FYI, Academia.edu has changed its terms of service to give an irrevocable worldwide license for anything uploaded to its site to be used for generative AI. I do not consent to this and have pulled all my papers.

Can’t believe we are still doing this

As I've said many times, this is an awful thing that we are doing to ourselves for no discernible reason.

The woke scolds are trying to make this about racism. But Musk is right. It's about historical and scientific integrity. When the God of Thunder disguises himself as a swan to seduce and fuck a queen and the resulting baby hatches from an egg, *of course* the baby will be white. It's just science.

In Springfield, Ohio, people are preparing in advance of a “large deportation” promised by the president. To all appearances, the city is 2 or 3 days from a federal ethnic cleansing, grounded in a hate campaign organized by the vice-president and American Nazis. snyder.substack.com/p/ethnic-cle...

Important education message: "independent research has made clear that technology rarely boosts learning in schools—and often impairs it." A few profit and the most vulnerable pay www.economist.com/united-state...

The killing of Alex Pretti and the grotesque lying was an overreach by the administration. They've paid a price and had to pull back a bit. But it's when there's some disarray that the democratic opposition needs to intensify the offensive, and turn a marginal tactical success into a major victory.

Democrats could act like a real opposition party, refusing to validate Trump malfeasance with votes, and setting up a shadow cabinet that regularly communicates how Democrats would be different. But nah. It’s not only a majority of Democratic voters that hate this approach. US allies see it too.

Its not that the media is not covering what is happening, but it does feel like the military occupation of an American city should be treated as a national crisis.

Health, Life, Joy, Peace, Good Cheer, Hope Υγεία, Ζωή, Χαρά, Ειρήνη, Ευθυμία, Ελπίς 4th-century mosaic from Halicarnassus (modern Bodrum) at the British Museum

"This promise of an AI future, is really just a collective anxiety that wealthy people have about how well they're gonna be able to control us in the future." - @tressiemcphd.bsky.social with an absolute mic drop moment about AI bullshit. Incredible words. Listen to all of it!

My daughter (2) calls "Feliz Navidad" "Police Peacock" and I just had to share that.

My favourite holiday meme

you'd think the forced displacement of 10 million people from one of the oldest centres of civilisation in human history would get a little more news attention than beltway journalists writing essays on how Olivia Nuzzi is a genius because they want to bone her and you'd be wrong

🗣️ PLEASE SHARE 🗣️ I'm writing an intro & sourcebook on late ancient Gazan literature for Dar al-Kalima University Press. The press and I plan to produce an Arabic translation to make Gazan literature more accessible to Palestinians. Help me compensate the Gazan translator! spot.fund/dn8t744sc

"I DON'T NEED YOU TO FUCKING REWRITE WHAT I'VE JUST WRITTEN!"

Whenever people complain about the number of folks relying on food stamps, it is worth reminding them that SNAP is, by too large of a degree, a subsidy for corporations that refuse to pay a living wage and their political allies who reject public policy prescriptions to reduce income inequality.

Shared courtesy of my Penn History colleague, Ben Nathans

A bunch of toxic LA NIMBYs are whining about SB 79, the amazing housing bill the CA legislature passed recently. It's on the governor's desk, and reportedly he's getting cold feet. Hey @gavinnewsom.bsky.social, please have some spine on the most important issue in your state. Just sign it.

We built a calculator that doesn't work, but don't worry, it's also a plagiarism machine that will tell you to kill yourself. It runs on the world's oceans and costs 10 trillion dollars.

“Chicago has long helped to keep alive tiny fields & esoteric areas of humanistic study... Without the univ’s support, & the continued training of grad students who can keep these bodies of kn going, entire spheres of human learning might eventually blink out.” www.theatlantic.com/culture/arch...

Older technologies have aided and perhaps enfeebled writers. “But with A.I. we’re so thoroughly able to outsource our thinking that it makes us more average, too,” @chaykak.bsky.social ‬writes.

So, here it is. Thanks to a new state law that was NEVER DEBATED, Indiana University has committed itself to abolishing majors in African-American/African Diaspora Studies: American Studies; Art History; French; Italian; Religious Studies etc. DOZENS of majors. www.ipm.org/news-section...

I HAVE NOW RESTORED THE ROMAN EMPIRE. THERE IS A BEAUTIFUL CEASEFIRE IN ITALY THERE IS NO WAR WITH THE GOTHS AND THERE IS UNIVERSAL PROSPERITY, ANYBODY SPREADING RUMOURS ABOUT A plague IS WRONG, THER IS ALSO NO HERESY ANYMORE ALL IS ORTHODOX THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER, YOUR EMPEROR

The cost of the 4 F-18 planes lost in the Red Sea ($240 million) is now greater than the 2025 NEH Budget ($200 million)

Rinse and repeat for the foreseeable future.

Musk apparently refers to his kids as a “legion”. Dude, leave the Romans out of this weird shit.

Even accepting the premise that AI produces useful writing (which no one should), using AI in education is like using a forklift at the gym. The weights do not actually need to be moved from place to place. That is not the work. The work is what happens within you.

Some wisdom from my four year old son: “I’m glad we don’t have a king in Arizona. He would tell everyone what to do, and I just wanna do my own thing.”

“When the victory was won, he made the announcement himself” Suetonius on Emperor Nero’s absurd participation in the Olympic Games.

Usefully sober fact sheet on Ukraine. Please share with those who need it. understandingwar.org/backgrounder...

The DOGE firings have nothing to do with “efficiency” or “cutting waste.” They’re a direct push to weaken federal agencies perceived as liberal. This was evident from the start, and now the data confirms it: targeted agencies overwhelmingly those seen as more left-leaning. 🧵⬇️

“Do not bend your neck for that which cuts necks.” A Sumerian proverb, as relevant today as it was thousands of years ago.

NEW: 2024 has just been confirmed as the warmest year on record, and the first to breach the 1.5C threshold. We used a ridgeline (Joy Division inspired) chart to visualise daily temperature anomalies since 1940. 2024 clearly stands out with 100% of its days above 1.3C and 75% above 1.5C.

I saw Elon speak at TED in 2017, before his brain had melted entirely from Ketamine and hate. I was curious. His talk was kind of rambling but interesting... until he started claiming the ancient Egyptians had failed because they stopped building pyramids. He went on at LENGTH. My jaw was open 1/2

I'm excited to ring in the new year by sharing the first review of my book (by Yulia Minets), published in the Journal of Early Christian Studies. muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

Hanukkah is typically commemorated as a "clash of cultures". It represents the battle between a clearly defined and largely monolithic "Judaism" against a clearly defined and largely monolithic "Hellenism". This narrative is increasingly problematized in scholarship. 🧵 1/20

inaugurating a new series, out next summer in hard copy + open-access PDF: on the so-called hymn of the pearl, with Syriac & Greek texts + English translations, Syriac & Greek glossaries, and commentary (incl. a lot of Manichaean texts) 🐍 www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978067...

Just finished up my Roman History class with the “Crisis of Catiline” Reacting to the Past game. Students absolutely loved it, and put so much work into it. I’m convinced that more of this kind of pedagogy is the way forward for the humanities classroom in the age of AI. #reactingtothepast

Nailed it

Paper accepted for #NAPS2025 in Chicago: "Disaster and Public Lament in Late Antiquity: The Case of Ephrem’s Poems on Nisibis" This article project has been simmering all through the pandemic, and it's getting closer!

I started a list for Syriac Studies - please reply to be added! go.bsky.app/9sUvunP