New "Briefly Noted" post: AI and disciplinary hierarchies; Mapping New England; Rethinking academic range; Ottoman archives unlocked; and more.

The "useless" has become essential, and the "practical" has become automated. Maybe we should be more cautious about defunding fields just because we can't immediately see their application. buff.ly/J8GxgOv #HigherEd #AI

I'm on sabbatical and supposed to be writing. But the thing I'm supposed to be writing isn't this. New at Found History: foundhistory.org/contingency-... #NewEngland #Maps #Archives #History #America250

Trusting AI; Regional measles strategy; Moltbook’s agent ecologies; Why Socrates was right about AI; Knowledge-based literacy; and more.

if you are wearing a mask, whether you are a federal agent or occupying a college quad, ordinary people are going to think you’re up to no good. We learned as toddlers that bad guys wear masks.

The U.S. may lose its measles elimination status. But the surge isn't national. It's concentrated in a few states. The Southwest's rate is 15x the Northeast's. Why this matters and why regional institutions should step up: foundhistory.org/the-measles-... #Measles #PublicHealth #NewEngland

What does it mean to trust Gemini with document transcription? How is trusting an AI different than trusting a human? My thoughts and a conversation with Claude. #AI #Archives #DigitalHumanities #Transcription #Trust #Philosophy buff.ly/DIrWrWD

Found History (Briefly Noted) is out! 🏛️ The medieval roots of the university 💰 Billionaires don't really believe in UBI 🔬 The myth of scientific "discovery" 📉 EnshittificationU 🪟 Lüften's OK but A/C isn't? Read and subscribe: open.substack.com/pub/foundhis... #HigherEd #AI #UBI #histsci #luften

Universities are medieval institutions—slow by design, optimized for consensus, built to last. We may never satisfy modern demands for efficiency, but we may outlive them. #highered #academia #history buff.ly/DUb1FY5

New Found History (Briefly Noted) post: Tech transfer's failings; Crypto kleptocracy; Springsteen's poetry; and more. #AI #TechTransfer #Poetry #Crypto #Politics #HigherEd buff.ly/bzUyVDU

Check out @ncph.bsky.social's webinar series on the WWII Homefront, starting at the end of the month and including my brilliant colleague, @cjceglio.bsky.social! community.ncph.org/events/Event...

Gmail UI gripe: Why does the star appear on the left (in yellow) in the web app but on the right (in blue) in the mobile app? This is bad design.

Archivists/librarians please share the coolest thing in your collections that will never be digitized.

Read this.... And then look at the date. The more things change.... buff.ly/Boh0a5o

Brought this little Chestnut home yesterday.

The best response to AI is critical engagement, not protest and rejection. Nothing will work, but everything might. #AI #HigherEd #Academia #CulturalHeritage #Education #DigitalHumanities

Why can’t economists get it? The reason people are worried about affordability even though technically inflation is low is because the things that are cheap (TVs, toys, etc.) don’t matter and the things that are expensive (prescriptions, elder care, education) do. open.substack.com/pub/noahpini...

Student accommodations; HBO and Netflix; Historicizing AI; UNESCO recognizes Italian cuisine; Fighting online vice is political winner; and more. buff.ly/NzeQjt6

I'm frustrated with the coverage of Netflix-HBO merger debate, which tends to define "choice" entirely in terms of how the merger will affect creativity. But Hollywood's choice isn't the same as consumer choice. My thoughts at: buff.ly/JwB7mUK #HBO #Netflix #Media #Choice

A lot has been written this week about student accommodations—most of it by people who haven’t been in college for 20 years. I have my problems with accommodations, but you can’t critique one piece without seeing the whole system. foundhistory.org/the-forest-a...

Wrote a short piece arguing that higher ed must help steer AI. TLDR: If we outsource this to tech, we outsource our whole business. But rejectionism is basically stalling. If we want to survive, schools themselves must proactively shape AI for education & research. [1/6, unpaywalled at 5/6] +

Getting lots of push back on here about my latest posts about Gemini 3 and handwriting recognition. Some is totally fair, for example, questions about labor, the relative worth of the technology for close vs. distant reading, etc.

Briefly Noted for December 10, 2025: AI manuscript transcription; online gambling as a wedge issue; the future of craft beer; blogging and social media; a solution for college football; and more. open.substack.com/pub/foundhis...

Too many people formed their opinions about AI when ChatGPT came out three years ago and haven’t updated them, even though pretty much everything has changed. open.substack.com/pub/theargum...

I predicted it! foundhistory.org/a-solution-f... sports.yahoo.com/college-foot...

Gemini’s ability to read handwritten archival documents has importance beyond the humanities. It opens new frontiers for scientific research and collaboration with the humanities. foundhistory.org/seeing-old-s... #ClimateScience #DataScience #Agriculture #Archives #Research #LandGrant #AI

As someone who grew up in Worcester, MA and lives in Connecticut, it bugs me when people say CT isn’t New England. The only food service in New Haven Union Station is TWO Dunkin’s. Tell me that’s not New England.

Like it or not, a new world for archives and historical scholarship is here. New at Found History: foundhistory.org/handwriting-... #AI #Archives #History #DigitalHumanities #Gemini #Transcription

First issue of "Found History (Briefly Noted)" on the iPhone in an UI-less world; the folly of RETVRN; the role of the grant proposal; creativity and AI; and more is out! Read my the post and subscribe to the newsletter!

A well-considered rejection of AI tools that’s based in rigorous experimentation and historiographical discourse and debate is something I could get behind. But that’s different from head shaking, fingers-in-ears refusal to experiment and engage. That’s just Wikipedia ca. 2006 all over again.

I'm launching a new weekly newsletter: Found History (Briefly Noted). My long-form essays remain on the main site (foundhistory.org), but the "stream of discovery"—links, social highlights, and reading lists—is moving to Substack. Get the weekly roundup here: foundhistory.substack.com

“So, yeah, peer review deez nutz.” www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/hi-...

still waiting for intelligent longform cultural criticism with psychomarxist explanation of the "everything is butthole" logorrhea in the AI space

Apple's focus on perfection is at odds with the messiness of generative AI. My latest newsletter foundhistory.org/does-the-iph... #Apple #AI #iPhone #Innovation #History #Technology

I was surprised and complaining yesterday about the price of Christmas lights. $600 for a fake tree? Turns out these are some of the things hit hardest by the tariffs, according to my corporate international trade attorney spouse. #WarOnXMAS

Impressive experiments in AI-assisted paleography from @dancohen.org (Gemini is gaining really, really good at manuscript transcription.) newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/the-...

I’m reading Dan Wang’s “Breakneck,” which says China is run by engineers and America by lawyers. But look at who actually built American tech and finance. We are not a nation of lawyers OR engineers. We are a nation of the Liberal Arts. buff.ly/QVbLr9m

Right now, a late-November game between two 2-8 teams is meaningless. In my vision, it’s a fight for survival. Let’s adopt the English soccer pyramid for college football. Premier Division. Second Division. Promotion and Relegation. Every game matters. foundhistory.org/how-to-pick-...

Meet the new newsletter. Same as the old blog. After 20 years of blogging, Found History is now a newsletter. Free, open access, and based on an open source platform as always. Please subscribe! foundhistory.org

Universities treat commercially viable research as business—patenting, licensing, and spinning off. It’s time to treat big-time college sports the same way. It's time to treat the football team as "tech transfer." foundhistory.org/a-solution-f...

Have you ever wanted to talk to an archive? This week I prototyped an AI “reference interview assistant” and scanning request workflow for institutions that use ArchivesSpace. Read more in the latest Found History newsletter, and if you would like a demo, please DM foundhistory.org/making-an-ai...

If you’re at #DLFForum #DLF2025 stop by the Digital Scholar table to see what’s new with Zotero, Omeka, Sourcery, Tropy, PressForward and more!

I'm at @clirnews.bsky.social DLF Forum today grappling with the AI paradox: we hate Big AI's extractive practices but people are using these tools anyway. @anildash.com's piece on Mozilla offers a way forward: Don't just protest, build better alternatives. foundhistory.org/learning-fro...

After 20 years of blogging, the new Found History is live and reimagined as a newsletter! Please subscribe at foundhistory.org #dh #digitalhumanities #newsletter #blog #history #technology #design

Friends in central Connecticut: Let's reopen the Waterbury to NYC Metro North line! c.org/nchV98Xps4

I’ve been writing about and experimenting with generative AI systems a lot lately. AI figures much less prominently in my teaching, but as we approach the end of the semester in my History of Digital Culture class, it just so happens that AI is on the syllabus for today.

A suitcase-sized hydroelectric generator that can power 12 homes from a small stream without a dam. Why aren’t these everywhere? engineerine.com/germanys-por...

In one specific way, Grok might be the most honest and transparent AI project out there nymag.com/intelligence...

My AcadiMeet series wraps up with a final lesson: Building this app wasn't just about learning about AI. It was about recovering my identity as a builder. If you've put off a project because of fear of the first line of code, this post is for you. foundhistory.org/2025/11/ai-c...

The Kids Are Alright: My colleague, John Murphy, explores the budding realization among Gen Z that maybe their phones aren’t helping. buff.ly/3vrrLcE