Prof. B. (Tracey Billado-Lotson)
@billadot.bsky.social
Historian of 🇫🇷: C10th-12th Anjou; violence, customs, law, monks/nuns, lordship, unfreedom, charters. She/her.
Reposted by Prof. B. (Tracey Billado-Lotson)
I am struck less by the hypocrisy of universities sanctioning their faculty than by their consistency. They are utterly consistent in their craven response to pollical pressure.
September 14, 2025 at 8:46 PM
I am struck less by the hypocrisy of universities sanctioning their faculty than by their consistency. They are utterly consistent in their craven response to pollical pressure.
Reposted by Prof. B. (Tracey Billado-Lotson)
"If your books were uploaded to LibGen/fed into the LLMs, add your name to the potential class action lawsuit by tomorrow." Details:
LibDem database: www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
Attorney form: www.lieffcabraser.com/anthropic-au...
(This information comes via a reliable Discord source.)
LibDem database: www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
Attorney form: www.lieffcabraser.com/anthropic-au...
(This information comes via a reliable Discord source.)
Search LibGen, the Pirated-Books Database That Meta Used to Train AI
Millions of books and scientific papers are captured in the collection’s current iteration.
www.theatlantic.com
August 14, 2025 at 5:30 PM
"If your books were uploaded to LibGen/fed into the LLMs, add your name to the potential class action lawsuit by tomorrow." Details:
LibDem database: www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
Attorney form: www.lieffcabraser.com/anthropic-au...
(This information comes via a reliable Discord source.)
LibDem database: www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
Attorney form: www.lieffcabraser.com/anthropic-au...
(This information comes via a reliable Discord source.)
Reposted by Prof. B. (Tracey Billado-Lotson)
The Haskins Society is now on BlueSky! Look out for posts over the next few days which advertise our involvement in the @imc-leeds.bsky.social
Head over and give us a follow @haskinssociety.bsky.social
Head over and give us a follow @haskinssociety.bsky.social
July 5, 2025 at 12:27 PM
The Haskins Society is now on BlueSky! Look out for posts over the next few days which advertise our involvement in the @imc-leeds.bsky.social
Head over and give us a follow @haskinssociety.bsky.social
Head over and give us a follow @haskinssociety.bsky.social
Reposted by Prof. B. (Tracey Billado-Lotson)
If you're a grad student or an undergrad interested in research I need to you listen to me very carefully.
You cannot learn to write good research papers if you do not read good research papers.
Stop asking LLMs to summarize papers for you.
You cannot learn to write good research papers if you do not read good research papers.
Stop asking LLMs to summarize papers for you.
May 3, 2025 at 8:25 PM
If you're a grad student or an undergrad interested in research I need to you listen to me very carefully.
You cannot learn to write good research papers if you do not read good research papers.
Stop asking LLMs to summarize papers for you.
You cannot learn to write good research papers if you do not read good research papers.
Stop asking LLMs to summarize papers for you.
Reposted by Prof. B. (Tracey Billado-Lotson)
This passage from @benjamincarterhett.bsky.social's book on Hitler's rise to power has long haunted me for the way it describes how so many ordinary Germans had their minds & souls gradually rewired by the changing political climate of the 1930s. Watching something similar happen here is terrifying.
April 30, 2025 at 2:47 PM
This passage from @benjamincarterhett.bsky.social's book on Hitler's rise to power has long haunted me for the way it describes how so many ordinary Germans had their minds & souls gradually rewired by the changing political climate of the 1930s. Watching something similar happen here is terrifying.
Reposted by Prof. B. (Tracey Billado-Lotson)
In a few years (max) when people start asking why we thought AI was a good idea I am creating a record that we did NOT think it was a good idea and the main reason people were ever convinced was billions of dollars of propaganda
April 29, 2025 at 3:51 PM
In a few years (max) when people start asking why we thought AI was a good idea I am creating a record that we did NOT think it was a good idea and the main reason people were ever convinced was billions of dollars of propaganda
Reposted by Prof. B. (Tracey Billado-Lotson)
@oah.org Please help us! The Journal of the Early Republic has launched a "history tracker" to document how the Trump Admin is changing/hiding history. We need your help- if you've seen a change that has not (yet) made the news, please write in. More info: thepanorama.shear.org/2025/04/09/t...
The Early Republic Tracker
The Early Republic Tracker documents instances where the federal government is removing facts and stories essential to the public’s understanding American history from public historical sites, muse…
thepanorama.shear.org
April 14, 2025 at 1:18 PM
@oah.org Please help us! The Journal of the Early Republic has launched a "history tracker" to document how the Trump Admin is changing/hiding history. We need your help- if you've seen a change that has not (yet) made the news, please write in. More info: thepanorama.shear.org/2025/04/09/t...
Reposted by Prof. B. (Tracey Billado-Lotson)
Rümeysa's legal team is coordinating a fundraiser for her and her family to help them deal with this crisis, including medical costs since ICE has kept Rümeysa from accessing all her medications. Please donate if you're able:
Justice for Rumeysa Ozturk
Dear Friends, Allies, and Supporters,
chuffed.org
March 30, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Rümeysa's legal team is coordinating a fundraiser for her and her family to help them deal with this crisis, including medical costs since ICE has kept Rümeysa from accessing all her medications. Please donate if you're able:
Reposted by Prof. B. (Tracey Billado-Lotson)
If you are at an event where someone on stage gives a Hitler salute and that person is not dragged off by security and kicked out, you are at a Nazi rally.
February 21, 2025 at 11:37 AM
If you are at an event where someone on stage gives a Hitler salute and that person is not dragged off by security and kicked out, you are at a Nazi rally.
My condolences to his entire family. He will be truly missed. It is rare to find a scholar of his intellect and achievement who was also such a kind and lovely person.
My father, the medieval historian Bob (R.I.) Moore, died peacefully this morning after a long and increasingly-not-fun battle with cancer.
February 6, 2025 at 10:33 AM
My condolences to his entire family. He will be truly missed. It is rare to find a scholar of his intellect and achievement who was also such a kind and lovely person.
Reposted by Prof. B. (Tracey Billado-Lotson)
In light of this deeply illegal activity at NSF and the ongoing attack on American science, I'm posting the slides from my 2017 talk at the American Physical Society about the Nazi take over of German physics/why German is no longer science's lingua franca 🧪
🧵 1/26
drive.google.com/file/d/1_MCm...
🧵 1/26
drive.google.com/file/d/1_MCm...
January 31, 2025 at 2:19 PM
In light of this deeply illegal activity at NSF and the ongoing attack on American science, I'm posting the slides from my 2017 talk at the American Physical Society about the Nazi take over of German physics/why German is no longer science's lingua franca 🧪
🧵 1/26
drive.google.com/file/d/1_MCm...
🧵 1/26
drive.google.com/file/d/1_MCm...
Reposted by Prof. B. (Tracey Billado-Lotson)
In 1935, in compliance with the Nuremburg Laws, the German military dismissed all Jews serving in its ranks.
Just sayin.
Just sayin.
January 28, 2025 at 11:04 AM
In 1935, in compliance with the Nuremburg Laws, the German military dismissed all Jews serving in its ranks.
Just sayin.
Just sayin.
Reposted by Prof. B. (Tracey Billado-Lotson)
Whether it’s Obama, wearing a tan suit or Elon Musk doing Hitler salutes, both sides have engaged in incendiary behavior
January 21, 2025 at 11:50 PM
Whether it’s Obama, wearing a tan suit or Elon Musk doing Hitler salutes, both sides have engaged in incendiary behavior
Reposted by Prof. B. (Tracey Billado-Lotson)
What is the average professor afraid of?
- mainly: „train delays“
- the projector in the class room not working again
- being invited to things
- explaining what they do again at parties that they were regrettably invited to after all
- the continued destruction of their whole field
- Eduroam
- mainly: „train delays“
- the projector in the class room not working again
- being invited to things
- explaining what they do again at parties that they were regrettably invited to after all
- the continued destruction of their whole field
- Eduroam
January 14, 2025 at 5:47 PM
What is the average professor afraid of?
- mainly: „train delays“
- the projector in the class room not working again
- being invited to things
- explaining what they do again at parties that they were regrettably invited to after all
- the continued destruction of their whole field
- Eduroam
- mainly: „train delays“
- the projector in the class room not working again
- being invited to things
- explaining what they do again at parties that they were regrettably invited to after all
- the continued destruction of their whole field
- Eduroam
Reposted by Prof. B. (Tracey Billado-Lotson)
I don't have further details, but proposed job cuts at Uni Northants are threatening several programmes, including their MA History. Please consider signing, please consider sharing.
chng.it/5vBRtgx2xx
chng.it/5vBRtgx2xx
Sign the Petition
STOP The Job Cuts at the University of Northampton
chng.it
January 9, 2025 at 12:15 AM
I don't have further details, but proposed job cuts at Uni Northants are threatening several programmes, including their MA History. Please consider signing, please consider sharing.
chng.it/5vBRtgx2xx
chng.it/5vBRtgx2xx
Reposted by Prof. B. (Tracey Billado-Lotson)
Happy New Year from Dorothy Parker (and me).
December 31, 2024 at 2:57 PM
Happy New Year from Dorothy Parker (and me).
Reposted by Prof. B. (Tracey Billado-Lotson)
"By making over these women in our own image, we lose so much of what was distinctive and beautiful about their literature."
What Were the Lives of Medieval Women Like? www.nytimes.com/2024/12/10/b...
What Were the Lives of Medieval Women Like? www.nytimes.com/2024/12/10/b...
What Were the Lives of Medieval Women Like? (Gift Article)
In “Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife” the historian Hetta Howes seeks to relate to figures of the past.
www.nytimes.com
December 28, 2024 at 12:24 PM
"By making over these women in our own image, we lose so much of what was distinctive and beautiful about their literature."
What Were the Lives of Medieval Women Like? www.nytimes.com/2024/12/10/b...
What Were the Lives of Medieval Women Like? www.nytimes.com/2024/12/10/b...
Reposted by Prof. B. (Tracey Billado-Lotson)
snowball fight, italy, ca. 1400
December 23, 2024 at 7:07 PM
snowball fight, italy, ca. 1400
I guess the secret is out now: so pleased to be included in this collection for Sharon Farmer! Many thanks to Tanya Stabler Miller, Nancy McLoughlin and @abbydowling.bsky.social
for all their work on the volume!
for all their work on the volume!
Medieval Work, Worship, and Power: Persuasive and Silenced Voices
Medieval Work, Worship, and Power: Persuasive and Silenced Voices celebrates Sharon Farmer's significant contributions to the fields of medieval European social, religious, gender, environmental, labo...
www.routledge.com
December 22, 2024 at 5:19 PM
I guess the secret is out now: so pleased to be included in this collection for Sharon Farmer! Many thanks to Tanya Stabler Miller, Nancy McLoughlin and @abbydowling.bsky.social
for all their work on the volume!
for all their work on the volume!
Reposted by Prof. B. (Tracey Billado-Lotson)
This was always the goal: remove human teachers from classrooms in schools and universities, except for the very rich who will be able to afford human instruction.
This is why I have only contempt for teachers in higher ed who use AI in their courses--this is what you are actively escalating.
This is why I have only contempt for teachers in higher ed who use AI in their courses--this is what you are actively escalating.
“Kids begin their day with two hours of instruction on standard topics like language, math and science, guided by an AI that continuously adjusts the learning plan based on how the child is doing in each subject.”
New Arizona charter school will use AI in place of human teachers
Unbound Academy, which operates in Texas and Florida as Alpha Schools, has been approved to open a charter school in Arizona with an AI learning model that adjusts kids’ learning plans on the fly.
www.kjzz.org
December 19, 2024 at 12:43 PM
This was always the goal: remove human teachers from classrooms in schools and universities, except for the very rich who will be able to afford human instruction.
This is why I have only contempt for teachers in higher ed who use AI in their courses--this is what you are actively escalating.
This is why I have only contempt for teachers in higher ed who use AI in their courses--this is what you are actively escalating.
Reposted by Prof. B. (Tracey Billado-Lotson)
This is a long piece and worth your time. I’m particularly pleased by it tracing things back to Milton Friedman. I have long believed that more or less everything that is awful, stupid and cruel in the modern world can ultimately be traced back to Milton Friedman.
“everybody is being fucked with constantly in tiny little ways by most apps and services, and I believe that billions of people being fucked with at once in all of these ways has profound psychological and social consequences that we’re not meaningfully discussing”
Never Forgive Them
In the last year, I’ve spent about 200,000 words on a kind of personal journey where I’ve tried again and again to work out why everything digital feels so broken, and why it seems to keep getting wor...
www.wheresyoured.at
December 18, 2024 at 12:33 PM
This is a long piece and worth your time. I’m particularly pleased by it tracing things back to Milton Friedman. I have long believed that more or less everything that is awful, stupid and cruel in the modern world can ultimately be traced back to Milton Friedman.
Reposted by Prof. B. (Tracey Billado-Lotson)
I will never stop being aghast that the United States built a higher education system that was literally the envy of the entire world—our bitterest political enemies nonetheless sent their children to us to be educated, it was so good—& then just decided to systematically, ruthlessly dismantle it
December 16, 2024 at 9:39 PM
I will never stop being aghast that the United States built a higher education system that was literally the envy of the entire world—our bitterest political enemies nonetheless sent their children to us to be educated, it was so good—& then just decided to systematically, ruthlessly dismantle it