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“Harvard paid McKinsey & Company at least $250,000 to consult on the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ staff restructuring efforts, according to internal documents obtained by The Crimson.” www.thecrimson.com/article/2026...

Harvard Paid McKinsey $250,000 For FAS Consultation, Internal Documents Show | News | The Harvard CrimsonHarvard paid McKinsey & Company at least $250,000 to consult on the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ staff restructuring efforts, according to internal documents obtained by The Crimson.www.thecrimson.com

“The empathy aliens are not coming to save us. The weapons of mass disclosure do not exist. The saboteurs of civil society will not mend their ways if we bail them out.” - @mattseybold.bsky.social on Spielberg and SpaceX substack.com/@mattseybold...

2026: A SpaceX OdysseyThe Empathy Aliens Are Not Coming To Save Ussubstack.com

Every once in a while, the @nytimes.com publishes a story that reminds you that there is no barrier between the editorial page and the newsroom.

I have a more cynical interpretation, which is that because of the degradation of humanities knowledge, people are more inclined to think that their uninformed views are authoritative and equal to those of experts.

JM Coetzee has a wonderful essay about the meaning of the "classic" that ends as follows. Possibly one downstream effect of the defunding of the humanities is that people have forgotten the function of criticism: www.scribd.com/document/814...:

I think the NYT will replace Ross Douthat and David Brooks with Tyler Austin Harper, Jesse Singal, and/or Thomas Chatterton Williams. "The Atlantic to Grey Lady pipeline" is a well-worn one.

This paragraph is interesting, bc it points to one of the ways that AI / tech capital is so different from industrial capital, which is that it doesn't offer communities anything in exchange for political acquiescence. Carnegie at least built libraries to buy working-class loyalty.

ASU's new BA in Content Creation is, I think, the apotheosis of boomer cringe in higher ed. degrees.apps.asu.edu/bachelors/ma...

What is frustrating about the new interest in the 'classics': Republicans are actively redirecting taxpayer funding to promote un-scholarly, right-wing versions of humanistic study in public university 'civic centers,' while Democrats remains uninterested in taxpayer funded humanistic education.

"I will believe you actually care about Homer when you fight for a classics department." jamescosullivan.substack.com/p/you-dont-r...

Be honest, you don't really care about Homer or classical literatureI will believe you actually care about Homer when you fight for a classics department.jamescosullivan.substack.com

"Anthropic said the system is working as intended."

The film that launched a thousand takes

As of December, 35 universities - though by now probably more - have bought licenses for students to use advanced versions of ChatGPT. They’re getting young people addicted to the technology so that they’ll pay for it after they graduate. www.latimes.com/business/sto...

How OpenAI used aggressive discounts to dominate AI in universitiesTech companies and even federal and state policymakers are making concerted efforts to encourage AI adoption in higher education.www.latimes.com

It is important not to overlook the psychic and physiological costs of the right-wing culture war on peoples’ histories and identities. To be told “you do not exist,” ”you are illegal,” or “your history is invalid“ enacts a toll on people that can seriously damage their well-being and life chances.

Slight modification: the Trump administration hates peer-reviewed knowledge across all fields, full stop. This fits with the general right-wing emphasis on “viewpoint diversity,” which is the opposite of peer review.

I’m baffled and annoyed by the constant spam emails from Democrats begging for money but I’m particularly baffled by the emails that purport to be “sent from the IPhone” of the candidate. What are they trying to convey here?

On various administrative shenanigans at UMass - including, sadly, my own department: electronicintifada.net/content/mcca...

McCarthyism in MassachusettsHistorian of Iranian descent sues university over politically motivated "firing."electronicintifada.net

Prediction: the humanities will not reap any of the benefits of this new tech philanthropy, unlike w/ industrial capital philanthropy www.nytimes.com/2026/07/25/b...

It’s hard to believe, but The Atlantic once published good takes, like advocating for the abolition of slavery.