So happy Christmas I love you, baby I can see a better time When all our dreams come true

HUGE thank-you to everyone who's donated so far, bringing me closer to having zero dental debt. Even if I don't meet my goal, it'll be easier to pay off this debt in 2026, thanks to your contributions. Every bit definitely helps! 🦷❤️‍🩹 gofund.me/99fe23038 #DentalCare #Healthcare #MutualAid #GoFundMe

concentration camps.

Even with broad public support, no major museum has taken up the genocide in Gaza. No large institution I know of has put on an exhibition about Palestinian artists or Palestinian lives. www.equator.org/articles/how...

Merry Christmas gazafoodproject.com

Yes. That’s why I say “don’t stop commenting” on SCOTUS decisions and practices. It matters.

D'Angelo. Brian Wilson. Sly Stone. We lost these greats and so many more in 2025 — singers, producers, conductors and writers whose departures gave us a pang of loss, but whose art still lifts us up. n.pr/3YIJurW

In case people tell you that public criticism of the court doesn’t matter, here’s Brett Kavanaugh trying to walk back what he said in the ICE roving patrol case - when he blessed racial profiling & called the stops prompt. He was lambasted; @akalhan.bsky.social coined the term “Kavanaugh stops”

One of my favorite end of the year songs! 🎶 macmccaughan.bandcamp.com/track/happy-...

Neat statue outside the entrance to the Connecticut Forensic Science Laboratory.

If you’re like me, maybe you need three velvety dark hours of Gothmas music, thanks to KEXP’s @djjohnrichards.bsky.social & @radioowen.bsky.social on the longest night of the year. 🌙 www.kexp.org/djs/john-ric...

A big part of being a historian is being a detective! Who did this? Why? Where? Why does it matter in the grand scheme of things? You have to learn how to probe, how to uncover, how to read against the grain, how to find unusual sources, how to interpret those sources. How to piece together a puzzle

A hygiene center, for 700 people "the only place to take a shower, wash clothes, fix a bike, get a sweater, blanket, or hot meal…while enjoying a little bit of community", was closing so the land could be sold. Rick Steve's bought it and gave it to the nonprofit that runs it, RENT FREE. #GoodNews

Northern lights, Denali National Park, Alaska Photo courtesy of Kent Miller

Lights out for autonomous vehicles

It’s the shortest day in the northern hemisphere. May your winter solstice bring you a chance to reflect on cycles of change and how we can gather and celebrate the light we have and that it will return. ✨

"We envision a resistance that is...a repudiation of the efficiencies that automated algorithmic education falsely promises: a resistance comprising the collective force of small acts of friction." "How to Resist AI in Education" by me & @cnygren.bsky.social www.publicbooks.org/four-frictio...

This is fun. neal.fun/size-of-life/

A break from Christmas content to enjoy this capybara eating a banana. From François Froger's 'A relation of a voyage ...' (London, 1698).

NEW: Without USAID funding to help buy food for refugees, the World Food Program rushed to prioritize families based on need, determining that only half the population would get food. Refugees learned which half they were in from a number stamped on the back of their ration card.

Not all #earlymodern prints are publications. These are unused key labels intended for 1 of the 11 locks guarding Antwerp’s 14th-century privilege chest preserving charters for centuries. The Officina Plantiniana probably had to produce these ephemeral prints as the city’s official printer.

the good that you do persists in this world

Extraordinary courage from Ahmed al Ahmed, a Muslim, 43-year-old father of two, who bravely risked his life to save his neighbors celebrating Hanukkah. Praying for his full & speedy recovery. And so deeply inspired by his example.

Out of the dark, light! Japanese American National Museum awarded 20 million by Mackenzie Scott in recognition of its refusal to stay silent as Trump undermines democracy. Learn more about JANM & like-minded museums in my article "No Going Back" @historyworkshop.org.uk share.google/ngZzopbneqlX...

"Textile Word Search No. 1" hotbrownpress.etsy.com/listing/4424... Word list: weave, warp, weft, shed, hand, hank, dye, & yarn. I'm also working on #letterpress posters for Knitting, Crotchet, Quilting, & Sewing And to the #bookhistory nerds out there, this is absolutely a McKenzie homage!

Sending love and solidarity to all my Jewish friends — I’m so sorry that a time of joy has become a time of grief and fear

Not at all to say that academia doesn't have plenty of elitism and ivory tower bullshit to deal with, but a good question to ponder is who does it serve for research to be corrupted and undermined, for faith in science and expertise to be weakened? Hint: not the public. www.aaup.org/NR/rdonlyres...

The original definition of academic freedom came from the American Association of University Professors--the union for professors--in response to suppression against professors for being "too left" & it focused a LOT on universities not being beholden to corporate funders or wealthy benefactors...🧵

One thing Americans have to break themselves out of is assuming certain policies are impossible, because all this is a policy choice and a sizable chunk of the world isn’t worried about their schools be shot up.

We’re having our first snow of the season! The world quiets and brightens. The brightness from snow’s albedo is luminous, almost glowing. The tiny flakes swirl, mesmerizing as they alight on surfaces. The fresh snow highlights each tree branch, offering a clearer view of their unique forms.

Brown University says there's an active shooter on campus. Emergency scanner says multiple victims, but unclear how many. Video footage viewed by the Brown Daily Herald "depicted several individuals lying on the ground near the Sciences Library appearing to be assisted by police."

Next year, I’m doing the Terry Lectureship at Yale in March/April. It’s a century-old series that’s hosted some truly heavyweight thinkers. Wild to be stepping onto that stage 😅 philosophy.yale.edu/events/2026-...

Jane Fonda is such an icon — because she wields her power to make change and doesn’t let the haters stop her. Her archival papers are at @smithcollege.bsky.social so we can learn more about her efforts over time. findingaids.smith.edu/repositories...

Jane Fonda was a poster before posting existed. What a queen.

Elizabeth Call named head of Eberly Family Special Collections Library 📜 www.psu.edu/news/univers...

A simple ask: click “weekly” a coffee or whatever spare change that you find disappearing every once in a while. And today we'll MATCH (!!!) up to £450 / $600. Across the two hundred people who've pledged around this, it's shelter, surgeries, food for six families. chuffed.org/project/hope...

Composer Paul Winter co-wrote a song with his neighbor, a wood thrush. paulwinter.bandcamp.com/track/the-we...

I’m struck by the kind of crepe-crinkle fabric quality to these circles of ice layered atop a marble surface.

What looks like an alien starship visiting a small country estate in eighteenth-century Germany is in fact, *checks notes* a giant pomelo. So nothing to see here, #skystorians

We are having the wrong debate, says Zack Cooper of @yalesph.bsky.social We need to talk about not *just* subsidies, but more importantly WHY & HOW American healthcare is so expensive. And he has a list of things we could do today … Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/10/o...

Marco Rubio, a serif and a sheriff.

For scholars interested in illustration and writing for children, we’re offering a research fellowship — $4,000 to support research, and a very easy application. Please apply! Please repost! library.uconn.edu/location/asc...

Calling all #kidlit authors and illustrators! We’re awarding a $4,000 fellowship for you to come and spend time with incredible archives to inspire your next work. Richard Scarry, Esphyr Slobodkina, James Marshall… our holdings are outstanding. Apply! Repost! library.uconn.edu/location/asc...

Do you do archival research? Do you know anyone who does? Our travel grant is a very easy application and we give $1,500 to come do research onsite in Storrs, CT. Apply! Repost! library.uconn.edu/location/asc...

For anyone who uses archival methods, we’ve offering a $4,000 fellowship to use any of our holdings on site in Storrs, CT. Easy application! Please apply! Please repost! library.uconn.edu/location/asc...

AI Is Not Inevitable join AAUP for a conversation with educators, educator unions, and the Collaborative Research Center for Resilience zoom.us/webinar/regi...

If the bus is going to be late on a frigid morning, at least I got to watch a hairy woodpecker explore the sunlit wooden joy of a utility pole.

If Samuel Alito asked me during oral argument, “what am I missing?,” I’d have a very specific answer.

“AI models not only point some users to false sources but also cause problems for researchers and librarians, who end up wasting their time looking for requested nonexistent records…”