The NSF 2027 budget has noted that they will close out the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Science Program (SBE). This is not a good thing. nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/FY-202...

Oof, have not been posting here much. Alas. For context, I just sent my 100th email of the week. It's only Wednesday.

I was interviewed about AI & here’s what I said: I believe in the idea of a writer’s voice—a unique voice that’s particular to you, that only you can write with. & I really work hard to develop that with my students. AI will never have your voice—it cannot touch that voice.

⭐️👏✊Please add your name to the letter below and join PEN America — and the hundreds who have already signed — in sending a strong message in defense of academic freedom to the Texas A&M Board of Regents. pen.org/dont-censor-...

Happy 6th anniversary to us!! 🎉🎉 Thanks for spending time with us, old friends and new! As we celebrate this milestone, we've launched a short audience survey to get your thoughts on the show (and its future). We would be most grateful for your participation! Link: forms.gle/AnJSopuX8Cho...

STS folks, I'm organizing an open panel on CONTRAPTIONS for 4S this year, following up on a lovely panel at last year's AAA meetings. You should submit something if you got it! www.4sonline.org/accepted_ope...

📣📣📣 Applications for the 2026 Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute (DISI) are now open!! Are you interested in intelligence, mind, and cognition in all its forms? Early-career scholars from any discipline—and storytellers in any medium—are encouraged to apply! More info: disi.org

Congrats to @ncaaup.bsky.social & all who fought against this surveillance policy that would've allowed admin to hijack microphones in the classroom for secret recordings. This move would've chilled classroom discussion & suppressed students' willingness to ask questions & take intellectual risks.

Happy #AnosmiaAwarenessDay to those who don't smellebrate! www.nationaldaycalendar.com/national-day...

It never ceases to confound me just how many folks think the point of essays is to provide teachers with essays. That teachers just like, collect them, or need them for sustenance or something. Rather than the point of them being the *actual fucking act of learning how to think about shit*

“Cognitive psychology has shown that students grow intellectually through doing the work of drafting, revising, failing, trying again, grappling with confusion and revising weak arguments. This is the work of learning how to learn.” #AI #HigherEd #EduSky 1/2 theconversation.com/the-greatest...

I've long been unhappy at my answers to the question of whether we need cognitive/semiotic factors *at all*, to explain the history of numerical notations. My new @pnas.org paper on gradience is meant to clear the deck and respond 'if yes, this one is the most likely'. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Quick, now: which is bigger, 25234991 or 25234? Next: which is bigger, MMI or DCCCLXIV? Some numerical notations' conciseness indexes their magnitude well, some less so. But how does that matter cross-culturally for their adoption and retention? Check it out @pnas.org: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

BREAKING: The Department of Education has ended its directive that attempted to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in schools nationwide. This is a victory for academic freedom and education equity.

I just did the dumbest thing of my entire career to prove a much more serious point. I tricked ChatGPT and Google, and made them tell other users I’m a competitive hot-dog-eating world champion People are using this trick on a massive scale to make AI tell you lies. I’ll explain how I did it

Quick, now: which is bigger, 25234991 or 25234? Next: which is bigger, MMI or DCCCLXIV? Some numerical notations' conciseness indexes their magnitude well, some less so. But how does that matter cross-culturally for their adoption and retention? Check it out @pnas.org: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

"Almost paradoxically, Sequoyah’s numerals could not succeed because they had not yet succeeded, and came into existence in a social context where a prestigious, common notation had been adopted almost universally."

OK, it finally happened! My new article, "Gradience as a cognitive principle for evaluating numerical notations", is now out today in @pnas.org. By focusing on numerals' use for communication instead of arithmetic, we have a new tool to assess their efficiency. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Speaking as a longtime DGS who has sent out hundreds of grad school acceptances over the years, and thus at least as many rejections, sending those good letters is the best part of this role, and sending the rejections sucks but is 100% necessary. And it's trite, but usually, it isn't about you.

Just sent out all the acceptance emails to our new MA and PhD cohort. I'm probably more anxious than they are. Mainly that I didn't screw it up and send someone the wrong message.

I continue to think that sociohistorical factors matter more than cognitive ones for the evolution of numerical notations. But if there is a key cognitive factor, gradience is the most plausible one, because it relies on capacities that underpin numerical cognition generally.

OK, it finally happened! My new article, "Gradience as a cognitive principle for evaluating numerical notations", is now out today in @pnas.org. By focusing on numerals' use for communication instead of arithmetic, we have a new tool to assess their efficiency. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Very cool new article by @urvi.bsky.social, Jessica Sullivan and @drbarner.bsky.social comparing English and Hindi speaking kids' ideas about infinity, showing a subtly more complicated view of how numerical morphological opacity relates to infinity beliefs. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Wayne State beat Grand Valley State, 78-77, for the first win over a No. 1-ranked team in program history. It also snapped WSU's 25-game losing streak to rival GVSU.

Worth reading, expands on previously known extent of their relationship. Also a tough read - take it on only when ready.

#LetUsTeach #LetStudentsLearn

I definitely need to know about "the moon’s apparent disinterest in our activities". That and recursive acronyms, but at least I know what that paper is about.

A good call with Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark today. Greenland’s future is for Greenland and Denmark alone to decide. We reaffirmed our commitment to sovereignty and territorial integrity and discussed our ongoing work to strengthen Arctic security.

The video from this seminar is now online here: youtu.be/vJfhL_5-w-U?...

GELATINOUS CUBE AT A JOB INTERVIEWE "A keye feature of my managemente style ys a commitment to transparencye"

We're hiring a pre-faculty fellow (3-year postdoc with a clear path to TT) in sociolinguistics at Wayne State, focus on African American, African diaspora, or African linguistics. Tenure home in English but mainly part of our interdisciplinary Linguistics program. linguistlist.org/issues/37/382/

Another typical higher ed planification document, unsurprisingly based largely on vibes as opposed to data. The kind of stuff to feed the white hot rage of anyone busting their ass to sustain a social science unit in the age of AI and focused disinvestment in the arts, humanities & social sciences.

We're hiring a pre-faculty fellow (3-year postdoc with a clear path to TT) in sociolinguistics at Wayne State, focus on African American, African diaspora, or African linguistics. Tenure home in English but mainly part of our interdisciplinary Linguistics program. linguistlist.org/issues/37/382/

Bad news: The HVAC system in our department's hallway is making a noise around 60 dB, a consistent hum. Good (?) news: At least the hum is pitched right to a middle C.

Join the Finnish Cultural Center and the Wayne State University Humanities Center for a full reading of the Finnish national epic Kalevala on February 28th from 8am-midnight. Register in forms.wayne.edu/6978db31ceaff #kalevala #finland #folklore

Just had a startling moment when I thought I got an email whose subject line was 'People know you are on Substack' and I was like "No, I'm not" and then "How do they know?" Turns out the subject line actually read 'People you know are on Substack', which is very different indeed.

“Very, very senior” officials in the Trump administration have had secret meetings with far-right Canadian separatists trying to shake the foundations of the country.

GWU pausing admissions this year to both anthro PhD programs (anthro itself, and human paleobiology). Only the latest to do so (inexcusably late in the cycle), citing budget and declining international applications.

GWU pausing admissions this year to both anthro PhD programs (anthro itself, and human paleobiology). Only the latest to do so (inexcusably late in the cycle), citing budget and declining international applications.

It has only taken me thirty years of studying numerals to realize that while I usually say 'nonround' numbers, I sometimes say 'unround' numbers, and now neither of them seems right to me.

Many of you have written in to ask about this, so I’m finally addressing the rumours… Yes, my sister Jenny Lewis was the casting director for Heated Rivalry, and I am so proud of her. Thanks to @theserfstv.bsky.social for asking the hard-hitting questions the mainstream media is too afraid to ask!

You'd think that with all the fancy AI and whatnot, Word's grammar checker would learn how to deal with initialisms where each letter is pronounced. Although apparently it does know "an SOS" instead of "a SOS", "an ROTC instructor" is flagged. Perhaps it needs to be trained separately on each one?

I just thought everyone should see this

Article o'the day: "The Legend of Ea-Naṣir": How a Babylonian Businessman Became an Internet Meme, in the Journal of Contemporary Archaeology discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10...

Carney's speech is brilliant. Here is a transcript. I suspect we will be feeling some serious pain in Canada shortly from the reaction open.substack.com/pub/paulwell...

These days, how do people regard the Boren Scholarship program for linguistic study by students? Worth it? Problematic? How is the 'critical to US security interests' even interpretable in 2026? #linguistics

These days, how do people regard the Boren Scholarship program for linguistic study by students? Worth it? Problematic? How is the 'critical to US security interests' even interpretable in 2026? #linguistics

I'm not saying I'm starting a numismatic collection, nor that two constitutes a 'collection', but if I were starting a collection, it would be of chronograms, of course. I blame my dad (RIP), who left me a bunch of old coins that came to him from my grandma and that I now have to / get to sell off.

Did I just pay $1000 for three tickets to see @alyankovic.bsky.social in July here in Windsor? Maaaaybe. Don't judge me. The man is an international treasure.