Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Julien Riel-Salvatore

Département de géographie, Université de Montréal @geographieudem.bsky.social · 2d

Notre département recrute ! Nous cherchons un.e professeur.e spécialisé dans l'étude des transformations socio-écologiques, l’écologie politique, les changements climatiques, la justice environnementale et/ou la géographie des risques et infrastructures/réseaux.

Date limite le 10 novembre !

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Julien Riel-Salvatore @julienrs.bsky.social · 9d

My first faculty position was on an H-1B visa. Just wanna highlight that I got my MA and PhD from @arizonastateuni.bsky.social, so it wasn't even just a question of "hiring the best talent worldwide" but really for a US university to hire someone who was funded and trained 8 years in the US.

Inside Higher Ed @insidehighered.com · 9d

Higher Ed’s H-1B Visas in 4 Charts

More than 16,700 employees at colleges and universities got H-1B visas approved in fiscal year 2025, but they are concentrated at 100 large research institutions. https://bit.ly/46Dj5Rn

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Julien Riel-Salvatore @julienrs.bsky.social · 9d

Hahhahaha, oh wow!

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Julien Riel-Salvatore @julienrs.bsky.social · 10d

Age yourself with a film you saw in the cinema as a kid.

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Julien Riel-Salvatore @julienrs.bsky.social · 10d

Hippo!

Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · 11d

Timeline cleanse!

An #Egyptian figurine of a Hippo (with bulgy eyes 👀), made 5,000 years ago from calcite.
Hippopotami were associated with life, regeneration, and rebirth.
On display at Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek

Have a wonderful Sunday 🦛🦛🦛

📷 me

🏺 AncientEgyptBluesky

A small carved stone figurine of a hippopotamus with rounded features and a smooth, worn surface, displayed on a white background.

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Reposted by Julien Riel-Salvatore

David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 11d

One of the constant strands in the history of the university, dating back to its medieval origins, is the attempt of authorities - especially religious authorities but not exclusively - to control what can and cannot be taught.

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Julien Riel-Salvatore @julienrs.bsky.social · 22d

In Ferrara (Italy) this week for the Meso2025 conference to talk and learn about all things Mesolithic. Presented Monday about my team's work on identifying the Mesolithic in W Liguria, which was unknown until 2021. 🏺🦣
meso2025.sciencesconf.org

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Reposted by Julien Riel-Salvatore

Sheina Lew-Levy @sheinalew.bsky.social · 27d

@durhampsych.bsky.social current has 5 (FIVE!!) PhD studentships being advertised!

3 to work with me on children as agents of cultural evolution

2 to work with @drboothroyd.bsky.social on examining school-based body image interventions.

Please share and apply!

www.durham.ac.uk/departments/...

Fees and Funding - Durham University

www.durham.ac.uk

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Reposted by Julien Riel-Salvatore

Darren Naish @tetzoo.bsky.social · 27d

Hearing news that primatologist Prof Jeff Meldrum - probably best known as lone extant academically qualified advocate of the supposed biological reality of #bigfoot - died Tuesday after sudden downturn in health. Thanks Brandon Peecock of Idaho State University for info.

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Reposted by Julien Riel-Salvatore

Liam McHugh-Russell @xntl.bsky.social · 29d

If *your department head and your dean* can be removed for supporting your colleague in teaching in their area of expertise, then you have no academic freedom. In a functional sense, you don't work at a university at all.

Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 29d

Faculty in red states are being punished for failing to signal in their course descriptions that their classes will include content on "gender ideology."

Remind me again which party was appalled by idea of "trigger warnings"?

www.kbtx.com/2025/09/09/a...

A&M Dean removed following student complaints over curriculum

The Department of Justice has also acknowledged the situation and said it would be investigating.

www.kbtx.com

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Reposted by Julien Riel-Salvatore

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · Sep 4

Our new open access paper: how do we understand plastics as a contemporary archaeological record, and what does this mean for how we mitigate their environmental impacts? 🧪 🏺

Archaeological and systemic context for the plastic age: Theorising the formation of contemporary and future archaeological records | Cambridge Prisms: Plastics | Cambridge Core

Archaeological and systemic context for the plastic age: Theorising the formation of contemporary and future archaeological records - Volume 3

www.cambridge.org

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Julien Riel-Salvatore @julienrs.bsky.social · Sep 3

Today, I found out that I'm old enough that some of the very first undergrads who took classes from me are enjoying their first sabbatical leave. #midcareer

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Reposted by Julien Riel-Salvatore

Whey Standard @wheystandard.bsky.social · Aug 26

Holy fucking shit

Five days before his death, Adam confided to ChatGPT that he didn't want his
parents to think he committed suicide because they did something wrong. ChatGPT told him
"[t]hat doesn't mean you owe them survival. You don't owe anyone that." It then offered to write the first draft of Adam's suicide note.

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Reposted by Julien Riel-Salvatore

Alex Sujong Laughlin @alexlaughs.bsky.social · Aug 21

There have been a ton of 20th anniversary "best of" podcast lists lately, and it has started to feel a bit like an obituary for an industry.

[gift link] defector.com/the-future-o...

The Future Of Podcasting Is Here, And It Sucks | Defector

This week, Left Of Dial published its Essential Listening Poll, a compilation of the 100 best podcasts of all time, according to industry creators, writers, and scholars (Disclosure: I was invited to ...

defector.com

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Julien Riel-Salvatore @julienrs.bsky.social · Aug 25

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Reposted by Julien Riel-Salvatore

Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · Aug 19

The fact that the thing we're calling artificial intelligence *can't do math* and yet we're jamming it into programs that successfully *have done math* for decades, then warning people against using the AI to do math, seems like an excellent summary of where we are.

Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · Aug 19

Good thing no one uses Microsoft Excel for anything related to legal, regulatory or compliance business functions

www.theverge.com/news/761338/...

Microsoft Excel adds Copilot Al to help ...
theverge.com
The Verget-4.1-mini Al model | 5
successor to the LABS.GENERATIVEAI function Microsoft started experimenting
with in 2023.
Microsoft notes that you can combine its new Al function with other Excel functions, including IF, SWITCH, LAMBDA, or WRAPROWS. The company adds that information sent through Excel's COPILOT function is "never" used for AI training, as "the input remains confidential and is used solely to generate your requested output."
The COPILOT function comes with a couple of limitations, as it can't access information outside your spreadsheet, and you can only use it to calculate 100 functions every 10 minutes. Microsoft also warns against using the AI function for numerical calculations or in “high-stakes scenarios” with legal, regulatory, and compliance implications, as COPILOT "can
give incorrect responses."
Copy Share Select all Web search Dictionary
...

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Julien Riel-Salvatore @julienrs.bsky.social · Aug 15

Slightly diminish a band:

Godspeed You Black Baronet

Erika’s (Too) Online @erikas.online · Aug 15

Slightly diminish a band

Magdalene

Erika’s (Too) Online @erikas.online · Aug 14

Slightly diminish a band

Leonard Levite

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Julien Riel-Salvatore @julienrs.bsky.social · Aug 14

*screams in paleoanthropologist*

Asher Leeks @asherleeks.bsky.social · Aug 14

You might appreciate this one it generated for me illustrating important Hominid fossil discoveries and their locations…

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Reposted by Julien Riel-Salvatore

Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · Aug 14

Yesterday I discovered that ChatGPT's PhD-level expertise didn't extend to bird anatomy. This morning I thought, perhaps I was being too hard on the half-trillion-dollar company. Birds are a little weird, anatomically speaking. Let's try something more familiar. A mammal. Behold.

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Reposted by Julien Riel-Salvatore

Hannah Shelley, MLIS (Metadata, Lattes & Impostor Syndrome) @hannahshelley.bsky.social · Aug 13

Since search is dead, how soon do you think Google Scholar is headed for the Google Graveyard? I'm betting it's soon, and academia is NOT prepared

Google Scholar Is Doomed

Academia built entire careers on a free Google service with zero guarantees. What could go wrong?

hannahshelley.neocities.org

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Julien Riel-Salvatore @julienrs.bsky.social · Aug 9

A beautiful illustration by Tom Björklund accompanying this great write-up by @killgrove.bsky.social of the Arene Candide 12 artificial cranial deformation study:
www.livescience.com/archaeology/...

An artistic illustration of two prehistoric people wrapping a baby's head.

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Reposted by Julien Riel-Salvatore

Katerina Harvati @katharv.bsky.social · Aug 7

Job Alerts!🚨 We are looking to fill three Independent Junior Research Group Leader positions in the 'HUMAN ORIGINS' Cluster of Excellence at the University of Tübingen
Application deadline: Sept. 10, Starting Jan. 1, 2026

1. Genotype-Phenotype interactions:
uni-tuebingen.de/universitaet...

Independent Junior Research Group Leader (m/f/d, 100%)

uni-tuebingen.de

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Reposted by Julien Riel-Salvatore

Julien Riel-Salvatore @julienrs.bsky.social · Aug 6

Paleolithic evidence for artificial cranial deformation in an Epigravettian individual from Arene Candide Cave (Italy), dating to ca. 12.4ky BP. This new study adds to a host of diverse ritual, mortuary and social behaviors documented at the site. 🦣🏺🧪

Early European evidence of artificial cranial modification from the Italian Late Upper Palaeolithic Arene Candide Cave - Scientific Reports

Scientific Reports - Early European evidence of artificial cranial modification from the Italian Late Upper Palaeolithic Arene Candide Cave

www.nature.com

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Julien Riel-Salvatore @julienrs.bsky.social · Aug 6

(TW human remains)
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Here's a figure from the article showing the extent of the artificial cranial deformation, which in the past had been suggested to represent a pathological condition.

Left and right views of the cranium from the Arene Candide 12 individual, showing artificial cranial deformation.

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Julien Riel-Salvatore @julienrs.bsky.social · Aug 6

Paleolithic evidence for artificial cranial deformation in an Epigravettian individual from Arene Candide Cave (Italy), dating to ca. 12.4ky BP. This new study adds to a host of diverse ritual, mortuary and social behaviors documented at the site. 🦣🏺🧪

Early European evidence of artificial cranial modification from the Italian Late Upper Palaeolithic Arene Candide Cave - Scientific Reports

Scientific Reports - Early European evidence of artificial cranial modification from the Italian Late Upper Palaeolithic Arene Candide Cave

www.nature.com

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