As a scientist one thing I genuinely appreciate is high quality visualizations of data to give lay people an idea of scale and complexity presented in a format they can understand without specialized training. I believe these wind maps from https://earth.nullschool.net/ do a great job of this type of visualization. They allow you to view interacations on both a regional and a global scale and see how these different scales overlap and influence each other. The maps do not necessarily represent the winds in realtime, but the data is usually no more than a few hours old at most and some of it is very current. Archaeologists can learn a lot from studying other disciplines ways of representing complex information. Or just sit back and chill out and admire the beauty in the organized chaos of global wind patterns.     The start page for https://earth.nullschool.net/     A snapshot from Friday, September 8th 2017...

TL:DR Hackers compromised 143,000,000 Americans (and some foreign) accounts at Equifax with important personal info like SSN, address, etc...  You have to dig through a few links on their statement page to find the page where you can check if your accounts might have been compromised (and if so, get free credit monitoring - they give you a "call back" date for registering with no reminders, how nice of them)  Here is the page where you can start the process to see if you were compromised (you can verify the link below from Equifax homepage):  https://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com/potential-impact/ Read More: https://gizmodo.com/hackers-steal-personal-information-of-143-million-ameri-1802136954 Equifax statement:  https://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com You can find a link to the statement and the potential impact page via the Equifax homepage to verify them if you want: https://www.equifax.com/personal/  

You guessed the obvious (considering the source ;-) folks! That is right, Archaeology!  Yep - 24% of Brits sampled in a 2,000 person survey listed Archaeology as the number one job they daydream about giving up their regular 9-5 job (you know, the ones with benefits, insurance, vacation, and co-workers with a slightly above average sense of acceptable hygiene). And of this sample one in four women surveyed choose archaeology as their number one choice of new profession.  But...you know what the #2 and #3 jobs were? Treasure Hunter (21%) and Adventurer (21%). Somehow I think these people surveyed might have a slightly distorted idea of what these "jobs" entail...and is "Adventurer" really even a job? The survey did find that in this sample set people spent about 12 minutes a day fantasizing about a different career. It also found that four in ten have also looked into moving out of Britain to find a different...

{Eclipse 2017} Feel free to share! But see the audio note below. Watch in HD if able, it does look appreciably better :-) I haven't posted many pictures of our trip to see the eclipse in Kentucky yet because I first wanted to try and help crystalize my families memories of the experience in my mind by putting together a quick video. Note: Quick & Video do not go together in the same sentence! LOL! The end result is not what I was hoping for and I feel it needs some refinement. But it does give an idea of what our day with the eclipse was like (minus the traffic home!). I will use this video as a spring board to make the kids a better version this fall. There is a typo I need to correct, a few scenes didn't transition quite right, and I need to get the audio synced all the way through....

Well there you go. Ivanka Trump has given her blessing to the White House decision to roll back the Obama initiative to promote pay transparency in companies between genders. This contradict her previous statements, including her tweet on Equal Pay Day in April “Women deserve equal pay for equal work”.   Trumps comment on the rollback:   “Ultimately, while I believe the intention was good and agree that pay transparency is important, the proposed policy would not yield the intended results,” Trump said on Tuesday. “We look forward to continuing to work with [Equal Employment Opportunity Commission], [the Office of Management and Budget], Congress and all relevant stakeholders on robust policies aimed at eliminating the gender wage gap.” So if you are woman at a company and you hear wages come up and with a boss (male or female) telling a female employee something along the lines of: "Your are paid great for your position",...

The Great78 project has released 25,000+ digital copies of early 78rpm records and are continuing their work on digitizing more of estimated 3 million "sides" that play for about 3 minutes.  A gateway to the history of the project and where to download from is here:  http://great78.archive.org   Read more: http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/internet-archive-78-records-phonograph http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/arts-culture/item/106319-philly-company-digitizes-collection-of-25000-old-records-and-growing-free-to-download

This is What Real Archaeologists do - Punch Nazis

It is what we do. I have reached out to ILM Intellectual Property to see if I can get a license to sell this on t-shirts, etc... I will keep you all updated.  ~R. Joe

COLUMBUS, OH—Marveling at how well preserved the archaic opinions were, a team of archaeologists from the Smithsonian Institution announced Thursday the discovery of a fully intact 17th-century belief system in Ohio congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH). “It’s just extraordinary to come across a perspective that dates back to the the mid-1600s and shows absolutely no signs of decay,” said Dr. Claire Goedde, explaining that while it’s not uncommon to encounter partial remains of convictions from that era, it’s exceedingly rare to recover a specimen this pristine. “All the 400-year-old viewpoints remain almost completely untouched, from religion’s place in society to the rights of women to the attitude toward science. I can only imagine the insights this single sample will provide as to how people who lived centuries ago saw the world around them.” Goedde added, however, that the congressman’s belief system was fragile even in near-perfect condition and could deteriorate rapidly if examined too much.  ...

  Today would be the 75th birthday of Mohawk Native American activist and educator. At the age of 30 Richard Oakes was shot and killed by a YMCA camp manager named Michael Morgan. Oakes had confronted Morgan over his reputation of treating Native American children poorly. Morgan, claiming self-defense, shoot him point blank and was acquitted of all charges by an all white jury six months later.  You can read about Richards accomplishments in his life, including helping SanFrancisco State to set up one of the first Native American studies programs and the occupation of Alcatraz (1969-1971): http://heavy.com/news/2017/05/richard-oakes-activist-google-doodle-native-american-bio-facts-75th-birthday/ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/richard-oakes-activist-native-american-rights-alcatraz-google-doodle-mohawk-american-indian-san-a7749221.html http://time.com/4787893/richard-oakes-activist-google-doodle/ http://www.refinery29.com/2017/05/155552/google-doodle-richard-oakes-activist

  And don't forget kids! Cinco de Mayo is not Mexican Independence Day. That is celebrated on September 16. The Cinco de Mayo holiday celebrates an unexpected victory: the Mexican victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. The Mexican army won the battle despite being smaller and ill-equipped. Have a great day! (Thanks to Dr. Gloria Everson for the nice summation!)

The trial of Ahmed Al Faqi al-Mahdi, known as Abu Tourab opened today August 22nd at the International Criminal Court (ICC). This trial is important because the ICC prosecutor is only charging Mahdi with the destruction of cultural property, which gives the case significance as it opens the door to helping to prosecute others who have violated cultural property. This charge has not been used before, but the destruction of cultural heritage has had the potential to be prosecuted as a war crime under the Rome Statute of 1998 that established the ICC. Enforcing this statute sets a precedent for similar cases such as ISIL’s destruction of the ancient city of Palmyra last year (which is complicated by Syria not being a signatory) Ahmed Al Faqi al-Mahdi was head of the Ansar Dine Islamic morality brigade during their occupation of Timbuktu, Mali, from April 2012 to January 2013. During this period Mahdi is accused by the ICC of war crimes...

TITLE Archaeological Technician (TEMPORARY 4-MONTH POSITION)  ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION Now is a great time to join Redhorse Corporation. Redhorse specializes in developing and implementing creative strategies and solutions with private, state, and federal customers in the areas of cultural and environmental resources services, climate and energy change, information technology, and intelligence services. We are hiring creative, motivated, and talented people with a passion for doing what's right, what's smart, and what works.   DESCRIPTION The Archaeology Technician will work on-site at the customer’s facility at Fort Irwin, CA to provide cultural resource management, compliance, and consultation services. The candidate will augment existing customer capabilities, work in a team framework, and provide field support for Fort Irwin’s Cultural Resources Program. Primary duties include the following: Conduct surveys prior to approval of dig permit and construction requests to ensure protection of significant cultural, historical or paleontological resources Conduct off-limits archaeological site monitoring Input archaeological data across several...

Have you ever been in the field and either known, or suspected, you were exposed to poison ivy or poison sumac? If you have, and act promptly, you can prevent or minimize your bodies reaction to the exposure to the urushiol oils  that cause the inflammation on your skin. Dr. Jim Brauker  has a great video that summarizes how urushiol effects you skin, and how to treat it. If you are short on time or a TL:DW type person the short answer is this. Wash the area thoroughly. Even if you do not have soap available at least use water and a cloth. The important thing is that your finish by using friction and a cloth to remove as much as the oil as possible.  In the video Dr. Brauker implies that for just washing, without using friction to remove the remaining oils, that Dawn dishwashing soap is more effective that Tecnu. I have reached out to ...

  If you are planning on using a GPS in California in this area on June 7, 9, 21,. 23, 28, 30th be advised that there will be a "GPS Disturbance Test" that on these days that could mess up your accuracy. The FAA Notice to Airmen is below.   FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION FLIGHT ADVISORY GPS Interference Testing CHLK GPS 16-08 07-30 June, 2016 China Lake, California GPS testing is scheduled as follows and may result in unreliable or unavailable GPS signal. A. Location: Centered at 360822N1173846W or the BTY VOR 214 degree radial at 059 NM. B. Dates and times: 7 JUN 16  1630Z  –  2230Z 9 JUN 16  1630Z  –  2230Z 21 JUN 16  1630Z  –  2230Z 23 JUN 16  1630Z  –  2230Z 28 JUN 16  1630Z  –  2230Z 30 JUN 16  1630Z  –  2230Z C. Duration: Each event may last the entire requested period. D. NOTAM INFO: NAV (CHLK GPS 16-08) GPS...

Following up on the discovery by Yamagata University Institute's Prof. Masato Sakai of 24 new geoglyphs in the Nasca Region of the Peruvian South Coast in 2014 and 2015 the team has identified a new 33m geoglyph that could be linked to a near by major ceremonial center. The new geoglyph is located within the central area of the Nazca pampa, a large, flat, arid region of Peru. The line drawing is of an animal, with many legs, what appear to be spotted markings and which is sticking out its tongue. “It certainly represents an imaginary or mythical creature,” Masato Sakai at the Yamagata University in Japan, said. Most of the geoglyphs are almost invisible on the surface and the team needed to analyze them using a three-dimensional scanner to highlight the images on the ground. As a result, the Yamagata University team was able to identify 24 geoglyphs of animals, some of which probably depict Andean...

Cinco de Mayo is not Mexican Independence Day. That is celebrated on September 16. The Cinco de Mayo holiday celebrates an unexpected victory: the Mexican victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. The Mexican army won the battle despite being smaller and ill-equipped. Have a great day! ~Gloria Everson

Be careful what you wish for!

...It was a dark and stormy night...   No, wait. That is not right.    It was a dark, but not stormy night, around 4AM April 25th 1999 when R. Joe was in his office in Ozark Hall at the University of Arkansas avoiding writing a final paper for Sabo's Environmental Archaeology class. After doing some, errr, research on a site Ryan had told him about he realized he needed to find another outlet to waste time to give his brain proper time to digest the nuances of his class notes. Inspired by how well an extended family mailing list he had set up recently was doing and remembering the axiom "Archaeologists are kind of technically slow and lazy" R. Joe decided to set up a little mailing list to help people find jobs in CRM and Archaeology. With no-one to talk to R. Joe typed in, and erased, a number of list "name" ideas...

Antioch: Turkey Turkish archaeologist Demet Kara has excavated a 2,400-year-old mosaic that features a laid-back skeleton, reclining with a cup next to a bottle of wine and loaf of bread, surrounded by the wise words: "Be cheerful, enjoy your life,".  The mosaic dates to the third century B.C. The mosaic contains the quote "Be cheerful, enjoy your life" which sums up things pretty nicely.