FYI: Basically all pet hamsters are believed to have descended from a mother and litter captured by zoologist Israel Aharoni in an expedition to Aleppo in 1930. Aharoni, a Zionist immigrant to Palestine (first aliyah), took the hamsters back to his lab in Jerusalem and the rest is history.

Me: Wow I can’t believe you need a third cup of coffee Husband: You literally drank the second half of the last two cups I made when I left them sitting on the counter Idk y’all I still think he has a problem

So perhaps that's where the Lion's Den militant group based in Nablus got its name? Deep cut from 1930s Palestine. Also, this paper looks great.

Re: lessons in our own powerlessness and the futility of it all, my toddler rolling off the arm of a couch and landing in a box of childproofing supplies seems a little too on the nose.

It's nice to sign recommendation letters with Associate Professor because hey, if my newly upgraded status within this medieval guild is somehow helpful to a student's career then fantastic

Just a very small sampling of the daily work of municipalities in Gaza. In Khan Younis municipality: Municipal workers backfilling in roads to allow better access for first responders (Sept 3). Working to restore water pumping to neighborhoods recently designated as "humanitarian" zones. (Sept 11).

In case you missed it (which I did): The mayor of Hebron, Tayseer Abu Sneineh, has been arrested by Israeli forces and placed in administrative detention for four months. www.maannews.net/news/2146717...

It’s really hard not to slowly get dumber these days.

This is the speech where King said, "It is time to cease muting the fact that Dr. Du Bois was a genius and chose to be a Communist."

Just a reminder to check for your name in this list of books that OpenAI trained from. If your name is there, they probably owe you several thousand dollars. OpenAI cried that if everyone eligible author files, the company will go bankrupt, so I'm alerting every author I have ever spoken to.

Ah yes, the "please let me know if I missed any important information in class today" email...

UN Human Rights Council-mandated mission to Sudan concludes that the RSF has committed numerous crimes against humanity in the siege of al-Fashir: www.reuters.com/world/africa...

New construction activity at Dimona, but observers are left to speculate since Israel doesn’t allow inspectors in. www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

Iconic moment at the Downton Abbey premiere

An essay I’ve written that reflects on Adorno‘s famous „Education after Auschwitz“ today, esp for Germans. blnreview.de/en/ausgaben/...

Looking forward to nerding out with my Master's students tonight over ontology, epistemology, positivism, empiricism, generalization, induction, deduction, and interpretivism. I find this stuff fun but others find it obnoxious. How do you teach philosophies of science/knowledge production?

NEW: @bcfinucane.bsky.social explains the Trump admin’s extraordinary lethal attack on purported Tren de Aragua drug smuggling vessel in international waters off the Venezuela coast–and its vow that it is the start of a campaign–raise significant legal issues. www.justsecurity.org/119982/legal...

The landslide in Darfur wiped out an entire village in a region where many were already violently displaced and subjected to war crimes and famine. The village is only reachable "by donkey or a three-hour trek." My heart feels like it is sinking into my stomach. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/02/w...

Openly telling us that the goal is to completely politicize the Federal Reserve and monetary policy.

I taught Cook (2014) in my undergrad political economy of development class a couple of years ago: link.springer.com/article/10.1... If you are even superficially familiar with Lisa Cook’s work (as I am) you can imagine why she is being targeted.

From last month: When asked “To what extent are you personally troubled or not troubled by the reports of famine and suffering among the Palestinian population in Gaza?”, 79% of Jewish respondents (n = 601) reported that they were not so troubled or not at all troubled.

Five journalists, including Maryam Abu Daqqa, a freelance correspondent and photojournalist who submitted invaluable reporting to AP, were killed by Israel in a double airstrike on Nasser hospital in Khan Younis. Maryam was 33 years old and leaves behind a 13-year-old son.

I'm peer reviewing a manuscript for a reputable publisher and came across fake references which must be AI-generated - including to an article attributed to me which sounds fascinating but which I never wrote.

This is the stuff of nightmares. The federal government destroyed this woman’s life and left her husband and daughters with lifelong trauma for no reason.

Opening a bag of potato chips and discovering it does not contain $160: what the FUCK

Teaching Middle East politics for the first time since the fateful fall 2023 semester. Feeling...overwhelmed.

Just stumbled across this important edited volume on Syria during revolution and wartime: books.openedition.org/ifpo/26719#a... All of the contributions were written before the regime was toppled but may be read as a "history of the present"...

"Despite the genocide we are enduring, despite the horrors of famine, and despite all obstacles, I choose education. I choose to continue my path. As Mahmoud Darwish wrote: 'One day, I will be what I want to be.'" newlinesmag.com/first-person...

Did you know that every outdoor furniture company is actually Wayfair?

One cooling tower is on our campus, on the building across the street from my office. Still learning more, but let’s just say CCNY’s communications on this have…not been ideal. We learned about the positive test result 5 days after the college administration did. www.nbcnewyork.com/manhattan/le...

Wearing white pants today wish me luck

Medjool or bust

PragerU don’t know how to write. www.whitehouse.gov/america250/f... #rereateyourown

Just giving this a test run: One way I would like to incentivize students to apply and challenge themselves in their courses despite the somewhat existential crisis engulfing higher ed in this moment is to tell them that sure, AI is incredibly powerful, can be extremely useful, and is completely /1

Here's how @nytimes.com covered Russia's accusation (followed by a sham court conviction) that Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was a spy:

بكفي بكفي بكفي

And now they invade Gaza City.

We watched him live through starvation and bombardment and do his job and then we watched him die.

When Israel labeled six journalists in Gaza - incl Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif - “terrorists” last year, press freedom groups expressed alarm. “The fear is that these six will now possibly be targeted,” @rsf.org’s Rebecca Vincent told me at the time. time.com/7098857/isra...

I can't read any more references to "shifting sands" in the Middle East, you guys

The US is part of an increasingly lonely and morally impoverished club.

This 2-to-1 nap transition is zany. My kid just went back to sleep at 9 am? Shaping up to be a weird day over here…

Israeli forces bulldozed Palestinian seed bank in Al-Khalil/Hebron, home to 22 years of seed collection efforts to preserve heritage varieties and plants with valuable traits: e360.yale.edu/digest/hebro...

Is all of the empirical literature on genocide selecting on the dependent variable? Where are the cases of “attempted genocide”?

From a ***July 2022*** ANERA report on Gaza's water crisis: "Only 3.8% of the Palestinian Water Authority’s 288 authorized wells tested within WHO health standards due to salinity, sewage, and chemical runoff into the aquifer." www.anera.org/wp-content/u...

Oh, I do enjoy retroactive wage increase payout day! Thanks, PSC-CUNY!

🚨NEW PAPER 🚨 Are police more right-wing and biased against marginalized groups than the general public? If so, why? My new article in @pnas.org w/ @tylerreny.bsky.social, Newman, and Sears provides some answers. 🧵1/n