Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Yael Rice @yaelrice.bsky.social · 3d

The job market for human-type ministers will now tank

Jonathan M. Katz @katz.theracket.news · 3d

Nothing says “stopping corruption” like appointing a sock puppet to your cabinet www.politico.eu/article/alba...

Albania appoints world’s first AI-made minister

Diella, who is powered by artificial intelligence, will handle public procurement.

www.politico.eu

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Reposted by Yael Rice

Dr. Nick Posegay @nposegay.bsky.social · 4d

Here's an 11th-century Jewish manuscript that refers to God as Allah and wishes for the reader to have "jihad of his soul in love for his Creator"

Torn and crinkled brown-ish parchment manuscript with about 30 lines of Judaeo-Arabic text, set on a light blue grid background. The uploader has highlighted portions with red boxes and transliterated with inserted Arabic text, reading الله and واجهاد نفسه في حب خالقه

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Yael Rice @yaelrice.bsky.social · 5d

Is that ikat??

Reposted by Yael Rice

Joel S. @joelhs.bsky.social · 5d

As a visibly Jewish person, I always know that going to a synagogue means assuming a certain degree of risk. But now I know that if something were to happen to me, it wouldn't just be sad for my family, but people would try to exploit my death to push policies I deplore.

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Reposted by Yael Rice

Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 8d

When I’m accused of “technopessimism“ I counter that I’m not “pessimistic about technology“; I am opposed to the economic, political, and social project of upward wealth transfer that “AI” is being leveraged to bring about. If that phrasing is useful to others, then go ahead and use it.

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Yael Rice @yaelrice.bsky.social · 9d

bsky.app/profile/yael...

Yael Rice @yaelrice.bsky.social · Jan 26

So this is really cool: a stamp impression from the library of the Ilkhanid vizier Rashid al-Din (d. 1318). It reads “pious endowment [waqf] of the Rashidiyya library,” & it may have been inspired by Chinese prints/stamps. Stamped waqf notices are totally unheard of for this time!

Detail from an Arabic-language manuscript showing a waqf stamp impression from the library of Rashid al-Din

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Yael Rice @yaelrice.bsky.social · 9d

Rashid al-Din was doing it in the early 14th c. in Tabriz

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Yael Rice @yaelrice.bsky.social · 11d

Fortunately, AI finds a 0% chance that this method of authentication could be exploited 😇

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Yael Rice @yaelrice.bsky.social · 11d

Lol, I was going to joke that they probably conducted the AI analysis using a photograph only (which would be absurd given that paintings demand first-hand study, examination of materials, support, etc), and then I visited the AI co.’s website & saw this on the front page:

Screenshot of text from the AI website reading: “The Art Recognition award-winning AI system verifies the authenticity of an artwork based only on a photograph of it.”

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Yael Rice @yaelrice.bsky.social · 20d

I assumed it was the staff’s doing. (Same phenom at Amherst.)

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Yael Rice @yaelrice.bsky.social · 25d

Canina Horror 👏👏👏

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Yael Rice @yaelrice.bsky.social · Sep 5

It is, and I think about it way too often!

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Yael Rice @yaelrice.bsky.social · Sep 5

But that makes for a much less satisfying graphic

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Yael Rice @yaelrice.bsky.social · Sep 5

It’s fine. Clearly the gif hit a nerve :-/

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Yael Rice @yaelrice.bsky.social · Sep 5

Someone quoted this skeet to call me a bad person for sharing the Bugs gif, but for the record: my affinity for this gif long predates the current political moment. I’ve detested Florida for a very long time.

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Yael Rice @yaelrice.bsky.social · Sep 5

I grew up in Florida, still have lots of family down there, but Bugs was right

a cartoon of bugs bunny holding a fish in his paw

Alt: a cartoon of bugs bunny sawing the state of Florida off the United States

media.tenor.com

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Yael Rice @yaelrice.bsky.social · Sep 4

Amazing!!! I have a feeling we’ve been concert tour twinsies many times over 🥰

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Yael Rice @yaelrice.bsky.social · Sep 2

I’ve long wanted to visit!

Yael Rice @yaelrice.bsky.social · Sep 2

“In their drive to attract crowds, museums focus on creating theater-like experiences that underinform the public and further reveal far more about the Western fantasy of ‘elaborate private household shrines’ than about the shrines themselves.”

Indeed.

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Yael Rice @yaelrice.bsky.social · Sep 2

“Objects within typical shrines encompass a range of materiality…[including] items that might not be considered “art” by Western standards but hold deep power within Tibetan Buddhist contexts—precious pills, soil from pilgrimage sites, posters & plastic statuary, & blessed barley seeds...”

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Yael Rice @yaelrice.bsky.social · Sep 2

The problem w/ “curated construction” shrines: “Without knowledge of the lived ritual practices and historic moments that give rise to shrine environs, and without historical, ethnographic, or archival evidence to ground claims, these museum reconstructions largely remain unfounded fabrications.” 🔥

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Yael Rice @yaelrice.bsky.social · Sep 2

In a nutshell

A screenshot from the article reading: “In these aforementioned displays, the “shrines” are similarly constructed, with a shared palette of dark blues and reds accented with yellow and gold. Thangkas (paintings) often hang on the central wall, and gilt metal statuary is placed along a pyramid-like organization spilling down from the intricately carved cabinetry. All examples have embroidered banners, and some have a silk baldaquin that hangs over the central area of the shrine, often with sculptures of a wheel and two deer. By regurgitating what is largely the same shrine, however, museums are both negating the limitless variations of actual shrines and peddling a Western aesthetic of a “traditional” or “authentic” Tibetan shrine that is without any scholarly or historical backing.”

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Yael Rice @yaelrice.bsky.social · Sep 2

Excited to share my friend/colleague Melissa Kerin’s hot off the press @hyperallergic.com piece on Tibetan Buddhist museum shrine rooms. It’s likely to ruffle some feathers of our curator colleagues, but it needed to be said hyperallergic.com/1038180/the-...

The Fetishistic Fiction of Museum “Tibetan” Shrines

Institutions peddle a Western aesthetic of “traditional” Tibetan shrines without scholarly backing, negating their limitless lived variety.

hyperallergic.com

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Yael Rice @yaelrice.bsky.social · Sep 2

We hold our first faculty meeting on Labor Day…

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Reposted by Yael Rice

Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · Aug 29

Trump admin planning to change student visas from lasting for duration of academic program to fixed 4-yr term, and then much harder to renew
Could destroy US ability to attract global talent, particularly those seeking advanced degrees in STEM. The median time to complete a PhD is 5.7 yrs per NSF.

Trump Deals A New Immigration Blow To International Students

Trump officials have proposed a new rule limiting international students to fixed periods of entry, making a U.S. education more precarious.

www.forbes.com

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