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@no-good-wyfe
just found out chaotic academia is formally an aesthetic, my moment has come. get in, loser, we’re forgetting meetings, running up flights of stairs and then wheezing loudly in seminars, spilling coffee on laptops, keeping library books out for two years, and blurting stuff out constantly without making any sense whatsoever
We are on strike.
As of today, January 31st at 8am, the graduate student workers of Temple University Graduate Student Association are on strike.
This comes after over a year of negotiations, in which the university administration has continually obfuscated, talked down to us, and refused the spirit of negotiations. We have come in with proposal after proposal, shaving items down to meet them in the middle, while they lecture us about understanding the definition of negotiations and simultaneously resist any real negotiative change. Our contract expired last February.
Our demands have been painted as unreasonable. Greedy. Selfish. And yet the reality is that we have not received a cost of living adjustment in years. Our average pay among grad student workers is $19.5k a year, in a city where it now costs $37.2k to live. We request a pay of $32k. We are asking for healthcare coverage benefits for our dependents, more than 5 days of parental leave and 4 days of bereavement leave—reasonable requests considering the mass disabling event of the global pandemic. What’s more, our protections from overwork are thin and paltry. We only have each other. We only have the union.
Our strike fund can be found here, and more information is listed on our website. For the most up-to date info, you can follow our Twitter. We are ready to fight for a better Temple, and we will do all it takes to win.
Day 3 Updates
Lets start with the biggest one: Bernie dropped us a tweet.
We’ve had state senators and reps on the line like Nikil Saval and Sharif Street, and many more. Members of the PMA union who just won their strike have been by. We are so lucky to feel the solidarity built into a union-made city.
We’ve got the support of the local teamsters.
But Temple has already started looking for scabs. They are planning to cut not just our pay, but also our healthcare, and to force us to pay the tuition we usually receive as part of our work coverage. If you know anyone in TUGSA and you have a few bucks to spare, I cannot stress how important it is to boost not just our strike fund, but individual Venmo’s, ko-fi’s, PayPal’s, CashApp’s, and any and all other support systems.
Lastly, if you’re in Philly with time to spare, come join us at the picket line for our rally today.
And remember: Temple works because we do.
Saw your job hunting reblog and I am considering a career as an archivist. How does one get started? Sincerely, a 48-year old woman who hates her current job.
I am going to start with job advice I give to everyone (but especially those contemplating a career change) and then get to more archives specific.
I want you to look at as many job postings for the career in question that you can find for the area you live in or any areas you are **realistically** willing to relocate to.
What is the salary range (remember, you won't be starting at a Director type level) and does that work for you/your household?
Are these all full time permanent? Or part time? Temporary/project/term positions? What is the trend
What is required for these positions? Are there similarities? ie education
Armed with that information you should have an ok idea of if this career change will work for your needs and the needs of your household, etc. You should also have a roadmap for next steps that will help you decide if you should enroll in any trainings or educational courses before you start applying.
For the archives specific side:
You will more than likely need to get a Master of Library and Information Science from an ALA accredited program. Most jobs will require this. Yes I have opinions on the subject.
Depending on the job, there will be various programs and standard that they require knowledge of. See what are most common, do some basic research, but if you need to get an MLIS or other degree first I wouldn't worry too much about it. More stuff to keep in mind on your path.
Archives, especially, run on temporary labor. That is why I encourage looking at job postings. Are these jobs term/project/contract positions and will that work for you? I change jobs a lot
You will notice that many archives related job listing will have something like "must be able to lift 20-40lbs." I know there are many jobs that say that and it is ableist BS. That is not necessarily the case in archives. I move a lot of heavy stuff. Like, a lot. So much. Can accommodations be made? Generally, yes. However, there is a large portion of the profession known as Lone Arrangers. That means you work alone. In those cases it is going to be harder, not impossible, but harder.
None of this is meant to discourage anyone from becoming an archivist or joining any other profession. If you do this research and are still down, hell yes! I love this for you! If you do this research and think "oh fuck that," I get it. Always better to be informed.
Hope that helped
Also, and I really don't want to be discouraging here, salaries are often not livable. If you're interested in the state of the field, check out A*Census II. It's great and it's the most recent data we have after 17 years of old data.
If you're interested in what open jobs are asking for and where they're located ArchivesGig is a good aggregator. There ARE jobs that don't require an MLS/MLIS, if you don't want to go back to school for whatever reason, and they usually have the word 'technician' in the title. I work in a very high COL area and our technician positions usually pay around 50k but YMMV.
(I also want to reiterate from above the possibility of having to relocate for work).
7 February 2023 / First couple of photos from the Horniman! The natural history galleries sure haven’t changed since about 1920.
I have two chapters left in The Great Exhibition of 1851, and I’m continuing to inch my way through Babel!
Tomorrow is museum day, and I’m back to working on the insects since my upgrade stuff is all turned in.
WELCOME TO STOAT SATURDAY
[doesn’t really understand conspiracy theories but wants to be involved] jfk didn’t kill himself
Tupac was always on the moon
flat bigfoot
Contrails cause 5G
Anyone: Hey (asks about a special interest of mine)? Me: Becomes an unskippable cutscene
I’ve been down a rabbit hole wondering about medieval jewelry (and if I can reproduce it despite having no metalworking skills, to which the answer is mostly no) lately & I figured I would share the fruits of my museum collection searches for other medievalists/hobbyists/reenactors/nerds.
Jewelry of the 13th Century Anglo/Francosphere
TL;DR
Metals: 🟨 gold(tone)
Stones: mostly 🔵 cabochon, rarely 💠 simple cut, some carved 🗿 intaglio or cameo
Stone Colors: warm blues, emerald green, purples, burgundies, reds
Materials: enamel, 💎 gemstones (garnet, Ceylon sapphire, ruby/spinel, emerald) or glass paste imitations, ⚪ semi-precious stones (pearl, lapis, jasper, carnelian, coral, turquoise, porphyry)
Settings: bezel (oval and rectangular); ⚜️ intricate metalwork; more visible and textured metal than modern jewelry; more mixtures of stones and colors than modern tastes
Motifs: ◯ round, ✤ quatrefoil, ✙ cross, ✸ star (even numbers of points), ♣ trefoil, ❦ floral, 🐉 animals, 𝕬 inscription
Formats: brooches, ornamented clothing, rings, pendants, circlets, cuffs (rare)
A detailed look:
Some forms of jewelry that were very popular in the Roman Empire and are again today were just not the thing in the middle European Middle Ages. (Earrings, for example, seem to have barely existed. This is partially at least because ears were covered--by coifs and caps, hair, and (for women) braids or the chin strap and fillet/wimple/gorget.) In fact, a lot of the places we would put jewelry against our skin today were covered.
This left some other options:
Jewelry on Clothing
Medallions
Okay, these aren’t jewelry, strictly speaking, but they’re metalwork ornaments associated with a person.
Enamel Mitre Medallions
OA 3437 and OA 3438 Before 1291, Ile de France Louvre, Paris photos (c) Musée du Louvre / Stéphane Maréchalle 2015
Cloisonné and plique enamel over gold and copper, with decorative motifs of trefoils, quatrefoil, and stars in a palette of dark blue and green with accents that may once have been ruby red.
Appliqué Medallion
# MRR 256 13th c., Limoge Louvre, Paris photo (c) Musée du Louvre 2014
Gilded copper (though most gold is worn off) with quatrefoil champlevé enamel in emerald green, lapis blue, and white or off-white.
Brooches
Perhaps the most prevalent medieval jewelry item in the Anglo & French regions. These were worn at the shoulder for men and breast for women, often anchoring a cloak, or to close the collar. As the ornate fermail and double-ring brooch suggest, these ran the gamut from practical to incredibly decorative and ornate.
Garnet & Silver Gilt Animal Ring Brooch; Green and Blue Glass and Gilt Ring Brooch
Left, # 2003,0703.1 13th century; found in Suffolk, England British Museum, London photo (c) The Trustees of the British Museum
Right, # M.28-1929 13th c., England V&A, London photo © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Cabochon garnets or carbuncles in the gilded silver brooch (L), perhaps once paired with smaller stones in the eyes of metalwork animals that bite the pin bracket. The right brooch, also silver gilt, sports two glass paste emerald and sapphire "gems" in cabochon. It was probably a lover's token; it reads (in Lombardic-lettered French) IOSV ICI ATI VCI or "jo su[i] ici a t[o]i v[o]ici" which I might translate as "I am here with/belonging to you, look!"
Ruby & Sapphire Ring Brooch; Sapphire, Garnet, and Pearl Fermail
Left, # 6808-1860 1275-1300, England V&A, London photo © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Right, # OA6287 1250-1300, France Louvre, Paris photo (c) Musée du Louvre
Blogs often claim that stones were only polished en cabochon until the 16th century, and that medieval jewelers couldn't cut gemstones. But this 13th-century gold ring brooch (left) pairs table-cut purple rubies with collet-set cabochon sapphires, and may evidence early medieval gem-cutting or reuse of Roman cut stones. The silver gilt fermail, right, includes pearl beads, garnets and sapphires both cut and cabbed, and one glass paste cabochon. Both are intricately textured, with punchwork (L) and floral metalwork, probably cast and then attached (R).
Double Ring Brooch with Sapphire and Glass "Emeralds"
# M.26-1993 13th c., England V&A, London photo © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
This gold double brooch is so small they think it was for a woman or child. Central sapphire cab is flanked by glass paste "emeralds" in bezel settings and metalwork featuring two animal heads.
Jewelry on the Body
Rings
Many are probably familiar with the signet ring, used for pressing into sealing wax, which could be intaglio-carved gemstone or metals. There were also a number of decorative and/or talismanic gemstone rings.
LtR:
#M.7-1929 | #M.180-1975 | #OA 11265 1250-1300, England | 1250-1300, Engl/France | 13th c., Engl/France V&A, London | V&A, London | Louvre, France photos L&C © Victoria and Albert Museum, London | R (c) Musée du Louvre
Sapphire in gold is the name of the game when it comes to rings in the thirteenth century; even the purple stones on the left are purple sapphires. (Sapphires were said to aid chastity, purity, and the effectiveness of prayer.) For larger stones, the bezel often has claws added (L); the central ring is an example of a full claw setting that modern viewers might find surprisingly tall. Naturalistic flourishes are added (C & R); these might be pre-cast then attached to the base (R).
Pendants
We equate pendants with necklaces, but their medieval applications also included wear as badges, from headpieces, and on horse decorations.
Left, bloodstone jasper cameo in silver setting # MRR 218 1100-1300, France? Louvre, Paris photo (c) Musée du Louvre / Jean Blot 1984
Right, champlevé enamel, gilt copper, and paste "emerald" (harness) pendant # 1976.169 13th c., France Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland photo CC0 Open Access
Statue Jewelry
From here, we get into the really ridiculous stuff; the previous categories could be relatively everyday (as much as ornamentation reserved exclusively for the wealthy can be an everyday thing) but the following examples are astonishing displays not necessarily for wear.
"La Couronne" de Vierge et l'Enfant d'ivoire de la Sainte-Chapelle
# OA 57 B 1250-1300, France Louvre, Paris photo (c) Musée de Louvre
This was not even a crown for a person, but rather for a painted ivory statue of the Virgin Mary, holding her infant son. (Though circlets, even set with stones, were sometimes worn as part of women's head dress.) It's incredibly ornate gold, set with pearls, garnets and rubies, sapphires, and turquoise (?) en cabochon.
Anneau de Saint-Denis
# MS 85 BIS 1200-1215, France Louvre, Paris photos (c) Musée du Louvre / Daniel Arnaudet 1990
This astonishing piece, which is ring-sized but now displayed as a cuff on an ivory hand, is made of gold and displays every possible gemstone appearance characteristic of the period. The front piece has a central sapphire and is surrounded by quartz with red backing (mimicking ruby/garnet), amethysts, pearls, and sapphires, some set on yellow backing (mimicking turquoise?). Most are en cabochon on this face, but two are faceted and two intaglio. Were this not enough, the three other 'faces' of the ring are set with gems as well, two cameos (probably sapphire and garnet?) and one amethyst intaglio set in ornate gold filigree.
The Czech novelist Milan Kundera made a famous observation. ‘Kitsch,’ he wrote, ‘causes two tears to flow in quick succession. The first tear says: How nice to see children running on the grass! The second tear says: how nice to be moved, together with all mankind, by children running on the grass!’ Kitsch, in other words, is not about the thing observed but about the observer. It does not invite you to feel moved by the doll you are dressing so tenderly, but by yourself dressing the doll. All sentimentality is like this: it redirects emotion from the object to the subject, so as to create a fantasy of emotion without the real cost of feeling it. The kitsch object encourages you to think ‘look at me feeling this; how nice I am and how lovable’. That is why Oscar Wilde, referring to one of Dickens’s most sickly death-scenes, said that ‘a man must have a heart of stone not to laugh at the death of Little Nell’.
- Roger Scruton, Confessions of a Heretic: Selected Essays
The Great Dismal Swamp was once a thriving refuge for runaways
2016 article about archeologist studying settlements in the Great Dismal. Settlements of maroons (self-emancipated slaves) in North America, from the mid-17th century up through the mid-19th.
The black areas represent the remaining natural dark skies in the United States
I’ve been in the middle of the ocean at night and now live in texas and it is so hard to explain to people that no, they have not ever seen the night sky. It is so hard to explain to people that what they think is a proper night sky is fucking pathetic. A disgrace.
People talk about how you can’t see stars in the city and yeah, that’s true, but their concept of “seeing stars” is being able to make out orion’s belt.
So, so few people have see the sky in all its glory and it’s not sad. It’s a fucking crime. Seeing a perfectly dark night, no clouds, not a hint of light pollution? That’s a fucking religious experience.
The sky the vast vast majority of us grew up with is not the sky that inspired us to look up. It is not the sky that inspired constellations. You can’t even see most constellations.
Your ancestors looked at the night sky and said “surely, that is where the gods must live.” And you might be lucky if you can see hardly more than a handful of stars.
The sky is full, fucking FULL, of stars, and you’ve never seen them.
light pollution is also actively harmful to many species of birds, mammals, and insects
I took these photos on the Isle of Skye, in a place with no light pollution. Skies can look like this.
Kazimierz Sichulski - Adoration of the Magi ( triptych, painting gold, tempera, guache, aquarelles , 150 x 100 cm, 138 x 106 cm, 154 x 106 cm), 1913, National Museum Warsaw
Sister Illuminata with the books
A page from a photo album illustrating WAFs (Women in the Air Force) during basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas in 1949!
Those gals sure look like good pals 😌
