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Curt

@neoriffic.bsky.social
1.9K followers 405 following 849 posts

Archaeologist Work: CRM in BC, 🍁 Research: Ancient Southwest Asia Player/writer of TTRPGs, veteran, nerd. (he/him) Living and learning in the unceded territory of the K'ómoks First Nation. Trans Rights, BLM, MMIWG2S, Stop Asian Hate, Free Palestine

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Curt @neoriffic.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
One of the most damaging decisions in modern history was granting corporations personhood and the legal protections (i.e., distance from accountability) involved. This is 100% what is trying to be pushed through again. A machine can't be held accountable, so AI should never be considered a person.
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Curt @neoriffic.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
It's spooky month! 👻 DYK, some of the earliest documents discussing ghosts ever written (impressed?) are cuneiform tablets from over 3,500 years ago. They write of gidim (ghosts) as an everyday concern; suggesting the idea of ghosts are at least as old (probably much older) than writing itself.🏺
A tablet from ancient Southwest Asia bearing a faint tracing (enhanced by white lines) of a ghost with its hands bound being led by a woman, possibly a lover.
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Curt @neoriffic.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
CRM is squarely at the intersection of Capitalism St. and Colonialism Ave. The archaeologists and the heritage they ostensibly protect are inherently susceptible to interests and legislation actively disincentivized from promoting sustainable and equitable treatment of workers and First Nations.🏺
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Curt @neoriffic.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Any time I tell myself that a day may come when I would remember to do literally anything.
static.klipy.com
Aragorn But Notthis Day
Alt: Aragorn saying, "But it is not this day."
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Curt @neoriffic.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Normalize ruining the lives of entitled up-and-comers because of terrible decisions they made and actions they either did and/or enabled. We've already normalized it for less privileged demographics, who have often done far less violent and despicable things. Like, c'mon, guys. Fuckin'... sheesh.
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Aidan O'Sullivan @aidanosullivan.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
UCD's Centre for Experimental Archaeology and Material Culture's (CEAMC) researchers bring the past to life through the practice of ancient technologies and crafts. It is one of the few dedicated, full-scale, on-campus facilities for experimental archaeological research. www.ucd.ie/research/inf...
ucd.ie
Reconstructing the past
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UCD Research @ucdresearch.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
The Centre for Experimental Archaeology & Material Culture at UCD is a unique place where researchers are recreating ancient technologies to gain deeper insights into how people lived in the past. #AncientWorld_UCD #TheStoriesThatShapeUs Learn more: www.ucd.ie/research/inf... youtu.be/ZJDnN0K62Ww
youtu.be
The Ancient World: Reconstructing the Past
YouTube video by UCD Research
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Curt @neoriffic.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
"The purpose of a system is what it does," was coined by Stafford Beer in 1979. The bottom line is, it doesn't matter what a system is intended, advertised, or "supposed" to do. What matters is what it actually does in the real world, what behaviours it influences, and what outcomes it produces.
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Curt @neoriffic.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Caught up with my honours thesis supervisor this afternoon after her colloquium on the social role of taverns and the women that ran them in ancient Mesopotamia. She stoked the fire in me that was dwindling, neglected because I was focusing on work. Time to dust off the grad school application.🏺
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Curt @neoriffic.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Ah, yes. I, too, remember the classic trope of throngs of pioneers *definitely not* lining up to the windows of bejangled wagons as fast-taking grifters with bogus miracle elixirs prey on families desperate for treatments of their smallpox, cholera, diphtheria, typhoid, and dysentery.
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Orkney Library & Archive @orkneylibrary.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Today is #HobbitDay because Bilbo and Frodo Baggins were both born on September 22nd. Normally we'd shire a hobbit pun or two but it might just feel like a tolkien gesture and we don't want to embarrass our elves. Anyway it's a good day to come and boromir #Tolkien books. 📚
A shelf of books by JRR Tolkien
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Curt @neoriffic.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
If the Aunt Beru of the Kenobi series is any indication, it's because underestimating her led to several breaching attempts resulting in white armour-clad bodies strewn about the desert, so the stormtroopers decided that the liberal application of thermal detonators and flame throwers was required.
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UVicAnthro @uvicanthro.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Dr Brian Thom talks about the historic E&N Railway land grant, what it means for today, & how maps and ideas of property can inform understandings of the great land grab. TheGreatLandGrab.ca to learn about the exhibit @uvic.ca @uvicsocialsciences.bsky.social @b-thom.bsky.social tinyurl.com/2026glgbt
tinyurl.com
The Great Land Grab Interviews: Professor Brian Thom
In this interview, Professor Brian Thom from the University of Victoria introduces us to the historic E&N Railway land grant, what it means for today, and how maps and ideas of property can inform our understanding of the great land grab. Visit TheGreatLandGrab.ca to learn more about the exhibit now travelling Vancouver Island. Dr. Brian Thom’s research investigates the critical intersections of Indigenous legal orders, governance, and land rights with colonial state power, focusing on the dynamics of knowledge, culture, and place. His award-winning, community-engaged scholarship, conducted in close collaboration with Indigenous communities in Coast Salish territories, integrates ethnographic, archaeological, and applied policy research approaches to support Indigenous self-determination, advance reconciliation, and foster transformative public understanding. Chapters: 0:00-3:00 Introduction 3:01-6:03 Conflict and the E&N Railway grant 6:04-11:22 Who benefits? 11:23-15:06 What can we do? 15:07-18:37 Maps and the land grab 18:38-22:47 The legal system 22:48-27:55 BC Treaty process 27:56-29:15 Cultural sites on private lands 29:16-35:20 What is property? 35:21-37:43 What's next?
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Curt @neoriffic.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
"Are we a failed state? Check out these broads! Let's get wasted!" - the first 18 seconds of this video, with no speaking during a third of those seconds (with only a sliver of hyperbole)
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Curt @neoriffic.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
God's penis is all over the Bible, euphemistically speaking. If you read a verse with God's hand, hem, or thigh that makes you think, "Huh, that's a puzzling sentence," the author is talking about God's junk. Does this make God "male"? 🤷🏼 A great read is God: An Anatomy by Francesca Stavrakopoulou
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Curt @neoriffic.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
The wife took a screenshot of an Environmental Management course she's currently taking. She thought the representative photo of an archaeologist was funny. I see an archaeologist out standing in their field.🏺
A screenshot of a text with a photo of a man in a blue hoodie and ball cap standing in a small, shallow circular hole (a "cultural depression") in the leaf-covered ground.

The text above the photo says, "this is the picture my course chose as an example of an archaeologist 😂"

With my reply below the photo saying, "I mean... They're not wrong."
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Curt @neoriffic.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Guy in charge of procurements: "I'm looking for clean lines, ya know, muted, achromatic tones... band collar, of course. Oh! And jack boots. Gotta have jack boots. The style I'm aiming for is less 'bus driver', and more--" Designer: "Space fascist?" Guy: "Yes! That's it. Space fascist. Thank you."
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Curt @neoriffic.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
We need an AI version of Dunning-Kruger, something like... The Claude-Gemini Principal: Know nothing, AI sounds brilliant. Know a little, AI sounds accurate enough. Know more, AI sounds confused. Know lots, AI is wrong. Expert, AI is dangerous. (But it's a straight line instead of a fun curve.)📉
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Curt @neoriffic.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Hey, kids are gonna cheat. 🤷🏼 Do you really want to jeopardize the kids' futures by teaching them how to think without relying on the cheating machine? We need to be revolutionary! That's why no guidance whatsoever will be forthcoming for how to teach kids on how to safely use the cheating machine.
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Matt Gabriele @profgabriele.com · 05/09/2026
sharing again for the weekend crowd. the humanities aren't in crisis, they're under attack -- because they're dangerous to people in power, because they ask their students to imagine possible worlds.
from the article: "Our tendency to see religion as a matter of personal, interiorized belief has led us to view its study as intellectually niche—or, to put it in neoliberal corporate speak—as a “low-skill” distraction. This is true of how we view the Humanities in general, of course—that, as Lauren Horn Griffin has so well explained, they’re seen as little more than “personal enrichment.” But that, she continues, is a right-wing act of controlling unruly ideas, of pushing to the margins disciplines that ask difficult questions of “invisible” power structures—say they’re irrelevant, deny them resources, call them “unprofitable,” make them disappear. But faculty, especially but not exclusively in Religion and other Humanities disciplines, often work directly against these forces. Because the discipline of Religion is attuned to issues of (presumed) interiority as well as actions in the public sphere, it’s these faculty who are some of the best situated to ask uncomfortable questions of those in power—be they federal policymakers or university administrators. 

At (regional) public universities like ours, this means highlighting a population that is quite different by class, race, gender, and sexuality than found at, for example, the Ivies. Humanities education, including Religious Studies, helps inure students to authoritarian thinking. At their best, the Humanities are attentive to the frictions that create lived experiences—particularly those that are oftentimes marginalized. The Humanities explain how things have been different, could have been different, could be different now, and may be different in the future. They are about possible worlds."
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Curt @neoriffic.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Them: "Why is everything so damn awful?" Me: *taps meme* Them: "All this can't possibly-- Me: *taps meme, aggressively* Them: "But, if--" Me: *prints meme on a sheet of A0, folds it in half several times, grabs the Vasoline...*
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Curt @neoriffic.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Reason #2,087 why I love my wife: My wife, in increasing levels of excitement as we drive by a show and shine: "Oh, there's a car show!" "OH! They've got one of those bouncy hydraulic cars!" "OH! THERE'S A DOG!"
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Curt @neoriffic.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
This is one Humbaba-ass lookin' pie if I ever saw one. Somewhere, a cedar forest is missing its guardian.
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Curt @neoriffic.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
When I was schooling, I started using Grammarly, thinking it was an innocuous tool like spell check. I stopped using it soon after I realized the suggested syntax was not my voice, and it often suggested changes that conflicted with my point, e.g., certainty where I was highlighting uncertainty.
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Dr. Robyn S. Lacy ⚰️ @graveyardarch.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
If I hadn't yelled about it enough already, my Graveyard Guidebook is available for pre-order!! I've collected some of the links where you can get it from, please consider supporting a bb author or requesting it for your library! 🏺 spadeandthegrave.com/2026/08/05/g...
spadeandthegrave.com
“Graveyards of Eastern Newfoundland” Book Pre-Order is live!
The book cover! It’s nearly here! After two years of hard work, my first non-academic book is nearly out in the world! “Graveyards of Eastern Newfoundland: The history, stories, and une…
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Curt @neoriffic.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Do not mourn the dead, for they now bask in the light, humour, and good company of Dolly and Tim. Rather, mourn the living who must carry on without.
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Curt @neoriffic.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Humans are connection makers. People say conflict is human nature (whatever that is), but connection is far more common across and between societies. Of course people are making connections with AI companions and of course it hurts when those connections are severed. Regulate proactively ya dorks
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Curt @neoriffic.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Went for a trail run with the wife after work. It was nice! Not too hot, a great way to burn off the workday, and you can see on my heartrate the moment a big adolescent black bear jumped onto the trail right in front of us. 🤣
The heartrate monitor graph line for my run with a spike near the end when we encountered the bear, with a red arrow pointing at the peak and a cute bear emoji beneath.
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Tasting History with Max Miller @tastinghistory.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
A 4,000 year old Sumerian Date Cake for history’s worst copper merchant, Ea-nașir. youtu.be/3XI-2jLUI24?...
youtu.be
History's Worst Copper Merchant & His 4000 Year Old Cake
YouTube video by Tasting History with Max Miller
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Andrew A.N. Deloucas @aandeloucas.com · 25/08/2026
We love to see it, folks -- happy to see the narrative of Ea-nasir continue to be shaped over the last few years. Looks like getting good information out into the world helps!
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Curt @neoriffic.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Not now, dozen new wildfires! Read the room!
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Curt @neoriffic.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
USA: "Here's our last-minute demands." Canada: "Uh... so you get to decide who our trade partners are, the direction of our language and culture, and how much the cars we make cost?" USA: "Take it or leave it." Canada: "Jeepers H. Christ, bud. Yer right the fuck outuv'er. Take off, eh?" *leaves"
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Curt @neoriffic.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra, Devin Townsend, Do Make Say Think, The New Pornographers, Mother Mother, Wild Parade, Rheostatics, The Great Lake Swimmers, The Weakerthans, Matthew Good Band, Death from Above 1979, The Freakin' Hip for god's sake. Canada's musical talent is vast.
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Curt @neoriffic.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Holy Crow! Well done, Melanie! A 28.6 km (17.8 miles) unassisted swim across the Salish Sea! (The strait between Vancouver Island and the mainland.) There's orcas all up in that water. And other beasts you've only ever seen drawn in the margins of old maps. Nerves of steel and muscles to match.
A screenshot of Google maps with a red line showing the distance Melanie swam between Sechelt and Nanoose.
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Curt @neoriffic.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Archaeologist #2: The assertion that the cup was *never* filled above halfway is not supported by the evidence. Far from being pedantic, residue formation may be influenced by the specific gravity of decomposition byproducts. The ritualistic aspect, however is here unchallenged. This paper will...
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Curt @neoriffic.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Canucks! Remember that Canadian alcohol producers have spent a lot of time, effort, money, blood, sweat, and tears to meet demand and keep your local stores' shelves full. Please don't "elbows down" in a rush to purchase slightly cheaper, mass-produced American liquor, just to make Trump happy.
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Steph Halmhofer @cultarchaeo.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
The forbidden doughnut! We uncovered this inside of a cabin, near where we suspect the hearth was. It's melted and definitely a synthetic material. Maybe rubber (but it's hard), or maybe a plastic/bakelite material. Cabin built c. 1928-1932. I'm open to suggestions on what it might be! 🏺
Weird skrunkley little round object. Disformed through melting, dark grey in colour, with a small hole through its centre. It measures roughly 5.5 cms across.The other side of the weird skrunkley little round object, with a round piece of the same material encircling the central hole.
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ICAZ @icaz-news.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Friendly reminder that abstract submission for the ICAZ Conference in Vancouver, 2027 will close next Wednesday 25th of August! Make sure you get your abstract in before the deadline. You can find more details by following the link sway.cloud.microsoft/BFTVh4FAbfX6... #ICAZ #Zooarch #Vancouver2027
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qmackie @qmackie.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Tenure track Assistant Professor opening at @uvicanthro.bsky.social @uvic.ca with preference for, but not exclusively limited to, Indigenous archaeologist and speciality in Salish Sea archaeology. 🏺please share. www.uvic.ca/faculty-staf...
uvic.ca
UVic ANTH Assistant Professor NWC Archaeology - Faculty & staff - University of Victoria
Inspired by and honouring place, we are a community-minded, globally engaged university where we transform ideas into meaningful impact.
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Pat Taylor @paddyktaylor.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Terry Fox documentary premiering at TIFF one day before the 46th annual Terry Fox Run, Sept 19. It's using original footage from the Marathon of Hope recently recovered. www.cbc.ca/news/enterta...
cbc.ca
Watch the new trailer for upcoming Terry Fox documentary Run Terry Run | CBC News
The trailer for Run Terry Run, a new documentary about cancer research advocate Terry Fox featuring "never-before-seen" footage from his Marathon of Hope, was released today, one month ahead of its pr...
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UVicAnthro @uvicanthro.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Exciting new Assistant Professor position for a new archaeologist in our wonderful department! Come join us and be part of something special! www.uvic.ca/faculty-staf... @uvic.ca @uvicsocialsciences.bsky.social @uvicscholcom.bsky.social #anthropology #archaeology
uvic.ca
ANTH 280-210 - Faculty & staff - University of Victoria
Inspired by and honouring place, we are a community-minded, globally engaged university where we transform ideas into meaningful impact.
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Curt @neoriffic.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Hey, I never provided a solid yes to this interview being on the record.
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Curt @neoriffic.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Next time you experience imposter syndrome, remember that Trump started a war with Iran for no reason and then Hegseth let the 5th Fleet HQ, the center of naval command, logistics, and resupply for the region, get bombed to shit. Your not-good-but-good-enough slide deck is fine. You're doing fine.
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Curt @neoriffic.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Cooper's prose is no more archaic today than it was when I was reading it in my 9th grade English class. I'm no writer, but if I was, you'd have to hold a gun to my head to get me to pen an article declaring that I'm functionally illiterate and need a robot to translate Last of the Mohicans for me.
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Matt Thiessen @mattthiessen.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
A billionaire on his megayacht ignoring the pleas of people about to drown is just a bit too on the nose as a parable for the current state of our world. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Zuckerberg faces questions over why superyacht reportedly declined to help stranded boat
Small cruise ship rescued skiff in south-east Alaska even though Meta billionaire’s $300m megayacht was closer
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Brandi Buchman @brandibuchman.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Library funding is tied to usage.
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Curt @neoriffic.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Skills take time and resources to develop, maintain, and use. Without investing the necessary time and resources, skills will fade or never develop at all. genAI (plus cuts to education) will result in a more pronounced and accelerated decline in workers' capability, bargaining power, and rights.
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Curt @neoriffic.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Just got back from 8 days of fieldwork surveying, recording, and excavating in the Gulf Islands with a fantastic crew of brilliant and inspiring folks. Made some new friends, had more than our fair share of laughs, and even found some neat stuff. My work-cation from archaeology to do archaeology.
A bearded man wearing a ball cap and sun glasses, his beard being blown by the wind. He is sitting on a boat with an island in the background.
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Curt @neoriffic.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
*Nearly every book ever written has been by, for, or about men* *A woman picks up a pen* Why does Literature hate men?
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Curt @neoriffic.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Maybe I've just constructed an impenetrable silo where any and all news about genAI/LLMs is hot garbage. Is there any actual "good news" regarding genAI (*not* to be confused with analytical AI)? Anything beyond "feckless incurious person makes quick buck by flooding market with utter horseshit"?
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