Nathan S. French
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innesseff.bsky.social
Nathan S. French
@innesseff.bsky.social
Researching & Teaching -- Religious Studies, Islamic Studies, Religion & Law, Jihadi-Salafi Studies, 9/11

Baseball spectator.
I'll give it a try -- thanks for the tip!
November 14, 2025 at 3:24 AM
And, yes, I've tried other approaches. OCRmyPDF on Github created a reasonable copy, but even it noted in its workflow that the diacritics were a serious problem.
November 14, 2025 at 2:38 AM
I'm absolutely open to the Bluesky hive-mind (nest mind?) helping out here. I'm willing to test other platforms. I'd hire students to help -- but my university cut Arabic. So, no students to hire. There are manual fixes to this problem, but they're time consuming (roughly 5-10 minutes per fatwa).
November 14, 2025 at 2:33 AM
I also laughed when it said these PDFs were a "worse case scenario." There are *billions* of dollars poured into AI platforms. If they are supposed to be good at *anything* it's pattern recognition.

I have almost 1,800 fatwas to process. Probably over 4-6,000 pages. Maybe ChatGPT 5.2 will fix it!
November 14, 2025 at 2:33 AM
Same! I'd love to see a breakdown.
November 5, 2025 at 3:42 PM
And, as @jackjenkins.me reports -- we know that Mamdani canvassed religious institutions, observances thoroughly

bsky.app/profile/jack...
"…(Mamdani) has attended Friday prayers, Diwali celebrations in Queens, Baptist church services in Harlem and Sukkot observances in Hasidic Williamsburg."



"On the final Friday before Election Day, volunteers from the campaign and other organizations canvassed at 210 of the city’s 300 mosques…"
Truly brilliant @rns.org team reporting here from @ulaakuzi.bsky.social, @fiona-ndre.bsky.social and @richakarma.bsky.social:

Inside Zohran Mamdani's bid to win over religious New Yorkers —> religionnews.com/2025/11/04/i...
November 5, 2025 at 2:46 PM
In that post, Elsevier promises that humans will continue to be part of the review process. Yes, sure -- so long as universities value that labor. But, increasingly, many will not, and when they are no longer available, I trust that Elsevier will offer further A.I. use as another "optimization."/end
October 27, 2025 at 5:30 PM
As U.S. universities demand frequent production & citation churn, they will create the conditions that will continue to erode the deliberate, human researcher and subject-centered approach to academic work. Deliberation and time will be replaced by fast-twitch A.I. authored & reviewed articles.
October 27, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Oh, and A.I. use was "responsibly" disclosed by Elsevier on the article that they used to ... write the article on how AI will be used in future journal article evaluations.
October 27, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Where does this end up? Having captured the rankings mechanism of U.S. universities, it seems likely that what Elseiver will develop is a new set of products for universities to buy. Prepare to subscribe to Elsevier's A.I. assistant, which will optimize a researcher's submissions for review.
October 27, 2025 at 5:30 PM
It's quite simple. In an era where universities *don't* value peer review service as part of research, why not have an A.I. "enhance the workflow." Elsevier wants to see A.I. "support" the peer review process.

www.elsevier.com/connect/reth...
Rethinking peer review in the AI era with responsibility and transparency
In a rapidly evolving AI-driven landscape, we explore how AI can support, but why human judgment must remain in the driving seat
www.elsevier.com
October 27, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Now? With Elsevier buying into the US News and World Report rankings, and convincing the USNWR to more heavily weight faculty "research" as determined by publication and citation "quality," they've secured their investment for the future of academic publishing in an A.I. world. How?
October 27, 2025 at 5:30 PM
In 1995, Forbes called Elsevier the first victims of the internet in the academic journal era. Twenty years later, Jason Schmitt on Medium noted that Elsevier went from ruin to annual revenues of $25.2 bn, with a higher percentage of profit than Apple. medium.com/@jasonschmit...
Can’t Disrupt This: Elsevier and the 25.2 Billion Dollar A Year Academic Publishing Business
Twenty years ago (December 18, 1995), Forbes predicted academic publisher Elsevier’s relevancy and life in the digital age to be short…
medium.com
October 27, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Elsevier has spent billions acquiring academic journals and establishing itself as a "protector" and safeguarding academic research. www.elsevier.com/connect/five...
Five ways in which Elsevier is safeguarding the research landscape
We examine the context and explore some of the tools Elsevier has developed to counter the increasing threat of unethical behavior
www.elsevier.com
October 27, 2025 at 5:30 PM