Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

qmackie

@qmackie.bsky.social

Is this actually "tool use" any more than a raccoon getting the lid off a garbage can or a bear destroying a punky log for the ants? The wolf does not make or bring a tool to this activity. www.timescolonist.com/local-news/r...

Video: Researchers observe wild wolves using tools on B.C. coast

A female wolf learned to pull fully submerged crab traps out of the water and eat the bait inside in what could be the first known potential tool use in wild wolves.

www.timescolonist.com

November 17, 2025 at 8:25 PM

Reposted by qmackie

University of Alberta Press

@ualbertapress.bsky.social

MELTDOWN is an exploration of identity, gender power dynamics, work-life balance, competing goals and dreams, support for mental health, imposter syndrome, and the delights of writing.
https://bit.ly/41lawaq
##Science #Glaciers #Hydrology #Fieldwork #Memoir #WomenInSTEM
@snowhydro.bsky.social

November 13, 2025 at 5:00 PM

Reposted by qmackie

Dan Hicks

@profdanhicks.bsky.social

‘Dan Hicks told The Art Newspaper “While the UK's Culture Secretary continues to stall on progress on allowing national museums to make returns on a case-by-case basis, British non-national museums and even private individuals are moving ahead with returns"’
www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/11/13/p...

Private collectors’ return of artefacts to Ghana highlights UK's inaction on restitution, heritage experts say

British art historian Hermione Waterfield and South African mining company AngloGold Ashanti have retuned objects to Ghana's Asante Kingdom

www.theartnewspaper.com

November 13, 2025 at 4:36 PM

qmackie

@qmackie.bsky.social

RIP longtime B.C. Archaeologist Ian Wilson www.legacy.com/ca/obituarie... 🏺

Ian WILSON Obituary (June 10, 1946 - October 15, 2025) - Mill Bay, BC - The Times Colonist

View Ian R. WILSON's obituary, send flowers and sign the guestbook.

www.legacy.com

November 9, 2025 at 1:23 AM

qmackie

@qmackie.bsky.social

Underwater hunter-killer robots trained on images of sea urchins may be used to rehab Australian urchin barrens www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...

AI robots to stop sea urchins turning seabed into 'moonscape'

A hidden environmental crisis lurks beneath the crystal clear waters of Australia's east coast as long-spined sea urchins wreak havoc on the coast. Now scientists are trialling a new solution.

www.abc.net.au

November 7, 2025 at 6:11 PM

qmackie

@qmackie.bsky.social

An ongoing series by Shawn Gilmore . . . collecting all known appearances of “narrative string theory” (string walls, walls and floors littered with paperwork by obsessives, etc.). 🗣️🧵🌌

www.vaultofculture.com/nst

Screenshot of front page of the linked website with a massive collection of "Narrative String Theory" exemplars from TV and Movies.

November 6, 2025 at 1:21 AM

qmackie

@qmackie.bsky.social

🚫💩,🔍

www.timescolonist.com/business/bc-...

B.C. Hydro says it should have been more proactive as Site C costs overflowed

The utility says it's on track to complete the project within a $16-billion budget — almost double the original budget.

www.timescolonist.com

November 4, 2025 at 8:55 PM

qmackie

@qmackie.bsky.social

"a low-impact survey method was developed by the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band ... cultural materials returned to their original location following in-field analyses.

.. as Sanchez reiterated in the morning meeting, "everything remains in place." @b-thom.bsky.social

www.miragenews.com/field-school...

Field School Merges Archaeology, Ecology, Tribal Rights

The UO's Museum of Natural and Cultural History is helping shift the way archaeology happensStory and photos by Lexie Briggs • October 29

www.miragenews.com

October 29, 2025 at 8:59 PM

qmackie

@qmackie.bsky.social

No archaeologists.🏺

Large sign posted in a barren rocky part of Oklahoma stating "No Trespassing. No hunting. No arrowhead hunting. No firewood or post cutting. no park ranger or ex-park ranger. No Forrest Rangers. No Archaeologists. No Universities. No Birding. No Biologists. No Conservatists. No Rabid Enironmentalists."

Spelling is per sign.

October 8, 2025 at 8:31 PM

qmackie

@qmackie.bsky.social

Truth - Child Welfare - Economic Development - Gender - Land - Media

Indigenous writers on the TRC Calls to Action, 10 years later. 🇨🇦

thewalrus.ca/truth-and-re...

The Truth of Reconciliation | The Walrus

The TRC report, released in 2015, laid out ninety-four clear Calls to Action. Ten years later, Indigenous writers reflect on what has and hasn’t been achieved

thewalrus.ca

October 8, 2025 at 7:11 PM

qmackie

@qmackie.bsky.social

"Cordes knew that anytime a code was written, a new algorithm developed or a cryptocurrency exchanged, there was a new chance to encode Indigenous epistemology." #AI #Indigenous #highered

thetyee.ca/Culture/2025...

Ashley Cordes Is Indigenizing the Algorithm | The Tyee

AI, cryptocurrency and other tech are known for their disruptive potential. But an Indigenous media scholar insists they can also be systems of abundance.

thetyee.ca

September 30, 2025 at 5:29 PM

qmackie

@qmackie.bsky.social

#unexpectedprimatology #downfall 🦍🦧🐒

Scene from the movie Downfall, in which Hitler says “and what applies to spies must definitely apply to humans”

September 19, 2025 at 2:01 AM

qmackie

@qmackie.bsky.social

Excellent brief review of the process which led to the recent Cowichan land claims court decision, by noted scholar of Indigenous:Crown legal relationships, Professor Hamar Foster

www.timescolonist.com/opinion/comm...

Comment: Cowichan land decision was a long time coming

The reckoning it represents is the product of decades of ignoring a constitutional obligation that pre-dates section 35 of the 1982 Constitution.

www.timescolonist.com

September 3, 2025 at 12:32 AM

qmackie

@qmackie.bsky.social

Traces of blue Indigo, derived from inedible plants (e.g., Woad), at a 34,000 year old site in the Caucasus points to very early plant-based dyes and pigments. Article includes nice video of replicative experiments. phys.org/news/2025-09... 🏺

Traces of blue indigo on 34,000-year-old grinding tools suggest new Paleolithic plant use scenarios

An international research team coordinated by Ca' Foscari University of Venice has identified the presence of indigotin—a blue dye compound—on stone pebbles dating back to the Upper Paleolithic. This ...

phys.org

September 2, 2025 at 9:46 PM

qmackie

@qmackie.bsky.social

Canadian geoscientists are planning to revise formal geological unit names to eliminate culturally insensitive or offensive terms. Open Access. cdnsciencepub.com/doi/full/10.... 🏺⚒️

Screenshot of text from article, reading: Some geological units named in the past have, unfortunately, utilized toponyms that are now considered culturally offensive or otherwise inappropriate. Although the Code, in Articles 17–20, provides substantial guidance on the revision or abandonment of existing formal stratigraphic names, until recently it did not address the problem of offensive unit names. Despite what would now be considered inappropriate nomenclature, such units remain scientifically valid. For example, in northern New Brunswick the name “Squ*w Cap” had long been used for a mountain and a nearby community, and has also been applied to an intrusive unit of rock, the “Squ*w Cap Felsite”, which crops out in the area (e.g., Wilson et al. 2004). The word “squ*w” is now widely seen as a slur against Indigenous women and girls due to racialized, sexist, and denigrating connotations and ties to European colonization (Bright 2000; King 2003; U.S. Department of Interior 2022). Accordingly, official efforts have resulted in changes to the geographic names, as Meto'mqwijuig Mountain and the community of Evergreen (Cox 2023; Urquhart 2023). These welcome changes do not, however, affect the validity of the name of the felsite unit as the Code emphasizes (Article 7, Remark d) that the renaming of a geographic feature does not affect a formal geological unit that is named after it. The New Brunswick Geological Surveys Branch is, however, currently undertaking steps as outlined below to change the associated unit name (D. Dahn, personal communication, 2025).

September 2, 2025 at 6:45 PM

qmackie

@qmackie.bsky.social

The 1891 opening of Port Pirie / Broken Hill lead mine and Smelter in South Australia showed up almost immediately in Antarctic Ice. theconversation.com/lead-polluti... #anthropocene

Grap showing that 1891 opening of Port Pirie lead smelter in Australia almost immediately shows up as lead isotopes deposited in Antarctic ice cap.

September 2, 2025 at 1:23 AM

qmackie

@qmackie.bsky.social

Over-reliance on International students for cynical financial reasons (high tuition) was administrative malpractice at BC Universities, yet the consequences are falling only on faculty and staff.

www.timescolonist.com/local-news/w...

'Wake-up call': Decline of international students forces layoffs, program suspensions at B.C. schools

The University of Victoria, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, the University of B.C., Simon Fraser University and Langara College have reported international enrolment declines of as much as 60 per cen...

www.timescolonist.com

September 1, 2025 at 10:28 PM

qmackie

@qmackie.bsky.social

Archaeology of Skateboarding at Kelvin Wheelies in Glasgow. More info here: www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a... 🏺🛹

August 29, 2025 at 12:35 AM

qmackie

@qmackie.bsky.social

This older article is making the rounds again via @kottke.org - interesting that once again a spectacular find was languishing on museum shelves, this time for 90 years. Gift link. 🏺 🎵🐚 #archaeology

www.nytimes.com/2021/02/10/s...

Hear the Sound of a Seashell Horn Found in an Ancient French Cave (Published 2021)

www.nytimes.com

August 28, 2025 at 8:12 PM

qmackie

@qmackie.bsky.social

So casual: "Stories of murders passed down by Yamatji elders confirmed by cipher hidden in 1850s journals of prominent Western Australian pastoralist Major Logue. Now descendants on both sides want to break the shame and silence." @b-thom.bsky.social

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Screenshot of the original diary showing how cursive writing turns into an angular rune-like code when murders are described.

Text and encoded message describing murder of Aboriginal men in 1852, Western Australia.

4 April 1852

Started after breakfast and accompanied by Carsons we pushed in search of the natives who had taken the cattle saw smoke about 2 miles from Walkaway reached within a mile of it… proceeded from a native encampment tied up our horses in a thicket as the [ground] was very rough and crawled on our hands and knees within 200 yards when the natives saw us and scattered

FIRED BOTH BARRELS OF MY GUN AND WOUNDED ONE FELLOW IN THE RUMP. THOMSON AND DICKY SHOT ONE DEAD

There are 11 coded diary entries between 1851 and 1853 that describe shooting and killing people; witnessing others in his employ doing the shooting; going on a “campaign” to kill natives; and later riding over the “battlefield” and seeing the bodies of those he had killed lying dead or “hastily buried”.

By his own account he was part of groups who shot and killed at least 19 Yamatji people around what is now called Ellendale, Walkaway and the Greenough River.

Text and translated code of 1852 journal entry describing the murders:

4 April 1852

Started after breakfast and accompanied by Carsons we pushed in search of the natives who had taken the cattle saw smoke about 2 miles from Walkaway reached within a mile of it… proceeded from a native encampment tied up our horses in a thicket as the [ground] was very rough and crawled on our hands and knees within 200 yards when the natives saw us and scattered

FIRED BOTH BARRELS OF MY GUN AND WOUNDED ONE FELLOW IN THE RUMP. THOMSON AND DICKY SHOT ONE DEAD

There are 11 coded diary entries between 1851 and 1853 that describe shooting and killing people; witnessing others in his employ doing the shooting; going on a “campaign” to kill natives; and later riding over the “battlefield” and seeing the bodies of those he had killed lying dead or “hastily buried”.

By his own account he was part of groups who shot and killed at least 19 Yamatji people around what is now called Ellendale, Walkaway and the Greenough River.

August 5, 2025 at 8:43 PM

qmackie

@qmackie.bsky.social

"... in a beautiful twist of expectations, scientists have now found that the louder the monkey’s calls, the smaller the monkey’s balls."🐒🏑 #primatology #anthropology

www.vice.com/en/article/t...

The Louder the Monkey, the Smaller Its Balls, Study Finds

Howler monkeys can be well-endowed in the voice box or the family jewels, but not both.

www.vice.com

August 1, 2025 at 4:08 PM

qmackie

@qmackie.bsky.social

A significant step towards enhanced marine stewardship and the safeguarding of culturally significant ocean spaces to [...] "assert our rights and manage our core marine territory as the saltwater people of Tsawout"

www.vicnews.com/local-news/t...

Tsawout Nation goes high tech to safeguard historic waters of Saanichton Bay

The buoy, nicknamed 'QEN'T Junior' was deployed on July 4

www.vicnews.com

July 31, 2025 at 4:26 PM

qmackie

@qmackie.bsky.social

@historicalmarker.bsky.social This sign may miss a lot of nuance ….

David @archaeomather.bsky.social · Jul 31

Weather beaten and vaguely creepy interpretive sign that was once at the site of Camp Release in Minnesota, now on the porch at the Chippewa County Historical Society in Montevideo.

“CAMP RELEASE.
IN THIS VICIWITY STOOD
THE SIOUX VILLAGE OF RED IRON, A FRIENDLY CHIEF DURING THE OUTBREAK OF 1862. HIS
OPPOSITION CHECKED THE HOSTILE RETREAT AND ALLOWED OTHER FRIENDLIES TO GAIN POSSESSION OF THE WHITE CAPTIVES.
HERE ON SEPTEMBER
26, 1862, SOME 269
PRISONERS WERE RELEASED TO GEN. SIBLEY.
NOW A STATE PARK.”

July 31, 2025 at 2:49 AM

qmackie

@qmackie.bsky.social

[the Kula ring ] was a strictly ceremonial system geared to enhancing the prestige of male elites [....] ensconced in an atmosphere of pretend hostility between the parties.

Trump explained, by Anthropologist Arjun Appadurai(!)

www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...