Kevin Birth @time_jester

Anthropologist (in a 4-field sense), prof at CUNY, time wonk, and trouble-maker. Author of 4 books, including Objects of Time: How Things Shape Temporality. qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/ANTHRO/Web_Pag… City University of New York Joined January 2019

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Kevin Birth @time_jester

3 years ago

Quirky discovery. The volume of water used in this ancient Egyptian baboon clepsydra is roughly equivalent to the volume of liquid an adult male baboon bladder can hold. metmuseum.org/art/collection…

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Kevin Birth @time_jester

3 years ago

If it's three strikes you're out, then McCarthy must be playing cricket.

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Kevin Birth @time_jester

3 years ago

At the risk of having my account suspended because of a rich fool with a thin skin. Here's to truly free speech. businessinsider.com/elon-musk-priv…

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Kevin Birth @time_jester

3 years ago

Now that Musk has taken over, I'm struck by the increased number of unwanted messages messages I get about sex and job opportunities from complete strangers. I'm almost to the point of being so creeped out I'm going to leave twitter.

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Kevin Birth @time_jester

3 years ago

Just got this and I can't wait to read it! ZK Matthews was an anthropologist and student of Malinowski. He taught at the South African Native College where he mentored Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu. Forgotten by mainstream anthro, his ideas were ahead of their time.

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nature @Nature

3 years ago

The ‘watch doctor’ turns back time on old devices go.nature.com/3EPi62e

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Kevin Birth @time_jester

3 years ago

Debates about daylight saving time always seem to focus on time zones not latitude. I'd love to see a study that demonstrates the distance from the equator where DST makes any sense. There is no DST in the tropics, and close to the poles I don't think it matters much, either.

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Kevin Birth @time_jester

3 years ago

I think Susan Collins and Joe Manchin should form their own third-party caucus in the senate just to play with the heads of McConnell and Schumer.

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Kevin Birth @time_jester

3 years ago

In PA, the only thing worse than running a candidate from NJ in an election in PA would be running a candidate from Ohio who played football for Ohio State.

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Kevin Birth @time_jester

3 years ago

Once again I am struck by the fact that the plastic human skeletons that we can wheel around into classrooms don't, but should, come with a cup holder.

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Kevin Birth @time_jester

3 years ago

An observation on the UK: no amount of bad policy can save a inept leader, but also, no amount of leadership can make bad policies good.

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Kevin Birth @time_jester

3 years ago

I miss old fashioned type-written papers I could read. I'm having trouble with reading a student's assignment that is in the form of a PDF of cursive colored fonts against a black checkered background.

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Kevin Birth @time_jester

3 years ago

I'm learning that in teaching a graduate-level 4-field history of anthropology course the biggest challenge is coming up with paper topics that engage all the subdisciplines, not readings.

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Kevin Birth @time_jester

3 years ago

A reminder: just because something pops up among the first 5 results in a Google search doesn't mean it is true. Google is not in the business of truth, but the business of marketing ideas that leverage advertising revenues.

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Kevin Birth @time_jester

3 years ago

Erdapfel--the globe by Behaim finished in 1492. Not only did Columbus have a map, but such maps were well known in Europe. Both Columbus and Behaim were small Earthers--they underestimated the circumference at the equator by 10000 miles.

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anthony k webster 🐿 @ethnopoetics

3 years ago

"We should not be surprised that anthropologists never give the people they study the right to be as knowledgeable or, more precisely, to have the same kind of knowledge about their own societies as ethnographers."--Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Making-Sense

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Kevin Birth @time_jester

3 years ago

CUNY policy is that after a class has been exposed to COVID, the class should wear masks for ten days. CUNY policy is also that the instructor is not allowed to communicate this policy to students. #CUNY #CovidIsntOver #COVID19 #stupidity

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Kevin Birth @time_jester

3 years ago

From declassifying documents to stating values of his real estate, who ever thought that Donald Trump would be educating us on Saussure's idea of the arbitrariness of the sign.