Michael E Smith

Nice desert hikes with Kino last week and today

Raquel Welch - Aquarius & Let The Sunshine In YouTube video by MothraBlues

youtube.com/watch?v=APVw.... Truly awful video filmed at Teotihuacan, with Raquel Welch.

The Extinction of Truth Or, a Colossal Pile of Bullshit

Apropos the obvious...

substack.com/@devoevomed/...

Just accepted for the journal Global Sustainability: "Cities, Shocks, and Persistence: New Approaches to Urban Resilience in the Past."

Karl and I have different perspectives on the past, but he is an excellent scholar, a good guy, and probably an outstanding teacher.

I guess that getting a grade of A in my class doesn’t mean that you recall all the details! I’m about to retire, and it’s sad that I won’t be teaching “Aztecs, Incas and Mayas” again.

No, it’s just an eagle and snake on the Mexican flag. This does depict an omen, revealed to the Mexica by Huitzilopochtli. He told them that when they saw this, they had located the place to found their capital, Tenochtitlan.

Time to read Robertson Davies again. I’ll start with the Deptford Trilogy.

​I don’t think using large language models is unethical. I also don’t think it’s a good idea to use a nail gun as a toothbrush, even if the nail gun company runs late night television ads that say “makes a great toothbrush!”

Amazing naievete, or idiocy, or duplicity. In any case the guy is unqualified and clearly unable to negotiate with Putin.

We (@johnmcbride4lyf.bsky.social, @yutoozaki.bsky.social, @mhoeschele.bsky.social, Alex Ruf, Raphaël Powis, @musiccognition.bsky.social & I) wrote this up into a formal critique of the Science paper claiming to demonstrate beat synchronization in macaques:
doi.org/10.31234/osf...

This GOOD BOY ran onto the course during the Women’s Cross-Country Skiing Team Sprint event, crossing the finish line and being automatically recorded by OMEGA’s photofinish camera 😆

Here is some essential reading on bulllshit publishing technologies, featuring a couple quotes from me. www.wired.com/story/why-ge...

Very nice thread, thank you.

Wow, Violet looks a lot like our first dog, Xochitl (30 years ago). She was half border collie and half German short hair pointer. Best dog ever!

His history is crap

And don’t use tiny font. Use 11 or 12 point.

Make it under two pages, otherwise people will just skim some or all of the letter.

Long thread at the other place on how Karl Polanyi distorted evidence from early economies in order to support an erroneous view of pre-capitalist economics. Too much effort to post in both places.
x.com/MichaelESmit...

And so? I’m freezing here in Mesa at 60 degrees. I certainly remember Chicago winters. The Super Bowl Shuffle that they talked about during the Bears playoff game brought back memories.

Kino’s hike this morning

Showing our solidarity with Denmark and Greenland

Landscape-wide cosmogram built by the early community of Aguada Fénix in southeastern Mesoamerica The cosmogram of Aguada Fénix built over the landscape between 1050 and 700 BCE rivaled the extents of later Mesoamerican cities.

🧵The cosmogram crowd are at it again. Sigh. Cool new site, Aguada Fenix, is interpreted by Takeshi Inomata et al as a big cosmogram. The article is here: science.org/doi/10.1126/..., with a journalism article in LiveScience here: livescience.com/archaeology/.... What's wrong with that? 1/6

Bob Weir, Grateful Dead Co-Founder, Dead at 78 Bob Weir, the singer-guitarist who co-founded the Grateful Dead and later found success with Dead & Company, has died at age 78.

RIP, Bob Weir

Found this old joke from pandemic times

Sometimes I wonder what it would feel like if my ears could flop around in the wind.