Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Juan Acevedo @juanacevedo.bsky.social · 6d

So clearly articulated, worth the long read!
"Professors will be familiar with the experience of reading student essays that are neither very good nor very bad, but that uncanny combination of the intelligent and the stupid that is the mark of AI writing."
www.theguardian.com/news/2025/oc...

A critique of pure stupidity: understanding Trump 2.0

If the first term of Donald Trump provoked anxiety over the fate of objective knowledge, the second has led to claims we live in a world-historical age of stupid, accelerated by big tech. But might th...

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Juan Acevedo

Warwick History Post-Doc Club @post-doc-club.bsky.social · 9d

Great news!
JSTOR now have a free account with an Independent Researcher category. You can access 100 documents per month

www.jstor.org/action/showL...

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Reposted by Juan Acevedo

Instituto Superior Técnico @istecnico.bsky.social · 9d

The 1st edition of the largest hackathon network in Europe will take place in Portugal on 18 and 19 October, at Técnico - Oeiras campus.

Registrations until 1 October. 📝

🔗 More information: tinyurl.com/5c796ju4

#TécnicoLisboa #ULisboa

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Juan Acevedo @juanacevedo.bsky.social · 10d

#DH #AI @ciuhct

Barrett Bowlin @barrettbowlin.bsky.social · Aug 28

Educators! Looking for a study to include in your syllabi about how AI/LLM use actually does make you dumber? Here's a link to the original findings from MIT researchers:

arxiv.org/abs/2506.08872

And here's a solid summary of those findings:

publichealthpolicyjournal.com/mit-study-fi...

Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task

This study explores the neural and behavioral consequences of LLM-assisted essay writing. Participants were divided into three groups: LLM, Search Engine, and Brain-only (no tools). Each completed thr...

arxiv.org

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Juan Acevedo @juanacevedo.bsky.social · 10d

"On many platforms, we are no longer the customers, but instead have become the product."
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Why I gave the world wide web away for free | Tim Berners-Lee

My vision was based on sharing, not exploitation – and here’s why it’s still worth fighting for

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Juan Acevedo

Astral Sciences in Trans-Regional Asia (ASTRA) @astra-mpiwg.bsky.social · Aug 7

📢 Publication alert!

We are delighted to share the latest publication from ASTRA researchers Jacob Schmidt-Madsen and Anuj Misra.

"A Tree with Many Roots: Introducing the Zysk Collection of Indic Manuscripts", now open access in Manuscript Studies muse.jhu.edu/article/965563

@mpiwg.bsky.social

Project MUSE - A Tree with Many Roots: Introducing the Zysk Collection of Indic Manuscripts

muse.jhu.edu

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Juan Acevedo @juanacevedo.bsky.social · Sep 4

Here's a final blog post for the @erc.europa.eu Rutter Project, with some stats, reflections and a little banter on #DH and outreach
rutter-blog.blogspot.com/2025/08/that...
@cienciasulisboa.bsky.social #HistSci

That’s All Folks—Summing Up and Reflecting on our Blogging Stint

Over the past six years, we published a total of 128 posts here, plus 59 in our sister Arabic Science and Philosophy blog . It was clear fr...

rutter-blog.blogspot.com

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Reposted by Juan Acevedo

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

Reposting! Don't miss our next SIMS Online Lecture on September 19!

Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies @sims-mss.bsky.social · Aug 27

Coming soon: "Pages of Stars: Case Studies in the History of the Astral Sciences from the Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection," a lecture from SIMS Fellow Michael Zellman-Rohrer, Freie Universität Berlin.

Friday, September 19, 12:00 - 1:30 pm EDT, on ZOOM

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

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Pages of Stars: Case Studies in the History of the Astral Sciences from the Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection

Michael Zellman-Rohrer offers a progress report on a larger project to place manuscripts on the astral sciences (astronomy and astrology) from Europe and the wider Mediterranean world in social context and to bring these products of premodern science and their producers and users, in the fullness of their languages and faiths, into dialogue with social history and the history of science.

bit.ly

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Juan Acevedo @juanacevedo.bsky.social · Aug 30

4 años de trabajo en esta nueva edición digital del Quatri partitu de Alonso de Chaves. A great ride, involving the initial use of @transkribus.bsky.social
#xml is ready for enriching, do get in touch!
zenodo.org/records/1697...
#HistSci @erc.europa.eu @cienciasulisboa.bsky.social
#openaccess #DH

Quatri Partitu en cosmografía práctica y por otro nombre llamado Espejo de navegantes

The QUATRI PARTITU en cosmografía práctica y por otro nombre llamado Espejo de navegantes (Quatri Partitu on Practical Cosmography, otherwise known as Mirror of Navigators) is one of the most importan...

zenodo.org

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Reposted by Juan Acevedo

Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · Aug 27

People of Connecticut and regions nearby. Come on out on September 16! Free and open to the public.

A poster for a talk I'm giving.

Tuesday, September 16, 2025 at 4:30pm
Boger Hall, Room 112, 41 Wyllys Avenue, Middletown, Connecticut

Free and open to the public.

"Extracting the Past: How the 'AI' Industry Exploits Art History and What We Can Do to Stop It."

Over the last several years, universities and museums have partnered with commercial technology firms like Google, Microsoft, and Meta, who have promised that their AI products will enhance both historical research and accessibility to historical collections. These promises, however, are not supported by the reality of what computer vision--the branch of AI most relevant to the history of art--can achieve. So why have major institutions in education and the arts been so quick to take up these firms' offers?

This talk responds to this question by providing an introduction to computer vision's origins in military surveillance, an overview of its development under late capitalist regimes of exploitative micro-labor, and an orientation to how computer vision works. However, the main focus of this talk is not what computer vision does. Rather, Drimmer considers the culture of the AI industry, its main objectives, and the dangerous vision for the future that it promises--and whether those promises are credible or even in good faith. This vision for the future has relied on extracting history, and art history in particular, and Drimmer argues that it is our responsibility as art historians to be knowledgeable about the forms this extraction takes. Drimmer concludes with suggestions about what we can do to protect the subjects and practitioners of our discipline, as well as education in the humanities more broadly, against this incursion. Drimmer does not intend an intransigent rejection of a given technology; rather this talk articulates a challenge that is grounded in knowledge of the historical origins and corporate practices of the AI industry today.

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Juan Acevedo @juanacevedo.bsky.social · Aug 25

Right there with Heraclitus (B18) too:

ἐὰν μὴ ἔλπηται ἀνέλπιστον οὐκ ἐξευρήσει, ἀνεξερεύνητον ἐὸν καὶ ἄπορον

If you do not expect the unexpected, you will not find it; for it is unsearchable and impenetrable

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Reposted by Juan Acevedo

Susanna Crossman @susannacrossman.bsky.social · Aug 24

Thinking about these quotes and why ChatGPT is like someone raining on your research parade.

“Research must be the search for the unexpected. I say that finding what we are looking for is not enough.“
Carlos Ginzberg

"The book you need is next to the book you are looking for."
Aby Warburg,

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Juan Acevedo @juanacevedo.bsky.social · Aug 23

Introduction & selected #astronomy pages of Ibn Mājid’s Fawā'id, "Commentaries on the Principles and Foundations of #Maritime Science"—15th-century classic on #IndianOcean #navigation
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
@cienciasulisboa.bsky.social
@erc.europa.eu #HistSci #manuscripts

page spread of bilingual Arabic publication on astronomy

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Reposted by Juan Acevedo

mickwoodydweller.bsky.social @mickwoodydweller.bsky.social · Aug 11

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Reposted by Juan Acevedo

Dr. Rachel Schine @rachelschine.bsky.social · Aug 9

Now that I can read some Ge'ez and have serviceable purchase on the basics, I wanna also be able to say 'hey' to my neighbors who are actually alive and don't speak a liturgical langauge.

Amharic textbooks, friends? (Yes, I know, quite different, but go with it.)

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Reposted by Juan Acevedo

Tom Cox @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · Jul 15

I'm not dancing around the issue this time: Amazon might be "important" for "exposure" but please do not order my books from them. Please choose @bookshop-org-uk.bsky.social, Blackwell's or your local indie instead.

Amazon are no friend to authors. And never will be.

Tom Cox @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · Jul 15

Seen for the first time today: Joe McLaren's fabulous FULL final jacket design for Everything Will Swallow You.

On its way to the printers tomorrow. Out Sept 11th.

You can pre-order a signed first edition, with (remarkably!) free international shipping, here: blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/pro...

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Reposted by Juan Acevedo

Dr. Rachel Schine @rachelschine.bsky.social · Aug 4

Who do I know on here who speaks Swahili?

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Juan Acevedo @juanacevedo.bsky.social · Aug 4

“The chain of authorities is not hearsay and not mere bibliography, it is as if we ourselves had seen the fever abate under the crocodile's fang, and memories return under the hoopoe’s tongue”—new post!
tinyurl.com/kpknekpn @isisjournal.bsky.social
@cienciasulisboa.bsky.social #histsci #philsci

Marvellous “Properties” 2: Philosophy

Now that we have concluded our reading of Ibn al-Jazzār’s Risāla fī’l-khawāss , the Epistle on Special Properties , let us see how it touche...

lisbon-arabic-reading.blogspot.com

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Juan Acevedo @juanacevedo.bsky.social · Jul 31

The vast gap between the calories #Gaza needs, and the food that has entered since March makes clear that lsraeli officials are doing different maths today. They cannot pass responsibility for this human-made famine to anyone else, and nor can their allies
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

The mathematics of starvation: how Israel caused a famine in Gaza

Israel controls the flow of food into Gaza. It has calculated how many calories Palestinians need to stay alive. Its data shows only a fraction has been allowed in

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Juan Acevedo

Lambeth Palace Library @lampallib.bsky.social · Jul 31

Today, we proudly opened our exhibition, Sing Joyfully: Exploring Music in Lambeth Palace Library, to the public! 🎉

👉 Learn more on our Sing Joyfully homepage: www.lambethpalacelibrary.info/sing-joyfully/

#SingJoyfully #LambethPalaceLibrary

Image of exhibition case and contents for the 'Sing Joyfully' exhibition.

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Reposted by Juan Acevedo

Eduardo Fernández @apocalypsisnova.bsky.social · Jul 22

Seminar on Transkribus and other HTR tools for Masters and PhD students (mostly)! Languages: Latin (Carolingian/Late Medieval) Medieval Czech, Early Modern German, Byzantine Greek, Syriac and Medieval Hebrew

H-Soz-Kult @hsozkult.bsky.social · Jul 22

Sem: Handwritten Text Recognition of Historical Sources

https://www.hsozkult.de/event/id/event-156512

Vienna, 24.10.2025-13.12.2025, Institute for Medieval Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences; Manuscript, Rare Books and Archival Studies Initiative (MARBAS), Princeton University, …

www.hsozkult.de

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Juan Acevedo @juanacevedo.bsky.social · Jul 21

And also: Palestine inaction (i.e. @10dowingstreet.bsky.social @ukparliament.parliament.uk) is an abuse of power!

People empower government :: gov't ignores people to support genocide :: ergo, abuse of power.
#Gaza

guardian newspaper clip on Palestine Action ban

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Reposted by Juan Acevedo

WeMove Europe @wemoveeurope.bsky.social · Jul 16

👉 Join the fight. Speak up. Demand an end to EU complicity in genocide. go.wemove.eu/NoDealWithWa...

No EU Business with War Criminals

Urgent action needed: Children in Gaza are being deliberately starved. Call on the EU to suspend its trade deal with Israel, stop arms exports, and sanction perpetrators of human rights crimes.

go.wemove.eu

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Reposted by Juan Acevedo

William Dalrymple @willdalrymple.bsky.social · Jul 15

Not Gaza 2025, but Jaffa 1948, after the Nakba

The Manshiya quarter of Jaffa was destroyed in a series of bombardments led by the Irgun during the 1948 Nakba in order to drive out its Palestinians inhabitants

#ThisDidntBeginonOct7 #HistoryRepeating

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Juan Acevedo @juanacevedo.bsky.social · Jul 15

Actually I can remember some really nice editions where footnotes and endnotes are combined to great visual and practical effect: footnotes for comments and such, and endnotes strictly for biblio refs (i.e. the sort of note you will mostly not need to read immediately as you go through the text)

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