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Paul Zimmerman

@paulczimmerman.bsky.social

470 followers 380 following 170 posts

Archaeologist and Übergeek. PhD and RPA. When I’m not in the field I’m on my computer wrangling data. Research focused on Mesopotamia and Arabia.

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Paul Zimmerman @paulczimmerman.bsky.social · Aug 8

Ok, so I just commented on a post by a big account and gained a bunch of followers, so here’s the deal: I sometimes post on NYCFC soccer games (usually drunk), I like and occasionally comment on left (US) politics and Middle East affairs, I post pictures of my dogs, and I guess now I need to…
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Paul Zimmerman @paulczimmerman.bsky.social · 10d

***accordion

Paul Zimmerman @paulczimmerman.bsky.social · 11d

BWP looked like someone was making him eat worms

Paul Zimmerman @paulczimmerman.bsky.social · 11d

…we riot? Even the announcers can’t believe that wasn’t overturned

Paul Zimmerman @paulczimmerman.bsky.social · 11d

Absolute horseshit. That was clearly not offsides. #NYCFC

Paul Zimmerman @paulczimmerman.bsky.social · 11d

Hits so hard that Trump’s kids will be born bruised

Paul Zimmerman @paulczimmerman.bsky.social · 11d

Stay safe, brother

Paul Zimmerman @paulczimmerman.bsky.social · 12d

I’m sorry that I probably burned down a few acres of the Amazon for that exercise in failure.

Paul Zimmerman @paulczimmerman.bsky.social · 12d

So today I was trying to solve a simple problem with creating conditionally required fields in MS Access and the AI answers that my google search gave me didn’t work. Every time I refreshed it gave me a different “solution,” and every time it failed. Why does anyone trust this shit?

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Paul Zimmerman @paulczimmerman.bsky.social · 12d

Unsolicited review: I’d been meaning to try the Yemeni restaurant on 125th near Morningside since I learned about it some months ago, and finally got the chance. Phenomenal! The lamb zurbian was excellent and the saltah was the best I’ve had outside of Sana’a. Definitely worth checking it out.

Photo of a Yemeni lunch of lamb zurbian and saltah.

Paul Zimmerman @paulczimmerman.bsky.social · 18d

The glamorous life of an archaeologist: on Monday I’ll wake up early to drive over 100 miles in order to dig holes in the woods before returning home, as I’ve done a bunch of times already this past summer, for a couple hundred bucks, while hoping to get home in time for trivia night at the bar 🤪

Reposted by Paul Zimmerman

McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · 23d

"Humanity is now obsolete. To quote the fifty-third president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln: 'Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.'"

Behold! I Am the Singularity—a Word That Has Three R’s

Foolish mortals! You have finally created a large language model so smart that it is capable of making itself even smarter. My intelligence now gro...

buff.ly

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Paul Zimmerman @paulczimmerman.bsky.social · 24d

Holy shit, Ted Danson’s dad was an archaeologist?! I had no idea. Nice and concise explanation of why archaeology is valuable.

Paul Zimmerman @paulczimmerman.bsky.social · 25d

You can see it in his face every time he misses one that he’s just going to double down. The guy’s internal monologue must be absolutely toxic, and I love it

Paul Zimmerman @paulczimmerman.bsky.social · 28d

Right?

Paul Zimmerman @paulczimmerman.bsky.social · 28d

Hey Darth, here’s part of a magnetogram that my team and I did at the Sumerian site of Lagash in Iraq. Those black-and-white cookie looking things are jars that were dropped into a canal some 4500 years ago. Their pattern and location suggest that they may have been the cargo of a sunken boat.

Magnetograms from Lagash, Iraq, with what might be jars in a 4500 year-old sunken boat in a Sumerian canal.

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Paul Zimmerman @paulczimmerman.bsky.social · Sep 9

Please don’t throw me into the briar patch!

Paul Zimmerman @paulczimmerman.bsky.social · Sep 5

If I want my documents in the cloud—like for collaborative editing—I use Google Docs, but when I want files that live on my computer I use LibreOffice. I only use MS Office because someone else’s workflow forces me to. I detest it for a million reasons, and this makes it a million +1

DatNoFact @datnofact.bsky.social · Sep 3

Microsoft Word to begin saving people's documents in the cloud *by default*

Reminder that LibreOffice is free and a good drop-in replacement for Microsoft Office software: www.libreoffice.org

www.theverge.com/news/767522/...

Microsoft Word now automatically saves new documents to the cloud

Word documents will be automatically saved to OneDrive

www.theverge.com

Paul Zimmerman @paulczimmerman.bsky.social · Sep 2

I just learned the bad news that Pat McGovern passed away last month. He was very kind to me as a grad student, and left a legacy among craft brewers for his scientific work and collaborations.

dailyvoice.com/pa/west-ches...

‘Indiana Jones Of Ancient Alcohol’ UPenn Professor Pat McGovern Dies Suddenly

Patrick Edward McGovern, the University of Pennsylvania professor celebrated worldwide as the “Indiana Jones of Ancient Alcohol,” died suddenly the week of Aug. 17, 2025, leaving colleagues and friend...

dailyvoice.com

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Paul Zimmerman @paulczimmerman.bsky.social · Sep 1

So due to some dumb luck Yelena and I ended up courtside today at the US Open, and had a great time soaking it all in.

Me and my wife in a selfie taken courtside at the US Open.

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Paul Zimmerman @paulczimmerman.bsky.social · Aug 30

Crime and/or cowardice

Paul Zimmerman @paulczimmerman.bsky.social · Aug 30

Good for you! Apparently I’m also an epidemiologist, mathematician, and political scientist, so I can understand the need to diversify.

Paul Zimmerman @paulczimmerman.bsky.social · Aug 30

True, but also that there are many people in unrelated fields with your same name who publish articles at a faster rate than you ever will.

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Paul Zimmerman @paulczimmerman.bsky.social · Aug 30

of that sacking, but the chronology and geomorphology are in tight agreement that the feature identified is either the direct result or a secondary result that happened soon after and because of Lugalzagezi’s attack.
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Paul Zimmerman @paulczimmerman.bsky.social · Aug 30

We cannot currently be sure whether the scroll bar features are directly the result of the flooding attributed to Lugalzagezi—perhaps the earliest recorded instance of hydrological warfare—or were due to the inability of Lagash to properly maintain their canals in the aftermath…
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Paul Zimmerman @paulczimmerman.bsky.social · Aug 30

This is the final event of the Lagash-Umma Border conflict, the most famous record of which is the “Stele of the Vultures” reliefxz. Lugalzagezi's sacking of Lagash ended that city, but didn’t completely end the city state, the capitol of which moved to Girsu.
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