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qmackie.bsky.social
qmackie
@qmackie.bsky.social
290 followers 690 following 280 posts
Archaeologist (retd.), idiot looking for a village, used to run @uvicanthro on tw*tter, paleocoasts, dog!, yyj
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qmackie.bsky.social
qmackie @qmackie.bsky.social · Nov 12
Hello Blue Sky. Just a nice picture from some long ago archaeological work in Haida Gwaii. I may revisit my blog soon and get back to the slow web. TTYS.
Deep archaeological excavation in rainforest in Haida Gwaii
qmackie.bsky.social
The darker side of LiDAR: overlooking or erasing Indigenous people theconversation.com/aerial-lidar... #archaeology #lidar 🏺
Aerial lidar mapping can reveal archaeological sites while overlooking Indigenous peoples and their knowledge
Aerial lidar raises ethical questions because it can collect data remotely without the knowledge or consent of Indigenous and descendant populations that are on the ground.
theconversation.com
January 30, 2026 at 5:31 AM
qmackie.bsky.social
Another year of archaeological field school planned at Tse'k'wa (“Rock House” in Dane-zaa Záágéʔ), also known as Charlie Lake Cave, in NE BC www.cbc.ca/news/canada/... 🏺
Archaeology field school planned this spring for ancient cave near Fort St. John, B.C. | CBC News
One of over 57,000 known archaeological sites in the province, Tse'k'wa is a record of 12,500 years of human settlement and environmental change dating back to the last ice age. It's a sacred space to...
www.cbc.ca
January 29, 2026 at 9:42 PM
Reposted by qmackie
mdpetraglia.bsky.social
An artistic impression of what we uncovered at Xigou and a snapshot of what life was like in central China 100,000 years ago www.livescience.com/archaeology/...
160,000-year-old sophisticated stone tools discovered in China may not have been made by Homo sapiens
Archaeologists have found the oldest known evidence of hafted tools in East Asia, and they challenge a previously held assumption about stone tool use.
www.livescience.com
January 27, 2026 at 7:57 PM
qmackie.bsky.social
Premier of BC: [the Heritage Conservation Act] "isn’t working for anybody. It’s not working for property developers, it’s not working for First Nations and it’s not working for the natural resources sector.” 🏺 @b-thom.bsky.social www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/ar...
Why two skulls unearthed in B.C. could be harbingers for future archeological woes
Last June, landscapers working on a site in Kamloops, B.C., came upon a troubling discovery — two human skulls and jawbones.
www.ctvnews.ca
January 27, 2026 at 7:54 PM
qmackie.bsky.social
Four CEOs in 5 years and the RBCM still seems rudderless and unfocused. New interim leader looks to change that. 🏺

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
Royal B.C. Museum interim CEO acknowledges there’s more to do on diversity, reconciliation | CBC News
Ry Moran is the museum’s fourth CEO since 2021, when then-CEO Jack Lohman stepped down after allegations of racism from Indigenous staff.
www.cbc.ca
January 26, 2026 at 8:55 PM
qmackie.bsky.social
Dear American friends: seems like a good time to revisit these 2016 rules for surviving an autocracy, most importantly, "Your Institutions Will Not Save You" www.nybooks.com/online/2016/...
Autocracy: Rules for Survival | Masha Gessen
In the face of the impulse to normalize, it is essential to maintain one’s capacity for shock. This will lead people to call you unreasonable and hysterical, and to accuse you of overreacting. It is n...
www.nybooks.com
January 24, 2026 at 8:00 PM
qmackie.bsky.social
Archaeological processes in BC have many points of failure, many stemming from a "security through obscurity" mindset @b-thom.bsky.social 🏺

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
Former Vancouver Island real estate agent fined $66K after failing to disclose archaeological significance | CBC News
B.C.'s financial services regulator has fined a former Vancouver Island real estate agent $66,500 after she failed to disclose that a property she sold was listed as archaeologically significant.
www.cbc.ca
January 24, 2026 at 7:15 PM
Reposted by qmackie
johnhawks.net
I'm really impressed with this new work on rock art from Sulawesi, dated to more than 68,000 years ago. I know it will be controversial but I predict that this will end up being the first signs that scientists recognize of Denisovans in the region.

www.johnhawks.net/p/rock-art-m...
Rock art may be far older than modern humans in Sulawesi
Dating of a panel with two handprints puts their production sometime before 68,000 years ago.
www.johnhawks.net
January 22, 2026 at 1:15 AM
qmackie.bsky.social
Intriguing evidence for active whale hunting at least 5,000 years ago on southern Brazilian coast 🏺🐳🇧🇷

www.uab.cat/web/sala-de-...
Whale hunting in South America began 5,000 years ago, a millennium earlier than previously thought
The hunting of large whales goes back much further in time than previously thought. New research from ICTA-UAB and the Department of Prehistory...
www.uab.cat
January 12, 2026 at 9:37 PM
qmackie.bsky.social
AI which, for a change, is kind of fun. 🇬🇱🍊

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hS0w...
Greenland Defense Front - The Hungry Giant (Official Music Video)
YouTube video by demonflyingfox
www.youtube.com
January 11, 2026 at 9:23 PM
qmackie.bsky.social
Almost everything you need to know about Erich von Däniken (dead yesterday): "Chariots of the Gods" was edited and largely rewritten by Nazi writer and editor Utz Utermann, who held important positions in the official Nazi newspaper Völkischer Beobachter, amongst other pubs and party activities 🏺👽
Example front page of Volkischer Beobachter, an official Nazi party newspaper
January 11, 2026 at 8:57 PM
qmackie.bsky.social
"Our recent study indicates there are between 419 and 713 archeologists [sic] employed in CRM in Canada. These are almost certainly underestimates. However, our study further suggests that labour market demand is outpacing supply." @b-thom.bsky.social 🏺

theconversation.com/canada-has-t...
Canada has too few professional archeologists, and that has economic consequences
Protecting heritage in Canada requires training more archeologists and equipping them with the tools and education to do so.
theconversation.com
January 9, 2026 at 6:18 PM
qmackie.bsky.social
Moose shedding his antlers
January 9, 2026 at 4:38 AM
Reposted by qmackie
drspacejunk.bsky.social
'I haven't been the most serious blogger, only writing when the mood takes me. Some years this has been very little. But it has been my constant companion as I have developed some of my core ideas in space archaeology.' (post from 2024)
🧪 🏺 #SpaceArchaeology #Blog
20th anniversary of the Space Age Archaeology blog
Illustration by Jens Notroff . It just occurred to me that I have been writing this blog for 20 years. My first post was on July 4, 2004, a...
zoharesque.blogspot.com
January 7, 2026 at 11:28 PM
qmackie.bsky.social
Archaeologists and community historians on the trail of Chinese cowboys in Eastern Oregon: "Working as cowboys, cooks, shepherds, foreman and even as ranchers themselves, these individuals have been hidden in plain sight on the Oregon frontier." 🏺

www.opb.org/article/2026...
Archaeologists and community historians on the trail of Chinese cowboys in Eastern Oregon
Recent investigations have linked Chinese Americans with more than 30 historic ranches in Eastern Oregon, including one south of Dayville in Grant County.
www.opb.org
January 8, 2026 at 12:09 AM
qmackie.bsky.social
"Intelligence is really about learning:" attention #highered @b-thom.bsky.social

(open link): www.ft.com/content/e3c4...
January 5, 2026 at 10:46 PM
qmackie.bsky.social
Stayin' Alive (AD 1577 version) www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zGf...
If Stayin' Alive Had Been Written in 16th Century
YouTube video by Jonasquin
www.youtube.com
December 25, 2025 at 9:26 PM
qmackie.bsky.social
Good essay on Julius Lips' prescient 1937 book "The Savage Hits Back, or, The White Man through Native Eyes." 🏺 #anthropology #racism

www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/69/ha...
Looking Back at the White Man | James G. Harper and Philip W. Scher
The story of Julius Lips
www.cabinetmagazine.org
December 12, 2025 at 4:19 PM
qmackie.bsky.social
Proposed metric for artificial satellite collision risk: the CRASH clock. Now at 2.8 days, prior to starlink-type "megaconstellations" in 2018 clock was at 121 days. @drspacejunk.bsky.social

Summary of arxiv paper here

mastodon.social/@sundogplane...
Screenshot from Professor Sam Lawler on mastodon reading: "One of the scariest parts of this project was learning more about Starlink's orbital operations. I had always assumed they had some kind of clever configuration of the satellites in the orbital shell that minimized conjunctions, and we would see the number of conjunctions grow over time in our simulations. But no! It's just random! There's no magic here, it's just avoiding collisions by moving a Starlink satellite every 2 minutes. This is bad."
December 11, 2025 at 7:16 PM
qmackie.bsky.social
cc: @b-thom.bsky.social
royalhistsoc.org Royal Historical Society @royalhistsoc.org · Dec 11
What does Gen AI mean for the work of the historian and the value of historical experience, skills and craft?

'The Historian in the Age of AI' by @chriscampbell1.bsky.social.

New Comment article now available in 'Transactions of the Royal Historical Society' bit.ly/4atErTB #Skystorians 1/2
Front page of 'Transactions of the Royal Historical Society' Comment article, title 'The Historian in the Age of AI', by Chris Campbell. Full abstract: "This comment interrogates the methods and conclusions of Working with AI, a recent report conducted under the auspices of Microsoft, which identified historians as the profession with the second-highest ‘AI applicability’. It finds that the authors’ conclusions are based on an erroneous simplification and misrepresentation of a historian’s typical professional tasks, which have been publicly amplified by extensive media coverage. This comment then offers a wider provocation about the report’s conception of a professional historian, and whether it is related to the public application of ‘historian’ to a number of different practitioners with varied training and qualifications. In particular, it seeks to highlight a paradox which the report exposes: that we cannot defend the specialist training and expertise of professional historians against the encroachment of AI without also separating the academic skills and qualifications of historians from those engaged in more popular forms of historical writing and communication. The comment questions how we might grapple with this paradox without reverting to academic elitism."
December 11, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Reposted by qmackie
kellyblack.ca
If you’re angry about the Cowichan decision, lay the blame where it belongs. For more than a century, provincial and federal governments have tried to dodge the issue of Indigenous Title — creating problems for First Nations and private property owners thenarwhal.ca/opinion-eker... #bchist #cdnHist
The Cowichan decision is a long time coming | The Narwhal
Governments of Canada and B.C. laid the groundwork for the Cowichan decision by ignoring the issue of Indigenous Title for more than a century
thenarwhal.ca
December 11, 2025 at 5:36 PM
qmackie.bsky.social
Listened to the Reith Lectures with Rutger Bregman on the "Moral Revolution" we need in this moment.

Much to agree and disagree with, but disappointing how he relies on "human nature" as the foundational rock of morality. So naive, simplistic, reductionistic.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/a...
BBC Radio 4 - The Reith Lectures - BBC Reith Lectures 2025 – Moral Revolution
Historian and author Rutger Bregman announced as BBC Radio 4's Reith lecturer for 2025.
www.bbc.co.uk
December 11, 2025 at 1:57 AM
qmackie.bsky.social
A Seattle meme artist known as Sunday Nobody put Handsome Squidward’s face from SpongeBob on an ancient Greek statue and sank it to the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea "to confuse future archeologists" 🏺🧽

More of this please

greekreporter.com/2025/12/10/p...
Prank Artist Sinks Ancient Greek-SpongeBob Mashup in the Aegean Sea - GreekReporter.com
The Greek region of Halkidiki was the chosen location for the latest elaborate prank by American artist Sunday Nobody.
greekreporter.com
December 11, 2025 at 1:43 AM
qmackie.bsky.social
Logged onto @dropbox.com for the first time in a few years because invited to a shared folder. Wow has that service ever gone to absolute 💩. Won't let me view that folder because I'm "out of space" and "running out of space". Full of AI slop.

Am using zero of 2.5 gigs space. Won't be back.
November 28, 2025 at 12:47 AM
qmackie.bsky.social
Is this actually "tool use" any more than a raccoon getting the lid off a garbage can or a bear destroying a punky log for the ants? The wolf does not make or bring a tool to this activity. www.timescolonist.com/local-news/r...
Video: Researchers observe wild wolves using tools on B.C. coast
A female wolf learned to pull fully submerged crab traps out of the water and eat the bait inside in what could be the first known potential tool use in wild wolves.
www.timescolonist.com
November 17, 2025 at 8:25 PM