Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 13h

Also, on the subject of kitsch and recut heads, look at this delight, which I saw consciously for the first time a couple of weeks ago… commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ca...

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 13h

The Kunsthistorisches Museum has some great horrors like this.

Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 14h

Learning about book marketing today, which is all well and good, but talk about "sentiment scores" gives me uncomfortable flashbacks to a brief experiment by a classics journal to have reviewers (optionally!) assign an emoji to an article. Yes, the options ranged from Grinny to Frowny.

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 19h

We just got through a period with a dean of the libraries who reluctantly had to agree that some functionality for "legacy users" (you know, the people who still use books) had to be kept. It was not awesome, no. Good luck.

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 20h

That’s Herr Professor von AI-Hallucination to you. Anyway, as someone occasionally quite taken by steam punk, I hope an author or several runs with this.

Tombmas Spooks @thomasfuchs.at · 1d

How many trillions of dollars have been invested into this technology so far?

Google search for "austria hungary in space"

Google excitedly tells you about the 1889 orbital flight, and that by 1908 there was a Mars research output with 30 people.

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 23h

That’s one impressive “you may wonder how I ended up here…”

Raccoons Hourly @raccoonhourly.bsky.social · 1d

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Reposted by Isabel Köster

James Harland @jmharland.bsky.social · 4d

At the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies we are offering 10 fellowships for scholars at any stage in their careers to stay with us for up to 6 months (PhD candidates and senior academics) or 12 months (postdocs) to complete a research project:

www.dependency.uni-bonn.de/images/pdf-f...

www.dependency.uni-bonn.de

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 23h

The what now? That’s some serious emperor kitsch…

The Partial Historians 🏺 @partialhistorians.bsky.social · 1d

Witness Augustus as you’ve never seem him, re-sculptured to look nothing like himself!

The scene is ostensibly Augustus driving a chariot of Tritons. The imagery includes Tritons holding a shield with an oak wreath (thought to be the clipeus virtutis) and Victoria.

#ReliefWednesday #AncientRome

Description from Kunsthistorisches Museum: “The cameo shows Augustus, clad in a toga – the heads of the figures are all modern – viewed from the front in a chariot being pulled through the sea by Tritons. The triumphant naval victor holds a branch in his right hand and a sceptre in his left. An oak wreath is attached to the parapet of the chariot, and a shell is attached to the end of the handle. While the two middle Tritons – one holding a horn in his right, the other a dolphin in his left – each raise an arm symmetrically as if pointing at Augustus, the two outer Tritons carry the symbols of his reign in front of him: the left holds a globe, on which a shield with an oak wreath (clipeus virtutis) flanked by two ibexes, and the right shows Victoria floating on the globe. The cameo was probably created soon after 27 BCE, when Augustus was awarded the oak wreath, which - together with the ibex - was also engraved on the back of the stone in the 16th century.”

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 1d

Well, that’ll be one to look at before the next medicine week in Roman gender comes around… (I took it from a day to a week on the second to last iteration due to popular demand for horrors from the annals of medicine)

Kristina Killgrove @killgrove.bsky.social · 1d

"In this excerpt from "Born: A History of Childbirth," author and historian Lucy Inglis reveals records from ancient Egypt that show how female physicians treated issues of "the womb," how men reacted to periods, and how the first known pregnancy test actually worked." 🏺🧪

'The papyrus also recommends putting a clove of garlic in your vagina before bed': The texts that reveal the baffling healthcare for women in ancient Egypt

In this excerpt from "Born: A History of Childbirth," author and historian Lucy Inglis reveals records from ancient Egypt that show how female physicians treated issues of "the womb," how men reacted ...

www.livescience.com

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 1d

I sent a friend stuff from the 1st advanced Latin class I ever took and realized that the course was a horrifying 23 years ago. But that also means that I (a college starter) have been doing this classics thing for over half my life, which is a nice feeling. Plus, Cicero is still older (and deader).

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Reposted by Isabel Köster

Rebecca Menmuir @rebeccamenmuir.bsky.social · 1d

Call For Papers: Teaching With Ovid.

Any aspect of teaching Ovid in the classroom, for a 2-day symposium on 12-13 June 2026.
Classicist teaching Ovid? Medievalist teaching the Ovide moralise? Librarian/archivist with historic copies of Ovid to share? Take a look: shorturl.at/RiviU

Deadline 16 Jan.

The full Call For Papers can be accessed at the following link: https://shorturl.at/RiviU

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Reposted by Isabel Köster

Yale Classics Library @yaleclassicslib.bsky.social · 1d

New issue of Illinois Classical Studies Vol. 50, No. 1, Spring 2025 muse.jhu.edu/issue/55694 @projectmuse.bsky.social @illinoispress.bsky.social Fake News is or as Invective in Ancient Texts

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 1d

Ah, the “eduroam couldn’t be joined” box. Is it just napping or are there indeed new authentication protocols as a Tuesday morning treat?

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 2d

I'm trying (+ failing) to understand how ResearchGate works. But it is amusing to know that since I published a paper on flamingo sacrifice that cited a couple of science articles on flamingos, there were apparently several bio profs waiting with baited breath for me to finally hop on this thing.

Isabel KÖSTER, Professor (Associate) of University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder (CUB) | Read 14 publications | Contact Isabel KÖSTER

www.researchgate.net

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 2d

The owl app is dropping essential phrases again…

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Reposted by Isabel Köster

Erin Grievances @erinbartram.bsky.social · 3d

If you are a supporter and reader of @contingent-mag.bsky.social one of the biggest things you can do to help us at the moment is get this CFP to the NTT folks in your life. The fracturing of social media has made it very difficult to get the word out esp. to adjuncts and VAPs.

CFP: A Time of Monsters

The monster has been here all along. It is a historical constant that manifests in wildly different ways across time, place, and culture. Whatever form it takes, the monster claws at categories; it un...

contingentmagazine.org

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 2d

Overheard German productivity advice:
"So you're doing a PhD?"
-"Yes."
-"Have you started writing?"
-"No."
-"So what are you doing here?"
-"I like the atmosphere."
-"Atmosphere seems like a waste of time."

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 2d

Well, today on "dispatches from academia"...

Emanuel Maiberg @emanuelmaiberg.bsky.social · 2d

Got a tip recently about how Trump's tariffs are preventing libraries from sharing books, and causing their loaned books to get stuck or lost in other countries: www.404media.co/libraries-ca...

Libraries Can’t Get Their Loaned Books Back Because of Trump’s Tariffs

Libraries have shared their collections internationally for decades. Trump’s tariffs are throwing that system into chaos and can ‘hinder academic progress.’

www.404media.co

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 2d

So that'll be a new audiobook to get a hold of a.s.a.p.!

Natalie Haynes @nataliehaynes.bsky.social · 2d

Sail with the Argo on an epic quest (and a love story steeped in vengeance) in No Friend to This House, out now:
www.panmacmillan.com/authors/nata...

No Friend to This House by Natalie Haynes

Find out more about No Friend to This House by Natalie Haynes

www.panmacmillan.com

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 3d

Fresh Oscan #epigraphy just in time for Monday breakfast!

Dan Diffendale @diffendale.bsky.social · 3d

If you remember last autumn when I was live-skeeting excavations at Rossano di Vaglio, the first report of that work has just been published (in Italian). Happy for it to see the light of day, and also very pleased to present five new Oscan inscriptions to the world...
🏺
#ArchaeologyBluesky

Rossano di Vaglio, santuario italico: cronaca e nuovi dati dalla campagna di scavo del 2024 | Quaderni di ACMA

acma-digitale.it

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 3d

The secret is heavy reference volumes (just in case you needed an excuse not to shift everything to e-editions)

Classical Studies Memes for Hellenistic Teens @csmfht.bsky.social · 3d

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 4d

Super-excited to see that Katharine Huemoeller's first book will be out in March!

The Child Follows the Womb - Yale University Press London

A new and incisive exploration of female slavery and reproduction in ancient Rome One of ancient Rome’s most significant legacies is a legal framework...

yalebooks.co.uk

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 5d

those eyes!

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 5d

Grammarly paid is a scourge. I've been using the free version since it has much better custom dictionary features than Word's own spell check. Decided to check out the paid version a while ago. And suddenly it went from helpful to trying to rewrite all my sentences. NOPE!

Courtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · 5d

I just had a Grammarly ad inflicted on me where they said they could add sources to your student papers.

Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 5d

So how long have Visconti fountain pens had a Greek gods edition? (warning: shiny and $$$)

JetPens.com - Visconti Mirage Mythos Fountain Pen - Persephone - Fine

Inspired by ancient Greek and Roman mythology, the Visconti Mirage Mythos pens present a divine blend of swirling acrylic resins. The cap and barrel snap together with a magnetic lock that is easy, ef...

www.jetpens.com

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