David Vail
@davidvailphd.bsky.social
Historian of Environment, Agriculture, Science, Medicine, & Public Health. New Project: Vulnerable Harvests: Emergency Conservation in the Cold War Great Plains (Nebraska Press). My posts and views are my own.
The American Agriculture Movement and the 1979 tractorcade are the subject of our new oral history series. Here, you'll read about Peggy Arensman's experience, an interview conducted by the Kinsley Public Library and supported by Humanities Kansas. Introduction by Jim Leiker. #kansashistory
New LEGO build to start summer break. DC-3 PamAm. Catch me if you can.
It's Commencement!!!!! CONGRATULATIONS student colleagues!! I'm so honored to celebrate with you today!!! Epic adventures await!
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A reminder that you can join our online book talk with John Scanlan on The Idea of Waste: On the Limits of Human Life (Reaktion Books, 2025) tomorrow (Monday 27 Apr 2026), 4pm Central European time / 3pm in the UK / 10 am Eastern Info to join: newnatures.org/greenhouse/e...
As I enter Day #2 of a workshop about A.I. and the humanities, one dominated by philosophers, I am recalling the danger of "charismatic technologies" Charisma is a powerful attribute. But so is wisdom. lareviewofbooks.org/article/sell...
Selling a Charismatic Technology | Los Angeles Review of Books
Historian of technology Patrick McCray reviews Morgan Ames’s new book on the MIT Media Lab’s One Laptop per Child program.
lareviewofbooks.org
In case you missed it, links for our massive book talk series 👇
Dolly Jørgensen@dollyjorgensen.bsky.social · 4mo ago#EarthDay is a perfect day to plug our @greenhouseuis.net #environmental humanities book talk series! You can currently listen to or watch 194 conversations we had with authors about their books. 🎧 podcast newnatures.org/greenhouse/f... 🎥 videos on book pages via newnatures.org/greenhouse/
You can listen to/watch our recorded Greenhouse environmental humanities book talk conversation with Michael Lobel on Van Gogh & the End of Nature here: 🎥 newnatures.org/greenhouse/e... 🎧 newnatures.org/greenhouse/p... #EarthDay #envhum
Michael Lobel@mlobelart.bsky.social · 4mo agoOn #EarthDay, reposting a link to my book "Van Gogh and the End of Nature," which shifts our understanding of this iconic modern artist by highlighting his relevance to contemporary concerns about industrial pollution, environmental despoliation & climate change yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...
I'm thrilled to mark 10 years at University of Nebraska at Kearney. Honored to be part of this dynamic campus. I'm grateful to my student colleagues most and dedicate this to them. It's been a very special thing to share these moments with you over the years. Thank you.
Due to technical difficulties with no internet service for the author, our #envhum book with John Scanlan on The Idea of Waste: On the Limits of Human Life (Reaktion Books, 2025) will be NEXT MONDAY, 27 April, at 4pm in Norway / 3pm in UK. newnatures.org/greenhouse/e...
I'm thrilled to talk about some of my latest scholarship next week at Colorado State University's Sustainable Landscape Collaboratory. If you are in Fort Collins, please stop by. Excited to discuss shelterbelts.
Now available for preorder (publishes in June 2026): Unsettling Extinction, edited by Roman Bartosch, Ursula Heise & Kate Rigby www.bloomsbury.com/uk/unsettlin... I have an article in this called "Extinction as Cultural Heritage"
Excited to see this project with the University Library of Agder and Center for Gender Equality with Dr. Hilde Røsstad. Only wish I lived closer to attend these in person.
Oppdagelser: Forskningshistoriens banebrytende kvinner - Universitetet i Agder
I mars 2026 inviterer Universitetsbiblioteket i Agder i samarbeid med Senter for likestilling til en nyskapende foredragsserie med tittelen:
urldefense.com
“A.I. chatbots contain the sum of all human knowledge” is so egregiously wrong that I don’t know what to say. Chatbots have been trained on corpus of digital(ised) text - ABSOLUTELY NOT the sum of all human knowledge. Paper, experience, embodiment, oral tales all missing. These people are fools!
The New York Times@nytimes.com · 5mo agoHow does A.I. stack up against some of the world’s best human writers? Take our quiz.
Spring has started to sprout and the @greenhouseuis.net is looking forward to full month with events on everything from climate justice in education over the sea urchins on the menu to the architecture of low-voltage cabins. 🌿 #envhum
When the NSF was founded in 1950, it was after 5 years of debate and resistance that the agency would be too independent of congressional/presidential oversight... www.science.org/content/arti...
NSF officials break silence on how AI and quantum now drive agency grantmaking
Leaders acknowledge White House role in controversial moves
science.org
"...any metric of agricultural intensity was always the best predictor of acceleration of the decline.” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/c...
Birds Aren’t Just Declining. They’re Declining Faster, a New Study Finds.
nytimes.com
Official opening of the PITCH project intervention “Carbon Culture. Museum of the Fossil Fuel Age” at the German Museum of Technology in Berlin tonight. Special congrats go to curators Nora Thorade & Eike Heine who have done a fantastic job.
