Sam Porter

Tonight, the Department of Homeland Security announced that on Tuesday they detained 14 of our neighbors on immigration charges. What they initially reported as a targeted criminal enforcement action was in fact an identity-based raid on people who had done nothing but show up for work that day.

Photo of a toddler looking at a book. The illustrations show an ancient intricately adorned board game.

A brightly colored illustrated cover for a book titled "A Compendium of Curious Contraptions."

Our copy of "A Compendium of Curious Contraptions" by @drthinglearner.bsky.social came in! It's a big hit with the kiddo!

A hand placing an "I Voted" sticker on the back of a laptop. The laptop has many stickers already, including three other "I Voted" stickers.

Added to my sticker collection today. Vote in your local elections!!!

A black and white photo of a toddler having a tantrum. He is on the ground with the top of his head facing the camera and his face towards the floor. One arm is raised.

My new hobby? Taking artistic photos of my toddler's tantrums. I call this one "Announcement of a Diaper Change."

A wrinkled bright green piece of fabric draped over a desk. It is being held onto the desk using the wright of two reams of paper.

Broke out the pandemic DIY green screen today. Stay tuned for some hopefully not too embarrassing short form content!

Greyscale image of a pebble produced with Ultraviolet reflectance argued to show a Neanderthal fingerprint.

I also really wish they'd included more specific info. Phrases like "a multispectral optical device" and "a remote sensing program" are pretty vague. You can see the mark in this supplemental image. I'm interested to hear folks' thoughts on the statistical analysis of geometric relationships.

A 3D scanner in a protective hard case surrounded by foam. The scanner had the branding Artec 3D.

A screenshot of the software program Artec Studio showing a 3D scan of a fox figurine.

New scanner in the house!

A PowerPoint slide with the text "The Surprising Origins of the Margarita. Michelle M. Hamilton." In the foreground are two out of focus margaritas on a table.

Some academic talks are extra fun! Thank you @umnpremodern.bsky.socialbfoe the great event! 🍹🍋‍🟩🧊

A screenshot of a grocery app. The item "butt paste" is listed under the category of "meat".

Our grocery app has some interesting opinions about the categorization of diaper cream.

Not that I know as I was just in the audience but you could reach out! anthropology.fas.harvard.edu/people/jack-...

Books on a messy counter. The name Graham Hancock can be seen on one of the spines.

Had a jump scare while getting lunch at #SAA2025Denver!

A person giving a presentation at a conference. The screen shows a planetary chart from the Game Outer Wilds.

Great talk by Jack Bishop about video games, storytelling, and archaeological education featuring Outer Wilds by @mobiusdigitalgames.com! #SAA2025Denver

Faded children's drawing on the side of some stairs. It resembles squares and an arch or castle.

Enhanced image of a children's drawing on the side of some stairs. It resembles squares and an arch or castle.

I see faded art, I DStretch.

A portion of chicken pot pie on a plate.

Happy Pi day!

Visiting the Dallas Zoo, where they have an exhibit of amazing scientists, and look who is featured: @samscansstuff.bsky.social! Great to see UMN Anthropology graduate and LATIS staff member getting well-deserved national recognition!

Scholarship in Motion: Regents Explore the Heart of Discovery in CLA This special tour provided an in-depth exploration of advanced research and creative spaces across the West Bank.

I was honored to have our lab featured in a tour for the Board of Regents showing off some of the amazing things happening in the College of Liberal Arts! Read about it here:

Selfie of a woman in winter gear wearing a medical style mask and headphones. Her eyelashes have ice crystals on them.

It's a wee bit chilly out.

Also I should have written 'database' - my bad 🤮.

Cruz-Led Investigation Uncovers $2 Billion in Woke DEI Grants at NSF, Releases Full Database

Source:

A screenshot of a file name in a downloads folder called "Public Database_Release (1) (1).xlsx

This is exactly the file name I would expect from a database released by this administration.

First aid kit made of yellowed plastic with an expiration date of 4/97.

Spring cleaning day in the office! The winner for most expired item was this first aid kit that gave out the year Titanic was released.

Hand holding a solved Rubik's Cube.

Useless skill acquired! After much consternation and a late night I now know how to solve Rubik's Cubes as long as I have access to YouTube.

View of the Mississippi River at twilight from a bridge. There is snow on the ground and the river is partially frozen. Many dark colored animals can be seen flying high above the river.

Saw this huge flock(?) of animals while leaving work over the Mississippi. Biology people, do bats stay in super cold places over the winter? Picture doesn't do it justice!

I may actually use this idea next time I have an opportunity to attend an ugly sweater party 😂

A 3D render of a grey cube on a dark grey background. There is a magenta square drawn around the cube, along with a label in the upper left corner saying "Cube."

Not sure what it says about me that the highlight of my work day was getting Blender and Python to draw a box around another box.

Gingerbread cookie on a cooling rack. It's torso is covered in red icing, with white swirls, resembling a rib cage.

Made some late holiday cookies. I was going for a cute Christmas tree sweater with this guy. Instead I ended up rib cage. The red sure isn't helping 🤣.

After not using it for months, I finally got rid of Jolene, my pandemic sourdough starter. Feels like the end of an era.

A living room. In the center of the photo is a large black plastic bag wrapped over a mannequin on a stand, resembling a skeleton. A dog sits on a couch in the foreground and a Christmas stocking is hanging on the wall.

When your parents bring over your old sewing mannequin from high school and it looks a little too much like a certain closet at work...

The Cedar Cultural Center Greenroom Virtual Tour Virtual Tour | This project was born out of the desire to show this cool, clu...

This semester, we worked with Public History undergraduate students to create this super rad virtual tour of the Cedar Cultural Center green room. Check it out!

kuula.co/share/collec...

Dog on a couch looking at a little, knocked over Christmas tree on the floor of a living room.

Who could have possibly done this?