site-wide comparison with Wikipedia sheds light on what Elon Musk is trying to do
indicator.media
November 13, 2025 at 2:01 PM
So here's what we have: An AI-powered encyclopedia that heavily leans on a volunteer effort that Musk has repeatedly attacked, which selectively edits a subset of topics to recast based with an undisclosed set of instructions. For those pages, citations to conspiracy sites and hate groups go up.
Reposted by C. E. M. Henderson
After a week of reviewing the site-wide data and many entries in detail, I think Grokipedia has made significant editorial decisions around sourcing and topic treatment that lend credence to @matteowong.bsky.social's argument in The Atlantic that it is “the next step in Musk’s propaganda machine.”
Grokipedia cites a Nazi forum and fringe conspiracy websites
A site-wide comparison with Wikipedia sheds light on what Elon Musk is trying to do
indicator.media
November 13, 2025 at 1:50 PM
After a week of reviewing the site-wide data and many entries in detail, I think Grokipedia has made significant editorial decisions around sourcing and topic treatment that lend credence to @matteowong.bsky.social's argument in The Atlantic that it is “the next step in Musk’s propaganda machine.”
Reposted by C. E. M. Henderson
Grokipedia cites domains with a super low quality score (0.0 to 0.2) *seven times* more than Wikipedia.
November 13, 2025 at 1:42 PM
Grokipedia cites domains with a super low quality score (0.0 to 0.2) *seven times* more than Wikipedia.
Reposted by C. E. M. Henderson
We used the Perennial Sources list maintained by EN-Wiki as well as a domain quality score compiled by Lin et al. to approximate the quality of sources cited by Grokipedia v Wikipedia.
Grokipedia includes 2.7 million citations to "generally unreliable", "blacklisted" or "deprecated" sources
Grokipedia includes 2.7 million citations to "generally unreliable", "blacklisted" or "deprecated" sources
November 13, 2025 at 1:41 PM
We used the Perennial Sources list maintained by EN-Wiki as well as a domain quality score compiled by Lin et al. to approximate the quality of sources cited by Grokipedia v Wikipedia.
Grokipedia includes 2.7 million citations to "generally unreliable", "blacklisted" or "deprecated" sources
Grokipedia includes 2.7 million citations to "generally unreliable", "blacklisted" or "deprecated" sources
Reposted by C. E. M. Henderson
The pilfering, however, is selective. On articles in Wikipedia's "controversial topics" bucket, the differences are far greater.
And that's where Grokipedia disproportionately adds low-quality sources, including Stormfront and InfoWars.
And that's where Grokipedia disproportionately adds low-quality sources, including Stormfront and InfoWars.
November 13, 2025 at 1:22 PM
The pilfering, however, is selective. On articles in Wikipedia's "controversial topics" bucket, the differences are far greater.
And that's where Grokipedia disproportionately adds low-quality sources, including Stormfront and InfoWars.
And that's where Grokipedia disproportionately adds low-quality sources, including Stormfront and InfoWars.
Reposted by C. E. M. Henderson
NEW on @indicator.media: A first *full-scale* comparison of Grokipedia v Wikipedia.
Last week the awesome @harold.bsky.social rocked up to my desk bearing gifts.
Hal had collected almost all 900K Grokipedia entries and compared them to their Wikipedia equivalents for text and citation similarity.
Last week the awesome @harold.bsky.social rocked up to my desk bearing gifts.
Hal had collected almost all 900K Grokipedia entries and compared them to their Wikipedia equivalents for text and citation similarity.
Grokipedia cites a Nazi forum and fringe conspiracy websites
A site-wide comparison with Wikipedia sheds light on what Elon Musk is trying to do
indicator.media
November 13, 2025 at 1:12 PM
NEW on @indicator.media: A first *full-scale* comparison of Grokipedia v Wikipedia.
Last week the awesome @harold.bsky.social rocked up to my desk bearing gifts.
Hal had collected almost all 900K Grokipedia entries and compared them to their Wikipedia equivalents for text and citation similarity.
Last week the awesome @harold.bsky.social rocked up to my desk bearing gifts.
Hal had collected almost all 900K Grokipedia entries and compared them to their Wikipedia equivalents for text and citation similarity.
Reposted by C. E. M. Henderson
Pre-1900, half the population was still working in fields, & even at peak “good middle class manufacturing jobs” in the 1950s, that was only 25% of employment. On this & so many other issues, our contemporary politics are detached from the reality of actual 🇺🇸 history.
November 9, 2025 at 6:05 AM
Pre-1900, half the population was still working in fields, & even at peak “good middle class manufacturing jobs” in the 1950s, that was only 25% of employment. On this & so many other issues, our contemporary politics are detached from the reality of actual 🇺🇸 history.
Reposted by C. E. M. Henderson
Update: back to medieval (Roman?) level conflicts like “local authorities deny all faiths permission to pray”
I can’t believe we’re back to medieval level conflicts like “local authorities deny catholic prisoners the Eucharist, bishop arrives, Papal sanction may follow”
Chicago Auxiliary Bishop José María Garcia-Maldonado at ICE detention facility: “Being here is an act of holiness…soon we will seek access to the facility to bring the Eucharist to our brothers and sisters; if they say no again, we will keep praying.”
November 8, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Update: back to medieval (Roman?) level conflicts like “local authorities deny all faiths permission to pray”
Reposted by C. E. M. Henderson
Exactly!
“Honestly, seeing “women” as a turf to be defended, as opposed to a set of imperatives and limitations to be criticized, challenged, changed, or transcended, has been pretty startling.”
“Honestly, seeing “women” as a turf to be defended, as opposed to a set of imperatives and limitations to be criticized, challenged, changed, or transcended, has been pretty startling.”
if you terfs actually spent time reading radical feminists instead of selectively quoting them you’d realise, very quickly, that ‘gender critical’ is just bigotry rooted in patriarchy.
here is catherine mackinnon:
here is catherine mackinnon:
![Much of the current debate has centered on (endlessly obsessed over, actually) whether trans women are women. Honestly, seeing “women” as a turf to be defended, as opposed to a set of imperatives and limitations to be criticized, challenged, changed, or transcended, has been pretty startling. One might think that trans women—assigned male at birth, leaving masculinity behind, drawn to and embracing womanhood for themselves—would be welcomed. Yet a group of philosophers purporting feminism slide sloppily from “female sex” through “feminine gender” straight to “women” as if no move has been made,[4] eventually reverting to the dictionary: a woman is an “adult human female.”[5] Defining women by biology—adult is biological age, human is biological species, female is biological sex—used to be criticized as biological essentialism. Those winging to the Right are thrilled by this putatively feminist reduction of women to female body parts, preferably chromosomes and reproductive apparatus, qualities chosen so that whatever is considered definitive of sex is not only physical but cannot be physically changed into.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:bcgtpezwhu5ynanpiezkmfim/bafkreigw3lotshdxaqfr6b42ttj2keuc4dywkwtbjag7fvnxlm5lonzr54@jpeg)
November 8, 2025 at 11:10 PM
Exactly!
“Honestly, seeing “women” as a turf to be defended, as opposed to a set of imperatives and limitations to be criticized, challenged, changed, or transcended, has been pretty startling.”
“Honestly, seeing “women” as a turf to be defended, as opposed to a set of imperatives and limitations to be criticized, challenged, changed, or transcended, has been pretty startling.”
Reposted by C. E. M. Henderson
If you know anyone who works on medieval Judaism, please send them this! Binghamton is hiring a Talmud/Rabbinics assistant prof: half in Judaic Studies, half in the Med/Ren center. A killer R1 job for the right person, and not a ton of applicants so far....
binghamton.interviewexchange.com
November 9, 2025 at 2:44 AM
If you know anyone who works on medieval Judaism, please send them this! Binghamton is hiring a Talmud/Rabbinics assistant prof: half in Judaic Studies, half in the Med/Ren center. A killer R1 job for the right person, and not a ton of applicants so far....
Reposted by C. E. M. Henderson
Look folks gen AI videos are out in the wild so if you weren't already being careful about sharing rage bait videos then now is a great time to start
If you can't trace a video back to a trusted source then I recommend leaving it where it is, like a slice of bologna you found on the street
If you can't trace a video back to a trusted source then I recommend leaving it where it is, like a slice of bologna you found on the street
November 2, 2025 at 9:02 PM
Look folks gen AI videos are out in the wild so if you weren't already being careful about sharing rage bait videos then now is a great time to start
If you can't trace a video back to a trusted source then I recommend leaving it where it is, like a slice of bologna you found on the street
If you can't trace a video back to a trusted source then I recommend leaving it where it is, like a slice of bologna you found on the street
Reposted by C. E. M. Henderson
arXiv will no longer accept review articles and position papers unless they have been accepted at a journal or a conference and complete successful peer review.
This is due to being overwhelmed by a hundreds of AI generated papers a month.
Yet another open submission process killed by LLMs.
This is due to being overwhelmed by a hundreds of AI generated papers a month.
Yet another open submission process killed by LLMs.
Attention Authors: Updated Practice for Review Articles and Position Papers in arXiv CS Category – arXiv blog
blog.arxiv.org
November 1, 2025 at 5:28 PM
arXiv will no longer accept review articles and position papers unless they have been accepted at a journal or a conference and complete successful peer review.
This is due to being overwhelmed by a hundreds of AI generated papers a month.
Yet another open submission process killed by LLMs.
This is due to being overwhelmed by a hundreds of AI generated papers a month.
Yet another open submission process killed by LLMs.
Reposted by C. E. M. Henderson
JD Vance claims that diversity weakens unions, as people end up distrusting each other and not organizing.
Let me tell you two menswear stories related to this claim. 🧵
Let me tell you two menswear stories related to this claim. 🧵
October 30, 2025 at 8:07 AM
JD Vance claims that diversity weakens unions, as people end up distrusting each other and not organizing.
Let me tell you two menswear stories related to this claim. 🧵
Let me tell you two menswear stories related to this claim. 🧵
Reposted by C. E. M. Henderson
It’s finally coming out ! Get ready Old Norse studies 😈🏳️⚧️
October 27, 2025 at 8:15 PM
It’s finally coming out ! Get ready Old Norse studies 😈🏳️⚧️
They got rid of Biden in a hurry because he’s old but the president finds a cognitive impairment screener very hard and this is fine apparently
Trump: AOC is low IQ. If you give her an IQ test, have her pass like the exams that I decided to take when I was at Walter Reed. Those are very hard…
The first couple of questions are easy. A tiger, an elephant, a giraffe..
The first couple of questions are easy. A tiger, an elephant, a giraffe..
October 27, 2025 at 4:27 PM
They got rid of Biden in a hurry because he’s old but the president finds a cognitive impairment screener very hard and this is fine apparently
Reposted by C. E. M. Henderson
i feel like im goin insane
Support for the Maine Senate candidate suggests that voters are so sick of what the establishment has to offer, they might look past a Nazi tattoo.
The Left Put Its Faith in Graham Platner. Will He Break Its Heart?
Support for the Maine Senate candidate suggests that voters are so sick of what the establishment has to offer, they might look past a Nazi tattoo.
interc.pt
October 25, 2025 at 3:16 PM
i feel like im goin insane
ok, I would play the shit out of “shooty game with inexplicable dream physics” but I recognize this is probably not what the tech dingdong had in mind
Oh my god some fucking tech dingdong posted this on Twitter with the caption "AI games are going to be amazing" totally seriously, you have to watch it. You have to. In full screen.
October 24, 2025 at 6:46 PM
ok, I would play the shit out of “shooty game with inexplicable dream physics” but I recognize this is probably not what the tech dingdong had in mind
Reposted by C. E. M. Henderson
“By 2035, data centers globally are projected to use about as much electricity as India…according to the International Energy Agency. A single data center can also use more than 500,000 gallons of water a day, nearly as much as an Olympic-size swimming pool.”
🎁:
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/20/t...
🎁:
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/20/t...
From Mexico to Ireland, Fury Mounts Over a Global A.I. Frenzy
www.nytimes.com
October 20, 2025 at 10:57 AM
“By 2035, data centers globally are projected to use about as much electricity as India…according to the International Energy Agency. A single data center can also use more than 500,000 gallons of water a day, nearly as much as an Olympic-size swimming pool.”
🎁:
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/20/t...
🎁:
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/20/t...
Reposted by C. E. M. Henderson
“In Ireland, data centers consume more than 20 percent of the country’s electricity. In Chile, precious aquifers are in danger of depletion. In South Africa, where blackouts have long been routine, data centers are further taxing the national grid.”
Gift link:
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/20/t...
Gift link:
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/20/t...
From Mexico to Ireland, Fury Mounts Over a Global A.I. Frenzy
www.nytimes.com
October 20, 2025 at 10:51 AM
“In Ireland, data centers consume more than 20 percent of the country’s electricity. In Chile, precious aquifers are in danger of depletion. In South Africa, where blackouts have long been routine, data centers are further taxing the national grid.”
Gift link:
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/20/t...
Gift link:
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/20/t...
Reposted by C. E. M. Henderson
You wonder who they mean,
but then you see. Their poison hemlock? That
is you. Their brown tree snake. Their killer bee.
-Amit Majmudar, 'Invasive Species'
#everynightapoem
We flower where we flower.
but then you see. Their poison hemlock? That
is you. Their brown tree snake. Their killer bee.
-Amit Majmudar, 'Invasive Species'
#everynightapoem
We flower where we flower.
October 19, 2025 at 10:43 PM
You wonder who they mean,
but then you see. Their poison hemlock? That
is you. Their brown tree snake. Their killer bee.
-Amit Majmudar, 'Invasive Species'
#everynightapoem
We flower where we flower.
but then you see. Their poison hemlock? That
is you. Their brown tree snake. Their killer bee.
-Amit Majmudar, 'Invasive Species'
#everynightapoem
We flower where we flower.
Reposted by C. E. M. Henderson
What are you good at? Got some skills? Are you a good talker? A gardener? A cook? A laborer? Got a closet full of coats that don’t fit your kids but might fit the kids whose mom just got deported? C’mon friends, there’s space for you in the movement. Join it. Pick up the tools for the time you got
October 16, 2025 at 2:23 AM
What are you good at? Got some skills? Are you a good talker? A gardener? A cook? A laborer? Got a closet full of coats that don’t fit your kids but might fit the kids whose mom just got deported? C’mon friends, there’s space for you in the movement. Join it. Pick up the tools for the time you got
Reposted by C. E. M. Henderson
It’s tiresome at this point, but again, their entire pitch is “wouldn’t it be great if there were no such things as talent, craft, and skill,” and what that means is a bland, slop-filled world. www.businessinsider.com/marc-andrees...
October 17, 2025 at 8:20 PM
It’s tiresome at this point, but again, their entire pitch is “wouldn’t it be great if there were no such things as talent, craft, and skill,” and what that means is a bland, slop-filled world. www.businessinsider.com/marc-andrees...