David Pearson
@dj-pearson.bsky.social
Librarian at SOAS Library Anthropology, Linguistics, Migration, Food Studies, Teaching, HEIs https://soas.libguides.com/
EThOS provides access to over 650,000 metadata records of UK PhD theses via @britishlibrary.bsky.social #libraries www.bl.uk/stories/news...
EThOS records restored
We are pleased to share that EThOS (E-Theses Online Service) is now available again following restoration work after the cyber-attack.
bl.uk
"don't cite what you haven't read" remains the basic entry level academic responsibility; & if your discpline "doesn't have that as a norm" then sorry, your discipline needs reforming for this new world. Citations are structural parts of trust and knowledge building, not trinkets or optional extras
Miles Klee 🦉@milesklee.bsky.social · 8mo agoAcademics and technologists are sounding the alarm about a growing crisis in scholarship as we know it: AI-generated citations of nonexistent papers that have infested real journals. Despite being fake, the sources are widely assumed to be authentic the more they appear in published literature.
EThOS platform restored! 'Following restoration work, all metadata records previously available on EThOS have now been restored, along with an additional 14,000 records added since the service was taken offline' - more to come www.bl.uk/stories/news...
EThOS records restored
We are pleased to share that EThOS (E-Theses Online Service) is now available again following restoration work after the cyber-attack.
bl.uk
'They were competing for supremacy': Which is the oldest English accent? buff.ly/9nb6Pym #langsky #xl8
'They were competing for supremacy': Which is the oldest English accent?
Two BBC journalists go on a quest to find out whose accent is older – and uncover a dramatic history filled with hidden twists and surprises.
buff.ly
The UK AI pushback: 42% of people are deliberately limiting their AI use and 70% of people think it would be difficult or impossible to avoid being exposed to AI even if they wanted to. New report from us at @kings-dfi.bsky.social : www.kcl.ac.uk/news/over-40...
Over 40% of people are limiting AI use, as popularity starts to wane | King's College London
People are increasingly choosing to limit or reject the use of AI tools, according to a new report published today by the Digital Futures Institute at King’s College London and Responsible AI UK.
kcl.ac.uk
An interesting essay on what sources can and cannot tell us about the past. 🗃
Craig Clunas@craigclunas.bsky.social · 4w agoPublished by @aeon.co , some thoughts on how we know what we (think we) know about the imperial family of Ming China, subject of my last book @reaktionbooks.bsky.social aeon.co/essays/how-l...
Just one week to go! 🎉 SOAS Gallery reopens on 10th July with Embroidery Traditions of Afghanistan, showcasing around 100 extraordinary embroidered textiles from across Afghanistan. We look forward to welcoming you back! #SOASGallery
EMBROIDERY TRADITIONS of AFGHANISTAN at SOAS Gallery, London Karun Thakar Collection, developed in collaboration with the V&A The exhibition opens on 10th July and runs until 19th September.
Anthropologists can learn from psychoanalysts. For example the clinical view on “ritual” is different as “rituals attach themselves to bad thoughts to prevent them from happening”. We tend to look at rituals as social events only, but they are also tied to each subject’s symbolic order. #Lacan
I have listened to a lot of psychoanalysts today, presenting their “cases”. And it made me think what if we in #anthropology were to present our interlocutors as carefully, yet factually as our colleagues? Less interpretation, more presentation. A different ethics of writing the human into being.
Growing kelp might not be a viable CO₂ removal technique.
A promising natural technique to remove CO2 could backfire
Several start-ups have tried to grow seaweed to remove atmospheric CO2, but this could affect the levels of nutrients in the ocean and hamper other CO2-sucking processes
newscientist.com
Cory Doctorow on the “promse of AI” for top corporate execs: “Workplaces without workers, screenplays without screenwriters, movies without actors, hospitals without doctors and nurses.” @zoesqwilliams.bsky.social @doctorow.pluralistic.net www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
‘You can’t make billions without hurting people’: Cory Doctorow on Elon Musk, the AI bubble and bosses’ cruel fantasies
The writer who coined the word ‘enshittification’ tells us why AI will never deliver what it promises – and why it still appeals so much to those in power
theguardian.com
Our digital cultural heritage is so fragile without ongoing resources. We're reaching a critical point where the whims of fascist politicians are dictating what digitised resources will survive. Who said culture and history wasn't political? www.theguardian.com/environment/...
A bonanza for fans of the natural world: the digital library sharing 64m pages of scientific knowledge with everyone
The Biodiversity Heritage Library is an invaluable online archive of historic texts on species living and lost supplied by the world’s leading museums and universities. Now its future is in doubt
theguardian.com
We're looking forward to attending #OIPA2026 this Thursday! Our Executive Director, @theblochian.bsky.social, will join the panel HE in Crisis to discuss why non-profit #openaccess is becoming essential in addressing the social, financial and political challenges facing UK higher education. (1/2)
'Francis Bacon and the crisis of the palatinate' Quentin Skinner Lecture, 19 June https://bit.ly/442lfre Dr Samuel Zeitlin (UCL) will discuss Bacon’s evolving responses to the crisis of the Palatinate through writing and civil histories, in response to the onset of the Thirty Years War
📰 A dumpster arrived behind a university's library, prompting concerns about its contents and potential impact on students' access to books. 🔗 https://yalereview.org/article/sheila-liming-the-end-of-books #Tech #Dev
Sheila Liming: “The End of Books”
A university professor on what we lose when we lose the book as a physical medium.
yalereview.org
In the 9th century, Muhammad ibn Musa al-Kharizmi helped solidify the concept of algorithms in mathematics and popularized algebra and the use of the zero. n.pr/49V5Exj
How 'algorithm' got its name from a 9th-century Persian mathematician
In the 9th century, Muhammad ibn Musa al-Kharizmi helped solidify the concept of algorithms in mathematics and popularized algebra and the use of the zero.
n.pr
What do you think of our 2026 #SmallPressDay poster by the wonderful @pigeonface.bsky.social! We're so chuffed with this. :-)
This evening!
Royal Asiatic Society@royalasiaticsoc.bsky.social · 2mo agoOur upcoming lecture features Dr Megnaa Mehtta, Lecturer in Social Anthropology at UCL, who will explore the diverse forms of sovereignty that shape everyday life in the Sundarbans, one of the world’s largest mangrove forests in the Bengal Delta. Details: tinyurl.com/ras-260611
A whole 12% of voters think Brexit has been a success. And just 25% of Leave voters. Sigh.
Birds, wings and diadems: Zoroastrian symbols in Parthian & Sasanian art | A Kutar Memorial Lecture SOAS University of London youtu.be/esoqypsh8fk?...
Birds, wings and diadems: Zoroastrian symbols in Parthian & Sasanian art | A Kutar Memorial Lecture
YouTube video by SOAS University of London
youtu.be
