they say learning Latin will make you a better speller, meanwhile i am out here writing "litteracy" and "exspenses"
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D.
@blindscholar.bsky.social
PhD in Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near East from Brandeis, postdoc at Stanford. Interests in disability, myth, economics, and materiality. More at www.blindscholar.com.
This is why I tell students that AI is the forklift in the gym. There’s a time in a place for a forklift, but it’s not part of your fitness plan. The student who uses a forklift to lift all their weights in a weightlifting class isn’t winning.
Scott Stein@sstein.bsky.social · 2d agoStudents are often portrayed as antagonists/perpetrators in AI cheating stories, and surely some of them are—I won't entirely dismiss their capacity to make choices. But students are also the main victims. The real villains are not living in dorms or going into debt to learn nothing.
What was wild to me was the intense conflict of interest training that I, a lowly postdoctoral fellow in the humanities, had to go through at Stanford. Any place where that level of reporting was mandatory was not bereft of possibilities for side profit. 
Anna Kornbluh@annakornbluh.bsky.social · 2d agouniversities are not run by leftist profs they are run by corporate profiteer board members siphoning public $$ to tech partnerships "An Inside Higher Ed analysis of SEC filings turned up dozens of presidents paid handsomely for sitting on corporate boards." www.insidehighered.com/news/governa...
universities are not run by leftist profs they are run by corporate profiteer board members siphoning public $$ to tech partnerships "An Inside Higher Ed analysis of SEC filings turned up dozens of presidents paid handsomely for sitting on corporate boards." www.insidehighered.com/news/governa...
The Bible is a very important text for understanding American culture. But for many of the reasons that make it important to understanding American culture, biblical education in public schools can never be done responsibly here. 
Andrew Tobolowsky@andytobo.bsky.social · 3d agoAgain, not the main point, but THESE are the guys shaping the biblical curriculum that is being proposed down there, not some imaginary, different guys. You can't say it's good because it could be good if somebody else was doing it differently!
Again, not the main point, but THESE are the guys shaping the biblical curriculum that is being proposed down there, not some imaginary, different guys. You can't say it's good because it could be good if somebody else was doing it differently!
Jenny Staff Johnson@htownjenny.bsky.social · 3d agoShot
One of my most revelatory conversations came early in my biblical studies career, when an old high school friend told me “I don’t like to read the Bible that much, because when I do, it’s not what I expected to be. I just like people to tell me what it means.”
Atkinson@maddavenport.bsky.social · 3d agoYeah, I call bullshit. I’ve spent most of my adult life studying & translating the Bible and trying to find people to talk to about it. What I find is that people mostly want to see themselves and their values reflected in these texts, far more than they want to understand their real strangeness.
This is why I translate the Bible, incidentally—to un-domesticate these texts, to quiet what I think I already know and to make room for different kinds of relationships with them. One small example: Job 1:3 lists Job’s מקנה. The list includes oxen, sheep, donkeys, camels, and slaves.
Atkinson@maddavenport.bsky.social · 3d agoYeah, I call bullshit. I’ve spent most of my adult life studying & translating the Bible and trying to find people to talk to about it. What I find is that people mostly want to see themselves and their values reflected in these texts, far more than they want to understand their real strangeness.
Let me merge the bible curriculum and trump aide discourse and tell you that when the Bible's King David was super old and has constant chills and presumably couldn't get it up they hired a young lady unfortunately named Abishag "just to keep him warm" and she became a pawn in the succession crisis
Does his Twitter bio still say “aspiring race grifter?“ I’m sure he thought that he meant it ironically, but that told me everything I ever needed to know about this guy from the very beginning. 
Asheesh Kapur Siddique@asheeshks.org · 4d ago<Pitchbot voice> "We wanted to understand what academia can learn from Jason Arday's rise and fall. So we asked someone who hates academia, is no longer a professor, and has never worked in a research university to weigh the questions his story left behind"
SFF worldbuilding advice--quick and dirty way to make your fictional religion seem real is to give it contradictions, and if there's a text involved, put in a few jumps of logic between scripture and actual belief and practice. It's like adding perspective to a drawing, BOOM 3D.
EEric J. Harvey, Ph.D.@blindscholar.bsky.social · 5d ago
I would go further and say that, in every case, it is impossible to predict the nature of any community’s religious beliefs and practices from the content of their sacred texts. 
I would go further and say that, in every case, it is impossible to predict the nature of any community’s religious beliefs and practices from the content of their sacred texts. 
A. M. Vincent@vincent.northsky.social · 5d agoNo one, ever, in all of history, has believed everything written in a religious text or performed all of the actions dictated therein, not because people are imperfect but because that is simply not how religion works, anywhere, ever, for anyone.
No one, ever, in all of history, has believed everything written in a religious text or performed all of the actions dictated therein, not because people are imperfect but because that is simply not how religion works, anywhere, ever, for anyone.
Riley Bruce@rileybruce.bsky.social · last wk.What’s a thing from your area of expertise (or special interest) that you think it would behoove everyone else to know?
Buddhism in the wild (photo by Jerry Feldman, Target Honolulu)
Today's Atlantic story confirming something obviously true: most self-declared leftist "anti-woke" positions are about something that happened down the hall in their academic department.
"You know, you could go blind from something else long before you go blind from this." - Dr. sharing diagnosis of a degenerative retinal condition with me.
Heather Hill@rollin-academic.bsky.social · 2w agoA question from Reddit that I'll answer here: "What's the most unhinged thing a doctor has said to you with a straight face?"
This is a batshit response to attacking candidates who are winning primaries and elections, when the other side is fascists. If you think you have more to lose from lefty candidates winning office than MAGA's continued destruction, no one should take you seriously. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/06/u...
Moderate Democrats Prepare for ‘War’ Against an Ascendant Left
One moderate group says the progressive wins are “deeply troubling” and is planning a $15 million effort against democratic socialism.
nytimes.com
Humanity: the millennia change; the problems stay the same.
Parchment & Clay@parchmentandclay.bsky.social · 3w agoToday's #AncientSayings is either a lament for lost youth or the beginning of an ancient Mesopotamian Viagra commercial. Ancient Sayings #81: When your personal god abandons you... and your loins https://youtu.be/W12IYHXsqUs
Today's #AncientSayings is either a lament for lost youth or the beginning of an ancient Mesopotamian Viagra commercial. Ancient Sayings #81: When your personal god abandons you... and your loins https://youtu.be/W12IYHXsqUs
My take is that everything is just about the right size in relation to everything else. I think that sums it up. My real question, though, is whether I should reread these and give them to my kids. I loooved Redwall as a kid—does it hold up?
Nora@lighthousenora.bsky.social · 4w agoi would love your historical architecture take on the relative size of redwall abbey to its natural surroundings and inhabitants. like are we talking a tiny abbey in a tiny forest or what
Happy Friday everyone, as promised, here is my personal theory on this. I think Redwall takes place in our world, after an apocalyptic event of the nuclear variety caused rapid but varied growth of all animals, including humans, leading to our extinction and their mental development. Okay? 🧵
Nora@lighthousenora.bsky.social · 4w agoi would love your historical architecture take on the relative size of redwall abbey to its natural surroundings and inhabitants. like are we talking a tiny abbey in a tiny forest or what
who fucken invented the sloppy joe. who was joe ive gone through ALL the extant theories and debunked them and it remains a great unsolved mystery
G. Willow Wilson@gwillow.me · 3w agoWhat's your personal great white whale of an unsolved mystery? The thing you desperately hope is solved before you die because you need to know the answer? Mine is the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum heist. Where the hell are the Rembrandts. I need the full story
Here's just a real nice blessing for divine favor from 4000 years ago. #AncientSayings Ancient Sayings #79: Wish for a god's favor https://youtu.be/CRArsdl-tak
Listen to the Sumerians: sometimes your mom and your god want different things from you. Which one do you choose? #AncientSayings Ancient Sayings #78: What does your god want from you? What about your mom? https://youtu.be/xhCQtXtYo2Q
Put me down for the Polanyi explanation: capitalism just inevitably leads to fascism if social democracy doesn’t save it
Sam@samd.bsky.social · 4w agowhat’s going on with the world man. why is the far right resurgent everywhere? it’s easy to blame whatever policy boogeyman (neoliberalism, housing shortage, immigration, etc etc) but I think it has to be something deeper. maybe lived memory is dying out of how evil fascism is
Often, Mesopotamian texts show us that familiar motifs and metaphors are centuries older than we might have thought. Consider this Sumerian portrayal of the divine-human relationship Ancient Sayings #76: On gods, humans, shepherds, and sheep (or, A Familiar Metaphor) https://youtu.be/j3R_5Iiv3QE
Hello! WE are preparing for the launch of our first online course, and we need to fill two short-term contract roles, both with potential for ongoing or repeat engagement: 1. website and social media: build out site in accordance with design brief and provided assets (Kajabi experience preferred) 👇
Today in "extremely low frequency vocabulary items sometimes acquire wildly different connotations in their different paradigmatic forms" Smite, smote, smitten