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Data Geek

Lest anyone think that all I do is traipse around Europe and fondle skeletons, I have proof that Roman bioarchaeology is far from romantic. Behold, the Access screen that I spent hours on today:


Sometimes even dead people can be mind-numbingly boring.

Comments

Anonymous said…
"Fondle?" I think *that* may give people the wrong idea about what it is that you do, and that is the illegal type of romance. I put asterisks around the word that because I don't know how to make it italicized. Below the comment box is a line that says to use HTML tags but I am unsure of how to use those. On a note unrelated to base attempt humor, is the program pictured some sort of special osteology program. I had not realized there were was much in the way of that, but I recently read about a new innovation in sex determination based on pelvic bones using a special computer program. That was the first I had heard of program for bones, though I am not involved in the field of osteology or anthropology or anything like that. Since this comment is already long, I might as well ask: did the data/program reveal anything interesting? Your comment about traipsing and fondling still cracks me up, because I have an image of Liberace waltzing on a map of Europe with and articulated skeleton model. I imagine your work is less flamboyant.
14 July, 2010 21:58
Kristina Killgrove said…
There used to be a computer program for collecting osteological data, but no one used it. Or maybe people used it to comply with NAGPRA (the law designed to protect Native American skeletons and artifacts). The screenshot is simply of my Access database, which more or less follows our standard data collection text, aptly titled, Standards for Data Collection from Human Skeletal Remains. I wish someone would make a standardized database, but it might not happen for another academic generation or two - many of the old guard still insist on paper forms, and different researchers collect different information depending on their research questions. But thanks for thinking that my attempt at creating a database was a professional program of some sort. :)

(Oh, and thanks for thinking of me as Liberace. He makes me think of Roy Orbison, who makes me think of my 90-year-old grandmother. And that association makes me laugh.)
14 July, 2010 22:04
Martha Murphy said…
When at work I spend hours looking at similar screens about today's high school students, and that can be both mind- and butt-numbingly boring.

I'm trying to associate Liberace with Roy Orbison and getting nowhere. Maybe one had to know your grandmother?

Martha
27 July, 2010 11:07
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