Aaron Brick — אהרן בריק

Historian of Mexico & California; Computer Science educator. Archives, manuscripts, graphics, document pipelines. Degrowth, frisbee, gardening, hi-fi.

Affiliation: City College of San Francisco
Web: https://fog.ccsf.edu/~abrick/
Pronouns: Any

Public Key

npub19mxz2g4etuf25numhqj0thygn80p3cu6nyws2dxgtxzfk662f3uscgwwlt

NIP-05 Address

aarbrk_at_mstdn.mx@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqszanp9y2u47y42f7dmsf84mjyfnhscuwdfj8g9xny9npymdd9yc7gprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0d4hhxarj9ecxjmntpxhdye

Publishing to

relay.momostr.pink

Author Public Key

npub19mxz2g4etuf25numhqj0thygn80p3cu6nyws2dxgtxzfk662f3uscgwwlt

Show more details

Last Notes

2026-03-21 06:46:19 UTC

- reply

I see, thanks for clarifying!

2026-03-21 06:21:18 UTC

- reply

What about silver? Just thinking of the Mildenhall Treasure.

2026-02-20 20:16:50 UTC

- reply

Gosh, that NPS article makes it sound like a fucking summer camp. The DV '49ers book “Death Valley—its Impounded Americans” is only a little better.

2026-02-20 17:49:45 UTC

- reply

I assume it's less preserved but there is another internment site in DV called Cow Creek.

2026-01-30 07:28:10 UTC

- reply

Strange distinction. Does it have something to do with the artists' moral rights?

2026-01-27 05:44:33 UTC

- reply

Well, you have more cred in other spheres than the strivers on the site.
The leaderboards tell me that this competitive, gamified setup can motivate contributors susceptible to ego appeals. They may even seek bragging rights on the site precisely because they don't have similar status outside of it.

2026-01-27 02:36:16 UTC

- reply

My clumsy reference was to those that are “accepted as best answer,” earning a point bonus and a green check mark. That particular feature seems starkly more competitive than collaborative.

2026-01-27 01:35:20 UTC

- reply

You're quite right. A thick skin might be useful, but ideally not a prerequisite to participation.
I remember the validating feelings of seeing others upvote my work. But the flipside was strangers voting to delete my questions for private reasons, or trying to enforce norms I hadn't agreed to.
For your proposed reinvention, the concept that every question has only a single answer does seem ripe for reconsideration.

2026-01-27 01:10:15 UTC

- reply

This is productive thinking, but I'm afraid the competitive aspects are baked right into this particular site, which was, to be sure, founded by men.
I was once a high-ranking History.SE user who bailed after some culture clashes there. Even Reviewer #2 is usually kinder.

2025-12-09 06:37:04 UTC

- reply

Perhaps “trekking”?

2025-11-30 20:20:11 UTC

- reply

I wasn't aware this was such a big issue in archaeology. In my field the bigger problems are lost documents and scholarly attention being spread too thin. So what sorts of tests does this English school decline to perform?

2025-11-30 20:03:52 UTC

- reply

Sure, that sounds like a waste of time. Aren't there loads of edge cases, though, where informed speculation is the only interpretation presently available?

2025-11-30 19:09:44 UTC

- reply

Academic Darwinism....

2025-11-04 19:14:57 UTC

- reply

Great discussion. What is the obstacle to using all that heat for plain old thermal power generation on site?

2025-10-02 06:56:29 UTC

¿Algún amigo de CDMX quiere unas horas de trabajo sacando fotos de documentos en el AGN (Palacio de Lecumberri)? Probablemente no serán más de 50 fotos. El plazo operativo es de una semana o poco más. Gracias de antemano....
#mexico #cdmx #historia #archivo

2025-08-20 04:49:27 UTC

- reply

Nada más estuve una vez, pero como turista jóven lo pasé bien en Colonia de Sacramento. Es muy caminable y terminé la visita con el autobús a la capital. Así que la puedo sugerir.

2025-08-14 06:08:30 UTC

- reply

Thank you kindly.

2025-08-13 17:36:38 UTC

- reply

Dare you attempt to translate that name to English?

2025-08-06 18:51:10 UTC

- reply

Así que ¿son dulces y salados a la vez? Yo los probaría.

2025-06-26 03:05:04 UTC

- reply

Ajúa. ¿“Discada” se dice por haberla cocido en un disco de hierro?

2025-06-25 00:50:11 UTC

- reply

At least their catalogs are still out there! https://archive.org/search?query=creator%3A%22Radio+Shack%22+catalog

2025-05-03 06:07:51 UTC

- reply

Unusual working conditions indeed. How did that department come into the funds, and why did they not hire you to teach?

2025-04-09 19:55:40 UTC

- reply

Hi Elyse, I agree the dynamic was better on Usenet, but what was it about threading there that was better? A hierarchical view? Getting to the posts through an index? IMHO, the context we're in here can feel a bit more like a mailing list.

2025-04-08 17:43:18 UTC

- reply

That one hadn't even occurred to me, just followed it 😅

2025-04-08 17:33:25 UTC

- reply

Very good point, the matter of noticing the post in the feed is a big issue. Say I subscribe to #california and #history, most posts only have one of the two, and I'm likely to miss the few that have both.

2025-04-08 17:12:46 UTC

- reply

My suspicion is that review discussions work better in communities of shared interests — that the books I read and react to would only be interesting to a few social followers, whereas reviews in a specialized journal can hit somewhere much closer to the target audience. YMMV, etc.

2025-03-30 21:03:41 UTC

- reply

“The domain name tlg.org is for sale!” At these prices, I bet someone wishes they had kept it.

2025-03-03 05:08:22 UTC

- reply

That sounds tough, I'm sorry.

2025-03-01 17:26:17 UTC

- reply

I don't think LLVM is based on an LLM. Just in case this was a misunderstanding.

2025-03-01 06:24:39 UTC

- reply

Isn't it the case that “LLVM Flang” can compile Fortran into the “intermediate representation” from which LLVM produces C? Unless I misunderstand terribly.

2025-01-15 05:08:30 UTC

- reply

Eu tentando me enterar do significado de «larável»....

2024-12-21 07:43:52 UTC

- reply

Dozens and grosses.... Also see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duodecimal

2024-12-15 02:43:59 UTC

- reply

It'd never work, everyone would shirk!

2024-12-06 19:13:31 UTC

- reply

1200 records is quite a lot of weight to steal! Good on you for moving forward.
EDIT: 1200 records is also the exact correct size of a DJ's vinyl collection 😂

2024-12-06 04:55:34 UTC

- reply

Maybe 4 processor cores being counted together?

2024-12-01 00:44:33 UTC

- reply

There are some pretty bad autocorrect algorithms out there. I usually get “tippy” when I try to type “you.”

2024-11-09 03:04:21 UTC

- reply

Is that because a native speaker would know different sounds for the ç and ss? I certainly don't!

2024-10-14 07:50:57 UTC

- reply

Buen provecho.
https://mstdn.mx/system/media_attachments/files/113/304/680/819/174/477/original/9ac1e61b90f01b7c.jpg

2024-10-09 18:08:19 UTC

When is this country going to start conditioning its rebuilding funds on safer structures in safer locations? Right now a moral hazard encourages owners of damaged properties to double down on their losses. Aaron just saying. #uspol #fema #milton

2024-10-01 23:49:39 UTC

- reply

Super cool.

2024-09-29 22:37:29 UTC

- reply

Excellent detail, more subtle than his outlining in the first piece. Also, I can't see any remnant of it in the next year's photo! Did the rains of a single winter do that? It'd be funny if such a brutal spot in the hardscaping were so ephemeral as a medium.

2024-09-29 04:38:23 UTC

- reply

Great photo!
What can explain the great difference in the cross sectional angles of these parts of the channel, I wonder?

2024-09-28 21:28:53 UTC

- reply

I hope you find something useful. There is one river view in Chastanet:
https://mstdn.mx/system/media_attachments/files/113/217/295/288/612/611/original/38a3c6dc10df47bb.jpeg

2024-09-28 17:13:26 UTC

- reply

Not your field exactly, but did you see François Chastanet's (just reissued) “Cholo Writing”? Such wonderful visuals of LA concrete and discussion of gang tags' meanings. This following on the more sociological, less typographical work of Susan Phillips (“Wallbangin'”). Anyway that is where my head is at.

2024-09-26 17:18:32 UTC

- reply

Y para contestar a la pregunta original, no hay buenos libros sobre los OVNI, y no pueden haberlos, porque carecemos de cualquier evidencia sobre el tema. Lo que sí podríamos hallar es algún tratamiento sobre las creencias y motivaciones de los ovnistas. Por ejemplo, empieza con esto:
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_von_D%C3%A4niken

2024-09-26 17:15:36 UTC

- reply

Si pudiera yo apuntar algo.... disfruté mucho de esta serie cuando era adolescente. Me enteré después de que la narrativa de los “ancient aliens” suele incorporar un racismo implícito. La única manera de justificar estas teorías cósmicas es la falta de voluntad de creer que las sociedades indígenas podían construir lo que hacían. En México se sabe bastante sobre el tema, o sea, que no precisó de ningún extraterrestre para eregir el patrimonio arquitectónico. Favor de leer cautelosamente.

2024-09-17 01:21:18 UTC

Just me, a moderately educated person, wrongly imagining that I could check out books by Derrida and Foucault and learn a single damn thing. 😬
https://mstdn.mx/system/media_attachments/files/113/150/236/678/599/902/original/9d35d148184e2560.jpeg

2024-09-10 18:29:49 UTC

- reply

Half surprised that this post does not mention amphetamines.

2024-09-07 06:12:23 UTC

- reply

Mexico is in North America too! Surely it has some dense cities.

2024-08-24 16:56:08 UTC

- reply

I love this sort of thing, keep us posted.

2024-08-04 16:31:51 UTC

Has anyone seen this kind of deterioration on a CD before? The disc plays fine but the label layer is falling apart all over the place! Not sure whether to try to clean it off, or risk getting this stuff into my playing equipment.
#document #music #recording #conservation #cd #damage
https://mstdn.mx/system/media_attachments/files/112/904/699/313/255/735/original/ae89d89f4a70604f.jpeg