Utrecht Paleogeography model in prep! We're integrating our detailed reconstructions of orogenic belts and lost subducted plates into one plate tectonic and paleogeography model. We'll launch the updated Paleolatitude.org soon, and more tools for geodynamic, paleoclimate, and paleobiology studies!

Phrenology is back!

The more I've personally thought about these issues, the more I think we should all be looking at UPs not (just) as funded but as directly FUNDING fields that unis have all but abandoned. Monographs cost more to make than they earn. UPs are putting $$ DIRECTLY where unis don't.

It's also much, much more than 3 percent though. As any faculty member reading this who obtained subvention funding from their uni (which may or may not have a UP) can attest: many unis with no UPs provide relatively quite small funds to UPs far and wide. $1K here, $3K there.

It's both less and more than 3 percent. Less because not all UPs are supported by their unis. Some may get support in exchange for paying overhead. Others may truly get no support.

I'm obsessed with this stat: "with more than 4,000 degree-granting institutions and fewer than 130 university presses in the United States and Canada, this vital [publishing] infrastructure is directly supported by less than 3 percent of the institutions it benefits"

Peter Berkery, executive director of @aupresses.bsky.social, with a letter in CHE on unis that close their UPs becoming "free riders" in the scholarly ecosystem--extracting without putting in. (Headline is sort of misleading--the problem is unis not UPs) www.chronicle.com/blogs/letter...

Another #GarWeek spotlight species is the Bowfin. Check out this young of the year bowfin from a Green Bay coastal wetland. #GreatLakes

Our inability to treat nonsense as nonsense is really a large part of how we’ve ended up here. Not everything deserves credulity. Sometimes you raise your eyebrows, say WTF, and move on to issues that actually deserve consideration.

This is what I don't get: Douthat is *boring*. I realize that's not his worst feature, but he is so utterly predictable. There's not even a hint of "Well, I don't agree with his solutions, but he correctly highlights a good question." Just boring.

the working conditions in academia, that we refer to as a "game", were always bad to be honest, and I am only the next in line to publicly complain and likely leave the field, but as a historian I also see the absolutely broken academic job market of the last 15 years.

my way through the German academic system highlights the main problems of humanities teaching and researching, and agenda setting nowadays: as a post-doc you only get no tenure track positions, temporary work spaces at different places, non-permanent professorships. How is this intended to work out?

We certainly haven't developed customs that show it at least--such reverence for retirees but whenever the rest of us (at this point, the numerical majority of the profession!) get forced out? the profession hasn't developed anything to recognize that--just rolls onward : (

Threads like this remind me the attrition rate for women across the university was multiples of that for men. (I don’t recall whether it was 2x or 3x, but the latter seems more correct.) The university eventually got to “this is a problem”, but never managed “here’s a solution.”

yeah I'm still happy to honor their career-long achievements but agree that the lack of any sort of recognition for the rest of us is stark. As always I think of @erinbartram.bsky.social's quote that these losses create 'phantom pain' in our communities like lost limbs.

Thanks for saying this; I ran the retirement conference for my advisor in 2016, but since then I have found it increasingly hard to honor my elders, since there is no corresponding acknowledgment of younger people's blocked pathways, the snipped thread of continuity.

There is a weird Protestantism that hangs about contemporary academia. We have festschrifts for retirees but absolutely no customs to manage losing SO MANY from our communities before we reach that point. There is no churching when contracts are renewed, no Placebos when careers are lost.

Pulling this back into TLs to be sure that all who can will stand as witnesses for him (and for me and so many others too).

Alarm Grows over Proposed Giant Mirrors in Orbit and Other Commercial Space Plans www.scientificamerican.com/article/alar...

French grunts with le argument 🇫🇷😤😤🇫🇷 #frenchgrunt #grunt #mouthoff #mouthfight #coral #coralhead #coralcitycamera #miami #portmiami #miamibeach #biscaynebay #coralcity

Look, Exxon isn't stupid. Malevolent, sure, but not stupid. If they could make the type of money they could off of renewables they would jump, but they can't and they know it and we need to be honest about this.

They keep saying that and it hasn't happened because renewables don't make money for fossil fuel companies the way oil does. The economics aren't the same

"Exxon isn't stupid. Malevolent, sure but not stupid." Reminded of the two grad students from UA that interned with Exxon and who decided to follow the janitors and see where the recycling bins from the offices end up. Answer was just the normal trash cans.

Now I sort of want to make zines! Except mine would be more like, Groundwater: How all the water cycle school propaganda posters got it wrong ! or Pupfish: Why Salt Creek's are the Best

Remember that horrifically bad arXiv thing with the guy saying we could fix climate change by blowing up the whole of the Kerguelen Plateau? *Horrifically* bad idea.

Less sanguinely, I’m convinced by Matt Jacobson’s argument that it was part of a wave of cultural production (cf. Yentl, Fiddler on the Roof) that appealed to previously “ethnic” Americans’ sense of themselves as immigrants who overcame barriers to assimilate and succeed (vs. the…other kind).

Did dickheads ruin the workplace?

ICE abducted 9 documented workers at a car wash in Allston & denied them the chance to retrieve their documents — this is cruel & harrowing. My office is in touch with the families and working with them to track down their loved ones & connect them with legal counsel.

I will also just remind you that NASA used to have a bunch of advisory committees that all would have raised the red flag on this... But we were all disbanded, along with most advisory panels, in the spring.

You might ask why... It seems to be two things. One, Project 2025 makes it clear the authors do not believe that government scientific capacity should exist. They are doing everything they can do to make that happen. And Goddard is in a blue state. They are making an example.

Has anyone written a global history of the pundit? From your uncle that seems to have a lot to say about running the village to Ross Doubtthat why do we bother listening to them?

If pundits didn’t exist we’d have to invent them.

Just remarkable how pathetic this guy is. Didn't even go with his standard "I haven't heard about that" line, had to take the opportunity to debase himself and the authority of his position.

What is happening at Goddard is absolutely devastating. We are losing history. We are losing an incredible amount of human talent, skill, and knowledge. Rebuilding it will be impossible same for same. Industry can not absorb the people or the equipment. This is undoing space science in the US.

As just one example dear to my own heart, how the FUCK is there not a left-facing equivalent to the Federalist Society providing a stem to stern context starting w law school 1Ls & ending in on the Supreme Court???

Years ago the Dem party supposedly did this really well w union halls, precinct clubs, etc. Now they just text you unhinged demands for money.

This is a super important point (raised repeatedly by politics commentators) that a political party can't thrive on just "policy" & "vote for us". Rather, it has to provide an emotional, social, cultural outlet for ppl. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/n...

The messages were bad but honestly what do these folks expect? "I can't imagine why you are upset with me, all I did was support sending masked, armed men into your communities to abduct your neighbors and brutalize your children." Yeah, people are going to be really angry.

Iridescent clouds over Williamsburg VA! @philplait.bsky.social

This should be taken exactly as seriously as if Google was promising to reforge the shattered pieces of their ancestors' sword to fight the dragon beneath Mt. Rainier and reclaim the lost gold of the Dwarves.

Google wants to put a whole constellation of kilometer-scale solar panels and radiators at 400km sun-synchronous over the terminator, so every dawn and dusk, everywhere on earth would feature some blazing away overhead

It was unsurprising that the key advantage seen for space was not principally technical, but "no permits, no regulation". So of course no discussion of end of life disposal, protection against debris generation, allocation of orbital slots, or befouling the night sky for 8 billion people 3/

This continues to be an abject failure of military leadership. “[T]here is … *no* viable legal basis under U.S. law for what the Trump administration is doing. Worse than that … there’s no publicly obvious reason why it would be limited to non-citizens and/or targets outside U.S. territory.”

@josephpolitano.bsky.social , you might know this but how reputable is the firm that put out this report out of curiosity and is this just going to be the new norm going forward where Trump 2 admin basically refuses to give job numbers so it's all down to these private firms?

Going thru security this morning at DCA, I see the TSA officers working and the looks of anger on their faces are palpable. They haven't been paid in nearly a month (same with all government workers) Working and not getting paid for it... tracks how donald likes to operate. Pay the workers!

Uuuuh does anyone have any suggestions about grants (for UK academics) to pay for image rights for journal articles? I’ve had something accepted and just found out that due to budget cuts I can’t claim expenses for article costs 😱

News related to the (attempted?) closure of U of Nebraska-Lincoln's geo department.

Knowingly getting more than 10% of their income from outright scam / criminal ads? 😲😡 General thoughts: 1. Corporate fines need to be scaled so as to be meaningful to the firm in questions. 2. Execs need to go to jail, not fines, jail. We used to do that!