#american school of prehistoric research

[basicallyanotherwitchesthing]

C.C. Lamberg-Karlovsky - Excavations at Tepe Yahya, Iran, 1967-1969 - ASPR/AIPU - 1970

[kardilier]

Challenging prehistoric gender roles: Research finds that women were hunters

It's a familiar story to many of us: In prehistoric times, men were hunters and women were gatherers. Women were not physically capable of hunting because their anatomy was different from men. And because men were hunters, they drove human evolution.

But that story's not true, according to research by University of Delaware anthropology professor Sarah Lacy, which was recently published in Scientific American and in two papers in the journal American Anthropologist.

Lacy and her colleague Cara Ocobock from the University of Notre Dame examined the division of labor according to sex during the Paleolithic era, approximately 2.5 million to 12,000 years ago. Through a review of current archaeological evidence and literature, they found little evidence to support the idea that roles were assigned specifically to each sex. The team also looked at female physiology and found that women were not only physically capable of being hunters, but that there is little evidence to support that they were not hunting.

Lacy is a biological anthropologist who studies the health of early humans, and Ocobock is a physiologist who makes analogies between modern day and the fossil record. Friends in graduate school, they collaborated after "complaining about a number of papers that had come out that used this default null hypothesis that cavemen had strong gendered division of labor, the males hunt, females gather things. We were like, "Why is that the default? We have so much evidence that that's not the case,'" Lacy said.

The researchers found examples of equality for both sexes in ancient tools, diet, art, burials and anatomy.

"People found things in the past and they just automatically gendered them male and didn't acknowledge the fact that everyone we found in the past has these markers, whether in their bones or in stone tools that are being placed in their burials. We can't really tell who made what, right? We can't say, 'Oh, only males flintknap,' because there's no signature left on the stone tool that tells us who made it," Lacy said, referring to the method by which stone tools were made. "But from what evidence we do have, there appears to be almost no sex differences in roles."

The team also examined the question of whether anatomical and physiological differences between men and women prevented women from hunting. They found that men have an advantage over women in activities requiring speed and power, such as sprinting and throwing, but that women have an advantage over men in activities requiring endurance, such as running. Both sets of activities were essential to hunting in ancient times.

The team highlighted the role of the hormone estrogen, which is more prominent in women than men, as a key component in conferring that advantage. Estrogen can increase fat metabolism, which gives muscles a longer-lasting energy source and can regulate muscle breakdown, preventing muscles from wearing down. Scientists have traced estrogen receptors, proteins that direct the hormone to the right place in the body, back to 600 million years ago.

"When we take a deeper look at the anatomy and the modern physiology and then actually look at the skeletal remains of ancient people, there's no difference in trauma patterns between males and females, because they're doing the same activities," Lacy said.

During the Paleolithic era, most people lived in small groups. To Lacy, the idea that only part of the group would hunt didn't make sense.

"You live in such a small society. You have to be really, really flexible," she said. "Everyone has to be able to pick up any role at any time. It just seems like the obvious thing, but people weren't taking it that way."

Man the hunter

The theory of men as hunters and women as gatherers first gained notoriety in 1968, when anthropologists Richard B. Lee and Irven DeVore published "Man the Hunter," a collection of scholarly papers presented at a symposium in 1966. The authors made the case that hunting advanced human evolution by adding meat to prehistoric diets, contributing to the growth of bigger brains, compared to our primate cousins. The authors assumed all hunters were male.

Lacy points to that gender bias by previous scholars as a reason why the concept became widely accepted in academia, eventually spreading to popular culture. Television cartoons, feature films, museum exhibits and textbooks reinforced the idea. When female scholars published research to the contrary, their work was largely ignored or devalued.

"There were women who were publishing about this in the '70s, '80s and '90s, but their work kept getting relegated to, "Oh, that's a feminist critique or a feminist approach,'" Lacy said. "This was before any of the work on genetics and a lot of the work on physiology and the role of estrogen had come out. We wanted to both lift back up the arguments that they had already made and add to it all the new stuff."

Lacy said the "man the hunter" theory continues to influence the discipline. While she acknowledges that much more research needs to be done about the lives of prehistoric people—especially women—she hopes her view that labor was divided among both sexes will become the default approach for research in the future.

For 3 million years, males and females both participated in subsistence gathering for their communities, and dependence on meat and hunting was driven by both sexes, Lacy said.

"It's not something that only men did and that therefore male behavior drove evolution," she said. "What we take as de facto gender roles today are not inherent, do not characterize our ancestors. We were a very egalitarian species for millions of years in many ways."

[southeastasianarchaeology]

American School of Prehistoric Research Junior Fellowship

Harvard's ASPR offers Junior Fellowships for PhDs in Old World prehistory, with a focus on independent research and limited teaching.

Harvard University’s American School of Prehistoric Research (ASPR) is offering Junior Fellowships for recent PhD graduates focusing on Old World prehistory. These postdoctoral research fellowships provide an opportunity to pursue independent research and offer one course per year. With a stipend of $80,000 plus a $20,000 research allowance, the two-year fellowship, extendable to three,…

[myfeeds]

Fossils reveal dinosaurs of prehistoric Patagonia

The fossils represent the first record of theropods — a dinosaur group that includes both modern birds and their closest non-avian dinosaur relatives — from the Chilean portion of Patagonia. The researchers’ finds include giant megaraptors with large sickle-like claws and birds from the group that also includes today’s modern species. “The fauna of Patagonia leading up to the mass extinction was really diverse,” said lead author Sarah Davis, who completed this work as part of her doctoral studies with Professor Julia Clarke at the UT Jackson School of Geosciences Department of Geological Sciences. “You’ve got your large theropod carnivores and smaller carnivores as well as these bird groups coexisting alongside other reptiles and small mammals.” The study was published in the Journal of South American Earth Sciences. Since 2017, members of the Clarke lab, including graduate and undergraduate students, have joined scientific collaborators from Chile in Patagonia to collect fossils and build a record of ancient life from the region. Over the years, researchers have found abundant plant and animal fossils from before the asteroid strike that killed off the dinosaurs. The study focuses specifically on theropods, with the fossils dating from 66 to 75 million years ago. Non-avian theropod dinosaurs were mostly carnivorous, and include the top predators in the food chain. This study shows that in prehistoric Patagonia, these predators included dinosaurs from two groups — megaraptors and unenlagiines. Reaching over 25 feet long, megaraptors were among the larger theropod dinosaurs in South America during the Late Cretaceous. The unenlagiines — a group with members that ranged from chicken-sized to over 10 feet tall — were probably covered with feathers, just like their close relative the velociraptor. The unenlagiinae fossils described in the study are the southernmost known instance of this dinosaur group. The bird fossils were also from two groups — enantiornithines and ornithurines. Although now extinct, enantiornithines were the most diverse and abundant birds millions of years ago. These resembled sparrows — but with beaks lined with teeth. The group ornithurae includes all modern birds living today. The ones living in ancient Patagonia may have resembled a goose or duck, though the fossils are too fragmentary to tell for sure. The researchers identified the theropods from small fossil fragments; the dinosaurs mostly from teeth and toes, the birds from small bone pieces. Davis said that the enamel glinting on the dinosaur teeth helped with spotting them among the rocky terrain. Some researchers have suggested that the Southern Hemisphere faced less extreme or more gradual climatic changes than the Northern Hemisphere after the asteroid strike. This may have made Patagonia, and other places in the Southern Hemisphere, a refuge for birds and mammals and other life that survived the extinction. Davis said that this study can aid in investigating this theory by building up a record of ancient life before and after the extinction event. Study co-author Marcelo Leppe, the director of the Antarctic Institute of Chile, said that these past records are key to understanding life as it exists today. “We still need to know how life made its way in that apocalyptic scenario and gave rise to our southern environments in South America, New Zealand and Australia,” he said. “Here theropods are still present — no longer as dinosaurs as imposing as megaraptorids — but as the diverse array of birds found in the forests, swamps and marshes of Patagonia, and in Antarctica and Australia.” The research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Agency for Research and Development of Chile, and the Jackson School of Geosciences. The study’s co-authors include Clarke and researchers at the University of Chile, Major University, the University of Concepción and the Chilean National Museum of Natural History.

[otrtbs]

hello, hope you're doing well! not quite to do with your fics, moreso art history itself. uh, i know you're studying art history (as you've mentioned) and i (a curious student who must make decisions and who was rereading ahb! and decided that they miss the subject) wanted to ask what were the things you cover in your art history courses? like, what all is it that you study and do, i suppose. i did art before for my finals before dropping it when choosing my IB HLs (like a levels, i suppose) but i'm not sure how much of that is the same i guess. ANYWAY, i did some research but i thought i could ask someone who's as passionate in the subject as you are.

sorry if this is an inconvenience or anything else, lmao

not an inconvenience at all!! i’m so happy to answer/talk about this!!

so the way my university course was structured for undergrad, we had three lower division art history classes. (Core Art Studio 1, Prehistoric-Renaissance Art Survey, Renaissance-Contemporary Art Survey) where the survey classes were lecture style seminars where we went over major art movements, artists, and pieces of each time period. Like a giant crash course in art history over the course of human existence essentially.

Then we had to take three mandatory upper division classes. (Art History Politics of Display, (why/how we display art in museums and the implications of that) Art History Methodologies, (how to analyze art and the frameworks we use. like feminist, queer, postmodern lenses etc) And Art Historical Research (basically independent class to write a paper on an art history subject of your choosing. Like a mini dissertation or thesis normally the paper you’d submit for graduate programs when you apply)

And then the rest of our art history classes had to satisfy different regions and time periods. So you needed one European Art History class, One African or Middle Eastern Art History Class, One Latin American Art History Class, and then One Oceanic Art History Class or Arts and the Diaspora class

and then time periods you needed one prehistoric art history class, one classical civilization class, one renaissance time period, one 1800s, one modern.

And you could double dip so if I took class in exploring sexuality through Italian statutes in the 1500s class or smth it would count as a European art class and a renaissance class. (So you can check off an area and time period)

If you have any hour requirements that need to be met after you meet the above requirements you are free to take any other art history courses you want (this is how you can have an area of focus or concentration as an undergrad) so if I took a lot of modern art classes then I could say I had a bachelors degree in Art History with an emphasis on Modern Art

You span all time periods and regions of Art with an art history degree!! You tend to specialize in an area in graduate school or in your PhD program :)

I hope this makes sense!!! And wasn’t too confusing/too much!! <33

[carnegiemuseumnaturalhistory]

Follow Your Dreams, My 70 Years as an Archaeologist

Archaeology usually conjures up Indiana Jones as an example of the thrills and dangers of archaeological research. Archaeology is a relatively safe occupation, although there are exceptions, such as the archaeologist who stood on top of a Mayan pyramid who was struck by lightning. There are many fields of archaeology that focus on geographic areas and time periods, from hunters and gatherers over hundreds of thousands of years to the last 10,000 years of the rise of civilizations around the world. There are many cultural specialties in archaeology such as Egyptology, Classical archaeology, focusing on the Mediterranean Greek and Roman, Mayan, Inca, U.S. Southwest and so forth. A field represented in Pittsburgh is Biblical archaeology at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary with its Kelso Museum of Near Eastern Archaeology. At the University of Pittsburgh in the Department of Anthropology there is a focus on Mexico, Central and South America, Eastern Europe, China, and Central Asia with currently over 30 graduate students and faculty conducting research in these regions.

The Section of Anthropology of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, for over 100 years, has conducted archaeological research in Egypt, Israel, Central Asia, Caribbean, Costa Rica, Peru, the Upper Ohio Valley and holds collections from other areas of the Americas and the world though donations or purchase. The richness of the Section’s collections can be seen in Walton Hall of Ancient Egypt, Polar World: Wyckoff Hall of Arctic Life, and Alcoa Foundation Hall of American Indians.

From an early age I wanted to be an archaeologist. My father was worried that archaeology wouldn’t provide much of a livelihood, so he arranged a visit with the director of the Peabody Museum at Harvard when I was a teenager. My father asked the director J. O Brew if one could make a living as an archaeologist and he answered, “it’s better if you’re independently wealthy.” This didn’t deter me from following my dream of becoming an archaeologist. My archaeological career is filled with luck and serendipity where seizing an offered archaeological opportunity or discovery of a significant artifact, not only guided my research, but where I worked. I have a parallel career in historic colonial sites and in prehistoric maritime adaptations. I became intrigued with archaeology at an early age visiting the Springfield Science Museum and joining a chapter of the Massachusetts Archaeological Society based at the museum. I went out on their excavations at sites in the Connecticut River Valley, one which was in 1957 in South Hadley where I learned how to uncover burials. From summering in the Lake George area of New York State I became interested in historic archaeology due to all the French and Indian War (1754-1763) forts in the region. In 1952 at age 16, I was a crew member for two summers at the excavations of Fort William Henry, made famous by James Fenimore Cooper’s novel The Last of the Mohicans.

Excavation of Fort William Henry at the Head of Lake George, New York 1952. (Photo Credit Dr. Richardson)

Fort William Henry was destroyed by French and Indian forces in 1757. In 1952, excavations and reconstruction of the fort began on what became a major tourist attraction. Photos show Dr. Richardson pointing to a photo of his 16-year-old self-excavating the site. (Photo Credit: Dr. David Watters)

I also summered on Martha’s Vineyard where in 1954 I dug at a coastal site with an associate of the Martha’s Vineyard Museum which stimulated my desire to become a maritime archaeologist. At St. Lawrence University I majored in Sociology and Anthropology and in 1957 I wrote a letter to the Smithsonian Institution asking to go on one of their expeditions and was accepted on a crew that set up a tent camp on the Big Bend of the Missouri River in South Dakota excavating at the Black Partisan village site. While at SLU I also was a crew member in 1959 at the excavations of Johnson Hall in Johnstown, NY, the home of Sir William Johnson, the British Superintendent of Indian Affairs during the French and Indian War.

Smithsonian Institution camp on the Lower Brule Sioux (Lakota) Indian Reservation in South Dakota, 1957. (Photo Credit: Dr. Richardson)

Dr. Richardson in the Smithsonian Camp 1957. (Photo Credit: Warren Caldwell)

Dr. Richardson lounging at the Black Partisan Site, an excavation of an earth lodge at Lower Brule Reservation. (Photo Credit: Warren Caldwell)

Dr. Richardson excavating a food storage pit at the Black Partisan Site. (Photo Credit: Warren Caldwell)

At Syracuse University for my master’s, I crewed in 1962-63 on 3 sites in up-state New York directed by William A. Ritchie, the State Archaeologist from the New York State Museum. I mentioned to him my interest in maritime archaeology and urged him to develop a research project on Martha’s Vineyard, which he did, excavating 6 sites from 1962-1966 on which I of course I participated. After Syracuse in 1963, I with my wife Judy went to the University of Illinois for my Ph.D. in northeastern U.S. archaeology, focusing on the maritime Vineyard. Here one of my advisors came out of his office and shouted down the hall to me “Jim, do you want to go to Peru?” To which I replied, “of course if you’re paying.” An excellent case of seizing the moment that fit well with my career goal of becoming a maritime specialist. In 1965 my wife Judy and I went to Talara, the second oldest operating oil field in the world after Drake well in western PA. Talara is 100 miles south of the Ecuadorian border and here I located an 8,000-year-old shell midden called Siches, which held evidence from warm and cold ocean fish and shellfish species. Based on the evidence at this coastal fishing and shellfish gathering society and other sites on the coast of Peru I and my colleague Dan Sandweiss, a Research Associate of the Section, developed the theory that this was evidence of a major shift in the change from a warm water to a cold water current washing the Peruvian north coast and the origins of El Niño around 5,800 years ago, the worldwide drought and flood disasters. My doctorate in 1969 was on the changing climate and coastal sites in the Talara region. I also dug in southern Peru at the Ring Site, an 10,500-year-old massive shell midden with cold water fish and shellfish. In addition, my students and I surveyed pyramid centers in the Talara area as well. I did return to Martha’s Vineyard in the early 80’s excavating 2 shell middens and a Colonial house site of missionaries to the Wampanoag. In western Pennsylvania in 1970 I directed a field school for the University of Pittsburgh at the Revolutionary War site of Hanna’s Town in Westmoreland County, the first County Seat west of the Alleghenies. This town of 30 log cabins and a fort was destroyed by an Iroquois and British attack in 1782. Here we excavated Charles Foreman’s tavern.

Dr. Richardson excavating Jackie Onassis’s property on Martha’s Vineyard in 1982. This site is called the Hornblower II Site. (Photo Credit: Jim Peterson)

Dr. Richardson in the cellar hole of the John and Experience Mayhew House Site c.1672-1658 on Martha’s Vineyard in 1985. (Phot Credit: Jim Peterson)

The Ring Site Ilo, Peru 1983 a 10,500-year-old Shell Midden. (Photo Credit: Dr. Richardson)

Dr. Richardson in the shell midden profile of the Ring Site, Peru. (Photo Credit: Daniel Sandweiss)

I came to the University of Pittsburgh in 1967, retiring in 2009. While at Pitt serving as chairman, I was approached by then director Dr. Craig Black to take over the chair of the Section of Anthropology in 1978 and accepted a half-time position as chief curator until my retirement in 2006. The only thing that has changed in my retirements was receiving a salary! I am currently writing up some sites from my Peruvian and Martha’s Vineyard research and have a book in press on a colonial site on Martha’s Vineyard where I am a board member of the museum. I am also still involved with Pitt graduate students and in programs at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, so little has changed in my archaeological career since I first put a shovel in the ground in 1952.

Dr. James B. Richardson III is Curator Emeritus in the Section of Anthropology at Carnegie Museum of Natural History and University of Pittsburgh Anthropology Professor Emeritus. Museum employees are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.

[brooklynmuseum]

Join us for a virtual tour of Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party by Curator Carmen Hermo. An icon of twentieth-century art, a watershed moment in feminist art and thinking, and one of the most popular artworks in our collection,  The Dinner Party celebrates the achievements of 1,038 women in Western culture, and sits at the heart of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. It’s also a perpetually popular destination for intergenerational family visits. We wish all mothers and caretakers a Happy Mothers Day! 

Judy Chicago’s monumental The Dinner Party was created between 1974–79. The artwork takes the form of a meticulously executed banquet table set for 39 individual women; each woman is honored with a hand-painted and formed ceramic plate, and an elaborate needlework runner. On the hand-cast Heritage Floor, the names of 999 other women stream out in relation to those at the table, visually representing women’s vast contributions in nearly every aspect of history.

Before entering the installation, you are greeted—and guided— by six woven tapestries, decorated with abstract imagery that evoke motifs on The Dinner Party. They convey Chicago’s vision for an equitable world, where women’s histories and perspectives are valued.

“And She Gathered All before Her,

And She made for them A Sign to See,

And Lo They saw a Vision…”

The Entry Banners are the first thing you see, but were the final objects made for The Dinner Party, woven at the San Francisco Tapestry Workshop in a feminist adaptation of Renaissance techniques.

Photo: Donald Woodman, ARS

Entering The Dinner Party’s purpose-built gallery (designed to protect fragile textiles on long-term view), the striking, iridescent ceramics of the plates and Heritage Floor catch the eye— it’s immediately conveyed that this massive artwork is meant to elevate and honor women’s histories.

Image courtesy Through the Flower Archive and Judy Chicago

Judy Chicago recalls that her education, from childhood to grad school in the 1960s, both purposefully and passively conveyed to her that women did not contribute to civilization. Part of the project of The Dinner Party was an immense research effort, to provide accurate information and context about women in history. In this image, Chicago and other workers research some 3,000 women, informing the final selection of 1,038 in the artwork.

Chicago wanted to re-write the history that she was taught: The Dinner Party subverts the dominant narrative of Western civilization by re-telling it through women’s achievements.

© Judy Chicago, Photo: Donald Woodman, ARS.

Each woman’s unique place setting shares these components:

A hand-painted ceramic plate, featuring Chicago’s vulvar “central core imagery”

An embroidered runner, with historically accurate needleworking techniques from that woman’s era 

And a golden ceramic chalice, lustrous cutlery, and napkin as accents.

Here, “historically accurate needlework” meant that The Dinner Party studio workers actually skinned a deer themselves, in a nod to prehistoric living!

Each wing features 13 women. The 8th place setting is dedicated to Hatshepsut, who was a Pharaoh of Egypt some 3500 years ago, and known as one of Ancient Egypt's most successful leaders, establishing vast trade networks and commissioning hundreds of buildings and monuments during her prosperous, peaceful reign.

© Judy Chicago, Photo: Donald Woodman, ARS

Judy Chicago valued accuracy as well as visual symbolic meaning. Brooklyn Museum curators and Egyptologists Ed Bleiberg ad Yekaterina Barbash translate the embroidered hieroglyphics for us:

That first row reads “Effective One, Living One, Favored One of the City (Thebes).”

On the second wing, a place is set for the writer, philosopher, and mystic nun Hildegarde of Bingen, a 12th century polymath renowned to this day for her musical and lyrical chant compositions.

Judy Chicago drew on medieval art’s clarity of form, which educated illiterate believers about the Bible. The Dinner Party helps inform viewers who may not know women’s historical contributions.

Every element of The Dinner Party conveys a distinct detail about the woman represented, or a symbolic reference to all women’s oppression and erasure.

If you were standing in front of Hildegarde’s place setting, you wouldn’t be able to see this amazing embroidery on the back of the runner depicting her visionary drawing. Instead, you can only see it by moving around the table, and reading “through” and “across” history, alluding to how we all must work to question and expand our collective stories. 

Personally, my favorite moment is the stunning runner for astronomer Caroline Herschel. Judy Chicago’s design, executed with lyrical skill in crewel embroidery by ecclesiastical embroiderer Marjorie Biggs, gives a spinning sense of Herschel’s telescopic view of our universe. 

Curatorial assistant, Jenee Daria describes this place setting: 

“Mary Wollstonecraft authored ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman,’ 1792, considered the earliest and most important treatise advocating for equality and education for women. The butterfly and vulvar motif on Wollstonecraft's china-painted plate, and its multidimensionality, represent Wollstonecraft's will and intelligence which metaphorically undulate by the strength of such vibrant hues and the power of her testimony.”

“The embroidered runner incorporates meticulous needlework, petitpoint, embroidery, crochet, and stumpwork to create a visual narrative of Wollstonecraft's life and an embodiment of the limitations of her environment.”  - Jenee Daria 

Here, Wollstonecraft stands outside a schoolhouse where children are taught “The education of girls is a right not a privilege!” Her youngest, Mary Shelley, would go on to write the literary classic “Frankenstein.”  

The 39th and final woman at The Dinner Party is artist Georgia O’Keeffe. The dramatic dimensionality of the plate symbolizes her artistic liberation, as well as her great success in the early 20th century amidst a hostile and male-dominated art world. Ending The Dinner Party with an artist with such a pivotal influence on feminist artists of her day, Judy Chicago emphasizes the importance of knowing one’s lineage.

Judy Chicago worked on The Dinner Party alone at first, and as the concept evolved into its truly epic scale, more than 400 collaborators worked to complete it, an undertaking that took five years. This detail is from one of three “Acknowledgement Panels” that traveled with The Dinner Party and are preserved at the Brooklyn Museum and available on our website. 

Despite this, the scheduled museum tour was cancelled after a wave of dismissive reviews from art critics: some saw the work as “kitsch,” and even “pornographic” due to its vulvar motifs. This replicated the rejection women have faced across history, while proving how radical Chicago’s reclamation of vulvar forms really was— even for the presumably avant-garde art world.

Image caption: Brooklyn Museum Libraries and Archives

Here we see people lining up at Brooklyn Museum—we hosted The Dinner Party in 1980-81 thanks to local activism and fundraising efforts. It was so popular, it marked the first time we rolled out timed tickets!

© Judy Chicago, Photo: Donald Woodman, ARS

In 2002, the Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation gifted The Dinner Party to the Brooklyn Museum, establishing a plan for the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, which opened to the public in 2007. We are so lucky to have this epic and important work on permanent view at the heart of our feminist galleries, and hope we can soon welcome you back to explore it in person for years to come.

Want to know more? Access the Brooklyn Museum’s rich online resource guide here. Including detailed entries on all 1,038 women featured in the work!

Thank you for joining us on our tour of Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party. Join us next week for another tour of our galleries! 

Judy Chicago (American, born 1939). The Dinner Party, 1974–79. Ceramic, porcelain, textile installation. Brooklyn Museum; Gift of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation, 2002.10. © Judy Chicago/Artists Rights Society, NY. (Photo: Donald Woodman/ARS, NY)

[sciencespies]

Global climate dynamics drove the decline of mastodonts and elephants, new study suggests

https://sciencespies.com/nature/global-climate-dynamics-drove-the-decline-of-mastodonts-and-elephants-new-study-suggests/

Global climate dynamics drove the decline of mastodonts and elephants, new study suggests

Elephants and their forebears were pushed into wipeout by waves of extreme global environmental change, rather than overhunting by early humans, according to new research.

The study, published today in Nature Ecology & Evolution, challenges claims that early human hunters slaughtered prehistoric elephants, mammoths and mastodonts to extinction over millennia. Instead, its findings indicate the extinction of the last mammoths and mastodonts at the end of the last Ice Age marked the end of progressive climate-driven global decline among elephants over millions of years.

Although elephants today are restricted to just three endangered species in the African and Asian tropics, these are survivors of a once far more diverse and widespread group of giant herbivores, known as the proboscideans, which also include the now completely extinct mastodonts, stegodonts and deinotheres. Only 700,000 years ago, England was home to three types of elephants: two giant species of mammoths and the equally prodigious straight-tusked elephant.

An international group of palaeontologists from the universities of Alcalá, Bristol, and Helsinki, piloted the most detailed analysis to date on the rise and fall of elephants and their predecessors, which examined how 185 different species adapted, spanning 60 million years of evolution that began in North Africa. To probe into this rich evolutionary history, the team surveyed museum fossil collections across the globe, from London’s Natural History Museum to Moscow’s Paleontological Institute. By investigating traits such as body size, skull shape and the chewing surface of their teeth, the team discovered that all proboscideans fell within one of eight sets of adaptive strategies.

“Remarkably for 30 million years, the entire first half of proboscidean evolution, only two of the eight groups evolved,” said Dr Zhang Hanwen, study coauthor and Honorary Research Associate at the University of Bristol’s School of Earth Sciences.

“Most proboscideans over this time were nondescript herbivores ranging from the size of a pug to that of a boar. A few species got as big as a hippo, yet these lineages were evolutionary dead-ends. They all bore little resemblance to elephants.”

The course of proboscidean evolution changed dramatically some 20 million years ago, as the Afro-Arabian plate collided into the Eurasian continent. Arabia provided crucial migration corridor for the diversifying mastodont-grade species to explore new habitats in Eurasia, and then into North America via the Bering Land Bridge.

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“The immediate impact of proboscidean dispersals beyond Africa was quantified for the very first time in our study,” said lead author Dr Juan Cantalapiedra, Senior Research Fellow at the University of Alcalá in Spain.

“Those archaic North African species were slow-evolving with little diversification, yet we calculated that once out of Africa proboscideans evolved 25 times faster, giving rise to a myriad of disparate forms, whose specialisations permitted niche partition between several proboscidean species in the same habitats. One case in point being the massive, flattened lower tusks of the ‘shovel-tuskers’. Such coexistence of giant herbivores was unlike anything in today’s ecosystems.”

Dr Zhang added: “The aim of the game in this boom period of proboscidean evolution was ‘adapt or die’. Habitat perturbations were relentless, pertained to the ever-changing global climate, continuously promoting new adaptive solutions while proboscideans that didn’t keep up were literally, left for dead. The once greatly diverse and widespread mastodonts were eventually reduced to less than a handful of species in the Americas, including the familiar Ice Age American mastodon.”

By 3 million years ago the elephants and stegodonts of Africa and eastern Asia seemingly emerged victorious in this unremitting evolutionary ratchet. However, environmental disruption connected to the coming Ice Ages hit them hard, with surviving species forced to adapt to the new, more austere habitats. The most extreme example was the woolly mammoth, with thick, shaggy hair and big tusks for retrieving vegetation covered under thick snow.

The team’s analyses identified final proboscidean extinction peaks starting at around 2.4 million years ago, 160,000 and 75,000 years ago for Africa, Eurasia and the Americas, respectively.

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“It is important to note that these ages do not demarcate the precise timing of extinctions, but rather indicate the points in time at which proboscideans on the respective continents became subject to higher extinction risk,” said Dr Cantalapiedra.

Unexpectedly, the results do not correlate with the expansion of early humans and their enhanced capabilities to hunt down megaherbivores.

“We didn’t foresee this result. It appears as if the broad global pattern of proboscidean extinctions in recent geological history could be reproduced without accounting for impacts of early human diasporas. Conservatively, our data refutes some recent claims regarding the role of archaic humans in wiping out prehistoric elephants, ever since big game hunting became a crucial part of our ancestors’ subsistence strategy around 1.5 million years ago,” said Dr Zhang.

“Although this isn’t to say we conclusively disproved any human involvement. In our scenario, modern humans settled on each landmass after proboscidean extinction risk had already escalated. An ingenious, highly adaptable social predator like our species could be the perfect black swan occurrence to deliver the coup de grâce.”

#Nature

[c-ptsdrecovery]

If you want to summarize the changes in family structure over the past century, the truest thing to say is this: We’ve made life freer for individuals and more unstable for families. We’ve made life better for adults but worse for children. We’ve moved from big, interconnected, and extended families, which helped protect the most vulnerable people in society from the shocks of life, to smaller, detached nuclear families (a married couple and their children), which give the most privileged people in society room to maximize their talents and expand their options. The shift from bigger and interconnected extended families to smaller and detached nuclear families ultimately led to a familial system that liberates the rich and ravages the working-class and the poor.

...Extended families have two great strengths. The first is resilience. An extended family is one or more families in a supporting web. Your spouse and children come first, but there are also cousins, in-laws, grandparents—a complex web of relationships among, say, seven, 10, or 20 people. If a mother dies, siblings, uncles, aunts, and grandparents are there to step in. If a relationship between a father and a child ruptures, others can fill the breach. Extended families have more people to share the unexpected burdens—when a kid gets sick in the middle of the day or when an adult unexpectedly loses a job.

A detached nuclear family, by contrast, is an intense set of relationships among, say, four people. If one relationship breaks, there are no shock absorbers. In a nuclear family, the end of the marriage means the end of the family as it was previously understood.

... But while extended families have strengths, they can also be exhausting and stifling. They allow little privacy; you are forced to be in daily intimate contact with people you didn’t choose. There’s more stability but less mobility. Family bonds are thicker, but individual choice is diminished. You have less space to make your own way in life.

... The period from 1950 to 1965 demonstrated that a stable society can be built around nuclear families—so long as women are relegated to the household, nuclear families are so intertwined that they are basically extended families by another name, and every economic and sociological condition in society is working together to support the institution.

But these conditions did not last. The constellation of forces that had briefly shored up the nuclear family began to fall away, and the sheltered family of the 1950s was supplanted by the stressed family of every decade since. Some of the strains were economic. Starting in the mid-’70s, young men’s wages declined, putting pressure on working-class families in particular. The major strains were cultural. Society became more individualistic and more self-oriented. People put greater value on privacy and autonomy. A rising feminist movement helped endow women with greater freedom to live and work as they chose.

...Finally, over the past two generations, families have grown more unequal. America now has two entirely different family regimes. Among the highly educated, family patterns are almost as stable as they were in the 1950s; among the less fortunate, family life is often utter chaos. There’s a reason for that divide: Affluent people have the resources to effectively buy extended family, in order to shore themselves up. Think of all the child-rearing labor affluent parents now buy that used to be done by extended kin: babysitting, professional child care, tutoring, coaching, therapy, expensive after-school programs. (For that matter, think of how the affluent can hire therapists and life coaches for themselves, as replacement for kin or close friends.) These expensive tools and services not only support children’s development and help prepare them to compete in the meritocracy; by reducing stress and time commitments for parents, they preserve the amity of marriage. Affluent conservatives often pat themselves on the back for having stable nuclear families. They preach that everybody else should build stable families too. But then they ignore one of the main reasons their own families are stable: They can afford to purchase the support that extended family used to provide—and that the people they preach at, further down the income scale, cannot.

... When you put everything together, we’re likely living through the most rapid change in family structure in human history. The causes are economic, cultural, and institutional all at once. People who grow up in a nuclear family tend to have a more individualistic mind-set than people who grow up in a multigenerational extended clan. People with an individualistic mind-set tend to be less willing to sacrifice self for the sake of the family, and the result is more family disruption. People who grow up in disrupted families have more trouble getting the education they need to have prosperous careers. People who don’t have prosperous careers have trouble building stable families, because of financial challenges and other stressors. The children in those families become more isolated and more traumatized.

Many people growing up in this era have no secure base from which to launch themselves and no well-defined pathway to adulthood. For those who have the human capital to explore, fall down, and have their fall cushioned, that means great freedom and opportunity—and for those who lack those resources, it tends to mean great confusion, drift, and pain.

... The people who suffer the most from the decline in family support are the vulnerable—especially children. ... We all know stable and loving single-parent families. But on average, children of single parents or unmarried cohabiting parents tend to have worse health outcomes, worse mental-health outcomes, less academic success, more behavioral problems, and higher truancy rates than do children living with their two married biological parents. According to work by Richard V. Reeves, a co-director of the Center on Children and Families at the Brookings Institution, if you are born into poverty and raised by your married parents, you have an 80 percent chance of climbing out of it. If you are born into poverty and raised by an unmarried mother, you have a 50 percent chance of remaining stuck.

... Consider single men. Extended families provided men with the fortifying influences of male bonding and female companionship. Today many American males spend the first 20 years of their life without a father and the next 15 without a spouse. Kay Hymowitz of the Manhattan Institute has spent a good chunk of her career examining the wreckage caused by the decline of the American family, and cites evidence showing that, in the absence of the connection and meaning that family provides, unmarried men are less healthy—alcohol and drug abuse are common—earn less, and die sooner than married men.

For women, the nuclear-family structure imposes different pressures. Though women have benefited greatly from the loosening of traditional family structures—they have more freedom to choose the lives they want—many mothers who decide to raise their young children without extended family nearby find that they have chosen a lifestyle that is brutally hard and isolating. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that women still spend significantly more time on housework and child care than men do, according to recent data. Thus, the reality we see around us: stressed, tired mothers trying to balance work and parenting, and having to reschedule work when family life gets messy.

Without extended families, older Americans have also suffered. According to the AARP, 35 percent of Americans over 45 say they are chronically lonely. Many older people are now “elder orphans,” with no close relatives or friends to take care of them.

Finally, because groups that have endured greater levels of discrimination tend to have more fragile families, African Americans have suffered disproportionately in the era of the detached nuclear family. Nearly half of black families are led by an unmarried single woman, compared with less than one-sixth of white families. (The high rate of black incarceration guarantees a shortage of available men to be husbands or caretakers of children.) ... Research by John Iceland, a professor of sociology and demography at Penn State, suggests that the differences between white and black family structure explain 30 percent of the affluence gap between the two groups.

... We can’t go back, of course. Western individualists are no longer the kind of people who live in prehistoric bands. ...We value privacy and individual freedom too much.

...Yet recent signs suggest at least the possibility that a new family paradigm is emerging. Many of the statistics I’ve cited are dire. But they describe the past—what got us to where we are now. In reaction to family chaos, accumulating evidence suggests, the prioritization of family is beginning to make a comeback. Americans are experimenting with new forms of kinship and extended family in search of stability.

... In 1980, only 12 percent of Americans lived in multigenerational households. But the financial crisis of 2008 prompted a sharp rise in multigenerational homes. Today 20 percent of Americans—64 million people, an all-time high—live in multigenerational homes.

...T he most interesting extended families are those that stretch across kinship lines. The past several years have seen the rise of new living arrangements that bring nonbiological kin into family or familylike relationships. On the website CoAbode, single mothers can find other single mothers interested in sharing a home. All across the country, you can find co-housing projects, in which groups of adults live as members of an extended family, with separate sleeping quarters and shared communal areas. Common, a real-estate-development company that launched in 2015, operates more than 25 co-housing communities, in six cities, where young singles can live this way.

[supermanfanpodcast]

Download Episode 397!

NEW FUN COMICS 1, February 1935, was published on January 11, 1935. It contained 32 pages for the cover price of 10¢. Lloyd Jacquet was the editor. It was published by National Allied Publications, the company that would evolve into the DC Comics we know today.

FAMOUS FIRST EDITION: NEW FUN COMICS #1 was published on May 19, 2020 for the cover price of $19.99.

- (8:29) I review the book, JACKIE ORMES: THE FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMAN CARTOONIST by Nancy Goldstein, published by the University Of Michigan Press in 2019. This book was 226 pages long.

- (11:45) MY PULL LIST, where I review the comic books that carried the November 2020 cover date, which were released during the month of September, and I received from Discount Comic Book Service.

- (26:45) Before the reprint of NEW FUN COMICS 1, this FAMOUS FIRST EDITION  had two introductions. The first was titled, THE START OF SOMETHING BIG, written by comic book historian Jerry Bails for a previously planned reprint of this issue that was eventually never published.

- (28:33) A SECOND INTRODUCTION was written by Roy Thomas, explaining why that first reprint never happened, and what the historical significance is of this issue.

- (30:11) JACK WOOD, subtitled PANCH VILLA Part I, a western adventure was written and drawn by Lyman Anderson, according to Mike's Amazing World Of DC Comics. The Grand Comic Book Database gives this feature the subtitle as, DON NAGLES - CATTLE RUSTLER Part I, written by Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson and drawn by Lyman Anderson. Jack Wood rode into the sunset with his final appearance in ADVENTURE COMICS 42, September 1939.

- (33:27) The adventure strip SANDRA OF THE SECRET SERVICE in THE GAVONIA AFFAIR part I, was written and drawn by Charles Flanders, according to Mike's Amazing World Of DC Comics, while the Grand Comic Book Database credits Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson as the writer and Charles Flanders as the artist. Sandra's final mission for the Secret Service would occur in MORE FUN COMICS 35, September 1935.

- (34:11) The comic strip OSWALD RABBIT, which was written and drawn by John Lindermeyer, appeared on the bottom of the page. It filled the gap at the bottom of the page below not only SANDRA OF THE SECRET SERVICE, but many of the early features in this issue. Oswald made his final appearance in MORE FUN COMICS 7, January 1936, but would make various appearances in various titles for other comic book publishers.

- (35:03) JIGGER AND GINGER, a teen humor strip, writer unknown, was drawn by Adolph Schus. They would make only one other appearance in NEW FUN COMICS 2, March 1935.

- (35:50) The adventure strip BARRY O'NEIL, in FANG GOW OF CHINA part I, according to Mike's Amazing World Of DC Comics, was written by Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson and drawn by Lawrence Lariar. Barry's final adventure occurred in ADVENTURE COMICS 60, March 1941.

- (37:17) THE MAGIC CRYSTAL OF HISTORY, a kid adventure strip, was written and drawn by Adolphe Barreaux. Bobby and Binks would take their final historical adventure via the Magic Crystal in MORE FUN COMICS 50, December 1939.

- (38:45) The adventure strip WING BRADY: SOLDIER OF FORTUNE began with THE BEDOUINS part I. Mike's Amazing World Of DC Comics credits Henry Carl Kiefer (who signed his name as de Korosett, his wife's maiden name) as the writer and artist, while the Grand Comic Book Database lists Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson as the writer and Kiefer as the artist. Brady's final adventure occurred in MORE FUN COMICS 52, February 1941.

- (40:19) Sir Walter Scott's IVANHOE was adapted to comic book form by Charles Flanders, according to Mike's Amazing World Of DC Comics, while the Grand Comic Book Database lists Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson as the writer of this adaption and Flanders as the artists. This adaption of IVANHOE ended with MORE FUN COMICS 27, December 1937.

- (41:54) JUDGE PERKINS, a humor strip, was written and drawn by Bert Nelson Haig. The Judge would only have one more misadventure, in NEW FUN COMICS 2.

- (42:57) The science fiction adventure, DON DRAKE ON THE PLANET SARO, was written by Ken Fitch and drawn by Joseph Clemmens Gretter, who signed his art as Clem Gretter. Drake had his final adventure in MORE FUN COMICS 17, January 1937.

- (44:17) LOCO LUKE, a western humor strip, was written and drawn by Jack A. Warren. Loco Luke rode into the sunset after NEW FUN COMICS 4, May 1945.

- (46:41) SPOOK RANCH was a western mystery story written by Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, using the pseudonym Roger Furlong, with illustrations drawn by Charles Flanders. The story concluded in the next issue.

- (46:41) SCRUB HARDY was a sports humor strip drawn by Joe Archibald. Hardy's sports career was cut short, only appearing again in NEW FUN COMICS 2.

- (48:19) The sports adventure strip JACK ANDREWS ALL-AMERICAN BOY was written and drawn by Lyman Anderson. Andrews' sports career would only last through NEW FUN COMICS 6, October 1935.

- (51:04) BATHYSPHERE - A MARTIAN DREAM, writer unknown, was an article about Dr. Beebe, who descended 3,000 feet in a bathysphere, and the equipment on board.

- (51:59) SPORTS, an article written by Joe Archibald, was about the Toronto Maple Leafs and a brief history of the game of hockey.

- (52:59) ON THE RADIO: THE DIAL TWISTER, maybe written by Lloyd Jacquet,  was an article asking readers to write the staff of NEW FUN COMICS and share their favorite radio shows, and the writer also shares some favorites.

- (54:27) IN THE MOVIES: TALK OF THE TALKIES, writer unknown, described some of the upcoming films in 1935, including one involving the comic book cowboy Jack Wood, a movie serial titled RUSTLERS OF RED GAP (IMDb lists the final title as RUSTLERS OF RED DOG).

- (55:24) MODEL AIRCRAFT, writer unknown, with illustrations drawn by Dick Loederer, was an article about how to make a model of the U.S. Navy plane Vought Corsair, one of the early planes that took off and landed on the first aircraft carriers.

- (56:49) HOW TO BUILD HENDRICK HUDSON'S "HALF MOON", an article written and drawn by Robert Weinstein, about a 17th Century sailing ship.

- (57:08) CAP'N ERIC, a sea adventure strip, was written and drawn by Robert Weinstein, who signed this feature Bob Weinstein.

- (58:33) BUCKSKIN JIM: THE TRAILBLAZER, a western adventure, was written and drawn by Eugene Koscik, who signed his work as "K". Buckskin Jim rode off into the western sunset after MORE FUN COMICS 18, February 1937.

- (1:01:28) The article POPULAR SCIENCE, writer unknown, had illustrations provided by Dick Loederer, who signed his work as "Loe". It covered three subjects, STREAMLINE TRAIN THAT TALKED, PUTTING THE SUN TO WORK, and A BIT OF MAGIC.

- (1:03:06) STAMPS AND COINS, writer unknown, also had illustrations drawn by Dick Loederer, who again signed his work as "Loe". This article was divided into two sections, BEGINNING A COLLECTION, about stamps, and ABOUT COINS.

- (1:03:50) The issue's final article was titled YOUNG HOMEMAKERS, writer unknown, also with illustrations provided by Dick "Loe" Loederer. This article provided advice about a well organized kitchen.

- (1:04:39) AFTER SCHOOL, a kid humor strip, was written and drawn by Tom McNamara. Lefty and Slim had their last humorous adventure in NEW FUN COMICS 6, October 1935.

- (1:05:43) CAVEMAN CAPERS, a prehistoric humor strip, was written and drawn by Dick Loederer. The fire went out for CAVEMAN CAPERS after NEW FUN COMICS 5, August 1935.

- (1:06:42) FUN FILMS: TAD AMONG THE PIRATES, was written and drawn by Adolphe Barreaux. This feature was unique among the others in this issue. It was a series of strips that you could cut horizontally and tape together into a paper film strip, viewed through a paper backdrop drawn at the top of the page. Tad's final adventure occurred in NEW FUN COMICS 3, April 1935.

- (1:07:20) BUBBY AND BEEVIL, a humor strip, was written and drawn by Dick Loederer. Bubby and Beevil's last misadventure was in NEW FUN COMICS 3, April 1935.

(1:07:41) The animal humor strip PELION AND OSSA was written and drawn by John Lindermeyer, who signed his work as Kevin Hay. Their last adventure was also in NEW FUN COMICS 3, April 1935.

- (1:08:35) This issue's final strip was the science fiction adventure 2023: SUPER POLICE, written by John Finch and drawn by Joseph Clemens Gretter, who signed his name as Clem Gretter. The Science Police investigated their last case in MORE FUN COMICS 14, October 1936.

- (1:10:11) After the reprinted issue, there were a few essays to round out this book. The first was titled, THE MAJOR WHO MADECOMICS, about Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, written by his Granddaughter, Nicky Wheeler-Nicholson. She provides a brief biography about her Grandfather, how his interests in life helped shape the features that were included in this first issue, and some of the talented comic book creators whose careers he helped influence.u

- (1:10:38) NEW FUN 1 - THE CONTRIBUTORS, brief biographies of  most of the creators in this issue, also provided by Nicky Wheeler-Nicholson, with special thanks to David Saunders for his original research.

- (1:11:17) The book's final essay was titled, A TABLOID TRADITION CONTINUES, written by Editor Benjamin Le Clear, Manager of DC Comics Library Archives. He explains how and why this issues printed at tabloid size, and a brief history of the evolution of the size of comic books, and finally the origin of the FAMOUS FIRST EDITION series in the 1970's.

- Next episode we return to our journey through the Silver Age Adventures of Superman with: SUPERMAN FAMILY COMIC BOOKS  COVER DATED MAY 1966: PART I: WORLD'S FINEST COMICS 157, PART II: SUPERMAN 186, PART III: SUPERMAN'S GIRL FRIEND LOIS LANE 65 & PART IV: ACTION COMICS 337 with ELSEWHERE IN DC COMICS' May or May/June 1966 titles.

The home for THE SUPERMAN FAN PODCAST is http://thesupermanfanpodcast.blogspot.com. Send e-mail to supermanfanpodcast@gmail.com.You can join the SUPERMAN FAN PODCASTGroup or Page on facebook, and follow the podcast on twitter @supermanpodcast. You can also keep track of the podcast on Tumblr, Medium, Flipboard, the Internet Archive, tunein, Stitcher, Amazon and Instagram.

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Thanks for listening to the SUPERMAN FAN PODCAST and, as always, thanks to Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, creators of Superman!

And don't forget to take care of each other out there.

[chaotic-archaeologist]

Any advice for an aspiring archeologist?

Greetings! 

I have a lot of advice, and I’m going to frame it with the preface that I spent two years figuring out that I needed to not be a psych major, so my path might look a little different than someone who started out as an anthro major.

Now let’s begin:

Narrow down your area of interest: Think carefully about what areas/ periods of history you like the best and resonate the most with. For example, Medieval Europe is a thousand years and a whole continent, so try to narrow it down to a specific region and time span (I specialize in Wales 800 CE- 1300 CE and England during the War of the Roses). Ancient Rome is very big and very long too. Break it into political periods (Republic/Empire/Rise/Fall) and geographic areas.

One thing I’ve found that helps a lot with this process is reading a lot of historical fiction. Read some books to see what kind of people you’re drawn to (peasants/royalty/merchants/aristocrats/etc). I can personally recommend a lot of books on England that helped me figure out who pulled on my heartstrings and who I didn’t care about.

Depending on what you choose you’ll end up in one of two categories 1) Prehistoric Archaeology, or 2) Historical Archaeology. These will be important for some undergrad classes but it’s mostly a grad school thing that you can sort out as you get on with your education.

Classes: There will be some classes that you need to take for an archaeology/anthropology major. They might vary depending on your institution, but expect to take at least an Introduction to Archaeology class (which is exactly what it sounds like), and a Methods class (how to identify what kind of artifact is what, and how to record and research. You will probably have to scratch ceramics with dental tools, which I personally hated). 

Now, it may not count towards your major, but I would strongly recommend taking at least one history class that focuses on your period and area of interest. It’ll give you better in depth knowledge and context and help with your research skills. These classes may not necessarily be found in the history department, for example: I’ll be taking a Jewish Studies class on Eastern Europe sometime in the next year or so because I plan on studying the archaeology of pogroms.

Field School*: I’m putting this in a separate category because field school is a doozy. This is something that will be required to grad school and for your major. Field school is where you learn the technical skills of how to dig and excavate. I personally loved it, but some people hate it. 

It is okay to hate excavation, and if you do you have two choices 1) suck it up for the field season or 2) choose to work on analyzing collections that already exist. The good news is that there are zillions of pre-existing collections out there that someone has already kindly dug up for you, but the bad news is that there’s way more funding for excavation than there is for lab work (this is messed up but everyone loves to find things and no one loves to catalogue them).

Because you might not like fieldwork, please, please, please take my advice and try to do your field school early in your undergrad years. That way if you don’t like it there’s plenty of time to take other classes or change your major.

Now there are a lot of options for field schools, and many of them are abroad in Fun Exotic Places. Personally, I steered clear of those because 1) they are more expensive, 2) they’re higher stakes because they’re more expensive and you are dealing with potentially Very Special Precious Things, and 3) you will be tempted to sightsee and consume alcohol and neither of those things are great to do during field season. I took my field school at the state university right next to where I live and it cost me around $4,000 USD, as opposed to perhaps $8,000 USD to go to Rome.

*Be advised that field school is much more like the movie Holes than it is Indiana Jones. 

Grad School: The bad news is that if you want to work as an archaeologist you’re going to have to suck it up and go to grad school, and it might steal a little bit of your soul. The good news is that your soul will grow back. 

Going into grad school you should know one thing: most archaeologists are not employed at a university teaching or doing research. Most of us will have jobs out in the real world working for companies that do contract archaeology for construction companies, the state or federal government, or some sort of private organization like a tribe.

Okay, good. You have two choices with grad school 1) a PhD, or 2) a Masters. If you want to be a professor and do research and teach you’ll need to get a PhD. You do not necessarily need a PhD to work in the private sector. There are some pros and cons to both. A Masters is faster but you’ll need to pay more, but because it takes less time you’ll be out in the real world making money sooner. A PhD takes a couple of years longer, but generally the university will pay you, so it’s cheaper and it means that you might have more chances for higher up jobs in the future. You can also start a PhD program and decide to leave with just a Masters instead, but it’s complicated.

Jobs: Being an archaeologist doesn’t always mean you dig. You can do survey work (radar, magnetic resistance, LiDAR). You can do stuff with computers like GIS (I know nothing about GIS because I hate computers with a passion, so go ask someone else.) You can work in a museum curating artifacts (there are museum studies degrees), or work analyzing things people have already found like I mentioned above. You can look at specialized fields (pollen analysis, pottery analysis, osteoarchaeology, etc)

If you do want to dig, you have to decide where. If it’s an exotic location like high altitudes in Peru, chances are that you’re going to need a University to back you up on that, so you’ll need to be a professor. But there are also places that will pay you to dig. England has an archaeologist for pretty much every country, and they get called in when construction finds something old. American construction companies also have similar clauses in their contracts, and if they find something they hire a private firm to come and mitigate the damage of said construction. 

Some counties/states will also have archaeologists on hand. Please check out @archaeologistproblems and @anglo-saxintrash because they both know quite a lot about digging.

Some disclaimers: You need to love this work, because it’s hard. Digging is hard on your body, and I know a lot of older professionals who have back, shoulder, elbow, or wrist problems because of it. I also know several who have skin cancer, so for the love of all that is holy please wear sunscreen. During field season you will be in pain, end of story. If you’re in a situation where you can’t dig for part of the year you’ll spend time sitting at a desk analyzing and writing about what you found.

You won’t get rich. The private sector can pay more than the university gigs, but no one is making bank off of this. The other day I had to inform a 9 year old at public outreach that 1) I wasn’t going to find any gold and 2) even if I did, I don’t get to keep what I find. 

Sometimes you won’t find anything at all (as one of my professors would say “absence is presence!!!”) and that’s very disappointing. I know of a dig that went on for two field seasons (two years) and the found one. single. coin. It’s a huge bummer but you can’t find a crystal skull every day.

People will endlessly mistake you for a paleontologist and ask you about dinosaurs. At some point this will make you want to stab your eyes out with a spork. Either tell them what your favorite dinosaur is and move on, or get good at patiently explaining that you research dead humans, not dead lizards.

Lastly, don’t give up: I know that this is a long post and it looks daunting, but if this is what you love, there’s no substitute. I dream of dirt at night. I make ooh and ahh sounds at little fragments of ceramics and get giddy when someone mentions that there might be a privy somewhere. I want to know about what people in the past ate and used and threw away, and even though it’s a lot less lucrative than being a therapist I wouldn’t chose anything else.

Keep your trowel sharp and your heart hopeful,

-Reid

[oyamentality-inactive]

✨Miscellaneous HC's of Miscellaneous Haikyuu Boys✨

Ft. Asahi, Tsukishima, and Kuroo

|Asahi|

He really likes to draw. Since he ends up working in the fashion industry, it only makes sense that he's decent with a pencil and paper. I like to imagine that he got into fashion because he likes to create all kinds of extravagent clothes for characters he randomly makes while daydreaming in class.

Asahi likes rock music. No reason beyond me wanting it. He likes how many types of rock music there are, especially in different places of the world. He listens to bands from all across over, even when he doesn't know what they're saying, and does a lot of research on ones he especially loves. His favorite subgenre is 70's/80's American rock.

Asahi has a lot of pillows. I just really enjoy the idea of him sprawled across his bed, feet hanging off the edge, with 8 billiom pillows while he draws and listens to music.

Opposite of having 8 billion pillows, he has a single blanket, the same one he's had since middle school. It doesn't fully cover him, so he gets an extra one from the linen closet during the coldest parts of winter, but he runs like a furnace so he doesn't feel the meed to have a bunch of blankets he won't use.

He accidentally collects drink containers. You know exactly what I mean. His mom makes him clean them from his room once a month, and it always stuns her with the amount of juice boxes and watterbottles her boy accumulates. He always feels sheepish when he takes them out.

Asahi is all about appearences. He has a specialized hair, skin, and nail routine for each day of the week. He is groomed to perfection, and it's not because of vanity. It just makes him feel a little more confident when he leaves the house.

|Tsukishima|

Tsuki writes his own music. In his free time, when he isn't studying or practicing, he's messing around on his keyboard. He can play multiple instruments, and can read almost any type of music put in front of him. The only people who have ever heard his stuff is his mom and Yama.

He has all his contacts (except for his mom, brother, and Yamguchi) labelled as different prehistoric creatures. And not just random ones, he has each person assigned one of evolutions many greatest fails. He thinks it's funny.

He loses the little cloth to clean his glasses constantly. He asks him mom for a new one at least once a month, and even carrying multiple on his person doesn't help. He just loses them faster.

|Kuroo|

Even though his favorite food is a savory one, he has a huge sweet tooth. He got it from spending so much time with Kenma.

He knows a lot about computers. He's canonically a huge nerd, even though we all paint him as some kind of suave playboy. He ended up learning a lot about it because of, you guessed it, Kenma's love of video games. He even helped the smaller boy set up his first gaming PC, and has consistently been the one to update and repair it as well.

His favorite color is the golden color of christmas lights reflecting on the snow. Its really specific, but whenever the cold season rolls around, he'll spend all the free time he can wandering the city alone after dark just so he can see the color again.

He has a cat named Hanamomo. She's a really old cat, already ten years old, so he named her [Peach Blossom] when he was only six or seven years old.

[buzzdixonwriter]

The Novel I’m Not Going To Write

Full disclosure:  I am distantly related to Thomas Dixon Jr., author of The Clansman, the novel D.W. Griffith turned into the movie The Birth Of A Nation.

Dixon, feeling he had been shortchanged by Griffith, took his money from the movie sale and invested it in his own studio to make his own movies.  He went bankrupt and lost his shirt in the process, so that part of the story has a happy ending.

. . .

In the mid-1970s, while still in the Army, I began my first serious attempts at writing novels.

They sucked; don’t ask to see ‘em.  I wrote highly derivative works of the Ace Doubles school of sci-fi and, while I like Ace Doubles for a variety of reasons, looking back I see little point in trying to emulate a form and sub-genre that already became passe’ by the time I reached my early 20s.

I did have one idea I thought possessed a lot of potential, one that would comfortably fit in the horror genre, and since at that time Stephen King’s books started selling briskly among mainstream audiences, I figured that might be worth a shot.

Here’s the premise: A spectral KKK horseman is attacking a contemporary African-American community.  The killings, while gruesome, appear to be the work of a human being, but being spectral the klansman leaves no physical evidence behind.

In the course of investigating the murders, the protagonist leans the killer is a demonic entity that preys off human fear; it’s linked to massacres and atrocities stretching back all the way from Mao’s Great Leap Forward and Hitler’s holocaust to prehistoric times.  The protagonist defeats it by facing it down without succumbing to fear, and the entity leaves the African-American community to look for victims elsewhere.

I planned to call it The Klansman in an effort to reclaim the title from my long dead relative and repudiate his work.

Luckily for all of us, 20-something Spec. 4 Dixon possessed enough self-awareness to realize he’d need to do a lot of research -- a lot of research! -- to make the community and characters sound authentic, and so this project got pushed to the back of the queue time and again as other work proved more urgent.

But I never gave up on it…

…until now.

. . .

If I could write as adequately then as I do now, I might have gotten away with it…for a time.

Eventually, however, someone would fairly ask, “Why are you, a white guy, writing a story set among African-Americans about an issue that has long been a concern among African-Americans?”

Maybe I could generate some good will -- “Well, he’s trying.” -- but the bottom line would remain.

It’s a story -- supernatural entity or no -- about how African-Americans respond to racist terrorism in their midst.

I could write a generic thriller about a town that fights off a gang of desperadoes that attacks them because specific racial content could easily be sidestepped.

But the whole point of this story is that the spectral klansman specifically targets African-Americans.

I think I could get away with writing a story set in whole or in part in an African-American community that deals with some universal issue, but the bigger and more specific an issue is to African-Americans, the more challenging it would be to not come across as a dumb “white savior”.

A monster motivated by fear in a non-specific community?  Sure, fine, absolutely.  I can do that.  

Focusing said motivation on race in the context of American race relations?

That’s a minefield.

Fools rush in, as they say…

. . .

In recent days, as events unfold around the country, it becomes increasingly obvious to me that The Klansman is not my story to tell.

As sincere as I think my intentions are, it’s not something I could ever write with enough authenticity to do it justice.

Anybody out there want to take the idea and run with it, go ahead, be my guest: I release it into the wild. 

If you sell it, send me a copy.

 © Buzz Dixon

[draconesmundi]

Book Review: Dragonlore by Ash DeKirk

Dragonlore is a guide to dragons of the world, including dragons from mythology, from video games, from literature, and from films. DeKirk has a BA in anthropology, and demonstrates her level of research well by presenting a thorough investigation into dragons from different cultures. A lot of books on dragon lore will focus chiefly on European and East Asian dragons, with little focus on other regions, but this book relishes a chance to flex on the author’s knowledge on mythology. This book was my first introduction to North American dragons, for example (things like Meshkenabec, Gaasyendietha, Haietlik, etc.). If you’re interested in dragons outside East Asia and Europe, this is the book for you!

This book is very full of information, and split into four sections: Dragons of The World is first geographically, then alphabetically. For example, the Africa sub-chapter has entries on dragons from Aido Hwedo through to Wadjet. There are roughly 20 dragons for each geographic region (China, Japan, Middle East, the rest of Asia, Europe, North America, Meso America, South America, Africa and Oceania) and each dragon is given a sentence or two of information.

The next section is Dragon Myths of the World, a series of short stories, each a paragraph or two long, about dragons. Stories about Emperor Yu, the Pai Lung, the Lambton Worm, Seigfried and Fafnir etc. (25 legends in total). Some of these stories are missing details; for example, ‘The Koshi Dragon’ does not mention the dragon is sometimes named ‘Yamata no Orochi’, despite the ‘dragons of Japan’ chapter mentioning the ‘yamata dragons’.

The third section is titled ‘Dragons of the Modern Realm’, encapsulating dragons from literature, film and games. DeKirk  has a good grasp on dragons from popular culture and media, and this is one of the few books I have read that delves into modern dragons. However, the author definitely talks more about her favourite games and books rather than talking about the most influential dragon media.

For example, if I were to list the dragon books people talk most about, which shape opinions of dragons in the modern world (keeping to books from before 2006, when Dragonlore was published), Dragonriders of Pern, Temeraire, The Hobbit, Eragon, How to Train Your Dragon (although the film that made it popular outside the UK didn’t come until 2010 so an omission of this book is fine), Dragonology, The Neverending Story and the Earthsea books come to mind. I have not read most books on dragons, but I know which ones are famous and well known. DeKirk’s choice does include The Hobbit, and Dragonriders of Pern, but also many books which I have not heard of, and a few that I have heard of but also know to be obscure (The dragon knight series by Gordon R Dickson, for example). So her list of books is not necessarily the ‘list of best and most well known books of dragons’, but a list of books that she personally recommends the reader – which is great when you’re looking for what to read next!

Curious side note – DeKirk does not mention the Neverending Story book, but in her description of the film she describes Falkor as having pearly white scales and ruby red eyes – features of the book dragon moreso than the fluffy puppet with brown eyes seen in the film.

DeKirk is clearly a huge Yu-Gi-Oh fan, and Final Fantasy fan, and in the mythology chapters she will link the mythology to the games, which is an interesting way to link history to the modern world, and provides the reader with a knowledge of the origin stories behind these game characters.

If you want to know about dragons and dragonlike creatures in Dungeons and Dragons, Dragonlore has you covered, as the book delves not only into vanilla D&D Dragons, but also dragons in the Dragonlance, Rifts and Forgotten Realms settings.

There is a small section of original fiction in this chapter; the first part of a high fantasy novel, a few poems, and a short story about a dragon that makes nice dreams for people. The high fantasy story is of note because the worldbuilding for this story is very heavy (a mix of Netflix’s The Dragon Prince and Alison Goodman’s Eon: Dragoneye; probably predating both of these works, but it’s set in a kingdom of elflike people waring with humans, and some are spiritually linked to magical dragons) and some of it was missing from the original fiction chapter because it had been placed in the mythology of Southern Asia.

Alongside the Makara and the Naga, the editors or author saw fit to drop ‘The Seven’ and give a quick description of 7 dragon gods from this original fiction in the ‘Dragons from Asia’ chapter. The dragons on the cover of the book are also from this fiction story: a lot of importance is placed on this work. In ‘Dragon Myths of the World’, as well as retelling real world stories, the author drops in a poem based on the lore of the story. I personally did not like the way they mixed this fictional story with mythology and history of real world cultures – the story itself I won’t assess as these reviews are for how useful books can be for researching dragons.

The final chapter is ‘Dragons in the Natural World’ is of course the chapter I will be most nit-picky about in this review. Many of the animals mentioned are erroneously called ‘lizards’ – this is down to a creative choice from the writer to try and describe what the animal’s name means. For example, DeKirk calls Kentrosaurus a spiked lizard, pterosaurs flying lizards, Albertasaurus a lizard from Alberta, etc. Even with modern animals, the American alligator and Nile crocodile are classed as lizards!

The phrasing of the natural history chapter of this book is poor, and there are many typos or non-scientific uses of names – generic names with lower case letters, specific names with upper case letters and weird attempts to make plural versions of generic names. These latter mistakes are entirely forgivable given that Dragonlore is not meant to be a science textbook, but if you have a background in biology brace yourself before reading this chapter! Furthermore, the slightly arbitrary sorting of prehistoric animals into ‘drakes’ and ‘dragons’ is a little irksome to me, but it helps divide the chapter into neater chunks.

Final notes, the illustrations: the book has some gorgeous high-fantasy illustrations by Ian Daniels and Erif Thunan, but also seems to take some images from history. These images are likely in the public domain, but I still wish they would add sources to such things. Some of the images seem misplaced, for example the ‘ancient drake’ image (a retrosaur illustration) and the ‘ancient wyvern’ image (a pterosaur) are found in next to chapters about the Final Fantasy video games and the Harry Potter books respectively, and not anywhere near the chapter about dragons in the fossil record. This is a bizarre place to put these images.

This book is a great resource for learning more about world mythology, especially mythology of North, Meso and South America. It also aims to be a complete and well-rounded dragon book, talking about dragons in popular media and science, which makes it a satisfying read overall. Once you’ve read Dragonlore, you feel like you’ve explored dragons in culture thoroughly.

This book was also written by an official wizard school: https://www.gswhandbook.com/

Book Depository: https://www.bookdepository.com/Dragonlore-Ash-Dekirk/9781564148681 (£12)

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Dragonlore-Archives-Grey-School-Wizardry-ebook/dp/B07J16VXS1 (paperback £3, kindle £14)

(the Dragon Jewels story in the book is said to be on fictionpress, but I have not found it – the pen name was Sanzo Sochisama according to the book)

[sonicasura]

Ninja Stars

Hey everyone. If you don't know, some of the things I do in my spare time is writing stories mainly crossovers. Just the idea of taking two completely different franchises and fusing it together just entice me. I decided to show you one of my latest works.

Growing up, one of the cartoons I loved watching from my childhood was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles specifically the 2003 incarnation. The characters, story, humor, adventures and even the times when things went dark never took the smile off my face watching it.

So I decided to take this wonderful incarnation and mix it with something I got into last year...

Yep. I mixed it with Jojo's Bizarre Adventure of all things. Am I crazy? Yes. Do I regret writing this? No. The big star for this particular fic is none other than our favorite toilet licking wielder of the Chariot card...Jean Pierre Polnareff!

Without further ado, I present to you guys... Ninja Stars!

He didn't know what he unintentionally signed up for when deciding to live in New York with his friends in the Joestar Family. Jean Pierre Polnareff was a Noble Frenchman who owned a nice estate in his home country of France after his father passed away. He used to have two younger siblings that he loved dearly. His sister Sherry Polnareff and the youngest sister Fleur Marie De Polnareff. Sadly his sisters' fates weren't as good as his.

Sherry was defiled and murdered when he was preparing a meal once she got out of school. For Fleur, she vanished when a terrible storm had hit the land by their estate and she disappeared with it before even turning a year old. Fleur was declared dead since her body was never found and Sherry never got the chance to be a big sister since it was robbed before she turned 5. Tragedy always liked to mess with his family while distrust amongst parents harassed the Joestar Family.

He felt sympathy for his friends Jotaro and Joseph along with their siblings. Their father George having an affair with multiple women before his wife died and said women having children being Giorno, Josuke, Johnny, Josefumi or Gappy and Jolyne. George didn't even know about them until he caught word of multiple teens having their family's birthmark! Giorno's mother and stepfather were abusive, Jolyne's foster parents neglectful and untrusting, Johnny's foster father was abusive and Jotaro's foster father never being there for him. The only ones who honestly had a good parent were the twins Josuke and Gappy though it was hard for Tomoko to care for their needs and herself at times.

George was even harder on Jonathan and Joseph often cruel enforcing manners through starvation or hitting them at times! Even their step siblings Dio and Diego Brando who have shaky relationships with the Joestar siblings at best didn't have much faith in George, and their father was worse than him! It didn't take long for George to be declared not capable to care for his children and was lawfully removed from caring for them. He lost his title to the estate and fortune which went to the siblings so they could live and get the things they needed to live off of.

They were placed in William Zeppeli's care alongside his two sons Caesar and Gyro. Anyway… Joseph figuring France was just digging up old wounds had offered Polnareff to stay at their home in New York until he felt ready to move on. Kakyoin, Avdol and Iggy were also going to be living there so it wasn't going to be that bad. Who was he kidding? When were things ever easy or normal?

The plane from France had finally landed in New York's National Airport. A tall and buff Frenchmen with tall silver hair that reached seven inches high wearing a black one strap shirt, beige pants, broken heart earrings and black expensive Italian boots had walked through the crowded airport with luggage in hand. "Now, where are they? Joseph did say they were here 30 minutes before my plane landed." The Frenchman asked to himself as he looked around the building.

His eyes then landed on a sign that read Jean Pierre Polnareff, his name, in the arms of buff and tall young man with messy brown hair, green eyes and light peach skin wearing a green crop top, fingerless gloves, a scarf, blue jeans and brown boots around his height which was 6'5. Next to him was a teen who despite being around the brunette's height was a bit younger and looked to have some Japanese blood from the narrowed aquamarine eyes and slightly darker skin. He wore a black modified gakuran with a gold chain, black hat torn in the back with two gold pins, purple shirt, expensive black slacks and black boots.

"Over here Polnareff!" The brunette shouted as Polnareff ran over to them. "Hey Joseph! Good to see you too Jotaro. You didn't have to swing that sign like you were advertising a restaurant Joseph." Polnareff teased as Joseph merely chuckled. "I wanted to make sure you don't lose yourself in the crowd. Things have been a bit crazy in New York as of late." Joseph explained as Polnareff raised his eyebrow.

"What do you mean by that? Is something going on in the city?" The Frenchman questioned earning a nod from Jotaro. "Purple Dragons?" Polnareff questioned his two friends. They had taken Joseph's car after leaving the airport and the two brothers took the opportunity to fill Polnareff in on current events. "Yeah. They're a street gang that has been causing trouble around the city. Muggings, threatening people, burning down stores, break ins and a whole mess of trouble. A bunch of annoying pissants but dangerous ones at that." Jotaro spoke blowing smoke from his lit cigarette.

"Johnathan's friend Speedwagon and his gang, the Street Ogres, have been trying to get rid of them but these dragon bastards are relentless." Joseph explained making a hard turn through the city. "You told me about the Street Ogres on the phone. That they were powerful just as they were dangerous since the gang used to be based in Europe's own Ogre Street, a personal grave for intruders. Until Johnathan defeated their leader and they followed him here to serve as his protectors. The fact these Purple Dragons can match one of Europe's most dangerous gangs is just terrifying." Polnareff said.

"There is also a new rumor going about. People are saying ninjas had been spotted in New York. Good grief." Jotaro spoke with a hint of annoyance in his voice. "Eh?! Ninjas? Since when?!" Honestly this trip was getting weirder by the second. "A few days ago, a bunch of Purple Dragons were found hanging from a street lamp by their waists. Near the scene were shurikens, a Japanese throwing star and one of the tools a ninja uses. It was embedded into the brick wall and some in the concrete floor!" Joseph exclaimed surprising the Frenchman.

"Damn. Things really have been crazy here. I bet Dio and Diego aren't exactly happy with this nonsense." The silverette questioned as Jotaro let out an amused snort. "Considering Josuke took home one of the shurikens and his recent binge watching on ninja related shows, Dio nearly had the World strangle the dumbass and Diego almost using Scary Monsters just to chew up all his DVDs. Jolyne even chased him around the house with Gappy's pet turtle Joshuu just to get him to shut up." Jotaro spoke sounding smug from his tone.

"I bet Johnathan wasn't happy with that and Johnny locked himself in his room watching his spaghetti westerns to avoid the mayhem. What about Giorno and Gappy?" He questioned as Joseph raised an eyebrow. "I forgot how brotherly you could be. Giorno is keeping an eye out for any trouble reaching home while Gappy isn't really bothered about the mayhem like the Zeppelis. Kakyoin, Iggy and Avdol are already at the estate and were filled in about the stuff as well." Joseph explained. Clearly satisfied with his answer, Polnareff remained quiet for the remainder of the drive.

The Joestar Estate was huge rivalling the size of an actual town hall though considering who previously owned it being a holder of a massive amount of riches it was too be expected. "Can I just say your dad was too crazy with his money spending?" Polnareff said as both brothers shrugged. "Stay away from my hair Iggy!" Shouted a young rowdy male voice as a purple pompadour wearing young teenage male ran past Polnareff with a little black and white Boston Terrier following close behind. "Ahahaha! Looks like the little rascal found a new victim! Looks like Iggy hasn't changed a bit. Is he still giving the dog catchers hell?" Polnareff chuckled patting his hair.

"Yep. They even have $100 dollar bet going on about who will catch Iggy first. Tried getting Johnathan to take the bet but you know him and dogs." Joseph stated. "That's right. He's working as a part-time veterinarian since his archaeology research hit rock bottom when that cave in came out of nowhere. I still think it was a Stand related incident since the ground was guaranteed to be fully stable, diagnostics and all." Polnareff exclaimed remembering the particular incident.

A lot of people got hurt during the incident and Johnathan was nearly decapitated from collapsing debris on surface that had no pockets of any kind inside of it done naturally or not. "There is also that creep who came in a bit earlier. A guy named Baxter Stockman had an appointment with old man Zeppeli about a project to take care of New York's rat problem." Jotaro stated as they sat down on the couch and the delinquent pulled up the tape.

The video showed a large empty rat maze and an African American scientist with almost a buzz cut style dark hair, rimmed glasses and hints of madness deep within those brown orbs he called eyes. He had to agree with Jotaro that despite the man not saying a word, the madness is this eyes screamed bad news. The man Baxter Stockman soon unveiled an object that was covered in sheet just as the video began.

It revealed to be some kind of robot that screamed raptor to the Frenchman on how it's design nearly matched the prehistoric predator if this one wasn't made of metal, had huge jaws, and a single light to serve as an eye. The inventor's assistant, a young woman with crimson hair and the kindest eyes Polnareff ever seen unlike her boss named April O' Neil, had released a bunch of rats into the maze. Then Stockman let loose his invention which he named Mouser. And what happened next after the Mouser found a rat…

Polnareff was glad he hadn't eaten any food or his friends would see what he had earlier. "Holy shit. This guy really offered these as a solution to a rat problem?! A killer robot that can eat through walls?! Sure, I don't want a rat in my house but at least I have a humane trap to use than that!" The Frenchman exclaimed. "That's what I was thinking! Even that April chick looked like she didn't want to be there! Everyone on the house agreed to turn this guy down including Dio! And Dio is the type of guy to practically fry up live rodents and laugh while watching them burn before feeding them to his pet bird!" Joseph shouted as Jotaro smacked him.

"Shut up! I'm sitting right next to you, dumbass! Don't need to yell in my ear. Anyway… Gappy is looking into Stockman's background since something about that Mouser seemed off. The robot bastard also somehow seemed to creep Johnathan out too and the man has been around all types of machinery considering Gappy's profession. From what's been happening in New York as of late, this an omen for an absolute shit storm." Jotaro said before walking away. They couldn't agree more.

Later… Polnareff had finished unpacking all his stuff into his room. William was kind enough to give the man a nice large room with its own bathroom, closet and a small fridge that easily reminded the Frenchman of a 3 star hotel suite. He didn't pack any extra stuff that wasn't clothes or necessities like health products but there were some things he couldn't part with. His practice rapier, the portable toilet he bought considering the bathroom mishaps from that one road trip involving him, Jotaro, Joseph, Iggy, Avdol and Kakyoin and a few photos including the one of him, his sister Sherry and their newborn sister Fleur.

He looked sorrowfully at the picture of a young boy, a red haired girl and a small baby girl with a tuft of silver hair and a slash like birthmark on her neck with all three smiling or happy in Fleur's case. Polnareff rubbed his eyes so no tears would fall down. It felt wrong for a grown man to cry even for something as sad and important as this. He heard someone knocking on his door. "Come in!" Polnareff called as the door opened to reveal two people were at the door.

One was Jotaro and the other was a young man just as tall and as Jotaro but a bit older with soft blue eyes, wild blue hair and wore a purple sleeveless shirt, gray jeans, brown shoes, black fingerless gloves and what looked like a cast around his ankle. "Hey Jotaro and same to you Johnathan. I guess your leg isn't fully healed yet. I'm surprised you haven't let Josuke or Giorno heal you." Polnareff spoke as the blue Man Johnathan let out a soft chuckle.

"I don't want to rely on them all the time. Plus it's just a simple sprain so I figured to let time and my Hamon heal it instead. Anyway, I was wondering if you want to go to the store with me? I forgot to pick up a few things and also want to do a bit of grocery shopping while I'm at it." Johnathan asked while Polnareff turned to Jotaro. "I'm coming with him so he doesn't get himself hurt again. Plus I need to pick up some more cigarettes." Jotaro said as Polnareff merely shrugged and decided to join along. What was the worst that could happen?

Apparently the worst could happen was the street caving in from underneath your feet. Around halfway to the store, the ground beneath them had suddenly gave way dropping the trio of men down into the sewers below. Jotaro and Johnathan landed on the walkway while Polnareff fell into the sewer water. "Eww!!!" Polnareff shouted spitting the dirty water out of his mouth and getting to the walkway. "This is fucking ridiculous. How the hell can a street just fall apart like that?!" Jotaro hissed dusting himself off.

"It's just like the dig all over again. Now I believe it was no mere accident. Look at the walls." Johnathan said pointing to a wall of pipes behind him. They had been torn to create a large tunnel and the way the tunnel was made being all too familiar. "Are those...bite marks? The only thing that can do this…" Polnareff said only for Jotaro to finish his sentence. "Mousers. Stockman's little rat project tried to kill us!" The delinquent growled clenching his fists in rage.

The sound of clanking metal had grabbed their attention quickly as what appeared to be a squadron of Mousers heading their way. It was more terrifying seeing blood on some of their jaws knowing the poor rodents they must had devoured or an unlucky sap who ran into them. "I ain't taking this shit lying down! Silver Chariot!!" The Frenchman cried out as something came out of his body. It was a knight in a heavy silver suit of armor, a silver helm covering the head except for yellow eyes with blue iris, spiked shoulder pads and wielded a rapier as it gently hovered in the air.

"Pierce them Chariot!" He called as the silver knight let loose a barrage of sword swipes faster than the eye could see. The Mousers took multiple slashes with resistance but when the first was decapitated and went offline, Silver Chariot used it to his advantage. Soon a pile of Mouser heads and parts laid before their feet. "Good job Chariot. We should find a way out. Who knows how many of those menaces are down here?" Polnareff stated.

A loud feminine scream echoed through the sewers. "I recognize that scream. That's Stockman's assistant April! Come on! It came from down here." Johnathan called as the group took off deeper into the sewers. They ran as the sounds of fighting could be heard around them and grew louder the closer they were. It soon quieted as the three men turned the corner to find an unbelievable scene. Tons of Mousers destroyed and scattered across the ground, April unconscious in the hands of a man sized humanoid green turtle.

That's right. A man sized turtle wearing an orange bandanna, brown arm and leg straps, belt and orange wrapped nunchucks. To make it weirder, there were three more of them with one having a purple bandanna and held a Bo staff, blue bandanna and twin swords and red bandanna with twin sai. A clicking sound of a gun made everyone froze. "Hold still. Move and Showdown Bandit Aeon will put a hole right through blue haired pretty boy's head." A cold feminine voice spoke from behind Polnareff and Jotaro.

The voice sounded young around Jotaro's age maybe a year younger. The 4 turtles turned to see the group and looked nervous at the female holding Johnathan, Jotaro and Polnareff hostage. "Oh… Hehe. Hey big sister, lovely night for a stroll in the sewers and not hunting Mousers." The turtle in orange spoke only to get slapped on the back of his head by the turtle in red. 'My Lord! They can talk too! Fascinating.' Johnathan thought despite the clear hostage situation.

"Michelango, Leonardo, Donatello and Raphael, what did father Splinter say about running off? Not only did you disobey his orders but also got discovered by more humans. You know he's going to punish you four." The voice spoke as all four looked nervous. 'Seriously? A family dispute in a goddamn sewer? Good grief.' Jotaro thought with irritation. It was becoming awkward for the Frenchman and his two friends from how the situation was turning out. "Sorry big sister Fleur." All 4 spoke as Polnareff's eyes widened greatly.

It couldn't be… Could it? He slowly turned his head around to look at their captor. It was a young woman around Jotaro's age with wild silver hair and sharp blue eyes, she wore a headband with demon horns, a green bandanna, a red and black traditional ninja suit, purple shoulder pads, orange hakamaki sash, blue boots, an accessory silver tail with a gold hoop, two short katanas on her back, fingerless brown gloves and a gold hilted blue blade katana on the small of her back sideways but what grabbed him was the familiar mark on her neck and the red streaks under her eyes.

The spirit or Stand beside her had the appearance of a demonic grey skinned cowboy, a single red eye amongst the shadow of his red horned cowboy hat while the other covered by his purple bangs, a bandanna shaped like an opened fanged mouth on his face, peculiar red ribbons near the neck, a black outlined gold poncho over a gold shirt and brown vest, brown gun belt with red fabric by the empty gun holsters, a black tail with 5 hooks at the end ranging from orange to red, yellow jeans and on them were gray leg straps with red blades, brown and orange cowboy boots with large blades spurs, white arms with the right pointing an orange, black and gold gun at Johnathan's head and the other a giant black, orange, and red gauntlet with golden blades for fingers and three orange nozzles on the center fingers.

"Little Fleur… You're alive." Polnareff spoke with a shaky voice. "You speak as if your familiar with me when I never met you before in my life. Who are you?" Fleur questioned. "You are Fleur Marie De Polnareff, third child of Jaune Reyn Polnareff and Charlotte Maria. Mother named you Fleur because you were as beautiful as a field of blossoming flowers when you were born." Polnareff spoke as he looked at the little sister he lost.

"Wait a minute. How do you know so much about her?" The turtle in red questioned angrily. "Because she is my long lost little sister. My name is Jean Pierre Polnareff, her older brother." He spoke taking out the picture of him and his siblings when they were younger. The gasps in the room from seeing the photo was enough for Fleur to have a look for herself. Her eyes widened upon seeing the familiar mark on the baby's neck in the exact shape and place as hers. "We're taking them back to the lair. Father needs to hear about this." Fleur spoke walking off while her Stand followed.

The walk through the sewers was silent as no human or turtle decides to talk. It was too uncomfortable and awkward for everybody. Fleur led them to a wall with a strange blue pattern on it. The wall pulled apart revealing it to be a secret entrance and the inside blew all three men's minds. It was a secret lair with tons of room, wall of TV's, couch, workbenches, pinball machines and basically all kinds of stuff perfect for a comfortable living. "Incredible. All of this has been under New York for this whole time. Despite all the technology and items here, the walls and layout are much much older." Johnathan spoke practically breath taken.

"You are very observant young man. My sons and daughter, may I have an explanation on how we ended up with 4 guests?" An aged and soft male voice spoke as they turned to see a human sized anthropomorphic gray rat with brown eyes, a small goatee, white bushy eyebrows and leaning on a brown wooden cane wearing an orange and dark brown kimono. "Good grief. Things gotten really bizarre." Jotaro sighed at the weirdness they found themselves in.

One explanation from Polnareff later… The group were sitting down and gathered at the front while April who had woken up earlier after fainting again joined in. "So that explains it. Fleur was separated from you because that terrible storm had washed her away. It makes sense for her not to recognize you since she was a baby before disappearing." The turtle in purple spoke. "Though my question is, who or what are you guys? How did you even find her without being caught on the surface?" April questioned.

"That is a very long story. We weren't always like this. We used to be what you once called normal. I used to be an ordinary pet rat whose owner was a kind martial artist named Hamato Yoshi. On a trip to France, my master and I had came across Fleur crying by the edge of a river. The only clue to her name was a flower tied in her hair. A few years later, the home of my master was caught in a nasty blaze. I was able to get out with Fleur through my Master's sacrifice.

I hid Fleur in a safe place within the sewers and scavenge for food to keep her alive. On one of those scavenging days, I saw the beginning of an accident. A child had walked out of the pet store carrying four baby turtles. *That was us! From the orange bandanna turtle* Don't interrupt Michelangelo. Where was I? An elderly blind man was walking the street unaware of a massive truck heading straight towards him. A man near the child lunged to shove the elder out of harm's way yet accidentally sending the tank holding the four turtles near the sewer were they were gently swept down below.

The truck had flung open wide enough for a mysterious canister to jump out and went down the sewer bursting open and covering the four turtles in a glowing green ooze. I followed them down and took pity on them. I gathered all four and safely put them in an empty coffee can though one decided to shake himself and got the ooze on me too. I took them back to my den where Fleur laid sleeping.

The next morning, I woke up. All four had doubled in size and I was changed too. The ooze had affected us in many peculiar ways from enhancing our intelligence and strength along with affecting our growth. Then one day, one of the young turtles had spoken my name. Fleur manifested her own peculiarity in the form of a spirit that same day. I knew then that it was my duty to protect and raise them as my own.

To each I taught them the ways of Ninjutsu and to harness their new form and power. Fleur named her spirit Showdown Bandit Aeon after one of the tarot cards, the Aeon Arcana. For the four turtles, using a book on the Italian Renaissance Arts, I gave them their names. Leonardo(blue), Donatello(purple), Raphael(red) and Michelangelo(orange). That is our story." Splinter told finishing his tale.

"Yep! We're unbelievable!" Shouted Michelango who they could clearly tell was the goofball of the four. "Where's your off switch?" Raphael questioned as Jotaro snorted amused. "Been asking the same thing myself about our little brother Josuke." Jotaro said. "It's still incredible that you have a Stand Fleur combined with the fact that your family could see them." Polnareff said as that got the makeshift family's attention. It was enough for Aeon to manifest with a curious glint in his eyes. "Speak of the cowboy, hey Aeon." Michelangelo said as April looked confused.

"Stand? I don't see anything." April spoke clueless. "Only Stand Users can see Stands. Stands are the manifestation of a person's fighting Spirit with their own set of abilities based on their user. They are called Stands because they always stand beside you." Jotaro explained. "Maybe not for long. I came up with something that I've been dying to try out." Donatello said heading to a cabinet and took something out.

He came back with a pair of glasses with green half lenses. "I made this when I found out Fleur had a Stand. Using a bullet Aeon supplied me with, I created these beauties. The Spirit Lens. I didn't know if one day we would lose the ability to see or hear Aeon so I made these just in case. Aeon is considered the fifth brother of the bunch since we played and trained with each other from childhood. Try the Spirit Lens on, April." Donatello explained surprising the male trio.

'Glasses that can see Stands!?' Went through their heads as April put on the glasses before turning to suddenly scream. "Oh my gosh! There's a demon cowboy right in my face! Is this Aeon???" April questioned nervously as Jotaro, Polnareff and Johnathan's eyes widened. "Yeeehaw!!!! Looks like your little doodad was a success Donnie! The lassie can see me!" A young raspy and wild male voice came out from Aeon as he twirled his hat. Donatello chuckled at the Stand's obvious happiness.

"Oh. It's rude to leave a family member out of a reunion. Jotaro, Johnathan and I are also Stand Users. Come out Silver Chariot!" Polnareff called as Silver Chariot manifested. "Wow! An actual knight in shining armor! And that rapier looks fantastic!" Leonardo stated as he couldn't help but admire the craftsmanship of Silver Chariot's blade. "The elder Knight and young bandit. Very interesting. The Chariot is the tarot card for conquest and absolute victory. Quite fitting for a knight or crusader." Splinter spoke as both Stands approached each other.

"Aw shucks. Thanks. I had Silver Chariot with me since birth and both of us keep each other in fighting shape." Polnareff said scratching his head sheepishly. Both of the Stands eyed each other before Aeon decided to just give Chariot a big hug as his tail wagged wildly like a happy dog. "Aww. They look so cute! Someone take a picture!" Michelangelo said. "Wish I brought my camera." Johnathan mumbled.

"Let's get back to business. April, why were those Mousers chasing you?" Fleur questioned getting everyone back on topic. "I decided to spy on my former boss since it was too suspicious to build so many of something like the Mousers for a city rat problem. I discovered that he was using the Mousers to rob banks and jewelry stores of their valuables. One of the test runs even brought down an archaeological dig!" April explained as Johnathan's breath hitched.

"Dear god. Those things were the reason nearly everyone at my digsite was almost killed. To think the same man who pitched those awful things to us were responsible for the pain of so many." Johnathan spoke clenching his fists angrily. "Now I recognize you! You are Johnathan Joestar, the eldest son of George Joestar and heir to the Joestar and Zeppeli Corporation! Oh shell! I read a few of your books on ancient civilizations and they were really excellent. To meet one of my favorite authors is astounding!" Donatello explained as Johnathan couldn't help but smile.

"Well it's nice to meet a fan of my work. I would love to discuss about it later but I think it's best if we deal with Stockman first. He caused too much pain for a lot of people and must be stopped before he could do further harm." Johnathan said. "Yeah. That jerk destroyed our old home and those pieces of scrap metal try to make a meal out of our Sensei!" Raphael stated taking out his sai.

 "I agree. My sons and my daughter, I ask of you to assist April in stopping Stockman before he could do even further harm. Jotaro and Jean, I ask of you to accompany them on this mission. I know my sons and daughter can protect themselves but it'll be good to have someone capable of protecting Miss O' Neil. Though Johnathan, I ask of you to stay here. The injury on your ankle needs to be checked and wounds like that on a battlefield can put you and others in grave danger." Splinter explained.

No one objected the elder rat's words for it obviously made sense. Even Jotaro silently agreed despite being known to be against any type of authority. "It's not going to be easy. Stocktronics has the latest top of the line security system. It'll be tough to get in without being spotted." April spoke only for Fleur to giggle. "We've got that problem already handled." The kunoichi said.

"May I present you our technologic master turtle, Donatello!" Michaelango said pointing at Donatello. "You're too kind." Donatello chuckled. "Can we go already? Please!" Shouted Raphael.  "Follow us. We know these sewers like the back of our hand." Fleur spoke walking off. The group of 8 quietly walked through New York's Sewer system. April had stopped them to point a small security system.

"Seriously? Security systems in the sewer? This Stockman guy is really paranoid." Michaelango whispered only to be smacked by Jotaro. "Thanks big guy." Raphael silently chuckled. "Get a room you two." Michaelango spoke only to get shushed by Donatello. "Be quiet. April and I are busy! This is delicate work!" Donatello whispered annoyed as he dismantled the system. "*sigh* Little brothers…" Fleur muttered.

The system was soon broken allowing the group to travel to the building through the ducts. Using his sai, Raphael had opened the vent after the guards left. "Alright. The terminal is over there. If I can access it, I can make blank spots in the security for you guys to travel undetected." April whispered. "Let me do it. Star Platinum." Jotaro spoke manifesting his Stand.

It looked like a big purple Aztec warrior just as tall as Jotaro but buffer, had long black flowing hair, sharp teal eyes, gold wavy lines going down his body and wore gold shoulder pads with spirals, red scarf, gold circlet headband, black fingerless gloves with gold studs, black knee boots and a long white loin cloth. April had to hide her blush. "Oh shell. He's huge. Looks like you got a fellow purple lover." Raphael joked as Donatello rolled his eyes.

"Star Finger." Jotaro whispered as Star Platinum's middle and index finger thin and lengthen before using it to pick the lock open. Jotaro called Star back as the group got out of the duct and followed April into terminal room. "Nice lock picking Jotaro. When did you learn to do that?" Leonardo questioned the raven. "Jotaro has a crazy fanclub that follows him everyday at school. He picks the roof door lock to escape since students aren't allowed up there." Polnareff answered the blue mask turtle.

"Alright. I'm blanking the cameras in 10 second intervals. You guys have to keep moving and don't stop if you don't want to get caught." April warned. "Got it. We'll be back." Fleur spoke as the 5 ninjas disappeared without a sound to three clueless people until the Frenchman turned around. "They're gone! That Splinter can teach!" Polnareff stated as he couldn't help but feel proud at his little sister and a bit for her brothers.

The kunoichi and her four shelled siblings outran the cameras as they raced through the halls. Walking into a completely dark room, all 5 siblings were on guard. "It's quiet, too quiet." Leonardo warned pulling out his weapons like the others. Fleur kept her third blade on her back as she kept an eye out for danger. "Guys, my turtle sense is tingling." Michelangelo joked nervously. Suddenly the lights flashed on to reveal Stockman high above in a control room and there were manufacturing guns found above in high-tech factories, the type that fire beams of extreme heat.

"You really think I would be so lax in thinking to not anticipate intruders! Did you come here for my secrets because it wouldn't matter. None of you are leaving out alive." Stockman threatened looking at the thermal images of the 5 shinobi only to be disturbed by 4 non human shaped blurs. "What are you? I guess I have to dissect you to find out." Stockman spoke as the ceiling guns shifted to face the group before the ninja found themselves under fire.

It didn't take them a second to take cover behind the pillars. "Showdown Bandit Aeon!" Fleur cried out summoning her Stand. "This is quite a shootout but these pieces of scrap can't outshot me!" The devilish cowboy laughed aiming his gun and began firing bullets. Each bullet sniped into each barrel causing each laser gun to explode from its own blast. "Donnie!" Leonardo called as the turtle in purple came over. Donatello tossed Leonardo into the air so he could slice the guns in half with his katana blades.

Donatello using his staff, pole vaulted to one of the guns before turning it to shoot at the others and then finished by sabotaging it to explode. "Mikey! Hammer throw!" Raphael called Michelangelo ran over to the turtle in red. Michaelango jumped over Raphael as the red masked turtle kicked out his feet to launch his fellow turtle to the control room glass and break open an entry to Stockman's terror.

Fleur and the others quickly followed up there blocking Stockman as their friends walked in from the other side. "April! You're alive." Stockman said shocked. "And kicking. My friends here helped me out and get me to you. It's over Stockman, I have enough evidence to land you in jail for a very long time." April spoke only for Stockman to laugh and pull out a remote with a single button. He pressed it before Michaelango could grab him.

"It's too late! I called back all my Mousers. They'll be here to rip you to shreds!" Stockman chuckled as the group could see the beginnings of a swarm of the malicious robots surround them. Stockman had used their distraction to escape. "Guys! Stockman got away!" Michelangelo shouted. "We have bigger problems. We have thousands of things heading our way! Stockman must have made even more before robbing those banks earlier!" Donatello panicked as both him and April got to the control panel before trying to hack it.

Mousers began to come in the room from all around them as Jotaro, Polnareff and Fleur got their stands ready. Suddenly all the small killer robots stopped as their single eye began blinking. "April, what did you do?" Fleur questioned as Michelangelo picked up one of the Mousers. "I couldn't shut them down so I had to reroute their programming to overload." April warned as the orange masked turtle dropped the Mouser in panic. "Let's get the shell out of here! This place is going to blow!" Fleur cried as it didn't take a single second for all of them to scramble out of the building and down into the sewers.

Back at the lair… the news played the burning scene of the Stocktronics building as the group watched. "What are you going to do now April? I'm pretty sure you're out of a job." Splinter questioned. "We can help her get back on her feet. She did help us stop Stockman." Fleur offered as Polnareff couldn't help but smile. "Splinter, I want to thank you and your master for caring for my little sister. She has turned into a wonderful woman with your guidance." Polnareff spoke.

"It was an honor. Though it'll take time for Fleur to adjust knowing she has a living relative. You and your friends are welcomed back here. The boys still need some guidance that I can't provide." Splinter spoke as Polnareff smiled. "Wait, if Polnareff is Fleur's older brother and Splinter adopted Fleur, doesn't that make Polnareff our big brother in some way?" Michelangelo questioned as everyone looked at the Frenchman.

"I believe it does since Splinter is her parental guardian. Looks like Polnareff has gotten another chance at being a big brother again." Johnathan chuckled as the Frenchman looked ready to cry. Today was just an insane day for Jean Pierre Polnareff. Moving to New York for a new start had gotten him into a crazy adventure. Now not only did he have his little sister Fleur back but also has 4 teenage mutant ninja turtles to guide like a big brother should. It was going to be strange but he wouldn't trade it for the world. And this time he was going to protect them!

That's it folks. I honestly thought Polnareff deserved another chance at the big brother role because it just suits him perfectly in my opinion. Here is a drawing of Fleur and her Stand Aeon though his name on the picture is different since I drew it before writing this.

[yesteachersblog]

An Insightful Interview

In order to expand my own understanding of community building in the classroom setting I decided to reach out to a veteran teacher who I had previously worked under several years ago. Brandon Thompson teaches at Tempe High School in the Tempe Union School District in Arizona. He has been teaching for over 20 years now and has carefully worked to craft an amazing teaching persona and classroom environment, something that I was able to witness firsthand. Mr. Thompson teaches 10th, 11th, and 12th, grade ELA with a mixture of regular, honors and AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) courses. AVID is an organization centered on helping students overcome obstacles throughout their school experience. In their own words “Regardless of their life circumstances, AVID students overcome obstacles and achieve success. They graduate and attend college at higher rates, but more importantly, they can think critically, collaborate, and set high expectations to confidently conquer the challenges that await them. In 47 states across the U.S., K–16 educators are driving student success through engaging, rigorous, and student-centered learning environments.” (https://www.avid.org) Mr. Thompson goes above and beyond for his students to help ensure they are on the right path to success. He is my main inspiration for pursuing a career in education as well as the core of my blog’s principles.

I asked Mr. Thompson a variety of questions all having to do with the communication he uses in his classroom as a teacher, as well as an AVID coordinator. The first thing I wanted to find out was what sort of community was the AVID program and what role did it play in Tempe High School. His response resonated with me deeply, “AVID in a sense is the only path students have to getting into college. We help prepare the students from the moment they enter high school to believe in themselves 100 percent and continuously improve their abilities in all subjects. Not just ELA, but Math teachers, Science, Social Studies, we all work together to guide the students.” (Thompson) For many of these teens, AVID keeps them grounded and out of trouble

As someone who grew up in a low-income community, I didn’t have a lot of guidance for helping me reach college. I know what it’s like out there in these public schools, just how easily a student can fall into the wrong hands and down a path of regret. The AVID program helps to prevent this. Mr. Thompson practices daily writing in all of classes. When prompted with the question “what kind of writing is the most important?” He responded with, “writing that allows students to speak the words they’re unable to speak outside of class, writing to find their voice.” (Thompson) He allows students to keep daily journals in his class not just as reflections of their lives, but in order to communicate with him. He reads their journals weekly and through this system he is able to reach the students better than through direct lecturing. Mr. Thompson mentioned to me how many of these students, especially the younger ones, struggle with direct communication with their teachers. However, through written language they are able to express themselves in a less pressured sense with reassurance that someone on the other end is listening. Peter Drucker establishes that communication is based on perception, expectation, and demand. As Drucker writes in Functioning Communications “Unless there is someone who hears, there is no communication. There is only noise.” (Drucker 262) These students are practicing daily communicating with their peers and with their instructor in order to help prepare them for the outside world.

However, to do so in an effective manner Mr. Thompson is constantly exposing himself to his students to create a shared experience and reassure them that he understands their perceptions. These shared experiences have a lot to do with his background, upbringing, and current lifestyle. Although he is the authoritative figure in the classroom, he first establishes himself as a human who’s endured similar experiences as his students. Tempe High is made up of a 1500 student population; 70 percent Latino,  14 percent Black, 5 percent American Indian, 2 percent Hawaiian, and more (https://www.publicschoolreview.com/tempe-high-school-profile) These demographics are important when taking into consideration students of different cultures, and beliefs. Minority groups are at a higher risk of dropping out of high school, “Minority students dropped out at disproportionately higher rates than their White counterparts — In 2009, 4.8 percent of of blacks and 5.8 percent of Hispanics between 15 and 24 dropped out of grades 10-12, compared with 2.4 percent for white students.” (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/high-school-dropout-rates_n_1022221) In order for teachers to effectively reach their students and help prevent these dropout rates from increasing they need to be careful of the communication practices they are using. This is where Mr. Thompson incorporates AVID into all of his courses. By reassuring his students that despite their background, gender, race, culture, etc., they are still able to work hard and achieve higher education.

Author Craig Smith describes the human myth as a function for establishing society. In his work Rhetoric and Human Consciousness, he writes “Since prehistoric times myths and narratives have been used for entertainment, but they also built tribes, cultures, and nations. Myths were used to advance values and to order lives, villages, and the world.” (Smith 20) Not much has changed since then. There is a common myth amongst the lower-class public-school setting in America. A myth that if you work hard enough in school, you’ll be able to make something great out of yourself. The problem with this myth though, is that it doesn’t take into consideration the many overlining factors that affect a student from reaching their college aspiration goals. No matter how hard a student may work they will never be able to reach that end point of success without the proper guidance.  This is a myth that Mr. Thompson works against daily. I asked him what some of the major struggles are he faces when it comes to written communication in this setting and his response centered the most around overcoming cultural and language barriers. Although any student can enroll in the AVID program this does not take into consideration their academic standing. Meaning, that many of his students are at different reading and writing levels despite being in the same grade. Their first language may not be English, and they may have grown up in a community where reading and writing was not as prioritized a skill as others. It can be difficult at times to make these students understand the importance of written communication, because they’ve never experienced the power their written words can have. Through positive affirmations and practice Mr. Thompson allows the students to breakthrough from this careless mindset and discover the potential they all have, despite how great or how “poorly” they may write. One thing he does that not many other ELA teachers do is allow students to write in their home languages, not just standard academic English. He later makes them translate whatever their writing was, but the principle of allowing them to use this form of written communication allows for all students to participate in the writing experience.

Mr. Thompson has faced a lot of backlash for his teaching methods as they are not seen to be “traditional” in the eyes of other veteran teachers. He is also constantly fighting to receive the necessary funding for his AVID classes. He relies a lot on social media specifically Facebook in order to help reach a larger audience when it comes to communicating issues and reaching out to the community.  The great thing about Facebook he says, is that “almost all parents nowadays have access to it.” Even if they don’t have a computer at home, the school offers technology hours in the library after school where parents or families are able to use the computer lab for a certain amount of time. Through this platform he is able to spread messages about what’s going in class, events, or even ask for funding. The AVID school program has their own Facebook page and allows public access for anyone interested in learning more about the organization. “I would have never imagined I’d become such an active Facebook user, but it helps me stay in touch with the community that my students are a part of.” I asked Mr. Thompson how he works to incorporate social media in his classroom, and he mentioned that he’ll do an end of the year project for students using a social media platform of their choice. Through whichever social media platform, they chose, they are able to bring awareness to a major issue occurring in or outside of the US in an attempt to create a research and project solution. This allows students to realize the importance of online communicating as well as the role social media plays in our daily communications.

After interviewing Branon Thompson I became even more aware of where I need to self-improve on as an educator. He allowed me to see a different side of what it takes to be an effective communicator in and outside of the classroom.