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Matthew McMullen

@mcmullen.bsky.social

Research fellow at the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture and editor of the Japanese Journal of Religious Studies. Follow @jjrs-nirc.bsky.social for journal and institute updates.

929 Posts1833 Follower749 Folgt
Matthew McMullen@mcmullen.bsky.social · 2d ago

petition requesting the Ministry of Education recognize part time lectures as academic faculty. Part-time lectures 非常勤講師 are underpaid and receive no benefits. They are not even given titles, and, as those of you who work in Japan know, title is everything. Sign the petition.

あなたの声がチカラになります

「非常勤講師」にも職名を！大学教員としての承認を求めるための署名 Count Us in University Faculty! *English ver. included

change.org

Matthew McMullen@mcmullen.bsky.social · 2w ago

More on apple's new AI by force OS. byteiota.com/apple-intell...

Apple Intelligence macOS 27: The Off Switch Is Gone

Apple removed the master disable toggle for Apple Intelligence in macOS 27. Your previous opt-out doesn't carry over. Here's what changed and what you can still do.

byteiota.com

Matthew McMullen@mcmullen.bsky.social · 2w ago

Yeah, this sucks. I’ve been turning off this bull shit for years, and now they’re made that impossible. Tahoe is bad enough. Gonna pass on this one.

Ed Zitron@edzitron.com · 2w ago

This may end up being the most consequential story I’ve written, or one of them. “How many AI data centers are actually functional” is the most obvious question of the bubble - and the most important answer to understand what’s going on - yet answering it with any specificity has taken years.

Ed Zitron@edzitron.com · 3w ago

Free newsletter: I estimate that ~50% of AI chip sales - $200bn to $300bn+ - are sitting in warehouses, with NVIDIA selling hundreds of billions of GPUs years in advance. Data centers take way longer to build than hyperscalers are leading us to believe. www.wheresyoured.at/wherere-all-the-ai-chips/

Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani@mayor.nyc.gov · 2w ago

DoorDash has ripped off more than 260,000 NYC delivery workers. We’re making them pay $131.5 million — the largest worker settlement in City history. This is New York, where hard work pays and greed will cost you.

DoorDash messed up. They repeatedly left more than 260,000 NYC delivery workers underpaid or paid late, causing them immense stress and financial difficulty. That's unacceptable. We've secured a $131.5M settlement from DoorDash - the largest worker settlement in NYC history and largest delivery worker settlement in American municipal history. Every worker will be paid what they are owed, and every company will be forced to abide by the laws of this city. LOGOS: The OFFICE of the MAYOR of NYC NYC Consumer and Worker Protection Mayor Mamdani and Deliveristas representatives stand behind a podium.Mayor Mamdani signs a giant check.Three delivery workers holding a giant fake check for $131.5M.
Matthew McMullen@mcmullen.bsky.social · 2w ago

If we had a functioning government and the mainstream media were as diligent as ProPublica, a substantial portion of congress would probably be revealed to have made similar deals.

ProPublica@propublica.org · 3w ago

Sen. Susan Collins helped steer millions in federal defense contracts to Navatek, whose CEO illegally funneled thousands of dollars to her campaign. The FBI sought to launch a probe and was eyeing Collins and other lawmakers. Then Trump gutted the unit in charge. THREAD 🧵

Martin Kao, CEO of defense contractor Navatek, poses next to Sen. Susan Collins for a photo. Collins is holding a model of a boat in her hands. Behind them is a large sign with the Navatek logo.
Joseph Fasano@josephfasano.bsky.social · 3w ago

I'm teaching an online class on "Being Human Together in a Time of AI," starting tomorrow (9/20). Registration closes today, 9/19, at 5:00 PM Eastern. Join us to discuss what it means to be human, how we arrived at the AI crisis, and what we can do. For details, email Joseph.Fasano@gmail.com.

Matthew McMullen@mcmullen.bsky.social · 3w ago

The notion of “AI competency” is absurd. The entire point of the software is to replace human competency with digital automation. It’s like spending millions of dollars on a program to teach babies the proper way to shit in a diaper.

Asheesh Kapur Siddique@asheeshks.org · 4w ago

Unfortunately, I don’t buy the idea that AI competency is an ”essential skill” that “must be taught” in college. College is about learning how to learn and that is best done with books and paper. You can figure out AI after college if you want!

Jolyon Thomas@jolyonbt.bsky.social · 4w ago

Very excited for this talk by a leading ethnographer of contemporary Japanese Buddhism at Penn on Thursday! Population decline, waste, material religion, and more! In-person and online options.

Penn Religious Studies@upennrels.bsky.social · 4w ago

The Trouble with Buddhist Gifts: The Ethics of Ritual Care in Contemporary Japan RELS Colloquium / E. Dale Saunders Buddhist Studies Lecture Paulina Kolata (Harvard) Sep 17, 2026 at 5:15pm - 6:45pm | ANNS 111 Also streaming on Zoom. Register here: www.eventbrite.com/e/the-troubl...

The Trouble with Buddhist Gifts: The Ethics of Ritual Care in Contemporary Japan RELS Colloquium / E. Dale Saunders Buddhist Studies Lecture Paulina Kolata (Harvard) Sep 17, 2026 at 5:15pm - 6:45pm | ANNS 111 What is the burden of an unwanted gift? Demographic decline in regional Japan has disrupted intergenerational logics of ritual care, producing the troubling accumulation of abandoned sacred objects at local temples. Drawing on ethnographic research with Buddhist communities in Hiroshima, Shimane, and Miyazaki prefectures from 2016 to 2024, I trace how these objects, laden with moral, spiritual, and emotional weight, move through cycles of disposal and divestment. Walking a fine line between neglect and care, I ask how such deferrals rearrange Buddhist ritual ecologies and compel us to reconsider the contradictions in Buddhism’s foundational practice of generosity. Paulina Kolata is an Assistant Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University. She is a scholar of religion in Japan, specialising in Buddhism, material and economic practices, and the environmental impacts of religious life in conditions of demographic change. Note the special time and room for this event! Part of the Center for East Asian Studies (CEAS) Humanities Colloquium
Matthew McMullen@mcmullen.bsky.social · 4w ago

Are universities unethical for not hiring much needed faculty and instead paying minimum wages to adjuncts? No, it’s the PhDs who are wrong for getting a PhD!

Principal Skinner meme with no text.
Tom Nichols@radiofreetom.bsky.social · 4w ago

I know what adjuncts make, and it is scandalous. But that’s because the market is glutted with PhDs - including people who should have either abandoned the PhD or abandoned the idea of a teaching career. I know that sounds cruel, but that’s real talk.

Matthew McMullen@mcmullen.bsky.social · 4w ago

The policy is even more risky for PhD students because if the past decades tell us anything it’s that dems will do little to reverse it if they regain power. Probably just means test the tax rate. So the chances that you’ll be kicked out of the country or charged a tax to stay is rather high.

The Great Pumpkin Papers 🎃🎃🎃@professormusgrave.bsky.social · 4w ago

A lot of people keep telling me that it’s possible to recover, but a PhD takes minimum 5 years to complete, so betting on the USA for a PhD now means betting that republicans won’t win the presidency during your studies. Sucker bet