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buzzhoffman.bsky.social
Brian Hoffman
@buzzhoffman.bsky.social
270 followers 590 following 66 posts
College professor and archaeologist
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buzzhoffman.bsky.social
American White Pelicans waking up #OnTheEdge in a southwestern #Minnesota pond. My contribution to today’s #BirdOfTheDay #birds #naturephotography
A compacted pod of a dozen American White Pelicans on a grey, foggy mourning. They were photographed as they were beginning to stir, some with open beaks as they shook their heads. They have the horn or flat plate on top of their orange beaks that marks breeding season.
November 26, 2025 at 2:14 PM
buzzhoffman.bsky.social
My contributions to #birdoftheday and #birdonawire are a Brewer’s Blackbird and a Field Sparrow. Both seen at #KeystonewoodsWMA. It was a beautiful early summer day with lots of bugs for the #birds. I likewise had over 70 wood ticks by the end. #worthit.
A male Brewer’s Blackbird with greenish sheen to its body, purple sheen on its head, and bright yellow eyes hangs on a grey wire fence while grasping squirming insects in its beak. A brown and tan Field Sparrow flaps its wings as it balances on a barbed wire fence. In its beak it holds a black bug with long legs.
November 22, 2025 at 8:51 PM
Reposted by Brian Hoffman
isabellemarie.bsky.social
A centuries-old grid of holes in the Andes may have been a ‘spreadsheet’ for accounting and exchange.
theconversation.com/a-centuries-...
A centuries-old grid of holes in the Andes may have been a ‘spreadsheet’ for accounting and exchange
An ancient band of thousands of precisely aligned small pits stretching 1.5 kilometres across the Pisco Valley in Peru has baffled experts for almost a century.
theconversation.com
November 16, 2025 at 9:24 AM
Reposted by Brian Hoffman
heatherrandell.bsky.social
I moved to Minnesota in June 2023 during a day when the air smelled like a campfire. When I’ve asked longtime Minnesotans about the increasingly severe smoke during our summers, they all say it was never a problem until a few years ago. And wow, this graph has got the receipts.
Graph showing the number of air quality alerts in MN from 2010 to 2025. Very poor air quality did not exist until 2021. Source: Minnesota Pollution Control Agency • Jake Steinberg, The Minnesota Star Tribune
November 14, 2025 at 9:17 PM
Reposted by Brian Hoffman
streets.mn
"The businesses north of University didn’t wait for permission. They saw opportunities in underutilized buildings and took them. They built for their neighbors rather than theoretical suburban customers."

streets.mn/2025/11/12/n...
North of University: The Midway’s Accidental Success Story
North of University represents everything the south side is not — adaptive, tight-knit, walkable — despite being Midway’s less organized, less polished side.
streets.mn
November 13, 2025 at 3:43 AM
Reposted by Brian Hoffman
secondnaturemb.bsky.social
Happy Exploding Whale Day for those who celebrate :)
jlkavanaugh.bsky.social Dr. Jeffrey Kavanaugh 🇨🇦 @jlkavanaugh.bsky.social · 13d
55 years ago today, the Oregon State Highway Division had a whale of a problem on its hands. How it solved it is the stuff of legends.

In other words: Happy Exploding Whale Day!
The Exploding Whale: An infamous moment in Oregon history creates a strangely beloved icon
YouTube video by KATU News
youtu.be
November 12, 2025 at 5:42 PM
buzzhoffman.bsky.social
Northern Lights!!!!
Night scene with well-light suburban houses and northern lights shining in the sky above. Multi-colored aurora and tree branches in silhouette.
November 12, 2025 at 3:42 AM
Reposted by Brian Hoffman
folukeifejola.bsky.social
"We live in a moment of confrontation over an attempt to hold onto the largest accumulation of the proceeds of crime. Stolen land, stolen labour, stolen lives, stolen histories, stolen time, stolen knowledges."
folukeifejola.bsky.social folukeifejola @folukeifejola.bsky.social · 21d
In this post, I reflect on the museumification of human relations, reminding us that repatriation is not only essential but that it is also about the return of intangible and unquantifiable things. "The museum is not just those buildings..."

folukeafrica.com/reflections-...
Reflections on Decolonising the Museum
…and why the museum is not just the building
folukeafrica.com
November 5, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Reposted by Brian Hoffman
clmorgan.bsky.social
After collecting examples since 2006 (!) today I decided to finally create the Museum of Dead Digital Museum Displays:

middlesavagery.wordpress.com/2025/10/29/m...

Pathetic fallacy?

Digital doom?

The pained wails of curators everywhere?

Yep.

🏺
Museum of Dead Digital Museum Displays
It truly was born from pathos. The first photograph I took was of an apple imac, on a stand, relegated to the corner next to a traditional museum sideboard. It was 2006 at the Hagia Sophia, and I w…
middlesavagery.wordpress.com
October 29, 2025 at 4:28 PM
buzzhoffman.bsky.social
I know a few 😃
sarahmackattack.bsky.social Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · Oct 24
Heyyyy we desperately need more archaeologists to volunteer to answer questions from students via video chat through @skypeascientist.bsky.social.

We have 80 unmatched teams. We’ve already matched 650 😵‍💫

If you know any archaeologists, please send them here www.skypeascientist.com/sign-up.html
Sign Up
Skype a Scientist gives you the opportunity to connect with students and the public around the world. ​
www.skypeascientist.com
October 24, 2025 at 1:24 AM
buzzhoffman.bsky.social
Got out to #CrexMeadows in western Wisconsin on Sunday to watch the #SandhillCranes flying in at sunset. So impressive. Probably a couple thousand arrivals in a little over an hour. Took over 1000 pictures! #birds #wildlifephotography
A flock of seven Sandhill Cranes with their long, spindly legs extended coming in for a landing. Sky and the birds have a rosy hue from the setting sun. A flock of six Sandhill Cranes with their long, spindly legs extended coming in for a landing amongst a large number of other cranes in a sedge meadow. Meadow and the birds have a rosy hue from the setting sun. A flock of 12 Sandhill Cranes flying against blue sky withe scattered clouds. Three Sandhill Cranes flying in the foreground with more cranes flying in the background as they arrive at their evening roosting spot.
October 23, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Reposted by Brian Hoffman
anthropology.net
A 30,000-year-old toolkit from a Gravettian hunter in today’s Czech Republic reveals a life of mobility, recycling & memory. Stone tools tell stories of survival & connection. #Archaeology #HumanEvolution #Paleolithic #Anthropology
Inside a Hunter’s Pouch: What a 30,000-Year-Old Toolkit Reveals about Gravettian Life
Stone, Memory, and Movement on the Ice Age Plains
www.anthropology.net
September 18, 2025 at 10:13 PM
Reposted by Brian Hoffman
gregseitz.com
Author (that's me) hopes ‘deep map’ of the St. Croix River watershed will inspire others www.twincities.com/2025/09/14/s...
Author hopes ‘deep map’ of the St. Croix River watershed will inspire others
Greg Seitz is working on it as an artist-in-residence at the historic Pine Needles cabin on the St. Croix River.
www.twincities.com
September 15, 2025 at 12:32 AM
Reposted by Brian Hoffman
ianhall.bsky.social
‘We’ve done it before’: how not to lose hope in the fight against ecological disaster
@drkatemarvel.bsky.social

www.theguardian.com/news/2025/se...
‘We’ve done it before’: how not to lose hope in the fight against ecological disaster
Some days it can feel as if climate catastrophe is inevitable. But history is full of cases – such as the banning of whaling and CFCs – that show humanity can come together to avert disaster
www.theguardian.com
September 11, 2025 at 7:17 AM
Reposted by Brian Hoffman
eiui.bsky.social
Beginning with beach cleanups in the 1980s, @elsadevienne.bsky.social shows in this Environmental History paper how #data-collection methods & data itself have “shaped public understandings of who is to blame for major global environmental problems such as the #plastic crisis” doi.org/10.1086/737351
Title, author’s name, and abstract from a paper about citizen science, beach cleanups, and plastic pollution during the period from the 1980s to the 2020s
September 15, 2025 at 11:48 AM
buzzhoffman.bsky.social
Got a glamorous and not so glamorous photo of this Double-crested Cormorant today. Love those gorgeous blue eyes. Surprised by the flying stream of bird poop in the next photo. #birds #nature #photography
Cormorant in all black feathers with pale orange beak and turquoise blue eyes is clinging to a dead branch while looking back over its shoulder. Cormorant perched on a dead branch while releasing a long stream of milky white poop.
September 14, 2025 at 1:37 AM
Reposted by Brian Hoffman
jarome.bsky.social
Pick an idiom: "more than meets the eye", "beauty more than skin [feather] deep" etc.

In work led by Rosalyn Price-Waldman, we describe a hidden (and ignored!) black or white layer found below the visible surface of bird feathers which helps make bird colours so striking!

🧪 🪶 #colsci
Songbirds play optical tricks to make their feather colors ‘pop’
Concealed black or white bands on feathers boost the vibrancy of bird plumage
www.science.org
August 13, 2025 at 3:35 PM
buzzhoffman.bsky.social
Had a great time at the #MinnesotaStateFair. Ate all my favorite foods including cream puffs, poutine, and corn dogs. Visited the DNR fish pond, the fine arts center, and the always fun animal barns.
Ducks in cages being viewed by visitors at the Minnesota state fair.
August 31, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Reposted by Brian Hoffman
garyhornseth.bsky.social
A website that lets you select a country or state and move it around a Mercator projection map to yield better size comparisons.

thetruesize.com, created by James Talmage and Damon Maneice
Five rescaled maps of Minnesota on a Mercator projection map, covering 1) a large part of northern Greenland, 2) a large part of northern Scandinavia, 3) a part of central Europe, 4) a region of southern India, 5) a region of southeastern Australia.
August 30, 2025 at 11:34 PM
Reposted by Brian Hoffman
carolinelucas.bsky.social
This should be headline news - the implications are horrifying …
Collapse of critical Atlantic current is no longer low-likelihood, study finds
Scientists say ‘shocking’ discovery shows rapid cuts in carbon emissions are needed to avoid catastrophic fallout
www.theguardian.com
August 29, 2025 at 8:01 AM
Reposted by Brian Hoffman
multipletrees.bsky.social
hey do you need your own personal mousepad inspector? you should adopt Winsor! he is a purrmaster. www.facebook.com/share/p/1Ljx...
a small black kitten looks very chill on a mousepad. he is EXTREMELY adorable.
August 28, 2025 at 1:59 AM
buzzhoffman.bsky.social
Warblers are on the move here in Minnesota. A great time to be out #birding. #birds #warblers #migration
A Golden-winged Warbler hangs upside down with a small grub in its beak. An American Redstart on a woody branch. Its white eye ring gray head, yellow breast, and white belly stand in contrast to the defuse green leaves in the background. A Chestnut-sided Warbler forages in a maze of thin woody branches. This bird lacks the chestnut side of breeding season males but has a beautiful greenish-yellow top, yellowish-white wing bars, and a bright white eye ring.
August 24, 2025 at 2:04 PM
buzzhoffman.bsky.social
Heard a raptor cry while out birding in the Rice Creek Preserve. Started taking photos to help ID. Unexpectedly I caught this interaction between an osprey & eagle. Too far for a good shot but still exciting to catch. The osprey was likely defending its nearby nest. #bird #nature #talons 🪶
Distant photo of an aggressive interaction between an Osprey and Bald Eagle. The osprey is diving at the eagle with its talons extended. The eagle is flying upside down with its talons extended up towards the approaching osprey and its beak open in a scream. Second photo in a series capturing an aggressive interaction between an Osprey and Bald Eagle. In this shot the osprey has started to pull out of its dive on the eagle. The eagle is still flying upside down but is twisted as it tracks the osprey’s flight.
August 5, 2025 at 1:19 PM
buzzhoffman.bsky.social
Hiking through our nearby woods I came across a family of noisy House Wrens. I watched as the young birds chased each other around until an adult showed up with a bug in its beak. I got some nice photos as the birds positioned themselves and the lucky one got to eat. Fun. #birds #nature #wildlife
An adult Northern House Wren, holding a fly in its beak, has the eager attention of two nearby fledglings. All three birds are on different branches with the surrounding leaves brightly backlit by the sun. An adult Northern House Wren is offering a small insect to its fledgling hat is perched on a lower tree branch. The adult is positioned upside down while the fledgling has a wide open beak to receive the meal. Leaves provide a bright green background.
July 31, 2025 at 9:43 PM
buzzhoffman.bsky.social
Traveling (and birding) through the Netherlands and Denmark. Lots of little birds this morning including this sweet Lesser Whitethroat near Skagen.
A small bird in a leafy bush. The bird is a Lesser Whitethroat with a gray head, brown wings and tail, cream breast, and of course a white throat. A out of focus spider web in the background adds an extra element.
July 21, 2025 at 7:51 AM