Major Q drop incoming
Editorial at Fortress Press. Research on relics/senses/material religion in late antiquity and early Islam. Wrote a book: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-traces-of-the-prophets.html We should improve society somewhat
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Major Q drop incoming
“Am I going out like Joe Brandon?”
Yeah this is interesting but seems naive to read too literally. At the very least, I’d say this is also a referendum on how “cancelable” the poll takers think their own politics are: and that itself might be based in some degree of truth, and/or based on the perceived Big Woke Agenda.
Not to be overly reductionist, but it is also just baseline racism and Islamophobia
Academic editor friends: I'm helping @kyrafreestar.bsky.social update her list of writing groups, communities, and courses for the fall! If you're running a group or course aimed at academic writers, could you put a short blurb about it in the comments and drop the link? (or just paste the link?)
Extremely my shit
It’s content designed to affirm the priors and massage the feelings of centrists: I’m correct, they (both right AND left) are dumb, just vote for Dems and things will be better. Consumption is made to feel you’re “doing something” or at least “staying informed” when you’re just patting yr own back
Yeah, I’m not really surprised by anything he said. But I think he needs to articulate his narrative—and his particular version of how he sees this informing his positions now—more clearly than what I saw if he wants to be a politician.
Didn’t know that, wtf!!!
God willing, stuff like this will turn the tide in public attitudes toward AI
I don’t even know for sure if he’d say he’s “proud of his service” (though it’s clear he’s running on it), but I want a better answer for why you joined the military, when you ostensibly already had left-leaning politics, than “I was 19 and wanted an adventure, I wanted to see things for myself”etc
The interview about his reasons for military service really didn’t inspire a lot of confidence for me, frankly
A new story released by NPR earlier today further confirms what has already been perceived by many: Biden, Blinken, Sullivan and McGurk were personally favorable to Israel no matter its behavior and dismissed internal attempts to hold Israel accountable and to enforce US law on military assistance.
wow
“No?” No
I like that his idea of divine judgment seems to be that he’s God’s employee and while he’s currently on a PIP he is hoping to make some improvements before the final evaluation
Cool
Maybe not entirely what you had in mind, but I think this Syriac story of demons making fun of monks and competing with Muslim emirs etc is a fun little historical nugget for students www.academia.edu/120601511/De...
“Paying to build the cathedral” lol
Clifford Ando (Classics Prof at UChicago) is a hero in this story. He's calling out the University at every turn, dissecting their flawed finances, and making sure everyone knows they're a bunch of profit-seeking hypocrites who gambled away tuition money on crypto. chicagomaroon.com/40486/news/u...
In print September 9, Younus Mirza’s “The Islamic Mary: Maryam Through the Centuries.” You can find a synopsis and table of contents for Younus’s book here, as well as a link to request a copy for review or course adoption: www.fortresspress.com/store/produc...
It’s simultaneously stupid-sounding enough to be a Bushism and squishy-liberal-coded enough to be an Obamaism
www.politico.com/story/2014/0...
It’s ironic that the decisions taken by MAHA RFK Jr etc actually going to make it more likely that “ultra processed” foods will be eaten even more now, since at least they won’t poison you immediately, unlike tainted vegetables, meat, and dairy
🧵(1) Digitization & cataloging is complete for 2,343 manuscripts in the collection of Bibliothèque des Manuscrits al-Wangari—the library of the Sidi Yahya Mosque (or Jāmiʻ Sīdī Yaḥyá) in #Timbuktu, Mali, which dates to the 15th century. Learn more: hmml.org/collections/...
I’m sure this is the first of an extremely lib, solipsistic thread of posts leading nowhere
A “pretext” for military occupation???
The Miccosukee Tribe helped stop Alligator Alcatraz, being constructed on their land! Late yesterday, a federal judge ruled Miccosukee citizens must be able to “access to the site consistent with the access they enjoyed before the erection of the detention camp.” thehill.com/regulation/c...
So much think-piecing and op-ed'ing about data centers. I wish folks knew that some scholars have been studying these things — as real estate, as geopolitical battlegrounds, as ecological disasters — for a decade+. Mél Hogan, Alix Johnson, Ingrid Burrington, Jen Holt, Patrick Brodie, et al
Is it from an illuminated manuscript or a wall painting? The format is interesting
What is this image?
There's gotta be hundreds of towns out there that AI companies have told "If you build a data center here, you'll be the new hub of tech." www.propublica.org/article/memp...
“Someday, I hope, we’re going to have a reckoning over the horrors of this moment, but I don’t think we can do it without a clearer understanding of how this fits into U.S. history. There’s a tendency to say, “This isn’t who we are,” and I get the impulse, but history is never that simple.”
Beyond the bad politics of this, it seems entirely possible this is breaking campaign finance laws. How can lawyers donating their time pro bono to a mayoral campaign, assumedly without declaring it as an in-kind contribution, be legal?
Reposting this for folks who want to control the AI-ification of their work posted on Academia[dot]edu.
The Democrats seem almost solely intent on dissipating any energy from their party
Or “I Would Like To Get Into Heaven, If Possible” Or “I’m Really at the Bottom of the Totem Pole” Really just about any single sentence works
“I’m Hearing I’m Not Doing Well” is going to be the title of a JAAR article in a few years ala Eisenhower’s “And I Don’t Care What It Is” academic.oup.com/jaar/article...
It’s like he’s imagining divine judgement as if God currently has him on a PIP
The theology implied by this quote is fascinating. Slightly offensive and strange usage of “totem pole” here is also *chef’s kiss*
lol my exact thought
Literally doing the same thing”I would have voted for Obama a third time” Get Out meme
“Think of Gloo as something like Salesforce but for churches: a behavioral analytics platform, powered by church-generated insights, psychographic information, and third-party consumer data.”
It’s not gender-affirming care when it’s MY gender
And the only concerted political efforts to fight it seem to be on the extremely local level … sure seems like a certain national political party could make this a galvanizing issue
Like I’m sure they had that EO locked and loaded but hard not to think the Putin conversation isn’t what made Trump actually pull the trigger
Putin says mail-in votes cost him 2020 and there’s an executive order banning them the next day lol
The people dominating our political landscape, culture, and economy are just so stupid and full of shit it's almost impossible to describe
Far from the most important point here but: universities/colleges do (inter)national searches to find talent. But it seems increasingly impossible to trust that the institution that hired you to move your life to **wherever** won’t just unceremoniously fold in a number of months or years
I haven’t read any of his other work, but this was very good! His painting on the cover also adds a really haunting aspect to it
It’s not a one-to-one comparison, but a creepy, prescient 1960s Italian sci-fi novella with similar themes www.nyrb.com/products/the...
This is actually good news. We have to get comfortable celebrating small victories where we can right now. And while this is not perfect, it is good news
This isn’t an impoverished regional school – this is the University of Chicago. Devastating.
Good for your brave kid but yeah seems like something the nanny should have mentioned
In Minnesota law, it is perfectly legal for people to use whichever restroom they want. What happened here was plainly illegal and horrifying. This sort of thing is why I'm scared of going out to Greater Minnesota as a trans person.
NEW: In June, ProPublica reported that the FDA has given more than 20 foreign factories a special pass to send drugs to the U.S. even though they were made at plants the agency had banned. Today, we’re publishing a list of those exempted drugs.
Suing each other out of existence would make the world an immeasurably better place
I think about this quote at least once a day from TNC
Even granting what she says, how does that in any way justify Trump’s actions in DC, as her “but…” clearly seems to imply?
BBC International Editor Jeremy Bowen has confirmed that the entire Al Jazeera team in Gaza City has been killed.
Dozens of human rights organizations saying it’s an ongoing famine, vs. a video of a little girl smiling awkwardly: who’s to say which is telling the real truth?
Maybe the coffee was a mistake, and they thought it was hot water? This is my theory
Trump is actually just restoring the White House’s ancient polychromy www.npr.org/2022/07/12/1...
the new issues of Studies in Late Antiquity has our SBL forum on the 20th anniversary of THE WAYS THAT NEVER PARTED (co-ed @annetteyreed.bsky.social): ft. me, @simchagross.bsky.social, Heidi Wendt, and Jae Han's intro! online.ucpress.edu/SLA/issue/9/3
The UK actually did it for a while :( apnews.com/article/bibb...
AI-produced ad for a local restaurant. Looks great! Very welcoming scene, not upsetting at all
World Food Program Chief: “We can’t air drop our way out of an unfolding famine… The only way to get food to them, at scale, is by land.”
Asking the computer to “produce a historical image” actually seems incredibly ahistorical
What does “produce a historical image” even mean???
I obviously think the Texas Democrats avoiding quorum for the awful TX redistributing map is good: but it seems symbolic that one of the most prominent things elected Dems have done to counter Trump is to flee
Of course, when I do this it’s my fine eye catching an issue. When it’s done to me, the editor is just being pedantic about my wisely using the right word
One of the more intellectually devastating things you can do as an editor is to highlight all the times the same word has been used in a single sentence/paragraph
“Is it possible that you experienced discrimination [in your own mind]???”
“We are going to create a machine that solves all our problems” is a preposterous assertion and should be treated as such. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
“They’re sacrificing the moral center of Harvard Divinity School,” #Gaza #Palestine #Harvard www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...
Our series of essays and commentary relating to the ongoing genocide in Gaza is free to read, share and download until the end of September 2025. #OpenAccess @jich.bsky.social [1/4] ● Raz Segal, "Settler Colonial Genocide" (doi.org/10.1080/0308...)
Pathetic
Absolutely! No offense intended.
This today from Rashid Khalidi: "These decisions, taken in close collaboration with the Trump administration, have made it impossible for me to teach modern Middle East history, the field of my scholarship & teaching for over 50 years, 23 of them at Columbia." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Mark, I would bet Dr. Miller is familiar with all this
Are you even a good lawyer if you can’t continue working as your peer chokes and expires beside you? (I kid) @helldude.bsky.social
Genuinely reads like a paranoid manifesto by an Islamophobic dilettante. On the other hand, if you want to read an //actual// architectural historian writing on the //real// Ka’ba, I recommend Simon O’Meara’s engaging recent book, a first of its kind.
It’s cool how “some” in this instance means “Andrew Cuomo”
Hey, no thanks!
“Steps”
The IPC has issued an alert for the "Worst-case scenario of Famine unfolding in the Gaza Strip." My friend in Gaza, a doctor, writes:"Now, the majority of ppl we attend to are victims of this man made starvation. The level of agony & loss due to starvation has increased dramatically since yesterday"
Because “hey don’t worry about it,” pretty much
These ham sandwiches were lawfully assembled
Are you?
Why is it surprising or bad that there would be several different programs doing job training? There’s quite a few kinds of jobs I thought
Hey all! I'm selling stickers (and books!) to support a new daytime center in OKC for unhoused people. They want to install some much needed laundry machines. We're trying to reach $1000 between all donations. Stickers are $2, and books $18. Let me know if you want any!
Ah, there it is.
A little too ironic that it’s a chemistry grad student doing this—when the Cornell Grad Union efforts were catalyzed by a chemical engineering student being denied insurance coverage by Cornell after an injury in the lab where he was doing his research (ie, his JOB) www.chronicle.com/article/grad...
If you're a JHUP book author (past, present, or potential) this is of immediate interest to you, of course. But JHUP also runs Project Muse – which none of the articles about this policy mention. I would be v surprised if they aren't planning on sinking that into AI mud, too. (JSTOR already has).
