I built a custom dual Celeron PC as a postdoc that ran Windows NT. Peak Windows experience. Don’t get me started about OS/2.

Apparently the Netflix run of Sesame Street has more Grover, and I heartily approve. The Monster at the End of This Book stans know.

St. Louis folks! GMC’s Spring concerts are today at 3:00 or 8:00, or tomorrow at 3:00. 2nd Presbyterian Church in the CWE. Tickets available at the door, and Charis will be joining us!

My first time back in the classroom in 4 years and my first graduate course ever is in the bag. The students were lovely and seemed to appreciate the topic. In typical fashion, I feel very little sense of accomplishment and a very large sense of relief that it's completed.

There are days when I think one of the most important things I did as a kid was help convince my Dad to stop smoking.

Hey. I decided to do a wellness check on the timeline. If you see this: pause. Think of something soft and quiet and peaceful that makes you happy. Take a deep breath. Close your eyes and unclench your jaw. Release. … Its not much, but I hope it helped you. Be well, friends. ❤️👍🏾

Proving that dogs can learn anything if it means they’ll get a walk, we now can’t ask Siri what the wind chill is.

Monday: Cripes it’s cold. I hope it will be warmer on the weekend. Be careful what you wish for…

Thing 1: "Why are there so many villains in the new Spider-Man trailer?" Because someone read the assignment, that's why. It's one of the reasons the new games feel true to the comics. Spidey can't catch a break: a new villain around every corner.

Duped by another cute animal AI. Aw, so cute, what other videos does this creator have… oh… somehow the exact same video (animal wanders into his lap and looks at the camera) but with animals from all over the world. 😡

sorry basically the problem of my life is that i internalized and believed a lot of stuff people said about valuing children and loving your neighbor and living in a society at the exact moment that everyone in power decided all of that shit was fake and gay and not a way to make a living

That guy in your group project the night before it is due:

I have worked for college administrators who have zero social skills, but try to be fair. I have also worked for administrators that are friendly, make small talk, talk about the college being a family… and then announce that the college is closing a week later. I’ll take the former any day.

God I hate this idea. People are not one more image of a dead baby away from radicalisation. We don't lack will, we lack any real means to act on our will because the left has ceased to be a political project and become a few thousand people trying to Post their way out of Posting.

Thing 2, who is obsessed with Timothée Chalamet: “Bro, did you hear what Timmy said about ballet & opera? He is dead to me. What is he talking about?!? He just made a movie about ping pong FFS!” #TheKidsAreAllRight

Welp, I think I’ve accomplished everything I need to do today.

“Some of the cousins think we should have culled them as soon as they came, the way you’d pull a carcass out of a creek so that it doesn’t spoil the water.” (No spoiler, literally the 2nd paragraph) Ope, I’m locked in. Can’t wait to read this tonight.

One worked for a power tools company who fired him mere months before he would have eligible for a pension. The other was a lifelong IBM repair and service guy in the computing division. Mom and I wonder if he knew anything about IBM’s German contracts.

Dark Sky was acquired by Apple, then the creator left Apple and they have a new app out, Acme Weather. Very nice. apps.apple.com/us/app/acme-...

Fine, I’ll go practice my Spanish.

Why am I having such a difficult time writing this lecture?!? *reads the news* Oh. Right.

Thing 1, a high school sophomore, has a habit of loudly saying “Yuck!” whenever one of their teacher says they used AI to write an assignment. So yeah, I think my parenting duties are done.

Unstated in this press release: UHSP has (had) an undergraduate program, all of whose tenured faculty are being shown the door.

If you’re attending #BPS2026, there are several opportunities to hear about ongoing projects in the Starbird lab. Looking forward to seeing everyone at BPS!

I can’t believe you lefty Luddites hate tech so much that you embrace mRNA vaccines, heat pumps, electric bikes, hybrid work, renewable power (and awesome advancements in storage), space telescopes, and hot/cold running water but reject the planet destroying plagiarism enrich the worst people bots!

My favorite (?) story re: antibiotics is that Calvin Coolidge Jr. got a blister playing lawn tennis at the White House and died from sepsis a week later.

Noah Wiley walking people through the set library (because cell phones aren’t allowed on set). I’ve never been more jealous of a workplace environment in my life.

My doomer-worry about AI is not that the LLMs become omnipotent and take over the world but that the wealthy and powerful use it as a means to consolidate power and marginalize or lay off skilled workers and also everything about our technological and political and social life gets worse

Saving this for the next time someone pushes back on Okun's assertion that "Worship of the Written Word" is one of the hallmarks of white supremacy culture.

Currently listening to my daughters’ friends actively root against the Patriots. The kids are all right.

For the second week in a row I had to rage quit the @nytimes.com opinion podcast. I don’t know how @jamellebouie.net doesn’t stroke out being told week after week that his points are valid but the logical response to current events is to doom spiral.

St. Louis: Midwestern Winters and Southern Summers. Which ever one you don’t like, at least it doesn’t last as long as other places.

It is going to take me two hours to get through Episode 7 of #WonderMan. It is a pitch perfect recreation of what it feels like every time I try to network at a national meeting.

Thinking of starting an alternative to actblue. It’s only feature is it gives money to the candidate you want and then never contacts you again.

If you see this, don't participate. It's a rigged study by Lisa Littman and unethical researcher J. Michael Bailey meant to undermine access to care. Spread the word.

The number of people drinking at the Airport bar at 7:45 in the morning is… higher than I would have guessed.

It’s funny how when I was actively doing undergraduate research with dozens of undergrads, Sigma Xi never invited me to join. Yet now that I’m faculty at WashU, doing zero bench research, with no lab and no students, they invite me to join every year.

You’re right, doc, my blood pressure is higher than last time. Can’t imagine why that might be.

Every departmental meeting

Starting my Nanocourse on molecular binding next week with foundational principles. The problem with “basic” material is I question every assumption or I don’t feel prepared. So I just spent 20 minutes convincing myself that, yes, weak acid titration can in fact be fit to a hyperbola. This is fine.

If, like me, you haven’t seen Sinners yet (I basically have been pouting that I missed it in theaters because of life stuff), check you local showtimes. It’s back in theaters this weekend in STL.

Grateful for Dr. Jeffries’ work, his humor, and his insight. Too many gems to quote them all. His keynote for MLK week at WashU Med was titled “When a Dream Becomes a Nightmare: Reclaiming Dr. King’s Vision for a Just America"

Today is book release day for When Trees Testify: Science, Wisdom, History, and America's Black Botanical Legacy. Available wherever books are sold. Spotted on local shelf, and in good company of Robin Wall Kimmerer's The Serviceberry. What a welcome to the world. Yes, we're outside!!!

People who were actually enslaved believed that chattel slavery would end one day. I'm sorry but to me that suggests that you [who are not enslaved in 2026] can also imagine an end to the current horrors.

Unarmed woman executed by state may have been on committee to fight against unarmed women being executed by the state

Ran across a text message from last week where I described myself on 1/5 as in the "tail end" of being sick. If only that were true.

Last week someone asked Dear Hank & John why escalators that go down aren’t called descalators and I honestly haven’t stopped thinking about it.

I am now on my fourth day of thinking I might be turning the corner on this flu/cold thing.

Been pleasantly surprised by this feed, works much better than the “Popular with Friends” option.

Really? Ok, fine…