Venus Bivar
Historian of capitalism, pollution, Marseille, farming, land use, plastics, climate, and economic growth; misanthrope; hockey player; expert baker; amateur gardener; St Anne's College at Oxford 🇨🇦
- On a related note I am marking hand-written exams right now and while I know these were not written by AI, it's not clear to me that they were written by humans either. Dogs is my best guess, judging from this penmanship. 'The dog wrote my homework'.
- Honestly gobsmacked by how many people I know who have used ChatGPT for a laugh - or for legitimate academic work. When I point out the environmental harm caused by their messing around they just sort of laugh it off. Am I total killjoy? Because holy cow we cannot be messing around with this shit.
- Beginning to see that gardening is a tough hobby for someone with a full-time job. It is a hobby with life-or-death deadlines and so I attack aphid infestations, manage powdery mildew, and get the seedlings in on time - while the pile of marking on my desk judges me. For the bloom scrollers!
- Lovely walk in the Yorkshire Wolds today.
- Reposted by Venus Bivar[Not loaded yet]
- Just in case anyone was worried about PVC pollution, this company booklet I'm reading from 1995 is here to reassure us that PVC is the only plastic that is made primarily from naturally occurring minerals (salt). What a relief!
- Reposted by Venus BivarJoin us next Thursday at 12pm for a roundtable on geotrauma, emergency histories, and sacrifice zones with Ling Zhang, @jwwsabapathy.bsky.social, and Amanda Power.
- Not sure I should admit this in public, as a French historian, but I just learned that the Normans were originally Vikings (Norman = Northman) and my mind is BLOWN.
- Turns out that baking a cake for your main squeeze while listening to Janet Jackson is the key to having a very good day.
- Gardeners: I planted this honeysuckle last year. It developed grey fungal spots, turned yellow, etc. I pruned like crazy but no luck. Cut it back hard in winter. This spring it looked great. But last week the spots came back EVERYWHERE. Do I give up and replace it or let it grow with the leaf spot?
- Chased out of my train seat by a foursome of beer-drinking men. Toxic masculinity is alive and well.
- Gutted that the NDP has lost official party status. Delighted that Poilievre has lost his seat. Relieved that the Liberals have won.
- Alright Canada. Let’s do this!
- Today's rabbit hole: the last universal common ancestor. Only learned about this critter last week and now it's all I can think about.
- Just discovered Olivier Hamant, who argues that we must prioritise robustness over efficiency. Will be reading this soon. For those who know French, I found him through @athanassiadis.bsky.social's Circular metabolism podcast: shows.acast.com/circularmeta... www.routledge.com/The-Benefits...
- This is the only movie I've seen more than 6 times and it's so unpopular, there are no GIFs for it. What can I say?
- Brain fog has to be the worst medication side effect for an academic. Today is a work-on-my-book day and here I am, trying to figure out if I trust myself to have DEEP THOUGHTS.
