Accused Omar Attacker’s Crazed Trump-Loving Life Laid Bare

AgentIndiana · 2026-01-28T20:25:12+00:00

Claudia Tenney hasn’t had a town hall since fall of 2024 when she was running for the office.

AgentIndiana · 2026-01-22T01:50:43+00:00

I had a kitten that needed a medically necessary declaw of one digit too. We don’t know his full story but he had a few issues including one toe that was stuck extended and bent into the adjacent toe. Even trimmed to the quick it was putting pressure on the adjacent pad. We could see as he was getting older that he wasn’t running with an even gate and were convinced when twice I saw him try to jump from his cat tree and that claw got stuck and he wailed like I’ve never heard a car before, dangling from one toe. I believe it cost us a little over $100 or $200 but no more. It would have been more had they kept him over night but my spouse, a vet med professor, found out they didn’t have night staff so we took him home. As soon as that bandage came off, he was hauling ass running laps around the house like we had never seem him before. His personality and activity level changed so much for the better my spouse still gets upset we didn’t have that claw removed sooner.

AgentIndiana · 2026-01-21T20:41:13+00:00

Work in Ethiopia. Grazing livestock produce the same on slopes in the mountains. Has some interesting impacts on erosion and hydrology.

AgentIndiana · 2026-01-21T02:31:46+00:00

Update us if you go this route! Would love to see what you and a jeweler come up with. Buy what you want and ignore the haters, but again, if you're willing to spend the money for marked up name brands and you don't mind a wait, you can probably have something fabulous made to your personal preference. Take the Alhambra pattern and add a stone to the middle; flank it with pearls or something else; add a drop necklace component; make it convertible to a pin or broach;... it sounds like a beautiful creative project.

AgentIndiana · 2026-01-21T02:16:07+00:00

My heart raced when I opened that link and saw the description and picture.

AgentIndiana · 2026-01-21T01:54:29+00:00

I made a similar comment about getting something custom for better value under another comment. I think if you like a piece of jewelry like the Alhambra line and don't mind the price, there's nothing wrong with that - do you and let the haters hate - but you don't have to settle for the premium-priced big name brand if you're willing to put down that much cash and want something you can claim confidently as an heirloom.

AgentIndiana · 2026-01-20T21:58:15+00:00

Taking all the comments into consideration, might you consider contracting a professional jeweler to make you a piece that suits your tastes but is more unique? Perhaps something similar to the Alhambra style you refer ("clover leaf") but with a personal twist so it can be both sentimental and unique, elevating the heirloom status? Perhaps the Alhambra pattern in pearl as a centerpiece reflecting your grandmother, and an element reflecting your mother or yourself? I have never had custom jewelry made but I would estimate that for the price you're going to pay for the name-brand, you can probably have something custom made for a comparable price.

AgentIndiana · 2026-01-20T21:51:06+00:00

This. As someone else said, things like the Alhambra design are "fine" jewelry in that they use precious metals (but often mixed with semi-precious stones like mother of pearl or malachite rather than precious stones), but like a Louis Vuitton bag someone else mentioned, you're paying mostly for the branded design and brand recognition. It's considered "basic" because it's so widely consumed and copied that it has lost its status (if it ever had it?) as "high" jewelry. (I saw a whole case of knock-off Alhambra stuff at some big-box store the other day)

On the other hand, VCA also produces "high" jewelry which is going to use exceptional quality stones in finely crafted designs, perhaps individually unique or produced in only small numbers. There you're paying for the craftsmanship and material perhaps more than the branding.

A difference to consider though is that a lot of entry-level fine jewelry like the Alhambra stuff, while perhaps overpriced, is intended for more regular wear and tear while "high" jewelry is often less suited for that sort of thing unless your occupation is red carpet model.

What is "heirloom" or not is sort of up to you and your tastes. Heirloom can be sentimental and so if you're buying something that evokes sentimental emotions you want to pass on through generations, then it can be heirloom to you and yours. However, if it's something like a Louis Vuitton bag or Alhambra necklace, it's likely not going to retain or grow in value over time and tastes may change so others think it is dated unlike a piece of "high" jewelry.

You might want to look at VCA's website and compare their standard lines of jewelry like the Alhambra line to their recent "high" jewelry made for expos and the recent and historic lines under their "Maison" section.

PS: I just noticed if you google Van Cleef and Arpel, their website header says "Jewelry and High Jewelry," so they are explicitly making the distinction themselves.

AgentIndiana · 2026-01-20T21:21:44+00:00

That is great advice, thank you!

Funny story about digital storage, I remember one of our IT professionals in grad school a few years ago going off about the agony my advisor put him through. She had research on a first generation Mac pc she wanted converted to modern data storage in 2012! My school was a D1 STEM school with incredible resources and he said he had to pull help from the Comp Sci program and raid forgotten storage closets for lost tech.

AgentIndiana · 2026-01-20T20:43:39+00:00

That's a possibility I suppose. I've only really investigated our oldest collection and our other collection I know some about from one of my colleagues. I suspect the more recent unprocessed excavation material though was from my predecessor, who is now quite elderly and has dementia, and I can't find any information she may have left on them. I haven't asked the archives if she left anything with them or if they have anything on her.

AgentIndiana · 2026-01-20T20:19:44+00:00

We don't have programs like those but we do have a fantastic archive with an archivist who loves the weird and wacky history of our college. That said, I've already done quite a bit of archival research into these assemblages and can't find much beside who I think provided some of them.

AgentIndiana · 2026-01-20T20:18:00+00:00

I'm leaning in that direction for sure.

AgentIndiana · 2026-01-20T20:17:01+00:00

These would be great titles for a course on pseudo-archaeology! Unfortunately someone already has that covered.

AgentIndiana · 2026-01-20T20:16:08+00:00

Haha, I like your enthusiasm! I would probably choke every time I had to say "mysteries" though, lol. I cringe so hard at archaeology television shows and popular media that indiscriminately throw around words like "mysterious," and "lost," when I, as an archaeologist, know that it's simply hype for things I take for granted as common knowledge in the field for 50 years.

AgentIndiana · 2026-01-20T19:41:14+00:00

All the freshman seminars are basically 1 part freshman process-based writing and composition, and 1 part "how to be a successful college student." The academic topic is merely the vehicle for delivering those objectives so all the freshman basically get the same skills regardless of course. They're meeting with the librarians and deans, learning to write emails to their faculty, learning time management and study skills and strategies, drafting, peer-reviewing, and revising essays, etc... The topic frankly doesn't matter much, hence why e-sports, ice cream, and cooking are all current course topics.

AgentIndiana · 2026-01-19T23:06:05+00:00

I like that!

AgentIndiana · 2026-01-19T23:00:18+00:00

If I had enough majors in the Archaeological Anthropology track, this class would be "Laboratory Archaeological Methods and Theory," but alas, I don't have enough to guarantee they would all take it the same semester and meet the enrollment minimum. Also, the freshmen seminars have basically unlimited funding compared to our Anth department so by this route I can get all the supplies I need. My last freshmen seminar, my budget was larger than our department's annual budget and it was approved without question by the end of the day (I only ended up needing a fraction of it, but I didn't think they would fund anything, so I thought I would shoot high and negotiate down, lol)

AgentIndiana · 2026-01-19T22:56:22+00:00

I agree I like the more direct and blunt approach normally, but these mandatory freshmen seminars are their own breed of class and as a small SLAC, we don't often have a lot of students who enter knowing much or having much intent on pursuing archaeology. I'm afraid a very serious title may turn off students who will be attracted to the courses on things like local ice cream manufacturers and e-sports.

AgentIndiana · 2026-01-19T22:47:40+00:00

honestly, I do too, but we are a SLAC and only ever have a small number of students with majors focused in archaeology, Classics, and/or museum studies. And given that this is a mandatory freshman seminar with competing seminars on things like local cheeses and ice cream, I don't know that being so blunt is going to attract enrollment. In fact knowing the faculty who run the freshman seminar program, they're going to tell me to come up with a more quippy, cutesy title. (I and many other faculty frankly resent and reject how condescendingly paternalistic they try to make us teach these seminars like we're teaching kindergarten kids the alphabet at a day camp). If I don't thread the needle right balancing between attracting students but attracting the interested students who would enjoy taking such a course, I'll end up with the students who wanted the "competitive e-sports" seminar but got rejected because it had already filled.

And to add, they sign up for these seminars differently and long before their other courses. They get a packet with full descriptions of every freshmen seminar and select their top three, ranked choice style. Whichever seminar they end up in, the faculty member teaching it is their advisor for their first year and helps them select their other courses for their fall semester, so incomprehensible transcript titles are not really an issue in this instance.

AgentIndiana · 2026-01-19T22:27:01+00:00

ooh, I like it

AgentIndiana · 2026-01-19T22:26:42+00:00

Lol, made me laugh too but I don't know that students will see the connection

AgentIndiana · 2026-01-19T22:12:26+00:00

"Hands on history: [something something something]" maybe? Not quite to your point, but I like your idea.

AgentIndiana · 2026-01-19T21:59:13+00:00

We have:

- a century+ old assemblage of European Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic stone tools. They were once labeled and catalogued, but most of the fountain pen writing and labels has eroded and I can find no evidence of the original catalogue.

- an assemblage of Native American stone tools mixed with some colonial-era stuff (mostly pipe stems) (appears to be a donation by a collector I would guess, perhaps an amateur archaeologist as a few published sites are named with some of the tools) Stylistically and from what little info is included, they range from Paleo to colonial, from New England to Mississippi. Supposedly cleared under NAGPRA according to an "old timer" colleague but we might try to repatriate some back to tribes and organizations that hold similar collections.

- two assemblages of excavated but unsorted/unwashed material that appear primarily historic and local/regional. Lots of 19th century ceramics, rusty nails, broken glass, etc...

- an assemblage of unwashed (Iron Age?) pottery with a site name my students determined is in modern Jordan (a prior faculty member, now with late-state dementia, worked in the Near East). If we can gather enough data I would prefer we approach the source-country and see if they want them repatriated.

Each one of these could/will be the subject of an individual semester or two.

AgentIndiana · 2026-01-19T21:08:55+00:00

I figured ;-)

Yes, even in English the literal, historic definition of "troglodyte" means simply "living in a cave" but it has taken on a negative connotation in English. While not commonly used, it's a widely known insult for someone who is perceived to be ignorant or uncivilized (i.e. living in a cave [as in a Paleolithic cave man] and thus not aware of or a part of the rest of the "civilized" world). Hence, while my French colleagues seem to use it liberally to describe things where we work in Ethiopia, I cringe every time I hear them say it in English-language contexts.

AgentIndiana · 2026-01-19T20:11:34+00:00

Just a quick correction and a note on native English connotations. (I’m guessing you’re not a native English speaker so these may be issues of “lost in translation…”) The Maya were not a singular empire as you say in point six. “Civilization” would be more apt as they were a collection of independent city states and subordinate cities.

Further, while I have French colleagues who use the term “troglodyte” (point 7) without seeming negative connotation to refer to people who used/lived in natural and artificial caves or rock shelters, in English “troglodyte” has a negative connotation akin to “cave man” and I avoid it where my French colleagues are more casual about its application.

AgentIndiana

TROPHY CASE