Carrie Golus

Amazing argument. Just amazing

... learning where the frontiers in a field are, the big questions, incompleteness, and areas a field has not yet tackled. Someone with a Ph.D. can often look at a graph and say, not ‘that isn’t true,‘ but ‘that data doesn’t exist.‘”

They learn methods for finding reliable information, when to be suspicious of data, and how to act upon those suspicions. In addition to learning what we know, a Ph.D. student gains expertise in what we don’t know ...

... before entering a work force which will not be, in five years, what it is now. ...

The Ph.D. process teaches broad expertise in research methods. Doctorate holders know how to evaluate evidence, chase down sources, verify claims.

Opinion | There Has Never Been a Better Time to Start a Ph.D. The work force is a mess. But deep skills will always be in demand.

Stunning contrarian op-ed from @adapalmer.bsky.social in the new issue of the Chronicle of Higher Ed:

www.chronicle.com/article/ther...

“This is a dire moment to enter the work force.

It is a perfect moment to spend four to seven years acquiring rare and valuable skills ...

Do we all need to hear this again?

Of course we need to hear this again

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Don’t Let the Publishing Industry Get You Down (It Happens to the Best of Us) Over the course of the last couple of weeks I’ve talked to college students, masters program students, and professionals at Comic Con in my roles as author and freelance writer and former editor. I…

“There are so many rewards in the book industry but also so many problems, and sometimes the difference between success and failure, as in most pursuits, from finding a great apartment to finding a romantic partner, is nothing more than luck.“

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lithub.com/dont-let-the...

I wish I could say I had a specific memory to share, but nothing comes to the surface. (Who knows what is lurking in my subconscious?) Thank you for thinking of me though!

Jill Lepore Thinks the U.S. Constitution Might Break America

“On Jan. 17, 2025, Biden declared that the...ERA, first passed by Congress in 1972, was finally ratified...Yet because Biden didn’t instruct the archivist of the United States to formally publish the amendment, his announcement fell dead from the bully pulpit.“

WHAT

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/b...

The largest U.S. copyright settlement in history

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Star of the B-roll 🤩

The Handmaid's Tale among more than 200 books to be pulled at Edmonton public schools | CBC News A list confirmed by CBC News shows titles like The Handmaid's Tale and Brave New World are among books to be pulled. The development comes after a policy from Alberta's education minister outlines new...

Pay attention, Canada. If Alberta is successful in this book banning, this will spread. Look around you, b/c this is how it starts. We're on the same ledge the US was on. And we either start fighting this right-wing rise now, or we follow the Americans over the edge.
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Sweet Joe Pye weed

I feel like “SWEET JOE PYE WEED!” would make an excellent expletive.

Like the kind of thing you could say when you hurt yourself within earshot of your grandmother

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“I was struck by another business major in the book, who said, I wish I’d majored in a skill — you know, like Spanish or English. My jaw hit the floor.“

“Graduates from practical majors, while generally better-compensated, were often doing rote, clerical work that made little use of what they’d studied.”

yikes

The Surprising Truth About Which College Majors Are Actually Useful at Work A sociologist studied how students get internships and jobs, and who really uses their degrees.

“ … while English and communications majors often ended up with lower-paying jobs, their positions also included more substantive duties that were more likely to call on what they’d learned in college.”

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www.chronicle.com/newsletter/t...

Spotted knapweed in bloom

Spotted knapweed rosette

It’s a biennial. When it blooms in its second year, it’s easy to spot. But our friend Knapweed Nightmare can find it during its first year, when it’s just a little rosette ... 🌹

Knapweed Nightmare, the first dog trained to sniff out the invasive plant spotted knapweed

Today I learned about a German shepherd called Knapweed Nightmare, the first dog trained to sniff out the invasive plant spotted knapweed 🤩

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Bluesky now platform of choice for science community It’s not just you. Survey says: “Twitter sucks now and all the cool kids are moving to Bluesky”…

FUCK YEAH SCIENCE

arstechnica.com/science/2025...

Search LibGen, the Pirated-Books Database That Meta Used to Train AI Millions of books and scientific papers are captured in the collection’s current iteration.

There are tons of graphic novels, academic papers, film and TV scripts, & prose novels/nonfiction on the LibGen list Anthropic used.

As settlement approaches, make it easy for the class action lawyers to contact you! Here’s how

Part 1: is your work in Libgen?

www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

The Celebrity Picture Book Boom What should we make of the recent onslaught of stories from the stars?

“Having a child qualifies you to write a children’s book the same way that using a toilet qualifies you to be a plumber.“
💯

www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

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It me. Except with one more cat

I have never felt so excited to learn that my personal data has been subpoenaed

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😭 😭 😭

Enjoy The Cooldown — Chicago Will Be 'Back In A Sauna' Next Week Thursday marked the first time in 33 days Chicago's high temperature did not reach 80 degrees, with this summer ranking fifth-hottest on record so far.

Full article:

blockclubchicago.org/2025/07/17/e...

And then there’s the corn sweat. “The technical term is ‘evapotranspiration’, but basically it’s humidity evaporating off the corn across Illinois, which raises humidity levels all over, including Chicago,” Snyder said. Mature corn crops give off 35 billion gallons of water daily in Illinois — enough to fill over 52,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools, according to the National Weather Service’s Central Illinois division.

I blame the corn

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Oral history, Studs Terkel, Duke University, Black History, Pentecostal church, Language, Oral culture, Black farmers, Housing discrimination, North Lawndale, Black and Jewish relations, Traditional medicine, Folk medicine, Academic interviews, Sex workers., University of Chicago, collegiate experience, graduate school, 2.66 GPA, PhD in history, College of Wooster, Paris trip, Jewish places, universal self, America's dream, 1970s anecdotes, hope, inner selves, healing, direction.

Just by the keywords, you can tell what a fascinating interview this was