👓 Social media detox: Christina Farr quits Instagram, Facebook | CNBC

Read I quit Instagram and Facebook and it made me happier — and that's a big problem for social media by Christina Farr (CNBC)
Christina Farr used to spend 5 hours a week posting and interacting with friends on Instagram. She quit cold this summer, and her life changed dramatically for the better.

👓 I Am Sorry | Read Write Collect

Read Bookmark: I Am Sorry by Aaron DavisAaron Davis (Read Write Collect)
Pernille Ripe reflects on life as a connected educator. She discusses the stress, anxieties and perceived responsibilities that come with being an educelebrity. Although we often talk about the technicalities associated with being (digitally) literate, what is sometimes overlooked are the social con...

👓 i am sorry | Pernille Ripp

Read i am sorry by Pernille RippPernille Ripp (Pernille Ripp)
This is a personal post.  I won’t be offended if you skip it.  But as always, this little tiny space on the internet, is my place for the thoughts I carry with me and the thoughts I have right now are about this tiny space and the role I play. Two weeks ago, I was working from home, probably che...

📺 “The Great British Bake Off” Danish Week | Netflix

Watched "The Great British Baking Show" Danish Week from Netflix
Velkommen to Danish Week in the latest episode of The Great British Bake Off. The bakers face unfamiliar recipes as they battle to impress Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood. There's a bread challenge Signature where they must demonstrate style as well substance. Paul sets a spherical Technical - and with a place in the Bake Off Semi-final at stake, everyone is out to impress. And for their final ...

📺 "The Great British Baking Show" Semi-Final: Patisserie Week | Netflix

Watched "The Great British Baking Show" Semi-Final: Patisserie Week from Netflix
It kills me that Rahul seems to have absolutely no confidence and it’s starting to kill him. He’s going to blow the whole thing after having had one of the better showings of any of the past several seasons.

📖 Read pages 75-102 of In the Footsteps of King David: Revelations from an Ancient Biblical City by Yosef Garfinkel, Saar Ganor, and Michael G. Hasel

📖 Read pages 75-102 of Chapter 3: Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Period of King David in In the Footsteps of King David: Revelations from an Ancient Biblical City by Yosef Garfinkel, Saar Ganor, and Michael G. Hasel (Thames & Hudson, 1st edition; July 24, 2018)

Highlights, Quotes, & Marginalia

Chapter 3: Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Period of King David

Ancient cities of the biblical period did not include public areas comparable to the central forum in Roman cities, the piazza in medieval European cities, or the shopping malls of modern cities. Instead, the gate area was the heart of the city, as everyone who entered or left the city had to pass through it.

Highlight (yellow) – Chapter 3: Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Period of King David > Page 75-76

The city gate was where elders of the town sat and passed judgment on disputes brought before them.

Importance of the city gates

Highlight (yellow) – Chapter 3: Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Period of King David > Page 77

Movement through this inner gate could have been controlled, so that possibly not everyone who was allowed into the piazza could then proceed further into the city.

I’m reminded of theater design in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in which lobbies are meant to physically hold everyone in a public space before they’re let into the actual theater space inside.

Highlight (yellow) – Chapter 3: Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Period of King David > Page 77

Tabun is an Arabic term referring to round overns used for baking, measuring around 0.5-1m (1 1/2-3 1/4 ft) in diameter and generally constructed of earth, though occasionally from a circle of rounded stones.

Highlight (orange) – Chapter 3: Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Period of King David > Page 78

…four large stone steps (a rare find in itself, as built stone steps are seldom uncovered in excavations) descended into the main room.

Highlight (yellow) – Chapter 3: Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Period of King David > Page 79

To the best of our knowledge, drainage channels have not been reported in ordinary dwellings in biblical period cities–only in the city gates–so this came as a surprise.

“To the best of our knowledge” –I like the warning/caution they give here, though most may gloss over it. Small statements like this are small flags in the text that scholars should note for potential future research. Subtle flags like this pop up in math textbooks frequently, but often only the well-trained know to take advantage of them.

Highlight (yellow) – Chapter 3: Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Period of King David > Page 79

This demonstrates how the understanding of archaeological remains can change as an excavation progresses.

Another archaeology 101 example here. Keep in mind that something that may look one way at a point in the research may change fundamentally as one “digs” further.

Highlight (yellow) – Chapter 3: Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Period of King David > Page 80

A bench stood next to the entrance–a feature found only in cultic rooms.

Highlight (yellow) – Chapter 3: Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Period of King David > Page 82

…which we interpreted as a stable.

again another cautionary flag that might possibly take other interpretations.

Highlight (yellow) – Chapter 3: Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Period of King David > Page 82

One room (G) is unusual: it contained a bench…

G doesn’t seem to actually be labeled on diagram C3, but does appear on Fig. 28 of building C10

Highlight (gray) – Chapter 3: Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Period of King David > Page 82

Pillared buildings are well known from the period of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel and were used as public storehouses for the produce collected as tax from farmers. The existence of such a building at Khirbet Qeiyafa clearly indicates central authority and administration.

Highlight (yellow) – Chapter 3: Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Period of King David > Page 85

We know that in ancient times urgent messages were communicated over great distances by sending signals using fire or torches. Evidence of this practice in the Kingdom of Judah comes from an inscription on a pottery sherd from Lachish from the time when Nebuchadnezzar was besieging the city: “we are watching for the fire signals of Lachish according to all the signs which my lord has given. The palace at Khirbet Qeiyafa would ahve been an ideal place for sending and receiving such torch-signals.

Nice documentation in the archaeological record for early long distance communication

Highlight (yellow) – Chapter 3: Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Period of King David > Page 86, 88

…we can three phases of development in cities in Judah in the biblical period (Fig. 33).

Highlight (yellow) – Chapter 3: Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Period of King David > Page 89

Khirbet Qeiyafa was probably the first site constructed according to this plan. [urban planning in Israel involving a casemate wall with houses that incorporate the casemates as rooms. Several examples from the following centuries exist using a similar pattern.]

Highlight (yellow) – Chapter 3: Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Period of King David > Page 91

The excavations at Khirbet Qeiyafa thus reveal another important aspect of the historical figure of David, and show that not only did he build cities, but also that a new concept of urban planning emerged during his reign.

Highlight (yellow) – Chapter 3: Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Period of King David > Page 91

… the city was built in several major phases. In the first phase, the site was cleared of earlier settlement remains and bedrock was exposed around the future city. In the second phase, stones were quarried and brought up to the line of the city wall. […] In the third pahse, the builders began work on the gates and their chambers. […] Construction of the wall itself commenced in the fourth phase. […] In the fifth and final phase, the private houses whose walls incorporated the casemates were constructed.

Highlight (yellow) – Chapter 3: Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Period of King David > Page 92

This was a good demonstration that the chronological dilemma cannot be resolved on the basis of pottery alone.

Highlight (yellow) – Chapter 3: Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Period of King David > Page 93

In the 2008 season we had discovered carbonized olive pits in the city wall and in rooms of the destroyed buildings in Area B.

Highlight (yellow) – Chapter 3: Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Period of King David > Page 93

The enormous tension that accompanied sending the samples via express mail resulted in the credit card with which we paid for the shipment being mistakenly packed inisde and sent to the laboratory at Oxford, along with the olive pits.

This could be a great plot point in a thriller version of this story!
One might think that with multiple samples, they might send them separately, that way if some are lost, then at least they’ve not lost everything!

Highlight (yellow) – Chapter 3: Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Period of King David > Page 94

A discovery made in our 2011 excavation season […] A jar containing some 20 olive pits was found in the destroyed city. […] which clearly indicate that the city had been destroyed no later than 980 to 970 BCE. […} Today, the dating […] is based on nearly 30 samples, probably the best radiometric dating we have so far for any level in a biblical city.

Highlight (yellow) – Chapter 3: Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Period of King David > Page 95

…determining the dates of the reigns of the kings of Israel and Judah is not a simple task, and the length of those of David and Solomon, exactly 40 years each, appears to be a literary device rather than reflecting historical reality. We therefore propose that the round number of 1000 BCE as the date of David’s accession to the through, though this is merely an approximation. […] But it is clear from the radiocarbon determinations that Khirbet Qeiyafa can be dated to the time of David or Saul, but no to Solomon’s reign, which is later than the results obtained. It will only be possible to decide conclusively if an inscription naming one king or another is found at Khirbet Qeiyafa. To be scientifically cautious, we accept the later date, to the reign of King David.

Highlight (yellow) – Chapter 3: Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Period of King David > Page 95

The “excavation dump” is the term commonly used by archaeologists in referring to the piles of earth and stones that they remove from the ground during excavation.

Highlight (orange) – Chapter 3: Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Period of King David > Page 97

In 2007 it was possible to claim that nothing was known archaeologically about King David; ten years later the situation is very different, and archaeology can present two sites from his period in the Judean Shephelah.

Highlight (yellow) – Chapter 3: Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Period of King David > Page 101
Guide to highlight colors

Yellow–general highlights and highlights which don’t fit under another category below
Orange–Vocabulary word; interesting and/or rare word
Green–Reference to read
Blue–Interesting Quote
Gray–Typography Problem
Red–Example to work through

🎞️ Mary Poppins Returns (2018) | Walt Disney Pictures

Watched Mary Poppins Returns (2018) from Walt Disney Pictures
Directed by Rob Marshall. With Emily Blunt, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ben Whishaw, Emily Mortimer. Decades after her original visit, the magical nanny returns to help the Banks siblings and Michael's children through a difficult time in their lives.

AMC Santa Anita 16, Westfield Santa Anita, 400 S Baldwin Ave., Arcadia, CA 91007

Screen ??

Seat: Row TK, Seat TK

Rating:

Much more darkly lit and dingy-looking than the original, some good songs (though none as great as the original), but tremendously still bright and uplifting. How can you not have some hope after watching this?

Dick Van Dyke stole the show at the end. Miranda’s accent was for crap, but he had a generally nice turn; I also liked the magic of the lamplighters in place of the chimney sweeps. Blunt didn’t seem to have the cute whimsy of Andrews’ Mary Poppins.

Opening image of Marry Poppins Returns - the flame from a gas lamp
Opening image of Marry Poppins Returns: the flame from a gas lamp

📖 Read pages 93-117 of No Coins, Please by Gordon Korman

📖 Read pages 93-117 Chapter 7 “No Frills” of No Coins, Please by Gordon Corman

Though there are some leaps which the reader is likely only all-too-happy-to make, you have to love the way that Artie comes out to his fellow campers while running the no-frills milk store. I can just see Rob and Dennis waking up to the fact that it isn’t just Artie who’s gone, but their entire group.

📺 “The Great British Bake Off” Final | Netflix

Watched "The Great British Baking Show" Final from Netflix
Spoiler alert:

I can’t believe that Rahul pulled it out after seeming to fall so far behind in the past week or so (at least based on the editing). His flavors and past performance seemed to have pulled him through though. I’ve been kind of irked at how they seem to only judge people on their current week’s performance without taking into account any of their past performance. Perhaps this episode marks a slight change?

📺 Love Actually (2003) Universal

Watched Love Actually (2003) from Universal
Directed by Richard Curtis. With Hugh Grant, Martine McCutcheon, Liam Neeson, Laura Linney. Follows the lives of eight very different couples in dealing with their love lives in various loosely interrelated tales all set during a frantic month before Christmas in London, England.
This is always such a depressing sort of movie aside from one or two little bright spots, but who can resist watching it in the background while doing other things?