Matthew Fisher

Pope Leo demands priests stop using AI to write sermons over TikTok panic In an address to the clergy of the Diocese of Rome on Thursday, Pope Leo had a few warnings about the internet and AI when it comes to religion

Real sympathy for the Pope on this one. www.irishstar.com/news/us-news...

UCPD keeps 40 mm projectiles, launchers despite LAPD crowd-control ban - Daily Bruin This post was updated Feb. 27 at 2:27 p.m. UCPD will keep 40 mm projectiles and launchers in its arsenal of military equipment, though LAPD is banned from using them for crowd control.

Go student journalists! #dailybruin on a roll recently. Also, shame on #UCLA . dailybruin.com/2026/02/26/u...

Trump administration drops appeal of court order blocking $1.2-billion UCLA settlement The Trump administration dropped its appeal of a major higher education case in which a federal judge blocked its $1.2-billion settlement proposal to UCLA over alleged civil rights violations. It will...

Little things. www.latimes.com/california/s...

Hey, #medievalsky - I just launched Compilatio ( oldbooks.humspace.ucla.edu/index.html ), a quick-and-dirty site that assembles completely digitized #medieval #manuscripts (mostly from UK repositories) in one convenient location. Check it out, and do let me know what you think.

Big anti-ICE rally at UCLA today. Students, staff, faculty in solidarity with the Minnesota fight back, connecting the dots btw many causes

What Renaissance readers left behind in haircare books What if the pages of an old book could tell us who touched them, what medicines they made, and even how their bodies responded to treatment?

“Then there’s the hippopotamus.” RNA in printed Renaissance books is quite an adventure.

phys.org/news/2025-12...

Also, can be squeezed into ice cube trays and frozen and then used later.

This is a polite “fuck you” in medievalist.

College costs are soaring! www.brookings.edu/articles/wha...

Richard Rouse articulated these as “pressures on the script”, a phrasing I’ve since adopted.

Teaching #Milton today (to a likely empty room). Christopher Ricks in 1966, "A more telling exposé of the cruel falsities of a dictatorial heroism has never been written. As many critics have said, Satan’s rally is a fascist rally. But fascism will never be a thing of the past."

WE WON. I am *begging* you to take note of who did this. *Not* UCLA admin—they’re still scuttling around behind closed doors, attempting to appease—but FACULTY AND STAFF, led by AAUP.

You should have a system that every shitty faculty person who pulls this gets fewer requests per activity/research date.

Spent a lovely hour making boxes for the #UCLA turkey foodbox program for UCLA community members in need. Volunteering alongside students is always a joy.

Rare Gospel Written by Medieval Women Could Fetch More Than $1 Million at Auction A recently discovered gospel likely written by women at the abbey of Essen in the 10th century could sell for more than $1 million.

Anyone have a spare few million? I’ve got my eye on a 10th C gospel written by women.

news.artnet.com/art-world/me...

Eight pages bound in furry seal skin may be Norway's oldest book The little book is so rare that the National Library of Norway is bringing in experts from around the world to learn more.

Furry seal skin AND tiny Icelandic manuscripts!

www.sciencenorway.no/cultural-his...

www.icelandreview.com/news/rare-15...

University of California faculty push back against Big Brother cybersecurity mandate School officials defend software as bulwark against ransomware, but professors fear potential surveillance of their devices

Damns straight. UC faculty, UC Faculty Associations (hi @UCLAFA ), and #AAUP pushing back against #UCOP. Universities are not corporations. www.science.org/content/arti...

Decades ago, I worked at a place that did basically the same thing - by selling complete editorial control of each interview back to the CEO being interviewed. They’d bury the legally required “paid for” info in a tiny font in the back of the magazine.

Judge rules UC must publicize Trump administration settlement demands - Daily Bruin This post was updated Oct. 14 at 11:30 p.m. A judge ruled Tuesday that the UC Board of Regents must publicize the Trump administration’s proposed settlement demands to UCLA.

Can’t believe we have to fight these fights. But here we are. dailybruin.com/2025/10/14/j...

4 out of the 9 Nobel laureates in Chemistry, Physics, and Medicine are University of California faculty (2 UCSB, 2 Cal) and one other received all their degrees from the UC system (UCLA and UCSD).

So those highly funded woke liberal universities are clearly failing, eh?

Strong statement today from UC's Academic Senate:

First day of instruction at #UCLA. Amidst fucking everything, I take strength, courage, and even joy from our students. We shall see if it lasts the day, but for now, on a gray Los Angeles morning, the year begins with sharp glimmers of hope.

University of California students and faculty sue the Trump administration White House using civil rights laws to wage campaign against school system to undermine free speech, says suit

Not waiting for #UC leadership to sell us out.

No Concessions, No Capitulation, No Cuts On September 16 at 2pm, we are joining the AAUP and CUCFA for a rally at the William J. Rutter Center at UCSF, 1675 Owens Street, San Francisco, to demand No Concessions, No Capitulation, and No Cuts to our University of California. Please join us!

Tomorrow the UC regents are meeting at UCSF to discuss Trump's extortion attempt. This is a defining moment for the UC system, for public education, and for the university as an institution. We demand no concession, no capitulation, no cuts.

UCLA English alum Jui Sarwate receives Emmy Award - Department of English UCLA UCLA English Department - News

My former student won an Emmy! Well done, Jui!

It is, I will admit, a very small relief to see the University of California making very small gestures in the right direction. #StandUpForUC t.co/7ovP018f2q

Trump freezes $200 million in UCLA science and medical research funding, citing antisemitism The Trump administration has frozen roughly $200 million in National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health and other federal agency-funded research at UCLA, citing allegations the school d...

“It's like we all know, way down in our souls, that our generation is gonna witness the end of everything.”

I love my work. It may not feel the same way about me. #medieval #manuscripts

Wild. Have fun.

Snipers on the roof last year. My rage at #UCLA ‘s failure to protect students, and indeed how they were endangered, will never fade.