The Rainbow Marshalltown

My experiences as an archaeologist.

[the-rainbow-marshalltown]

A short introduction to the site I was working on in this past month. There ARE human remains in this video so please be aware of that it if is something that will make you uncomfortable.

[the-rainbow-marshalltown]

In just over two weeks I get to help excavate a cholera cemetery @_@ its been so long I miss getting dirty, and I need experience with human remains. I'm not going to post pictures of the remains unless I get express permission, and I will always post warnings for human remains if I do. The remains are white european descent from the mid 1800s. Let me know if you have any questions or if there's anything in particular you want me to talk about.

[the-rainbow-marshalltown]

2018s mood is older than I am

[the-rainbow-marshalltown]

U.S. withdraws from UNESCO, the U.N.’s cultural organization, citing anti-Israel bias

The U.S. will withdraw as a member of UNESCO at the end of 2018.

This is a pretty serious blow to archaeology - the extent is currently unknown.  And unfortunately this isn’t just a Trump problem, as the US stopped paying its membership fees during the Obama administration at the inclusion of the Palestinian Authority.  But a total withdraw?  That’s all on Trump, and its part of his worrying trend of both withdrawing from international accords and his well known animosity toward preservation and preservation law.

The main concern is what will happen to World Heritage Sites in the United States already on the list, and those who have been nominated and are awaiting inclusion.

[homunculus-argument]

A brief and ugly summary of surviving cold climates

For visitors and writers alike.

You were never meant to be here. Never forget this. You are an ape of the equator, built to run the savannah and swim in tropical waters. Whatever terms and conditions your body has, they are void here. Mother nature never certified to function in a Death World.

Enduring the cold is never a matter of “how much” as much at it is “how long”. Think of it as the water levels of the vieogames you have played. No matter what equipment enables you to remain longer, you can’t stay there indefinitely. The coat that keeps you warm and toasty for three hours in -15 is enough to keep you functional for an hour of -40.

Whatever the locals say, listen to them. Err to the side of caution if you must. You may not endure what they can endure, but you SURE AS FUCKING NOT cannot survive what they say cannot be endured.

That being said, alcohol is a filthy fucking liar and so is anyone who offers it to you. The warmth it gives is an illusion, and a sign of damage. You are worse off feeling comfortable with a mouthful of whiskey as you are freezing your gonads off stone cold sober.

Winter tires. Studded winter tiers are a MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH when you drive on a frozen road. That being said, whatever the locals tell you that your car will need to run as theirs do, take it. Taking the risk of being pranked is worth survival, and you can always stab their tires in the spring if they were shitting you.

Eat. For the love of god, make sure that you eat. Heavier meals might be unpalatable at first for someone used to lighter nutrition, but maintaining bodily warmth in a cold climate takes up a lot of energy, and you will feel tired and drowsy for a long while shile your metabolism adjusts to producing more heat than Mother Nature ever intended. The skinny people in your party are especially vulnerable, ensure their well-being on a regular basis.

If you have a smartphone/other essential technology on your body, keep them close to your body to keep them warm. They were not designed to be frozen any more than you were.

Sleep is death. SLEEP IS DEATH. Never, ever stop to rest in the cold, if you do not have the means to make a fire/otherwise produce heat. The cold tires you out because keeping warm takes energy, but taking a rest will not return your energy. If you feel the need to sit down and rest because you are tired because of the cold, call for help. This is not a hyperbole, if you feel like you are too tired to go on in a cold climate, CALL A FUCKING AMBULANCE. If you fall asleep in the snow, you will not wake up. Hypothermia can and will literally kill you.

Avoid skin-to-snow-contact if you can. It hurts because you were not supposed to do it. Consider ice to be like acid. Touching is bad for you.

Feel free to add to the list if you feel like I missed something.

[scribbleboxfox]

Some things to add from a native northerner moved south who’s surrounded by people who know fuck-all about harsh winter weather:

If you are expecting severe weather that might take out your electricity, and you can afford a generator, GET ONE. They aren’t terribly cheap but you can find one in the $400-500 range at Home Depot or any other store like it really.

Gas up your car. Seriously. If your power goes out and you need to move because your current residence is in the sub-fucking-zeros you need to have fuel to get where your going. Not only that but even IF you don’t have anywhere to go, sitting in a car with the heat running is much better than freezing your ass to death in your house. 

Stock up on water bottles and canned goods. You will need both if you get snowed in. Eating is absolutely essential to staying alive, because as OP stated, keeping warm burns a LOT of calories.

If you have time before the storm hits, buy some good, thick blankets. Wool or fleece are your two best bets. Hell, if you can’t find a good place to get blankets, go to Walmart and buy straight up fabric. The more, the better. 

If you have a pet reptile, and the power goes out and the temperature inside your house is very cold, don’t feed them, and don’t leave them in their tank. Take them out, put them on your chest, and wrap yourself in a blanket with them. The best way at this point to keep them alive will be to share the body heat you have. 

Bring your pets inside. Yes, I’m looking at you, Nancy with the “outdoor cat”. Their cute little toe beans will freeze the fuck off and they’ll die of hypothermia. I don’t care if your 300 pound Tibetan Mastiff isn’t housebroken, unless you wanna explain to your 2-year old why Captain Fluffball is frozen to your front porch, bring him in.

If you have a fireplace, utilize it, but don’t set a fire inside your house that you can’t control. And don’t use fucking gasoline. That’s how you blow shit up. 

If you’re stuck out in the cold and you start to feel tired and strangely warm, you have hypothermia. Get the fuck to a place with actual warmth. Leave your clothes on. The cold is lying to you. You’re not hot, you’re slowly freezing to death. If you can, call a fucking ambulance. 

Remember that extremities freeze first. That means your toes, your nose, and your fingers. Layer the fuck UP. If I have to go out in the snow, I usually wear a pair of knit/fleece gloves under a pair of snow gloves. And then I duct-tape that shit to the sleeves of my coat. It looks silly but it keeps moisture from getting stuck in there and freezing my hands off. For shoes, wear boots and like, 3 pairs of socks. The warmer and fuzzier, the better. Your feet will thank you. If you have a ski mask, use it. If not, wear a scarf and wrap that shit as tight around your face as you can.

On the topic of moisture, if any part of you gets wet while you’re outside, locate the nearest warm place you can go to and take the wet garment off and dry that shit. I don’t care if it’s your socks, your shirt, or your undies. Get em off and get em dry. Wet clothes are a fast way to get yourself frozen to death.

If you absolutely need to do shit outside, velcro or duct tape your gloves and boots to your sleeves and pants. I know it will limit your movements a bit. I know that it will look stupid. I know it will be hard to get off. But duct tape doesn’t let SHIT through it. And as I’ve mentioned before, you don’t want ANYTHING you’re wearing to get wet. 

If you do have a portable heater or fire or heat in your home or whatever, have a fan blowing too. It will spread the warm air around faster. It might not feel warm at first, but it’s circulating the air. It will heat up eventually.

If you’re with other people, huddle up with them. Share your body warmth. Have a nice cuddle session with your friends/family/neighbors. It might just save you.

IF A CHILD IS IN THE SNOW, THEY WILL FREEZE A WHOLE FUCKIN LOT FASTER THAN YOU WILL. This doesn’t mean be chivalrous and give them your coat. It means you pick their tiny ass up and shove them IN your coat or hold them as close as you can while you try to get to a warmer area. The smaller they are, the faster they freeze. Time is absolutely critical. And if your kid is out in the snow, you need to be out there with them and keep your eyes on them at all times. 

Finally, invest in a blow dryer. If your hair gets wet and you gotta go back out in the cold, you’re going to be miserable as fuck. Blow dry your hair so it can be nice, warm, and voluminous when you go back out to punch Jack Frost in the face.

[space-australians]

(I’ve been reading so many posts about earth being Space Australia the Death World that I didn’t even notice there weren’t aliens in this one until my third read-through, so I’m counting it for the blog theme.)

[quasi-normalcy]

A few further points from me, having grown up in Canada’s coldest major city: 

The wind can be even more dangerous than the cold, and if your skin is exposed to it, it can freeze and even necrotise. Frostbite is a serious medical problem. So bundle up; wear a touque, wear your hood up, wear a balaclava or hike your scarf up over your nose because you could lose it otherwise. If the wind gets in your face, walk backwards. That’s not a prank; walk backwards. 

If it’s really cold, your gloves aren’t going to do shit; you’ll want mittens and handwarmers. It’s not convenient but at least you won’t be dropping fingercicles on the frozen pavement.

There is no such thing as winter chic. Not in a place with a real winter. You’re going to look like a bundle of cloth if you dress properly anyways, so there’s no sense in trying to be stylish about it. There is no fashionable/unfashionable, there’s only practical/impractical

Get a block heater for your car; if you come from a cold place, it’s probably standard equipment.

[honey-wine-and-time]

If you fall through ice into frozen water and can’t climb out, allow yourself to freeze to the ice - someone might see you and save you, even if you pass out.

Snow is a great insulator and if you need to, you can build shelter out of it. A quinzee is fastest. It can keep you alive if you are lost.

PUT A SHOVEL IN YOUR CAR. PUT AN EMERGENCY WINTER SUPPLY KIT IN YOUR CAR.

In a blizzard, do not travel. I know you’d rather be home than stuck at work overnight. But low visibility in a blizzard is not the same as low visibility in fog. You can get easily twisted around in areas that you know like the back of your hand, and no one will be able to see you to help you if you need it. Do not travel in blizzards.

Related to this: the normal rules do not apply in the cold. You can knock on a stranger’s door for help; you can take strangers in to warm up. You can approach a stranger in the cold and offer them rides if they look like they need help. Children should know that if forced to choose “talking to strangers to ask for help” and “freezing to death,” they are to choose “talking to strangers.”

If you ARE too warm in your many layers, but it is still deathly cold out, DO NOT unzip your coat. Lowering the temperature of your core is dangerous. You can easily cool down by removing a mitt or glove. You can lose fingers and toes if your extremities aren’t protected, but if your core gets too cold you can die.

Do not go ANYWHERE without appropriate winter gear, even if you think it’ll only be a quick jaunt from here to there. You never know when your car will break down or get stuck. You need that coat.

Don’t leave either your children or your pets in your car while you go into a store, or my god what is WRONG with you?

Everyone who has grown up in a cold climate knows what it feels like to be so cold you can’t bend your fingers or feel your face, knows what it’s like to be so cold that touching anything warm burns, to be so cold it takes hours to warm up, to be genuinely worried that they’ll lose their fingers or toes. No one will judge you for being so cold you start crying only to have your eyelashes freeze together. We’ve all been there. We will help.

[exiled-one]

Fun fact - after moving to a much colder area I’ve gained 6 kilos. Skinny people can and will store additional fat - it’s to help them survive after changing climate zones. If you are moving to another climate area (namely, colder climate area), invest in a better wardrobe. Boots with thick sole. In Russia we have valenki and we wear woolen socks underneath

Wool is your friend. The fluffier the better. The more fluff the better insulation. Skiing clothes are also a good help, especially coupled with other layers and wool. And, oh! If you can, get one of those: 

Woolen shawls like these ones are usually handmade, so as to preserve the fluff, and they are wonderful for heat insulation. You can use one for yourself, you can bundle up your kid, and it’s gonna be warm and snug. Like, I wore one when we hit a -30C streak a while ago, and it was nice. 

GUARD YOUR HIPS! I mean, it’s pretty easy to bundle up your torso, but your hips and thighs and knees… Yep. Not so much. If you have some woolen kneewarmers for arthritis, or you can procure some for yourself - do it. 

[thebibliosphere]

Okay wear does one acquire such a shawl because I a) need that for aesthetic reasons and b) it’s so fucken cold in my house help

[sleepyheathen]

(Google tells me that this is an Orenburg Shawl) The reason wool is great is because it stays warm when wet, polar fleece does too but never seems as toasty. If you allergic to wool and can afford it get silk long underwear and sock/glove liners and wear them under woolens. If you can’t afford it try to find a cheaper alternative. Also figure out which kind of wool you are least reactive to because even with a base layer you are going to get itchy. Back to pets: if you have fish and the power goes out cover the tank with space and wool blankets right away. Every once in a while check the temp, if it is falling below ideal scoop out some of the water and warm it over a camp stove, not too hot, then gently pour the water back in. This will also help aerate the tank a little. plus it gives you something to do if you’re bored. Also, if you know the powers is likely to go out you should fill the tub/buckets with as much water as you can. You can boil it for warm drinks and bucket flush the toilet, which you’re going to want.

[warpsbyherself]

Edited to add: this is no joke. My cousin’s friend fell asleep in his car a couple winters back and froze to death. It happens. Be safe.

[ani-laurel]

I have had several friends move to Canada and not realize that you can lose fingers. Also, if it doesn’t look like you gained 30 pounds its not a winter coat.

[wetwareproblem]

Canadian here: A good winter coat isn’t necessarily “you gained 30 lbs” unless you’re north of the tree line, but that’s a good guideline. Personally I swear by military-issue wool trenchcoats as a nice combination of thin, flexible, full-coverage, water-tolerant (and mildly resistant), warm, and usable in the summer - but keep in mind that we bottom out at -20 here in a typical winter. (Our big problem is that it’s wet and windy.)

A few tiny details I can add:

When shopping for a coat, check the fastenings (zipper, buttonholes, etc) for a cover flap that can be anchored in place (on a zipper, generally by velcroing to the other side of the zipper; on my trenchcoat it’s sewn over the buttons). Even if it looks like a good coat otherwise, this is a dealbreaker - without it, the wind will stab you directly in the chest with a thousand needles at the slightest provocation.

That thing above about the blow drier? Downplays how miserable wet hair is. It will freeze. Into icicles. Directly on your neck/face. And insult to injury, you will lose hair if and when you break one.

Get a backup battery for your phone. When traveling, keep it in a pocket against your body. Your phone is your only lifeline in an emergency, when you need help you will need it now, and cold eats batteries for breakfast. Having a warm battery can make the difference.

Do not drive faster than the locals, unless you have no particular will to live. Ever. Of particular note, 4WD/AWD doesn’t make a single fucking bit of difference on ice. Every year in my area a couple people get killed because they forgot that.

On a related note: If you have to drive in the snow, your instinct will be to follow the tracks of the last guy. This is generally good advice - in most snow conditions it will improve traction - but be careful. There have been a few times I almost followed someone’s tracks right into their accident.

Layer with different materials. Wool is a great insulator, but knit wool in particular is extremely porous; you want something tighter either below or above it.

Do not cross running water without a bridge, or still water without an experienced guide or a clear manmade trail. (Do not drive across a body of water period. This is an advanced skill, and failing will kill you. You are not a local.)  You’d think this would be obvious, but every year when I lived in Truro at least one person would get to watch their car floating away on an ice floe - if they were lucky.

[puffdenlilledragen]

The Norwegian Mountain Code is a short list of basic rules to follow when TRAVELLING IN HARSH, COLD TERRAIN. 

If you need to take a rest while out and there is deep snow, MAKE A SNOW CAVE. Snow is airy. It will insulate. Make sure the entry is BELOW THE SPACE WHERE YOU WILL REST as warm air travels upwards. The smaller the cave, the less air for you to lose body heat to. MARK THE CAVE with skis, branches, anything tall. Call for help. It helps to know where you are - a GPS is useful, your phone will do. 

BRING THE SHOVEL INSIDE. You might need to re-open the entrance if it’s windy. You can always use your skis to dig a cave if needed be.

You can make a sitting/laying place inside the snow cave from twigs or branches to avoid contact with the snow. 

When dressing, ALWAYS layer:

innermost layer is wool. Always.

outermost layer waterproof. Windproof inside of that one. 

remember that clothes will not keep you warm. AIR KEEPS YOU WARM. Make sure your layers are not too tight - you want your clothes to TRAP AIR between you and the environment to minimise heat loss.

[fuckingconversations]

Re-emphasizing the ‘Cold Sucks The Life Out of your Battery’ - I don’t know how many times my car battery died due to the bitter cold. Like, it just went ‘nope, too cold’ and refused to start my car. 

My friend has to go take pictures for work, even in the winter - She makes sure to have her phone plugged into an external battery tucked inside her bra, cord strung through her coat sleeve, because her phone battery alone goes from ‘100%’ charged to ‘10% charged, plug in!’ with zero apps running, in less than a half hour. I have watched it happen. Warmth saves your batteries. cold kills it. ALSO: WOOL, NOT COTTON! Wool wicks water away from your skin, and stays warm even when wet. Cotton will hold that soggy foot sweat right to your skin, and suck all your heat away. Tends to give you boot blisters faster, too. That cotton T-shirt getting sweaty is going to drop your core heat fast af if you open your coat. 

[knitbelove]

I want to reiterate what was mentioned upthread that if you can afford silk, it’s an excellent base layer. Knitters, you know that luxurious single skein you have of fuzzy lightweight silk or silkpaca or even (dreamy sigh) qiviut? Knit a smoke ring cowl that you can pull up over your face. I have one (“pretty thing” by the yarn harlot) made of handspun silk mawata that I always wear under my other scarves when I go out on cold days.

And to those of you in love with that Orenburg shawl … either learn to knit or make a knitter fall madly in love with you. Those take forever to knit and you can buy them but you pay through the nose.

[smartmouthdwench]

More tips:

Keep cat litter or sand in the trunk/bed of your vehicle.  It will act as ballast and help keep skidding around on icy roads down and if you get stuck, it can act as traction.  Cat littler (cheap ass clay litter) is usually easier to get and is probably cheaper.

KEEP THE GAS TANK FILLED!  I’m serious.  The gas line in your car can and will collect moisture–which freezes.  

Thirding or whatever the wool and silk.  Preferably wool if you can tolerate it.  It breathes and a good wool sweater like a Gansey (doesn’t have to be bloo) or a Lopi will stay warm no matter how wet it gets.  Tip: If it’s made by an animal it will probably keep you warm.  Plant and man made?  Not so much.  (Acrylic is warmer than cotton, though)

Knitters, make a calorimetery.  If will save your ears.  Speaking of–DO NOT WEAR dangly earrings.  If you can manage it, no earrings at all.  

If push comes to shove (and I have done this), panty hose under your pants will help keep you a bit warmer than without.  I was able to shovel a driveway with over a foot of snow with some on under my jeans.

Shoveling?  If you can start early.  Snow is fucking heavy.  Don’t stay out trying to get it all done at once.  An hour’s work is better than nothing.  Better yet, get a damned snow blower if you can.  If you can’t, get a shovel made for snow–they usually have wide heads, and a shallow angle.

Hate scarves because they don’t stay one?  PUT IN ON BEFORE THE COAT AND ZIP THAT FUCKER UP.  Or invest in cowls–tubes you wear around your neck.  They stay put when you futz around in the cold.

When it comes to knits (hand knits especially), the denser isn’t alway better.  Lace, brioche, and some other types are warm because of the holes or the way it’s made.  Those gaps?  tend to trap air.

[archaeologistproblems]

Archaeologist problems: Winter blues.

via Archaeology in Acadie

[s-b-atkinson]

hahahah

[the-rainbow-marshalltown]

If I ever find out who packed these float samples we are gonna have words like there is so much missing provenience data and the bags aren't tied that well, I have had to retie every single bag. Of at least 20 float samples. With no end in sight. Like I see bag 2 of 2 on a label with barely anything else and think ok, maybe the rest of the information is on bag 1. Spoiler alert: it wasn't.

[jessie-and-the-dead]

6 Black Archaeologists and Anthropologists You Should Know About - Blerds

John Wesley Gilbert Gilbert (July 6, 1864 – Nov. 19, 1923), an archaeologist born in Georgia, faced extreme racism and prejudice, but that did not stop him from being the first Black professor at Paine College and the first Black person to earn a master’s at Brown University in 1891. Gilbert is also the first person to map the ancient Greek city-state of Eretria where, from 1890-1891, he conducted archaeological excavations with Professor John Pickard.

Also:

- Dr. Alexandra Jones

- Dr. Rachel Watkins

- Dr. George Abungu

- Dr. Whitney Battle-Baptiste (pictured)

- Dr. Theresa Singleton

Nevertheless, they persisted.

[nightlifemingus]

all bugs can be organized into one of three categories: homies, chillers, and haters. hornets and wasps are haters. mosquitos are haters. most spiders are homies cuz they eat shitty bugs, some spiders are chillers cuz they dont really do anything, but also some spiders are haters because they’ll kill you. learn to tell the difference. bees are homies but they become haters if you fuck with them. most beetles are chillers but if they’re the kind of beetle that flies really fast at your face then they’re haters.

[mrbenwyatt]

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

as someone who almost died from a mammalian meat allergy constantly explaining that the carbohydrate chain causing the allergy was lost in the old-world monkey lineage leading to its lack in humans, i empathize with this phylogenetic conundrum.

…can you please educate me on this oh my god this sounds fascinating.

[tilthendoftheline]

I’M HAPPY TO because if you’re gonna almost die of something at least it should be scientifically fascinating.

so-called mammalian meat allergy is actually an acquired allergy to galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose, a membrane-bound carbohydrate chain. humans have pretty high circulating IgG titers to alpha-gal because it’s foreign (nobody knows WHY it was lost in old-world monkeys, but all mammals and marsupials seem to have it except for them and apes) and we’re exposed to it a lot. somehow, something in the saliva of the lone star tick (in the us, a couple other species have been implicated in europe) acts as an adjuvant, like we use in vaccines to heighten immune response, and our immune system starts producing IgE antibodies and treating it like an allergen.

more weirdness: there seems to be a lot of alpha-gal in fat cells. as a result, the allergic symptoms are mostly delayed until fat digestion….like 6 hours after ingestion. as you can expect, it can be a GIANT PAIN IN THE ASS to diagnose.

i was ESPECIALLY lucky bc for whatever reason it didn’t give me normal allergy symptoms. no itching, no throat closing, no hives. instead i got nauseous, flushed, and then passed out. CRYPTIC ANAPHYLAXIS FOR THE WIN!

this went on for a solid year with my passing-out episodes getting more and more dramatic until finally i woke up in the middle of the night already in near-syncope, not breathing well, and unable to move, called 911 from my bed, and managed to Not Die long enough to be admitted and have ALL THE BLOOD TESTS thrown at me (there’d been lots of fruitless diagnostics leading up to this, it wasn’t like docs were just letting the issue ride). they found extremely high levels of histamine byproducts and six months later i was officially diagnosed.

that was in 2012. after four years of not eating meat and studiously avoiding lone star ticks the allergy WENT AWAY. I CAN EAT BACON AGAIN. 

so fucking weird.

so yes i’m happy to be alive, happy to be eating burgers now and then, and still a little bitter that this whole ordeal happened because i was trapping rodents in tall grass for my damn thesis and got bitten by a lot of ticks and my committee mastered me out of grad school after five years instead of cutting me some damn slack and giving me six months to finish the thesis i had to SWITCH TO because i was too sick to go in the field anymore.

SHRUG EMOJI

[thatfloatingcat]

THIS IS SO COOL. LIKE IT SUCKS THAT THAT HAPPENED TO YOU BUT LIKE…. FASCINATING.

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

“if you’re gonna almost die of something at least it should be scientifically fascinating”

My friend, we have the same life ethos.

Also damn, that’s really interesting - especially that tick exposure can escalate it!

[silverarabian]

A bite from a lone star tick can actually cause the allergy in itself. That one is mostly to beef (not sure if their organic one is to other meat) because something in the blood regurgitated from the ticks, who typically feast on cattle, creates an allergy sensitization in people.

[tilthendoftheline]

Tick bites are the only known cause of this allergy. It has not been reported outside of that context.

And the tick-borne version not just to beef. It is specifically to alpha-gal, so it’s all mammals with the carbohydrate chain. The reaction seems to be stronger from seed tick (nymphal) saliva, which argues against residual mammalian residue causing the allergy; besides, the primary host of lone star ticks is deer, not cattle.

And @why-animals-do-the-thing: this paper gives a relatively basic overview in the section about ticks (it’s a bit immuno-heavy otherwise). also i love your blog, keep up the good work!

[feministes]

i beg you to stop scrolling and share this and if you’re available to donate pls do it 

don’t ignore the black transgender community living in third world countries

[the-rainbow-marshalltown]

Different fare for this blog, but she wants to study paleoanthropology so maybe anthro people can help her?

[feministes]

i beg you to stop scrolling and share this and if you’re available to donate pls do it 

don’t ignore the black transgender community living in third world countries

[the-rainbow-marshalltown]

Different fare for this blog, but she wants to study paleoanthropology so maybe anthro people can help her?

[the-rainbow-marshalltown]

Trump transition team for Energy Department seeks names of employees involved in climate meetings

The Trump transition team has issued a list of 74 questions for the Energy Department, asking officials there to identify which employees and contractors have worked on forging an international climate pact as well as domestic efforts to cut the nation's carbon output.

ha ha im sure everythign will turn out ha ha im sure no one is going to get fired for doing their jobs ha ha im sure this couldnt possibly spread to any other section of environmental jobs in science ha im sure the turnip wont use this to attack people who stand up to him haaaaa surely everything will be fine haaaaaaaaaaaaaa and im certainly not using deep sarcasm to cover my growing terror haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[the-rainbow-marshalltown]

Fort Lewis College students vandalize Native American ruins in Utah

Davis said the students responsible have been identified, but instead of punishment, the school has chosen to use the incident as a learning experience, and also a way to make amends.

The university is going to try to get the assholes off the hook, but the vandalism took place on federal land and there are consequences to something like that:

Under the Archaeological Resource Protection Act, first-time violators are subject to civil or criminal penalties up to a $250,000 fine or a five-year prison term, or both.

[reina-negrita-deactivated201905]

The language of academia can be so fucking pretentious and elitist. You can’t write a critical paper about people that won’t even understand what you’re trying to say. Plus, the need to make something that supposed to educate and facilitate the exchange of ideas, so complex and complicated to understand is ridiculous. If someone, as a scholar cannot break down complex ideologies and theories into a form that the average person can understand then what the fuck are you doing, honestly? Academia is not about a continuous circle-jerk with your PhD buddies. It’s about exchanging ideas and reaching people, from all walks of life and background. The world is bigger than people with JSTOR memberships.

[justsomeantifas]

The DAPL news is definitely something to be proud of but don’t think that the work is done. Jan Hasselman, who serves as an attorney for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, said that the Energy Transfer Partners can still sue this decision, and Trump can try to overturn it. This is a lengthy process that will takes years (with a better explanation why below) and we need to watch it as decisions are made. Remember the pipeline is still being built and it’s going somewhere. 

[Text reads: I do admin law for a living so let me explain how this corps decision plays out. The refusal to grant the easement stop the pipelines… for now. Trump could easily reverse it. But, the decision to order an EIS delays the pipeline for at least several years. If Trump orders the corps to stop the EIS process, several groups will sue, arguing that the reversal is arbitrary and capricious. And they will likely win, which means the EIS will be completed. That takes 2+ years. If the EIS ultimately recommends the same of similar route, several groups will sue, delaying it for 2+ more years. 1 year for suit in federal court, and 2 more year for appeal. Bottom line: decision to order an EIS that Trump probably cannot force a pipeline through same/similar route for 4+ years.]

We also have to remember that many water protectors are still going to be needing help with medical and legal funds so keep an eye out how to still help. 

#NoDAPL #StandWithStandingRock  

[highfiveshiningstrike]

Army will not grant easement for Dakota Access Pipeline crossing [X]

[the-rainbow-marshalltown]

THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT GUYS, like honestly I have mixed feelings about how well the army corps and pipeline companies do due diligence in posting these comment periods or actually listening to the comments that come in, BUT THAT BEING SAID

If you are in school, especially if you are a STEM or humanities major, or if you’re taking a science class, ask your teacher if you can get extra credit for writing a statement and submitting it during the public comment period.

Actually research it!  Treat it like an essay, cite studies, ask someone to look over it before you send it in.

Snail Mail that shit!  If you get in done ahead of time, print it out, stuff it in an envelope, and send it not just to the army corps of engineers, but to the company, and to every politician even marginally involved.  The politicans you vote for directly, the north dakota politicians, everyone.  They especially have to have someone open all that mail, so its better than sending an email.

Follow all directions for submitting a statement though.

If you’re close enough to attend a live comment meeting, do so!  More bodies = more voices.

Another thing you might want to do is see what pipeline projects are going on near you.  I guarantee, its more than you think.  Every pipeline shares the same concerns as the DAPL does, and many of them squeak by without much in the way of protest.  Its basically industry best practices to route pipelines through the poorest areas where people are less likely to kick up so much of a fuss, for an extended period of time.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the Army Corps of Engineers are the two major permitters in pipeline projects; the EPA, state EPAs and Departments of Natural Resources, State Historic Preservation Offices (SHPOs), and a few other organizations also have some say.  But FERC and ACoE are the last step.