Peter Romaskiewicz, PhD
@peterromaskiewicz.bsky.social
Historian of Chinese Religions & Chinese Buddhism, interest in smell culture & aromatics; recent hummingbird whisperer, belated powerlifter, curator of Buddhas in the West Material Archive @buddhasinthewest.bsky.social
"We know “AI-powered” detectors are faulty ...Emboss lets you share your metrics...to show the human processes and labor behind the work, capturing how a document was written—the sessions, the edits, the time you put in, as positive evidence of human authorship." help.ellipsus.com/article/embo...
Emboss | Ellipsus Help Center
help.ellipsus.com
Sculptures like this are often hollowed out and devotional objects can be found inside. 🪷 Using CT scanning, we peered inside this Shōtoku Taishi figure without opening it. No hidden objects – but now we have tree ring patterns to help us date it! 👁️ https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/200106193
Retractions never get proportional attention. This one should.
Influential study touting ChatGPT in education retracted over red flags
The retracted study on ChatGPT in education was already cited hundreds of times.
arstechnica.com
Kendell Geers Losing my Religion 23, 2007 Spraypaint on wood, nails, rust
Kendell Geers Losing my Religion 23, 2007 Spraypaint on wood, nails, rust
NEW: A new pre-print study offers the first causal evidence that outsourcing reasoning tasks to AI can rapidly erode users' independent performance AND their will to persist despite difficulty. "People’s persistence drops... they’re also not willing to try without AI.” futurism.com/artificial-i...
AI Use Appears to Have a "Boiling Frog" Effect on Human Cognition, New Study Warns
A new study claims to offer the first causal link between AI dependency and cognitive erosion. Researchers warn of long-term implications.
futurism.com
"Over 100 newly restored bamboo slips are publicly displayed for the first time since their discovery...The main tomb of the Marquis of Haihun, the excavation of which was one of the most significant archaeological activities in the country in recent years..." en.people.cn/n3/2026/0415...
Guangzhou, Hua Lin Temple (500 Genii Temple), by Milton M. Miller, ca. 1860-64. Original source for the postcard below, issued by O. F. Ribeiros in 1902.
Buddhas in the West Material Archive@buddhasinthewest.bsky.social · 4mo agoReputedly founded in the 6th century, Hualin Temple traces its origins to the famed Zen patriarch Bodhidharma, who arrived in China by sea. Situated in the port city of Guangzhou, the temple remained a favored destination for visitors and foreign photographers more than a millennium later. 🧵 #China
BDG News: Gen Z Predominates as a Record 250,000 Visitors Flock to 2026 Seoul International Buddhism Expo 🔗 Read more: tinyurl.com/4kkzeyk3 #Buddhism #Buddha #Seoul #Gangnam #Korea #HeartSutra #JogyeOrder #Meditation #ContemporaryBuddhism #Mindfulness #COEX #YoungPeople #KoreanBuddhism #Zen #Seon
Gen Z Predominates as a Record 250,000 Visitors Flock to 2026 Seoul International Buddhism Expo - Buddhistdoor Global
The 2026 Seoul International Buddhism Expo (BEXPO2026) recently concluded in the South Korean capital, with organizers reporting record attendance.
tinyurl.com
Hong Kong International Airport has unveiled a giant interactive cat art installation at Terminal 1. Belated #caturday www.scmp.com/news/hong-ko...
Move over, Easter Bunny: cats are the stars in Hong Kong this holiday
Seasonal cat-themed artworks are stealing the limelight this Easter, tapping into the city’s booming ‘cat economy’.
scmp.com
Southern Shaolin Monastery in Putain, Fujian Province, 2019.
Southern Shaolin Monastery in Putain, Fujian Province, 2019.
Pleasure working with Tracy Stegman of San Diego Central Library to put this exhibit together. Special Collections on the top floor has an amazing view of the city! Exhibit up through June. 🗃️ 📜
Buddhas in the West Material Archive@buddhasinthewest.bsky.social · 4mo ago📣 New Exhibit 📣 Another wonderful collaboration with San Diego Central Library is now up through June. To read the exhibit intro and get a look at some of the trade cards on display, you can check out the digital companion guide: tinyurl.com/4a2kmm29.
Note how the original artist below used John Thomson's photograph from 1873 as reference to create the illustration of Gushan's temple in Fuzhou.
Buddhas in the West Material Archive@buddhasinthewest.bsky.social · 4mo agoAfter Fuzhou opened to foreign trade in 1842, missionaries, merchants, and travelers began climbing the stone stairway to Gushan. The dramatic setting with temple roofs rising from forested slopes above the Min River plain made it irresistible to photographers and travel writers. 🧵 🗃️ 📜 #China
The concept of "AI slop" highlights the imbalance in effort between creators and consumers of content generated by artificial intelligence. As production becomes effortless, the burden shifts to the consumer. #ArtificialIntelligence #AIEducation #AIEdu #AIInEd #AIInEdu
The Effort Economy of Slop
The concept of "AI slop" highlights the imbalance in effort between creators and consumers of content generated by artificial intelligence. As production becomes effortless, the burden shifts to the consumer.
leonfurze.com
Photo of Whampoa Pagoda, Guangzhou, 1875. hpcbristol.net/visual/RH01-03
Buddhas in the West Material Archive@buddhasinthewest.bsky.social · 4mo agoEn route to Japan in 1853, the Perry Expedition stopped in Guangdong, the historic center of China’s foreign trade. Anchored in the Pearl River, expedition artist Wilhelm Heine sketched arguably one of the most famous pagodas in the world at the time: the Whampoa Pagoda. 🧵 🗃️ 📜 #China
📣 New historical data visualization! "How Fast Was the Mail?" is an interactive map showing how long information took to travel across the US between 1882-1908: cblevins.github.io/mail-time/ +
How Fast Was the Mail?
Explore mail transit times via railway between major U.S. cities, 1882–1908.
cblevins.github.io
A photograph of a well-attended baseball game at the Manzanar incarceration camp in California. Camp barracks are seen beyond the outfield. Taken by Ansel Adams sometime in 1943. In honor of #MLB #OpeningDay, we celebrate the long and storied history of Japanese Americans in baseball. 🗃 #skystorians
From #AHAPerspectives in 2018: During the 1906 World Series, umpires used gestures to call the game for the first time. Rebecca Edwards explained how deaf @mlb.com player William Ellsworth “Dummy” Hoy brought umpires’ signs into the game. 🗃️
Hand Signals – AHA
The truth about a deaf player’s contribution to the national pastime has been too long and too unfairly denied.
historians.org
New webpage for the AI + Human Flourishing Initiative at the Contemplative Sciences Center, UVA. The initiative investigates the bidirectional loop of how AI can enhance human flourishing, and how lived human knowledge can inform the human-AI interface. csc.virginia.edu/research/ai-...
AI + Human Flourishing Initiative | Contemplative Sciences Center
At this critical moment, when human consciousness and emerging Artificial Intelligence (AI) are being shaped and adapted symbiotically, this research initiative organizes interdisciplinary expertise t...
csc.virginia.edu
Map of the Tam Thai Monastery complex in the Marble Mountains near Da Nang. The monk in the hood was likely the monastery's abbot. Map from Sallet's Les Montagnes de Marbre (1925), prepared by Vietnamese mapmaker, Do Khai.
Buddhas in the West Material Archive@buddhasinthewest.bsky.social · 4mo agoThis early photograph from Tourane (today’s Da Nang) shows three Buddhist monks at the Marble Mountains temple complex. It is a rare colonial-era view of the full hierarchy of Vietnamese Buddhist monastic dress, from a novice’s plain robe to the ceremonial vestments of a senior abbot.🧵 🗃️ 📜 #Vietnam
Sunrise at Zhaoming Monastery in northern Fujian province. The temple overlooks a valley where the city of Fuding is located. 2018.
I've translated a short but very important passage by Satō Makoto about the concept of aura in documentary cinema. Part of my "mission" 😅 to disseminate as much as possible not only his films but also his writings...
matteoB@matteob.bsky.social · 5mo agoAura and the Optical Unconscious in Satō Makoto’s writings asian-docs.com/2026/03/23/a...
Asita, the Awakened disciple with fashionable eyebrows. Mt. Emei, Sichuan. 2011.
Asita, the Awakened disciple with fashionable eyebrows. Mt. Emei, Sichuan. 2011.
View inside Shengshou Monastery in Wenzhou. 2014.
Buddhist monastic robes store, Zherong county, Fujian, 2018.
