Relatedly, if you haven't been in an archives you have no idea just how much historical material is not online, not even a digital record of it. An LLM cannot research data it doesn't have. It can't even extrapolate where to find that material.

You learn about your topic by researching it. Who says something, why they said it, and what's left out of the narrative help build your story. AI cannot do any o those things. All it can do is stochastic parrot in the general direction of research.

I’ve been meeting with a student once a month all school year to give her feedback on one essay she’s been writing since we met. She’s not formally my student, but introduced herself after a reading. I’m reading the final draft of the essay now and I’m so proud of her I could cry.

I love this so much!

At the inauguration, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wore a distinctive collar adorned with cowrie shells, which are believed to offer protection from evil in African traditions.

This choice mirrors the late Justice Ginsburg’s practice of using collars to convey a message.

We have larger concerns heading into 2025, but I can't let go of the idea that the next season of Sesame Street could be its last. So I wrote about why the kids' TV institution is still vital after more than 50 years:

Love this.

Hakeem Jeffries: "Republicans are marching America to a painful government shutdown that will crash the economy and hurt working-class Americans because they would rather enact massive tax cuts for their billionaire donors than fund cancer research for children."

people who have never experienced open racism — or open bigotry of any sort — do not appreciate the way it can be psychologically destabilizing. and on the main, it actually isn’t healthy to be so resilient and thick-skinned that you don’t react to slurs and dehumanization

Bluesky, you know what to do

Earnest post, but: a thing I like here is it’s okay to have moments of happiness in public without being broadly scolded, and I believe that sustaining this kind of humanity will be very important as we resist fascism.

We have to sustain each other. Making joy isn’t denial, it’s how we will survive

Goodreads is owned by Amazon & there is an AMAZING alternative‼️

The StoryGraph is a black women-owned competitor to GoodReads with better UI in my opinion.
When you sign up you can even transfer your data from Goodreads to StoryGraph!