Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Dot Porter @leoba.bsky.social · 13h

The AI bubble cannot pop fast enough

(I'm a graduate of UNC's library school. This is so disappointing.)

Caitlin Goodman @caitlinest.bsky.social · 17h

My day is shot bc a colleague just shared this UNC press release about a still to-be-named, to-be-designed, to-be-planned AI school where the only known fact seems to be that it will replace the library school.

www.unc.edu/posts/2025/1...

University leadership announces development of new school at Carolina | UNC-Chapel Hill

The School of Information and Library Science and the School of Data Science and Society will be founding leaders of a new school to amplify and lead Carolina’s response to the information and data ne...

www.unc.edu

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Dot Porter @leoba.bsky.social · 13h

EXCITING!! Can't wait to read it!

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Die Laughing Magazine @dielaughingmag.bsky.social · 5d

It's here! It's here! The TOC for Issue 5 of Die Laughing is HERE!

We could not be more excited to bring you these 6 hilarifying tales, available as a PDF download 10/31/25, with stories posting for free every week after! Join us for stories so funny they'll kill you! #horrorsky
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Die Laughing Magazine @dielaughingmag.bsky.social · 4d

Hey! Are you an artist? Is your work scary AND funny? Do you want to have your art on the cover of the most prestigious horror comedy publication we know of?

Great news! Die Laughing is accepting cover art submissions on an ongoing basis. Send us your art! dielaughingmag.com/c...

Composite mage of the covers of the first four issues of Die Laughing Magazine.

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Die Laughing Magazine @dielaughingmag.bsky.social · 2d

We won't choose and you can't make us! We're bringing you the best of hilarious horror (and we're also probably losing at cards).

#meme #unomeme #horror #humor #cantchoose #dielaughing

Uno meme! On the left, an Uno card that reads "choose between laughter and fear OR draw 25" and on the right, a seated person holding a hand full of so many Uno cards (clearly having drawn 25 to avoid such an unfair decision).

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Yale Classics Library @yaleclassicslib.bsky.social · 2d

Online Lecture Fri. Oct. 17, 12:00pm EDT @sims-mss.bsky.social J. D. Sargan on Trans Studies as Book Historical Method @jdsargan.bsky.social

Trans Studies as Book Historical Method

J. D. Sargan considers generative modes of reading through the premodern archive to seek out trans lives beyond the ephemeral glimpses that have gone unnoticed in the historical record.

www.library.upenn.edu

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Esther Schindler @estherschindler.bsky.social · 3d

I just saw someone use the abbreviation “AI;DR” and I’ll be laughing for a while.

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Medieval and Early Modern Orients (MEMOs) @memorients.bsky.social · 3d

Assistant Professorship in Early Medieval Literatures and Cultures, Fordham University:
memorients.com/news/assista...

Assistant Professorship in Early Medieval Literatures and Cultures, Fordham University | MEMOs

Early Modern Literatures and Culture, Fordham University (NYC)

memorients.com

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Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 3d

I see pieces like this a lot, often w/ a spin of lamenting cultural degeneration, but reading is a LABOR issue, it’s declined because so many people are working overtime or two jobs & employers expect after hours work. France has Earth’s highest reading rate b/c long lunch breaks & labor protections

After Dinner Conversation® @afterdinnerconversation.com · 3d

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Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies @sims-mss.bsky.social · 3d

A delightful copy of the Seven Penitential Psalms (Les sept pseaumes penitentiaux) written in France in 1681. The binding is embroidered silk, interior decoration includes vignettes and illuminated initials. (UPenn Ms. Codex 1564)

🔗: https://bit.ly/4c0KGg5

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Jonathan Surratt @beerinator.com · 3d

I wrote a very in depth look at what a Carolina-style burger is and what it isn't. I created a map to help you find a great example and then I shared strategies and tactics to make your own all-the-way burger at home. Click through to get hungry and learn more.

All-the-way to Carolina burgers

Taking a deep dive into the Carolina-style cheeseburger. We'll be figuring out what this burger is and isn't, where you can find one, and then sharing tips and recipes to make your own at home.

boundedbybuns.com

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Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies @sims-mss.bsky.social · 4d

For #CoffeeWithACodex on October 9, Curator @leoba.bsky.social will bring out Ms. Codex 736, a collection of papal letters and instruments regarding the order of the Eremite Friars of St. Augustine of Rouen. It was written in Italy in 1475. #medievalsky #cwac

Register here: https://bit.ly/3Kvn0H0

Coffee with a Codex: Documents Concerning a Community of Friars

An informal lunch or coffee time to meet virtually with Kislak curators and talk about one of the manuscripts from Penn's collections. Each week we'll feature a different...

bit.ly

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 3d

Just noticed that my @sims-mss.bsky.social 2024 Plenary is online, in which I explore the #MedievalManuscript #OpenAccess ecosystem, including @iiif.bsky.social, @digitalscriptorium.bsky.social, Digital Mappa, and the Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts: www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDwQ...

17th Annual Schoenberg Symposium on Manuscript Studies in the Digital Age: Nov. 21, 2024, Keynote

YouTube video by SchoenbergInstitute

www.youtube.com

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Dot Porter @leoba.bsky.social · 3d

YES I'm very excited about this one!!!

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Monica H Green @monicamedhist.bsky.social · 4d

Oh boy, on Oct 16, @leoba.bsky.social is showing Rosenbach Museum & Library MS 1004/29, a mid-14thC physician's belt w/ calendar, tables of solar & lunar eclipses, anatomical phlebotomy diagram, & urine wheel. A 🦇 book, b/c it unfolds like a pair of 🦇 wings. libcal.library.upenn.edu/event/14872116

Coffee with a Codex On The Road: Bat Book at the Rosenbach

An informal lunch or coffee time to meet virtually with Kislak curators and talk about one of the manuscripts from Penn's collections. Each week we'll feature a different...

libcal.library.upenn.edu

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Joey Fishkin @fishkin.bsky.social · 6d

News coverage of the Trump administration's proposed "compact" with universities has been, so far, shockingly bad.

I hate to pick on NPR reporter Elissa Nadworny, who's usually a solid reporter, but almost every important thing I heard her say this morning about the proposed "compact" was false.

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Dot Porter @leoba.bsky.social · 4d

Stretch

essencesimmone.blacksky.app @essencesimmone.blacksky.app · 6d

Those who are 35+, what advice do you have for people just entering their 30s?

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Amanda Watson @amndw2.bsky.social · 4d

I couldn't resist. #pleasingterror

A bingo card for the ghost stories of M.R. James. Boxes read:
"Spiders
Terrible hotel stay
Narrator makes fun of golf
Latin passages
Eerie disembodied voices
Confirmed bachelor main character
Vengeful spirit
Evil magician
Working-class character as comic relief
Bleak East Anglian coast
Visit to an archive
Narrator in guidebook mode
FREE SPACE
Unholy doings in a church
Frogs or toads
Queen Anne style house
Cursed artifact
Don't buy that rare book!
Something hairy and horrible
Someone gets too curious
Tentacles
Story told via old manuscript
Research trip gone horribly wrong
Beds are scary
Tactile horror

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Dr. Damien P. Williams Wants A Better Sociotechnical Paradigm @wolvendamien.bsky.social · Jul 30

Again: Marginalized people are disproportionately harmed by the spread of "AI" because the people who use it are essentially being trained to think the machine is "like us" & can speak "for us," even as it simultaneously pressures you to disbelieve *Actual Us* when we tell you "it's not & it cant."

Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) @autisticadvocacy.org · Jul 29

Generative AI changes what things mean because it focuses on words, not the meaning. It adds words, changes meaning, and makes "plain language" that is not accessible. We know, because we tested it. Generative AI has no place in plain language. autisticadvocacy.org/2025/07/asan...

Dark grey textured background. There’s a lighter grey box with text that reads: Artificial intelligence is when a computer program does things that normally need to be done by humans. We call artificial intelligence “AI” for short. There are lots of different kinds of AI.
The way AI works is by using data from people. Data is information a computer can read. AI programs read data made by people to understand what to do.
Generative AI is a specific kind of AI. Generative AI can use data to make new things.
Generative AI can create many kinds of new things, like:
text
images
music/movies
and more
People have already started using generative AI to write plain language.

Grey textured background. Text reads: In our statement, we explain the reasons why people should not use generative AI to write in plain language. Plain language is an important part of making things accessible for people with disabilities. Using generative AI makes “plain language” that is not actually accessible. We hope anyone who writes in plain language will not use generative AI.
Here are the reasons we talk about in our statement:
Generative AI changes what things mean
Plain language is an idea that is too new for generative AI to understand
Generative AI focuses on words, not ideas
Generative AI has discrimination built-in
Plain language is by and for disabled people
Read our full statement to learn more about each of these reasons.

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Eduardo Fernández @apocalypsisnova.bsky.social · 4d

Newly digitised Gəʽəz manuscript just dropped

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Dave Almighty @dave-almighty.bsky.social · 5d

You’re own
Personal
Owl friend
Someone to eat your mice
Covered in lice

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 5d

Six weeks ago, I picked up a year-old tawny owl with a broken leg off the main road near our home and dropped him off at our nearest vet.

After a few days, I received one of the most bizarre phone calls I’ve ever had, asking “So when are you coming to pick up your owl?” 🧵

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Simon Strick @unddieregel.bsky.social · 4d

This is mandatory reading on what US universities seem to be facing rn

Joey Fishkin @fishkin.bsky.social · 5d

I thought I'd put the administration's proposed "compact" with universities in context, so I wrote the blog post below.

It's especially for journalists covering this story!

Many details about how the compact itself works and why the administration has retreated to this strategy.

Balkinization: The Art of Replacing the Law with the Deal

A group blog on constitutional law, theory, and politics

balkin.blogspot.com

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Joey Fishkin @fishkin.bsky.social · 5d

I thought I'd put the administration's proposed "compact" with universities in context, so I wrote the blog post below.

It's especially for journalists covering this story!

Many details about how the compact itself works and why the administration has retreated to this strategy.

Balkinization: The Art of Replacing the Law with the Deal

A group blog on constitutional law, theory, and politics

balkin.blogspot.com

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