Friday Varia and Quick Hits

It’s cold this morning. On the other hand, the snow has stopped and we had a northern lights show last night. So the world is trying to make it up to us.

There is only one more week of classes, so the end is near. This weekend, I have some grading, some grant writing, and some cricket watching. If your weekend is similar, maybe you can make some time for some quick hits and varia?

• Two new saints in the Orthodox Church. St. Meletios of Lardos was a dream archaeologist.

• An island settlement in Late Antiquity.

• Roman ingots being destroyed in the search for “dark matter”. 

• Roman gold mines in Romania put the brakes (for now) on development.

• The Society for American Archaeology continues to try to get National Geographic Society’s attention about their show Diggers (pdf).

• Anna Comnena’s birthday. 

• What screens wants.

• Some Delaware history. On December 8, 1963, Pan Am flight 214 crashed on the Delaware-Maryland border near Elkton killing all 81 on board. Here’s what the site looks like now. Here’s what the emergency call sounded like.

• A distance education video timeline.

• Libraries.

• On his 44th birthday, Jay-Z ranks his solo albums.

• It’s like they have visited my house: Grado Labs + Bushmills headphones.

• Do you think a Kickstarter to buy me this would work?

• How can anyone not support this?

• I usually don’t have much of a sense of humor, but I have to spot these two things: First, check out how Twitter stuff can escalate. And, then, this funny little collection of texts written in the style of undergraduate papers.

• Some tech trends in higher ed.

• What I’m reading: A ton of student papers (and a few random articles). 

• What I’m listening to: Lucky Dube, Prisoner; Lucky Dube, Slave.