Just had another wonderful visit with Uncle Peter at Perks and Corks as he headed back to New York (had to wait for roads to get cleared). He is such a character. Stories of stage, film, TV and music - but mostly people and life. I always come away from visits with him, more hopeful & more at peace

Cold outside, lazy Sunday - time to just rest and relax in a warm cozy spot!

Me and my crew shoveling today. Grace (border collie/husky mix focused on tennis ball) and Mac (Black Lab focused on snow) they do help SOOOOOOO much. But they also have a blast. (Don’t worry I don’t salt until everything cleared once, and then minimally with “pet safe” ice melt product)

Ugh forgot there is ¼” end space on that ruler before the “zero mark” so 7.25-7.5” or 19cm of snow from ~8:30m to 3:30am a hair over 1” per hour? Not bad… and the first state plows are out and on the job on our street (we live on a vital connector that the state maintains instead of town…)

At 4am… 18 and a bit cm so 7.1” Nice light fluffy snow, only the top ½” or so is heavy wet stuff. The rest is light and fluffy. Piss poor for snowball fights, but great for skiing and clearing! We dodged the heavy wet snow followed by mixed sleet and snow. Whew!!!

Kristina Gjerde was a mentor to me in high seas policy. I, and many others, owe our careers to her. May her memory be a blessing. news.mongabay.com/2025/12/kris...

Annnnd 15minutes later another ¼” Supposed to keep snowing till around midnight then change to mix sleet/snow…

Now a hair under 6” and still coming down good!

An hour into the blizzard & we have 4.25” accumulation where I measure ( clear sky area on bluestone patio). Mac is so happy! I was throwing shovel after shovel of fluffy snow from porch to/at/onto him and he just jumped for joy! Grace loves hiding her balls and snowplowing to find them.

Favorite recent comment overheard: “Considering yourself an artist because you typed a prompt is like considering yourself a chef because you ordered a meal at a fast food restaurant.” As both artist & recently humbled home cook whose demi glacé was “good, but not up to your normal levels…” hits!

Mac being teased mercilessly by my partner! Poor boy it looks like such a fun dog toy too! (It’s a puppet for my our 4yr old grandson)

Smashing that button!!! Repeatedly! (Just in case)

December 23, 2025 A collaboration with @lizadonnelly.bsky.social tonight...

A few shots from an old ROV mission off US East Coast in ~110m of water. Fortunately all opur ROVs had manipulator arms - "The Claw" - came in handy for self extraction, sampling and ocean cleanup.

Hands down one of my favorite places in the world... South Water Caye - the island just north of the Smithsonian Field Research Station at Carrie Bow Caye. This was from the last time I was down there (3 trips - 1 as student, 2x as grad student/TA) Want so much to go back.

Environmental defenders & conservationists who died in 2025

Modeling European Beech masting events shows (1) conditions that trigger masting are becoming more frequent, (2) this is reducing viable seed production, and (3) "... disruptions to masting are projected to become the norm, with the greatest reductions... at colder margins." 🌿

Stock pot for beef stock is now in oven at 225f so I can go to bed and let it keep going. 220 was too calm, 225 a bit stronger than I wanted, but…oven (uncalibrated obviously) can’t be set to 222 or 223. Oh well. Started it at 7pm. I’ll call it done probably around 2 or 3pm tomorrow.

60 Minutes, dead at 57. The murder weapon was Bari Weiss.

Full video linked in the reply thread 💕

Am now surrounded by all 3 felines on post nip binge. Luna is chowing down (loudly!) and acting all kitten, prancing and bouncing everywhere. Jasper is passed out under the tree (it always puts him to sleep after 5-10 minute energy spree) and Oreo is grooming his paws meticulously, chill as ever.

“Really it just exploded all over the couch!” Luna enjoying some good homegrown. They cats have lobbied me each year to grow more catnip and less “fru-fru” stuff like raspberries, blueberries, hot peppers and tomatoes. Each year I dehydrate seated and crumble enough nip 2 fill a 1.5gallon container!

Beginning the cooking of Christmas Eve dinner. It’s holiday night we have kids here - I like to spoil them with food. Starting the making of the Demi glacé tonight since it’s 20+ hours of cooking time over 2-3 days. Tonight the stock,Tomorrow espagnole sauce & Demi-glacé base Tuesday - Demi glacé.

Jasper (facing camera) and Luna cuddling on one of the chairs. In the winter these two do this almost every night.

Another Proud Papa moment (pardon me for it) but also good local shore bird #conservation news - Also he will be pursuing his Masters at URI in their environmental journalism #scicomm program this fall. For the news (his photos and byline) - ctaudubon.org/2025/12/40-p...

Still consolidating NAS, external drives etc... (slow process, so much data, pictures, video etc - and oh man the science data - HUGE but need to make sure to not delete any original content) Found this shot of Gracie from a few years back... Man she loves playing goalie! Love this girls so much!

Mac is our “little helper” helping wrap grifts for the grandkids.

One for @whysharksmatter.bsky.social - a Lantern shark (Etmopterus sp.) not sure exact species... it was tentatively ID'd as E. princeps, but not sure how good that ID is... this mission was a decade ago, just came across the vid while consolidating my NAS storage. 🦑

Amazing differences between two dif state institutions (Uni's) 1) UMass where I was Vendor, post-doc & prog. manager at different times in past decade - 2) Unnamed close by Uni where trying to do outreach for Professor. At #1 took 11 calendar days from app to being vendor. At #2 ? 93 calendar days.

Thank you so much to whoever put this very comprehensive list of #science Bsky starter packs together. This is just amazing: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Ok... had my fill for the day. No more news, no more 2025 time line... I'm turning to my favorite lunch of recent winters... Soup in front of the fireplace with fur babies surrounding me. Maybe with some bread, maybe not....

Gullah-Geechee descendants on Sapelo Island may be facing a massive property tax increase that could open the doors for developers to turn the island into a vacation spot for the rich A meeting for property owners to give feedback is scheduled for today

Would love to see the SciArt Feed 🐡 reach 4,000 subscribers by the end of the year. Pin & Like here:

Holy cripes this is very very bad news 🧪

This is Luna, shes one of our rescue cats - born w/o eyelids, picked up as a wee kitten, given new eyelids, and recover in hectic foster home. She's been with us now for 4 years. She is still skittish and shy, though we enjoy nightly cuddle dates. She just stole my chicken! I was shocked and happy!

While I was getting the Glühwein going someone took my spot on the couch in front of the fire… I don’t have the heart to make either or both of them move.

Time to make some Glühwein, build up the fire, and just cuddle the furbabies on the couch. Today is officially over for me. No more.

Well that was an exercise in frustration and stupidity. Made the mistake of checking the r/VAClaims on reddit... so much I have been fighting with them for over a decade. But yeah - most peoples issues with them seem to be worse not better. Think I'll continue to just deal with it all. Not worth it.

“We are targeting Venezuela because of DRUGS, not OIL, which is why we are blowing up boats without any drugs and stealing a tanker full of oil.”

Run, don't walk, to see this AMAZING video about the bioluminescent ostracods! As said at the end, "I want people to know about them" A #Crustmas feature related to work of @ostratodd.bsky.social @nikohensley.bsky.social @emilylau.bsky.social @lisayetermesrop.bsky.social @emily-ellis.bsky.social 🧪🦑

Yet another amazing milestone! Luna came into the office a moment ago and actually let me pick her up and pet her as I leaned back in the office chair so she could lay on my chest. Only lasted a minute or two then she jumped on the desk and checked out the cat beds. Only lasted about 5 minutes but…

I heard there were some secret jaws That snowflakes had in their open maws But you don’t really care for eel bones do ya?

lol. Cleaning out closet… found my 2006 MacBookPro 17” plugged it in and it booted!!! Hot dang. With AI driving up storage, GPU & Ram prices (96GB kit was ~$360, now $1200!!!) I may sell off all my modern parts to live on & work off this beast! Bonus - no Adobe subs! 1GB mem and 160gb HD!! Woot!

For the third day of #Crustmas my colleagues gave to me: 3 papers with peracarid phylogenies 🧪🦑 (Sorry for messing up the song a little) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Last batch of apple harvest being turned into apple pie filling and apple sauce

Nothing like a walk in the woods on a crisp late autumn day. Had to get them out before the snow/freezing rain comes in over the next few days. They spooked a couple deer which led to much excited chasing (short as the deer bolted off “trail” after 100m or so) and smelling.

All 3 feline fur babies hanging out in my office. The boys on the desk in their nests… and Luna was in the small insulated attic space off my office where I store much of my video gear. She loves it in there, especially in late fall through spring.

Seriously Time Magazine?? What hellish AI headline is this? How much of your “journalism” is now AI???

I am excited to share with you a new paper, probably my last of 2025. @drcatmac.bsky.social is a coauthor. Our paper presents advice for early career shark scientists who want their work to be useful for conservation and management policy. conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... 🧪🦑🌍🦈

lol!!! I forgot about this one (weeding through old hard drives and consolidating, trashing etc) Belle had so little respect for personal space.