Notices by Martin Rundkvist (mrundkvist@archaeo.social), page 3

@DavidH It would be easier for me to be a Leftie if I trusted the intelligence and basic decency of at least one of a) the Revolution, b) the voters.

#Capitalism was a historically contingent abstract game back when it involved the manipulation of coins with an actual value in precious metals. Today it mostly doesn't involve any kind of physical money at all. A US dollar is no more real than a DogeCoin or an NFT monkey picture. And the rules of the game are no more natural laws now than they were in AD 1400. 1/2

#boardgames

We have founded the well-being of our societies on emergent behaviours of an extremely large number of people playing Settlers of Catan with our #labour and the planet's resources. 2/2

#capitalism #boardgames

@clacke In Poland where I work, the Ministry for Higher Education simply publishes a list of journals with point scores from 1 to 200, based largely on bibliometry. My job as a research scholaer is simply to get a lot of points. It's a flawed system, but it's a great relief to have a clear task with clear evaluation criteria.

I directed some public criticism towards Hindawi Publishing eleven years ago. Looking them up anew, I found this:

"In 2023, Wiley announced after over 7000 article retractions in Hindawi journals that it will cease using the discredited Hindawi brand and will integrate Hindawi’s 200 remaining journals into its main portfolio."

https://retractionwatch.com/2023/12/06/wiley-to-stop-using-hindawi-name-amid-18-million-revenue-decline/

#academia #openaccess

@panoptikontraband @Mabande Jag kom på mig själv här om dagen med att undra om jag verkligen borde ägna mer uppmärksamhet åt Palestinakonflikten än åt alla andra långa serier av ömsesidiga krigsförbrytelser världen runt som jag knappt vet om alls.

Crickets used to be a problem for Swedish bakers in the winter time. They hatched in the warmth of the ovens, fed on flour and were a nuisance.

#history #baking #insects

@pettter Ja många, men din fråga förvånar mig. Menar du att det är en rent meritokratisk process som har lett till dagens situation med 60-70% lokalproducerade professorer? Det menar ingen annan.

@pettter Starka meriter kan till exempel vara om du du har skrivit tio artiklar i topptidskrifter och jag har skrivit tre i medelgoda tidskrifter. Då skall förstås du ha jobbet. Även om jag är prefektens gamla doktorand och du kommer från Trondheim.

Mitt fackförbund har släppt en rapport om "resurskrisen inom humanistisk och samhällsvetenskaplig forskning". Man kräver bl.a. tryggare anställningar inom akademin. Men rapporten nämner inte "merit" eller "kvalifi" (-kation, -cerad etc.).

Jag efterlyser också tryggare anställningar inom akademin, men bara för folk med starka meriter. Då 60-70% av svenska professorer är anställda där de disputerade är ju meritokratin sedan länge i stort sett satt ur spel.

https://dik.se/om-oss/nyheter/att-forsta-och-forklara-samhallet

#academia

I'm on Zealand now. Looks like I'll be home only five hours later than planned, despite all the missed connections along the way from Venice. System resilience!

#travel #trains

#Hamburg Central: a place where it is always either traumatically early or traumatically late. I have no idea what this place is like in early afternoon.

#travel #trains

@kjetil_kilhavn @forteller Kanske en kombination vore bra? Bågskytte på fotbollsspelare under pågående match? Stillastående måltavla är för enkelt.

Ullr is not an important god in the late written sources from West Scandinavia. But place names around lakes Mälaren and Hjälmaren show that he was one of the main divine powers in the more easterly land of the Swedes. These are the remnants of a drained lake named Ullavisjön, Lake of Ullr's Shrine.

#vikings #paganism

Hey everyone who knows about modern African #history. Which sub-Saharan country's post-colonial history has been the least awful for the people?

#Africa

Is my server back online? Can anyone outside of archaeo.social read this?

The National #Portrait Gallery's new painting of #Nobel laureate Svante Pääbo by Sixten Sandra Österberg is... unconventional.

https://www.nationalmuseum.se/om-nationalmuseum/nyheter/%C3%A5rets-hedersportr%C3%A4tt-svante-p%C3%A4%C3%A4bo

#art #archaeogenetics

Hey people who understand academic journal #publishing and #economics. What is the textbook way out of a situation where the price of a commodity rises to extremes because customers have irrationally decided that only a certain small number of brands are any good? The inherent quality of all brand products on this market is basically the same.

#academia

When I took up my distance work position with a Polish university in 2020, I was a little embarrassed to be the only academic archaeologist in Sweden who worked for a Crypto-Fascist government. Then came the Swedish election of 2022 and the Polish election of 2023. And so, after the upcoming Polish transfer of power, I'm suddenly going to be the only academic archaeologist in Sweden who *doesn't* work for a Crypto-Fascist government.

#svpol #poland #archaeology #academia

#Danish "Jeg kan lide den" means "I like it". In #Swedish, the phrase means roughly "I am able to endure the pain of it".

#language