Sumita Pahwa
@sumitapahwa.bsky.social
Social scientist, religion and politics, Bombayite, Californian, ex-Cairene. Mango maven. Cat lady. Teaches at Scripps College. Book: https://press.syr.edu/supressbooks/5829/politics-as-worship/
Reposted by Sumita Pahwa
"My brethren, soldiers may leap out of that statue tonight and kill me, but what’s leaping out at me right now is our total disregard for norms. What you see as an enemy threat, I see as a one-of-a-kind statue of a mare."
www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/sen...
www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/sen...
Senator Schumer Votes to Let the Big Wooden Horse into Troy
“In the wake of votes by a handful of key Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, to pass a GOP-led continuing resolution funding f...
www.mcsweeneys.net
November 10, 2025 at 6:25 PM
"My brethren, soldiers may leap out of that statue tonight and kill me, but what’s leaping out at me right now is our total disregard for norms. What you see as an enemy threat, I see as a one-of-a-kind statue of a mare."
www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/sen...
www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/sen...
Reposted by Sumita Pahwa
welcome to bluesky. if the word "mapquest" means anything to you and/or you used it as a verb, you're in the right place
November 11, 2025 at 1:11 AM
welcome to bluesky. if the word "mapquest" means anything to you and/or you used it as a verb, you're in the right place
I always enjoy reading Sanjay Subrahmanyam, and this interview on modern Indians' fraught relationship with liberalism, history, and nationalism is a good one.
granta.com/indian-tempt...
granta.com/indian-tempt...
Indian Temptations
‘I understand that there is a temptation to bring everything in India, whether it’s literature, music or art, around to its relationship to nationalism. But as my friends in the art world have always ...
granta.com
November 10, 2025 at 6:34 AM
I always enjoy reading Sanjay Subrahmanyam, and this interview on modern Indians' fraught relationship with liberalism, history, and nationalism is a good one.
granta.com/indian-tempt...
granta.com/indian-tempt...
Reposted by Sumita Pahwa
Voting to fund the government means you voted to fund everything the government is doing. That's the whole point. It's not about some narrow this or that on the margins. You own the whole enchilada, you're saying "yes, this overall package for everything the government's doing is acceptable to me."
November 10, 2025 at 5:43 AM
Voting to fund the government means you voted to fund everything the government is doing. That's the whole point. It's not about some narrow this or that on the margins. You own the whole enchilada, you're saying "yes, this overall package for everything the government's doing is acceptable to me."
Reposted by Sumita Pahwa
Adam Shatz on the transcendent life and music of Alice Coltrane
The Spiritual Jazz of Alice Coltrane | Adam Shatz
Alice Coltrane reinvented her adoptive Hinduism by interweaving it with the music of the Black church.
buff.ly
November 3, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Adam Shatz on the transcendent life and music of Alice Coltrane
Are red velvet cupcakes considered hopelessly old fashioned now? Salted caramel desserts? Wondering how fast food trends shift.
November 9, 2025 at 7:25 AM
Are red velvet cupcakes considered hopelessly old fashioned now? Salted caramel desserts? Wondering how fast food trends shift.
I wonder if this is related to all the notices from California's public health authority re: listeria in various frozen supermarket pastas, and recently, in some baby formula.
www.propublica.org/article/fore...
www.propublica.org/article/fore...
Foreign Food Safety Inspections Hit Historic Low After Trump Cuts
The dramatic shift in oversight comes at a time when the U.S. has never been more reliant on foreign food, which accounts for the vast majority of the nation’s seafood and more than half its fresh fru...
www.propublica.org
November 9, 2025 at 6:38 AM
I wonder if this is related to all the notices from California's public health authority re: listeria in various frozen supermarket pastas, and recently, in some baby formula.
www.propublica.org/article/fore...
www.propublica.org/article/fore...
This is a really interesting discussion of where the political science literature is on the q of the declining rewards of moderation in US electoral politics. Especially useful for those who, like me, don't keep up with this literature.
www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm...
www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm...
Do Moderates Win More Elections? | On the Media | WNYC Studios
Why moderation might not be the silver bullet Democratic strategists seemed to crave.
www.wnycstudios.org
November 9, 2025 at 4:14 AM
This is a really interesting discussion of where the political science literature is on the q of the declining rewards of moderation in US electoral politics. Especially useful for those who, like me, don't keep up with this literature.
www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm...
www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm...
Reposted by Sumita Pahwa
Yes! The thing abt public libraries that is so beautiful & crucial is the idea that *anybody* could do this — you need no credential, there’s no gatekeeping, literally any person can be an intellectual. You can come from absolutely nothing & yet, by means of curiosity + work, create real knowledge
I wrote a significant chunk of my first book at a Chicago Public Library, an amazing public space where people could read books and newspapers, access the internet, or just keep warm for a while on a cold day. This is appalling.
CPL is an absolute palace to the people and these proposed cuts are abominable. Artificial austerity. Chicago folks, read this, check the links to bug the mayor and your alders—this can be fought and won.
November 8, 2025 at 11:40 PM
Yes! The thing abt public libraries that is so beautiful & crucial is the idea that *anybody* could do this — you need no credential, there’s no gatekeeping, literally any person can be an intellectual. You can come from absolutely nothing & yet, by means of curiosity + work, create real knowledge
Reposted by Sumita Pahwa
So, we broke into your house and stole all your stuff, please give us money.
“OpenAI is getting ready to run hat in hand to the taxpayer for subsidies.” After losing more than $13 billion this year, OpenAI officials are angling for a bailout. From @ryanlcooper.com:
trib.al/CUazMCQ
trib.al/CUazMCQ
OpenAI Is Maneuvering for a Government Bailout - The American Prospect
For artificial intelligence to ever pencil out, some truly enormous revenue streams will be required. And if you need trillions of dollars for data centers forever, there’s only one entity to turn to: Uncle Sam.
trib.al
November 8, 2025 at 10:06 PM
So, we broke into your house and stole all your stuff, please give us money.
Reposted by Sumita Pahwa
So coooooool!
Now this is *very* cool
‘Google Maps’ for Roman roads reveals vast extent of ancient network
archive.ph/UnfvV
#maps #mapping #DH #Rome #archaeology
‘Google Maps’ for Roman roads reveals vast extent of ancient network
archive.ph/UnfvV
#maps #mapping #DH #Rome #archaeology
November 9, 2025 at 1:34 AM
So coooooool!
Reposted by Sumita Pahwa
This. Especially because I believe that writing is thinking (for me). I don’t want to lose that.
What people do not do, they often lose the ability to do. Which is sometimes fine! In my own life, I don’t have any great need to know how to do some of the math I once learned. But I don’t want to forget how to write.
November 8, 2025 at 12:47 PM
This. Especially because I believe that writing is thinking (for me). I don’t want to lose that.
This is exactly right, and gets at what bugs me about the Nature piece.
I'm uncomfortable with the idea that using data without permission even if shared willingly as part of a discussion, and then not crediting the contribution, isn't a scientific injustice. That's not recognising something as an equal contribution. An equal contribution would be credited.
November 8, 2025 at 11:54 AM
This is exactly right, and gets at what bugs me about the Nature piece.
November 8, 2025 at 11:50 AM
This is a complex story, but frankly it still reveals a great deal of sexism and exclusion. There's a thread here of pompous British men calling other people idiots; I don't see them grappling with why Franklin was excluded from intellectual ownership networks.
If I see one more stupid Rosalind Franklin take I'm going to lose my mind. Thank god for @matthewcobb.bsky.social and @nccomfort.bsky.social. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
What Rosalind Franklin truly contributed to the discovery of DNA’s structure
Franklin was no victim in how the DNA double helix was solved. An overlooked letter and an unpublished news article, both written in 1953, reveal that she was an equal player.
www.nature.com
November 8, 2025 at 10:40 AM
This is a complex story, but frankly it still reveals a great deal of sexism and exclusion. There's a thread here of pompous British men calling other people idiots; I don't see them grappling with why Franklin was excluded from intellectual ownership networks.
Every now and again, I meet Indians who studied in the former USSR on scholarships (v generous, back in the day - expenses & flights covered, degrees in science, engineering, etc were free), and marvel at the fact that they learned Russian in order to be able to do scientific degrees...in Russian.
November 8, 2025 at 9:32 AM
Every now and again, I meet Indians who studied in the former USSR on scholarships (v generous, back in the day - expenses & flights covered, degrees in science, engineering, etc were free), and marvel at the fact that they learned Russian in order to be able to do scientific degrees...in Russian.
Reposted by Sumita Pahwa
Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching
November 3, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching
Are any grocery stores in the US offering a 'buy it ahead' program where one can add an amount to the checkout that is for anyone whose SNAP benefits are not here?
November 8, 2025 at 3:46 AM
Are any grocery stores in the US offering a 'buy it ahead' program where one can add an amount to the checkout that is for anyone whose SNAP benefits are not here?
Reposted by Sumita Pahwa
New York millionaires: threatening to flee the city since 2009
November 7, 2025 at 9:36 PM
New York millionaires: threatening to flee the city since 2009
Reposted by Sumita Pahwa
Aww, I would be proud, as the teacher.
Cameran Drew, 19, defeated his former high school government teacher by 10 votes in a race for a county supervisor seat in southeastern Virginia this week.
Virginia Teen Narrowly Defeats Former Civics Teacher in County Election
Cameran Drew, 19, defeated his former high school government teacher, Kenneth Bell, by 10 votes for a seat on the Surry County Board of Supervisors this week. There are no hard feelings.
nyti.ms
November 8, 2025 at 2:39 AM
Aww, I would be proud, as the teacher.
Reposted by Sumita Pahwa
since chatgpt has coached another young person in a mental health crisis to their death, I am yet again tapping the sign
November 7, 2025 at 10:59 AM
since chatgpt has coached another young person in a mental health crisis to their death, I am yet again tapping the sign
Reposted by Sumita Pahwa
I recast the question of dynasticism in its broader elitist context, in @timesofindia. True in Bihar, true in India.
November 7, 2025 at 10:33 AM
I recast the question of dynasticism in its broader elitist context, in @timesofindia. True in Bihar, true in India.