I once called generative AI a really good autocomplete and I think that’s still true and about the whole of it.

A few days ago, I wrote up some thoughts on generative AI and the work of historians: “At best, we’re talking about software that’s very good at making sentences seem sentence-shaped.”

Merry Christmas.

As I do every year, I’m heading off social media during Advent. Be good to each other ✌🏻

December 2025 in the Greenhouse! We are winding down for the year with some exciting #envhist #envhum events.

In honor of the holiday, I am reposting my op-ed on the history of Thanksgiving from the LA Times. (Spoiler: it ends badly for the Wampanoags.) www.latimes.com/archives/la-...

Family cookbooks, filled with handwritten notes, sometimes held together with rubber bands, tell the story of generations of homemakers. They are irreplaceable treasures. 🦃 Celebrate the cultural & family histories on their worn & stained pages ➡️ blog.archive.org/2024/09/30/v... #Thanksgiving

Handing back student work that’s been written by ChatGPT with a 0 followed by the comment “This essay will never stand in authentic wonder before the Beauty of God’s creation.”

The November 2025 issue of Environmental Humanities is out now! Check it out for all the lastest #envhum scholarship read.dukeupress.edu/environmenta... Cover image: A Marshall Islands navigation chart collected by Thomas William Smillie in 1899. Smithsonian Institution Archives.

A jazz band hears Nirvana’s Heart Shaped Box for the first time, then covers it.

Good morning.

A jazz band hears Nirvana’s Heart Shaped Box for the first time, then covers it.

I mentioned recently how much the current AI infrastructure push reminds me of Silicon Valley in its heyday of tech manufacturing, and every day there’s another example of how it’s remarkably similar.

do you have any idea how much you have to piss somebody off to make them change their gauge

I don’t see the problem here.

This phrase, "too many books," is confusing. Like, I know what each of the words mean, but when you put them together like that it's just nonsense, like the colorless green ideas thing.

How about them Huskers?

Journalist challenge: Use “Machine Learning” when you mean machine learning and “LLM” when you mean LLM. Ditch “AI” as a catch-all term, it’s not useful for readers and it helps companies trying to confuse the public by obscuring the roles played by different technologies. 🧪

Our ladies are still producing around ten eggs a day right now.

Good morning.

Seems as though that's enough internet for the day.

A cribbage board made from walrus ivory by an Inuit artist around c.1900.

A rainy, dreary day calls for soup. Trying my hand at making pozole verde tonight.

Every year I get submissions for the @contingent-mag.bsky.social book and journal article lists that don’t really fit. But now, you can send your amazing 2025 public scholarship here!

Western historians: consider this CFP for the digital history lightning round at the 2026 WHA conference in Portland! Great format for discussing work in progress with a supportive audience. Happy to answer any questions. Respond by Wed., Dec. 3. #AmWest 🗃️

Western historians: consider this CFP for the digital history lightning round at the 2026 WHA conference in Portland! Great format for discussing work in progress with a supportive audience. Happy to answer any questions. Respond by Wed., Dec. 3. #AmWest 🗃️

How awful. This is outright health disinformation, lying to the American people. Not only is there massive evidence showing no link between vaccines & autism, there’s not even a plausible mechanism based on what we’ve learned about the genetics of autism, some environmental exposures in pregnancy

Finished reading: Harvesting Labour by Edward Dunsworth 📚

Bellingcat’s contact email has always been a magnet for people with fairly unusual views; paranoid delusions, sprawling conspiracies, the works. But recently, the pattern has shifted, we’re seeing more and more emails clearly written with ChatGPT.

It’s that time of year friends! Thanks to @erinbartram.bsky.social and our friends at @contingent-mag.bsky.social, Laura and I are putting together a list of 2025 articles & books by contingent & indie lit critters. DM, reply, email me @ suny press. And spread the word!!

Nice fall morning.

A female wolf has been doing something unusual on the Central Coast of British Columbia. She's learned to pull crab traps up from the water, yanking on a rope to bring it to the surface. But is it tool use? Very fun story from @phiejacobs.bsky.social for @science.org

Hey historians 🗃️: Do you know of presses that publish short books (around 30K words / 90 pages plus notes)? I have been working on an article project that could easily turn into an great micro-history of that length, but I'm not sure it would make it to the usual full 60-90K words...

This digital image of Charles Blaskowitz's early 1777 map of New York Island doesn't do it justice -- it is taller than I am -- but it is a unique perspective on the British invasion. It narrates the British campaign. Zoom in for delicious details. #HATM www.argomaps.org/maps/commonw...

Today is publication day for my book, Mixed-Blood Histories: Race, Law, and Dakota Indians in the Nineteenth-Century Midwest, through the University of Minnesota Press! www.upress.umn.edu/978151792034...

Just in case you'd rather listen to the American Revolution then scramble to find the login for your PBS app, may I offer you something that will leave your Worlds Turned Upside Down? Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w... Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5OfU87p... Website: www.r2studios.org

Speaking of revolutionary era maps, see many of them for yourself at argomaps.org #HATM

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting agreed Monday to fulfill a $35.9 million, multi-year contract with NPR that it had yanked after pressure from the Trump White House.

It dawned on me today, as I dawned a mask and disinfectant, that cleaning up mouse droppings from our garage and workshop are likely just a facet of my Novembers from now on. That, and I need more mousers.

Ireland winning goal and end of match with Irish commentary

“The nation’s largest public funder of the humanities appears to be transforming into a vehicle narrowly tailored to the president’s agenda. “ www.nytimes.com/2025/11/15/a...

Today’s find in our treeline: a discarded oil filter.

Colter Wall’s new album is out today and it’s terrific. If Waylon and Willie style country is your jam, this album has it.

This man, Rev. Michael Woolf, wrote this for us earlier this month: "It is up to us to keep our communities safe from this terror, and scripture tells us that God will meet us there—at the picket line, amid the tear gas." sojo.net/articles/opi...

May not look it, but I’ve been working on de-greasing and scraping grime from my Farmall off and on all week. Took the day today to do another cleaning, and got the Lift-All hydraulic system re-installed. Tedious work but it’s essential when it comes time to paint.

NEW: We’ve uncovered the first known example of taxpayer money flowing from DHS to businesses controlled by Kristi Noem’s allies and friends. It’s part of a money trail that’s been shrouded in secrecy—and involves $220 million, a mysterious Delaware LLC & a horse named Gill.

Colter Wall’s new album is out today and it’s terrific. If Waylon and Willie style country is your jam, this album has it.

Conducting a very unscientific study via bluesky--please help me out! What motivates you to subscribe/donate/join/pay for an online publication (website or newsletter, doesn't matter). Desire to support? Fun giveaways? Paywalled content? Something else?

We want you to study with us! Our masters program in Public Environmental Humanities starts Fall 2026. This is a very special program that brings together research with taking research into public sphere. Next online info session: Thurs 21 Nov 14.00 CET www.uis.no/en/studies/t... #envhum