New news: I've been awarded the Richard Stein Essay Prize for "The Climate of Utopia,” published in @victstudies.bsky.social! This is a great honor, which I could not have received without the generous help of editor @moniquemorgan.bsky.social and, honestly, the journal's highly skilled reviewers.

'ChatGPT users had the lowest brain engagement and “consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels.”...ChatGPT users got lazier with each subsequent essay, often resorting to copy-and-paste by the end of the study.' time.com/7295195/ai-c...

"UK academics...need guidance on how to avoid bringing US-based colleagues unwanted attention, risk or danger. Even tagging people in social media comments, or careless comments in text messages or emails, could make them unsafe." www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-v...

This Friday I, megalomanically, am speaking to the world through the medium of Zoom. If piqued, one can register here: docs.google.com/.../1FAIpQLS... Hope to see some familiar faces!

Word of the day is ‘erumpent’ (17th century), which describes buds and blossom that are bursting forth with vigour. Can also be used of energetic humans.

14 of my publications -- basically everything I've ever thought or written-- went into AI training datasets without my consent or knowledge

A classic history of the creation of modern Paris by Napoleon III and Haussmann. David H. Pinkney's Napoleon III and the Rebuilding of Paris is now available in a new edition. Learn more: press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...

typical book project timeline

No shit Watson! "Cycling is ten times more important than electric cars for cities." theconversation.com/cycling-is-t...

Reading Hsuan Hsu’s wonderful AIR CONDITIONING (2024). Hsu poses an interesting rewrite of Descartes: ‘I THINK IN A STOVE-HEATED ROOM, THEREFORE I AM’ / ‘I THINK MY MIND IS INDISTINCT, THEREFORE I AM IN A CLIMATE-CONTROLLED ROOM.’