Amazon is crawling with travel guides written by AI -- vague, crappy, and pushed up in search results by astroturfed fake five-star reviews: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/05/travel/amazon-guidebooks-artificial-intelligence.html?unlocked_article_code=Gmcb6fkRXSAX7JUdbTpFyhH1lSBWBcI0RuiXgcku3gVTdQV7s_SPvl1tKw76F_txTehAmHdU0bZ3PUoPyH0h-dybeb8_bGL7UzysZynt-SFcx9yByC4wr37_65cVodjr_Z-sRcqUfioeOsUAKJpEECejhG2SlL4jPCoaBG8PFnu_YLKDXA0hkzvhrJnGuD5kw59N8Bz7T7D7UOeJXLkowJnnoB6IDt6bHn6XiBvlH--t6M_9xmGCkNlYdtiiScdbS3ebGG5C3xKkCxwacaT96yLi9NK5dx9YHwhHSPdoVJPqslvVGAwQFvpSQvDvgHZGOFxW09EeUVAHYZl6uI-aSYS0_UfYhcXjDi6J2-M1oFlpWg&smid=url-share

That's a "gift" link so you don't need to be a New York Times subscriber to read it

It's a great investigation, and highlights the real problem, which is ...

... unsurprisingly by now, Amazon seemingly does little-to-nothing to stop this

The site is just soiled top to bottom with fake crap in every category

Update: another one of the batshits is "bathroom" #parenting

“If you flee to Sweden to escape violence, or are on a temporary visit, you must not cause violence here. The police’s resources are needed for other purposes than keeping different groups apart from each other.”"

Casual racism much?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/03/dozens-injured-after-protesters-storm-eritrean-festival-in-stockholm

@clive this probably has huge implications for travel ethics too. No idea how it would handle travelling through Indigenous territories or minimising environmental harm, but I can't imagine it'd be good.

@njwatt so many things she says sound like "batshit" 😂 one of them is "dad sit" and we've just learned another one is "person"

I think my partner might have just sent one of my favourite no-context #parenting messages of all time

@timnitGebru there isn't much that's casual about Sweden's racism tbh.

@mortenfrisch @elystromberg @zettermark @elisabethlindberg @bjornekstrom @framoriniii @olof_falk @vikstromaxel @annaardin @rebeckag @Ch_Hogberg @sachbon @arvandmirsafian @elmerot @Karin @karolina @Hanmar @KirstiJylhae @cyborgChris @jcschwieter @amanda @edu @Cclkahn @Csjoling @mmmm_astrom tack! Great list.

More researchers in Sweden: @svmiller @erikmelander @emmaelfversson

18 countries in the world currently legally recognise a third sex or gender. Among these countries, the most commonly used third gender marker on paperwork such as passports or birth certificates is X.

At least now we know the correct term for leaving the hellsite formerly know as Twitter: 𝕏-it

As in, the great 𝕏-it is under way.

I made a tiny wardrobe with a Kallax unit from IKEA and I'm kind of obsessed. It has a mirror on the side and my toddler keeps going up and licking it so I must have done okay. #parenting

@andrew I literally laughed out loud I'm so sorry

"Two things can always be true: You can be a world leader when it comes to certain issues and still have a lot of work to do in your own backyard."

Great commentary on avoidance of confronting racism in Sweden by Lola Akinmade Åkerström: https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/31/opinions/lola-akinmade-kerstrm-sweden-lgs-intl/index.html

So much truth telling is rejecting the narrative that black and Indigenous people's historical cultures were not technologically advanced.

It turns out the iron production methods that turned the UK into a superpower were appropriated from enslaved Jamaican people.

Reminds me of Bruce Pascoe's Dark Emu that describes engineering in Aboriginal societies that was erased by white settlers.

#decolonise #decolonisation #truthtelling #indigenous #blackhistory @histodons https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/jul/05/industrial-revolution-iron-method-taken-from-jamaica-briton?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

BREAD/International Growth Centre online PhD course on environment and development Designed for PhD students, but all are welcome. Sep 14 to Nov 9, 2023. Registration free.

Lectures by Michael Greenstone, Esther Duflo, John van Reenen, Nick Ryan, Ben Olken, Reed Walker, Clare Balboni, among others.

https://www.theigc.org/events/bread-igc-virtual-phd-course-environmental-economics

Together with good colleagues, we have a new paper out in the journal Climatic Change about how #CitizensAssemblies can help mobilize people around climate politics. In short, we argue that more focus is needed on the links between assemblies and civil society.

It's open access and available here for those interested:
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-023-03550-z

@politicalscience @sociology

@djnavarro this is STUNNING.

These two visual sensemaking graphics from the EU Parliament conference #BeyondGrowth2023 panel that I spoke at are awesome! The second bubble in the second graphic captures some of the points I had made quiet nicely.

The video of the talk here: https://www.beyond-growth-2023.eu/lecture/plenary-4/

#ClimateJustice #ClimateColoniality #PlanetaryBoundaries #BeyondGrowth #degrowth

Hi, I think we need even better ways to help new users.

Thousands are signing up every day, but many leave soon after because of confusion.

My idea is that we get behind a hashtag and make it a kind of decentralised helpdesk for new people. This is already happening and I want to add energy to this.

Which hashtag would be best to unite around?

Anyone out here use #GIS in international relations, #politicalscience and related #socialscience fields? @politicalscience @internationalrelations @migrationresearch @geopolitics