Friday Quick Hits and Varia

After a lovely late summer week, we will slide into genuinely fall-like weather this weekend. We might even turn the heat on or play my stereo very loud so that the amplifier gives us warmth.

Before I offer up my modest serving of quick-hits and varia, I want to thank my readers and contributors to this blog. This has been a great week. The blog has enjoyed close to 250 views per day and this follows on very solid page views for the last two months. I am more than pleased that I can fill a spot in interests of the internet community. 

And, now, some links:

• A Byzantine monastery in Istanbul.

• The abandoned villages in Syria reborn (h/t to Nassos Papalexandrou).

• St. Catherine on the Sinai and the unrest in Egypt.

• Archaeology and Cultural Heritage in Libya. 

• Archaeologists with friggin’ laser beams.

• New cities in Late Antiquity.

• Hopefully people had a chance to read Sebastian Heath’s nice piece on the democratization of 3D imaging technology in Mediterranean Archaeology yesterday.

• Architectural history and MOOCs.

• The origins of the term boondocks.

• Luther’s insults.

• Some Bakken photos from the sky.

• Crowd sourcing the best public history in the Public Historian.

• Apparently, emus are bulletproof. 

• There are two great web applications: the magic 8-Ball and Cloud Paint (for anyone nostalgic for MacPaint around 1988).

• An iPhone in Scotland.

• Sachin Tendulkar will retire after the home series against the West Indies. Hopefully that new will distract everyone from the Australian visit.

• What I’m listening to: The Radiators, Ghostown. (R.I.P. Phil Chevron).

• What I’m reading: Thomas Pynchon, The Bleeding Edge.

I’m feeling nostalgic: