Lovely half-hour documentary. Birds, conservation science 🧪, fieldwork, basic engineering, and a moon that has never been made to look so ominous. Don’t miss the very last minute. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Another day writing/revising. The garden is somewhat neglected but roses are blooming anyway.

Enjoy the “sensual, percussive poetics” of these blackberries. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

The DOJ sued six states, including Minnesota, for refusing to hand over sensitive voter data. Minnesota SoS Steve Simon said his state’s request for assurance on data protection was met with silence from the DOJ. “Instead, they chose to file a lawsuit.”

Weird but attractive cloud just now.

This weekend I went to a service for a friend, a great reader and book-discusser in my bookclub. Her colon cancer had reached stage 4 before she knew about it. I mention it, because I once talked another friend into getting a colonoscopy and her tumor was found in time. Do it.

I’m excited to see this. I’ve complained in the past about oral histories where the researcher says something like, my wife helped, and the wife isn’t named! The interviewer should ask the name at that point. It can be inserted into the transcript later, too. #womeninscience 🧪

At least a third of my book (in progress) is just me having fun explaining the humor in Frost’s astronomical poems, but this one is different. The tone goes from contentious to sad. Note, the “far star” is a galaxy. 🧪🔭

Dewdrops on spiderweb this morning.

I wrote all day, so have no news. But, my husband says the orange-crowned warbler perched on the saucer, went in and had a bath, hopped out, looked around, and went back in for another little dip and splash.

Weekend, I hardly knew ye.(Was writing the whole time.) Good night!

I finished another chapter. 90% done now. Racing to try to meet my original deadline. No time for a desperately-needed haircut, or a celebratory coffee, or anything. Wish me luck. Cartoon from a 1970s book by Robert Mankoff.

The colors of sunrise nicely complement the volcanic action right now at Kīlauea. 🌋

My husband’s work space faces the back yard, mine the front. At the end of the day, before we turn on the News Hour to learn the horrors, I get reports like, “Mrs. Junco had a drink and a bath. An orange-crowned warbler was perched on the saucer but didn’t go in.”

This reporter’s work influenced Forest Service policy in a good way! (Lead is kind of buried…) 🩺 🧪 I posted the original article when it came out. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/13/r...

You know what else is being affected by the tariffs on parcels worth less than $800? International interlibrary loan. I'm hearing reports of libraries overseas that won't lend to the US anymore. (That's in addition to the libraries here that have shut down their ILL b/c of lost IMLS funding.)

Whoever edits the Metropolitan Diary column of the NYT is a genius of the very short story form. The illustrations by Agnes Lee are a joy too. Today’s “Teresa” entry is particularly good, as is a comment by someone who arrived in Italy for a vacation on 9/11. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/n...

“It became clear that any lead the U.S. might hold—in defense, in electronics, in biotech—has to be constantly defended.” 🧪

“Scientific research is one of the pillars of the California economy.” 🧪 www.nytimes.com/2025/09/13/u...

Great article about what sounds like an amazing book, with painstakingly restored photographs from the Gemini spacecraft era. 🚀 arstechnica.com/space/2025/0...

Happy #cloudappreciationday It’s always mountain appreciation day too, for me—here’s Saddleback in Orange County, CA. It’s such a nice day that after my ballet class I drove to a good lookout to take it in.

A new kind of satellite could damage your eyes. Serious this. Sky & Telescope article. 🔭 🧪 skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-ne...

The UN in NYC has a meditation room with a 6-ton iron ore monument, a gift from Sweden, supposed to represent permanence in a world of change. Frost said that it represents unity, “but even as you look at it, it seems to split. You think of tools that can be made of it, and you think of weapons.”

Cool science! 🧪 I read Michael Marshall’s “The Genesis Quest” over the summer and it is good background for this discovery.

The American Institute of Physics @aip.bsky.social wants to preserve the human stories behind the current dramatic shifts in science policy and funding. If you work in physical science and want to contribute, anonymously or with attribution, visit this site. 🧪🔭 www.aip.org/library/ex-l...

I think every astronomy teacher will find something useful in this article. We always have to talk about astrology, if only because it is so popular. I normally dislike the scrolling graphics thing but it works really well here. The illustrations are really good.🧪🔭 www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Slightly diminish a book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Orion Arm

Finally aced the Flashback quiz. It helps that I read a bio of Rodin recently. Flashback for September 6, 2025 28 points 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Play here: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

This is awesome. 🔭

Here is the McGill news report on our new study which revealed the multifractal structure of geological time scales while giving insights into process which created this hierarchy of boundaries: www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/cha... 🧪 ⚒️ #Paleobio #Geology

I like learning new words. This one’s new to me anyway.

Odd mixing of timelines in my brain: 1962, Robert Frost in Russia as a sort of Cold War ambassador, meeting poets, chatting w/ school kids about Gagarin. Also ‘62, Carl Sagan (age 27) wondering if Mariner 2 would validate his predictions published in Science, re: greenhouse effect on Venus. 🧪 🔭

21-day public comment has begun on proposed repeal of the 2001 Roadless Rule. This former Under Secretary at the Dept of Ag (which includes the Forest Service) argues we should amend it the way some states have. #conservation 🧪 www.nytimes.com/2025/08/31/o...

I worked on book acknowledgments today (not done with ms yet, but too tired to write). I went to the Frost folder in my email and sorted by “from” to see the list of individuals I’ve corresponded with. It was a spirit-lifting thing to recall how many kind people have helped me!

This one is only for Blueskyers of a certain age.

Enjoy www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

🧪

I don’t know if it has anything to do with the data breaches caused by D*GE but I recently found a fraudulent debit from a bank account. Check your bank and credit card statements… often thieves will make a trial run with a small amount first. The one I found was $25.

I learn there’s a new non-invasive test that’s almost as good as colonoscopy 👀 (in French but you can have translated) www.lematin.ch/story/uni-de...

A blistering piece by Amy, built on public records obtained from Texas agencies.

Sunset walk—cooler temps.

I’m about 85% done with my manuscript but reading Laura’s new book still gave me useful advice. I went back to improve some chapter titles after she convinced me of their importance to the reader/browser.

A nice find, relative to a previous post re: women scientists/astronomers on magazine covers prior to 1928. 🧪🔭

Join one of the best science journalism outfits out there!

TIL the A.I. slop began before I was born! Only it seemed cute at the time. In 1964 an 18-year-old programmed his IBM-709 to write free verse. As far as language models go, this was not a “large” one. 15 nouns, 10 noun phrases, 13 past-tense verbs, 13 prepositions, 16 adverbs.

Enjoy www.nytimes.com/2025/08/19/s...

Who is this woman at the telescope on the cover of Popular Science, Jan. 1928? Based on the article inside, about women scientists working as federal employees, it’s Eleanor Lamson (1875-1932) of the U.S. Naval Observatory. I’ve not seen a woman scientist from that era on a magazine cover. 🧪🔭

The headline doesn’t convey that the Forest Service has long resisted mandating respirators for wildland firefighters. And, I learn from article comments, federal employees researching those firefighters’ health have been let go. Also, my state, CA, should do better. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/17/u...

Good God.