iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Aike Rots @aikerots.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

Job alert! We are looking for talented PhD researchers to write a dissertation on Benzaiten worship in modern Japan or Mazu pilgrimages in Taiwan, as part of the ERC project "Maritime Goddesses: Transnational Connections, Blue Environments, and Ritual Care in East- and Southeast Asia" (MARGO).

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TWO DOCTORAL RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS IN EAST ASIAN RELIGIONS (296038) | University of Oslo

Job title: TWO DOCTORAL RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS IN EAST ASIAN RELIGIONS (296038), Employer: University of Oslo, Deadline: Monday, April 6, 2026

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Aike Rots @aikerots.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Exciting research news! I have received a Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council for my project "Maritime Goddesses: Transnational Connections, Blue Environments, and Ritual Care in East- and Southeast Asia." Looking forward! More info about the project: www.hf.uio.no/english/abou...

hf.uio.no

Million grant for research on goddesses and rituals in Asia - Faculty of Humanities

Aike Peter Rots will study some of the most popular deities in the world, how people relate to them, and changes in their surrounding environments.

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Unni Eikeseth @unnieikeseth.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

Great text! What if AI is not here to stay?"Generative AI has been compared to the Concorde. Supersonic commercial flight seemed there to stay, until it became clear it would’t work at scale: too costly, too risky, too environmentally harmful" : www.universitetsavisa.no/fremtidsscen...

universitetsavisa.no

What if generative AI is not here to stay?

- Generative AI has been compared to the Concorde. Supersonic commercial flight seemed there to stay, until it became clear it would’t work at scale: too costly, too risky, too environmentally harmful...

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Aike Rots @aikerots.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

Very much looking forward to my upcoming trip to Japan! 🇯🇵 Four weeks in Tokyo, Sendai, Nagoya, Kansai, and Kyushu. A full schedule, with work meetings, excursions, and three academic events. Please join if you are in town: ⬇️

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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 06/09/2025

Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia: doi.org/10.5281/zeno... We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity. 1/n

Abstract: Under the banner of progress, products have been uncritically adopted or
even imposed on users — in past centuries with tobacco and combustion engines, and in
the 21st with social media. For these collective blunders, we now regret our involvement or
apathy as scientists, and society struggles to put the genie back in the bottle. Currently, we
are similarly entangled with artificial intelligence (AI) technology. For example, software updates are rolled out seamlessly and non-consensually, Microsoft Office is bundled with chatbots, and we, our students, and our employers have had no say, as it is not
considered a valid position to reject AI technologies in our teaching and research. This
is why in June 2025, we co-authored an Open Letter calling on our employers to reverse
and rethink their stance on uncritically adopting AI technologies. In this position piece,
we expound on why universities must take their role seriously toa) counter the technology
industry’s marketing, hype, and harm; and to b) safeguard higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, and scientific integrity. We include pointers to
relevant work to further inform our colleagues.

Figure 1. A cartoon set theoretic view on various terms (see Table 1) used when discussing the superset AI
(black outline, hatched background): LLMs are in orange; ANNs are in magenta; generative models are
in blue; and finally, chatbots are in green. Where these intersect, the colours reflect that, e.g. generative adversarial network (GAN) and Boltzmann machine (BM) models are in the purple subset because they are
both generative and ANNs. In the case of proprietary closed source models, e.g. OpenAI’s ChatGPT and
Apple’s Siri, we cannot verify their implementation and so academics can only make educated guesses (cf.
Dingemanse 2025). Undefined terms used above: BERT (Devlin et al. 2019); AlexNet (Krizhevsky et al.
2017); A.L.I.C.E. (Wallace 2009); ELIZA (Weizenbaum 1966); Jabberwacky (Twist 2003); linear discriminant analysis (LDA); quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA).

Table 1. Below some of the typical terminological disarray is untangled. Importantly, none of these terms
are orthogonal nor do they exclusively pick out the types of products we may wish to critique or proscribe.

Protecting the Ecosystem of Human Knowledge: Five Principles

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Aike Rots @aikerots.bsky.social · 24/08/2025

In Kraków for the #IAHR2025 conference. Started today with a city walk, Catholic Mass, and Polish folk dance performance. Looking forward to the conference! I will be on two panels: "Recentring fear in the study of religion" (Tu, 9am) and "Religion and heritage-making in Japan and beyond" (Th, 1pm).

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Truls Gulowsen @trulsgulowsen.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

Ja, dette viser at vi er et land uten kontroll på oljesektoren. Og det miljøbevegelsen så forsiktig ber om, er en PLAN for utfasingen av denne forurensende næringa, på en måte som også ivaretar arbeidere i sektoren. Men noen krever full gass mot stupet www.nrk.no/klima/norge-...

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Contemporary Japan @cj-jrnl.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

What is the relationship between whaling, heritage, tourism & community? Through ethnographic research, @aikerots.bsky.social examines festivals in 3 Japanese towns as case studies of whaling as a social imaginary and reveals how heritage-making is a future-oriented endeavor doi.org/10.1080/1869...

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Finn Arne Jørgensen @finnarne.me · 31/07/2025

One week left to apply for this tenured #envhist job!

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Aike Rots @aikerots.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

Just published: my article "Crossing Boundaries: Rethinking 'Japanese Religion' in the Anthropocene." A great honour to have been invited to contribute to the 50th anniversary issue of @jjrs-nirc.bsky.social. Many thanks @mcmullen.bsky.social, @jolyonbt.bsky.social, and @kaitlynugoretz.bsky.social.

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Aike Rots @aikerots.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

A short article on CORDIS, the research dissemination website of @erc.europa.eu, about our Horizon 2020 research project "Whales of Power" (2019-2025) 🇪🇺🐳🙏. In six languages 🇬🇧🇫🇷🇩🇪🇪🇸🇮🇹🇵🇱! Many thanks again to the European Research Council for making this project possible. cordis.europa.eu/article/id/4...

cordis.europa.eu

Exploring human-cetacean relations in maritime East Asia

A comparative ethnographic project dived into the links between religion, biodiversity and the environment.,,,European Commission

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Oslo Center for Environmental Humanities @uio-oceh.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

What does it really mean to transform society toward sustainability? On June 3, the RESULTS Symposium brings together researchers, activists, and professionals in Oslo for a day of conversations, collaboration, and reflection. 🕒 Today’s the last day to register! 🔗 shorturl.at/LZCV1 #Sustainability

shorturl.at

RESULTS Symposium on Sustainability Transformations - Include - Research centre for socially inclusive energy transitions

Transformations to sustainability: Are we talking with or past each other?

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Aike Rots @aikerots.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

My article "Whales of Hope: Whaling Heritage, Tourism, and Community Belonging in Twenty-First-Century Japan" has just been published. It is part of the special issue "Japan Futures" (eds. Fabio Gygi and Iza Kavedžija). Many thanks to the editors and reviewers. 🐳 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

tandfonline.com

Whales of hope: Whaling heritage, tourism, and community belonging in twenty-first-century Japan

This article discusses the significance of whaling heritage in contemporary Japan. It distinguishes between whaling as lived socioeconomic practice on the one hand, and whaling heritage as social i...

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Aike Rots @aikerots.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

tandfonline.com

Whales of hope: Whaling heritage, tourism, and community belonging in twenty-first-century Japan

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spencer roberts 🦈 @unpopularscience.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

I will forever be haunted by this footage. Trawling has only been filmed underwater a few times in documentary history, and never with such clarity. What’s so heart-rending about these shots is watching how the animals don’t just get swept up — they swim for their lives. 🌎🦑🧪

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Melina Antonia Buns @melinabuns.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

Akademiet for yngre forskere leter etter 10 nye medlemmer! AYF samler fantastiske forskere i tidlig karriere der brenner for forskningspolitikk, forskningsformidling og vitenskapelig debatt. Søknadsfristen er 15. juni Mer info ⤵ akademietforyngreforskere.no/vil-du-bli-m...

akademietforyngreforskere.no

Vil du bli medlem hos oss? Nå kan du søke medlemskap! Frist 15.juni - Akademiet for yngre forskere

Vil du bli medlem hos oss? Nå kan du søke medlemskap! Frist 15.juni Link to the English edition of the Call for applications Velkommen til åpent nettmøte med oss 27.mai kl. 12.00 – les mer og registr...

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Aike Rots @aikerots.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

Very proud of my partner Nhung Lu Rots, who has submitted her PhD dissertation "Engaged Buddhism and Environmentality among Buddhist Minorities in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam" @uio.no. A great achievement! One of the dissertation's articles was published recently: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

tandfonline.com

Towards an Alternative Buddhist Modernity: Hòa Hảo Charity Healing and Herbal Medicine in the Mekong Delta

This article examines the role of Hòa Hảo Buddhism in providing alternative healthcare, through traditional medicine and charity clinics, in the Mekong Delta. Based on participant observation and i...

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Aike Rots @aikerots.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

tandfonline.com

Towards an Alternative Buddhist Modernity: Hòa Hảo Charity Healing and Herbal Medicine in the Mekong Delta

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Oslo Center for Environmental Humanities @uio-oceh.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

New on Bluesky! We’re OCEH - a research hub at the University of Oslo @uio.no, exploring climate, nature & culture through the humanities. Follow for research highlights, events, reading tips & snapshots from the OCEH Lab. 📸 OCEH Lab hf.uio.no/oceh #ClimateCrisis #EnvironmentalHumanities #envhum

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Naomi Klein @naomiaklein.bsky.social · 13/04/2025

THE RISE OF END TIMES FASCISM My first major piece of the new Trump era, co-written with @astra.bsky.social. The governing ideology of the far right has become a monstrous, supremacist survivalism. Our task is to build a movement strong enough to stop them. www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

theguardian.com

The rise of end times fascism

The governing ideology of the far right has become a monstrous, supremacist survivalism. Our task is to build a movement strong enough to stop them

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Aike Rots @aikerots.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

Sharing this video of excited people and wrestling spiders mostly to give you all a short break from doomscrolling. It may be hard to believe these days but there are still fun and interesting things happening in the world. Cherish them. 🕷️

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Aike Rots @aikerots.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

RIP Hatakeyama Shigeatsu (1943-2025), an oyster fisherman from Tohoku who started a reforestation project to improve the coastal environment under the slogan "the forest is the lover of the sea" (森は海の恋人). In 2012, he was awarded a UN Forest Hero award for his work. 🦪🌱 www.asahi.com/ajw/articles...

asahi.com

VOX POPULI: The forest is the sea’s lover: A tale of a tree-planting fisherman | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis

“The forest is the lover of the sea.”

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Ida Bae Wells @nhannahjones.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

Can we get more of this? “The Japanese American National Museum will ‘scrub nothing,’ Fujioka said, and instead will highlight the importance of DEI. “Our community is based on diversity, equity is guaranteed to us in the Constitution, and inclusion is what we believe in,” Fujioka said.

latimes.com

Japanese American National Museum takes a stand against DOGE cuts to NEH

The National Endowment for the Humanities warned museums across the country that it was slashing funding, including money previously pledged to places such as LACMA and the Japanese American National ...

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Lisa Westerveld 🌱 @lisawesterveld.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

Mijn scriptie ging over Karl Popper’s Open Society: over de fundamenten van de democratie en de pijlers waarop ze rust. Zoals onafhankelijke pers en wetenschap. Vanavond lees ik over de uitholling vd publieke omroep en de aanval op academische vrijheid. Het kan snel gaan… nos.nl/artikel/2562...

nos.nl

Wetenschappers bijeen om zorgen over academische vrijheid in Nederland en VS

In een zaal van de Universiteit Leiden spraken wetenschappers hun zorgen uit, en probeerden ze van elkaar te leren hoe ze zich tegen de invloed van de VS kunnen wapenen.

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Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 31/03/2025

What did 14 years of autocratic populism produce in Hungary? Poverty and corruption www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

theatlantic.com

The Hungarian Model

MAGA conservatives love Viktor Orbán. But he’s left his country corrupt, stagnant, and impoverished.

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Aike Rots @aikerots.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

My colleagues and I at the Department of Culture, Religion, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (Uni Oslo) have written a statement of support for our colleagues at Columbia University. In solidarity with them - and others in the US who face censorship and oppression. www.khrono.no/in-solidarit...

khrono.no

Letter of support: In solidarity with our colleagues at Columbia University

A letter of support from faculty at the Department of Culture, Religion, Asian, and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oslo.

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Aike Rots @aikerots.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

It's now called a centre instead of a school, but we still do environmental humanities in Oslo.

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Bård Lahn @bard.lahn.no · 26/03/2025

ALL universities should protest this. My university @uio.no (and Norwegian authorities) should raise this immediately with US counterparts. Nobody can send students or faculty to stay with US institutions if this is how they are treated!

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Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

Video of the international student at Tufts being arrested by "federal authorities" in Massachusetts has been released and it's terrifying. They're not even uniformed officers. Just secret police thugs in hoodies and masks. From WCVB: youtu.be/PuFIs7OkzYY

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Aike Rots @aikerots.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

Hi @aarweb.bsky.social, maybe it's time to reconsider the locations of some of your future meetings if you want international AAR members to be able to attend. It's not safe for us to travel to the US anymore. Canada has good conference venues, I've heard.

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Anna L. Ahlers @annalahlers.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

Deadline extended ⏩️ 25 March!

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Bjørn Enge Bertelsen @drbertelsen.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

As part of the celebration of the 2025 Holberg Prize Laureate Prof. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, on 4 June in Bergen we are hosting a PhD Masterclass, i.e. anyone currently a PhD student in the Nordic countries, regardless of citizenship: holbergprize.org/news/call-fo... @holbergprize.bsky.social

holbergprize.org

Call for Participation: PhD Masterclass with 2025 Holberg Laureate Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

The Holberg Prize is offering scholarships for five PhD candidates in the Nordic countries to participate in a Masterclass with Professor Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak on the topic “The Practice of…

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Aike Rots @aikerots.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

A looming public health crisis and environmental catastrophe in Vietnam, because the fascists in Washington abruptly halted a USAID project to clean up Agent Orange, leaving toxic soil exposed for weeks. The evil of this regime knows no bounds.

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Aike Rots @aikerots.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

To all European and Asian colleagues who still think it's OK to travel to Trump Land to attend conferences: maybe it's time to reconsider your travel habits? Next time they may arrest and detain you. Instead, we can meet at conferences in democratic countries, where academic freedom is protected.

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Aike Rots @aikerots.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

Finally some good news. Congratulations to both prize winners!

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Miljøpartiet De Grønne @mdg.no · 12/03/2025

La oss selge Tesla-aksjene og bli ferdig med det.

Graf som faller, som går over i Musks oppreiste nazihånd.

31. desember 2024
Oljefondets aksjer i Tesla er verdt 161 milliarder
20. januar 2025
Elon Musk gjør nazihilsen. MDG foreslår å trekke Oljefondet ut.
11. mars 2025
Verdien av Tesla-aksjene våre er nær halvert i 2025.

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Aike Rots @aikerots.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

Shocking. A majority of Dutch parliament has voted to opt out of the ReArm Europe plan, meant to protect Ukraine and the rest of Europe from Russian aggression. There are two EU member states ruled by Putin puppets: Hungary and the Netherlands. Deeply embarrassing to be a Dutch citizen right now.

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Laura Feldt @laurafeldt.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

JOBS: At the Study of Religions in beautiful Bergen, we are looking for 2 PhD Fellows and 1 Postdoctoral Fellow in HB/Second Temple + ancient forms of Christianity for the RADHEART project: www.linkedin.com/posts/laura-... Deadline: April 22 Read more about RADHEART: www.uib.no/en/ahkr/1760...

uib.no

RADHEART – Radical Habits of the Heart: Emotions, Embodiment, and Strong, Individual Commitment in Ancient Radical Religion

Radical religion scholarship has not yet responded satisfactorily to the question of how and why individual members of radical religious groups become and stay strongly committed. The ERC project RADH...

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JJRS + NIRC @jjrs-nirc.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

We are excited to announce the publication of a special issue ": Searching for Legitimacy: Tenrikyo, Omoto, and 'Marginalized' Religions of Modern Japan." The complete issue as well as individual articles can be accessed free of charge on our website.

nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp

NIRC

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Aike Rots @aikerots.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

Our @erc.europa.eu project "Whales of Power" has come to an end. There are still some important publications in the pipeline; they will come out soon, but the funding period has ended. Many thanks to ERC for the support! A summary of recent activities and publications: www.hf.uio.no/ikos/english...

hf.uio.no

Whales of Power: the last years - Department of Culture, Religion, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

On 31 January 2025, Whales of Power officially came to an end. In the last two years, we published several articles and book chapters, organised a number of workshops and symposiums, worked hard on fo...

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Miljøpartiet De Grønne @mdg.no · 04/03/2025

Når Trump-administrasjonen svikter må støtten fra Norge oppskaleres raskt! Norge er det eneste landet i Europa med enorme ekstrainntekter som følge av krigen. Det er på tide å dele dette for å sikre vår felles trygghet. Signer på mdg.no/ukraina.

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Miljøpartiet De Grønne @mdg.no · 24/02/2025

Det finnes øyeblikk hvor historien står og vipper. Nå er et slikt øyeblikk. Skriv under for å gi tusen milliarder til Ukrainas forsvar og et tettere europeisk forsvarssamarbeid: 🇺🇦 mdg.no/ukraina 🇺🇦

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Donald Tusk @donald-tusk.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

Dear Volodymyr Zelenskyy, dear Ukrainian friends, you are not alone.

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Miljøpartiet De Grønne @mdg.no · 21/02/2025

- Nå må Tangen og Stoltenberg våkne. Oljefondet kan ikke være medeier med 160 milliarder investert i selskapet til en person som aktivt forsøker å styrte frie demokratier til fordel for Putin, sier @arildher.bsky.social

borsen.dagbladet.no

Krever «Tesla-exit»

Elon Musk kom torsdag med flere alvorlige anklager mot Volodymyr Zelenskyj. Nå mener MDG-lederen at Norge må sette ned foten.

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Anna L. Ahlers @annalahlers.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

🔔 PhD seminar "China and the Future of Geopolitics", U Oslo, 10-12 June '25. 🌏 Open to all academic disciplines. No fee, but students will need to cover their travel and accommodation expenses; some stipends for participants from ODA countries available. More: www.hf.uio.no/ikos/english...

hf.uio.no

IKOS GeoPol PhD seminar: China and the Future of Geopolitics - Department of Culture, Religion, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

This PhD course will explore the state and potential future of geopolitical developments under the influence of a rising China and its increasingly mobile actors, and how this influence is being felt ...

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Aike Rots @aikerots.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

Oxford and Tübingen are two of Europe's oldest and most charming university towns. These days, most people who travel between these towns do so by airplane. But would a train journey be possible as well? Today, I am giving it a try! 🇬🇧🇫🇷🇩🇪➡️

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Aike Rots @aikerots.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

Excellent thread, and not just for those of us who live in the US. The neofascists are gaining power in Europe as well, including my country of origin, the Netherlands. But fatalism and escapism won't help us. Grassroots organising is crucial. Makes me want to become more active in local politics.

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AntiKristian Bløseth @kriloseth.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

Skavlan på ballen i dag.

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