Thinking about the iced coffee interview discourse in the context of academia, where we have three-day interviews and 19 coffee-based meetings with 120 different people for a job that requires you to teach 12 classes and 700 students a year for $42k in rural Oklahoma

Things are not great in several universities below the Mason-Dixon line. This has been true several years. I’m glad people are finally noticing.

Kevin M. Kruse@kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 3w ago

Things are not great at Auburn www.al.com/news/2026/09...

I don't think I've ever been less interested in the start of the NFL season. It's not like we have a shortage of content from brain-damaged millionaires

We know how to teach books in the age of AI: small classes, close reading, research-engaged learning (which is how you ’let students see you struggle’). The issue is nobody will hire and pay the requisite # of faculty to offer this.

"The goal of academic training is not to solve problems as efficiently and quickly as possible, but to develop skills for identifying and dealing with novel problems, which have never been solved before." openletter.earth/open-letter-... @olivia.science

Anyway, remember that things are inevitable right up til the moment they’re not. “Inevitable” describes potential, not reality. It is a nightmare of the future coming to bully those who are asleep—not a description of some kind of logical or pragmatic reality, as some would have us believe.

I want to see midterm campaign ads that are just loud ass data center nosies for 30 seconds straight.

I am really disappointed to see the original The Valley of the Shadow project is gone and the original site is no longer available. What a loss for the digital humanities. This was a great teaching tool to discuss early digital history work.

New study is out, showing that of 878 players who appeared in at least one NFL game and died between 2016 and 2021, at least one in four had CTE. www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/...

Study: At least 25% of NFL players in sample had CTE

A new study published Tuesday by the British Medical Journal showed that at least 25% of NFL players who died between 2016 and 2021 had CTE.

espn.com

“All social science Core classes will transition to an “analog” approach for the upcoming academic year, restricting in-classroom technology use and banning AI-assisted writing and grading for students and professors.” chicagomaroon.com/53262/news/s...

Sosc Core to Institute AI Ban, Technology-Free Classrooms This Fall

All social science Core classes will transition to an “analog” approach for the upcoming academic year, restricting in-classroom technology use and banning AI-assisted writing and grading for students...

chicagomaroon.com

I regret to inform you that these traditional college courses in AI are indistinguishable from the classrooms I sat in at for-profit colleges 15 years ago. Centralized curriculum & branding, technological control, “virtual” libraries, & bureaucratic alienation of labor.

It’s your turn Pickens County.

Philip Nelson 💻🧙@blu3r4d0n.shutdown.network · 2mo ago

the county council in the very conservative little county I grew up in just passed first reading of an ordinance prohibiting county funds from going to flock, banning them from county property, and threatens to end funding for cities in the county if they use them

the county council in the very conservative little county I grew up in just passed first reading of an ordinance prohibiting county funds from going to flock, banning them from county property, and threatens to end funding for cities in the county if they use them

SC county votes to defund Flock cameras, a potential first for the state

A rural Upstate County is taking steps to crack down on Flock cameras amid a national outcry over the technology.

postandcourier.com

75% of the US professoriate is basically paycheck-to-paycheck so naturally the Chronicle is doing vibes-based quasi-critique again

If you're wondering whether there's room for genAI in the bits of writing/research that supposedly aren't writing/research, the answer is "no". 4/ buttondown.com/surekhadavie...

The 'I only use AI for...' fallacy

Hallo friends, and welcome, new readers! I hope you’re managing to navigate safely whatever weather challenges may have come your way this year. In today’s...

buttondown.com

I’m thinking about going back to assuming magic is behind things I don’t understand. Because the delusional people around me seem so happy.

there are more than twice as many museum workers in the US than there are coal miners

John Garrison Marks@johngmarks.com · 2mo ago

On my blog, I wrote about how America's museums are falling apart. The US has 20k+ museums, and most have historic buildings with leaky roofs, failing HVAC units, and flooding basements. What they don't have is money for repairs. Please read/share! 🧵 johngmarks.beehiiv.com/p/america-s-...

i think some pro-AI people are also taken aback by what feels like the sudden implication that they’re not cool when they’ve been told the last couple of years how they’re on the cutting edge and anyone who didn’t get on board would end up looking like a loser when maybe it’s the other way around

Obviously my students are self-selecting, but when I hear how they talk about AI vs. how university admin talks about AI...I don't think the university has any idea how much students resent it.

I wish I didn’t know as much about the end of Reconstruction as I do. If you understood what is being unleashed now, how it will touch every aspect of our civic life, and how difficult it will be to undo it, you wouldn’t be able to think about anything else.

What the hell www.newyorker.com/culture/prog...

I dumped some feelings in a blog post about teaching DH right now. mackenziekbrooks.info/update/2026/...

Come work with me! The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford is hiring a tenure-track assistant professor of political science with a specialty in American government. Please share this listing with anyone who may be interested, and I'll be happy to answer questions. cfopitt.taleo.net/careersectio...

Join ACH leadership! We're looking for 3 new Executive Council members to serve a 4-year term (2026-2030), 1 new member to serve for 2 years on the Executive Council (2026-2028), and a (co)Vice President(s)/President(s) Elect. Nominations due by 2/13/2026. buff.ly/fEp0SVf

But teaching a first-year seminar this past semester really opened my eyes to just how toxic it's already been for younger students. I'm not some knee-jerk tech skeptic and I didn't hold this view 12 months ago. But now? I'm raising the alarm.

I'm not sure how archives that are researched based on translations the researcher can't verify is better? The chances of errors coming in that don't get double-checked for ages are huge, and this approach will only further disincentivize learning necessary skills—training, not tech for this.

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I'm sorry, worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable permission to my voice and likeness? For what now? In any manner for any purpose??? This is in academia/.edu's new ToS, which you're prompted to agree to on login. Anyway I'll be jumping ship. You can find my stuff at hcommons.org.

Every day I draw closer to actually planning what was initially a joke of an idea — a private conference where people who feel absolutely insane in our regular life for not believing robots will save us from our ogliarchs can just get together and latent to be normal for 36 hours. Over drinks.