Peter Tarras
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petertarras.bsky.social
Peter Tarras
@petertarras.bsky.social
2.8K followers 2K following 1.3K posts
Postdoc @jacculturelmu.bsky.social | Blog: http://medisi.hypotheses.org | Book History | Manuscript Studies | Provenance | MENA Intellectual History | SciCom | #FirstGen

https://www.naher-osten.uni-muenchen.de/personen/wiss_ma/peter-tarras/index.html
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petertarras.bsky.social
Stumbled across this incredible cover yesterday. The two make it look seamless, but it involves a very high degree of professional musicianship. Enjoy!
Reckoner - Radiohead (Josh Turner and Emma Harner Cover)
YouTube video by Josh Turner Guitar
www.youtube.com
November 28, 2025 at 9:12 AM
Reposted by Peter Tarras
drmeagantyler.bsky.social
This banger from the academia / writing / research meme stash definitely has wider applicability but I do really like using it for coaching, mentoring, and workshop activities when we talk about the importance of saying 'no' to things as researchers. #academicchatter #academicsky #PhDchat
November 27, 2025 at 12:43 AM
Reposted by Peter Tarras
acbm.bsky.social
Images of the manuscript, a scroll over 14ft long in Manichaean script, are available at idp.bl.uk/collection/1...
Collection object "Or.8212/178" • Manichaean manuscript, Xwastwanift
manuscript, ink on paper
idp.bl.uk
November 27, 2025 at 3:58 PM
petertarras.bsky.social
Arabic #WOTD:
هائل (hāʔil)
"dreadful, frightful, horrible"

as in Yefet ben Eli's Comm. on Dan. 11:1 (ed. Margoliouth):
وإن كان صوّر [الملائكة] هائلة فإنّ الله يمكن بني آدم من مشاهدتها
"Even if the forms [of angels] are horrible, God has enabled the sons of man to see them"
Replica of a supposedly biblically accurate angel that serves as a Christmas tree topper. It consists of iridescent pink and purple feathers that form a round centre from which six wings extend. In the centre is a large eye, surrounded by smaller eyes, including on the wings (among them the eye of Sauron). The replica was created by the Rev. Kira Austin-Young and her puppet-maker husband, Michael Schupbach. Source: https://www.ncronline.org/news/what-biblically-accurate-angel-and-do-you-need-one-top-your-christmas-tree
November 27, 2025 at 1:22 PM
Reposted by Peter Tarras
drewjakeprof.bsky.social
This is a late ancient (5-7th c.?) Greek account of the life of a rich woman who was raised Jewish, converted to Christianity when her parents died, lived for 20 years as a male monk named John, was discovered & made head of a woman's monastery, & was later martyred
drewjakeprof.bsky.social Andrew Jacobs (he/him) @drewjakeprof.bsky.social · 2d
well, what the heck. it's the tuesday before thanksgiving, and whoever is on here deserves a treat: the first new translation I've posted in a long while: the Life and Martyrdom of Susanna:

andrewjacobs.org/translations...
Life and Martyrdom of Susanna
andrewjacobs.org
November 25, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Reposted by Peter Tarras
chiaweilin.bsky.social
Today I stumbled upon an open-access article in the new edited volume "Connected Philology" by someone who has the exact same name as me and also works at the Université de Lausanne. Very suspicious 👀
#shamelessselfpromotion

www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...
Connected Philology
Even though the similarities of philological methods and traditions across various cultures have been the subject of scholarly research, the reasons for these occurrences usually remain obscure. The p...
www.degruyterbrill.com
November 25, 2025 at 11:25 AM
Reposted by Peter Tarras
acbm.bsky.social
If you're interested in the movement of Buddhist terms and elements into Persian and Arabic from Sanskrit, Chinese, and Tibetan, see Chia-Wei's fascinating new article below!
November 25, 2025 at 11:47 AM
Reposted by Peter Tarras
dannybate.bsky.social
Episode 42 of ALILI is a return to the Germanic languages, but with a new guest: Old Norse specialist Jackson Crawford (@norsebysw.bsky.social) of YouTube fame introduces the language and discusses his translations of the Poetic Edda.

A great chat, freely available here:
pod.link/1703401848/e...
November 24, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Reposted by Peter Tarras
norsebysw.bsky.social
Today I'm the guest on @dannybate.bsky.social 's podcast "A language I love is..." talking about Old Norse! open.spotify.com/episode/7GoR...
Old Norse and Jackson Crawford
open.spotify.com
November 24, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Reposted by Peter Tarras
gorgiaspress.bsky.social
Calling all #AARSBL delegates interested in Mandaeism, remember to attend this session today at 5PM. #Mandaean #ConferenceSession #Boston
November 24, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Reposted by Peter Tarras
visithmml.bsky.social
Dr. Jeremy R. Brown, cataloger of Ethiopic manuscripts at HMML, will be presenting at the Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, on Monday, November 24, 9:30-10:00am.

#AARSBL25 #EthiopicBible #Ethiopic #Manuscripts #Presentations #History #Literature #Bibles
November 24, 2025 at 12:13 PM
Reposted by Peter Tarras
wisskomm.de
Das Internet droht im synthetischen Müll zu versinken. Wikipedia, YouTube, LinkedIn: Überall ist künstlicher Content, auch bekannt als ‘AI Slop’. Wie gefährlich ist das für unsere Wissensinfrastruktur? 👇
www.wissenschaftskommunikation.de/wir-versinke... #Wisskomm @aiforensics.org @kurzgesagt.org
Wir versinken in Schrott
Ein Viertel der meistgeklickten TikTok-Suchergebnisse ist künstlich erzeugt. Oft ohne Kennzeichnung, oft täuschend echt. Welche Orientierung bleibt in dieser neuen Realität? Im August 2025 bemerkte de...
www.wissenschaftskommunikation.de
November 24, 2025 at 9:12 AM
Reposted by Peter Tarras
smittermeier.bsky.social
Offener Brief gegen die zunehmende unkritische Nutzung von KI an deutschen Hochschulen und Forschungseinrichtungen - bitte teilen! openletter.earth/gegen-die-un...
Gegen die unkritische Anwendung und Implementierung sog. Künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) in der deutschen Wissenschaft und im Hochschulalltag
openletter.earth
November 20, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Reposted by Peter Tarras
olivia.science
reminder if you're german/germany-based, please consider signing!
November 24, 2025 at 8:15 AM
Reposted by Peter Tarras
emily.space
PLEASE this.

And also to scientists writing press releases, too - calling something "AI" when it was actually your student spending 12 months fitting and validating a model is disingenuous
mcnees.bsky.social Robert “The Baste God” McNees @mcnees.bsky.social · 5d
Journalist challenge: Use “Machine Learning” when you mean machine learning and “LLM” when you mean LLM. Ditch “AI” as a catch-all term, it’s not useful for readers and it helps companies trying to confuse the public by obscuring the roles played by different technologies. 🧪
November 23, 2025 at 9:12 AM
Reposted by Peter Tarras
mcnees.bsky.social
Journalist challenge: Use “Machine Learning” when you mean machine learning and “LLM” when you mean LLM. Ditch “AI” as a catch-all term, it’s not useful for readers and it helps companies trying to confuse the public by obscuring the roles played by different technologies. 🧪
November 22, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Reposted by Peter Tarras
monicamedhist.bsky.social
Oh wow! This is what happens when you're photographing MSS & don't capture the text in the inner gutter. 1st, here's the photograph (made about 100 yrs ago) of the Codex Salernitanus, f. 82ra. Although that big tear of the page is obvious, the inner gutter hasn't been fully captured in the photo.
Breslau Codex (Wrocław, Stadtbibliothek, MS 1302, s. xii ex./xiii in.), f. 82ra, showing tear in the page but only the very edge of the text in the inner gutter.
November 18, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Reposted by Peter Tarras
caperry.bsky.social
Maps! From my forthcoming book and created by @greenleejw.bsky.social. I highly recommend JW Greenlee and especially appreciated his collaborative and iterative process of design. These maps capture the geography implicated in the slave trade that I study in the book. There is ... 1/3
Map 1. From Iberia to India, ca. 1000–1250. Map created by John Wyatt Greenlee of Surprised Eel Mapping. Map 2. Egypt and Northeast Africa, ca. 1000–1250. Map created by John Wyatt Greenlee of Surprised Eel Mapping.
November 21, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Reposted by Peter Tarras
pseudo-isidore.bsky.social
What languages did the 35 hermits living in Jerusalem in 808 pray to God in? Charlemagne wanted to know, so he found out. (Mostly Greek and Syriac)
Table from McCormick
November 21, 2025 at 1:22 PM
Reposted by Peter Tarras
abeba.bsky.social
hive-mind, know of any research/academic work that has detailed the various ways social media/large platforms have made audits/critical investigation of these platforms practically impossible. exuberant API fees, access only to partial data even when you can pay fee, retaliation again auditors, etc
November 21, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Reposted by Peter Tarras
danmcquillan.bsky.social
Resisting GenAI and Big Tech in Higher Education - Tuesday 25th Nov, free registration, great panel, big focus on climate justice. Register here: lmula.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
Resisting GenAI and Big Tech in Higher Education Tuesday 25th November 2025 8am - 9:30am PST | 11am -12:30pm EST | 4pm - 5:30pm GMT | 5pm - 6:30pm CET Virtual on Zoom – REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/4qE27dB Generative AI is permeating higher education in many different ways—it is increasingly embedded in university work and life, even if we don’t want to use it. But people are also sounding the alarm: Gen AI is disrupting learning and undermining trust in the integrity of academic work, while big tech’s energy consumption, use of water, and rapid expansion of data centers are exacerbating ecological crises. What can we do? How do we resist? Come learn about the environmental, social, economic, and political threats that AI poses and how we can individually and collectively resist and refuse. Learn about how some are challenging the narrative of inevitability. Join this interactive discussion with international scholars and activists on resisting GenAI and big tech in higher education. Inputs from multiple scholar-activists include: Christoph Becker (University of Toronto, Canada), Mary Finley-Brook (University of Richmond, USA), Dan McQuillan (Goldsmiths, University of London, UK), Sinéad Sheehan (University of Galway, Ireland), Jennie Stephens (National University of Ireland Maynooth, Ireland), and Paul Lachapelle (Montana State University, USA). This event will be recorded and is co-sponsored by: Climate Justice Universities Union and Climate Campus Network
November 21, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Reposted by Peter Tarras
petertarras.bsky.social
Soeben unterzeichnet! Lest den Brief, unterzeichnet ihn, teilt ihn, wenn ihr gegen *unkritische* Nutzung (nicht gegen Nutzung generell) von KI an deutschen Hochschulen seid.
November 21, 2025 at 8:04 AM
Reposted by Peter Tarras
laurajcleaver.bsky.social
How have books shaped the way we think? In January Anna Somfai will teach an online short course on books about science and philosophy in the Middle Ages. Book now 👇 #MedievalSky @ies-sas.bsky.social @warburginstitute.bsky.social @sas-news.bsky.social palaeography.uk/study/short-...
Medieval Philosophical and Scientific Manuscripts – an online short course taught by Anna Somfai
This course will run online from 14:00-17:00: Monday 26 January – Thursday 29 January 2026. The course explores medieval Western philosophical and scientific manuscripts produced over the spa…
palaeography.uk
November 21, 2025 at 10:39 AM
petertarras.bsky.social
"And I guess that’s why I hate AI in the classroom as much as I do. Students are afraid to fail, and AI presents itself as a savior. But what we learn from history is that progress requires failure. It requires reflection."
I Set A Trap To Catch My Students Cheating With AI. The Results Were Shocking.
"Students are not just undermining their ability to learn, but to someday lead."
www.huffpost.com
November 21, 2025 at 10:31 AM
Reposted by Peter Tarras
hopesteffen.bsky.social
This morning's discourse on how LLMs fuel misconceptions & strengthen people's delusions reminds me of a student of mine who, in the early days of ChatGPT, used it for an exam essay. The replies to his prompts caused him to delve into an irrelevant topic without even trying to make it relevant.(1/n)
November 21, 2025 at 8:07 AM