Eris, the Baby Cutes, came into my life on the winter solstice twenty years and thirteen days ago; today, on the perihelion, she has gone to be the sunshine forever. She was so very loved and I am so lucky to have been her mama.

Strange takes on Mayor Zamdani swearing his oath on the Qu’ran. It has nothing to do with church & state. The point of the oath is for the person swearing in to do so upon some text that is sacred TO THEM. Some Presidents swore in w/o any book. John Quincy Adams was sworn on a law book. His choice.

fwiw it’s been about six weeks since Trump pardoned the former president of Honduras who had been convicted of trafficking drugs into the US

The "Lost Science" series from the NYT is an infuriating and heartbreaking must-read. What a security disaster -- more Americans are in harms way because of the loss of programs like this one:

1. Headlines everywhere today read "Grok apologizes." This is bullshit. A chatbot is not something that can apologize. Pretending otherwise is simple laundering these companies' bullshit about what AI is, while diffusing blame away from the human beings that developed and released this system.

A petition is circulating to defend OU graduate instructor Mel Curth. You can read the letter to OU’s President and sign the petition here: actionnetwork.org/forms/defend...

“The demographics of American workplaces, gold-standard studies of workplace discrimination, and the EEOC’s own data belie the idea that white Americans experience systematic discrimination. These data all show the opposite of the Trump Administration’s fact free claims.”

After my first class, my Mandarin teacher (who was from China) told me that I didn’t sound like an American trying to speak Chinese, I sounded like a “little Chinese baby.”

Wow, hearing Ted Danson on @colbertlateshow.bsky.social talk about how he got his sense of activism from his dad, an archaeologist (Southwestern, I think?) who instilled in him a sense of the need to care for future generations, has got me in the feels.

Sharing this piece by @katherinejwu.com - A succinct explanation about why i fear for the younger generation of scientists... www.theatlantic.com/science/2025...

If you’re looking for a last minute holiday gift for the Earth science/climate person in your life, I would never say any of these things about my book but other people have www.harpercollins.com/products/the...

Apparently I'm doing this -- my open letter to that open latter about AI in writing and publishing. I emerged from Hibernation Week to write it, so god only knows how much sense it makes. But at least a human wrote it, so that's nice. Bonus: picture of my "cat," sweet baby Boomba.

Great post about generative AI. Happy Holidays. Don't say I never gave you anything. anthonymoser.github.io/writing/ai/h...

Pediatric brain cancer research: cut. Faster chemical safety testing: cut. Training doctors to treat addiction: cut. Six scientists spoke about the devastating impact of 2025’s federal science funding cuts on their work, on their colleagues and on society. buff.ly/cx6x1Ho

Artist friends, check out a fun paid opportunity!

Renewing your Annual National Park Pass? Not a fan of the 2026 design? Would you rather look at beautiful wildlife while supporting our parks? Check out these lovely stickers by a Colorado artist, which you can use to customize your pass!

If you’re cold, they’re not cold. Put on more layers and stop whining. Definitely do not bring them inside. If you do bring them in, you’re the meanest dad ever and you’ll be reported to Mom for cruelty and neglect, you monster.

There is an unfortunate error in this newly published @globalchangebio.bsky.social paper. The caption for this image reads "upper panel with dragon icon symbolising all tetrapod" but this is incorrect. That is either a wyvern (with two wings and two legs) or it is not a tetrapod (6 limbs).

This is an almost shockingly wise essay. I'm glad I've finally read it.

I think my winter break project is going to be to make kimchi. I can't stop thinking lately about the Korean restaurant I used to go when I was a postdoc at Brown. It was on Thayer, below street level, and they had this huge cauldron of self-serve miso soup. On cold days, it was the best.

Worth noting that the student admits that she just threw the thing together in 30 minutes without reading the paper she was supposed to be responding to.

Fund science, not war. Fund healthcare, not war. Fund clean energy, not war. Fund childcare, not war. Fund education, not war. Fund literally anything else but war.

NEW: Organ tuners have been leaving temperature and humidity records in little-known books for decades. 🎹 They reveal how temperatures inside churches have changed over time due to climate change and increased heating. A new scoop for The Reengineer! www.thereengineer.pro/p/church-org...

CBS didn't run the 60 Minutes segment on CECOT, but over here at @propublica.org we've been working on the story since March, including finding out who each and every man sent to that maximum security prison was. You can see our reporting here: www.propublica.org/series/depor...

It was such a tell that so many interviews about the impacts of "political correctness," and later "DEI" and then "wokeness" boiled down to "I'm mad that I am not allowed to say certain words now." That's it. One side wants fundamental human rights, the other side just doesn't want to be shamed.

One day something will happen — a wedding, a graduation, a job promotion, Jake Paul getting knocked out, Andrew Tate getting knocked out the next day — and you’ll want the right outfit to celebrate. Buy that special outfit now, so you’re ready when that next unexpected moment arrives.

Generative AI is also causing me more work as a college professor, in teaching, research, and admin work.

The fact that major media outlets keep platforming the “Loud, Overconfident, and Wrong” class while simultaneously saying we’re fresh out of ideas is just such an embarrassing self-own.

I've done this, and it's really fun and rewarding for the students, too!

With the NYT and WaPo compromised, where are we sending our op eds these days? The Guardian?

I just wish someone would be honest and say “we are ending civilian science in favor of science that is focused on serving national security and war”

Gift link, probably the funniest thing the Wall Street Journal has done this year.

Unburying the lede from my essay on why we all feel like numb frozen crap these days… catvalente.substack.com/p/this-is-wh...

Go see or call your representatives, especially if they are on the House Science committee and/or House Appropriations Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) and Related Agencies subcommittee.

This is what they’re trying to destroy. NCAR is worth fighting for. #SaveNCAR 🧪

Join us for a critical conversation on the future of U.S. atmospheric science. UCAR President Antonio Busalacchi hosts this town hall on what’s at stake if NSF NCAR is dismantled. buff.ly/jR6tGwo

This is obviously more bad news re: the AI bubble and coming bailouts, stated or unstated. The more personally invested Trump is in the hype cycle, the more he will use public money to delay truth time. But for now he has a notional technology saving his failed media company. Good times!

If any journalist wants to talk to a trans man with a PhD in Human Genomics who was trained in labs that studied the evolution of sex, I'm right here Or just keep platforming Republicans who have a 5th grade understanding of biology so they get more trans people killed, sure 🤷🏻‍♂️

Now is a really good time to read @annaleen.bsky.social’s book Stories Are Weapons if you haven’t already.

This. Also, NCAR doesn't just work on climate! They research weather, atmospheric chemistry and pollutioj, the sun and space weather. They developed the technology for lidar, a technology widely used in surveying, archaeology, forestry, seismology, laser guidance systems, and even self-driving cars.

“The changes permit as few as one outside review rather than the current minimum of three, end the routine use of expert panels to discuss those individual reviews, and give program managers greater authority to recommend which proposals should or should not be funded.”

For the love of mammoths, if you're not going to review a manuscript please decline right away. Don't just ignore the reminders and then let the system auto-decline after two weeks. Happy holidays to all who say "no" in a timely manner, and may those who suggest alternatives have a happy New Year.

They’re stealing from us. They are stealing from us and we have to put a stop to this. This cannot stand.

About ten years ago, I read a really powerful essay arguing that opioid addiction and school shootings (and I think one more line of seemingly disconnected evidence) as uniquely American problems were symptoms of a greater societal sickness. It wasn’t in a major media outlet. Does this ring a bell?

"They needed less than $20 mil to fund lifesaving health programs, including cholera response efforts, for 3 months — an eighth of what Trump recently approved to buy private jets for one cabinet secretary." Awful, important story by @annamaria.bsky.social www.propublica.org/article/usai...

Help me, Hive Mind! I've got multiple students interested in deep time vertebrate paleontology -- everything from early tetrapod evolution to dinosaurs. This is not my field, and we don't have any paleontologists at UMaine (vertebrate or invertebrate). Do you know of any good internships or REUs?

Animals with misleading names. I'm seeing this go around as part of a viral tumblr thread so I thought I'd reshare it.

The horrifying news from Bondi Beach breaks my heart. May the victims’ memory be a blessing, and may their families know peace. To my friends in the Jewish community, I am so sorry that a celebration of light has been marked by violence. I stand beside you in the spirit of care and repair.

You all MUST READ this piece by Kaitlyn Greenidge about the power of art to “exist outside of a tech lord’s algorithm.” www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/art-...

Every mass shooting is a horrific, preventable loss and a reminder that we have traded the rights of the many for the rights of a few. University or school shootings are especially gutting, not just because of their nearness (I’m a professor) but because it feels like such a violation of the sacred.