Been writing about and describing the different paintings in Thomas Cole’s 1833-1836 series The Course of Empire. After looking at them enough, you really get a feeling of the internal geography of their scenes and I can’t help but want to wander them further.

This Super Bowl Sunday, I’d like to introduce you all to the magical curse bowls used in Upper Mesopotamia and Syria in late antiquity. Written in Mandaic (as here) or Syriac Aramaic, they trap demons who trespass on a household by sucking them in with spiraling spells to the center of the bowl.

I know I’ve been a grump about the tech industry with AI and the attention economy and all, but becoming interested in that topic has actually gotten me to do a decent amount of reading about the history of computer and internet development, something I appreciate a lot more now.

Heh.

Tonight the animated movie to watch is Rio 2. I think I only ever saw this once so I don’t remember the plot as well as the other one. But genuinely the vibes on these movies are so good. When I get more income, still thinking about a Brazil trip.

Among the Sierra Nevada, California, 1868, by German-American painter Albert Bierstadt is one of the most incredible paintings in existence every time I look at it. Bierstadt was part of an 1859 survey expedition to the Sierra Nevada but he actually painted this in Rome years later.

This is so wonderful!

The pursuit ball is my favorite animal enrichment item in Zoo Tycoon 2 because the game lets me kick it in zoo guest mode and it’s fun. Also many large animals benefit from it.

Gonna watch Rio tonight because I feel like it, wanna go to Brazil, and the soundtrack has been stuck in my head for the last 15 years. Damn, y’all, did you realize Rio came out 15 years ago? Prolly not gonna review this movie much because we all know it rocks.

To post about Haolong again, it’s fun to see the proliferation of feathers and similar integuments in different dinosaurs (and of course the pterosaurs with their pycnofibers) lately. All fun and games until the feathered pseudosuchian gets discovered and we have to rethink everything. (I jest.)

Whenever looking at US states by date of admission to the Union, New Mexico and Arizona are always like a jumpscare there in 1912. Wild that there were still states in the West being admitted 2 years before the start of World War I.

youtu.be/wvEPJtNfbYc?... The various ERB knockoff channels that slither into my YouTube recommendations are usually pretty rough but this one was actually pretty good, I’ll be real with y’all. The lyrics and references are wonderful.

Homie is POINTY.

The folks on the Roman Discord server want to hear my thoughts if I watch HBO’s Rome, which I’ve surprisingly never done. I currently have HBO Max so sometime soon I might do that and you guys can get my threads following it too.

I will say regarding the gossip that gets passed to me from people in the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology sounds pretty bad right now. Not kicking out an Epstein associate is an example of the Nazi bar problem. If you allow them to be there, it’ll be the place people like that feel comfortable.

High art.

The various tiny machineries that exist in every cell on this planet are so wonderful and beautiful.

youtu.be/y4ZBSzYUTL0?... Netflix is dropping more dinosaur content on us. Looks pretty fun and a wide coverage of the Mesozoic included. Say what you will about Life On Our Planet but I am here for more Morgan Freeman narration.

What a world.

It’s geomagnetic storm day, guys! As of right now, here’s the 24-hour observed maximums from the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center. www.swpc.noaa.gov We’ll see how it progresses over the coming two days.

www.nasa.gov/blogs/missio... Looks like Artemis II is delayed for next month. That’s OK and good though. Hoping all these tests and critiques ahead of time lead to a wonderful and safe mission for those on board.

During the very large geomagnetic storm on September 1 and 2 of 1859 known as the Carrington Event, two telegraph stations in New England with their power turned off could still communicate just through the current the storm induced in the wires.

www.swpc.noaa.gov/news/another... I am so fascinated and darkly excited by the incoming coronal mass ejection. Y’all should be talking about this more. I wonder how noticeable effects on the power grids are gonna be.

Had a small class today and they got through their book activities really fast so with some extra time I just whipped out my iPad and had the kids take turns writing English words they know into the homepage of Scribblenauts Unlimited and getting excited about what appeared.

Lovely.

My bank account is empty again and I might not get paid for two more days so today’s lunch is leftover peach tea from the office Christmas party that I found in the office refrigerator. Taking an extra teaching job today.

Apparently ancient classic “It’s Raining Tacos” has become popular with the kids again and I was fairly surprised to hear French children singing it today and they were surprised I sang along. Anyway, I’m printing them lyrics for next week so they can get the English right.

tutoringwithjacob.com Hey, guys. I wanna take a second to post the link to my tutoring and editing business again. I offer online tutoring for several school subjects, mainly English (native or second-language), science, and history/social studies. I also offer editing services for your writing.

I think this might be my favorite bizarre AI Facebook slop for today. Doubting Donald did not believe in the resurrection unless he could throw his kick where the spear had been. Also the plugged book by Jonathan Cahn (spelled wrong) is some insane apocalyptic wisdom-of-the-ancients shit.

I think it’s wild how hypermasculine “return” bros have picked the Norse world as a focal point. It was an extremely diverse arena with so many approaches to gender politics with woman sometimes having prominent positions in local politics and participating as key figures in colonization projects.

Conservatives have posted online for a long time things like “are you sure you wanna see the Epstein files? Someone you like could be in there!” And now that they’re getting cracked open, it’s good to watch people tear into their old heroes when they learn they did shitty things. That’s healthy.

This is extremely real and important.

Science.

Richard Dawkins is also in here.

Well, paleontology homies, that would appear to be Jack Horner, whom you may variously know as the Jurassic Park advisor, the discoverer of Maiasaura, or the guy who wanted to edit a chicken into a dromaeosaur-like dinosaur, in the Epstein files.

Moana 2 (not-Pixar movie of the night; haven’t watched it before) opening with her finding evidence of human habitation with fractured pottery is such relatable content. Also, in France they call her Vaiana and so is my localized English audio for some reason here on Disney+.

Questions: 1. Where did you go to school? 2. Did they cover the Seven Years’ War in school and which theaters if so? The French and Indian War? The Third Silesian War? 3. Was the French and Indian War considered part of the Seven Years’ War or another thing?

kotaku.com/jeffrey-epst... Jeffrey Epstein sending Five Nights at Freddy’s porn made in Source Filmmaker to his last known girlfriend via 4chan links and calling it “amazing animations” is not something you needed to know about but you do now.

Met up with a friend today and as we walked around and chatted, at some point I got into the Puritan origins of liberal republicanism in the early modern Atlantic world because I am weak of will. She thoroughly enjoyed this thankfully.

This one really speaks to me.

Every day I look at images from the Perseverance rover of the Martian surface and I think, “exquisite and delectable; I wish to go to that beautiful place” and there’s nothing in the image at all. But I mean it.

I would like to commend whoever on the Bluesky team flairs users as rude. It’s a great feature and every time I look into the profile of a rude-marked user, they’re always rude in every post. You guys aren’t missing.

The Pixar movie I’m watching tonight is Soul, another I remember liking but felt like revisiting and which so far feels great again. I think this is one of those that provides a counter-thesis to the idea that Pixar in recent years is unimaginative and not deeply meaningful.

In both educational and casual settings, I find that history buffs drastically overestimate the extent to which the average person can hear a year and know what was going on around that time. That sort of chronology conceptualization is a learned thing and not intuitive at all.

Guys, quick, let’s make other plans so that we’re already busy before someone invites us to the terrible combo of social anxiety and boredom that is a Super Bowl party. Do you guys like Axis & Allies?

Wake up, gamers. Possible Dimetrodon barf dropped.

Computer people, is there any problem with just… letting OneDrive be canceled? I really don’t care to store all my files on the cloud and use Google Drive to do that with what I care about. I don’t use Outlook because I use Gmail. It doesn’t seem I’ll lose anything on my computer, right?

I didn’t post Finding Dory thoughts last night because I fell asleep basically immediately as the credits rolled but I do think the movie is incredible. It isn’t as grand in scope as Finding Nemo and far more fixated on a single theme, but it delivers that well and is visually quite beautiful.

Keeping up my Pixar streak by rewatching Finding Dory tonight. Last I watched it was I think 2019 in Jerusalem. I remember liking it a lot but not really the plot so I think it’s time to revisit it and find something new to say about it.

Ancient humans continue to be badass.