“This article urges a fresh view on [AI large language model] hallucinations by arguing that, rather than being errors in any conventional sense, they are evidence of a probabilistic system incapable of dealing with questions of knowledge.”

If you follow me I'd love you to also follow @contingent-mag.bsky.social, the history magazine I co-edit. We pay all of our contributors and publish some neat stuff.

hey! hey!!! if you are an academic of any rank in the critical tech studies space who cares about how money, finance, and business structures work in science and technology, i want to see your abstracts for a collected volume! they're due tomorrow!!! https//oddletters.com/tech-money/

There are very few surviving portrait of Johannes Kepler and each of them has a question mark hanging over it for some reason #histsci thonyc.wordpress.com/2025/12/27/c...

Visited a regional branch of the National Archives, and the mss I wanted to look at were in a filing cabinet for which no one could find the key. They called a locksmith on the spot, who drilled out the cylinder to get them to me. Archivists are the best! 🗃️

My forthcoming book— For which I began research in 2006. Is now posted on the website for Princeton University Press. Cover will be added soon. The King’s Slaves: The British Empire & the Origins of American Slavery

In this issue: -Articles on infrastructure & astronomy (Eun-Joo Ahn) & ocean drilling (Beatriz Martinez-Rius) [email protected]'s review of books by @patrickmccray.bsky.social, @ccmmody.bsky.social & Mark Solovey -James Hofmann's essay on the current state of Ampère historiography #histSTM

when someone tells me not to use em dashes because AI uses em dashes

Someone sent this to me as proof that *i* am wrong about my own self. Anyway, all of this fabricated. Just untrue and not even close to the direction of truth.

"We are throwing half of our money in a well that legend has it will reward our tributes by making our wishes come true. We simply do not have any choice but to now throw the other half of our money in there too."

So-called "smart" devices are pushed heavily for the holidays, but be mindful of what you're opting that gift recipient into. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...

I agree. Summers has said repeatedly, both in public and private, that he believes women are not as smart or talented as men. He has no business in a classroom. FEEL FREE TO REPEAT THIS INSIGHT.

I have been feeling depressed and discouraged that this man has the power and influence he does at my school and in my profession And I am a tenured professor at Harvard! How much more protected can I be? Imagine how STUDENTS feel. Junior faculty. This quote nails it

Remember: they used thousands of academic books too! If you’re a scholar, check for your books too. This isn’t just novelists and pop writers, it’s academic books too!

Why is he still teaching?! That's where the students are!!!

we should take teaching more seriously

I think the universities didn’t convey clearly enough to Larry Summers and Laurence Krauss that they were expected to get sexual harassment PREVENTION training

Bsky hasn’t heard the story about the time that I was giving a virtual colloquium to the Aspen Center for Physics in September 2020 and Lawrence Krauss, Geoff Marcy, Christian Ott all attended as a group ACP now has a policy that would prevent this from happening, because of that incident 🔭

The sense I am getting through all of this is that Larry Summers used his position to get a substantially junior colleague to listen to him whine about his marriage, then tried to get her to “have a drink with him” and stormed off when she was like no thanks I have a presentation tomorrow.

What in the actual hell. Econ seminars are rough enough on grad student presenters without a lecherous senior colleague hitting on you afterwards. I read this account and I recognize the behavior of someone who has NO interest in this man but also knows he can ruin her career.

"This is what the systems of power, influence and money in creative spheres do: They are structures that place supposed Great Artists or powerful rainmakers beyond the realm of accountability, humility, responsibility and consequences."

I once wrote a mildly critical piece about Feynman (VERY MILD, other historians scolded me for going too easy on him) and got many comments and missives calling me an ignorant hater who didn't understand Feynman's brilliance. His "quirks" were the price to pay for his genius, didn't I see that?

Like on a serious note, this is a decade after Epstein had been prosecuted and Larry Summers was still gossiping with him

thinking about how i get anxious writing emails because i don't want to sound like a moron while larry summers is apparently typing emails like this: u kno she dint want to talk tomorrow. make me bad pheel.

The first photo of my new book, courtesy of my editor... "The Most Awful Responsibility: Truman and the Secret Struggle for Control of the Atomic Age" comes out in early December! Feel free to pre-order it today! www.harpercollins.com/products/the...

Apparently all you needed to do to predict the NYC election results was read that one N.K. Jemisin novel.

Subscribe to @theonion.com now to secure YOUR whimsical holiday wrapping paper insert! (You can't have this one, it's mine and I saved it from December 2024 fair and square.)

BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Doznes of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice:

Me: Oh my god is this another LLM? Personify Health, ripping off mask: Oh my GOSH how do you keep finding me??????

Cigna: please complete our health assessment Me: oh great another stupid service Cigna: access it here Me: why...why does it want me to log in to another service Cigna: it's just our health partner, Personify Health! Me: what...what does that do Cigna: ohhhhhhh... helps you advocate for your needs

Ancient historians, we're so excited for this search! Spread the news far and wide!

🎙️ Just published: Communicable E37: 'Peer review is broken' Hosted by @angelahuttner.bsky.social & @anniejoseph.bsky.social w/ invited guests: Melinda Baldwin @mbaldwin.bsky.social & Serge Horbach Listen on Communicable: #IDSky #Clinmicro #MedSky #peerreview #AI

This guy? Who literally said he wants to put civil servants “in trauma?”

Fellow academics, this is worth doing. See if your book is in here. If you've got an ISBN it almost certainly is (mine was).

Meek Mill is in for a treat

"Non-existent referrer stack value in URL. Please contact support for assistance." GAAAAH. I wonder how many hours of scholarly productivity have been sucked down the black hole of ScholarOne Manuscripts login attempts?? 🫠

www.denverpost.com/2025/09/10/e... "The shooting at Evergreen High is at least the seventh school shooting in Colorado since the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School that killed 12 students and one teacher."

Hey my guy, do me two favours before you have your "AI" "solve crime" or whatever: 1) Define "crime;" 2) Tell me the moral of the television series Person Of Interest.

The UMD First Year Book committee has selected the U.S. Constitution as this year’s book! Join our own Holly Brewer and Michael Ross in "We the Terps: Why the Constitution Matters." For more information and for the day's schedule of events, follow this link! fyb.umd.edu/events.html

Huge thank you to AIP (@aip.bsky.social) History and Rebecca Charbonneau (@rebeccacharbon.bsky.social) for spotlighting my latest article! 🤩 #ligo #physics #history #histstem

Science studies folks! Dominik Huenniger and I are delighted to solicit contributions for the @hsnatsci.bsky.social "Essays and Reviews" section! Our Call for Proposals is in the image and I will also thread the text. tl;dr We are experimenting with some new formats and excited to hear your ideas!

One more terrible diagram, and mansplaining. I find this somewhat amusing. The basic design of Little Boy has been public domain since 1945... and that dolphin ain't it.

While everyone is (rightly) focused on National Guard being deployed in D.C. - even though crime is down - we can't forget that the House took $1B of revenue from D.C. in the CR. The Senate did pass a fix back in March but the House has yet to vote on it. www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/d...

Unlike Sam Altman, the people behind Gemini actually do understand what it means to have five Ph.D.'s in your pocket

*listening to a parakeet speak my own voice back to me* This animal is clearly having very deep and complex thoughts about the world.

“If Democrats could just convince more white people to vote it wouldn’t matter that Republicans are trying to disenfranchise non-whites. I am educated by Yale and also my hair is a habitat for endangered and unwanted birds.”

Manuscript SUBMITTED. I look forward to remembering at least 4 names I should have included in my Acknowledgements in an hour or so.