passim in passing

So... I realise I haven't updated this, much less ranted, for some time. This is partially excused by the fact that I've been in France, Italy, the UK, Greece and Turkey for varying amounts of time over the last five months. But it's not like I wasn't WORKING. Jeez. We had an epic field season on Kythera in August, which was a triumph of fieldwalking spirit over footwear-themed adversity. Also, Satch and I made matching hats in honour of our Antikytheran legacy. Field hats in the Antikytheran style. Gonna need longer gaiters. Schematic of boot failure mechanics (Day 20). September became a string of pretty fun book promo adventures, including the first ever Wales National Botanic Gardens Science Festival, New Scientist Live , and Ada Lovelace Day Live .  You can even hear some of my talk ( a combo of bones and TrowelBlazing , what a treat, right???) on the ALD Podcast from around 27:00. I'm not tiny. It's just a really big desk. All of w

Just a quick little snippet here to post a link to the Books Interview i gave to Times Higher. Thinking a lot about my reading habits as summer approaches (and interminable drives/flights to field and beyond), thought I'd leave this here as a reminder that there is more to the world than just academic writing... :)

oh HELLO. Welcome to whatever time zone this is (and you will have to work it out on your own because I sure as heck don't know). Finally back from what feels like a very epic bi-coastal tour of the States. Essentially, I seem to plan my travel the same way I bowl -- I start off in the middle, then kinda scatter to either side, totally missing the pins in the middle. All apologies to the pins in the middle!  But had a great time up and down the west coast, guerrilla signing books in independent bookstores, talking, driving, more talking, flying, again, with the talking... you get the idea. One of the major amusements was getting the chance to do interviews while I sounded more or less American again (thanks Mom for the accent coaching). I was totally thrilled to be interviewed in Science Magazine's Books podcast, which you can find here . I also got to do a fun, more long-form chat with Rachelle Saunders from Science for the People , which may be the most America

Not so long ago, I got a backstage tour of the magical world of google... meatspace google. It is arguably much prettier than real google, which doesn't have a large section of a London routemaster stuck awkwardly in a corridor. AFAIK. Anyhow, it was very fun exploring what a global corporate empire might look like if it was allowed to wear whatever it wanted to school everyday (hint: there would be a Wall of Dogs). I also explored power posing, which was less successful. But the whole point was, of course, to talk to interesting people about interesting things, to which end I brought along an epic powerpoint and pretty much went through an entire undergrad course. In an hour. Available now, if you wish to hear and see what that sounds like. Bonus if you make it through to the end, when i get asked my favorite (off camera) / least favorite (on camera) question about whether I think civilisation is going the way of the buffalo.