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The world of archaeology is quite exciting right now - especially for the discoveries that affirm Biblical events, people and places. Among the recent ones are the excavation of the Pool of Siloam, the discovery of the “earliest” Christian church building, and the unearthing of a shard of pottery that offers support for the Goliath story. So maybe the magazine Biblical Archaeology Review can now refrain from making “Swimsuit Edition”-style covers to attract readership.

The BAR cover above from earlier this year has elicited spirited responses in the letters section a couple of issues later. Here are some excerpts:

• “The ersatz cheesecake photo… belies the serious material offered in the substance of the magazine.”
• “Was it really necessary to expose the young lady on the cover of “Digs 2005″ to such misogynistic treatment?”
• “Come on, is it really the thrill of discovery that got this shot on the cover? Let’s keep our controversies to issues of archaeology rather than immodesty.”
• “Right on…!”
• “Your selection of a scantily clad maiden… suggests that you have thrown in your lot with the minimalists.”
• “If you must put diggers on your covers, perhaps you could have a handsome young male digger - holding an artifact, of course.”
• “Bead! What bead?”

This is not the first time BAR has used a female digger on the cover of a special Dig issue. Here’s one from a couple of years ago. At least this lady has a tan to prove she ain’t no neophyte.

My wife and I got married on this day nine years ago. Here is a photo of us taken about ten years ago when we were still dating each other. We looked so young then! And wow, I had hair.

Finally, FINALLY, someone has figured out the solution to the Adobe ImageReady droplet problem that has rendered my desktop Mac useless for batch-resizing images for over two years now. Each time I attempt to use a droplet, I would get an error message that says, “Could not play back the batch. You do not have permission to write to this file.” But thanks to Ian_Altgilbers (whoever you are), my Mac is back in batchin’ action.

Update: Here’s an image I used to test if the solution worked.

That’s me with two of my sons and their newborn cousin who came into this world last Friday.

The recent riots in France by disenfranchised Muslim youth reminded me of a comic strip by French artist Moebius* called White Nightmare (”Cauchemar Blanc“) that was published in English in the early ’80s by Heavy Metal magazine. In it, inept French racists bungle their attempt to kill an Arab in the middle of the night. Here are three pages I scanned from the 12-page comic:

The story was based on a real event in 1974 wherein an Arab was beaten and killed “in the middle of a building complex of a suburban housing estate without anyone doing anything about it.” This tells me that the tension between Muslim immigrants and French natives has been simmering for many decades now. The comic was adapted into short film by the director of Gothika early in his career.

*My favorite artist. Do you guys see his influence on my drawing style?

Yahoo! reports that searches on Philippine history are up a whopping 509% over the week. All other regional history searches have decreased. Does anybody know why?