Because, as I have said, it’s only good universal use case is disciplining labor.

Alt text is about accessibility, intended for people who use screenreaders. If you use it for other things, like image credits, that's like parking construction equipment in an accessible parking space. Sure, that is a convenient space for that, but it's not what it's for.

Paul Fairie meets the moment once again!

Tuning in (3pm PT on Nov. 6) to hear Mason Shrader (PhD student, Brown University) talk about "Digging into Disability: How Experience Affects Theory." Join me! www.youtube.com/live/5Fg_QiU...

Annual reminder. 🩲

The #1 lesson from yesterday’s blowout: Humanities majors killed on the job market 1) Mamdani- Africana Studies 2) Spanberger -French 3) Sherill - Global History

Has anybody out there ever taught a Disability and Religion course? Not Disability Theology, but something with a descriptive and multi-religious orientation? I'd love to take a look at syllabi.

today’s the day!!

Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching

Ideas, ANE folks?

This is cool, with several major caveats. 1. This is not the first device like this, and previous iterations were bricked when the companies went under. Now they're dead tech inside people's heads.

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

Reese's Pisces M&As Knickers Bar

Please repost: We're looking for an excellent writer/editor with strong data journalism skills to join the religion team at @pewresearch.org. pewtrusts.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Center...

I think about this in how the guy who ran MySpace sold his company and then traveled the world doing photography, while the guy who runs Facebook never let it go and has gone out of his way to destroy democracy in order to gain more power.

Look, I just don't care about defending random candidates and I don't care about destroying them. The point of politics is to improve people's lives, and for those not actually in legislatures, the most productive activity is to change the ground politicians feel comfortable standing on.

My favorite is always "there's not a racist bone in my body!" Like, I don't care about your bones. I care about your words and actions! Osteoracism is not a real condition.

This is so important.

California, don't forget to vote on Prop 50. Turnout is expected to be low, and we can't afford to unilaterally disarm while rightwingers pack congress.

If I think I accidentally reported a post but I'm not sure, is it possible to check if I did and un-report it?

Procrustes: Look, here we have a small businessman providing hospitality to weary travelers and pioneering new approaches to standardizing customer service, and the anti-business Left still can't leave him alone.

Braille for Ancient Languages | Blind Scholar www.blindscholar.com/braille/

This pattern is everywhere. A thing is intended to achieve some purpose, but does it poorly. Group A wants to dismandtle the thing to replace it with another thing that does the job better. Group B wants to dismantle the thing because they do not want anything doing that job.

Has anyone run Gerrymandering end game calculations? Like, if every state redistricts to the maximum partisan advantage of its majority party, how does that shake out nationally? I'd like to see this race to the bottom force a better method of allocating reps, but wonder what the road looks like.

The trend is real, but this NYT analysis at the Congressional district level has big ecological bias Poor *areas* vote Republican, but it's often the richer *individuals* within those poorer areas that are most Republican And many poor *individuals* rich blue urban *areas* vote Dem

Positionality in a nutshell! ❤️

And here is our story on this, from Harold Meyerson, who describes it as surgically designed to rebut any opposition, while providing just a start at rebalancing the horrific wealth inequality that has caused so many of our recent challenges. prospect.org/2025/10/23/u...

Delighted to get a shout in the new Pasts Imperfect! Now to convince my kids that turnip carving is the way to go this Halloween...

IT’S ALIVE! today i received my advance copies of 𝘗𝘢𝘶𝘭 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯 𝘗𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘮 ahead of publication next month. it just dawned on me last week that people might actually buy and read this book. which is mildly terrifying. yay?

If you're free this Thursday morning, I'll be giving a virtual lecture titled "The Real Lives of Blind Mesopotamians" as part of the 2025−2026 public lecture series hosted by the Bade Museum and Archaeological Research Facility at UC Berkeley. Come join the fun!

The appropriate reparations for centuries of extractive colonialism is freely providing the resources — technology, tools, money — to build out local renewable energy infrastructure globally, so that every human community has access to energy ample to meet all their needs so they can thrive.

One funny thing about inhabiting both Assyriological and disability circles is that sometimes I encounter the word "neurospicy" and read it as though it's pronounced like "extispicy," and then I wonder if it's a form of divination that uses actual brains or just the mind.

I wrote this piece during a US federal government shutdown in 2013 and everything I said then is just as true today, except I’m even more furious at the people who don’t understand the value of collective systems and universal provision. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Truly phenomenal work. #Coptic #Hebrew #Greek in #Braille plus #Cuneiform transliteration Braille guide

As a student, professor, and colleague, I have often wanted this website. Eric has done us all a tremendous kindness by compiling into one place all the (often elusive or opaque) information needed to learn or teach several ancient languages using braille and describing the process with clarity.

Today I published a new section of my website with resources for those who wish to learn, study, and/or teach ancient languages using braille. It rests on work we did over the past year to expand screen reader access to these languages through the LibLouis library. Check it out and share around!

God, Slavery, and Early Christianity is out in the real world with @universitypress.cambridge.org! I have some extra, so retweet this by the end of Oct. 19 if you’re interested in receiving a copy! Book info here: www.cambridge.org/core/books/g...

Doing an AMA over on Reddit for the next couple hours. Stop by if you're curious about creation mythology, Psalms, ancient disability, or whatever else! https://www.reddit.com/r/AcademicBiblical/s/dYAMDJfjKS

You still have a couple of days to sign up for my online class on Archaeology and the Bible; we start on Thursday! www.religiondepartment.com/HBArchaeolog...

I've really enjoyed reading the PhD dissertation of @blindscholar.bsky.social this Saturday. I'm thankful for the terminological distinctions he establishes and it's nice to read someone whose work overlaps with my own.

Historian social media, imperfect as it is, is totally useful and important in what it does, which is to give immediate connection to a network of geographically dispersed scholars, to promote work which might otherwise sink without trace, and to exchange ideas and knowledge.

The famed limestone ostracon listing workers and their reasons for missing work is from the reign of Ramses II, circa 1250 BCE. Making beer (for the Gods) and taking care of one’s mother and fetching stone for a scribe are indeed valid excuses for missing work. www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...

PSA: if you ever need a meal and can't afford one and don't want to jump through these hoops, fund a gurdwara. They are obligated to feed you for free with no strings attached

my book_smoke & mirrors_ is out on oxford scholarship online. i have many feelings, mostly good! this was a difficult write for many reasons. so i hope you find something useful in it if you read it.

an extraordinary person with an extraordinary legacy who nevertheless didn’t take herself too seriously when Gary Larson published this cartoon, she was in Africa and her institute was horribly offended and drafted a complaint the whole thing was defused when she returned - she found it funny

Samuel Adams, 1768.

My colleagues @horusofnekhen.bsky.social, @tibg1312.bsky.social, and I wrote a state-of-the-field-type article about disability in antiquity that was recently published and is open access. This article just gives a brief history of the subfield, with a discussion of future directions.

Expert here: We were not, in fact, ever puzzled. It has been and always will be a writing tablet. www.indy100.com/news/ancient...

I’ve been getting some PhD inquiry emails that struck me as v odd so I asked ChatGPT to list my books. It came up w/four—all COMPLETELY made up, including on topics I’ve never written on. And these are the only ones listed! Lesson = please don’t use AI/LLMs when writing grad apps and inquiries &c

"Free speech is when the Left shuts up" is the most succinct formulation of how this discourse actually functions that I've ever seen.