I say it often but once again: By granting them borrowing privileges and protecting their privacy, public libraries afford children a form of civic standing and respect that has few parallels in our “free” society, which mostly treats children as chattel. Vociferously defend public libraries. 📚

the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.

Another exhausting day teaching a course in Kenya.

Cool, quiet evening in the Nairobi suburb of Karen, listening to the weird vocalizations of lesser bushbabies and tree hyraxes, and the chirps of bats. The noises of urban traffic are in the distance. The Kenya Guinness tastes nice.

I ran into this while bringing my students to Nairobi National Park. It's very disappointing.

It's no exaggeration to say that this will badly damage US scientific research. Scientific funding decided by political commissars has never worked out well.

www.science.org/content/arti... 🧪🌎

Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw helped name two contested ideas in U.S. politics — intersectionality and critical race theory. Her memoir chronicles the personal and legal framework for her thinking. n.pr/4ncrJge

Today - a great opportunity to hear ecology colleagues share their stories of failure in research, and what they learned from it. Today (Apr 30) at 3 PM EDT on zoom.

Co-author on a new pub about fish movements in different designs of experimental fish passage structures. This is meant to help improve designs of nature-like fishways. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Fellow ecologists - we have all done it. Failure and mistakes in research are part of the process, but can also be very hard personally and professionally. This ESA watercooler is a chance to share and support one-another. Thursday, April 20th at 3 PM EDT by zoom. @ecologicalsociety.bsky.social

A big loss with the passing of Peter Raven. He was very encouraging of botany geeks like me; we once had a nice discussion about asexual reproduction in Danthonia and Hieracium two species I studied in my PhD

As I turn the dirt Friable, wormy Black and sweet-smelling I think about soil Tilth is an apt word It rings of wealth Not of base metal But fertility And tilth echoes tithe What we owe the soil For providing us With a rich harvest #poetry 🌱

Neil Forkey has just published a book on US-Canada-Mohawk environmental activism in the upper St. Lawrence River valley in the 1970s to early 1990s. Many of my older local friends are veterans of these campaigns to protect the regional environment. It is well worth reading. #envhist 🌎

An interesting story featuring a colleague and Clarkson University students on AI. #AcademicSky www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/5...

Good news in my congressional district. We are looking forward to a change.

The toad trilling grows Three porcupines graze new grass Warm west winds bring rain #poetry 🌿🦊

For National Poetry Month 10 April 2026 At Sixty-four, by Tom A. Langen www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/5... #poetry

A beautiful April day. View outside my office window.

Genocide as a prime-time TV special. It doesn't get any darker. And we in the US are all complicit.

The NSF GRFP funds some of the most promising STEM students for their first 3yrs of graduate training. Always highly competitive, GRFP awards dropped to only 10% of applicants, and 5% of life science. And its administration has become a mess. 🧪#AcademicSky  www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...

New paper dropped in Ecology & Evolution. Congratulation to Sean Jackson and Ally Burrows on their first peer-reviewed paper! 🌍🌱🐍🌿 authors.wiley.com/index.html/a...

Highlight of the drive to work: Eagle vs. Otter. In the end, the otter left the remains of its fish on the ice, and the eagle cleaned up the scraps. 🌿🦉🦊

He was a giant. Not always right, but he got people thinking about the right things. I had brunch with him (and Gretchen Daily) on a terrace in Costa Rica, in the 1990s. He was an amiable, gracious, and engaging table partner - it is a treasured memory.

March’s maple snows: Slushy, fluffy, Ephemeral. Beige rotten ice Still coats the marsh. Swans trumpet duets, Bachelor redwing flocks Chatter in the reeds, Raven pairs make weird cries As they circle overhead.

Here is an interesting 10-min survey, based on image comparisons, on how people perceive forests. www.biodiful.org#/forest

Please please read this from the archbishop of Chicago www.archchicago.org/statement/-/...

Article featuring research from my former students and myself, including some quotes from an interview with me. 🌎🌿🦤

Conservative religious beliefs, MAGA sentiment, and ignorance of long-term health risks from 'childhood diseases' for many community members are making my county at high risk for an outbreak of avoidable infectious diseases. www.northcountrynow.com/stories/vacc...

Research indicates that there is an uptick in industrial and home accident injuries and vehicle collisions after a time change, which lasts for up to a week, mainly caused by fatigue and physiological stress produced by disruption of the circadian sleep cycle.

Armed conflict in Cameroon’s anglophone regions has engulfed protected forests home to great apes. Violence blocks conservation work as displaced people and militias move into forests to survive. Scientists are turning to local citizen scientists to keep monitoring wildlife.

Some scientists reflected on their values and said no. www.science.org/content/arti...

I have fond memories of this community. I did my stateside Peace Corps training at Penn Center on the island, long before it was declared a national monument. I did a homestay with a nearby family. It's a very special place. www.theguardian.com/news/2026/fe...

It amazes me to think that I have actually seen the largest animal species that has ever lived on earth, the blue whale, and the most massive tree species that ever lived, the giant sequoia.

BREAKING: The Department of Education has ended its directive that attempted to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in schools nationwide. This is a victory for academic freedom and education equity.

Many folks like to ski In the frigid morning sun I prefer gliding alone In late afternoon shadows I notice texture of bark Dream stories out of snow tracks Sky and snow changing colors As the sun slowly descends

There appears to be no shortage of elite male professors who are eager to cozy up to racist, misogynistic, eugenicist billionaires.

Happy birthday to my inspiration, Mr. Charles Darwin.

Remember the 1619 Project? How it made the case that racism and the legacy of slavery are foundational to the U.S. economy, politics, and social structure. Remember how it was widely criticized for over-emphasizing the role racism plays in US society today? Yeh, about that...

Bluest Imbolc skies Shadows stretch to Druid dreams Raven seeks the dead #poetry

"Who could of predicted?" I taught college sophomores about concentration / refugee camps and infectious disease epidemics in Ecology last semester, predicting just such an eventuality.

Published: A new editorial of mine in Frontiers in Ecology & the Environment , about the value of spending time with people on their land when doing ecology. 🌎🌿🦤 Walking the land with property owners Tom A Langen, Catherine Benson, Rick Welsh esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Approved university-level sociology textbook in the new MAGAmerica.

As a RPCV (Burkina Faso '84-86'), this really lands hard.

One of the best things I’ve read in a while:

5 years ago, my first Fauci-ouchy. I'm recovering from my 2nd coronavirus-2 infection: mild 'bad cold' symptoms for 2 days. NBD. Grateful for all biomedical researchers and medical care workers involved in developing and delivering this vaccine, and its annual boosters (which I partake).

“The U.S. Department of the Interior announced on Friday that it is revoking seven grazing permits in Phillips County that American Prairie had been using to sustain its herd of bison.” 🧪🌐🌾