Jae the Sugar Bunny

A ghost stegosaurus visiting their newly discovered bones. They’re so happy you found them!

When people tell me, an archaeologist, what they find exciting about our profession

* big royal jewelry

* ancient temples

* decoding a long lost language

* dinosaurs

What actually gets us excited

* that time we were lucky with the weather

* when the digger knows his job

* lifting skeletal remains and the ribs don’t break

* when you manage to put the scale down for a photo without creating new crumbs

In addition to these because those were spectacularly relatable for Australian archaeology:

Can’t answer the berry thing with 100% certainty so I’ll let @rhysintherain​​ explain it if they’re willing but I can answer the obsidian thing: obsidian is an EXTREMELY useful material. Can be cut into incredibly sharp and fine tools and weapons. Has been used by humans for eons. Plus it’s pretty. Obsidian also has a very specific geographic range because it is created by volcanic eruptions from magma with specific mineral components. So when you find some in a geographic location that doesn’t have any natural obsidian? You have solid evidence of human trade networks. Very exciting indeed.

On top of that, obsidian can be fingerprinted to the exact flow it came from, to the point where Rudy Reimer has identified several flows from the same volcano with different fingerprints.

So if you find a piece of obsidian at a site and go “huh, I wonder where that came from?” There’s a solid chance you can send it to someone with an XRF gun and they’ll be able to tell you.

The berry patches thing isn’t as widely recognised or utilised in applied archaeology (although it really, really should be), but Chelsea Armstrong has done some amazing work with descent communities that combines ethnobotany and archaeology, and has found that the density and diversity of food plants, especially trees and shrubs, is higher near old village sites than in “wild” forest.

These forest gardens were cultivated by indigenous communities before contact, and even after the people were removed from their villages they continue be incredibly productive sources of food.

There’s an abandoned village site on crown land near where I grew up that is surrounded by a circle of extremely dense berry bushes. At a site where I worked a few years ago, the area was covered in patches of native wild mint. A site I visited that was home to a very wealthy precontact village there was considerably more Saskatoon berry shrubs than anywhere else in the area.

The plants remember where they were taken care of. The stones remember where they were born. The best archaeologists know how to listen to that sort of thing.

There’s a mulberry tree right next to the Iroquois village site on the grounds of the museum I work at. I’ve eaten from it. The berries are still so, so good.

Also:

Is the implication here that:

a) Kermit has worked with him so long, he should know Gonzo has no dignity

b) Gonzo has worked with Kermit this long, only because he has no dignity

c) Gonzo has no dignity as a result of how long he has worked with Kermit

Why is this worded like an ACT/SAT question?

d) all of the above.

e) Gonzo is changing the subject, after having given what he believes to be a satisfactory answer

my gf is a barbie collector and these dolls in particular just exude cottagecore to me, i’m obsessed

anyone else with autism feels like they were ahead of their peers as a child but now they are so far behind them.

as a child i felt more mature and more like an adult than everyone else, i read books and i followed all directions and i wasn't being goofy and annoying. i got along with teachers much better than anyone my age and just felt above everyone.

now, i just feel like a permanent 13 year old. people my age are getting into relationships where as i cannot imagine being that close to someone else (and frankly i dont think anyone has ever been interested in me that way). people are traveling out of the country with friends and drinking alcohol where as i feel like that is not a thing i should be doing and it feels like breaking rules even my own mum expects me to be like an adult and makes fun of me (lovingly) that i ask her for permission to go outside when im going to be moving out in like 2 months.

idk i just feel weird and alone. i feel like i wont ever find people that i will get along with beyond the surface level

"Dude, look at my cat. He's so skrunkly," I say as I hold out towards you what is very clearly an opossum

look at this awesome crab i drew

(he stims by clacking his claws :D)

Lunch ideas

These are actually amazing??? This can really help me eat more??? And are legit good and creative lunches??? THANK YOU IM AAAAAAAAA-

wobbleblobbe

If you would report an undocumented immigrant to ICE you would have reported me to the Nazis and I don’t fucking trust you

A note:

I live in a state where you “have to” report anyone you suspect of being undocumented (that wonderful hellhole of Arizona). Now in practice this law has fallen far short, thank goodness. But if you live in such a place and they start enforcing it, here is how you get around it:

Assume everyone who doesn’t speak English is visiting.

Never ask about their job, because if they tell you they work here then you know they’re not visiting. You see them a lot for several weeks or months? Hm. Someone in the family must be ill. That’s terribly tough. They always dress in old, ratty laborers’ clothes? I feel you, my dude, I can’t afford new clothes either, and my dad has the fashion sense of an aardvark, so sometimes it’s not even about “affording” them. They say they’ve been here for years? You must have misunderstood. Spanish isn’t your first language, after all. First and last name? It never came up, or you don’t recall–you meet a lot of people.

And then, if you’re asked: no, you haven’t seen anyone residing illegally in the United States. Just people visiting.

Very good very important addition

Essentially, this is the civil society version of a work-to-rule strike.

Don’t do more than is expressly asked of you, and do what you are asked with such an intense attention to protocol that not asking you at all becomes more effective than even bothering.

In this case:

“Have you seen an illegal immigrant?”

“Could you describe an illegal immigrant, officer?”

*officer describes a person who is in the country without appropriate paperwork, or who has crossed the border illegally*

“No, sir, I haven’t seen any illegal immigrant.”

And this is correct. You have NOT seen an illegal immigrant, because you have no way of knowing if Jose Fulano is here legally or not. And since you can’t see his paperwork (or lack thereof), and did not personally see him cross the border illegally, you are only answering precisely the question asked.

I’m not American, and I have like, three followers, but this is important.

So, I’m a lawyer, who deals with immigration though does not specialize in it. But here’s the thing(s): 

1) Even someone who’s working could be here on a migrant (or other sort of) visa (hey, there are a few thousand per year, and *someone*’s got to get them, right?) or could be waiting for their case to resolve in immigration court, after having come to America to join a born or naturalized American family member. 

2) Even people who are working improperly could have come into the country legally – and just overstayed their visa or be violating the conditions of their visa, and you have no idea what the niggly little regulations that govern that might be. 

3) If a law enforcement officer asks you about a neighbor/friend/etc., take this moment to remind them that, unlike them, you cannot ask a random person off the street for their ID and be entitled to a response. 

4) Even if someone has told you that they are undocumented, you still don’t know, do you? Humans lie all the time. How could you know for sure? You can’t, because they can’t prove that they have a lack of papers. Just because you haven’t seen papers doesn’t mean they don’t exist! 

5) Don’t ever talk to cops in general. Why are you talking to a cop? Stop that, as soon as it is safe and feasible. 

Love,

a very tired public defender

Having ur main emotional response be crying is so embarrassing like ill be trying to explain why im mad or ill try having a serious convo abt smthn that upsets me and ill start crying like a baby and i have to like turn around and go “i am not crying 4 pity or to emotionally manipulate u im crying cuz im a little bitch, give me a sec”

Damn this post rlly struck a cord with u guys hello mfs who cry easily i love all of you and care you