Natalie J. Ring
@historycounts.bsky.social
Historian of many things in the US South, esp. the history of Jim Crow and prisons in Louisiana. Trying to learn the law to write my next book. Night owl. Feral cat wrangler (TNR). Living in TX. Native of western MA.
Hello Southern Historical Association annual meeting from St. Pete's Beach! @thesouthernsha.bsky.social
November 4, 2025 at 10:23 PM
Hello Southern Historical Association annual meeting from St. Pete's Beach! @thesouthernsha.bsky.social
Reposted by Natalie J. Ring
you can convincingly portray this whole financialized AI edifice as a mortgage crisis-style house of cards without even mentioning that the fundamental product is unreliable, based on outright theft, and people don’t like it.
November 3, 2025 at 8:26 PM
you can convincingly portray this whole financialized AI edifice as a mortgage crisis-style house of cards without even mentioning that the fundamental product is unreliable, based on outright theft, and people don’t like it.
The perfect lemon drop martini in New Orleans.
October 19, 2025 at 4:09 AM
The perfect lemon drop martini in New Orleans.
Reposted by Natalie J. Ring
“I’m so tired of waiting, aren’t you, for the world to become good and beautiful and kind?”
— Langston Hughes
— Langston Hughes
January 14, 2025 at 6:56 AM
“I’m so tired of waiting, aren’t you, for the world to become good and beautiful and kind?”
— Langston Hughes
— Langston Hughes
Factors Deli in LA - my absolute favorite. Dallas has zero edible delis.
August 6, 2025 at 2:58 AM
Factors Deli in LA - my absolute favorite. Dallas has zero edible delis.
With regard to the Ebook Central platform I have been losing my mind over. ‼️‼️‼️
To date, we have not been able to disable the research assistant. The disable function appears to have been.... disabled.
August 5, 2025 at 6:05 AM
With regard to the Ebook Central platform I have been losing my mind over. ‼️‼️‼️
Reposted by Natalie J. Ring
Librarian here, and Ebook Central (formerly ebrary, longtime ProQuest platform) is moving away from a model where libraries can directly license individual books, alongside full AI integration. It’s led their top competition EBSCO to double down on… NOT doing that. Very happy to use EBSCO.
August 5, 2025 at 12:43 AM
Librarian here, and Ebook Central (formerly ebrary, longtime ProQuest platform) is moving away from a model where libraries can directly license individual books, alongside full AI integration. It’s led their top competition EBSCO to double down on… NOT doing that. Very happy to use EBSCO.
Reposted by Natalie J. Ring
(Yes, I do include the no-opt-out inclusion of "AI" as a decrease in platform functionality.)
and 2) supporting and working with justifiably frustrated academics. 2/2
and 2) supporting and working with justifiably frustrated academics. 2/2
August 5, 2025 at 1:06 AM
(Yes, I do include the no-opt-out inclusion of "AI" as a decrease in platform functionality.)
and 2) supporting and working with justifiably frustrated academics. 2/2
and 2) supporting and working with justifiably frustrated academics. 2/2
Reposted by Natalie J. Ring
As mentioned by @dbcii.bsky.social, these issues are making our jobs very, very difficult for many reasons. Here are two:
1) our own frustration with both the increasing costs for individual purchases (due to end) and decreasing functionality of platforms 1/2
www.libraryjournal.com/story/clariv...
1) our own frustration with both the increasing costs for individual purchases (due to end) and decreasing functionality of platforms 1/2
www.libraryjournal.com/story/clariv...
Clarivate/ProQuest Announces Subscription-Only Ebook Licensing Model
Clarivate, the parent company of ProQuest and its Ebook Central platform, on February 18 announced the launch of a new subscription-based content access strategy for ebooks and digital collections. As...
www.libraryjournal.com
August 5, 2025 at 1:06 AM
As mentioned by @dbcii.bsky.social, these issues are making our jobs very, very difficult for many reasons. Here are two:
1) our own frustration with both the increasing costs for individual purchases (due to end) and decreasing functionality of platforms 1/2
www.libraryjournal.com/story/clariv...
1) our own frustration with both the increasing costs for individual purchases (due to end) and decreasing functionality of platforms 1/2
www.libraryjournal.com/story/clariv...
Okay this is worse than I thought. A large # of academic press books (incld. a textbook I use in class) have been moved to a platform called Ebook Central. It's like Kindle paired w/ AI. No footnotes. No page #s No facsimile PDFs are available. I just wrote a lengthy complaint to my library. Sigh.
AI rant of the day. My library is using a new ebook platform for Leon Litwack's book "Trouble in Mind." You can no longer see page numbers or footnotes. And there is a running AI summary of the book next to the text. It's USELESS now.
August 5, 2025 at 12:17 AM
Okay this is worse than I thought. A large # of academic press books (incld. a textbook I use in class) have been moved to a platform called Ebook Central. It's like Kindle paired w/ AI. No footnotes. No page #s No facsimile PDFs are available. I just wrote a lengthy complaint to my library. Sigh.
AI rant of the day. My library is using a new ebook platform for Leon Litwack's book "Trouble in Mind." You can no longer see page numbers or footnotes. And there is a running AI summary of the book next to the text. It's USELESS now.
August 3, 2025 at 11:26 PM
AI rant of the day. My library is using a new ebook platform for Leon Litwack's book "Trouble in Mind." You can no longer see page numbers or footnotes. And there is a running AI summary of the book next to the text. It's USELESS now.
Reposted by Natalie J. Ring
help, this is too cute
August 2, 2025 at 11:40 PM
help, this is too cute
Timeline cleanse. Sunshade as hammock.
July 26, 2025 at 1:13 AM
Timeline cleanse. Sunshade as hammock.
Reposted by Natalie J. Ring
Google's AI summaries are
- killing traffic to legitimate sites
- producing summaries that can be wrong
- in the long run probably making you a dumbass
www.404media.co/googles-ai-i...
- killing traffic to legitimate sites
- producing summaries that can be wrong
- in the long run probably making you a dumbass
www.404media.co/googles-ai-i...
Google’s AI Is Destroying Search, the Internet, and Your Brain
Google’s AI Overview, which is easy to fool into stating nonsense as fact, is stopping people from finding and supporting small businesses and credible sources.
www.404media.co
July 23, 2025 at 7:11 PM
Google's AI summaries are
- killing traffic to legitimate sites
- producing summaries that can be wrong
- in the long run probably making you a dumbass
www.404media.co/googles-ai-i...
- killing traffic to legitimate sites
- producing summaries that can be wrong
- in the long run probably making you a dumbass
www.404media.co/googles-ai-i...
Can always use content like this.
July 24, 2025 at 11:58 PM
Can always use content like this.
Mayonnaise is of the devil and should have no place on the condiment list.
Okay, lets do this.
One like, one opinion that's not on politics.
One like, one opinion that's not on politics.
Thumbs up, lets do this.
One like, one opinion that's not on politics.
One like, one opinion that's not on politics.
July 21, 2025 at 12:27 AM
Mayonnaise is of the devil and should have no place on the condiment list.
Is anyone else like this?
July 21, 2025 at 12:19 AM
Is anyone else like this?
Reposted by Natalie J. Ring
stop 👏 anthropomorphizing 👏 the 👏 chatbot 👏
July 20, 2025 at 10:18 PM
stop 👏 anthropomorphizing 👏 the 👏 chatbot 👏
Last night was The Terminator (1984). Tonight is Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991). Not only do both films hold up, but you have to respect the old school stunt driving involving minimal CGI.
July 20, 2025 at 2:06 AM
Last night was The Terminator (1984). Tonight is Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991). Not only do both films hold up, but you have to respect the old school stunt driving involving minimal CGI.
A great thread on the nature of writing history. 🗃️
I write serious history—via biography—for a non-academic audience. So I'd like to say something about Ken Burns's remark, something that also explains why AI can't write history.
Pardon me for citing the example of one of my books, "Custer's Trials," on one of history's best-known figures.
1/12
Pardon me for citing the example of one of my books, "Custer's Trials," on one of history's best-known figures.
1/12
“We wanted to rid ourselves of the fashions of historiography,” Burns summarized at one event, “and make a film that simply shows what happened.”
That’s not how history works though. You’re making an argument about what happened & what mattered even if you don’t realize you’re doing it. 🗃️
That’s not how history works though. You’re making an argument about what happened & what mattered even if you don’t realize you’re doing it. 🗃️
July 19, 2025 at 8:49 PM
A great thread on the nature of writing history. 🗃️
I was a waitress in Boulder CO.
A woman came in, asked for a quiet back table and a stiff drink immediately. She was meeting an old friend she hadn't seen in ages and was nervous.
When he arrived I went to the table to ask for his drink and it was JAMES TAYLOR.
He wanted club soda and lime.
A woman came in, asked for a quiet back table and a stiff drink immediately. She was meeting an old friend she hadn't seen in ages and was nervous.
When he arrived I went to the table to ask for his drink and it was JAMES TAYLOR.
He wanted club soda and lime.
July 18, 2025 at 10:44 PM
I was a waitress in Boulder CO.
A woman came in, asked for a quiet back table and a stiff drink immediately. She was meeting an old friend she hadn't seen in ages and was nervous.
When he arrived I went to the table to ask for his drink and it was JAMES TAYLOR.
He wanted club soda and lime.
A woman came in, asked for a quiet back table and a stiff drink immediately. She was meeting an old friend she hadn't seen in ages and was nervous.
When he arrived I went to the table to ask for his drink and it was JAMES TAYLOR.
He wanted club soda and lime.
RIP to my favorite professor & advisor at Amherst since freshman year -- Jan Dizard. At age 6 he participated in a labor strike with Paul Robeson, survived polio, helped Huey Newton's legal team, & spoke out against the Vietnam War. One of the kindest people I knew.
www.legacy.com/us/obituarie...
www.legacy.com/us/obituarie...
Jan Dizard Obituary (1940 - 2025) - Chico, CA - Daily Hampshire Gazette
View Jan Dizard's obituary, send flowers and sign the guestbook.
www.legacy.com
July 7, 2025 at 10:41 PM
RIP to my favorite professor & advisor at Amherst since freshman year -- Jan Dizard. At age 6 he participated in a labor strike with Paul Robeson, survived polio, helped Huey Newton's legal team, & spoke out against the Vietnam War. One of the kindest people I knew.
www.legacy.com/us/obituarie...
www.legacy.com/us/obituarie...