passim in passing

Slowly, slowly, this blog is creaking back to life; mostly so I have a forum to explain myself when the book eventually comes out (Feb 23, UK / May 7 USA). But there are some amazing things going on in the world of the past that don't involve me digging up skeletons: the Raising Horizons project from TrowelBlazers ! We're in the middle of our first fundraising phase, so talking to all the media about all of the TrowelBlazing, including this article in the Guardian . There is still time to get in the amazing perks, raffle prizes, and POTENTIAL STICKERS that come with supporting our effort to reset imaginations and inspire future TrowelBlazers! Check out our IndieGoGo campaign , and help some future scientist See It, Be It. RAISING HORIZONS from Wire Frame Media UK on Vimeo .

So, after an INTENSELY LONG HIATUS due to work constraints, I thought I'd put a quick piece up on the Pokemon Go phenomenon, mostly because any widescale human trend is super interesting, but also because I have a residual interest in Augmented Reality that is probably Neal Stephenson's fault . This is largely brought on by a terrific article in Forbes featuring Andrew Reinhard of #archaeogaming fame posted in the Women's Digital Archaeology Network  by Lorna Richardson. (here is a video of people in New York freaking out over a rare Pokemon) The article mostly lays out past attempts at engaging people with heritage, a lot of which was pretty groundbreaking considering Pokemon Go is just about the first popular AR game and it's taken 10+ years to even get that far. Particular shout outs to Stu Eve and his projects over at Dead Men's Eyes are necessary -- if you can smell the Pokemon in the next release, you'll have innovators like Stu to thank. Or not. I...