Merry #Crustmas to all who celebrate! Hoping you are firmly attached to people you love, are able to scoop up large amounts of food, and can hide in an impervious shell when the social situation requires it ❤️

Merry Christmas And I hope next year goes better for you.

Good episode discussing where machine learning is helpful and #AI is epic fail. And why. Listen and learn!

Best wishes for the season, everyone. It is not always an easy time of year, but a bit of nature sure helps, even if it is just a few breaths of winter air after dark. #newts #herps

Merry Christmas

Pour la petite histoire le Yule cat ou Jólakötturinn est une vraie créature légendaire islandaise des fêtes de fin d’année 🐾

www.wweek.com/news/2025/12... #Portland #Oregon

The most beautiful rendition of my favorite Christmas song, by an extraordinary artist. If you’re aware of similar music, not necessarily Christmas music, please let me know where to find it. ☮️ youtu.be/ZlsJD8RlhbI?...

The guy who just entered the McDonalds with an empty beverage cup, refilled it, and left … and drove away in a Tesla. Guessing he can’t afford to pay for a Coke because his car is a money pit? So I should have compassion for him?

Don’t roll through a stop sign, then drive under speed limit.

Hey. I hope you’re okay and the rest of the week goes better for you. Four billion years of evolution …

Hand pollination not an option if bees disappear. Just sayin’.

There will be growth in the Spring. More growth, there will be more growth in the Spring.

More snow-enhanced topography. The Turkey River in northeastern Iowa joining the Mississippi across from Cassville, Wisconsin. South of the Turkey River valley, you can see the high Silurian (Niagara) Escarpment running WNW-ESE. In 1994-95, I helped Jim Knox sample historical flood deposits on the

Yes! Another episode of Tiny Living Beings was just released. And it is definitely a good one. Listen and learn about the Fire Amoeba. 🔥🧪🔬🥳

“… and for other purposes.” 🤔

Caldonia fimbriata on worked lignum; together with Parmelia sulcata #lichen. Feels a bit like a crowd pleaser ;-).

Russia already signed a treaty to not attack a NATO or EU member. It’s the UN Charter, and also forbids Russia from attacking anyone else. Plus 1994 Budapest Memorandum and 2014-15 Minsk Agreements promise to not attack Ukraine. Promising to not attack isn’t a concession, it’s baseline obligation.

I seem to recall that one core tenet of capitalism is that if your product sucks/isn't useful, and people don't want to use or pay for it, you got out of business

One of the ornaments is not like the others. 🧐 (Well, one obvious one.)

🚨 Surprise podcast episode alert! 🚨 This week on Tiny Living Beings, I interviewed @oliverio.bsky.social and @hbrappap.bsky.social who led the discovery of the ‘fire amoeba’, that can reproduce at the highest temperature ever recorded for a eukaryote! 🌋 #protistsonsky

don’t be a Rolf Gruber

Must learn more about this. 🤔

Interesting But I don’t have the knowledge and vocabulary to tell you why I find it interesting.

Hey. I hope you find a safe place to relax a while. We’ll be over here searching for rabbit poop. ☮️

“Why did you do it?” “The same reason all fools give up good things. We look at our hands and wonder what they could hold if they were empty.” Water Moon Samantha Sotho #booksky

For #ArtAdventCalendar Day 21 our winter solstice: This is a linocut print with collaged Japanese washi papers of a procession of Kolędnicy, or Kolęda carollers through the woods to honour the sun at Winter Solstice. The tradition, also known as Koliada or kolędowanie, dates to pre-Christian times 🧵

Hey. I hope you’re okay and tomorrow goes better for you. ☮️

Soon we will have to revert to modes of scientific communication used by Darwin and Newton, reading papers only from trusted colleagues or from those vouched for by trusted colleagues, and communicating only with those accepted to trusted institutions or conferences. Back to the future in spades! 🧪

“once the four AI tools locked onto a person’s age, race, or gender, those factors would form the backbone of the tissue analysis. In effect, AI would go on to replicate bias resulting from gaps in AI training data.”🧪 @joeonhere.bsky.social

Think of AI instead of cigarettes here. Nothing is inevitable.

So reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) can't fly, but they are VERY MAGICAL. For example, their EYES CHANGE COLOR during the year & they're one of the few large mammals that can see UV. Golden brown in summer, deep blue in winter. Let's talk about the unique visual adaptations of Rudolph and company.

Hey. I hope you’re okay and tomorrow goes better for you. ☮️

██████████████, ██████████████. Thank you for your attention to this matter. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! ███████████

Is there a tool for blocking screen captures of other platforms? There should be. There are reasons I’m using Bluesky and avoiding other platforms. You be you. And I’m learning stuff from those shares. But not sure it is a net positive. Thanks for reading this.

I despise #AI more than ever today. It calls for tight regulation or destruction, one or the other. And there’s nothing Luddite about this view. I love new tech if it improves our lives, useful tool for studying the world, reduces harm to environment, et cetera. Current #AI is a tool for evil.

Not just a threat to scientific & historical research, but this #AI slop will be trotted out for political purpose & policy discussion. No one is checking references. If scientist aren’t verifying references, Senators certainly aren’t reading the papers. www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...

Everyone associated with Epstein must be purged from the system, kicked from elected or appointed office, investigated, punished appropriately, banned from government pay or pensions or contracts … regardless of political affiliation. Launch Clinton and Trump into the Sun. Thanks.

The word “enshittification” is super useful for circa 2025. Definitely top competitor for word of the decade.

(I don't even know what to do with people who say they're using ChatGPT for their research. what? why? either go do actual research or use your imagination to make something up!!!! making stuff up is a fun part of our job!!!! if it doesn't have to be correct JUST USE YOUR NOGGIN!!!!)

I think a great rule of thumb for a writer's org to start with is: would this implementation of AI work if they hadn't stolen all of our authors' books? spell check should be good! we can all exhale!

I'll be giving a luncheon lecture at Holy Wisdom Monastery, Madison WI, January 28, on natural history education and the practices of natural history. I am excited to see the monastery and its renowned grounds and meet the community. Join us if you are able! holywisdommonastery.org/event/foster...

April and January weather squeezed into 24 hours. Neato. 🫠

It’s 5 degrees F, windy, really need a walk, breakfast is waiting, but we’ll just sit here watching for rabbits for a while.

Release the Sea Babies to patrol the Seven Seas. 🥰

Clichés that are really not very good to use, part 1 of thousands: "At UW Madison, discovery is in our DNA" No, it is the result of policy decisions and the politics of this state in the long-ago days when building a great public university was seen as a worthwhile goal.

There is a re-awakening occurring in at least some corners of the conservation community with respect to Midwestern oak woodlands. This is a post I had missed and find fascinating: woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2015/01/re-d...

Meltwater emerging from stagnant ice that has a lot of melted out debris on it. Headward-progressing incised channel in the ice downstream of where the water emerges. Geomorphology is everywhere, in this case, the curb of Cottage Grove Road, Madison.