I'm a fossil guy, so sedimentary architecture is a secondary consideration, if considered at all when I'm out. But gosh, the rocks sometimes make you stare at them in wonder anyway. (Near Wadden's Cove, Cape Breton.)

I don't plan on visiting the US anytime soon anyway, but this would have been a deal breaker. The US tourism industry is worth the same as their agricultural exports. Combined w/ new visa & park fees, it's like they're actively trying to shut it down. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/t...

According to National Geographic, when the GSA finally gave Harley Bretz the Penrose Medal for his visionary work on catastrophic glacial floods at 96 years old, he joked to his son, "All my enemies are dead, I have no one to gloat over." Ha!

Monitoring crustal deformation: sometimes in the lithosphere, sometimes on your pie plate. 🍁🍂 Happy Thanksgiving from EarthScope!

Don't inherently oppose charging premium for foreign visitors, but $100 likely crosses threshold to counter productive. I visited Grand Canyon on side trip after conference in 2019. Spent >$1000 on trip. Probably wouldn't have gone w/ that surcharge. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/u...

I think I'd watched one baseball game in my life before the last week. I watched every minute of this series... and it was fantastic. Sad to lose, but amazing to come so close. And amazing to see how sport brought together ppl accross country in hope and support. #GoJaysGo

Fingers crossed!

One of our temporary displays at the @johnsongeocentre.bsky.social features a group of Artemia, aka fairy shrimp or sea monkeys. These delicate little crustaceans have a fossil record extending back at least 115 million years! #FossilFriday See doi.org/10.1080/0311...

This research not only provides exciting new insight into mammoth evolutionary history, it reveals an entirely unknown lineage of ancient mammoth. 🦣 gizmodo.com/million-year...

Great story! www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Planning on applying for PromoScience for outreach activities through the Cape Breton Fossil Centre. Am hoping that some successful applicants might be willing to share their applications/budgets. In particular, I am curious how people made up the 2/3rds of $$$ that NSERC doesn't cover.

Another way of putting this: in the past 20 years or so, China and India *alone* have increased student places by about 70 million - that's roughly the same number of university places that existed in the entire world circa 1990.

Digitizing collections to unlock the full potential of palynology: A case study with the Smithsonian palynology collection Carlos Jaramillo, Surangi W. Punyasena, Daurys de Alba, Roxana Alveo, Angelica Arcila, Jorge Bermudez, Jonatan Bustos et al nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

More exciting news! I am now able to share with you more of the concept art I did for the amazing upcoming NBC Universal show “Surviving Earth” premiering next year! This time for a fan favorite, Dimetrodon! I can’t say much more than this for now 🙊

For those still considering US academic positions, this is a great one!

Wrote a long book that comes out August. It covers from the origins of life at alkaline hydrothermal vents some 4 billion years ago through the Volcker Shock. I'm told pre-orders help, so if that sounds like your thing, buy one, won't you? www.harpercollins.com/products/the...

As someone with a PhD in earth science, who is generally pro exploration/extraction, and teaches engineering and petroleum geology, it's hard for me to overstate how offbase I think APGNS is here. (It's also terrible optics.) www.halifaxexaminer.ca/dismantling-...

Found while searching for merch for our museum gift store. The more you look, the worse it gets. :)

The summer 2025 ish of The Biologist is out and it includes my article on taxonomic vandalism. Massive thanks to those who helped in getting this piece together. #taxonomy #biology

What do you make of this, sedimentologists and ichnologists? Structure I've found periodically around Nova Scotia. Don't know if it's a trace or abiotic. One ichnologist said rill casts another suggested Phycodes. Thoughts? @ichnologist.bsky.social

For #FossilFriday, a dramatically lit replica (epoxy-resin cast) of an Early Ordovician (~480 mya) sedimentary-rock surface from Portugal with abundant trilobite burrows. Replica was part of a traveling display put together by ichnologist Dolf Seliacher that he titled "Fossil Art." 🧪🪨⚒️

Wild that we not only have these 300 million year old forests in our backyard, but there's a reasonable chance every tree holds a brand species of vertabrate cradled within it. #CapeBreton

Set up basecamp and am conducting some important sedimentological research this morning in Eastbourne, UK. My working hypothesis is this is a beach, but will need more investigation to confirm.

Visited Downe House, Darwin's home. As a Darwinophile, this was a lifelong bucketlist stop. English Heritage has done a lovely job of restoring and adding interpretation. Highly recommend even for casual science history fans.

This gazelle is actually called 'dorcas (species name). Apt name for the nerdiest of deer. (At the Natural History Museum.)

So, in case you don't know (we didnt until terrifyingly last min), UK now requires you complete application before departing & pay fee, even for Canadians. Also: The app does not work. We tried on two phones, a dozen times. Eventually, we used the online version and approval took minutes. (Whew!)

#Strataday Well-bedded #Ordovician (~450 MYA) Gull River Fm marine limestones overlie Shadow Lake Fm transgressive clastics. The Paleozoic rx unconformably sit on Precambrian metasediments (below water in left image) which host a massive Fe skarn deposit (right image) #MarmoratonIronMine #Ontario 🇨🇦

You can't see it, but there's a 350 million year old cyanobacterial reef exposed in this #CapeBreton quarry.

Canada - your vote counts. Election Day is Monday 28th. I’ll be on travel so I just voted by mail. Please make sure you’re registered - and VOTE! 🇨🇦 elections.ca/home.aspx

Eternal Canadian question: Why do plain Tim Bits even exist?

NEW: Today, NSF "disestablished" most of its scientific advisory committees. These are committees of outside experts convened to help shape NSF programs. Only five statutorily required committees remain, the rest are gone. www.nsf.gov/executive-or...

The Canadian Association of University Teachers has released travel advice warning Canadian researchers to avoid travel to US. www.caut.ca/latest/2025/...

Can anyone hook me up with Glanville and Gatley 2022, Geoheritage conservation developments in Ireland., Irish journal of Earth Sciences?

Front page of CBC News this morning. A play, in three acts:

This is from the official Grade 4 science curricula in Nova Scotia. This is a suggested field trip. Is it just me, or is this wildly optimistic? (Perhaps appropriate for a class of savants!)

Yay. "Thanks," Open AI. (Grrrrr.)

Geodiversity (the variety of geological elements of nature) underpins biodiversity. A fun example from where I grew up: critically endangered sunflower sea star (one of largest on earth) remains abundant in BC's fjords. Our glacial past is protecting the future. www.timescolonist.com/local-news/c...

On the one hand, good opportunity for Canada (as a country). On the other hand, the job market in academia is already so brutal that this isn't great news for Canadian job seekers. www.cbc.ca/news/health/...

Took advantage of CBU's rental of the Sydney Cineplex to show free geology movie for my students. BBC's 'A Perfect Planet' on the largest screen in town/David Attenborough on surround sound was a blast!

American friends, you might not know how wild the impact of the tarrifs have been on our national politics. Until a month ago, the polls predicted a complete wipe out of one of our two main parties (the governing Liberals). Today, they're set to reverse a decade of decline to seal a majority govt.

This mini donut was almost too cute to eat. Almost.

I have a student who just bought the pinkest hard hat you've ever seen. (It's pretty amazing.) Just saw these on Facebook, in the same vein. Safety and style! Why not?

Some lovely Orcadian stromatolite stolen from ougs.org/photo-compet...

Election called! Please remember, there are ton of options to vote, beyond showing up on election day, including early voting and mail voting. This is a big one, folks: the long-term viability of our country/sovereignty might literally be on the line. www.elections.ca/content.aspx...

It’s about time Casey and Finnegan made their return to national politics!

Square dance tomorrow at the Legion. Come out for some local tunes and cheap beers!

Award! What you cannot see is the gun just off camera. "Smile... smile like your life depends on it, Dr. Loxton."

Still counts as working! #StPatricksDay

The Scotsman Steps, #Edinburgh Work No. 1059 Martin Creed, 2011 104 steps clad in a different #marble from such diverse places as Italy, Lebanon, Namibia & Portugal, #SundayStonework #Art