Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Martin Paul Eve @eve.gd · 10d

With @kfitz.info as keynote!

Andy Byers @ajrbyers.bsky.social · 10d

The Lower Decks returns. We've launched our CFP for The Lower Decks 2.0. Check it out here: www.openlibhums.org/news/859/

@openlibhums.org @janewayolh.bsky.social

The Lower Decks 2.0: A Symposium on Janeway and Open Access Publishing

Theme: Users and Community Location: Dublin City University Library, Glasnevin Campus, Dublin, & hybrid streaming online Dates: 21st – 22nd May 2026 Cost: Free Sign-up to attend Janeway is an …

www.openlibhums.org

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Kathleen Fitzpatrick @kfitz.info · 19d

(It occurs to me to mention: we've gotten hammered by AI scraper bots for the last couple of days. If you run into any slowness or other weird behavior, be patient; we're playing whack-a-mole as fast as we can.)

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Kathleen Fitzpatrick @kfitz.info · 19d

Join us instead at Knowledge Commons, a nonprofit, community governed platform for collaboration and communication among knowledge creators across the disciplines and around the world. hcommons.org

Knowledge Commons – Open access, open source, open to all

Our Mastodon server is open and free to scholars, students, and the intellectually curious. Sign up today to join the conversation.

hcommons.org

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Kathleen Fitzpatrick @kfitz.info · 19d

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Friends don't let friends use academia dot edu. kfitz.info/academia-not...

Academia, Not Edu

The long-running and erratically updated blog of Kathleen Fitzpatrick.

kfitz.info

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Kathleen Fitzpatrick @kfitz.info · 28d

The rationale is familiar; these programs are "not in the best interest of the Federal Government." This determination is astonishingly short-sighted and will have deep ramifications for the US's already difficult engagements with the rest of the world.

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Kathleen Fitzpatrick @kfitz.info · 28d

• National Resource Centers
• Foreign Language and Area Studies Program
• Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language Programs
• International Research and Studies
• Centers for International Business Education
• Language Resource Centers
• American Overseas Research Centers
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Kathleen Fitzpatrick @kfitz.info · 28d

Yesterday, seven programs offered through the International and Foreign Language Education Office of the Department of Education, which administers Title VI and Fulbright-Hays funding, were "non-continued" across the board, including:
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Kathleen Fitzpatrick @kfitz.info · Sep 7

Over the last several months, I've been engaged in a project designed to bring a bunch of the stuff I'm hosting in various places around... (New post from kfitz.info: "Learning" https://kfitz.info/learning/)

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Kathleen Fitzpatrick @kfitz.info · Aug 31

New post from kfitz.info: "Success, at Last"
https://kfitz.info/success-at-last/
(NB: Replies to this post may appear as comments on kfitz.info.)

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David Gooblar @dgooblar.bsky.social · Aug 21

It's @kfitz.info!

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David Gooblar @dgooblar.bsky.social · Aug 21

It’s been way too busy around here so I haven’t posted, but…my new book came out last week! It’s called One Classroom at a Time: How Better Teaching Can Make College More Equitable. www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978067...

One Classroom at a Time — Harvard University Press

Save 25% now with code BTS25.From the author of The Missing Course, an essential guide to pedagogy that serves all members of an ever more diverse undergraduate population.A century ago, a typical US ...

www.hup.harvard.edu

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Kathleen Fitzpatrick @kfitz.info · Aug 18

New post from kfitz.info: "Longevity and Sustainability"
https://kfitz.info/longevity/
(NB: Replies to this post may appear as comments on kfitz.info.)

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Ryan "Ghost Town / Why?" the Randalls @ryanpatrickrandall.com · Aug 17

For real, you can just join.

Then publish.

First Steps: Getting Started with the Commons – Help & Support

support.hcommons.org

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Kathleen Fitzpatrick @kfitz.info · Aug 10

I have been fighting with the process of setting up a server on my home network for what is now literally months. (I keep having to walk away from the project because of that whole “day job” thing.) Advice would not be unsolicited! kfitz.info/networking-c... #homelab #dns #proxmox #nginx

Networking Continued

The long-running and erratically updated blog of Kathleen Fitzpatrick.

kfitz.info

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Kathleen Fitzpatrick @kfitz.info · Aug 10

New post from kfitz.info: "Networking Continued"
https://kfitz.info/networking-continued/
(NB: Replies to this post may appear as comments on kfitz.info.)

Kathleen Fitzpatrick @kfitz.info · Aug 1

Level is good. A significant increase, and a reinstatement of staff and programs, would be better!

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Kathleen Fitzpatrick @kfitz.info · Aug 1

Fantastic. Now do the NEH, the NEA, and IMLS.

Neil Lewis, Jr. @neillewisjr.bsky.social · Aug 1

More good news:

"Senators from both parties endorsed a $400 million *increase* to the budget of the NIH on Thursday, in an Appropriations Committee vote that represents a clear rebuke of President Trump’s plan to dramatically reduce the agency’s spending."
www.statnews.com/2025/07/31/n...

Senate committee endorses NIH budget increase, rebuking Trump administration’s proposed 40% cut

Senators from both parties endorsed a $400 million increase to the budget of the National Institutes of Health on Thursday

www.statnews.com

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Neil Lewis, Jr. @neillewisjr.bsky.social · Aug 1

More good news:

"Senators from both parties endorsed a $400 million *increase* to the budget of the NIH on Thursday, in an Appropriations Committee vote that represents a clear rebuke of President Trump’s plan to dramatically reduce the agency’s spending."
www.statnews.com/2025/07/31/n...

Senate committee endorses NIH budget increase, rebuking Trump administration’s proposed 40% cut

Senators from both parties endorsed a $400 million increase to the budget of the National Institutes of Health on Thursday

www.statnews.com

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Kathleen Fitzpatrick @kfitz.info · Jul 29

If I had been trying to turn something off, I would maybe get it. But I was trying to turn something ON. Sheesh.

Kathleen Fitzpatrick @kfitz.info · Jul 29

WTF am I supposed to do with this dialogue box? Which of “Cancel" and "Turn Off” means "continue”???

A macOS 26 dialogue box reading “If you continue, items will be removed from the Desktop and the Documents folder on this Mac and will remain available in iCloud Drive. New items added to your Desktop or your Documents folder on this
Mac will no longer be stored in iCloud Drive.” Two buttons are presented: Cancel and Turn Off. Grrrrr.

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Kathleen Fitzpatrick @kfitz.info · Jul 27

This is a must-read, not least for its no-holds-barred kicker. @tressiemcphd.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/07/27/o...

Opinion | The Elite Panic at the Heart of Liberal Attacks on Mamdani

www.nytimes.com

Modern Language Association @modernlanguage.bsky.social · Jul 26

MLA, @acls1919.bsky.social, & @historians.org are pleased by the injunction in the Author's Guild case, preventing reallocation of grant funds, but are disappointed in the ruling on our injunction. We remain steadfast in working to stop the unlawful dismantling of the NEH. www.mla.org/NEH-Lawsuit

We will continue to press the argument—in court, with Congress, and with the public—that the NEH remains a critical agency for American democracy, history, literature, languages, philosophy, politics, society, and culture.

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Rob Townsend @rbtownsend.bsky.social · Jul 26

"without my humanities leanings and studies, I would not have been a very good scientist. My humanities classes were a master class in creativity, envisioning new futures and how to think." bit.ly/4of8P8D

Opinion: Gutting humanities signals the end of innovation in business and STEM

Lose the humanities, and you lose the very ground of science and business that depend on it.

bit.ly

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Kathleen Fitzpatrick @kfitz.info · Jul 26

It’s only a start. But it’s a start.

Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · Jul 26

JUST IN: A federal judge has blocked the cancelation of $175 million in National Endowment for the Humanities grants, mass terminated by DOGE in April. She says the effort was transparent viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First Amendment.

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Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · Jul 26

JUST IN: A federal judge has blocked the cancelation of $175 million in National Endowment for the Humanities grants, mass terminated by DOGE in April. She says the effort was transparent viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First Amendment.

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Kathleen Fitzpatrick @kfitz.info · Jul 25

Huge respect for former MLA president Marianne Hirsch.

Sarah Posner @sarahposner.bsky.social · Jul 25

"How can you have a university course where ideas are not up for discussion or interpretation?”

apnews.com/article/colu...

A Columbia genocide scholar says she may leave over university's new definition of antisemitism

Academics around the country are raising alarm about growing efforts to define antisemitism on terms pushed by the Trump administration.

apnews.com

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Kathleen Fitzpatrick @kfitz.info · Jul 25

I stg if I have to spend even one more minute turning Copilot off in a new location I will combust.

More Perfect Union @moreperfectunion.bsky.social · Jul 24

Microsoft and Mercedes‑Benz are working together to let people access Teams from the car.

Benz is the first car maker to enable in-car camera use for Teams while a car is being driven.

The companies are also partnering to put Microsoft 365 Copilot into vehicles.

www.theverge.com/news/708481/...

Mercedes-Benz will let you use an in-car camera in Microsoft Teams while driving

The all-new CLA gets this first

www.theverge.com

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Kathleen Fitzpatrick @kfitz.info · Jul 25

Indeed. This is a hard no.

Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · Jul 25

I wish a mf would

More Perfect Union @moreperfectunion.bsky.social · Jul 24

Microsoft and Mercedes‑Benz are working together to let people access Teams from the car.

Benz is the first car maker to enable in-car camera use for Teams while a car is being driven.

The companies are also partnering to put Microsoft 365 Copilot into vehicles.

www.theverge.com/news/708481/...

Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · Jul 25

I wish a mf would

More Perfect Union @moreperfectunion.bsky.social · Jul 24

Microsoft and Mercedes‑Benz are working together to let people access Teams from the car.

Benz is the first car maker to enable in-car camera use for Teams while a car is being driven.

The companies are also partnering to put Microsoft 365 Copilot into vehicles.

www.theverge.com/news/708481/...

Mercedes-Benz will let you use an in-car camera in Microsoft Teams while driving

The all-new CLA gets this first

www.theverge.com

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Sarah Posner @sarahposner.bsky.social · Jul 25

"How can you have a university course where ideas are not up for discussion or interpretation?”

apnews.com/article/colu...

A Columbia genocide scholar says she may leave over university's new definition of antisemitism

Academics around the country are raising alarm about growing efforts to define antisemitism on terms pushed by the Trump administration.

apnews.com

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