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ptrourke

@ptrourke.bsky.social
275 followers 581 following 102 posts

Software developer at a library.

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Reposted by ptrourke
liz @bookjanitor.bsky.social · 23h
i’m gonna slowly take over the Anthropology department’s underused bulletin boards until they’re unhinged zine libraries documenting how to destroy and rebuild human culture starting with @literaturegeek.bsky.social et al’s DIY Web Archiving! now with QR code, lol. i only had time to print off 2!
a small bulletin board sits on a table and leans against a wall. the board has some stuff on it. the stuff is a zine and a poster about a zine. there is also a full-color booklet advertising a cemetery and a paper copy of the onion.a small bulletin board sits on a table and leans against a wall. the board has some stuff on it. the stuff is a zine and a poster about a zine.  a nerd has drawn some colored pencil doodles on red poster and zine. there is also a full-color booklet advertising a cemetery and a paper copy of the onion.it is another bulletin board, in the same building, though this is not apparent in the photograph. this is an alternative text secret for you, the reader. the bulletin in this poster boasts a hand-drawn sign advertising free coffee, and another zine + poster.
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ptrourke @ptrourke.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
The flying monkeys attack from the Wizard of Oz.
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Joel @sentantiq.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
the fundamental question I have had for these applications is how can LLM or statistical based methods support the "lectio difficilior?
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ptrourke @ptrourke.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Trying to decide which I want to watch less -- the demodex mites commercial or Red Sox pitching since they sat Tolle.
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Alison Babeu @alicatlibrarian.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
The Perseus Digital Library has been hard at work on Minimum Viable Perseus (Perseus MVP). Designed as a static site and heavily inspired by the beloved but faltering P4 (and its awesome users), please check out our efforts here (sites.tufts.edu/perseusupdates) and try it out: beta.perseus.tufts.edu
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Michael Lobel @mlobelart.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I've talked to a few journal editors who are concerned about similar problems re: anonymous reviewers. If a peer reviewer wants a little help & feeds your unpublished submission into an AI system, they've just shared your proprietary work & broken confidentiality. A nightmare to think about
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James K. Tauber @jtauber.com · 27/09/2026
A little something I've been thinking about for a while and finally started working on... jtauber.github.io/asterisk/ Feedback welcome!
jtauber.github.io
Asterisk
A workbench for comparative philology.
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philologistgrc.bsky.social @philologistgrc.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I wrote up a blog post on what it was possible to do because people are publishing open data in Digital Classics. I ended up creating a serviceable digital edition of Nonnus -- who would not have been on top of my list -- because of work that David Chamberlain did 1/
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Elizabeth Bear @matociquala.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Happy Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov Saves The World day to all who celebrate.
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Briony Neilson @brionyneilson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Developing microfilm in the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., in June 1942 (photo by Royden Dixon, Library of Congress) 🗃️
b&w photo of a man standing side-on to camera, wearing a long apron and touching a large frame from which long strips of film negatives are hanging
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Dr. Alicia Matz @duxfeminafacti9.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
This has been out for about a month now, but I just got my author copy. I’m proud of all of my publications, but I’m especially proud of this one because 2 of the modern adaptations I analyzed are in Italian and I provided the translations myself.
The cover of "Brill's Companion to the Reception of Dido"Picture of the first page of Alicia's article, "Adapting Dido for Modern Audiences: Geras, Barr, Duffy, Parrella, and Oliva"
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Ab Ee Gee @agrotke.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Today in history, www.missabigail.com officially shuts down after about 29 years of me doling out advice off and on as Miss Abigail. The site spawned a book and a play and a lot of fun. But it was time! Visit and support all the web archives! Peace and love 💕
missabigail.com
Miss Abigail's Time Warp Advice
Miss Abigail's Time Warp Advice: classic advice for contemporary dilemmas, covering the age-old topics of dating, love, living together, health, beauty, puberty, marriage, sex, etiquette, housekeeping...
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ptrourke @ptrourke.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
More information about AI scrapers.
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ptrourke @ptrourke.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
We (LC) have been using CloudFlare, and it's been an arms race.
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philologistgrc.bsky.social @philologistgrc.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Now Scaife is down. Ugh. it is difficult for an application at Tufts to use bot challenges. We are pushing to do something. This is our traffic as of Google Analytics.
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ptrourke @ptrourke.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
It's gone way past filtering out by IP address; some crawlers are now using things like "free" screensavers on smart tvs to proxy crawls from residential IP addresses (see people.kernel.org/monsieuricon...). I don't know if Perseus specifically is targeted by this kind of crawler...
people.kernel.org
Creepy crawlies
You've probably heard me complain about the "AI crawlers" before, but now I actually have some hard numbers I can put up to show their im...
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ptrourke @ptrourke.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Would be very interested to see if LLMs are capable of truly original proofs, or only of synthesizing the unpublished work of many human mathematicians to try to beat them to publication.
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Digital Scholarship @ British Library @bldigischol.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
If you're going to be at the Fantastic Futures 2026 conference in DC next week, keep an eye out for Nora, Neil and Adi from our team! The #FF2026 programme is packed - online places still available www.conftool.org/fantastic-futures-…
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mia ridge @miaout.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Q: What did OpenAI discover? A: Rosalind Franklin's notes Did I get that right?
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Gabriel Bodard @palaeofuturist.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Hybrid #EpiDoc workshop today: Encoding the Bronze Age: Digital Approaches to Cypro-Aegean Epigraphy ics.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...
ics.sas.ac.uk
Encoding the Bronze Age: Digital Approaches to Cypro-Aegean Epigraphy
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ptrourke @ptrourke.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
I know I'm not being fair; there are trees around the perimeter.
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ptrourke @ptrourke.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
I think that I shall never see / a service area with a tree. #TurnpikeBlues
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Erin Kane @dianamonkey.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
I've never been more anxious waiting for a vehicle to choose a lane...
A uhaul in a lane that splits between 93S and Storrow Drive, heading into Boston
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Hugh Cayless @hcayless.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
One of the joys* of having worked in the cultural heritage internet for so long is seeing where links that were captured to projects that were pissy about collaborating no longer resolve because the projects are long gone. *"Joy" isn't the right term, but sarcasm is my default mode...
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Hugh Cayless @hcayless.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
No matter how fancy you are, if you're not plugged into sustainable, supported infrastructure, your thing will not outlast either you or your loss of interest in maintaining it. It's not a book you wrote. There are ongoing maintenance expenses that someone has to pay. Indefinitely.
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The Boston Globe @bostonglobe.com · 20/08/2026
The first phase of a $550 million overhaul to Warren Towers, Boston's largest dorm, which houses 1,800 students on Commonwealth Avenue, was completed this month, bringing Boston University closer to its 2040 carbon neutrality goal.
trib.al
Boston’s largest dorm goes green with $550 million renovation - The Boston Globe
The building is fully electric, a far departure from Warren Towers’s current status as one of the highest carbon emitters — not only on campus, but in Boston.
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Tamreen @scriptor.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
both the vineyard and the stewart are but facets of a Greater Martha whose true form would flap out your brains like sensible linen curtains
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ptrourke @ptrourke.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
That was a painful one.
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Matt Shaw @matthewshaw.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
'This is an invitation to libraries, curators, specialists and researchers in the CERL community who may have encountered engraved matrices, archival references, fragments, uncatalogued material or institutional traces to contribute to this research.' cerlblog.wordpress.com/2026/08/06/t...
cerlblog.wordpress.com
The Cartography of Absence: Looking for the Missing Tools of Mapmaking. An unexpected question
By Michel Chevalier, Independent Researcher For historians of cartography, maps are everywhere. Libraries preserve them. Museums exhibit them. Scholars catalogue, compare and analyse them. Atlases …
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Gabriel Bodard @palaeofuturist.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
#TEIFriday If you use or facilitate the use of EpiDoc (or any other TEI or non-TEI XML encoding) for publication of inscriptions, papyri, seals or other ancient texts and text-bearing objects, you surely have opinions on standards, interoperability+sustainability currentepigraphy.org/2026/06/22/c...
currentepigraphy.org
CFP: The Future of Digital Epigraphic Corpora: Opportunities and Challenges (Bologna, Aug–Sept 2027) - Current Epigraphy
This is a call for papers for Parallel panel 21 at the International Epigraphic Congress (CIEGL). Parallel sessions are intended to collect 20-minute presentations. Proposals may be submitted accordin...
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Sasha Kim @s-kim.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Librarians, Archivists, & Archives that collect/manage popular culture materials-I've started a Discord server to discuss collections, materials, repositories, etc. to share info and build community. Comics, games, movies/tv, etc #popularculture #archives #archivists #librarians discord.gg/xvhWAhhkw
discord.gg
Join the Popular Culture Archives & Archivists Discord Server!
Popular culture archives and archivists to share best practices, build community, and better understand the landscape of popular culture preservation. [Icon Image: Old Dutch advertisement, c.1965, Pos...
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Megan Noel @megannoelmouse.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Emily Dickinson was a Russian bot.
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EMILY WILSON @emilyrcwilson.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
No professional accomplishment has ever made me happier than this. theonion.com/translator-o...
theonion.com
Translator Of Original ‘Minions’ Epic Poem Slams ‘Sexless, Bloodless’ Film Adaptation
PHILADELPHIA—In a 4,500-word essay published in Harper’s Magazine, Emily Wilson, known for her popular translation of the Minions epic poem, blasted the latest film Thursday as a “sexless, bloodless” ...
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Matthew Kirschenbaum @mkirschenbaum.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
It’s fascinating to me how so many of the casual comments about Emily Wilson having the temerity to critique Nolan’s film revolve around what she’s making from sales of her translation. As if the transactional element is a de facto check on her right to have opinions and express them.
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New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
This is just to say I have OCRed the text thet was in tne arch:ve and whicb yov were prabaldy seamhing for "breahtast" Fargme ms fheg mem debo:w5 sb ?mccf mmb 5c oc1b
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Dr Florence H R Scott @florencehrscott.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
A review commissioned for nerds who wondered ‘what might the recent translator Emily Wilson, whose version of the text I enjoyed, think of this film?’ being summarised in the guardian as ‘this academic hates fun and also hates you personally, you massive film-enjoying pleb’
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ptrourke @ptrourke.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
LLMs are not customer service representatives. Just one problem: they lack any institutional knowledge that isn't written down.
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ptrourke @ptrourke.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Today, they called looking for feedback about their "AI" system. They can't be bothered to pay a human being for 5 minutes to answer my questions, but expect me to donate 5 minutes of my time to answer their questions?
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ptrourke @ptrourke.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Had a complex question for our plumbing & HVAC company. I called and got shunted off to an LLM. I said I needed to talk to a human (because it was a complicated question), got put into a hold for many minutes, then told I could request a call back. They never called back.
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Joel @sentantiq.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
6. Both Nolan and Homer are engaged in adapting a traditional set of stories in response to complex audience and material demands while still trying to explore essential aspects of what it means to be human
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ptrourke @ptrourke.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Just don't. Even *Homer's* attitudes about color aren't relevant to Christopher Nolan's casting choices. He's doing reception, not dictation. (I haven't seen the movie yet, nor read Watson's review, but it sounds like she's critiquing it on its own merits.)
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ptrourke @ptrourke.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Oh for heaven's sake -- trying to use Catullus, Martial, or Ovid as evidence for what *Homer's* audience thought about complexion is like using Henry Miller to make an argument about sexuality in Dante.
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Patrick J. Burns @diyclassics.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
📝 New post 📝 "Introducing... LatinCy Vocab" Background on a Python package and spaCy component that turns plaintext Latin into pedagogically-aware, well-formatted vocabulary lists exploratoryphilology.org/posts/introd... #digiclass #teachlatin
exploratoryphilology.org
Introducing… LatinCy Vocab – Exploratory Philology Blog
Introducing LatinCy Vocab, a Python package and spaCy component that turns plaintext Latin into pedagogically-aware, well-formatted vocabulary lists.
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Open Culture @openculture.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Umberto Eco’s Personal Library Opens to the Public: More Than 32,000 Books, Exactly as He Left Them
openculture.com
Umberto Eco’s Personal Library Opens to the Public: More Than 32,000 Books, Exactly as He Left Them
William Weaver could add an extension onto his Tuscan villa, which he called the 'Eco Chamber.' The Biblioteca Eco, or Eco Library, whose ribbon-cutting earlier this month you can see in the Italian n...
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ptrourke @ptrourke.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Ah, yes, and Antinoos should be stately and plump.
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Mark Thakkar @brunellus.com · 21/07/2026
Lexicographer wanted at the TLL! Deadline end of August. Somewhat surprisingly, the advert doesn’t say how good your German needs to be – the TLL is based in Munich, and it’s in the nature of the job that you need to be in the office – but of course the dictionary itself is written in Latin anyway.
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Jack Grimes @jackapedia.design · 16/07/2026
Furious that Chris Nolan would disregard historical accuracy in adapting The Odyssey by making a "movie" with "cameras" instead of memorizing the entire story and then going on a nationwide tour to sing it to us while tripping on ergotized barley
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British Library @britishlibrary.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Couldn’t help but notice a few words sticking out to us in our manuscript collection, think it might be a sign... #itscominghome
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ptrourke @ptrourke.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Every time someone complains that casting Lupita Nyong'o as Helen is "ahistorical" I say to myself "she was born from an EGG." But yeah, I agree, you'd want someone younger -- early 20s or even younger -- to play Telemachus, who after all is a little over 20.
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MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Do you want to work with me? (Not in my department, but we would see each other at meetings and nod civilly.) montclair.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/JobOpp...
montclair.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com
Head for Research and Teaching Services
IMPORTANT APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS: Upload Resume or Curriculum Vitae for automatic population of information to the application. The contact information, work experience, and education listed on your...
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