I'll post more about this tomorrow, but I've spent the last few weeks trying to do some social network analysis on the most recent "OpenAI Swarm" You can do some interesting things with the data to identify how the different "Agents" interacted. kevinreuning.com/blog/ai_swar...

OpenAI Swarm – Kevin Reuning

kevinreuning.com

Learned today that my public institution in a red state will no longer offer courses in biblical studies after this term. It's a weird feeling. Several of the legislators who created this odd environment for higher ed won't stop talking about how students need to study great texts. But, here we are.

I told some friends a few weeks ago, that in the next two years, I could see the President demanding that a state be named after him. That, or he conditions DC statehood or Puerto Rican statehood (if voted) on his name -- "Washington, DJT," for example. Once again, I need a polymarket account.

Hoodlum 🇺🇸@nothoodlum.bsky.social · last wk.

It’s not funny. It’s not clever. It’s covering up a very sick-minded man who is running this country into the ground.

I once joked that much as the Navy as "Anchors Aweigh" and the Marine Corps has the "Marine Hymn," the Space Force will have the "Imperial March" from Star Wars. How do I open a Polymarket account?

derek guy@dieworkwear.bsky.social · last wk.

this is the kind of design costume designers make to tell you who are the bad guys in a space movie

Oof. Between the return of “madrasa” as a codeword and Rep. Mike Johnson alluding to taqiyya, it seems like some folks decided to rollout the dumb stuff again — 25 years after 9/11

Matthew J Kuiper@matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 2w ago

Sorry, but looking at that wacky faculty-member-at-school-of-divinity situation and saying, “oh so he’s running a madrasa” is not the way. There’s no need to do a not-so-subtle Islamophobia to critique or comment on that situation. Let’s review, class, madrasa is an Arabic word meaning school…

“What all this means is that the attack on the study of Religion is part of a broader attempt to exclude certain people from the public sphere, therefore limiting their very ability to participate in our democratic society” Kudos to @profgabriele.com and @vox-magica.bsky.social

Jonathan Hall@schleviboy.bsky.social · 2w ago

I highly recommend this very well-written essay to all Americans: Religion, Humanities, and the Public Good www.liberalcurrents.com/religion-hum... Thank you, @profgabriele.com and @vox-magica.bsky.social, from a Religious Studies grad.

I love that Mr T studied philosophy and theology because now both philosophy and religious studies departments across the country will claim him — all the while back-talking each other at every turn. LOL. Pity the fools, man. Pity the fools.

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò@olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 2w ago

""What did he study? “Philosophy and theology. A teacher in high school said, there’s no money in that, and I said: ‘Sir, that’s disrespectful. That’s insulting, because not everybody’s about money.’" he's one of us!

Saw a lot of posts on here about an arrest today being like a “Night of the Long Knives.” Not an expert here, but this feels more like an “Early Afternoon of the Short Plastic Spork.”

So will there be a push to name a state — or D.C. — as “Trump” in the next two years?

Great piece in the Chronicle about AI & writing with an especially important section quoting Prof. David Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social www.chronicle.com/article/prof...

The more of these stories I see, the more I wonder why the NCAA and NAIA are let off the hook. Time for those studies as well.

NPR@npr.org · 3w ago

Playing football has long been linked to the brain disease known as CTE, but how prevalent it is is still unknown. A new study of former NFL players who died recently found that at least 25% had CTE.

There are *so many* states with these religious shield laws and my 101 students are often genuinely surprised to know it.

Charles Ornstein@charlesornstein.bsky.social · 3w ago

Super disturbing. Almost every year since 2015, Idaho children in a faith-healing sect have died of treatable conditions such as pneumonia and bacterial infections that turned to sepsis. The state just lets it happen. @audreydutton.bsky.social

Optimist: The cup is half full Pessimist: The cup is half empty Ohio Valley: The water in the cup is full of forever chemicals

Mar Hicks@histoftech.bsky.social · 3w ago

Optimist: The cup is half full Pessimist: The cup is half empty Historian: The cup can teach you a lot of things that you do not want to know

>AI adoption raises homework scores by 18% and reduces completion time by 30%, but lowers monthly exam scores by 20% within six months. High-stakes entrance-exam scores fall by 18 and 24%, with the full penalty emerging only after about two years. The losses are largest in social science subjects...

Charlotte Garden@charlottegarden.bsky.social · 4w ago

Here's the paper - the abstract suggests that students who outsource their homework to AI later do worse on exams (which makes sense!) papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

I'm going to *cautiously* suggest that U.S. students should get literary instruction in the bible -- among other sacred texts -- and that the controversy that would ensue from this *should* be part of the outcome of the experience. Respectful disagreement with another post making the rounds.

i both think that students in the US should get literary instruction in the Bible (basically the equivalent of an intro religious studies course) and that doing so would be so controversial that it isn't worth the effort

Jonathan Ladd@jonathanmladd.com · 4w ago

This is correct. You can't understand American literature and history without some understanding of the Bible and of American religious history. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Every public higher education institution should have an "Introduction to Religious Studies" course in its general curriculum. A study of constitutional liberties and responsibilities, it's a training to live in one of the most religiously diverse and pluralistic societies in the world. BUT ...

Matt Gabriele@profgabriele.com · 4w ago

I would however STRONGLY support a required “intro religious studies” course or similar at the college level where protections are stronger

I didn't say much on the White House's threat to "bomb the shit" out of Oman the first time (!). I've taken students to Oman. Omanis are incredibly welcoming. I've seen first-hand the value of the U.S.-Oman relationship. This is nonsensical. The U.S.-Oman relationship extends over two centuries.

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 mo.

What’s a thing from your area of expertise (or special interest) that you think it would behoove everyone else to know?

Oh, so we are doing “Fahrenheit 451” now, huh?

Emanuel Maiberg@emanuelmaiberg.bsky.social · 4w ago

We put a tracking device in a shipment of rare books acquired by an anonymous buyer. It ended up at an Amazon facility where the company scans books for training data and destroys them in the process: www.404media.co/we-tracked-a...

Bluesky needs an “up-vote, down-vote” mechanic. It would improve even further in the small community feel of the site.

This is academia-related, given today’s events, but, hey, you know what? No one should have died. Reach out to the people you care about. For those with a plan, please know you’re loved. People care about you. You might’ve made mistakes, but ultimately we are all the better for having you around.

Absolutely wild that any social media platform would look at “religion” and say, “No thanks.” But, yeah, here we are. Social media corpos are looking to craft their own niche communities.

Jack Jenkins@jackjenkins.me · last mo.

Specifically, the raw numbers game doesn’t really sum up a platform’s value for all users. E.g., Threads is huge. But I write about religion and politics, and the leaders at Threads have suggested that’s content they don’t want to promote, which is how you *reach* that huge base.

Rethinking Religion (100-level) Rethinking Islam (200-level)

Matt Gabriele@profgabriele.com · last mo.

if you're in a classroom, what are you teaching this Fall? me: -- Survey of the Medieval World -- Religion and Violence

I keep staring at Lincoln, staring at the floor.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · last mo.

do not take medical advice from Santa Monica Goebbels

I start my “Jihadism” class telling students that jihadists have the internet. They see the same videos of U.S. munitions and combat capabilities that Americans are awed by … and they grab rifles anyway. Been thinking about that when Trump expresses “amazement” that Iran hasn’t surrendered.

All these progressives and liberals looking around for university religion departments to help understand these “motivations” …

John Travolta's Confused Pulp Fiction Moment

ALT: John Travolta's Confused Pulp Fiction Moment

static.klipy.com

The Virginian-Pilot@pilotonline.com · last mo.

As progressives seek to take on inequality, some cite religion as a motivating factor: https://mrf.lu/25Brg

Increasingly of the opinion that higher ed commentators need to start thinking about the U.S. and UK as sharing common material conditions. The circumstances here are the same at a Midwest US R2 as they are at Exeter and others. You could mad lib this substack for any number of US universities.

Geoffrey Hughes@geofffhughes.bsky.social · last mo.

I am also in this faculty and, reader, it shows. UK unis are in their bullshit jobs era now: "In my faculty, six administrators support ten managerial roles at faculty level while another six administrators support departments with their 900 FTE academic staff who teach 10,000 students."

A genie? A...a jinn? A jinn, you say? Gosh, if only there was an entire field of study in the humanities -- an Islamic studies, if you will -- that is filled with culturally significant accounts of humans interacting with jinn. Naw, but ya'll cut that department and program, I'm sure. No worries.

Dare Obasanjo@carnage4life.bsky.social · 2mo ago

“What we need to explain to the world: Number one, we are close to creating a genie that can grant any wish. Number two, we are going to make sure that our first wishes broadly benefit humanity” - Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI — This is definitely the opposite of Anthropic’s AI kills all jobs pitch.

Half the planet is having a massive fight about how to correctly interpret an Ancient Greek poem but go ahead, close some more humanities departments.