Notices by Martin Rundkvist (mrundkvist@archaeo.social)

This is amazing from a Swedish perspective. After grad students formed a #labour #union at Boston #University (privately owned, est. 1839) and striked for seven months, BU has now discontinued admissions to PhD programmes in a dozen humanities and social sciences. Including my subject, #archaeology. The two Deans in charge "referenced the new collective bargaining agreement multiple times as the source of what they called 'budgetary implications'."

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/admissions/graduate/2024/11/19/bu-suspends-admissions-humanities-other-phd-programs

#academia #boston

@anarchiv It would surprise me. Have you seen Norwegian men?

Reminds me of that pick-up artist dude who wrote books about coercing women into sex in various countries, and then he went to Denmark and everybody just ignored him. 😄

Checking out the big yokai exhibition at the #Stockholm Ethnographic #Museum.

#japan

Studied the plan of a fictional ranch house near a Texas frontier town in 1875, printed in a Wild West #ttrpg scenario. It has a dedicated indoor bathroom. With a toilet. But no indoor entrance. You have to exit the building and go around the corner to enter the bathroom.

#history #architecture

Thank you Zuckerberg. Through my personal bespoke #advertising feed you have offered me plus-size ladies fashion, Gay Sauna the Boardgame, and a membership in Sverigedemokraternas Kvinnoförbund Västsverige. And today, you go all in and offer me a bargain on an ADHD diagnostic programme. While also relentlessly feeding me pictures of 80s Goth bands that I didn't listen to.

#facebook

@phistorians In Scandyland it focuses more on the feudal allegiances among faculty and former students at the department.

@jannem When I was in grad school my department had no external funding. Our situation was extreme, caused by our Chair's debilitating alcoholism.

@jannem Vid svenska högskolor är forskning ett tillval som man får försöka finansiera själv. Om en institution inte sköter undervisningen blir man däremot nedlagd.

Learned something that suddenly makes my career make a lot more sense. There is no mechanism in Swedish higher ed that punishes a university department for a low research output. Only for a low student throughput.

#academia

Worrying news today about #Northvolt laying off 1600 workers in three Swedish cities. #Skellefteå needs the jobs, and the world needs electrical cars made with green electricity.

#EVs #climate #sweden

#genx #reading

American boardgame podcasters love to name-drop Ikea's shelf system Kallax, which is perfect for big designer boardgames. Few most likely know that it refers originally to a small fishing village near Luleå in #Sweden, home to a regional airport and a popular brand of fermented herring.

#boardgames #ikea

A friend of mine who suffers from crippling self-criticism has repeatedly asked me how I can write so much, get stuff finished and submitted and published. I always give her the same true but useless answer. The trick is that I'm just unbelievably conceited. I *love* reading my own stuff! 😄

#writing

#books

Uni Łódź archaeologist, table-top gamer, book worm, punster, science fan, blogger, Leftie, Swede

#archaeology #ttrpg #boardgames #books #science #blogging #progressive #sweden #poland #introduction

@clacke Thanks, I'll look it up

@libreoffice Please, how do I get a shorter language list in the Character Alternatives box? I shift all the time between two languages only. The complete language list is useless to me there.

In Sweden, a larger proportion of women than men enter higher education. Now, here's something for the #immigration debate. 62% of women born in Sweden to two immigrant parents enter higher ed. Only 55% of women born in Sweden to two non-immigrant parents do.

https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/vast/tjejer-med-invandrarbakgrund-pluggar-allra-mest-toppar-listan

#education

I like to borrow #books from the #Library of Parliament in #Stockholm's Old Town. Amazing old bank building.

#libraries #architecture

A central proposition of the international #peace movement is this. The problem isn't their army and the solution isn't our army. The problem is armies.