Orion🌈&sm9eb
@sm9eb.bsky.social
Archaeologist specializing in Late Neolithic/Halaf Şanlıurfa, Turkey; D.C.-born; foodie; astronomy & gardening buff; former guardian of Urfalı cat Commander Orion 🌈🖤; current guardian of not-a-Guest-anymore Cat Italy!
A little summer New Zealand color for those of us encased in #snowcrete.
Summer brings colour against the darkness #bloomscrolling
February 6, 2026 at 5:52 AM
A little summer New Zealand color for those of us encased in #snowcrete.
No new pictures. Where you at mentally?
February 6, 2026 at 5:39 AM
No new pictures. Where you at mentally?
Reposted by Orion🌈&sm9eb
oh btw if you need the CIA World Factbook because they took it down with no warning because we can't have nice things, here's where you can get the PDF for the 2024-2025 edition: annas-archive.li/md5/92d7b783...
The CIA World Factbook 2024-2025 - Anna’s Archive
Central Intelligence Agency
The ultimate, comprehensive guide to official country data and statistics, from the world’s most sop
Simon and Schuster
annas-archive.li
February 6, 2026 at 3:44 AM
oh btw if you need the CIA World Factbook because they took it down with no warning because we can't have nice things, here's where you can get the PDF for the 2024-2025 edition: annas-archive.li/md5/92d7b783...
Reposted by Orion🌈&sm9eb
Marty Weil is a legend. He was the last reporter remaining from the Watergate era at the Post. Just an phenomenal old-school metro reporter. They axed him too.
Please read this story to honor his tenure at the Post. (Gift link)
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/b...
Please read this story to honor his tenure at the Post. (Gift link)
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/b...
He Was Laid Off at The Washington Post After Working There 60 Years
www.nytimes.com
February 6, 2026 at 2:29 AM
Marty Weil is a legend. He was the last reporter remaining from the Watergate era at the Post. Just an phenomenal old-school metro reporter. They axed him too.
Please read this story to honor his tenure at the Post. (Gift link)
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/b...
Please read this story to honor his tenure at the Post. (Gift link)
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/b...
Reposted by Orion🌈&sm9eb
all these reputation defenders really being unable to make much progress because of Wikipedia editors and journalists is a very good reminder of why we have to defend them at all costs
February 6, 2026 at 2:38 AM
all these reputation defenders really being unable to make much progress because of Wikipedia editors and journalists is a very good reminder of why we have to defend them at all costs
The problem with the new zNetflix ice skating show #FindingHerEdge is that
A) it isn't a return of #SaveSpinningOut, with its side story about class and bipolar disorder,
B) I can't shake the feeling there's a lot of plastic surgery on very young people, and
C) some creepy unlikable characters (dad)
A) it isn't a return of #SaveSpinningOut, with its side story about class and bipolar disorder,
B) I can't shake the feeling there's a lot of plastic surgery on very young people, and
C) some creepy unlikable characters (dad)
February 6, 2026 at 2:51 AM
The problem with the new zNetflix ice skating show #FindingHerEdge is that
A) it isn't a return of #SaveSpinningOut, with its side story about class and bipolar disorder,
B) I can't shake the feeling there's a lot of plastic surgery on very young people, and
C) some creepy unlikable characters (dad)
A) it isn't a return of #SaveSpinningOut, with its side story about class and bipolar disorder,
B) I can't shake the feeling there's a lot of plastic surgery on very young people, and
C) some creepy unlikable characters (dad)
Reposted by Orion🌈&sm9eb
The Washington Post has only a single arts critic left - everyone else got fired today, along with all three arts editors. (There are still a couple of excellent arts reporters.) I was so upset I dusted off my blog to have my say: annemidgette.com/blog/f/a-req...
A requiem for arts coverage
I used to say I wished that newspapers would treat their arts sections the way they treated their sports sections. What I meant was that sports sections offered a balanced mix of news stories, feature...
annemidgette.com
February 4, 2026 at 9:13 PM
The Washington Post has only a single arts critic left - everyone else got fired today, along with all three arts editors. (There are still a couple of excellent arts reporters.) I was so upset I dusted off my blog to have my say: annemidgette.com/blog/f/a-req...
Reposted by Orion🌈&sm9eb
Epstein’s Wikipedia edits are going to be my next wormhole if someone hasn’t done it already
February 5, 2026 at 11:40 PM
Epstein’s Wikipedia edits are going to be my next wormhole if someone hasn’t done it already
UK folks, block this company like your lives literally depend on it.
"The government has for months blocked attempts by MPs and campaigners to scrutinise Palantir’s deals. Requests for information about meetings between the company’s leadership with Keir Starmer and the former prime minister Boris Johnson were among those that have been refused"
Calls to halt UK Palantir contracts grow amid ‘lack of transparency’ over deals
Opposition MPs urge Labour to pause public contracts with the US tech firm after attempts to examine deals blocked
www.theguardian.com
February 5, 2026 at 11:57 PM
UK folks, block this company like your lives literally depend on it.
Domestication note: vows can live to 49, which is unheard of in #Zooarchaeology. I hope she got a proper burial and not...you know.
Thinking about Big Bertha, the world's oldest cow from County Kerry, who died just before her 49th birthday after calving 39 times over her life (another record) - she also raised thousands for charity, lead the St. Patrick's parade in Sneem, and had her birthday and wake in a local pub
February 5, 2026 at 11:55 PM
Domestication note: vows can live to 49, which is unheard of in #Zooarchaeology. I hope she got a proper burial and not...you know.
Reposted by Orion🌈&sm9eb
Thinking about Big Bertha, the world's oldest cow from County Kerry, who died just before her 49th birthday after calving 39 times over her life (another record) - she also raised thousands for charity, lead the St. Patrick's parade in Sneem, and had her birthday and wake in a local pub
February 5, 2026 at 10:38 PM
Thinking about Big Bertha, the world's oldest cow from County Kerry, who died just before her 49th birthday after calving 39 times over her life (another record) - she also raised thousands for charity, lead the St. Patrick's parade in Sneem, and had her birthday and wake in a local pub
Reposted by Orion🌈&sm9eb
This Olympics, Team USA ice dance is represented by:
• A Chinese Hawaiian and her Michigan husband
• A Greek Cypriot and a Ukrainian Costco fan who just acquired citizenship
• A Canadian born with two dislocated hips and the son of two Soviet gold medalist skaters
That's what makes America great.
• A Chinese Hawaiian and her Michigan husband
• A Greek Cypriot and a Ukrainian Costco fan who just acquired citizenship
• A Canadian born with two dislocated hips and the son of two Soviet gold medalist skaters
That's what makes America great.
February 5, 2026 at 5:40 PM
This Olympics, Team USA ice dance is represented by:
• A Chinese Hawaiian and her Michigan husband
• A Greek Cypriot and a Ukrainian Costco fan who just acquired citizenship
• A Canadian born with two dislocated hips and the son of two Soviet gold medalist skaters
That's what makes America great.
• A Chinese Hawaiian and her Michigan husband
• A Greek Cypriot and a Ukrainian Costco fan who just acquired citizenship
• A Canadian born with two dislocated hips and the son of two Soviet gold medalist skaters
That's what makes America great.
Reposted by Orion🌈&sm9eb
Behold: the first-ever list of news outlets that have banned generative AI in their reporting. As of today, this is literally information that you cannot find on Google.
My goal is to fill the starter pack, so please send over suggestions with supporting evidence!
go.bsky.app/8cn1XfT
My goal is to fill the starter pack, so please send over suggestions with supporting evidence!
go.bsky.app/8cn1XfT
December 17, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Behold: the first-ever list of news outlets that have banned generative AI in their reporting. As of today, this is literally information that you cannot find on Google.
My goal is to fill the starter pack, so please send over suggestions with supporting evidence!
go.bsky.app/8cn1XfT
My goal is to fill the starter pack, so please send over suggestions with supporting evidence!
go.bsky.app/8cn1XfT
Reposted by Orion🌈&sm9eb
“[I] am in the newly formed board of advisors of scientific american,” wrote Nowak, a mathematician at Harvard University and a now former member of Scientific American’s board, in an e-mail to Epstein on September 23, 2009. “It seems almost everyone there is a friend of yours.”
Bro what
Bro what
Epstein files show a complicated relationship with science and journalism
Jeffrey Epstein aggressively sought access to publishers, mentions of Scientific American and other media in Department of Justice files show
www.scientificamerican.com
February 5, 2026 at 7:24 PM
Reposted by Orion🌈&sm9eb
Oops, forgot the 🏺
New article! "Changing the Landscape of Archaeological Publishing" in Current Anthropology, by a giant collaborative group of coauthors fearlessly led by Jess Beck and including @bridgetalex.bsky.social @benmarwick.bsky.social @christinawarinner.bsky.social www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/epdf/10....
University of Chicago Press Journals: Cookie absent
www.journals.uchicago.edu
February 4, 2026 at 7:23 PM
Oops, forgot the 🏺
#2026MMM SOUND UP. It isn't #TeamAlcesAlces but there's some noble bugling and interesting antler activities.
Chasing, bugling, and wallowing. The rut never gets old. 🍂
#ThrowbackThursday #BrowningCameras #youvegottoseethis
#ThrowbackThursday #BrowningCameras #youvegottoseethis
February 5, 2026 at 11:41 PM
#2026MMM SOUND UP. It isn't #TeamAlcesAlces but there's some noble bugling and interesting antler activities.
Reposted by Orion🌈&sm9eb
a photo of the dashing handsome little gentleman for all of you kind people
February 5, 2026 at 10:59 PM
a photo of the dashing handsome little gentleman for all of you kind people
Reposted by Orion🌈&sm9eb
The National Park Service has removed visitor brochures from the Medgar & Myrlie Evers Home National Monument. Among the anticipated changes? No longer calling his murderer a “racist.”
The truth will never be erased.
mississippitoday.org/2026/02/05/m...
The truth will never be erased.
mississippitoday.org/2026/02/05/m...
Medgar Evers’ killer was a Klansman, but Trump administration says stop calling him a racist - Mississippi Today
Among anticipated changes to a new visitor brochure for the Medgar & Myrlie Evers Home National Monument is no longer using "racist" to describe the killer of the civil rights leader.
mississippitoday.org
February 5, 2026 at 10:47 PM
The National Park Service has removed visitor brochures from the Medgar & Myrlie Evers Home National Monument. Among the anticipated changes? No longer calling his murderer a “racist.”
The truth will never be erased.
mississippitoday.org/2026/02/05/m...
The truth will never be erased.
mississippitoday.org/2026/02/05/m...
Side note: my 2nd favorite undergrad paper was about the economic docs from Pylos. Interesting stuff!
📝 New year, new publication! 📝 My chapter in the 'Wor(l)ds of Linear A' conference proceedings is out, discussing the potential of phylogenetics as a method to analyse administrative devices and systems from the Bronze Age Aegean: www.academia.edu/145886993/Co...
Coded in clay: Understanding the relationships between the Linear A, Cretan Hieroglyphic and Linear B administrative systems through the application of phylogenetics
Three different administrative systems are known from the Aegean Bronze Age period – Cretan Hieroglyphics, Linear A and Linear B. Recently, there has been more intensive discussion of the types of dev...
www.academia.edu
February 5, 2026 at 11:32 PM
Side note: my 2nd favorite undergrad paper was about the economic docs from Pylos. Interesting stuff!
Thieves and scoundrels run everything now.
FOX: " Rent Now, Pay Later. It's a new option for renters who are struggling to make the monthly payment ... You pay them a fee or a monthly subscription, but if you miss the payments — that's when the interest rates go way up."
February 5, 2026 at 11:27 PM
Thieves and scoundrels run everything now.
Reposted by Orion🌈&sm9eb
Republicans really want people to go bankrupt.
February 5, 2026 at 10:04 PM
Republicans really want people to go bankrupt.
Reposted by Orion🌈&sm9eb
more chains to bind us rather than tools for our liberation
February 5, 2026 at 9:56 PM
more chains to bind us rather than tools for our liberation
Reposted by Orion🌈&sm9eb
Oh, FFS! Just make living affordable! Pay a living wage, provide health insurance, bring down inflation!
February 5, 2026 at 9:56 PM
Oh, FFS! Just make living affordable! Pay a living wage, provide health insurance, bring down inflation!
And deeply unconstitutional, IMHO.
Trump’s a fascist, but no he didn’t disgrace the National Prayer Breakfast. It *is* a disgrace. Yes it’s “bi-partisan,” if GOP dominated. It is also a private Christian nationalist event produced by an organization tied to 1/2 the dictators of the last 80 years. & literal Nazis.
February 5, 2026 at 11:23 PM
And deeply unconstitutional, IMHO.