Who can you trust?

I've run into a lot of frustration with our final paper project, and not one bit of it has to do with writer's block. We trust magazines and newspapers for accurate information–but how well-documented is it really? While trying to find a primary source, I came across an awesome National Geographic article on gigantism. It was super interesting, but for the life of me I could not figure out what the primary source was. There was one link that brought me to a journal on endocrinology, but not the specific study the article was citing. Not being able to find any factual information on the topic, I was left to wonder, where does National Geographic get its information? Why isn't that outlet more accessible? I have to say, it left a rather sour taste in my mouth. Either way, the article is pretty interesting, ya'll should take a look at it. The photograph shows the difference between a normal Roman man's shinbone and the giant's shinbone (both lived during the same period). Crikey.

Being able to trust your sources is crucial, especially in the field of archaeology. People put up hoaxes and false discoveries over time. And while it's pretty safe to say that National Geographic's info can be trusted, I'd like to be sure. Magazines should proudly present their sources, not squirrel them away like embarrassing family photos. 

Hurricane Sandy

Though Hurricane Sandy doesn't really qualify as archaeological news (not for another 100 years or so probably), it's hard to ignore the wide-reaching impact of the super storm. It's crazy how much media (newspapers and magazines included) coverage it's getting. Everyone wants the latest updates so they can get the news out fast. It was interesting to see how National Geographic became a mini news magazine during the storm, seeing as they don't typically focus on breaking weather news. We wanted to look at two different aspects of an article from National Geographic. Jessie looked at titles while I looked at the photograph that heads the article. We both tried to make our post only 50 words to practice getting our point across in brief. Hopefully it helps us get better at writing our abstracts!

With inclement weather increasing, should boardwalks be rebuilt, or redesigned? This was very interesting as it suggested, from an archaeological perspective what the history of boardwalks might look like. Perhaps future archaeologists will unearth remnants from New Jersey’s boardwalks, displaying the wooden slats in the Museum of modern art.

- Jessie

Much can be said through photography, and the image National Geographic uses to gain readership for their article on Hurricane Sandy and her effects on boardwalks is pretty graphic. By showing a half-washed away boardwalk, it makes the structures look too fragile. But then, photos can’t lie. Or can they?

- Alana

Best to our class and their family and friends who may have been affected by this incredible storm.

The World is Too Hot!

Fossils on Fossils on Fossils

After reading an article about a past era of overheating and mass extinction, Xue and I were afraid of the future of the world, but also inspired. We wrote some limericks for your enjoyment about global warming and environmental conservation and stewardship. The article should receive more attention overall, since it shows that global warming is not a one-time result of our mistakes but rather a cyclical event that could happen again if no major change is made. We hate to get too preachy about the environment, but it's really a problem that deserves a lot of recognition and action. Do something!

Since magazine and newspaper articles tend to have very formulaic and structured ways of talking about discoveries and events, we decided to break from that norm. Even though we're blogging about magazines and newspapers and aren't limited by their structures, we want to provide our readers with responses that truly discuss the meat of the articles. However, everyone needs a break from academia at times and we figured this article could benefit from some creative reactions.

Long, long ago, the earth became too hot
Life died out like in a giant soup pot
Now the earth has regrown
Many new seeds were sown
If we don’t act now the world could be for not
-Ariel

At the end-Permian event
Everything got too hot when the CO2 was spent
By studying tiny fossils found in the southern China sea
Researchers found that temperatures reached 104 degrees
So we need to remember this Earth is only for rent
-Xue

World Chompion Group Post

We wanted to create a group post in order to better understand different perspectives. By writing from different points of view, and not discussing the article "The Tyrannosaurus Rex’s Dangerous and Deadly Bite" beforehand, or what we were writing, we came up with four different 100 word observations on one Smithsonian article. By limiting ourselves to only 100 words, we parsed down what we each got out of the article to show how we each individually understood it. Enjoy!

We’ve all seen caricatures of a T. rex with a huge body and head with tiny arms, but this article shows that these massive dinosaurs are not to be messed with. A T. rex theoretically can bite another T. rex in half or mangle it. Today, people flock to museums to see skeletons of the T. rex to appreciate their size and mock their disproportion. Since cloning technologies are being developed, I began to wonder what would happen if a T. rex was reanimated. Certainly it would first devour anyone who teases its awkward size, but what would be next? -Ariel

Smithsonian, like National Geographic, has a pretty superb reputation. They are often viewed as an expert source for archaeological news. Maybe that is why the T. rex’s reputation is so bad: because the science backs it up. As one of their recent articles highlights, a digital model of a T. rex’s skull shows how its bite is a lot stronger than previously assumed. The results showed that the maximum bite force was almost 12,800 pounds, the exact weight of the Apollo Command Module. So pretty heavy. Smithsonian isn’t beating around the bush with how badass the T. rex really was. -Alana

First to catch my eye are the ferocious fangs of T. rex. Imagery is incredibly important in magazines and can pull readers in with a single photograph. This article discussed the biomechanics of the “Bite power” of the infamous Tyrannosaurus rex. The author compared the T. rex’s jaw force of 12,800 pounds to “13 Steinway Model D concert grand pianos.” For those less musically inclined readers, this comparison will most likely alienate them, adding confusion to a seemingly simple subject. Over all this article was relatively well written, yet the analogies seemed strange and boring to me. -Jessie

I would never have believed that there are experts who spend time assessing the strength of dinosaurs’ bites. I cannot see the benefit in having this knowledge. It is interesting but overall useless. A biomechanics expert and a paleontologist worked together to figure that a T. rex named Stan (why do they name dinosaurs?) bit his prey with a maximum bite force of 12,800 pounds. They based their research on birds, which are living dinosaurs (so dinosaurs are not extinct?) and crocodilians, the closest living cousins to Dinosauria. Calculations and explanations for how they came to this conclusion are excluded. -Xue

Photo from http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/The-Tyrannosaurus-Rexs-Dangerous-and-Deadly-Bite-169806936.html#

Where We're Going...

Even Robert Pattinson reads magazines!

Our blog group can't lie,
we've been somewhat scattered.

The material we have
is thus far, battered.

Magazines and newspapers
have so many features:
titles, articles, and photos–
they're pretty wild creatures!

To explore all their facets
is what we have tried,
but it's left us frazzled,
frenzied, and fried.

So now we will write
a group post or two
to explore different perspectives,
be them a whole lot or a few!

National Geographic Kids Does It Right

Museums pride themselves on the artifacts they have on display in their spacious rooms and tucked away in storage areas. They spend lots of money and time searching for certain objects. They dedicate hours to creating exhibits that will attract the masses. So it should not come as a surprise that museums try to avoid the subject of looting. Looting is linked with plundering, thieves or treasure hunters like pirates, and other uncivilized and illegal activities that would tarnish a museum's reputation. Some of the objects in museums are donated by anonymous sources. In these instances, the history and origin of the object is unknown because more likely than not, the artifact was looted from an ancient site somewhere.

Looting is a sad and disgusting practice, but laws and regulations regarding looting were created only a few decades ago, way after most items were looted. Anything acquired by museums after the late 1900s now has to be returned to the rightful owner or country.

Although this article by National Geographic Kids is about how citizens and police in Egypt protected a museum from looters and not about how museums have items in them that have been looted, they are still acknowledging that looting happens. It is time for children (and adults) to know about looting and face it. Looting happened and still happens today. It cannot and should not be avoided. I praise National Geographic for sharing this tidbit rather than trying to cover it up.

How often do we hear stories about looting or people trying to prevent looting? Once in awhile, a huge scandal involving an artifact in a museum or something will be the headlines for a few days, but other than that, museums and news sources that discuss archaeological news avoid the discussion of looting and looters when it can be avoided. This article is a good step to introducing the topic of looting to children. But there needs to be more discussion about looted items displayed in museums and people's private collections. What should be done about these artifacts? Who has the right to them? When will the dirty and complicated details about looting be figured out? These are all questions that governments and archaeologists need to discuss and hopefully, come to a satisfactory conclusion otherwise there will be bad blood among nations and governments and looting will continue to be a problem.

I feel like often, newspapers, magazines, and books simplify archaeology too much. They feel that children should just learn about exciting and fun things. This is done by writing simple articles that highlight news about dinosaur bones, digs (that sound like treasure hunts), and finding pieces of puzzles in the form of pottery pieces. It is hard sometimes to find a substantial and serious piece that is about something less pretty in the archaeological world, like looting. In addition, it seems that there is very little discussion with archaeologists about what they do and what it is like to go on a dig. There are fun simulations in the form of games or photos, but an article that touches on drier stuff is not usually written. In part, this is because the target audience for such articles is probably elementary age children, but at that age, they can be serious. 

We should not underestimate the abilities of children. They can be pushed a little bit to read more sophisticated and realistic information about archaeology. I feel like if I had received a mix of exciting and informative facts about archaeology, I would have felt more compelled to learn about it as a child. But then again, I was always loved art and reading, so I was pretty easily entertained. I remember reading Time for Kids and loving it as a child. It was required in schools, but it told us the facts about the world. It encouraged us to learn some challenging words, to understand what was going on in the news, and was very engaging. More archaeological material for children should aim to do this, be educational and factual without focusing too much on the "flashy" details but rather on content.

Photo taken from "Egypt Protects Artifacts from Looters." NG Kids. Posted Tuesday, February 1, 2011. http://kidsblogs.nationalgeographic.com/kidsnews/archaeology/

Time Travel for Kids... Sort Of

Thinking back about how I was exposed to archaeology as a kid, I remembered one of my favorite books, "A Street Through Time". The book showed how the same plot of land progressed from a Stone Age camp to a Roman village to busy modern-day city. The book was fictional but showed progression, the passing of time, and how cities grow and land becomes developed into something familiar to viewers today. "A Street Through Time" made it easy for younger readers to understand how modernization happens.

Though it didn't exactly show an archaeological dig or anything like that, the book made it easily understood that beneath each of the settlements, there were still remnants of the others ones there. A burial mound introduced early on in the book becomes a fixture in the later pages. Ruins from past civilizations that faced destruction are not spoon-fed to readers, but are certainly present for someone looking a little more at each page.

One thing I really remember thinking when I read it as a kid and still think of now is how vastly different many of the settlements are. Putting everything together, the only place it could have been would be England, though it's unspecific enough to really be anywhere with a little creative license taken. Since many kids would not benefit from this type of book if it was text-heavy, "A Street Through Time" is appropriately almost all pictures. Though there are some explanations, much of the education is through looking at the pictures, sometimes hunting for specific elements. Even if they didn't fully understand what they saw, it still provided a good basis for what archaeology is and how time and civilization progresses but leaves records. It targets young audiences to get them interested in archaeology from a young age to produce budding archaeologists. The pictures provide a way to get the story without so much text, helpful for young readers, and emphasize the progress of a street as time passes.