Juan Acevedo

For those who missed it, I'm crowdfunding for the revised edition of this handbook of mine. We've reached the funding goal but there are still rewards and add-ons to be had... #bookarts

Meta plans $1 billion data center in Beaver Dam The facility is expected to be completed in 2027 and will support 100 jobs, according to state officials.

$1 billion data centre to maybe create 100 jobs. That's likely an overstatement.

It is truly not worth draining the living word for this vampiric tech and people are starting to realize it.
www.wisn.com/article/meta...

Facing #AI -produced student's assignments… On the one hand it feels a bit cool to be like a blade runner, catching the subtleties of the replicant/student's words 🙂 but on the other hand… shouldn't we be paid more for these blade running skills!? 🤔🤷‍♂️
#HighEd

Guess who got a badge!

images and astronomical tables from Arabic nautical manuscripts

Casting the net: I'm looking for #Arabic #manuscripts on #navigation that contain images/tables like these. Grateful for any leads.
أنا باحث عن #مخطوطات عربية في مجال الملاحة تحتوي على صور/جداول كهذه. شكرًا لأي دلائل!
#HistSci #nautical

#Conference on the Arts and Crafts in the Islamic World May 2026 @lau.edu #cfp
sard.lau.edu.lb/news-events/...
#artsandcrafts

Coming soon: Inks & Paints of the Middle East REVISED A new, updated edition of my groundbreaking handbook of early Islamic art technology, incorporating five more years of research.

… it's time for another Kickstarter. I'm still hammering out some details, but plan to launch in November. If you have an interest in this area, I'd love it if you signed up to be notified and/or shared the link with someone who would be. Read on for more info…

www.kickstarter.com/projects/maj...

In partnership with the Heritage Council, the #ChesterBeatty is pleased to offer a 12-month internship in book and paper conservation: ow.ly/LJNb50XlIKo #ConservationInternship #BookandPaperConservation #DublinJobs

Collage of three images. The first reads: "Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. Career. We're hiring." The second image shows bookshelves in the institute's library (Photo by Vivienne Rischke, 2024). The third image shows the MPIWG Summer Publications Slam held in the institute's library (Photo by Marvin Müller (2024).

Three new funded #DoctoralPositions in the International Max Planck School "Knowledge and Its Resources: Historical Reciprocities!"

🗓️ Deadline: Jan 15, 2026
🔗 bit.ly/4peeKez

#HistSci #DH #STS #HistSTM #EnvHum #PolSci #SocSci

Applications for 2026–2027 Beckman Center Fellowships Now Open Researchers can apply by January 15 for various long- and short-term programs, including two-year curatorial fellowships.

Absolutely delighted to announce that applications are now open for our 26-27 postdoc, dissertation, distinguished, and short-term fellowships at @sciencehistory.org! 📚 🎉

Details and application info on our website; questions welcome here!

www.sciencehistory.org/about/news/a...

A critique of pure stupidity: understanding Trump 2.0 If the first term of Donald Trump provoked anxiety over the fate of objective knowledge, the second has led to claims we live in a world-historical age of stupid, accelerated by big tech. But might th...

So clearly articulated, worth the long read!
"Professors will be familiar with the experience of reading student essays that are neither very good nor very bad, but that uncanny combination of the intelligent and the stupid that is the mark of AI writing."
www.theguardian.com/news/2025/oc...

Great news!
JSTOR now have a free account with an Independent Researcher category. You can access 100 documents per month

www.jstor.org/action/showL...

The 1st edition of the largest hackathon network in Europe will take place in Portugal on 18 and 19 October, at Técnico - Oeiras campus.

Registrations until 1 October. 📝

🔗 More information: tinyurl.com/5c796ju4

#TécnicoLisboa #ULisboa

#DH #AI @ciuhct

Why I gave the world wide web away for free | Tim Berners-Lee My vision was based on sharing, not exploitation – and here’s why it’s still worth fighting for

"On many platforms, we are no longer the customers, but instead have become the product."
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

📢 Publication alert!

We are delighted to share the latest publication from ASTRA researchers Jacob Schmidt-Madsen and Anuj Misra.

"A Tree with Many Roots: Introducing the Zysk Collection of Indic Manuscripts", now open access in Manuscript Studies muse.jhu.edu/article/965563

@mpiwg.bsky.social

That’s All Folks—Summing Up and Reflecting on our Blogging Stint Over the past six years, we published a total of 128 posts here, plus 59 in our sister Arabic Science and Philosophy blog . It was clear fr...

Here's a final blog post for the @erc.europa.eu Rutter Project, with some stats, reflections and a little banter on #DH and outreach
rutter-blog.blogspot.com/2025/08/that...
@cienciasulisboa.bsky.social #HistSci

Reposting! Don't miss our next SIMS Online Lecture on September 19!

4 años de trabajo en esta nueva edición digital del Quatri partitu de Alonso de Chaves. A great ride, involving the initial use of @transkribus.bsky.social
#xml is ready for enriching, do get in touch!
zenodo.org/records/1697...
#HistSci @erc.europa.eu @cienciasulisboa.bsky.social
#openaccess #DH

A poster for a talk I'm giving. Tuesday, September 16, 2025 at 4:30pm Boger Hall, Room 112, 41 Wyllys Avenue, Middletown, Connecticut Free and open to the public. "Extracting the Past: How the 'AI' Industry Exploits Art History and What We Can Do to Stop It." Over the last several years, universities and museums have partnered with commercial technology firms like Google, Microsoft, and Meta, who have promised that their AI products will enhance both historical research and accessibility to historical collections. These promises, however, are not supported by the reality of what computer vision--the branch of AI most relevant to the history of art--can achieve. So why have major institutions in education and the arts been so quick to take up these firms' offers? This talk responds to this question by providing an introduction to computer vision's origins in military surveillance, an overview of its development under late capitalist regimes of exploitative micro-labor, and an orientation to how computer vision works. However, the main focus of this talk is not what computer vision does. Rather, Drimmer considers the culture of the AI industry, its main objectives, and the dangerous vision for the future that it promises--and whether those promises are credible or even in good faith. This vision for the future has relied on extracting history, and art history in particular, and Drimmer argues that it is our responsibility as art historians to be knowledgeable about the forms this extraction takes. Drimmer concludes with suggestions about what we can do to protect the subjects and practitioners of our discipline, as well as education in the humanities more broadly, against this incursion. Drimmer does not intend an intransigent rejection of a given technology; rather this talk articulates a challenge that is grounded in knowledge of the historical origins and corporate practices of the AI industry today.

People of Connecticut and regions nearby. Come on out on September 16! Free and open to the public.

Right there with Heraclitus (B18) too:

ἐὰν μὴ ἔλπηται ἀνέλπιστον οὐκ ἐξευρήσει, ἀνεξερεύνητον ἐὸν καὶ ἄπορον

If you do not expect the unexpected, you will not find it; for it is unsearchable and impenetrable

Thinking about these quotes and why ChatGPT is like someone raining on your research parade.

“Research must be the search for the unexpected. I say that finding what we are looking for is not enough.“
Carlos Ginzberg

"The book you need is next to the book you are looking for."
Aby Warburg,

page spread of bilingual Arabic publication on astronomy

Introduction & selected #astronomy pages of Ibn Mājid’s Fawā'id, "Commentaries on the Principles and Foundations of #Maritime Science"—15th-century classic on #IndianOcean #navigation
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
@cienciasulisboa.bsky.social
@erc.europa.eu #HistSci #manuscripts

Now that I can read some Ge'ez and have serviceable purchase on the basics, I wanna also be able to say 'hey' to my neighbors who are actually alive and don't speak a liturgical langauge.

Amharic textbooks, friends? (Yes, I know, quite different, but go with it.)

I'm not dancing around the issue this time: Amazon might be "important" for "exposure" but please do not order my books from them. Please choose @bookshop-org-uk.bsky.social, Blackwell's or your local indie instead.

Amazon are no friend to authors. And never will be.

Who do I know on here who speaks Swahili?

Marvellous “Properties” 2: Philosophy Now that we have concluded our reading of Ibn al-Jazzār’s Risāla fī’l-khawāss , the Epistle on Special Properties , let us see how it touche...

“The chain of authorities is not hearsay and not mere bibliography, it is as if we ourselves had seen the fever abate under the crocodile's fang, and memories return under the hoopoe’s tongue”—new post!
tinyurl.com/kpknekpn @isisjournal.bsky.social
@cienciasulisboa.bsky.social #histsci #philsci

The mathematics of starvation: how Israel caused a famine in Gaza Israel controls the flow of food into Gaza. It has calculated how many calories Palestinians need to stay alive. Its data shows only a fraction has been allowed in

The vast gap between the calories #Gaza needs, and the food that has entered since March makes clear that lsraeli officials are doing different maths today. They cannot pass responsibility for this human-made famine to anyone else, and nor can their allies
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

Image of exhibition case and contents for the 'Sing Joyfully' exhibition.

Today, we proudly opened our exhibition, Sing Joyfully: Exploring Music in Lambeth Palace Library, to the public! 🎉

👉 Learn more on our Sing Joyfully homepage: www.lambethpalacelibrary.info/sing-joyfully/

#SingJoyfully #LambethPalaceLibrary