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Dr Gul Sen @guel-sen.bsky.social · 4h

For those who are interested in intellectual history and early modern Ottoman world: Don't miss this extraordinary book by Marinos Sariyannis!
Published open access today!🎉

#OttomanHistory #EarlyModern

Marinos Sariyannis @sariyannis.bsky.social · 5h

My latest book, on open access!

Ottomans and the Supernatural: Nature and the Limits of Knowledge in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire url: academic.oup.com/book/61617

Ottomans and the Supernatural: Nature and the Limits of Knowledge in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire

Abstract. Man is part of nature, we say, and perhaps for most of us nature includes all that exists (at least in a tangible way—i.e. if we want to exclude

academic.oup.com

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Monica H Green @monicamedhist.bsky.social · 21h

Thrilled to have this piece by Omar Muhammed & @fancynahyan.bsky.social out now. I'll be using it tomorrow in a talk at UC-Merced on "Where Do Pandemics Come From? Using Black Death Narratives to Rethink the Origin of Pandemics." Or the question we really need to ask: when are pandemics? A quick 🧵.

Nahyan Fancy @fancynahyan.bsky.social · 2d

Thanks to Kerra for this write up on the Plague maqama article. @uniofexeternews.bsky.social news.exeter.ac.uk/faculty-of-h...

Myths about rapid spread of the Black Death influenced by single “literary tale”, experts show

Myths about how the Black Death travelled quickly across Asia, ravaging Silk Route communities, date back to a single fourteenth-century source, experts have found. Modern portrayals of the plague qui...

news.exeter.ac.uk

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Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 3h

Once you start thinking of AI as a war on humanity, on human thought, on human inquiry, on human labor, on nuance and critical thinking, it slots in pretty seamlessly with the right wing ideological project, oligarchical political projects, big tech's political projects, etc

The future being pushed by both AI boosters and educational censors is one where access to information is tightly controlled. Children will not be allowed to read certain books or learn certain narratives. “Research” will be performed only through one of a select few artificial intelligence tools owned by AI giants which are uniformly aligned behind the Trump administration and which have gone to the ends of the earth to prevent their black box machines from spitting out “woke” answers lest they catch the ire of the administration. School boards and library boards, forced to comply with increasingly restrictive laws, funding cuts, and the threat of being defunded entirely, leap at the chance to be considered forward looking by embracing AI tools, or apply for grants from government groups like the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), which is increasingly giving out grants specifically to AI projects.

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Dr. William Horne @wihorne.bsky.social · 4h

I hope this pattern is becoming clearer:

Billionaires target & destroy assets that serve the public interest so that their profits & power go uncontested.

From news to tech to finance & space, billionaires are not interested in "innovation" or "job creation" or any of that bullshit. They plunder.

Brad Johnson @climatebrad.hillheat.com · 5h

Space X billionaire fanboy Jared Isaacman, back as Trump's NASA nominee, has a secret plan to demolish the agency and turn it into a slush fund for Space X and other private aerospace contractors:

A confidential manifesto lays out Isaacman's sweeping new vision for NASA

The former, and possibly future, nominee for the space agency said he did not intend for the document’s public release.

www.politico.com

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If you know you know @privatechand.bsky.social · 3h

Honestly of all the many many reasons we need incredibly strong guardrails around AI asap, I think it is going to be the engine that allows for perfect price discrimination should be close to the top of the list. The price-setting power of increasingly monopolistic companies is already gouging us.

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Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 4h

1. So, Andrew Torba, head of the website Gab, has been a self-described Christian nationalist for years, and even co-wrote a book about it.

He's also a big AI booster.

Which I guess is how one ends up insisting that Christian…

:: zooms in on book ::

…"nationalsiam" is ascendant?

An article titled "Christian natioanlists are ascendant" underneath an apparently AI-generated image that features a book labeled "Nationalsiam" — i.e., with nationalism is misspelled.

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AuroraPeachy 🍑 @aurorapeachy.bsky.social · 1d

Uninstall Grammarly NOW. They've partnered with an AI company and actively scrape your writing to train its models.

Suzan Phoenix @sphoenixwriter.bsky.social · 2d

HEAD'S UP FELLOW #CREATIVES!
If you haven't heard, #Grammarly is changing...and one change that doesn't pass the smell test is the incorporation of the ocean-boiling plagiarism machine that is #AI. 😒
I'm ditching Grammarly TONIGHT. #Writing #Writers #NoAI
www.grammarly.com/blog/company...

Grammarly Rebrands Company as Superhuman, Introduces Superhuman Suite and Superhuman Go

Superhuman Platform delivers proactive, context-aware AI agents that work in the flow of work, wherever people work Grammarly today announced it is changing its company…

www.grammarly.com

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AAUP @aaup.org · 1d

“Trump’s higher education policies have been catastrophic for our communities & democracy...We’re excited to build a coalition of students & workers united in fighting back for a higher education system that is accessible & affordable for all & serves the common good.”

—Todd Wolfson, AAUP President

100+ US Campus Protests to Call Out Trump Attacks and Unaffordable Education | Common Dreams

Progressive organizers and labor unions aim "to disrupt business as usual and force our schools and our political system to finally work for us," with protests at over 100 US campuses on November 7.

www.commondreams.org

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David W. Congdon @dwcongdon.com · 1d

I cannot recommend enough Michael Gorup's new book, The Counterrevolutionary Shadow: Race, Democracy, and the Making of the American People. Gorup was one of many pushed out of New College in Florida. The code COUNTERSHADOW gets you 30% off and free US shipping. kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700639748/

Cover image of Michael Gorup's new book, The Counterrevolutionary Shadow: Race, Democracy, and the Making of the American People.

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Elisabeth R. Anker @libankerdc.bsky.social · 1d

The #1 lesson from yesterday’s blowout:
Humanities majors killed on the job market
1) Mamdani- Africana Studies
2) Spanberger -French
3) Sherill - Global History

Elisabeth R. Anker @libankerdc.bsky.social · 1d

Humanities where the cool jobs at

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James A. Palmer @jamespqr77.bsky.social · 1d

Does anybody know if the American Historical Association has any childcare stuff folded in? Our household is just realizing that both parents have panels at the same time, and we'll have our kids with us (3 and 5).

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 1d

Disturbing news out of Auburn University, where the admin is pressuring professors to sign a statement saying they're complying with an "anti-DEI" law and TPUSA is holding a rally and trying to record classes.

I hear faculty are terrified to sign, worried this is a pretense for mass firings.

Auburn University requires faculty to review courses to comply with anti-DEI law

Auburn's provost office posted a web site on how to comply with state and federal DEI mandates on Oct. 31.

www.al.com

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James A. Palmer @jamespqr77.bsky.social · 3d

Ah yes, one of those little reminders that we operate alongside people that have been quite literally ignoring the reality they live in for years, sometimes decades. How, in the year of our lord 2025, can anyone have missed what is happening?

Carly Goodman @carlygoodman.bsky.social · 3d

made a wry comment about the collapse of higher ed to a tenured professor and it may as well have been like mentioning all the premature death to a Sunnydale resident, like he didn't think about it all the time and hadn't considered it a possibility

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Mark Thakkar @brunellus.com · 6d

Exciting news from Cambridge, where a donation has funded a permanent lectureship (sorry, “Assistant Professorship”) in the History of Knowledge Pre-1400. The only explicit restriction is “not medicine”, but it is in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science. www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/53305/

Assistant Professor in History of Knowledge Pre-1400 - Job Opportunities - University of Cambridge

Assistant Professor in History of Knowledge Pre-1400 in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge.

www.jobs.cam.ac.uk

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James A. Palmer @jamespqr77.bsky.social · 7d

I would have thought these would be Irish tacos.

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 8d

I cannot believe there are still people in my mentions arguing that boycotting an election because the candidates aren’t addressing your issue is a way to get them to pay attention.

two men are talking to each other and one of them says that 's not how it works

ALT: two men are talking to each other and one of them says that 's not how it works

media.tenor.com

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Joanna Kenty @jokenty.bsky.social · 9d

HOW CAN ANY EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION PAY FOR THIS???

M. C. Flux PhD @fluxinflux.bsky.social · 10d

OpenAI put out a press release today addressing mental health concerns. I have many issues with it, but something super troubling:

They estimate a WEEKLY prevalence of 560,000 users displaying signs of psychosis or mania and 1.2 MILLION users indicating suicidal plan/intent.

Strengthening ChatGPT’s responses in sensitive conversations

We worked with more than 170 mental health experts to help ChatGPT more reliably recognize signs of distress, respond with care, and guide people toward real-world support–reducing responses that fall...

openai.com

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James A. Palmer @jamespqr77.bsky.social · 9d

If you do this, please tell me how! I’m curious to try it.

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James A. Palmer @jamespqr77.bsky.social · 9d

Do people listen to academic books and articles, rather than reading them? Text to speech apps or something?

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · Jun 19

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

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Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 14d

Universities across the world seeing this:

"its only wrong 45% of the time!!
Lets buy free licenses for our students, staff and faculty!!
Lets lock into contracts with rapacious predatory AI companies with shitty technofascist politics, sucking up water and jacking up electricity prices!!"

Largest study of its kind shows AI assistants misrepresent news content 45% of the time – regardless of language or territory
An intensive international study was coordinated by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and led by the BBC

Published: 12:01 am, 22 October 2025
Updated: 06:10 pm, 22 October 2025

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Delegate Katrina Callsen @katrinacallsen.com · 14d

Our state colleges are not owned by Trump and they aren’t for sale.

UVA is a world renowned public university. Our principles should guide our actions, not politically motivated guidance and illegal threats from the DOJ.

The letter @creighdeeds.bsky.social and I sent to Pres. Mahoney & the BOV:

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Angus Johnston @angus.bsky.social · 14d

So the US media has just decided not to cover the virulently racist Cuomo AI ad?

Wow.

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 14d

absolutely shameful that the university has embraced the administration’s demand that it discriminate against its students. this is the board of visitors telling UVA students that if they aren’t white and cisgendered then they don’t belong.

mady castigan✨ 🏳️‍⚧️ @madycast.com · 14d

The University of Virginia has capitulated to Trump on transgender and race (affirmative action) issues.

The details are currently sparse, but reporting suggests they've agreed to define trans people out of existence and ban trans students from facilities.
www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

That includes any race-based scholarships and programs, including any promotion of external scholarships that consider race, and DEI trainings and workshops. Institutions were also told they should no longer prioritize “underrepresented groups” for admissions or hiring, and they must prohibit transgender students from playing on sports teams and using facilities designated for women and girls.

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James A. Palmer @jamespqr77.bsky.social · 15d

"As-is" definitely leaps out at me. Shameful.

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