The US/Israel is obliterating one of the world’s most historically and culturally important cities. Esfahan is filled with the most stunning monuments and is a center of Iranian arts and crafts. Here are just a few pictures of of its splendor x.com/soureh_desig...
687 people have been killed in Lebanon in barely 2 weeks. Thousands have been injured. 800,00 have been displaced. Out of a population of 5 million. Reckon with that slaughter and horror. www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03...
For the new South Asia book forum section, I reviewed and put into conversation three excellent recent books: Rishad Choudhury‘s Hajj Across Empires, @ajab.bsky.social 's The Making of Persianate Modernity & Daniel Majchrowicz’s The World in Words.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
What Israel/US is doing to Iran is horrifying but it doesn’t compare to what Israel, with full US support, is doing to Lebanon and Palestine. Not even close x.com/mamoun_linda...
Here's the research, and a fascinating article how using ChatGPT may permanently damage your cognitive and creative abilities. This is a must read for teachers and students alike. I'm sure we'll see more of these studies too.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Deep dive on Raja Krishnamoorthi, including a bit on his far-right ties with Hindu supremacist groups.
In today’s America, we are all seeing the horrors of giving a pass to those with far-right ties. Don’t make that mistake with him.
www.chicagotribune.com/2026/03/10/r...
just saying: it's possible that "I'm gonna dramatically constrict my state capacity while plotting dramatic imperial expansion, and expanding my set of internal enemies while alienating most of my foreign allies" is the beginning of a world-historical masterstroke. but also possible that it isn't
Malacca!
Dunno about most famous, but in terms of importance? Malacca.
Just a reminder that Muslims have been on this continent since the first arrival of non-Indigenous people. They were among the first generation of Americans, and have been here ever since.
Historians are quite capable of explaining the hellscape that is the US at this particular minute, and its kind of telling that you imagine we won't because it means you haven't been listening or reading
I’m briefly in India. This is a facile observation, but Americans have barely scratched the surface in understanding how the rest of the world is reacting to this war. It’s already an Iraq War-style disaster in the global imagination, underscored by the thuggishness and caprice of the Trump approach
The horror Israel/US has unleashed on Iran is going to unfold over time, over generations x.com/arianajasmin...
Legendary Anglo-Indian dancer Olive Craddock who performed internationally as Roshanara. Photo by Underwood and Underwood, New York c 1918. (Thread)
I was in Tehran this time last year. I want you to see how beautiful my city is. I want you to see the city the US/Israel is trying to wipe off the face of the earth
Why Language Models Hallucinate. A paper released by OpenAI in September of 2025.
Back in September, OpenAI released a paper showing that ChatGPT will always make things up.
Not sometimes. Not until the next update. Always. It's how the system fundamentally works. Which means there is no "fix."
It was wrong and harmful - and quite possibly unlawful - to cut already approved NEH grants because Donald Trump hates "DEI."
But the way DOGE went about doing it was even dumber than you probably imagined.
They fed abstracts into ChatGPT and demanded an answer in fewer than 120 characters.
Trump is calling this a "minor excursion"
Just heard from a friend in Tehran who says reality is even worse than the pictures. When they hit the depot in Aghdasiyeh, he could hear and feel it from 15km away.
He says if he could reach internet he’d say: “today is the day the world shall end, as the scripture has foretold,” he says.
North Tehran’s Aqdasiyeh oil depot is ablaze tonight after it was targeted by multiple US-Israeli airstrikes. Apocalyptic scenes filmed by Iranians driving on the nearby highway. Local reporters saying firefighters can’t put it out. This depot is critical energy infrastructure for Iran.
Hegseth needs to stand trial after this as a war criminal. Between this attack and the girls' school, there's no ambiguity. He is responsible for mass murder and must be held accountable.
Hmm, I didn’t realize we hadn’t put up the full schedule and list of speakers yet, I’ll get on it! Friday all day (including keynote address by Alan Strathern) morning to afternoon on Saturday, speakers to include Giancarlo Casale, Supriya Gandhi, Robert Travers, and a host of other brilliant folks!
“You better call up Tyroooone…” 🎶
@murcoil.bsky.social
I see what you did there
Screenshot from NEH webpage, text reads: "Fellowships provide recipients time to conduct research or to produce books, monographs, peer-reviewed articles, e-books, born-digital materials, translations with annotations or a critical apparatus, or critical editions resulting from previous research. Projects may be at any stage of development. NEH encourages submissions from independent scholars and junior scholars. The 2026 Fellowships competition will only accept projects for research in American history and culture and Western civilization. Competitive applications must focus on topics in the history, culture, and government of the United States in any period from the Colonial Era to the present, or topics in Western civilization from antiquity to the present."
Fun update on National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships: they have to focus on "American history and culture and Western civilization." Sinologists et al. are no longer welcome.
www.neh.gov/grants/resea...
#Sinology 🀄️📚
I think about this Tony Benn speech much more than I used to
