🧵 AI-assisted book promotion scams are completely out of control. Every week I get fawning emails from supposed book clubs offering to "showcase" my book to a "passionate community of readers" or some such. The catch? They want me to *pay* them. Oh, and the club (example below) is a charade.

Whale Evolution: Flamingo-Legged Watermelon Mouse Mutant Sewer Rat King Gator Wolf Steel-Jawed PollyWorg Titan MerSausage

On the the island of Bornholm, Denmark, archaeologists unearthed this enchanting and unusually colorful Iron Age Roman owl brooch w/ a transfixing gaze. Made of bronze, finely decorated w/ enamel and glass, it was likely used to fasten a cloak or other garment. www.sciencenordic.com/archaeology-...

The oldest known image of an owl: More than 30,000 years ago, someone skillfully scratched the figure of a long-eared owl (Asio otus) into the soft outer layer of the walls of Chauvet Cave, France. The owl is looking backward over their wings, head turned 180 degrees carnegiemnh.org/ancient-owl-...

Spotted a roosting Western screech owl

Recently had the opportunity visit the amazing Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. They have a raptors (+ravens) in free flight program during which hawks, falcons, and owls fly directly overhead visitors. I got to see these stunning creatures closer than ever before — and a hawk brushed my head!

Me at Age 12: I drew a frog with three different shades of green!!! Michelangelo at Age 12:

RIP Catherine O’Hara

The arrests of Don Lemon, Georgia Fort, and Jamael Lundy are unacceptable and a clear violation of the Constitution. This is a dangerous abuse of power that threatens the rights of every single American. They must be released immediately.

Thank you @powells.bsky.social for spotlighting recommended writing about nature and science! Check out these great reads by: @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social @zoeschlanger.bsky.social @peterbrannen.bsky.social @christinewebb.bsky.social and more! 💙📚 🧪 🌍 🌱

About a week before federal agents shot him to death, Pretti “stopped his car after observing ICE agents chasing what he described as a family on foot, and began shouting and blowing his whistle.” ICE tackled him to the ground and broke his rib. “That day, he thought he was going to die.”

Alex Pretti was already restrained when federal agents shot and killed him in Minneapolis, a New York Times analysis of video shows. The footage contradicts the Department of Homeland Security’s account of the shooting.

"You raise your voice, I erase your voice." ICE in Minneapolis are erasing your rights. Please share our new video of what's happening in our city. youtu.be/W1dyNcRGRXY

Lately we’ve been experimenting w/ various types of bird feeders in the garden. They quickly attracted some of the most beautiful birds in our region: flickers, jays, downy woodpeckers, towhees — even a merlin stopped by! A joy to see them foraging among the plants and bathing in the pond, too.

[to the tune of Aaron Burr, Sir] 🎵 AI less Bird more Don't let your brain ooze out your skull onto the floor You want to keep your head? Then, Ditch the chatbots Choose birds instead 🎵

Thousands of protesters and community members with candles gathered in Minneapolis at the site where 37 y/o Renee Nicole Good was killed by ICE. Thousands are chanting “F ICE,” calling for justice and accountability as protests continue to grow.

There is currently an enormous protest in the streets of Minneapolis in response to the murder there today by the American Gestapo, ICE. I take some comfort in this.

CBP agents shot and wounded a married couple this afternoon in a medical clinic parking lot in Portland, the Oregonian reports: "One was shot in the leg and the other in the chest, Portland police sources said." Police didn't have info on their conditions. www.oregonlive.com/crime/2026/0...

Number of people shot by Trump's secret police so far: 43. www.thetrace.org/2025/12/immi...

Here's the gofundme for the couple I saw abducted by ICE today in Northeast Minneapolis — Anna (L) has been released from ICE custody and is now in the hospital with a broken hand, but Mar (R) is still being held. www.gofundme.com/f/support-an...

A Minneapolis pastor of an MCC church — a denomination rooted in LGBTQ equality — recounts being detained by ICE. Says an ICE officer walked up to him as he was chanting “we are not afraid.” The agent, he says, raised his gun and said “are you afraid now?” m.youtube.com/watch?v=lcSO...

Meant to include a gift link. Here you go 🎁 : www.nytimes.com/2026/01/08/m...

Climate change is rapidly acidifying the oceans, threatening marine ecosystems & impt fisheries. For @nytimes.com Magazine I wrote abt a proposed countermeasure called ocean alkalinity enhancement: antacids for the sea that simultaneously capture carbon and raise pH www.nytimes.com/2026/01/08/m...

Jacob Frey: "To ICE -- get the fuck out of Minneapolis"

Busy morning in the garden and around the feeders. I saw at least nine different species in five minutes: Northern flicker, Spotted towhee, Downy woodpecker, House finch, Steller’s jay, Hummingbird, Starling, Juncos, Sparrows

From today’s nature walk: Spotted towhee Song sparrows Black-capped chickadee

This year’s bûche de Noël. Aesthetically, I went traditional. But instead of a coffee or hazelnut filling, which I sometimes find a little too rich and heavy after a big dinner, I made a light French vanilla buttercream and folded in some fresh raspberries.

Shortbread fish*†‡ *not to scale †fish may not be entirely anatomically accurate ‡safe for those with fish allergies

Video recording of this discussion now available here www.c-span.org/program/book...

In June, I had the honor of joining @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social at @powells.bsky.social to discuss his gorgeous new book Is A River Alive? For those who couldn't make it, or would like to rewatch, a video recording of that discussion is now online, via CSPAN www.c-span.org/program/book...

Much thanks to Boston's @museumofscience.bsky.social for inviting me to be part of their Big Question interview series. We explored how life has transformed our planet; Earth as a single interconnected living system; and how those ideas relate to our current moment www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XVP...

Happy 250th birthday to one of the greats: Jane Austen. If you think of her as a dowdy author of trivial romance novels — as she has so often been wrongfully portrayed — you don't know her at all. She's one of the smartest, funniest, and most incisive writers in the English language.

Just got my best ever winter backyard goldfinch photos thanks to an especially bold individual who let me photograph them from different angles

Pavonia strictiflora, an evergreen shrub native to Brazil. Its gorgeous magenta bracts & blooms resemble bougainvillea, w/ orchid-like accents. Flowers & fruit emerging directly from woody stems/trunks like this is known as cauliflory (Latin: stem + flower) and is more common in tropical regions.

A few birds seen on Oahu: White-rumped shama ‘alae ʻula (Hawaiian gallinule) Black-crowned night heron

One more entry in this issue of Frugivore’s Fancy: the sapodilla. Looks a bit like a kiwi, but eats like a pear baked in brown sugar and warm spices. Such a soft texture and intense caramel flavor that it’s seriously difficult to believe it’s a fresh fruit and not a cooked dessert.

Yesterday I ate the most extraordinary fruit I’ve ever eaten: a canistel, aka eggfruit. Its texture was surprisingly creamy, somewhere between custard and roasted pumpkin. It tasted sweet and earthy, like sweet potato and butterscotch. Absolutely delicious and unlike anything I’ve tried before.

Ever since I learned of a marjolaine via GBBO, I’ve wanted to try my hand at one. Finally made one today! Layers of hazelnut-almond meringue (dacquoise), praline buttercream, and chocolate ganache, decorated with toasted nuts. One of the more complex cakes I’ve attempted.

A couple Thanksgivings ago, I poached some pears in syrup flavored with vanilla, honey, cinnamon, cloves, and star anise; wrapped them in strips of pastry; and baked them until golden brown. This year I made whole apple dumplings basted in an apple cider reduction for a tangy sweet lacquer finish.

Holiday baking has officially commenced in our household! So far I’ve made cranberry orange bread, a “Nantucket cranberry pie” (basically an upside down, nutty cranberry cake), and a unique Polish apple dessert with a shortbread base and meringue/crumble combo topping (szarlotka or jabłecznik)

Kestrels are such handsome birds. Lots out and about today, their plumage even more striking than usual. This shot captures the colors and patterns well.

2025 in pressed flowers from our garden

I harvested and pressed various flowers from our garden throughout the past year. Now I’m experimenting with arrangements. First up, relatively bright colors against a dark background:

The bookshelf in our beautiful seminar room @ksjatmit.bsky.social is filled with books by former fellows. Want to be next? Applications to our fellowship are open and on our website. @annaleen.bsky.social @ferrisjabr.bsky.social @tomzellerjr.com @s-r-m.bsky.social and Melanie Kaplan. Please share.

In Idaho's Clarkia fossil beds, ~15-million-yr-old leaves are sandwiched between rock. When exposed, the leaves momentarily retain their original colors—red, copper, sometimes even a chlorophyllic hue—before oxidizing and fading. A sedimentary scrapbook. Reverse polaroids from Earth's deep past.

Cardinals: FOOD! MINE! MOVE! Juncos: a precious morsel! spilled here? perhaps, if quick, I might partake… Corvids: Once more we deign to accept these middling tributes, these inadequate oblations: mere gestures to the innate superiority of Aves, to the obvious divinity of all things feathered

Recently visited the Glass Flowers at Harvard, a collection of 4,300 extraordinarily realistic glass models of plants crafted by the Blaschkas, a father and son team of sculptors That’s right, these are all made primarily of GLASS — a fact difficult to accept given how accurate & lifelike they are

Every now and then I remember that sponges are ANIMALS — that these seeming hybrids of plant and rock; these sessile, porous, tissue-and-organ-less barrels, tubes, and blobs are just as much an animal as a falcon, wolf, or shark — and marvel once more at the wonderful weirdness of life on Earth.

The first ever images of baby planets forming in the discs of dust and gas surrounding their respective stars. How thrilling that we can actually observe the birth of other worlds from so far away! www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2025... www.eso.org/public/unite... HT @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social