Friends! Join me this Thursday evening at the @bantamtools.bsky.social Machine Arts Gallery in Peekskill for a popup solo show of blobby #plotterArt and computational intaglio! bantamtools.com/pages/gallery 🤖🎨🦠

I remember going out on the front porch to watch Mt St Helens smoking in the spring leading up to the eruption. Then afterwards my baby brother couldn’t go outside because of the ash in the air. We all wore masks and the ash made a mess of everything.

I finally looked up at just the right moment to see the red bellied woodpecker that keeps me company while gardening. I love their trill.

We've had a pile of really interesting folks apply for my Raja Ampat trip at the end of the year: www.jerthorp.me/raja2026 It's going to be an unbelievably fun trip in an absolute gem of a place. We'll split our time above and below water. Birds-of-paradise! Nudibranchs! Strange insects! Mantas!

It was exciting to see Apprehension included in a @nytimes.com article about sci-fi and fantasy novels featuring older and wiser heroes. Read the full list curated by the wonderful @fondalee.bsky.social here: www.nytimes.com/2026/05/06/b...

The Artist Showing Seabirds Home

Martha Wells Elizabeth Bear Becky Chambers Mary Robinette Kowal Octavia Butler Read everything I could get my hands on by them.

But if we give poor people money, they will do less crime and also join the military less frequently for the financial incentives Then who will die in the oil wars or provide the prison slave labor????

Our house came with a pencil sharpener in the basement stairwell. I grew up with basement pencil sharpener so this was a good sign, but the mount was bent and it didn’t have a cover. I ebayed a cover, shimmed the mount, and installed it in the craft room. I’m happy with this life upgrade.

It’s that time again: I’m raising rent relief funds for Minneapolis immigrant families affected by ICE! Donations are down, but ICE is still here and there’s still so much need. Can you help? V: @Ian-Coldwater CA: $iancoldwater PP: @coldwater Please share and help if you can! Thank you! 💛

So cool that people are still discovering this #Sinners syllabus, published by the African American Intellectual History Society, and composed by Jemar Tisby & Keisha N. Blain. Enjoy!

Today is Week 2 of our closing sale, the website is 35% off (discount shown after items are added to your cart). We added stock status to our product thumbnails, so you can easily scroll through and see what we’ve still got. Soldering kits are 50% off! www.alpenglowindustries.com/collections/...

My friend Dave in rural Oregon outfitted a bus to be a warm space to serve meals to the unhoused in his community. A few days after a successful first run, the bus was broken into and a bunch of stuff stolen. We can help: venmo @lionspawmt cashapp $lionspawmt gofundme: gofund.me/46577f9de

Luna just eck-eck-ecked at the lady cardinal outside and then looked at me and blinked and started purring.

All the cutie pie birds are at the feeder today: chickadee, tufted titmouse, cardinal, and junco!

You know what would end their roving patrols and racial profiling? Abolishing ICE.

Icing on the cake: “The prosecutor's office also said it was leaving X and would communicate on LinkedIn and Instagram from now on.”

I feel like sometimes we say "everyone's different and that's ok" to kids who really need to hear something more like "you're worthy of respect even if people are being hateful to you".

A quick note on some things I've been thinking about for a while 🦯👭 medium.com/@leeborg_/a-...

We went down to the Croton river to check out the ice today. As the water level changes the edges freeze at different heights, forming lots of layers of ice. The ice can have beautiful textures like bubbles and branches.

Woo-hoo! Saw a red bellied woodpecker this morning! Also the usual assortment of sparrows, juncos, jays, cardinals and squirrels.

if you or someone you love is thinking of flying out to volunteer: please donate the costs of that trip to a rent fund

22 degree halo in Croton-on-Hudson.

I used the leaf blower to clear the thin layer of snow from our steps today. The bird feeder is hanging off the landing. The (mostly junco) feet compressed the snow, leaving a positive track! For comparison, tracks in the snow on our protected porch where I put food out on the railing. So cute!

We walked down to the Croton river this morning to check out the river’s frozen edge. Saw a couple of ducks, one with a cinnamon head. I’d guess green winged teal based on range. Lots of folks out walking today before the snow comes in.

CHI26 workshop “Crip HCI: Cyborg Perspectives on Disability Justice” invites self-identified fellow cyborgs to consider what the field of HCI might gain from a deeper engagement with cyborg perspectives on disability justice, “crip HCI”, and better AT. Submissions due Feb 12. t1dsign.org/chi-2026

Today I watched the birds all by myself as my cats had a busy napping schedule due to yesterday’s immunizations. They missed out on the tentative lady cardinal next to all the little song sparrows. She gets scared off easily but she’s so pretty.

There are robins in the privets, pecking about at the berries. Now I have to decide if that is a good enough reason to keep one of them. I really dislike privets but these are very excited birds.

Maybe we should stick to a message this simple.

Sundog Magic in a winter sky ☀️ #flwx #nature #photography #clouds

Today’s cat TV cast includes cardinals, blue jays, juncos, house sparrows, song sparrows, chickadees, tufted titmice and the ubiquitous fat squirrel.

I will never get tired of watching cardinals. I will especially never get tired of watching cardinals in the snow. They always brighten my day.

For @msnownews.bsky.social, I wrote an article about how ICE Watch is grounded in sociological theories of violence prevention. The reality is that most men will only commit public violence in extremely specific scenarios and ICE Watch disrupts the conditions necessary for escalation.

Cat TV is hopping! Cardinal and sparrows and juncos and squirrel today.

An important read with some local support options from @thegenerouspine.blacksky.app: sorrelvirginiahester.substack.com/p/practical-...

Just thinking about this Beach Kingfisher. Such a pretty bird. And very kind of it to sit still for us for a while.

If you're looking for a bit of good news this morning: This adorable Bermuda Petrel laid a single egg just before midnight last night. Known locally as the cahow, this bird was thought to be extinct for 300 years. www.nonsuchisland.com/blog/happy-n...

In Peekskill this Friday, 1/9? Please join me and my Drawing with Machines students for the opening of our exhibition at the @bantamtools.bsky.social Machine Arts Gallery! We'll be showing scores of generative artworks created with pen-plotters, p5.js, and much more! www.instagram.com/p/DTGWAUlkS8Q/

Dear astro #scicomm folks, A good boss is hiring someone to help expand public engagement at Whipple Observatory’s Science Centre. On-site (no remote work) in Amado, Arizona. $50-66k/year, Smithsonian Trust-funded. Tues-Sat workweek #jobs trustcareers.si.edu/en/postings/...

Kaylee is making quiet snorty purrs and watching the cardinals, sparrows and juncos. She doesn’t see the adorable nuthatch scooting up and down the pine tree.

This morning’s cat entertainment program features sparrows, chickadees, juncos, cardinals, blue jays and a fat squirrel.

My girls are enjoying the juncos again.

Bird visitors today include blue jays, cardinals, juncos, sparrows and wrens. Kaylee would like a junco, please.

I walked by Duck Pond Park today, which was flying a red flag with the “No Skating Today” sign posted. Saw a happy husky bounding in the snowy lawns while its people stayed on the shoveled sidewalks. Two deer ran past me later. Got scolded by a blue jay. Watched some crows yelling as they passed by.

I just love it when my cats alert me to the drama in the trees! Blue jay just chased the nuthatch off of the pine trunk while lady cardinal watched from the dogwood. It’s cold and windy this morning and she was a perfect borb.

Today only, Automatic Noodle e-books are on sale for $2.99 on all platforms! Grab one while they're still hot and chewy! bookshop.org/p/books/auto...

For this morning’s viewing pleasure, we have juncos, blue jays, and a squirrel.