Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Katherine Crighton

Sarah Pinsker @sarahpinsker.bsky.social · 3h

On the way home from the barn I heard a This American Life piece by a guy who had an AI clone of himself call his friends to have conversations and I would just like to state now that if anyone ever does this to me, we will no longer be friends. WTF is this world where we outsource all interaction?

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Reposted by Katherine Crighton

Emily Brand @emilybrand.bsky.social · 3d

V. excited to have found a child's diary from 1789, covering the period he & his family fled the French Revolution

... So far it has mostly been 'I am very annoyed about running away!', accompanied with detailed blow by blow accounts of his tutor's unfortunate bouts of diarrhoea #18c

a man sitting in a chair with a hulu logo on the bottom

ALT: a man sitting in a chair with a hulu logo on the bottom

media.tenor.com

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Reposted by Katherine Crighton

Funranium (AKA Phil Broughton) @funranium.bsky.social · 3d

They did give me a nightmare scenario addition:

"The larger the datacenter, the larger the battery backup it needs, which we also only have recently started addressing in the code."

And added "So, yeah, I guess we're waiting for a Triangle Shirtwaist Fire for datacenters."

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Reposted by Katherine Crighton

Shiv Ramdas Mens Rice Activist @nameshiv.bsky.social · 7d

The Ig Nobel is incredible , one year an Indian guy won it for calculating the average surface area of an elephant and during his acceptance they had an elephant hold up a sign with the surface area of the scientist on it, they do showbiz better than the Oscars

Jeffrey J. Hall @mrjeffu.bsky.social · 22d

Video: a Japanese scientist was attacked by flies while giving the acceptance speech for his Ig Nobel Prize-winning research paper that proved painting Zebra-like stripes on cows led to a decrease in biting fly attacks.

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Katherine Crighton @katherinecrighton.bsky.social · 6d

Truth in advertising:

Photo of a scribbled-in notebook with several words crossed out (all notes related to last-minute additions to my MFA installation) lying open in front of a several condiments and a small advertisement for the Denny's rewards program.

Katherine Crighton @katherinecrighton.bsky.social · 6d

Normal advertising: Please prereg for my MFA capstone and justify my crying in a Denny's as I write about the unbearable beauty of humanity across time, thx
wp.wpi.edu/apothecaryca...

Book a Timeslot | An Apothecary Dreams

wp.wpi.edu

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Katherine Crighton @katherinecrighton.bsky.social · 6d

Based on a lot of the sotto voce posting happening in my timeline, I'm looking at this thread I wrote (up and down) months ago, about genAI defenders and a possible reason for that defensiveness, and... Welp.

Katherine Crighton @katherinecrighton.bsky.social · Dec 22

And as such, the way we talk about genAI as a tool *has* to have more thought put into it. Calling its output "bullshit" or "slop" is, well, accurate-- BUT it's too late for the people who've already put genAI into the "also people" bucket. It just pings a protective/defensive instinct.

Reposted by Katherine Crighton

Katherine Crighton @katherinecrighton.bsky.social · 7d

Were you at #Readercon this year? Did you see--or pop a message into--The 500-Year Time Capsule? Book an entry time to see the final collection for it, at my capstone installation "An Apothecary Dreams": wp.wpi.edu/apothecaryca...

A photograph of a rain-speckled red garden rose, at twilight; in the background is Higgins House in Worcester, Massachusetts: a Tudor Revival-era house with visible crenelations, narrow windows, and half-timbered exterior, lit warmly from within.

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Katherine Crighton @katherinecrighton.bsky.social · 7d

There are more, but: They're all time capsules that exist all around us. And I give guests the chance to add to another, one last time... so come see, and share, and support arts-based reseach while you're at it: wp.wpi.edu/apothecaryca...

A photograph of a large glass jar with several slips of paper stuffed inside it. Distorted through the glass, but still clearly legible, each bears the words: "To Someone Far Away, Who I May Never Meet: Here is something I want you to know."

Katherine Crighton @katherinecrighton.bsky.social · 7d

And it wouldn't be my dream if The Workshop wasn't there, with some of the ways true reconstructions of household apothecary recipes are no longer possible...

A photograph of vintage glass bottles on heavy tapestry fabric, lit by LES candles from behind, each holding words of illegal or otherwise forbidden ingredients: ambergris, spermaceti, musk and musk bladders, and red coral.

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Katherine Crighton @katherinecrighton.bsky.social · 7d

The full title of this art installation is "An Apothecary Dreams: an interactive time capsule, inventing science past, present, and beyond". There are several elements within it-- the previous was from The Talking Books. It's also in the background in this photo of The Garden.

A photograph of a large homegrown pale pink and vibrant yellow streaked dahlia, surrounded by fresh greenery. Its pot is green pottery, standing on gold-embroidered floral fabric. A small LED candle is visible, as well as a mounted standup of something with words pasted on it. In the background, collaged standups are lit by tiny wire lights beneath a painting of a Edwardian era man.

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Katherine Crighton @katherinecrighton.bsky.social · 7d

October 10 and 11 are the only dates-- but here are some glimpses of what's inside:

A photograph of a large upright collage of pages from Early Modern published works. Prominent is a slightly raised page, the preface of Robert Hooke's MICROGRAPHIA (1665). A string of tiny wire lights stretches above it.

Katherine Crighton @katherinecrighton.bsky.social · 7d

Were you at #Readercon this year? Did you see--or pop a message into--The 500-Year Time Capsule? Book an entry time to see the final collection for it, at my capstone installation "An Apothecary Dreams": wp.wpi.edu/apothecaryca...

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Reposted by Katherine Crighton

Dr Naomi Jacobs @ladylark.bsky.social · 7d

A wonderful thread involving secret compartments, secret treasures, care and kindness.

Lydia Massiah @lydiamassiah.bsky.social · 7d

This could be a long and rambling thread. Be patient with me.

I bought an old mahogany bureau on Ebay. I didn't really want a bureau as we're meant to be downsizing, but it was a beautiful piece & obviously very old. Google lens suggests the brass chased handles are Queen Anne. That's 1702-1714 😯

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Reposted by Katherine Crighton

Aftermath @aftermath.site · 9d

The art for this piece, 'Thank You For Your Interest', is a composite of 60 template rejection letters all received by the artist Claire Peckham. You can buy prints of the art, and her other work, here:

www.clairepeckham.com/project...

Thank you again for your interest — Claire Peckham

www.clairepeckham.com

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Reposted by Katherine Crighton

Daniel Bellingradt @dbellingradt.bsky.social · Feb 12

EX FUMO IN LUCEM, from the dark to the light.

This #earlymodern printing press is waiting for action. The motto was a marketing thing, as many publishers thought of themselves as bringers of light. To be more precise: they thought of themselves as sellers of enlightened paper goods. #bookhistory

Detail of a 1717 printed printer's device from Johann Christoph Tarnow, a Leipzig-based printer, showing a handpress waiting for action. The motto "ex fumo in lucem" is positioned above the printing press.

Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/yalelawlibrary/51063240612/in/album-72157715339319198

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Katherine Crighton @katherinecrighton.bsky.social · 18d

Hey did you know that booking an entry time to my art installation this October is a very inexpensive way to see the inside of a lovely Tudor Revival house AND ALSO support arts-based research by a grad student in these Troubled Times? WIN-WIN
wp.wpi.edu/apothecaryca...

Photograph of three Early Modern botanical illustrations mounted on cardboard (coriander, cistus, rose de province), standing behind the 1561 etching "Odoratus (Smell)" from THE FIVE SENSES by Cornelis Cort after Frans Floris I

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Katherine Crighton @katherinecrighton.bsky.social · 20d

Now at last it can be told: If you're in the Massachusetts area (or plan to be!) on October 10th or 11th, book an entry time to see the culmination of my degree: an immersive art installation about my experience with history, science, time, and humanity:
www.tinyurl.com/an-apothecary-dreams

An Apothecary Dreams: an interactive time capsule, inventing science past, present, and beyond. Book a timeslot: Friday, October 10, 2025; Saturday, October 11, 2025. Higgins House, Worcester Polytechnic Institute

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Katherine Crighton @katherinecrighton.bsky.social · 21d

por que no los dos 😌

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Katherine Crighton @katherinecrighton.bsky.social · 21d

but it contains elaborate collabortive fiction, wild experiments with form, open-ended art dependent on time and cumulative effort, and achingly beautiful connections with the past written with passion and love

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Katherine Crighton @katherinecrighton.bsky.social · 21d

Tumblr can be overwhelming if you're unfamiliar with it; it's one of the last bastions of algorithm-free social media, so there's a culture and learning curve to it that can be intimidating--

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Katherine Crighton @katherinecrighton.bsky.social · 21d

Actually, gonna repost this here, because I *really* need link to that Tumblr collection again.

Katherine Crighton @katherinecrighton.bsky.social · 21d

Vic (V.C.) Gatrell is, to me, a delight of tangents and footnotes and asides. In terms of grey literature, though, I have a collection of favorite history writing posts from Tumblr that just-- yeah. Not pro or academic, but achingly human and emotional.
katherinecrighton.tumblr.com/post/7890911...

katherinecrighton.tumblr.com

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Katherine Crighton @katherinecrighton.bsky.social · 21d

I would check the replies, too-- people definitely contributed their own that I hadn't heard, and included their own tagged collections. I love that they're both bite-sized *and* from a place of genuine emotional connection-- it's like a sudden hit of "oh, THIS is what studying history can do"

collections.il

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Katherine Crighton @katherinecrighton.bsky.social · 21d

Vic (V.C.) Gatrell is, to me, a delight of tangents and footnotes and asides. In terms of grey literature, though, I have a collection of favorite history writing posts from Tumblr that just-- yeah. Not pro or academic, but achingly human and emotional.
katherinecrighton.tumblr.com/post/7890911...

katherinecrighton.tumblr.com

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Katherine Crighton @katherinecrighton.bsky.social · 21d

"Oh my god is it Aristotle's Masterpiece" I thought before I clicked, and YES it IS

The Public Domain Review @publicdomainrev.bsky.social · 21d

Mary Fissell on how a wildly popular sex manual — first published in 17th-century London and reprinted in hundreds of subsequent editions — both taught and titillated through the early modern period and beyond: publicdomainreview.org/essay/w...

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