andybrockman.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

It's the mark of a great actor that they can deliver a line in a movie which is the only full line you remember decades later, like this one, "Lex Luthor: [to Otis] Do you know why the number two hundred is so vitally descriptive to both you and me? It's your weight and my I.Q. RIP Gene Hackman.

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Two weeks on from the sudden departure of Nathan Baker as CEO of the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists there are still many questions and no answers. Professor Howard Williams has some thoughts. One being what happens at CIfA matters to everyone involved in archaeology, not just members.

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Following Jeff Bezos stating the Washington Post opinion pages will nows now write about the two pillars of Freedom of Speech and Free Markets, thePipeline will now write about the pillars of UK Archaeology CIfA members enjoy free speech & Free Market FAME cares deeply about archaeologist's pay.

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Academic Publishing is Eating Itself...News A survey finds 75% of University and College libraries are making budget cuts and 60% are questioning access "deals" with the leading academic publishers.

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"We at Nature denounce this assault on science. And we encourage the global research community, wherever they can, to voice their opposition." The new #WatchingBrief looks at the human cost of what this powerful editorial in Nature describes for one archaeologist. Will CIfA & the CBA speak out?

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"Science is a global collaboration and so cuts in one country can affect everyone. If cuts to science are ideologically driven, we will surrender one of the most valuable commodities, the evidence-based thinking and innovation that protects and improves lives." The Royal Society.

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As part of ongoing investigations the Manhattan DA's office announces another repatriation of Antiquities trafficked to the USA from Greece.

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GOVUK's consultation on the use of copyright material to train AI programmes ends today. With Big Tech currently showing daily in the US how generous and socially responsible it is, you might want to tell the Government if they want to make gazillions from the work of creatives it should pay them.

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Those of us who are terminally online use them all the time, and they vary from the hilarious to the sinister, making Memes a central part of our wider digital lives. Here Gabriel Moshenska of UCL looks at the background, opportunities and pitfalls behind "Museum Memes".

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Well There's A Thing...News One of Nigel Farage's former UKIP and Brexit Party MEP's has been accused of accepting bribes to make statements in support of Russia.

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With the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza possibly heading for a messy endgame a reminder how many militaries are now trained in the international rules which can and should be enforced against all combatants. War crimes of all kinds, including cultural war crimes, must be investigated and prosecuted.

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Many Archaeogamers (and anyone else for whom computer games are more than just a passtime) will be aware of the misogynist absurdity of "Gamergate". This smartly written piece by Amanda Marcotte argues that in that toddler tantrum trollfest there is a trial run for the Muskovites approach to DOGE.

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Three years on from the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, ordered by Vladimir Putin, in addition to the human cost, United Nations cultural body UNESCO assesses that 476 cultural sites have been damaged ranging from historic and religious buildings to museums, libraries and archaeological sites.

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As Box Sets go it is not as nail bitingly tense as the Alien Quadrilogy, or as satirical as Succession [face it-we couldn't make this one up], but there's a better story arc than the final series of Game of Thrones. You can now access both #WatchingBrief CIfA CEO specials via thePipeLine home page.

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"There seems to be a sort of omerta has gone out that we're not going to talk about it and I'm not sure that's good for the sector and I certainly don't think it's good for CIfA in the long term." The #WatchingBrief with the latest on CIfA's disappearing CEO.

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New in thePipeLine: More revelations and questions as we investigate the process by which CIfA appointed a CEO who appears to have never left his previous job and stayed for just eight months, what it could have cost financially and what it could yet cost CIfA and its members in terms of reputation.

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The Trump charm offensive over Ukraine continues... Your regular reminder that the cards Ukraine has to play include they were invaded contrary to international law and the invader, President Putin's Russia, is alleged to have committed multiple war crimes.

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As a Ketamine user Elon Musk might find it easier to get a pilot's licence after DOGE fires lawyers at the FAA who bring cases against pilots accused of misusing drugs or alcahol (He has already fixed it that the head of the FAA, who pursued safety cases against SpaceX, was forced out.)

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Archaeology is proudly international. If you are an archaeologist working in the USA who has been impacted by the Trump administration's Executive Orders, or Elon Musk's DOGE, we want to tell your story. Contact us in confidence by DM, email, or Signal, remembering not to use a work device.

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@mrsoup.bsky.social and I are about to record the latest #WatchingBrief. On the agenda, an update on the saga of the CIfA CEO who (maybe?) never was. Why it matters, not just to CIfA & the lessons of the pay benchmarking survey which CIfA and its CEO, could have been discussing with its members.

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What fresh hell is this... Elon Musk retweets Liz Truss as the lettuce leaning former UK PM endorses Veep Vance. At least they are in plain sight now.

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In another sign of the shifting attitude to museums in former colonial powers retaining artefacts taken from native peoples during colonial rule, the Netherlands has agreed to repatriate to Nigeria 119 items stolen by the British punitive expedition to the African kingdom of Benin.

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Connoisseurs of irony will delight in the metaphorical potential of a giant and once luxurious, liner called the United States, which carried film stars and presidents, being towed towards its final destination as an artificial reef supporting the ecology of the Florida coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

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It's a conspiracy! The JFK Library, operated by the US National Archive, was forced to close briefly after five key employees were summarily fired by Elon's dogies... (Well at least it was only a library. It's not as if they are responsible for nuclear weapons safety or air traffic control or...)

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Professor Wendy Larner, the Vice Chancellor of Cardiff University, is to give evidence about the University's controversial proposed cuts, including to archaeology & ancient history, to the Senedd Education Committee. The session will take place at the conclusion of the current consultation period.

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In a ceremony on 7 March the University of Leicester will name the academic base of its Schools of Archaeology and Ancient History and Museum Studies the Dame Kathleen Kenyon Building The move honours the trowelblazing archaeologist who worked in Leicester in the 1930's.

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The Ministry of Defence is selling most of the historic Royal Artillery Barracks site in Woolwich SE London. Now Greenwich Council is consulting over the Master Plan for the site. This is a high profile disposal with a number of important, even unique, listed buildings so do take part and share.

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Coming Soon to thePipeLine: Another Twist in the CIfA CEO Saga Meanwhile, if you are a CIfA member and had any official interaction with short lived CEO Nathan Baker please let us know in confidence. DM's Open Signal ID: AndyBrockman.25 <[email protected]> Here is the original story,

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As it is in the news today on account of Elon apparently blocking the encrypted app on xTwitter, my Signal ID is AndyBrockman.25 If you have a tip about an archaeology/heritage story you think the public should know about, or information about a story we've already run, let me know in confidence.

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Planning News Owners apply to demolish Grade B listed Caerlee Mill at Innerleithen in the Borders after claim cost to put one of Scotland's earliest industrial buildings back into use exceeds allocated budget. #RetrofitFirst (But not if you get the numbers wrong)

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Possibly the best endorsement encrypted messaging app Signal has ever had, Elon Musk has blocked it.

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The figure of the deficit is a familiar one, around £30m and so is the local decision making which could have national implications. Scottish Legal News reports the University of Dundee set to close its Leaverhulme funded forensic science research centre at a cost of 24 jobs and sector capacity.

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Journalism as the first draft of History? Lewis Goodall writing with the same sharp analysis and righteous anger which typifies journalists who showed the ability to seize a moment and fix it in it in its historical context, like Edward R Morrow, who he alludes to in the title of his substack.

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The context for my previous post...

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When we watched Indie in the book burning scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade we knew there would be a happy ending with the Nazis defeated. Who of us expected we would have to respond to the 21st century equivilent and make our own ending, as bigotry strips library shelves in the USA?

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In the latest #WatchingBrief we look at how we broke the strange story of CIfA's "shared" CEO and what could be the implications for the sector's main professional body and the wider leadership of UK Archaeology at a time when the archaeology is under great stress. Please like, subscribe & share.

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thePipeLine has asked the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists and the Institute for Occupational Medicine to clarify the roles of Nathan Baker in the period between CIfA stating he was taking up the role of CEO and yesterday's shock announcement he was standing down. Our original story is here.

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EXCLUSIVE: CE OH NO! CIfA BOSS BAKER STEPS DOWN AMID QUESTIONING IF HE EVER LEFT PREVIOUS JOB thePipeLine reveals CIfA CEO Nathan Baker who sensationally left the organisation yesterday, is still listed as as CEO of the Institute of Occupational Medicine and spoke on its behalf in December 2024.

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The eminent expert body in the UK, the Royal Historical Society, is the latest heritage group to announce it has joined the X-odus to BlueSky.

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An Indian journalist asks the first question at the Trump/Modi press conference in perfectly comprehensible English. For the 2nd time in days the President claims he can't understand & calls the next question. Previously it was an Afghan woman journalist. So racist, sexist, or both? You decide.

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BREAKING Pen Forman of CIfA has issued a clarification regarding the sudden departure of CEO Nathan Baker from CIfA, stating that the move... "...is is not related to the Institute itself. I hope that is reassuring - and we are relishing taking forward his excellent work and plans".

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