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ertruitt.bsky.social

@ertruitt.bsky.social
2K followers 644 following 381 posts

she/they • professor • person • MEDIEVAL ROBOTS & NECESSARY INVENTIONS Robots & AI • Roger Bacon • Medieval Science • Medievalisms • “Unbearably scholarly”

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David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Oh hell yes
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ertruitt.bsky.social @ertruitt.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Unboxing day! Over a decade in the making, NECESSARY INVENTIONS: ROGER BACON, THE MIDDLE AGES, AND THE MAKING OF MODERN SCIENCE (PENN Press) is a material object. Thank you to everyone who helped along the way. For sale on October 20. @pennpress.bsky.social
Photo of a box filled with multiple copies of the book. The cover is ochre, and has different images of Bacon, from manuscripts and printed books.
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Anthony Moser @anthonymoser.com · 31/07/2026
My car went rogue after I turned on cruise control and jumped out
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Texas Tribune @texastribune.org · 27/09/2026
When asked why he doesn’t become an independent, U.S. Sen. John Fetterman responded: “Because I’m a lifelong Republican.” After realizing his slip-up, Fetterman laughed and said: “That’ll get clipped.” He then corrected himself and said he's a lifelong Democrat. #TribFest26
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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I’ve been writing and speaking on this topic for years, and I’m glad that news media are finally drawing attention to it. www.salon.com/2026/07/28/t...
It may be tempting to see value in projects such as the Schmidt Foundation — that’s Eric Schmidt of Google — funding a fellowship in AI at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, or the Musk Foundation’s support of the Scroll Prize to use AI in reconstructing ancient texts in the burnt scrolls of Herculaneum. But these projects are simply two among countless others that have been seeding AI into museums and historical research for well over a decade. Even more egregious is the case of AI companies buying  and destroying rare books en masse in the process of scanning them for data. In the context of the dire austerity we are witnessing, the juggernaut of tech money seems impossible to resist.
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Carin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
Manuscript news you can use! The Codex Amiatinus has a new online interface, w/a few oddities but in general a big improvement in one respect. Read on for tedious but useful details. #medievalsky 🧵 The landing page for the digital Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana is tecabml.contentdm.oclc.org
tecabml.contentdm.oclc.org
CONTENTdm
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Maryn McKenna @marynmck.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Fake. USDA. Seals. Used by an NC meat processing plant on 83.5 TONS of meat. Produced entirely outside the federal inspection system, according to news reports. We are pretty close to The Jungle (second ed.) now, no? www.scrippsnews.com/life/recalls...
scrippsnews.com
Interactive: Meat recall linked to fake USDA labels
Pork, beef and goat products are being recalled after a company allegedly used fake USDA inspection labels. Explore our interactive guide to see which products are affected and what to look for.
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Most people have no idea how much international students are the lifeblood of higher education. But they’re about to learn. Sigh.
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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
'The records have been digitised and indexed by the genealogy company Ancestry, which has partnered with the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery at University College London.' Leaps and bounds forward in our understanding of the histories of the British enslaved. #Skystorians
theguardian.com
Nearly 4m records of enslaved people in 20 former British colonies now searchable online
Exclusive: Collection’s 300,000 pages record lives of enslaved people in countries including the Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica, Mauritius, South Africa and Trinidad
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Scott Nover @scottnover.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
BREAKING: TV pool will not be providing coverage of presidential events until further notice b/c of CNN's ban, pool chair and FOX News Washington Bureau Chief Bryan Boughton said. It's effectively a boycott by the fellow members — ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX: www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
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ertruitt.bsky.social @ertruitt.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Read it! Gen AI is a plagiarism machine. As someone else On Here said: making Photoshop doesn’t require access to every photo ever taken.
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NPR @npr.org · 21/09/2026
NPR and our Member stations will continue to uphold First Amendment rights, and to stand with any news organization targeted for its reporting.
n.pr
Statement on White House bans from Tommy Evans, NPR's Editor in Chief
NPR and our Member stations will continue to uphold First Amendment rights, and to stand with any news organization targeted for its reporting.
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Laura Jedeed @laurajedeed.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
How much influence is end times prophecy exerting over American policy right now? The short answer: more than one might like My latest for The New Republic
newrepublic.com
We Need to Talk About the Apocalypse
End-times prophecy, pro-war prayer circles, Democrats as demons: Christian dominionism’s influence is everywhere in the second Trump administration—and increasingly, within America itself. Can democra...
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Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Good morning, it’s the 21st day of September
youtu.be
Earth, Wind & Fire - September (Official HD Video)
YouTube video by EarthWindandFireVEVO
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Barbara Fantechi @barbarafantechi.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Logical fallacies Explicit "I, a scientist, benefit from LLMs in my research, thus all other scientists would also benefit." Implicit "I, a scientist, cannot perceive the ethical issues with AI use, thus no other scientist can".
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Huw C. Davies @huwcdavies.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
About 2.7 million hours of work for no return.
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ertruitt.bsky.social @ertruitt.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Expand full-time faculty.
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Mary Lewis @profmarylewis.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Excellent oped in @theharvardcrimson.bsky.social by my @harvard.edu colleague Jill Lepore. www.thecrimson.com/article/2026...
But of course, the machine conversation is not free. It comes at the cost of our common life together as teachers, learners, and researchers, colleagues, mentors, and friends. Not to mention, supervising student researchers is our job.
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ertruitt.bsky.social @ertruitt.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
🚨🚨🚨JOB ALERT: The HSS Department at Penn is hiring a tenure-track or tenured professor in the history of data/info science, computing, or AI. Please share widely! apply.interfolio.com/192132
apply.interfolio.com
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
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Katie J. Wells @katiejwells.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Thanks so much, Sonja. This summer I heard nurse after nurse talk about these scores, and so we included it in the story: Elena "tried to scan the code [at the hospital] more than seven minutes before her start time, which dinged her score by half a point." dissentmagazine.org/article/algo...
dissentmagazine.org
Life Under the Algorithm - Dissent Magazine
Algorithmic wages and prices don’t just squeeze workers in the present. They make them predictably poor into the future.
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Jen the Tired RN @jenthetiredrn.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Good god
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Phillip Maciak @pjmaciak.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
No matter how you refine your questions, the chatbot will generate responses reflecting what the greatest number of users are likely to want to hear, which tends to be close to what they think they already know." A great, painstaking piece. www.hnn.us/article/ai-i...
hnn.us
AI Is an Anti-Primary Source Machine
Real voices from the past are threatened by chatbots designed to amplify — and ultimately become — the loudest voices in the room.
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Shiv Ramdas Mens Rice Activist @nameshiv.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Happy Rice Truck Day to all who observe
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Lila Byock @lbyock.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Today, America’s two largest school districts sent a message to the rest of the country that AI in schools is far from inevitable. When we organize and fight back, we win.
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Justine Firnhaber-Baker @medievalrevolt.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
My new article is now out in French Historical Studies: "Into the Woods: Negotiating Environment and Power in France Around the Time of the Black Death" Not OA, but I can send you a pdf if you don't have access. read.dukeupress.edu/french-histo...
read.dukeupress.edu
Into the Woods | French Historical Studies | Duke University Press
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Shannon Mattern @shannonmattern.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
"Today, children are increasingly confined to considering the surfaces of things... It would be remarkable if such dramatic changes in children’s exposure to the underlying architectures of devices had no downstream effects on how they think about causal relationships in the world around them."
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu
Everyday Technology Is Becoming a Black Box. Is There a Cost?
Children once learned by taking things apart. Today’s devices do not provide that rewarding activity — and the cognitive consequences may be considerable.
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ertruitt.bsky.social @ertruitt.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Goddamnit.
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Will Thomas @williamthomas.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
SBE has been the directorate that funds history of science, so this has been especially dour news for our field. Here's the letter from NSF to AIP in 1960 that essentially jump-started our history program, and we received many follow-on awards in subsequent years.
Dear Hutch, I have read with interest the proposal prepared by Gerald Holton that you sent me for comment. Members of the Course Content Improvement Section have also had a look at it, and I shall try to report our composite reaction.

I should like to say first that if the members chosen for the advisory committee have the stature of Dr. Holton it has the first prerequisite that we look for in the Foundation, namely the involvement of top scholars in the field.

I have the impression from the reports of last year's Conference of College Physics that this is an area of activity which would be endorsed by that group as a means of emphasizing the cultural aspects of physics. My own feeling is that a co-ordinated project along the lines outlined is well worth doing, if people like Dr. Holton are involved. The archival aspect of the project represents a new activity as far as the Foundation is concerned but at this point I can se no reason why this would not lie within our purview.

When the planning has progressed to the point of developing a proposal we would be interested in having a look at it. We appreciate having the opportunity to comment on your ideas in this field.

Sincerely yours,
Harry C. Kelly
Associate Director (Educational and International Activities)
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Kim Lane Scheppele @kimlanelaw.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Zero new NSF grants in sociology, anthropology, political science and economics. The agenda of this US govt is to stop documenting the society in which we live while they are destroying it. We will find other ways to track and explain our times and fight to restore our research funding.
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ertruitt.bsky.social @ertruitt.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
“They just use your mind and they never give you credit…” Thank you, Dolly. ❤️‍🩹
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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
USPS’s job is to deliver the mail even if some mailed ballots genuinely are fake, illegal, fraudulent, or otherwise invalid. It’s on election administrators to catch and reject those, and they do. USPS has no role in it and the very idea mucks up the systems we actually have for election integrity.
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ertruitt.bsky.social @ertruitt.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
🚨🚨🚨JOB ALERT: The HSS Department at Penn is hiring a tenure-track or tenured professor in the history of data/info science, computing, or AI. Please share widely! apply.interfolio.com/192132
apply.interfolio.com
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just. www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...
washingtonpost.com
ICE begins deporting Haitians who lost TPS back to homeland
Community leaders said Thursday’s removal flight was one of the largest they had seen and included people who were detained in recent weeks.
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ertruitt.bsky.social @ertruitt.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
I got to talk about ancient and medieval AI and The Odyssey on the Age of AI podcast last week: open.spotify.com/episode/0EQ9...
open.spotify.com
S14E8 (Season Finale): Before Nolan's Odyssey — The Robots of Ancient Greece and the History of AI
Age of AI · Episode
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Sara Lipton @medievalsara.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Public university students in Texas will learn less about cool historical topics (Joan of Arc! the Vikings!), and are losing a fine history professor, b/c of political interference in higher ed. (The use of A.I. to impose politically-motivated censorship is an added insult to the original injury.)
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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Jacob Bell, a Medieval historian, said he worried about how to discuss Joan of Arc, who was burned at the stake for, among other reasons, cross-dressing. Mr. Creighton’s memo about gender exempts biographical details of historically significant figures. Still, any references must be “purely incidental,” according to the April memo.
Dr. Bell removed two weeks of study about Viking men and women. He said Viking mythological poems often featured gender-changing gods like Loki and Odin, material he no longer felt comfortable teaching.
When asked about Dr. Bell’s case, Mr. Creighton suggested that professors not make pre-emptive decisions and rather submit materials to the university system for review.
Dr. Bell went a different route. He believes that future Texas Tech students will be “unprepared to deal with normal people in the world that they’re going to interact with.” He recently accepted a new job, at a public university on the East Coast.
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Moira Donegan @moiradonegan.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
*whispers* BLM was popular
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ertruitt.bsky.social @ertruitt.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Cf. The Power.
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Library of the Royal Irish Academy @rialibrary.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Total eclipse of the heart! Did you know we hold two copies of only three known Irish translations of Messahalah's De orbibus coelestibus? Our astronomical tracts date from the 14th or early 15th century, and the third copy is held by our friends at @marshslibrary.bsky.social 🌘🔭
Lunar eclipse diagram, from RIA MS B ii 2, p. 12Lunar eclipse diagrams, from RIA MS 23 F 13, p. 314
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Ian Petrie @icpetrie.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Glad to see it share.inquirer.com/IXkm7r
share.inquirer.com
Two new scholarships named for Dito van Reigersberg, aka Martha Graham Cracker, will support Philly artists in drag, cabaret, and theater
Cabaret pianist Victor Fiorillo, who performed with van Reigersberg for years, and the Pig Iron Theatre Company are working on grants that support the next generation of artists.
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Nina Markl 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 @ninamarkl.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
i’ve spent a shocking amount of time explaining to non-tech people that LLMs are probabilistic
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Anna Meier @annameier.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
If you have so much work to do that you feel you need AI in order to get it all done: you don't. You need a union.
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ertruitt.bsky.social @ertruitt.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
No wonder. I can barely get them to change their reading habits.
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Eduardo García-Molina @egarcmol.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
We're officially looking for a senior Classicists for an Associate/Full Professor of Classics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Can confirm the community is excellent and we have some amazing resources for research. Link to the job posting is below.
illinois.csod.com
Associate/Full Professor- Classics - College of LAS
Duties & Responsibilities
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Roxana Hadadi @roxana-hadadi.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
george miller, bc the fact that mad max: fury road exists at all is really something
static.klipy.com
Mad Max Mad Max Fury Road
ALT: Mad Max Mad Max Fury Road
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xiaochang @xiaochang.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Look what arrived at my office! Thanks to @joecalamia.bsky.social and @uchicagopress.bsky.social for all the amazing work they did to turn my thoughts into a material object that actually exists in the world (and for the complimentary copies)!
Box with copies of the book Divination Engines: Natural Language Processing, Artificial Intelligence, and the Making of Algorithmic Culture (University of Chicago Press 2026) by Xiaochang Li
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ertruitt.bsky.social @ertruitt.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
I have so many thoughts about the trailer alone! I am looking forward to this.
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EMILY WILSON @emilyrcwilson.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
I cannot rest from discourse. I will see that film again tomorrow. I will drink life to the lees. Again I will enjoy greatly, will suffer greatly, both with those that love me, and in Pleasantville NY. I am become a meme. Film showing: burnsfilmcenter.org/booking/the-...
burnsfilmcenter.org
The Odyssey : Jacob Burns Film Center
The Odyssey, Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Christopher Nolan, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Odysseus, Greek, Classic, Antiquity
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Justin Zimmerman @jztidecat.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Be in a state that allows the morning after pill. Dead serious.
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