Philippe Buc

Philippe Buc

@philippebuc.bsky.social

Professor at Leiden University, researches religion(s) and violence. Franco-American. Loves the sea and the cold North. https://leidenuniv.academia.edu/PhilippeBuc Ce furent deux vaisseaux venus d'autres rivages, L'un à l'autre étrangers ...

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Philippe Buc reposted

The American Prospect
@prospect.org

The explosion of artificial intelligence is overseen by people who will do and say whatever it takes for them to maintain their dominance. Adam Lowenstein reports on the lust for power sweeping Silicon Valley: trib.al/KwAc9Nd

trib.alArtifice in the Age of Artificial Intelligence - The American ProspectTo understand the tech mindset is to see that the ultimate goal is domination. Silicon Valley elites apply a different standard to themselves because, quite simply, they believe that they deserve a different set of rules and expectations.
Philippe Buc
@philippebuc.bsky.social

The French general i.r. Yakovleff reminds the general public what the French nuclear power means. x.com/G_Yakovleff/...

x.comLa Punchline de Yakovleff on X: "“Our European allies don't understand nuclear language, for them it's like conventional with a bigger boom, no, if a single French submarine fires all its missiles, on arrival that makes “300 Nagasakis”. Is that enough to understand a message? What more do we need in Europe?”👊🏻 https://t.co/9gNtt9WAY3" / X“Our European allies don't understand nuclear language, for them it's like conventional with a bigger boom, no, if a single French submarine fires all its missiles, on arrival that makes “300 Nagasakis”. Is that enough to understand a message? What more do we need in Europe?”👊🏻 https://t.co/9gNtt9WAY3
Philippe Buc
@philippebuc.bsky.social

“Our European allies don't understand nuclear language, for them it's like conventional with a bigger boom, no, if a single French submarine fires all its missiles, on arrival that makes “300 Nagasakis”. Is that enough to understand a message? What more do we need in Europe?”

Philippe Buc reposted

WOinActie.bsky.social
@woinactie.bsky.social

Heel veel aandacht in de pers voor de zeer geslaagde aftrap van de estafettestaking in Leiden gisteren. Vandaag staken de universiteit en hogeschool in Utrecht! 1/ Met estafettestaking hopen universiteiten en hogescholen bezuinigingen tegen te houden www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/...

nrc.nlMet estafettestaking hopen universiteiten en hogescholen bezuinigingen tegen te houdenBezuinigingen onderwijs: De Universiteit Leiden en de Hogeschool Leiden trapten gezamenlijk een landelijke estafettestaking af tegen de bezuinigingen op het hoger onderwijs. Docenten staakten en gaven...
Philippe Buc
@philippebuc.bsky.social

Reuters, Chris Kirkham, today: 1/ (Reuters) - Tesla's stock has dropped by nearly half in three months. Even so, investors are still debating whether Elon Musk's electric-vehicle maker remains overpriced.

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Philippe Buc
@philippebuc.bsky.social

6/ The bulk of its worth rests on hopes for autonomous vehicles Tesla hasn't yet delivered, despite Musk's promises in every year since 2016 that driverless Teslas would arrive no later than the following year.

Philippe Buc
@philippebuc.bsky.social

Reuters, Chris Kirkham, today: 1/ (Reuters) - Tesla's stock has dropped by nearly half in three months. Even so, investors are still debating whether Elon Musk's electric-vehicle maker remains overpriced.

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Philippe Buc
@philippebuc.bsky.social

4/ ... that the world's most-valuable automaker isn't really a car company at all, but rather an artificial-intelligence pioneer that will soon unleash a revolution in robotaxis and humanoid robots.

Philippe Buc
@philippebuc.bsky.social

5/ Tesla's electric-vehicle business accounts for almost all of its revenue but less than a quarter of its stock-market value, according to a Reuters review of more than a dozen analyses by banks and investment firms.

Philippe Buc
@philippebuc.bsky.social

Reuters, Chris Kirkham, today: 1/ (Reuters) - Tesla's stock has dropped by nearly half in three months. Even so, investors are still debating whether Elon Musk's electric-vehicle maker remains overpriced.

Philippe Buc
@philippebuc.bsky.social

2/ The company's market capitalization has dropped 45% since hitting an all-time high of $1.5 trillion on December 17, erasing most of the gains the stock made after CEO Musk helped finance the election victory of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Philippe Buc
@philippebuc.bsky.social

3/ And yet Tesla continues to fetch a valuation far above those of the world's biggest automotive and technology firms, judging by standard financial metrics. That's because most investors and analysts have bought Musk's pitch ....

Philippe Buc
@philippebuc.bsky.social

Not from there but travelled there... This has to be.

Kristaps Andrejsons@theeasternborder.lv

Poland are the best bros for the Baltics. We must build nukes. And increase cooperation. Make sure Finnbros join too. When Belarus and Ukraine get better, them too. Make Commonwealth Great Again! Then drinks & sauna. If You're from any of the mentioned places, repost or bolshevik confirmed.

Philippe Buc
@philippebuc.bsky.social

Having been trained in a Great Book US college, I can also see how the readings that the article's author refers to would mesh with counter-cultural impatience with one's peers. I read the Pre-Socratics, Plato, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Schmitt and Strauss. Also Al-Farabi and Ibn Rushd.

Philippe Buc
@philippebuc.bsky.social

One implicit argument here is that liberal professors at US universities lacked the will or ability to offer intellectual grandeur and inspire via great books of the past. What do we think about this? What is a reading list and how do we read these books?

Philippe Buc
@philippebuc.bsky.social

www.linkedin.com/posts/davidb... Starting from Habermas and the idea of a public sphere not controlled by the prince, the thesis that controlled social networks take us back to something like the pre-Enlightenment configuration.

linkedin.comDavid Boogerd on LinkedIn: #ongelooflijkepodcast #ongelooflijke #podcast #bigtech #musk #nporadio1… | 118 commentsDeze alarmerende geschiedenisles over Musk was een eye-opener voor mij. Big tech-giganten als Musk en Zuckerberg werpen zich op als verdedigers van de… | 118 comments on LinkedIn
Philippe Buc
@philippebuc.bsky.social

For those who do not know, Annales is systematically also in English

Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales@annales.ehess.fr

Le dernier numéro des #Annales est désormais publié sur Cambridge Core (@cambridgeup.bsky.social). À lire, l’intelligence des gestes techniques au XVIIIe s., l'histoire et l'anthropologie des populations amérindiennes, les Juifs, l’antisémitisme et le capitalisme 👉 www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

cambridge.orgDernier numéro | Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales | Cambridge CoreAnnales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales
Philippe Buc
@philippebuc.bsky.social

www.latribune.fr/entreprises-... Erdogan wants advanced weapons of the kind France sold the Greeks... Not good for the relationship between the UK, Greece, and France. Wily Sultan Erdogan!

latribune.frMissile Meteor : Erdogan sème la zizanie entre Londres, Paris et AthènesLa possible vente de 40 Eurofighter armés de missile Meteor à la Turquie met à l'épreuve les relations entre la Grande-Bretagne, la France et la Grèce. Paris a la possibilité de s'opposer à la vente d...
Philippe Buc
@philippebuc.bsky.social

For those interested in the Paris academic scene and its "faides", a bit from Le Figaro about Patrick Boucheron

Philippe Buc@philippebuc.bsky.social

These Franco-French feuds should be compared to those immortalized by Anthropologists ;-) . Some text in translation: “He plays the strong man”: Patrick Boucheron, the mediatized historian who lambasts the right and intimidates the left

Philippe Buc reposted

Philippe Buc
@philippebuc.bsky.social

Replying to @philippebuc.bsky.social

After 1918,(...) Adolph Hitler and other German antisemites blamed defeat in the First World War on the machinations of international Jewry and the alleged disloyalty of German Jews.

Philippe Buc reposted

Philippe Buc
@philippebuc.bsky.social

Replying to @stratmil.bsky.social

Citation: Following the latest damage to undersea cables in the Baltic sea, affecting several coastal states, Finland recently seized a Russia-linked oil tanker. The vessel appears to be part of Russia’s shadow fleet and is suspected of intentionally damaging undersea infrastructure.

Philippe Buc reposted

Aaron Parnas
@aaronparnas.bsky.social

Jeff Bezos never wanted this cartoon to become public. He killed it, and as a result, pulitzer prize editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes quit. Make sure everyone sees this cartoon.

Philippe Buc
@philippebuc.bsky.social

As usual, Amnesty defends everything and its contrary. But complicated, as e.g. in France the hijab is often enough a weapon for separatism, what it seems less to be in the Netherlands that I know. The equation -- putting the two side-by-side -- is in itself problematic.

Philippe Buc
@philippebuc.bsky.social

The US is a violent country, with a culture colored by manichean Puritanism. Thus in the years to come, expect assassination attempts. To be an American is to be ready to shoot: "Am I an American now?"...