Culture isn't at war with your beliefs. It just doesn't always share them.

Arise, Libras! It is our time!

As I am currently sitting at my desk, I can tell you that they should just remove "leather," "patchouli," and "vanilla" from the description for a more accurate representation.

Thing is, there's actually no way to know if this even is ICE. Unmarked cars. Men in balaclavas. No badges or ID. This is stochastic domestic terrorism. Anyone could be in that car just tear-gassing a neighborhood for funsies.

And there it is. The entire attack on Netflix is just a grift for far right influencers to promote a religious streaming site.

As I am currently sitting at my desk, I can tell you that they should just remove "leather," "patchouli," and "vanilla" from the description for a more accurate representation.

Arise, Libras! It is our time!

My new office Shaligram darshan! Narasimha got himself a lovely wooden cabinet, with space for shoes, oil, water, and prayer capsule.

College is hard.

Ok, so, true story. I absolutely, 100%, did exactly this while I was trying to come up with the name for the guy in The Way By who gets messed up by the evil unicorn while jogging through an English forest trail. His name ended up just being Tom, though.

And don't forget just how often AI constructs - Siri, Alexa, Cortana, the "Tilly" character - are presented as young and female by default. Submissive. Compliant. Always helpful and attentive.

And don't forget just how often AI constructs - Siri, Alexa, Cortana, the "Tilly" character - are presented as young and female by default. Submissive. Compliant. Always helpful and attentive.

The Sora AI thing is proof of something very important: The technology itself is useless without the ability to use the likenesses of real, living, unpredictable people, and the art they create. And the only way to get those likenesses or that art is to summarily steal it.

And if they continue to stonewall with non-answers, don't platform them at all. Do not give them air time to spout lies unchallenged.

My new office Shaligram darshan! Narasimha got himself a lovely wooden cabinet, with space for shoes, oil, water, and prayer capsule.

College is hard.

Ok, so, true story. I absolutely, 100%, did exactly this while I was trying to come up with the name for the guy in The Way By who gets messed up by the evil unicorn while jogging through an English forest trail. His name ended up just being Tom, though.

How it started................................................How it's going......…

"Oklahoma public school teachers are required to teach the Bible to their students—but the copies they received from the state earlier this month to do so don’t accurately reflect history." Christian fascism is here. newrepublic.com/post/201057/...

Is this not straight-forwardly a declaration of civil war?

"Oklahoma public school teachers are required to teach the Bible to their students—but the copies they received from the state earlier this month to do so don’t accurately reflect history." Christian fascism is here. newrepublic.com/post/201057/...

And no talk whatsoever of: Vance Boelter, assassinated Melissa and Mark Hortman. Thomas Matthew Crooks, who shot Trump in the ear and murdered the man in the crowd behind him. Tyler Robinson, who murdered Charlie Kirk. Desmond Holly, Evergreen High School shooter just weeks ago.

"single-use plastic of the mind" had me GAGGED

And no talk whatsoever of: Vance Boelter, assassinated Melissa and Mark Hortman. Thomas Matthew Crooks, who shot Trump in the ear and murdered the man in the crowd behind him. Tyler Robinson, who murdered Charlie Kirk. Desmond Holly, Evergreen High School shooter just weeks ago.

Small town propaganda will never work on me either, because I grew up in very rural Minnesota, in a farming town. Deeply conservative. Deeply fundamentalist Christian. The rules of my life were ready, set, go before I was even born. Couldn't get out of there fast enough.

Hello, Monday.

I was raised in German Calvinism. As in, Calvinism that arrived with German immigrants and was reformed in the USA in 1850. I have something to say. They abandoned work and poverty as their modes of salvation years ago. Their battle now is with "Sin" as a physical, deformative, force in the world.

It is, far and away, the most challenging thing I’ve encountered since entering the academy. And that is saying a lot. I might be working on this but I keep putting it aside because I’m not medicated enough to describe how demoralizing it all is.

"Color Corrected Trilobite" is done! And, well, he looks pretty good for a plastic crustacean. 🧪🏺💀📖

For funsies, I've decided to paint a "real color" trilobite! 🧪🏺💀📖 (Yes, I know it's the wrong species, but it's what I could get, ok!)

The thing regular people don’t often grasp about ‘academic freedom’ is that if you don’t allow experts to research & teach in their fields of expertise, guided by their professional judgment & decades of training, you have effectively given up on the concept of knowledge & shut down your university

The Way By was nominated for the Indie Book Awards and I didn't even know it! But the comments are truly so kind it moves me to tears a little.

Welcome to the Overton Oculus Glass Dome.

🏺🧪📖💀

"Stay angry, little Meg," Mrs Whatsit whispered. "You will need all your anger now."

Ok, I'm over this. Spooky Season starts now.

"Are you a wine mom or a vodka aunt?" I'm an absinthe dowager.

Oh, great. Another new anxiety I have to figure out how to get.

"Stay angry, little Meg," Mrs Whatsit whispered. "You will need all your anger now."

Ok, I'm over this. Spooky Season starts now.

Share (one of) your favourite black-and-white films.

Oh hey! If you wanted to check out my talk "Religious Belief and Practice in the Age of 'AI'" but were unable to attend in person, it's been published online! I hope you enjoy it:

An immediate presidency-ending scandal in any normal, halfway serious country. Totally absent from the one we live in, where only things like IT Security & Very Elderly Democrats ever become & remain nonstop front page news.

Navratri Ki Shubhkamnaye – नवरात्रि की शुभकामनाये संदेश May Maa Durga stand with us and bring us strength and victory in dangerous times.

Shanah tovah umtukah, my friends! Sending warm wishes to all of you this Rosh Hashanah.

One of my students did fieldwork in Oaxaca and brought back a present! Not for me. For Narasimha, my office Shaligram. Who now sports a perfectly-sized, hand-made, Oaxacan festival hat!

One of my students did fieldwork in Oaxaca and brought back a present! Not for me. For Narasimha, my office Shaligram. Who now sports a perfectly-sized, hand-made, Oaxacan festival hat!

Don’t. Print. Lies. In. The. Newspapers 🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️

Shanah tovah umtukah, my friends! Sending warm wishes to all of you this Rosh Hashanah.