I am looking for a multispecies archaeologist with a strong theoretical and interpretive profile to join my group (100%, 3 years): uni.koeln/2E7CR Deadline: 30.09.2025. Apply here: uni.koeln/ZQMKA ("Wiss2508-21") @nakedprimate.bsky.social @mesh-research-hub.bsky.social @unicologne.bsky.social

The problem Starmer has on standing up to racism is the most resonant form of racism in the country at the moment is specifically targeted against migrants and he’s been an ardent participant in that since before the election.

Survived Berlin marathon despite the 27 degree heat.

"Anyone who works in manuscript studies or philology knows that these are thoroughly digital disciplines. ... Accusations of technophobia ... would therefore be completely inappropriate. It is precisely our technical literacy ... that must make us critical." @dehypotheses.bsky.social

One day I wish to be as persistent as the typos you apparently can't get rid of no matter how many times you and others read your manuscripts

Proofs! #medievalsky

Proofs! #medievalsky

The fallout of all the internal scheming bullshit that tore the original Corbyn-led Labour apart continues apace, I see.

I've deleted my academia.edu. The new ToCs were totally unacceptable.

👀"Pupils could not recall similar contests linked to previous visits over the past year, nor political memorabilia being offered as prizes in the past." (Source: www.localauthority.news/p/farage-foo...)

Sometimes it's nice to remember that even Marcus Aurelius was like "you don't have to comment on everything bro"

“We only have a few minutes left so please keep your questions brief.” “Thank you for your talk, before I ask my convoluted question and get to the point, please allow me to tell you my name, title, position, rank and academic biography…”

So many people's misconceptions and fantasies about what life would have been like for them in the ancient world would be avoided if they factored in that something like 90% of people were farmers, who spent the vast majority of their active time tilling fields.

It's perhaps also worth adding that once you're aware that getting sent to labour down the mines was one of the worst penalties available in late Roman law, "at least the mines stayed open" doesn't have quite the same nice ring to it as it might have in say, modern Britain post-Thatcher.

This is going to make the Three Chapters Schism look tame.

ok, I will admit to being excited about a good new heresy debate.

To nuance my flippant comment here slightly, it *is* true that much of the evidence before this had indicated (and probably still indicates) a general widespread shift to reliance upon recycled metal rather than raw mined and smelted ore, but still!

In the aftermath of a collapsed state where disputes are settled more commonly with armed violence than they had been preciously, metallurgy still exists” shocker.

Have any other Safari users noticed that it is now barely functional for c. 50% of websites? That seems like a major design flaw.

I feel like we're not talking enough about the fact that the richest man in the world is mobilizing his billions, his media assets, and his celebrity in an effort to overthrow the democratically elected government of a nuclear-armed G7 power and install a xenophobic far-right government in its stead

Astonishing that the only politician with any apparent backbone on this issue is a Lib Dem.

"That student... was not trying to express a point-of-view or establish a principled position, they were invoking an authoritarian power with the intention of silencing anyone who thought differently than they do."

Elon Musk gave a speech that openly called for civil war. It's worth pointing out that although Sedition as a general offence was abolished in the 1990s, "Sedition by an Alien" remains a criminal offence in the United Kingdom.

It’s nice that the city of Bonn grants me some form of democratic representation at local elections even without citizenship through a vote for the “Integrationsrat”. I was rather shocked that Die Linke didn’t put up a candidate! (Neither did the AfD but I suppose that’s somewhat less surprising).

True freedom is going to bed at 10pm on a Friday and being extremely satisfied about that choice.

You can use ChatGPT instead of your own brain to write your paper if I can talk about ChatGPT instead of you in your letter of reference

Watching the cable news commentary on the bullet engravings is wild because none of these people seem to realize that the content of the engravings are indicative of extremely online meme brain rot

basically a generational cohort split here where certain younger people intuitively grasp the irony poisoned context, and if you aren't already up to speed, very hard to explain

Every major publication in this country needs to have dedicated staffers or correspondents reporting on gaming, streamers, podcasts, and TikTok. Not as a once in a while thing. As standard beats. These are massive segments of American culture. No excuses for it anymore.

Fascinated to see how they reconcile this direction with the "research-led teaching" drum that they will doubtless continue banging on...

Given that "unfunded" here presumably means "not third-party funded" (research, after all, is usually part of an academic's job description and a part of what they receive their salary for), this sounds like the government wants to shunt a bunch of Higher Ed. employees onto teaching-only contracts.

'"You can’t have hobbyist research that’s unfunded going on in institutions. We can’t afford it.”' Such a badly formulated phrasing of the issues, so open to so many misinterpretations. If this is the level of thinking about research among sector leaders and policy-makers, be very afraid.

Determining what kind of research is likely to be valuable in advance, before any of it has been done, has famously been the most ideal way to foster innovation.

“you can’t do anything to a listed building, ever!” okay, counterpoint, you can hoist a 700 year old church tower up 16metres in the air to build a new subterranean basement for an office block

While this is interestin, it seems a bit much to go from "metal production continued in one former urban centre" to (as is being suggested here) "there was no major economic shock after Roman rule," in the face of all the other archaeological evidence suggesting that there was, of whatever rapidity.

A top 50 US university yesterday fired an instructor, a department chair, and a dean because a course made some reference to transgender people without the brief official course description in the catalog saying “trigger warning: gender.” In conclusion, those intolerant lefty kids, cancel culture.

getting fired from your job because some dipshit student who missed their calling in the Stasi filmed you talking about gender in a class about gender

I would also add that a number of offices of the German Federal Ministry of Defence are based in the city where I live…

Reading the reporting, this sounds awfully like a once-fairly-prestigious pre-92 university being taken over by the management of a post-92 university, after the pre-92 management caused a financial collapse. Exactly what no HE snob could ever imagine happening…

It is very tiring to see people on the other side of the Atlantic once again offer rapid fire hot takes about a looming conflict that feels rather nearer for those of us in Central Europe.

It's a shame that popularising narratives apparently must offer a polarised vision, where everything was either happy and wonderful, with the late antique church a source of inspiration and beauty, or everything was awful, and the church was a mechanism for social control and enrichment of the few.

Eurgh.

Today is offering another reminder for why I have far more respect for people willing to admit they haven't read something (whether because of time or failure to realise it) than those who either try to pretend they have or invent another reason why a given text didn't make it into their own work.

I'm no royalist - far from it. But this is not just deeply offensive and tasteless. It's also anti-science and, frankly, batshit crazy. Combined with their climate change denial, this makes Reform UK Ltd a clear danger to the health and safety of the public... 🤮 www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Hopefully the BBC will follow up on this story to cover the fact the venue mentioned in it had all of its windows put out on Friday night by someone with a hammer. Seems somewhat relevant. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

ἐν τούτῳ νίκα

My first time here in over two decades

Thanks, Basilius!

Big lad.