My day ended with Japanese morning calls, and during the time zone break I listened to talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was an engaging discussion with Oliver Budzinski on competition policy in the new reality at the Digital Markets Research Hub https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxZo-y5vbzk

Next was a compelling talk by Johanna Gibson on building a legal theory of effort to mitigate the problem of generative AI use and authorship at the UCL Faculty of Laws https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B48wY5wf0xk

Next was an interesting talk by Hanna Hajishirzi on the design, training, and open-science approach to building and releasing the Olmo 3 model at the Kempner Institute at Harvard University https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ei06Or9mwjY

Next was "Bulldozer" by Francesca Russello Ammon. This book is less about the bulldozer itself than about how it influenced culture during and after WW2. This is unfortunate since without background on the size of the bulldozer industry and other economic data one is left to sift through the focused cultural studies to piece that picture together. The opening section on the bulldozer in WW2 is by far the star of the show here, detailing how central the equipment was for US war efforts and in building skills that would later serve operators when they returned home. I also have some totally minor gripes: I didn't like Ammon criticizing "Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel," and the steam shovel in "Are You My Mother?" is not named "Snort." It just says "SNORT" https://www.francescaammon.com/bulldozer

Last was "Liberia and the Quest for Freedom" by C. Patrick Burrowes. At only 100 pages, Burrowes does an admirable job of detailing Liberia's history during the slave trading period in that compact space without skipping too much. There's great detail on the slave trade itself and its intersections with Liberia and its people, with Burrowes demonstrating the demographic shockwave that resulted from the region's depopulation and the subsequent integration of migrants from the US and beyond. I just wish the book was longer so it could cover that history in more detail and follow these threads to the present https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/liberia-the-quest-for-freedom-c-patrick-burrowes/1140298773