It’s a work from home Friday from in lovely North Dakotaland. I’ve set up my home office at long last and despite it being 40 degrees (F) this morning, I have managed to get it warm enough to write this mornings quick hits and varia.
- Some music to brighten your morning:
- Some kind of “bizarre Chinese old person choir” singing Lady Gaga.
- An amazing Pakistani group playing Brubeck’s Take 5.
- El Tren Fantasma – Sounds of a train trip across Mexico.
- This was brutal, but it’s nice to see that people haven’t lost their sense of humor over it.
- More music related. A stack of stereo banners. I want the New Archaeology of the Mediterranean World to broadcast in STEREO.
- Is taking attendance worth it? Think about it on Teaching Thursday.
- One of our history majors coordinated the National Roll Call on UND’s campus. Why to go Mr. Pegg.
- This is a vaguely depressing summary of recent scholarship on the state of American universities.
- The Grand Forks B’nai Isreal Synagogue an the Montefiore Cemetery earned a spot in the National Register of Historic Places. For more on the history of the synagogue go here.
- Along similar lines, people have nominated Wikipedia for a place on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
- Remember the 2011 Cyprus Research Fund lecture is Monday at 4 pm on the beautiful University of North Dakota’s campus in the elegant East Asia Room of the Chester Fritz library. A reception kindly provided by the Department of History will follow.
- Some old speedometer designs from Chevrolets (which made appearances in other GM cars).
- More abandonment porn. This time it is an abandoned building in Bangkok. (via Boing Boing)
- Even more: the abandoned train platform beneath the Waldorf-Astoria.
- A murmuration on video. Pretty amazing. (via Richard Rothaus)
- Pretty cool thoughts on the McRib Sandwich.
- Some great stuff from Whitewashed Tomb especially when Mr. Whitewash himself teamed up with Corinthian Matters to think about tsunamis and the harbor at Lechaion in the Corinthia.
- Some amazing photographs and analysis at Objects-Buildings-Situations.
- What I’m reading: James C. Scott, The Art of Not Being Governed. Yale 2009.
- What I’m listening to: Talk Talk, Laughing Stock; Suuns, Zeroes QC
Snow:
My newest tour vehicle:
Archaeology of the Mediterranean World 