Learning Through Life

[2productive]

Do you have any advice for choosing thoughtful Christmas presents? My partner says he doesn’t want anything but I still want to show the love and appreciation I have for him and I’m not sure what to get him : )

If someone doesn’t want a gift and you can’t think of anything in particular especially with the holidays being so close, I would recommend going for an act of convenience. Most men like that. Buy him his favorite body wash, deodorant, cologne, socks, candy, breakfast bars, lotion, toothpaste, energy drink, pens, supplements, etc (aka products that aren’t one-time purchases and you know he will need to rebuy them himself on a recurring basis), put them all in a basket, and tie the basket up in some cute cellophane wrapper with a bow. Let him know that you care about him and just wanted to make things easier for him so that he can save time when he runs out of his favorites again. It’s a sweet gesture. And you won’t have to wonder if he’ll like a New Product or if he’ll actually use it bc you already know the answer.

[learningthroughourlives]

If I can butt in with a sugestion. You can donate money in their name to a charity related to their interests. Does he like animals? Find a local shelter that's accepting donations. Maybe he likes music, and so you could donate to a local theatre or a program for children who are learning it. The possibilities are endless.

I started doing this because a friend of mine once ''gifted'' me a donation to a dog shelter I volunteered at. I was so flattered they had payed attention when I spoke of it, and it went on to help a place I love very much.

[fleur-aesthetic]

instagram | floraliefarm

[fleur-aesthetic]

instagram | foothillsflower

[embroiderycrafts]

For my daughter the gardener by Ok-Commission979

[learningthroughourlives]

I have been watching a lot of Adam Savage’s Tested (the taller guy from Mythbusters to those who don’t know), expecially his weekly cave hangout. I don’t really know a lot about engenering or machinery but he’s all about creating in general and it’s so nice to watch someone be so passionate about things!

I really recomend!

[cargopantsman]

That series made me do this to my workbench!

[learningthroughourlives]

I suppose that’s what my father has been trying to do for years. Look how organized that is!

[thoodleoo]

i really wish pliny the elder were still alive just so i could see what kind of batshit ideas he’d come up with to handle the coronavirus

[thoodleoo]

taking some notes from the natural histories, it seems that garlic boiled with beans is not only a great way to deal with a cough, but you’ll stink so bad that it’ll make practicing social distancing a breeze! thanks pliny!

[threebigolsausages-deactivated2]

me: you know that according to schrödinger, anything you put in a box is both dead AND alive

everyone at the funeral: *nervously stares at coffin*

[physticuffs]

schrödinger would have hated this interpretation of his work and i am HERE for it

[cipheramnesia]

He might be rolling over in his grave.

Or not.

[learningthroughourlives]

I have been watching a lot of Adam Savage’s Tested (the taller guy from Mythbusters to those who don’t know), expecially his weekly cave hangout. I don’t really know a lot about engenering or machinery but he’s all about creating in general and it’s so nice to watch someone be so passionate about things!

I really recomend!

[on-misty-mountains]

Proleek Portal Tomb, Legananny Dolmen and Binder’s Cove Souterrain

On our short trip to Northern Ireland we ended up seeing prehistoric and historic sites (as usual) and these are three of them. 

The first one is just South of the border in the Republic of Ireland. Proleek (’obscure’) Portal Tomb is a large structure over twice my height, which was likely built by farming communities around 3000 BC and would have had a burial mound around it. The large stones served as an entrance to the tomb. 

The second one is called ‘Legananny Dolmen’ and is found in County Down. It is much smaller, but also impressively held up by pointy stone pillars. ‘Dolmen’ probably comes from the Breton word ‘tolmen’, meaning ‘stone table’, which refers to the flat stone on top. Again, built by the same type of people around 2500 BC to 2000 BC. The surrounding area derives its name from this dolmen, which means ‘The Pillar Stone of Anya’. Anya is a mythological mother goddess, who the legendary warrior Finn MacCool fell in love with.  

Just a few miles from Legananny Dolmen is a souterrain, known as ‘Binder’s Cove’ or locally as ‘Finnis Souterarrain’. This is probably a left-over from early medieval Christian times, when people lived in ring-forts. Souterrains generally ran below or near ring-forts and were likely designed to protect people from raids with a narrow entrance, which could be easily defended. This particular one is likely from the 5th century AD. The main tunnel is 30 meters long and about 1.5 meters high (ducking is essential) with some alcoves branching off, which may occasionally have been used for storage. 

Northern Ireland vlog on Youtube. 

[photo-archaeology-deactivated20]

WWI Re-enactment

(Archaeologists fuckin' around on break)

[batmanisagatewaydrug-deactivate]

highlights from the medieval scholars that took over my workplace today

so my campus is currently hosting an ENORMOUS conference of scholars who study medieval history. they’ve been completely flooding the tiny cafe where I work and drinking our coffee faster than we can make it, but the good news is that they provide some PRIME people watching, including: 

the fact that all of their name tags include pronouns so that I won’t feel bad assuming anyone’s gender in this post

the woman RANTING about one of her colleagues on the following grounds: “he thinks he understands it from some class he took in 1996! FUCK OFF, TOM.”

the man who was loudly and earnestly discussing the “influence of the Harry Potter fandom on our modern political discourse” while he got a soda 

before he was out the door he’d switched topics to his preferred methods for teaching students about elves 

the two nice extremely polite young British lads who I could not tell apart to save my life. their name tags indicated that they were apparently not twins, but cloning does not seem impossible.

the sheer number of people graciously volunteering to buy lunch for people they’ve just met 

an unexpected number of very handsome soft butch women involved in medieval studies. I am bisexual and weak.

the guy in the flannel shirt who had the coldest, softest, most feminine hands I’ve ever encountered. I fell in love with him for a good 60 seconds. I am bisexual and weak.

people who aren’t from America being cheerfully confused by our money, including my favorite, a Canadian woman who told me “I’m slow with American money because it’s all the same color.”

I’ve learned that people who aren’t going to be in the country for more than a few days don’t give a SHIT about their change and will toss all of it in the take a penny/leave a penny jar. I collected so many quarters, y’all.

also a nice British woman called it the penny pot, which is the cutest shit I’ve ever heard and absolutely its new name.

just in general the EXTREMELY good grace and patience with which everyone accepted that we only have 2 cashiers and that it takes about seven minutes to make more coffee.

SEVERAL times after I apologized for the coffee wait (because this is customer service and minor inconveniences mean we have to grovel) the response was ‘lmao no worries this just means I get a fresh pot’

a woman approached me to day with a fucking enamel pin of that old illustration of a nun gathering dicks from a tree (you know the one) and I said immediately “oh my god, is that a pin of the penis tree?” and she looked stoked and said “yes it is the penis tree! you’re only the second person to recognize it!” what kind of boring ass medieval scholars has she been hanging with???? she was probably so fucking excited to finally have company where she could wear that pin and nobody said anything??? rude.

you know, this one

[batmanisagatewaydrug-deactivate]

I have more:

every single person who said “cheers” when I gave them their change.

the painfully hip young man who was dressed entirely in standard academic business casual EXCEPT FOR his shiny silver doc martens. 

me: “you boots are amazing.”

him: “!!!! thank you!”

the man who walked in, spotted the selection of high octane energy drinks, and nearly cried with relief. when he came to the register to pay for what was probably enough caffeine to kill a horse he looked me dead in the eye and said cheerfully “thanks, I’m jet lagged as shit and I can’t be expected to function right now.”

the dude who overheard my friend Austin listening to Florence and the Machine, started chatting with him about it, and asked him out on a date

I sold a hot dog to An Actual Nun

[blamebrampton]

You know Florence’s Mum is a renaissance scholar with a specialty in fashion/material goods history, yes? Evelyn Welch, superstar.

[batmanisagatewaydrug-deactivate]

I didn’t know that, but it explains a lot about Florence’s style and I’m very happy I know it now

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

throwback Thursday to when one of my professors who attended this conference found it and shared it around medieval scholar twitter lmao

[educatedinyellow]

@oldshrewsburyian, these are your people :)

[oldshrewsburyian]

Ha, these are absolutely my people. @qqueenofhades, @caffeinebooks, behold this delightful collection of anecdotes.

[archaeo-geek]

Guys a friend of mine makes those pins I’m so pleased for her!

[gahdamnpunk]

I’m just now finding out Anne Frank was bi??? OMG

[luanna801]

Yeah okay, those edits were made by her dad, a cishet person - and also her dad, a Holocaust survivor, who would have been brutally aware that when the diary was first published in freakin’ 1947, had he included anything which people could use to demonize his daughter or tar her as some kind of “pervert”, it would prevent the message he was trying to send about the horrors of the Holocaust and the heroism of his daughter from being properly understood and accepted the way he hoped.

That isn’t fair. It isn’t just. But it is reality. If Otto Frank had let this be included in the published version, there’s a large chance the homophobic backlash would have prevented the book from reaching the audience it did and spreading the message it needed to. It was NINETEEN. FORTY. SEVEN. The Holocaust had ended TWO YEARS AGO. The acceptance of LGBT identities was basically nonexistent. Otto Frank made a decision based on the time and place he was living in, about what the world at that time was and wasn’t ready to accept. 

Let me say this as bluntly as I can - I am a bisexual Jewish girl and I would have made the same decision Otto Frank did. Making sure Anne Frank was unambiguously seen as sympathic and heroic was more important. Making sure people weren’t sidetracked from the main issue of the Holocaust was more important. He shouldn’t have had to make that decision, without doubt. Anne Frank’s sexuality (however she would have identified in modern terms) shouldn’t be considered relevant to her status as a hero or a sympathetic victim. But in 1947, it undoubtedly would have been.

Otto Frank survived Auschwitz and lost his entire family (a wife and two teenage daughters) to the horrors of the Holocaust. He hoped that publishing his daughter’s diary would spread awareness and sympathy for the victims of the Holocaust. If he had to make sacrifices to do that - well frankly, so fucking be it. I don’t know who alive today has the right to judge him. 

[queenofthefaces]

Let’s also look at this thread from a queer Jewish person who brings up the fact that ANNE FRANK EDITED HER DIARY HERSELF

[spockvarietyhour]

[whitepeopletwitter]

[ohgoddamnit]

As a mass comm major, IF THERE IS SOMETHING UNJUST OR IMMORAL BEING DONE CALL YOUR LOCAL NEWS STATION THEY WILL HELP MORE THAN ANYONE ELSE

Cities and government agencies HATE bad press. This story that was told to me by the journalist that covered this, and he showed us the piece:

There was a traffic light that was set up on the far side of an overpass, but it was improperly hung so you couldn’t see the light until it was too late. There were accidents there EVERY SINGLE DAY and calls to the city did NOTHING.

Someone had the idea to call the local news station and this dude went out to see. As he was interviewing someone, there was a wreck.

Guess what happened after that piece aired?

Suddenly the city had the time to lower the traffic light and the accidents stopped.

Journalists get a bad rep, and while big stations like Fox deserve it, I think more thought should be given to who you’re actually shitting on when you say “I hate journalists.” Because we’re overworked, underpaid, constantly shit on, but we still do the job because we want to help people. All professional, prestigious journalists that I’ve met hate the government and will do whatever they can to get the information and change that’s needed. Being a journalist is a dangerous profession: at every professional convention I’ve been at there’s a fund for the families of journalists that have been killed (there’s a lot!) and a long memoriam roll.

SUPPORT LOCAL NEWS STATIONS

[chaotic-archaeologist]

do archaeologists have enemies?

Looters

[doctor-autumn-123]

Hobby Lobby

[modoru-mono]

Rich Anonymous Collectors

[modoru-mono]

Museum staff/academia purchasing things that are looted/fake without a second thought

[museumably]

Yogurt

[kaijutegu]

Steven Spielberg

[kyidyl]

Paleontologists.

[lifeinsherds]

Academia

[justanotherweirdarchaeologist]

Insects

[midden-maiden]

The Sun

[livefromtheloam]

Archaeologists from other departments

[jangojips]

gley

[lostinhistory]

Devil’s club

[thatlittleegyptologist]

Whomever was labelling/cataloguing artefacts on/in dig sites/museums in the 19th century

[archaeologistproblems]

I'm not an archaeologist or anything close, but I was wondering if you could explain something I've always wondered about. In movies when we see archaeologists finding temples or places that are sealed, they always break in very aggressively and violently. Is there an actual way you're supposed to enter a closed site or object? How do you get inside without breaking anything? How often do archaeologists even come across sealed places/objects anyway?

That is 100% not how any credible archaeologist would deliberately open a sealed chamber! Unexpectedly encountering a sealed chamber, however, is another story:

So, in ten years of experience as an archaeologist in Atlantic Canada, I have actually come across a “sealed chamber” once, and my co-workers came across another one just last year. In both instances, it was basically this: a buried, vaulted room that was likely used for storage about 150 years ago, was sealed off from the basement it was connected to, probably because it was too damp or looked a bit unstable. It was forgotten about, until - pow! The stone wall of the roof was broken open by a backhoe while an archaeologist was monitoring the general area during a construction project on the property. The mechanical excavation immediately stops, and the archaeologists move in to examine the room through the opening using flashlights, cameras, and in one case a small robot usually designed to monitor city sewers.

In another situation, I worked as part of a team to open a lead coffin on a cemetery site we were exhuming. Once we exposed a bit of the surface and realized it was a lead coffin and that it was still closed, we started planning: if it was still sealed it could still contain partially decomposed or liquified remains, which could be a serious health hazard to the crew. The lead itself is also a health hazard. We’ll need different procedures for removing the remains if there’s either liquified remains or mummified remains, rather than just the skeleton. We exposed the entire coffin exterior slowly over the course of about two days, wearing masks and gloves the whole time. Then, after lots of photos and measurements, a team of four of us talked out a plan and carefully lifted the lid of the coffin and moved it to a pre-prepared board nearby to expose the remains inside. The remains were skeletonized, so most of our plans were unnecessary - but we had them in place, just in case!

In most situations I’ve been in, we don’t know we’re going to encounter something that’s sealed until it’s been broken open and a void inside is exposed. However, if I were in a situation where I knew it was a deliberately sealed room or chamber, I would be starting by doing all I could before opening it - background research to identify any biohazards and where the best place to open it would be, how big it might be, and how stable. I would be photographing and measuring the exterior before I tried to open it, and might even use geophysics to get a glimpse of the space before opening it. There might be situations where I wouldn’t open it at all - maybe I’d have concerns about de-stabilizing the structure, or some concerns that I didn’t have enough funding or resources to properly manage, record, and conserve what I was going to find inside. Then I might choose to wait for a better time and better resources before opening it.

If I did open it, it would be systematic, doing as little damage as possible, ideally in a way that could be reversed/re-sealed afterwards, and again, making a record of everything as I went. Archaeologists can be pretty chaotic as far as scientists go, but when it comes to archaeological finds, we’re pretty damn anal about proceeding methodically and recording everything as we go!

[educatjonal]

sorry for taking forever to post things on here,,,, this spread was completely unplanned and it was v stressfull ! but nice to not have to like think about planning for the spread (deconstructed spreads like this inspired by @tbhstudying)

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