⏳ Just 24 hours to go! ⏳ Pompeii: The Legacy launches tomorrow! 🏛️🔥 After years of hard work, the gates of Pompeii are finally opening. Prepare to build, govern, and face the challenges of history itself. Wishlist on Steam 👇 store.steampowered.com/app/2632240/...

Our Homerathon is underway!! Using Mendelsohn’s new Odyssey translation. If you’re on campus today @utah.edu feel free to stop by & listen or read for a bit. We will finish up on Wednesday.

Me on cognitive models in Roman land-surveying (OA): www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/15...

I’m about halfway through Fiona Davis’ The Stolen Queen and am enjoying it quite a bit. #ArchaeoFiction

Ugh.

My cartoon for this week’s @newscientist.com

#Librarians Are Being Asked to Find #AI -Hallucinated Books | 404 “Librarians are reporting this overall atmosphere of confusion and lack of trust they’re experiencing from their patrons (...) running into some of these psychosis and other mental health issues"

A gentle vista for rough times. #SeaScrolling #Breathe

An important message from genetics. Only, archaeology shows it as a slow social mechanism. Not the mass migration events that we were told of in our youth. It’s Cunnington’s to and fro, individuals and small groups, the next valley, across the sea (and back). Movement over time. Small, cumulative.

Re-upping for the weekend crowd: my book is out and I’d love to hear your thoughts/reactions/complaints!

"In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limits." www.computerworld.com/article/4059...

They should make an international franchise out of Murder She Wrote called Murder She Translated, where Jessica Fletcher's various translators in different countries also happen to solve crimes in their spare time

At the Humanities Commons repository, you can find pdfs of pieces that scholars post--- from me, you could read Why Does Everyone Say Arius Shat Himself? or or Hey Maybe Let's Think About Perpetua Again by me and Mira Balberg, Ancient Writers Glitching As They Think About Women As Agents

Gavin Newsom just signed a law banning law enforcement from hiding behind masks during operations.

A hat tip to the @texastribune.org for this excellent, balanced reporting of the events leading up to Texas A&M losing a professor, a department chair, a dean and then a university president. All because of disruptive stunts & secret recordings by a single student. The shape of things to come.

Universities. Rural hospitals. Tech companies. Several sectors are going to be profoundly hurt by this. Not to mention the chaos of the moment as current H1-B owners scramble to get back to the U.S., cancel travel, etc. due to the uncertainty. An absolute mess. As intended.

Managed to snag an early morning, last minute donation slot. Got a free tshirt, bp and temp and hemoglobin checks, and snacks. #GiveBlood #RedCross

For those who aren't familiar, H1B visas aren't just used in the tech industry. They are also widely used by universities, hospitals, engineering firms, and other industries that rely on extensive training. Fees were previously under $5k -- still high, but doable, and many employers would pay them.

Are you doing a neat Ursula-related project? Talking about her work on a podcast, or reviewing the prize shortlist, or anything else? We'd love to hear about it, if so! You can always tag us here, and every email that comes through the contact form is read by an actual person.

The amazing Roman pharos (lighthouse) at Dover, still standing after almost 2,000 years! 🤩 The tallest surviving Roman structure in Britain, and one of only three surviving lighthouses from the former Roman Empire! Dated 1st-2nd century AD. 📷 by me #RomanSiteSaturday #Archaeology

Not to mention that Disney made Andor. It’s kinda like the guy might have thought about his sign & the context a bit in the making of it. 🤔

Wtaf?!?!

Oxford University's leadership has decided that human brains aren't up to much, especially brains at Oxford. A gullible mark has been captured by digital snake oil about which so many people have been warning about for years. Climate change, IP theft, and exploitation, anyone? #academicsky 💙📚 🗃

I tried to read this this summer while excavating. I couldn’t get into it. Will give it another go at some point. But I found myself just annoyed by the main character at the start.

"More professors in the United States have been fired for controversial views in the past week than any other week in all of American history." www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...

A 30,000-year-old toolkit from a Gravettian hunter in today’s Czech Republic reveals a life of mobility, recycling & memory. Stone tools tell stories of survival & connection. #Archaeology #HumanEvolution #Paleolithic #Anthropology

The point of going to university is to explore research and knowledge, not to start an effing business. The skills and experiences gained might help you start a business, as might the interactions with the people you meet, but it is not the purpose of a degree. Fed up of this manure.

Playmobil level up! 🙌 Cc @profaliceroberts.bsky.social

“Rich Grenyer, a biologist at the University of Oxford, said de-extinction is a “dangerous” distraction and that gene-edited animals are “at best a sort of simulation, rather like those unnerving animated AI portraits of dead relatives some… people create”.” www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

"The IEA estimates that datacentres’ total electricity consumption could double from 2022 levels to 1K TWh in 2026, approximately Japan’s level of electricity demand" What little progress we make to stem the tide of climate change is being squandered on AI. The whole enterprise should be dismantled

This is so messed up.

A piece of one of Britain’s most iconic trees is now revealing hidden stories🌳 Adrián Oyaneder Rodriguez and Julia Hopkin are using cutting-edge experimental techniques to uncover new insights from the felled Sycamore Gap tree. 👉 news.exeter.ac.uk/faculty-of-h...

It’s teaching Friday! But also i start work as facilitator for the U’s AREd research mentoring course tomorrow. academy.research.utah.edu/index.php

I really should have deleted ny account long ago. But I’ve done it now. Most of what I’ve written is uploaded for free on my personal website anyway.

Gorgeous graph.

I don’t love teaching later afternoon class because I typically just ready to stop peopling. But my epic class, which meets late imo, is just so great. They have wonderful ideas and are thinking deeply about the texts and how we read them and what we can take from them. #TinyJoys

day-old pbj sandwiches are not great.

I've got two games in the Game Devs of Color Expo! ⚔️🚲 Knights and Bikes is 50% Off (s.team/a/592480) 🐶🐶🐶 Mythmatch Demo is Featured! (s.team/a/2490290) And I'll be recruiting for a new Mythmatch Playtest SOON so keep your eyes peeled! And more games here! store.steampowered.com/sale/gdocexp...

As #TIPC4 is rapidly approaching (8-10 October register now for FREE: interactivepasts.com/the-interact...) we have all sorts of SUPER COOL stuff for this year's celebratory edition! A Game Dev panel, a Playful Archaeology Panel, workshops, pizzas, and of course amazing talks! Check the thread!

Today's gladiator: Scissor a.k.a. "Tony the Barber" Arms encased in steel tubes with curved blades at the end! #history

🎧 The team made a playlist of of songs inspired by No Friend to This House (the book & the show), all female artists, with enough energy to get me stage-ready if I want listen on my way to a gig. Now you can listen too! Which track is your favourite? Spotify: open.spotify.com/playlist/5WQ...

Excellent opportunity here (both the Institute specifically and time in Budapest more generally)!

🚨Cool CFP alert! Are you working on something cool related to medievalism? We want your proposals for an upcoming issue of Different Visions: Medievalism II: Fragments, Fictions, Futures--non-traditional formats and approaches very welcome! differentvisions.org/medievalism-...

The President of Barnard College calls for more controversial speakers like the late Kirk (without citing any of his controversial views), a position at odds with what Barnard colleagues describe as a track record of censoring events and speakers on Palestine. (1/4) www.nytimes.com/2025/09/17/o...

This chart could really benefit from an added “committed by”. At least my pre-coffee brain thinks so.

Honestly surprised, pleasantly surprised, how much a ride to work clears my mind and shoves the anxieties and worries into the background for a bit. #MotorcyclesForMentalHealth #TinyJoys.

"After reviewing state voter rolls going back to the 1980s, Louisiana’s Republican secretary of state announced this month that 'non-citizens illegally registering or voting is not a systemic problem in Louisiana.' That finding aligns with years of research."

We're just gonna have to try for peace on earth and goodwill towards men....and someday, maybe, a Washington Post again deserving of Redford's hagiography of it. RIP #RobertRedford.

this is next week!! you can register now~

FOX news host suggests we euthanize the homeless, someone goes into two encampments and starts shooting. 13 people shot and Jacob Frey and the media are just talking about it as the new best reason to clear the encampments