Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Rebecca Kingston @rkingston.bsky.social · 8d

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

Afghanistan hit by communications blackout after Taliban shuts internet

Telecoms disrupted nationwide after authorities cut fibre optic connections in several provinces to prevent ‘vice’

www.theguardian.com

Rebecca Kingston @rkingston.bsky.social · 8d

Now why can't Elon Musk use his brains and technology for some good in the world now? (ok, I know the answer) Starlink would be a great solution here....https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/29/afghanistan-communications-blackout-taliban-shuts-internet

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Rebecca Kingston @rkingston.bsky.social · 15d

'tough it out'? Yeah, right....

Rebecca Kingston @rkingston.bsky.social · 17d

As long as we are talking about Afghanistan...

Rebecca Kingston @rkingston.bsky.social · 17d

www.dw.com/en/afghanist...

Afghanistan: What's at stake as Taliban cut internet? – DW – 09/18/2025

The Taliban have shut down fiber-optic internet across several Afghan provinces to "prevent immorality." Experts warn of serious consequences for trade and girls' access to education.

www.dw.com

Rebecca Kingston @rkingston.bsky.social · 17d

www.dw.com/en/afghanist...

Afghanistan: What's at stake as Taliban cut internet? – DW – 09/18/2025

The Taliban have shut down fiber-optic internet across several Afghan provinces to "prevent immorality." Experts warn of serious consequences for trade and girls' access to education.

www.dw.com

Reposted by Rebecca Kingston

Ed @notdred.bsky.social · Sep 6

Amazingly enough I am on this list *multiple times* because of scholarly articles I coauthored. You should really check and see if you’re on it too.

Ryan Estrada @ryanestrada.com · Sep 6

Just a reminder to check for your name in this list of books that OpenAI trained from. If your name is there, they probably owe you several thousand dollars.

OpenAI cried that if everyone eligible author files, the company will go bankrupt, so I'm alerting every author I have ever spoken to.

Search LibGen, the Pirated-Books Database That Meta Used to Train AI

Millions of books and scientific papers are captured in the collection’s current iteration.

www.theatlantic.com

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Rebecca Kingston @rkingston.bsky.social · 27d

A good corollary to this point is the reading of Marjorie Kars' book. It documents an earlier slave revolt in Guyana (presumably the first in the new world) far away from any Enlightenment influences given the remoteness of the area www.npr.org/2020/08/12/9....

In 'Blood On The River,' The Berbice Rebellion Foreshadows Later Insurgencies

Marjoleine Kars recounts a tale of oppression, bloodshed, and some triumph in her previously untold account of the 1763-64 slave rebellion in Dutch Berbice, modern day Guyana.

www.npr.org

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Reposted by Rebecca Kingston

Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 27d

When I teach about Atlantic Slavery one of the key things I try to communicate is that it was a *resisted condition*. People were bound in servitude *by force* because only force could hold them to it. Their resistances forged entire cultures.

Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 28d

New post!
Too often students assume enslaved Africans revolted on Saint-Domingue because they were inspired by the Enlightenment or the other Atlantic Revolutions. They didn't.
🗺️🗃️
www.liberatingnarratives.com/enlightenmen...

The Enlightenment Didn’t Cause the Haitian Revolution

Enslaved Africans in Saint-Domingue had many reasons to revolt... the Enlightenment wasn't one of them

www.liberatingnarratives.com

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Rebecca Kingston @rkingston.bsky.social · Aug 28

This is helpful framing and might be relevant to those currently drafting syllabi, i.e. suggesting student use of AI to write papers amounts to 'deskilling'. If I taught in a different field I might ask students to draft their c.v. but stressing the number of skills they had lost recently.

The New York Times @nytimes.com · Aug 28

Physicians are using A.I. for diagnoses and more. But a new study found evidence that relying on A.I. tools might erode a doctor’s ability to perform fundamental skills without the technology, a phenomenon known as “deskilling.”

Are A.I. Tools Making Doctors Worse at Their Jobs?

Physicians are using the technology for diagnoses and more — but may be losing skills in the process.

nyti.ms

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Rebecca Kingston @rkingston.bsky.social · Aug 28

I am considering requiring a modern day equivalent of common place books where students have to physically write down passages from the texts studied. There is an interesting set of options here: against-a-i.com/assignment-i...

Assignment Ideas - AGAINST AI

Image: The Shipwreck, J.M.W. Turner

against-a-i.com

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Rebecca Kingston @rkingston.bsky.social · Aug 17

My book 'Plutarch's Prism' is reviewed by Katherine East in Vol. 45, no. 4, 2024 of 'History of Political Thought' journal. Nice review!

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Rebecca Kingston @rkingston.bsky.social · Aug 17

These are great suggestions!

Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · Aug 17

sunday mid-august is just about the sundayest.

balm for the sundays:

this solidarity guide to back-to-school support against the AI assault

against-a-i.com

AGAINST AI -

against-a-i.com

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Rebecca Kingston @rkingston.bsky.social · Aug 17

Yes, except that some of the brightest British scholars in the past only needed an undergraduate first to prove their worth. Graduate degrees were for those across the pond.

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Rebecca Kingston @rkingston.bsky.social · Jun 21

how sinister....can we turn back time and send him to Philosophy 101?

Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · Jun 21

“rewrite the entire corpus of human knowledge”

Reposted by Rebecca Kingston

Rebecca Kingston @rkingston.bsky.social · Jun 17

Some limited highlights from a recent fabulous rafting trip on the Nahanni River NWT. Should be on everyone's bucket list. #nahanni.com

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Rebecca Kingston @rkingston.bsky.social · Jun 18

So secret even he himself does not know it....
NYT "Trump Says ‘Nobody Knows’ His Plans on Iran"

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Rebecca Kingston @rkingston.bsky.social · Jun 17

Bear, dall sheep with babies, moose and bison (latter pics not included) #nahanni.com

Rebecca Kingston @rkingston.bsky.social · Jun 17

Some limited highlights from a recent fabulous rafting trip on the Nahanni River NWT. Should be on everyone's bucket list. #nahanni.com

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Rebecca Kingston @rkingston.bsky.social · Jun 5

This is not actually how old fashioned monarchy worked. Montesquieu told us that...

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Reposted by Rebecca Kingston

Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · Jun 3

Wow, yes. An amazing glimpse of the LLM Lie Machine at work. Anyone whose students are bring tempted by LLMs, sharing this could be very helpful showing how it lies, and how it fails.

Benjamin Dreyer @bcdreyer.social · Jun 3

This is a hell of a thing to read.

Diabolus Ex Machina

This Is Not An Essay

open.substack.com

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Rebecca Kingston @rkingston.bsky.social · May 23

six months open mayonnaise in the pantry?! no thanks!

The New York Times @nytimes.com · May 23

The fine print on nearly all condiment bottles — “refrigerate after opening” — isn’t much help. Here's the A-to-Z guide to storing condiments. nyti.ms/4k6t7OR

A comprehensive chart titled "A Guide to Storing Condiments," listing food items like "Butter," "Ketchup," and "Soy Sauce," with columns indicating whether to store them in the "FRIDGE" or "PANTRY" and additional "NOTES" for each.

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Rebecca Kingston @rkingston.bsky.social · May 23

Congrats to Stefan Eich @stefeich.bsky.social‬ on winning the 2024 David and Elaine Spitz Prize from the International Conference for the Study of Political Thought (CSPT)!
press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

The Currency of Politics

Money in the history of political thought, from ancient Greece to the Great Inflation of the 1970s

press.princeton.edu

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Rebecca Kingston @rkingston.bsky.social · May 1

First line of an exam answer that you know will not go well: "This quotation is from Hegel's 'The Element of Right'."

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Rebecca Kingston @rkingston.bsky.social · May 1

I don't think I have ever heard anything so contemptible of humanity...

Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · May 1

Mark Zuckerberg says Meta's chatbots will supplement your real friends: "The average American has fewer than 3 friends ... but has demand for ... 15 friends" (h/t x.com/romanhelmetg...)

Rebecca Kingston @rkingston.bsky.social · Apr 29

PM Carney in his winning election speech heralds the values of humility, ambition and unity.