Javier Cha

STATISTICS?!

The blog post in question, I assume: maria-antoniak.github.io/2022/07/27/t...

Well we have my blog post but given stubbornness to only consult things in PDF format, I’ve been working on a more formal version. Let me know if anyone is interested in helping! I’m so so tired of hearing that “topic modeling didn’t work for my data” from people who didn’t follow best practices.

Absolutely. I'm thinking of writing something. Maybe next year.

Hear it from one of the OGs himself!

It's funny, when I've spoken to some ML people---including, just recently, Dave Blei himself---the question is often, "who's still using topic models?" Meanwhile in DH/Social science, it's "please, enough topic models!"

MacKenzie Scott: *donates $50M every 10 hours°

Joe Lonsdale, co-founder of Palantir: "I want to see people hang"

There's too much misuse without adequate methodological reflection. And don't get me started on students (and professional academics) who assume that topic modeling = distant reading.

I felt like making a chart about academic novels I've read. Here's the result. I don't have an overall favorite among these, but I'll share a few standouts in the thread:

Computational Humanities | Debates in the Digital Humanities Bringing together leading experts from across North America and Europe, _Computational Humanities_ redirects debates around computation and humanities digital scholarship from dualistic arguments to n...

In Chap 10 of #ComputationalHumanities, @barbaramcgilli.bsky.social @fedenanni.bsky.social and Kaspar Beelen argue for diachronic search in digital history. Computation loves abstraction and generality, humanists love specificity. How do we balance these?

dhdebates.gc.cuny.edu/projects/com...

Hot take: ban topic modeling in digital humanities for a year. It'll do wonders for the field. I'm thinking of banning it in my classes.

Olmo 3 32B Think is now free on Open Router until 12/22.
Let us know what you think and what to improve!
(Hosted by Parasail)
This may give it the hug of death... would be my dream.
openrouter.ai/allenai/olmo...

At long last! Thank you for everything, @alanyliu.bsky.social. Eternally indebted.

www.upress.umn.edu/978151791608...

Screenshot of page 52 University of Minnesota Press Spring 2026 catalog, showing the book cover, description, and contributor names of the new book in the Debates in DH series (ed. Alan Liu, Urszula Pawlicka-Deger, and James Smithies) titled _Critical Infrastructrure Studies and Digital Humanities_. The text of the description reads as follows: How digital humanities can shape and be shaped by the infrastructures that sustain our world. _Critical Infrastructure Studies and Digital Humanities_ reimagines the digital humanities (DH) through the expanding field of critical infrastructure studies. Featuring voices from around the globe, this volume explores how DH builds on and extends theories and technologies of infrastructure that affect society, culture, and knowledge in different national and regional contexts. Examining DH’s own infrastructural genealogy, the contributors offer readers critical reflections and bold visions for the future as they address issues of environmentalism, decolonization, Indigenous sovereignty, multilingualism, labor justice, feminism, national development, and beyond from a variety of disciplinary perspectives embedded in concrete digital systems. Including innovative “infrastructure manifests,” the essays in this book illuminate how DH can both study and shape the systems that sustain culture, scholarship, and connection....

U Minnesota Press's Spring 26 catalog, listing our new Critical Infrastructure Studies & Digital Humanities (in Debates in DH series), eds. Alan Liu, Urszula Pawlicka-Deger, @jamessmithies.bsky.social): z.umn.edu/spring26. Table of contents: www.upress.umn.edu/978151791608... @uminnpress.bsky.social

What post was this??

???

Harvard should sack anybody who had anything to do with Epstein and use the money to load up on a bunch of promising junior faculty; lord knows there are a ton of great people out there to choose from

Turns out that C. Wright Mills was right on when he said that there is a "power elite." Though for our generation it seems to be an outlandish collection of finance, tech and crypto bros, academics, influencers, grifters, degenerates, perverts, cranks, buffoons, rich Nazis, and fabulists.

Something absolutely perfect about Larry Summers riffing about the scourge of woke cancel culture being unfair to predatory men in a friendly email to his pal JEFFREY EPSTEIN.

My article will be open access. No worries.

For the morning crowd - thread below about our new article on historical bias in digitized British newspaper collections #dh #skystorians @rs4vp.org @vpreditors.bsky.social @thenacbs.bsky.social

See IJHAC's March 2026 issue (though I hope to write a longer piece just on this in a few years)!

You know, I don't use the terms art history, comparative literature, and philosophy loosely. Why is it that digital humanities is tossed around as if it can be loosely applied to everything and everywhere without any effort to define the scope of what it means and represents?

COP websites emit 10 times more carbon than average webpages - Energy Live News COP conference websites emit more carbon per page view than typical webpages

We are featured in over 50 news outlets today: PhD student David Mahoney's research using web archives, @archive.org, to measure historic website emissions, offering a new method and open-source code for analysing & highlighting online environmental impact. www.energylivenews.com/2025/11/11/c...

Some interesting stuff here on measuring writing quality and improving on qualitative tasks:
www.dbreunig.com/2025/07/31/h...

Maeve Iwasaki demonstrates microfiche digitization. Photo by Brad Shirakawa, October 21, 2025.

Microfiche in the digital age 📄💻

Visitors at the Physical Archive tour last month saw how microfiche is preserved digitally.

You can, too! Watch the #livestream, 7:30 AM–Midnight PT, scanning & preserving public records in real time — all to mellow #lofi vibes.

📡 www.youtube.com/live/SxUjwZY...

CFP – DH2026 in Daejeon, South Korea The Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO) invites submissions for its annual conference, DH2026, to be held in Daejeon, South Korea, from July 27 to 31, 2026.

📢 NEW FAQ added to #DH2026 CFP!
✅You can submit multiple proposals
✅Max 2 presentations as lead presenter (long/short)
✅Posters: no limit, but in-person only & no AI translation
✅Workshops/mini-conferences: not counted toward limit
⏰Deadline: Dec 8
dh2026.adho.org/cfp/

NY school phone ban has made lunch loud again Two months into the school year, students say they are adjusting to life without their smart devices. Teachers report more focused pupils.

NY smartphone ban has made lunch loud again | Discussion

I've seen an alternative argument going around that academics should instead step back and essentially see how things play out with AI, having confidence that if it sticks around (and doesn't go the way of the MOOC) it'll be adapted to academic needs and vice versa, like email, the internet +

An Air Canada flight right now