#university of Aberdeen

[niseag-arts]

The University of Aberdeen is Shutting down it's Language Department

Hi tumblr, I know I have not been here for very long but I have something important to share, My university has anounced it's intention to shut down their department for modern languages. As a language student at the Univerity of Aberdeen, this is something very dear to me. The school of languages at aberdeen includes 8 modern languages, including the minority language that is Scottish Gaelic. In cutting out language and culture education, the university is making a statement of disregard not only to the world around them, but also to one of Scotland's native tongues. These are language programs that have existed for more than a century, with French and German being taught since 1898, Spanish since 1924 and Gaelic has been part of the University since 1495. I would like to word all off this well, but I am stressed about about exams at the moment, as well as stressed out if I will be able to pursue the accademic carreer I wanted after I finish my undergrad.... could you please take a look at the petition? maybe sign it, maybe share it? it'd mean a lot. It is going to be presented to the board of directors. https://chng.it/pfL7RDqfMh

#callingchris #card2karl #greetings2george #saveuoalanguages #Aberdeen #gaidhlig #languages #help #petition #university #academics #university of aberdeen #scotland #bad news

[llyfrenfys]

I'm making my opposition to the proposal to severely reduce language provision at the University of Aberdeen known - Scottish Gaelic, an endangered Celtic langauge, is one of the languages at risk of being cut. This would do immense damage to the language revitalisation effort. @uniofaberdeen must reverse this decision and commit to protecting Gaelic and other languages in their institution.

If you feel the same way, you're encouraged to make more posts and stories about the issue to show the University of Aberdeen just how much this decision is frowned upon. Use the hashtag #saveuoalanguages in your posts to get the word out about this.

I'll be travelling tomorrow and wish I could do more right now. But together we can make it known just how unpopular this decision is.

#university of Aberdeen #saveuoalanguages #scottish gaelic #gaidhlig #endangered languages #celtic languages #celtic #gaelic #scotland #scottish #language revitalization #cymblr #celtic studies

[scotianostra]

King's College, University of Aberdeen

#scotland #scottish #history #aberdeen #university of aberdeen

[uniofaberdeen]

Scientists use power of AI to supercharge planetary studies

A new technique for detecting planetary craters which will allow scientists to accurately map the surfaces of planets using different types of data has been described as a "game-changer" which could be used in future space missions.

A team of researchers from the University of Aberdeen has developed a new universal crater detection algorithm (CDA) using META AI’s Segment Anything Model (SAM).

SAM, released earlier this month, is a new artificial intelligence model that can automatically ‘cut out’ any object in any image.

The technology has enabled the team to automatically map craters instead of doing so manually – a time-consuming process. At the same time, the use of different types of data allows for more accurate and flexible surface characterisation.

The CDA approach can work with different data and celestial bodies, giving it the potential to be a universal solution for crater detection in various planetary surfaces.

It could also help identify possible landing sites for robotic or human missions, and potentially be used for automatic navigation based on terrain observations.

Dr Iraklis Giannakis, from the University’s School of Geosciences, led the research in collaboration with colleagues from the University. A preprint of the results has been published in arXiv.

Dr Giannakis said: “Crater detection is a crucial task in planetary science enabling us to better understand the geology, history, and evolution of celestial bodies such as Mars, the Moon, and other planets.

“Our universal CDA approach leverages the power of SAM to automatically detect craters with high accuracy and efficiency, reducing the need for manual identification.

“With its advanced segmentation capabilities, SAM has proven to be a game-changer for CDA, allowing us to accurately identify craters of various sizes, shapes, and orientations – even in challenging terrain conditions.”

Dr Giannakis said the development of the CDA has created new possibilities for planetary science as well as for future exploration missions.

“By automatically mapping craters scientists can study their distribution, size, and morphology to better understand the planetary surface and its evolution over time. This can help in uncovering the geological history, surface processes, and potential habitability of a planet or moon.

“Craters can also be potential sources of valuable resources, such as water ice on planetary bodies like the Moon or Mars. By automatically mapping craters, scientists can identify potential locations where resources may be concentrated, which can be important for future human missions and for planning resource utilisation strategies in space exploration scenarios.”

#AI #Space #Mars #Meat AI #UniOfAberdeen #University of Aberdeen #AberdeenUni #planetary science #Craters #space mission #Moon #Youtube

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Amna Khalid

Published: Feb 17, 2023

Just days into the new year, Scottish papers reported that the University of Aberdeen had slapped a trigger warning on J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, a classic children’s novel about a place where nobody ever grows up. The reason: the book’s “odd perspectives on gender” may prove “emotionally challenging” to some adult undergraduates, even though it contains “no objectionable material.”

Yes, you read that right—a children’s book now comes with a trigger warning for adults. What’s more, Peter Pan is not the only children’s book to come with an advisory at Aberdeen. Among others are Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, Edith Nesbit’s The Railway Children and C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Last year the university put a trigger warning on Beowulf, the epic poem considered one of the most significant works in the English literary canon, for its depictions of “animal cruelty” and “ableism.” The year before that, the university pushed lecturers to issue content warnings for a long list of topics including abortion, miscarriage, childbirth, depictions of poverty, classism, blasphemy, adultery, blood, alcohol and drug abuse.

Aberdeen is not the only British university following in the steps of American counterparts. The University of Derby issued trigger warnings for Greek tragedies. The University of Warwick put a content advisory on Thomas Hardy’s Far From the Madding Crowd for “rather upsetting scenes concerning the cruelty of nature and the rural life.” At the University of Greenwich, the death of an albatross in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s 18th century poem, was deemed “potentially upsetting” and stuck with a content notice.

This trend is alarming for several reasons. First, it runs counter to research on the effects of such advisories. As early as 2020 the consensus, based on 17 studies using a range of media, was that trigger warnings do not alleviate emotional distress, and they do not significantly reduce negative affect or minimize intrusive thoughts. Notably, these advisories, which were at least initially introduced out of consideration for people suffering from PTSD, “were not helpful even when they warned about content that closely matched survivors’ traumas.”

On the contrary, researchers found that trigger warnings actually increased the anxiety of individuals with the most severe PTSD, prompting them to “view trauma as more central to their life narrative.” A recent meta-analysis of such warnings found the same thing: the only reliable effect was that people felt more anxious after receiving the warning. The researchers concluded that these warnings “are fruitless,” and “trigger warnings should not be used as a mental health tool.”

But beyond the fact that trigger warnings don’t work in general, there is something particularly perverse about appending them to works of literature and art.

Engaging with art is not simply a matter of extracting information or following the storyline. Rather, as Salman Rushdie once put it, literature allows us “to explore the highest and lowest places in human society… to find not absolute truth but the truth of the tale, of the imagination and of the heart.” Literature cultivates an aesthetic sensibility, a deeper sense of empathy, and allows you to be taken out of yourself in a way that only art can do. Joyce Carol Oates characterizes it as “the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin, another’s voice, another’s soul.”

In other words, literature is transformative precisely because it has the ability to shock and surprise. It can jolt us out of complacency, force us to contend with the uncertain, the strange and even the ugly. For Franz Kafka, the only books worth reading are the ones that “wound or stab us.” He observed:

If the book we’re reading doesn’t wake us up with a blow to the head, what are we reading for?... we need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like suicide. A book must be an ax for the frozen sea inside us…

Contending with “the frozen sea” opens the door for the kind of contemplation that is necessary for growth. When a classic such as Beowulf comes with “animal cruelty” and “ableism” on the cover, a piece of literature that offers us a unique window into the traditions and values of medieval Anglo-Saxons is devalued, and simply becomes a text riddled with “problematic” themes.

I can’t help but think that something is broken when universities, the very institutions entrusted with helping young minds mature, infantilize students by treating them as fragile creatures. What accounts for this shift?

Students across Britain seem to be in favor of trigger warnings. According to a survey published by the Higher Education Policy Institute last year, 86% of students support trigger warnings (up from 68% in 2016). More than a third think instructors should be fired if they “teach material that heavily offends some students” (up from just 15% in 2016).

Sadly, it appears that universities in Britain have fallen prey to the kind of corporate logic that is already firmly entrenched in the United States. This growing managerial approach with its customer-is-always-right imperative is increasingly evident in university policies.

Indeed, it explicitly underpins Aberdeen’s decision to use trigger warnings. As the University spokesperson explained: “Similar to the way that content warnings are routinely applied by broadcasters, students are informed about the content of the texts and, as critically mature adults, they are empowered to make their own decision about which text to read. Our guidelines on content warnings were developed in collaboration with student representatives and we have never had any complaints about them—on the contrary students have expressed their admiration for our approach.”

But university is not a television or radio show. Far from it. It’s a place where students come for an education. A model where faculty and administrators pander to student sensitivities—to the extent that it starts undermining the mission of the university—would be comical were it not so serious. If we fail to equip our students with the skills and sensibilities necessary to cope with life, we are doing them a great disservice.

When adult university students ask for trigger warnings for children’s literature, we as a society should realize that somewhere along the line, we lost the plot. Instead of coddling our students we should be asking why they feel so emotionally brittle. Might it be that their fragility is the result of limited exposure to what constitutes the human condition and the range of human experience? Is shielding them and managing their experience of art and literature not just exacerbating their sense of vulnerability?

Perhaps, in the end, what they need is unmediated, warning-free immersion in more literature, not less.

==

https://quillette.com/2023/01/06/a-puritanical-assault-on-the-english-language/

Other universities have competed to see who can invent the most asinine warnings: Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar (1599) has a plot that “centres on a murder”; Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped (1886) “contains depictions of murder, death, family betrayal and kidnapping”; Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea (1952) includes scenes of “graphic fishing.” Even George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four has been slapped with a warning that students might find the contents “offensive and upsetting.” Of course, those who would assume that a famous dystopian novel would be inoffensive and uplifting probably shouldn’t be studying literature in the first place.

==

Universities are now barely disguised daycare centers.

#Amna Khalid #University of Aberdeen #Peter Pan #trigger warnings #coddling #emotional fragility #children's literature #emotional frailty #content warning #literature #english literature

[free-will-is-stressful]

#aberdeen #my love #university of aberdeen #emma #academia #dark academia #books #library

[informationatlas]

Recent studies suggest that the long-standing recommendation of consuming eight glasses of water daily might be excessive. 

Researchers at the University of Aberdeen have revealed that the prescribed intake of two liters of water daily often surpasses individuals' actual requirements. Considering that approximately half of one's daily water intake is obtained from food, scientists estimate that people typically only need around 1.5 to 1.8 liters of water per day.

(via Scientists say eight glasses of water a day may be too much)

#health #research #water #science #university of aberdeen

[bletheringskite]

Picture:

George Square Glasgow

George Washington Wilson and Co.

VIEW ACROSS SQUARE BEFORE RE-BUILDING

DATE PRE 1877 CIRCA 1860s

Listed in 1877 catalogue

George Washington Wilson Collection

The George Washington Wilson and Co. photographic collection consists of over 40,000 glass plate negatives, produced by the Aberdeen firm between the second half of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century.

Throughout, Wilson demonstrated technical and commercial acumen, and, by the early 1880s, the company he founded had become the largest and best-known photographic and printing firm in Scotland.

The entire collection of ‘George Washington Wilson and Company’ glass plate negatives is available digitally on our website. Each high resolution image provides a superb level of detail and the collection is fully searchable. Access to the original glass plates is therefore not permitted for conservation reasons.

Browse the digital collection

#George Washington Wilson #Photographer #Scotland #University of Aberdeen #photographic collection

[paulinecordiner]

Next week will be a busy one teaching Scots Song with SC&T Youth and Spectra Festival over the coming weekend.

Then I get a wee break before our final week in Aberdeen primary schools with the SC&T Tutors - just enough of a break to brush up on my DRAGON TALES for the University of Aberdeen Spring Festival Family Fun Day. It is of course the Year of the Dragon and so I'll be telling tales of dragons and monsters from around the world!

The Confucius Institute will be organising all sorts of activities (dragon stories included!) at the Elphinstone Hall on Sunday 18th February from 10am to 4pm. Follow this link for more details - https://www.abdn.ac.uk/events/19843

Stories will be from 11am to 12pm and 1 to 2pm

#storytelling #aberdeen storyteller #aberdeen storytelling #grampian storyteller #aberdeenshire storyteller #grampian storytelling #aberdeenshire storytelling #scotland #Year of the Dragon #Spring Festival #University of Aberdeen #Dragon #Dragon Stories

[universitypathways]

Undergraduate Foundation Programme is a pathway programme by University of Aberdeen International Study Centre that helps you develop the academic, study and English language skills needed to progress to the undergraduate degree from University of Aberdeen.

#pathway programme #undergraduate programmes #university of aberdeen #foundation course #international students #study abroad

[younes-ben-amara]

الإعجاز اللغوي في القرآن بمنهج جديد: حوار مع الدكتور جوهر محمد داود

الإعجاز اللغوي في القرآن بمنهج جديد: حوار مع الدكتور جوهر محمد داود

جمعة طيبة لكم، سعدتُ اليوم بإجراء حوار صوتيّ مع الدكتور جوهر محمد داود مؤلف كتاب “نَظْم القُرْآن”. وهو كتاب يتناول موضوع الإعجاز اللغوي للقرآن بمنهج جديد؛ صدر الكتاب عن دار مؤمنون بلا حدود للدراسات والأبحاث عام 2022؛ والدكتور جوهر حائز على الدكتوراة في تخصص الدراسات الدينية من جامعة أبردين بالمملكة المتحدة. تناولنا في اللقاء الإعجاز القرآني لغويًا، ولمحات من بحثه الفريد من نوعه. الحلقة…

View On WordPress

#JawharDawood #University of Aberdeen #كتاب نظم القرآن #كتاب جوهر محمد داود #نظم القرآن #القراءات #الإعجاز القرآني #الإعجاز اللغوي #الدكتور جوهر محمد داود #بلاغة #جوهر محمد داود #دار مؤمنون بلا حدود للدراسات والأبحاث

[jurakan]

#Strange Sickness #University of Aberdeen #Scotland

[uniofaberdeen]

Study reveals new insights into the origins of Scotland's mysterious Picts

Scotland's Picts have long been viewed as a mysterious people with their enigmatic symbols and inscriptions, accentuated by representations of them as wild barbarians with exotic origins.

But a newly published study by an international team led by researchers at the University of Aberdeen and Liverpool John Moores University is helping to shed new light on the origins of the Picts.

The Picts were first mentioned in the late 3rd century CE as resisting the Romans and went on to form a powerful kingdom that ruled over a large part of northern Britain, in present-day north-east Scotland.

In the medieval period, the Picts were considered immigrants from Thrace (north of the Aegean Sea), Scythia (eastern Europe), or isles north of Britain but as they left few written sources of their own little is known of their origins or relations with other cultural groups living in Britain.

Archaeologists have conducted the first extensive analysis of Pictish genomes and their results have been published today (27/04/2023) in the open access journal PLOS Genetics.

The results reveal a long-standing genetic continuity in some regions of the British Isles, helping to build a picture of where the Picts came from and providing new understanding of how present-day genetic diversity formed. The findings also confirm descriptions by the great English historian Bede of the far-flung eastern origins of the Picts as one of myth and fantasy.

The researchers used Identity-By-Descent (IBD) methods to compare two high-quality Pictish genomes sequenced from individuals excavated from Pictish-era cemeteries at Lundin Links in Fife (Southern Pictland) and Balintore in Easter Ross (Northern Pictland) to those of previously published ancient genomes as well as the modern population.

Dr Linus Girdland Flink of the University of Aberdeen, senior corresponding author of the study, said: “Among the peoples present during the first millennium CE in Britain, the Picts are one of the most enigmatic.

“Their unique cultural features such as Pictish symbols and the scarcity of contemporary literary and archaeological sources resulted in many diverse hypotheses about their origin, lifestyle and culture, part of the so-called ‘Pictish problem’.

“We aimed to determine the genetic relationships between the Picts and neighbouring modern-day and ancient populations.

“Using DNA analysis, we have been able to fill a gap in an understudied area of Scotland’s past.

“Our results show that individuals from western Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Northumbria display a higher degree of Identity-By-Descent (IBD) sharing with the Pictish genomes, meaning they are genetically most similar among modern populations.”

This genetic make-up was distinct from areas of southern England where there is a greater relative degree of Anglo-Saxon heritage.

Dr Adeline Morez from Liverpool John Moores University, lead corresponding author of the study, adds: “Our findings also support the idea of regional continuity between the Late Iron Age and early medieval periods and indicates that the Picts were local to the British Isles in their origin, as their gene pool is drawn from the older Iron Age, and not from large-scale migration, from exotic locations far to the east.

“However, by comparing the samples between southern and northern Pictland we can also see that they were not one homogenous group and that there are some distinct differences, which point to patterns of migration and life-time mobility that require further study.”

The analysis of mitochondrial genomes from Lundin Links has also provided an insight into another Pictish myth – that they practised a form of matriliny, with succession and perhaps inheritance going to the sister’s son rather than directly through the male line.

“In a matrilocal system we would expect to find females staying in their birthplace after their marriage and throughout their life.

“At Lundin Links, diversity in the maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA suggests this was not the case. This finding challenges the older hypotheses that Pictish succession was passed along the mother’s side and raise further questions about our understanding of Pictish society and its organisation.”

#Picts #Pictish #Standing Stones #archaeology #Uni of Aberdeen #Aberdeen uni #university of aberdeen

[arthistoryanimalia]

For #WorldHoneyBeeDay 🐝 here are two golden illuminations from a pair of famous early 13th c. English bestiaries:

Aberdeen Bestiary, Univ. Lib. MS 24 f.63r Aberdeen University Library

Ashmole Bestiary, MS Ashmole 1511 f.75v Bodleian Libraries

#bee #bees #honeybee #honeybees #honey bee #honey bees #beehive #apiary #medieval art #English art #European art #bestiary #medieval manuscript #illuminated manuscript #illustration #gold leaf #Ashmole Bestiary #Aberdeen Bestiary #Bodleian Libraries #Aberdeen University Library #World Honey Bee Day #animal holiday #animals in art #book art

[free-will-is-stressful]

#university of aberdeen #emma

[ayeforscotland]

Good news for language students in Aberdeen. Shame about single honours degrees but with only 5 students it’s much tougher to justify, and much better than scrapping languages altogether.

#ayeforscotland #scotland #scottish politics #Aberdeen university