No excuses

This is a fundamental divide. I wish that more people knew that you can be happy in your own corner of the world without blocking access to the larger global experience for everyone else. You didn’t need to speak Spanish — or be Puerto Rican — to feel that pride and joy in tonight’s show.

Editorial: Battle boils down to crucial wetlands vs. greedy developers as one #Florida county tries to protect its Everglades sprawl boundary from being breached by builders. www.miamiherald.com/opinion/edit... via @miamiherald.com

The Trump admin has shut down the CIA’s World Factbook, a country reference that for six decades has provided data on birth and death rates, major exports, and more. Long used by government officials and by researchers, educators, and journalists, the database was taken offline today.

I grew up with the WaPo. This is a public murder of an American institution.

The Department of Biology, Ecology and Evolution at the University of Liège is currently seeking a permanent scientist in marine biology. The position is based at Liège, Belgium, but is also expected to conduct research at their Underwater and Oceanographic Research Station in the Mediterranean.

Anyone know anything about this bluefin tuna article a colleague sent me? There's neither the scientific paper listed nor an email for the author (may be genAI). Thanks, folks. www.theindiankingcoffeelounge.co.uk/02-163924-gi...

One of my favorite musicians -- and former artistic advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center -- on the latest ensh*ttification by this (mal)Administration. Sure seems like a great time to ask Congress what they'd do if someone tried doing an East Wing on the Center.

Lots of variants on this theme, but all of them also — if unintentionally? — dismiss society-based interactions (bowling leagues, Scouts, church groups) that make such societies work. It’s not an intentional omission.

These lines are from David French's opinion column in the NY Times yesterday. It makes perfect sense for an Administration that (a) knows facts and logic are not on its side, and (b) is populated by damaged individuals who know neither love nor community.

Column: #Florida Panhandle residents rally to stop a big threat to a rare coastal dune lake -- from their own county. My latest for @floridaphoenix.com also includes shout-outs to Nancy Reagan, Monty Python and Arsenio Hall. floridaphoenix.com/2026/01/29/f...

Feds and #Florida state officials suddenly pull out of annual Everglades conference -- most likely because they don't want to answer questions on Gov. Ron DeSastrous' polluting concentration camp in the River of Grass. www.wlrn.org/environment/... via @jenstaletovich.bsky.social

Idiocracy. www.gravityisgone.com/what-is-a-go...

Of all the departures this past year at NOAA—via the fork offer, retirements, etc.— the one that stung the most was the firing of people in their probationary first year. They have more modern skills than those of us who received their PhDs in the 90s and 00s. My whole department is in its 50s now.

All to please a wannabe king who is demented and thrives on violence.

The national Democratic Party really needs to read the f*cking room here. If you’re not resisting, then you’re collaborating.

A nurse. A researcher. A helper.

This is perhaps the greatest self-immolation of a nation’s knowledge in history.

IMO, this also explains the dismal polling for the Dem Party — it’s frustration that the party that could and should be doing something, anything just… isn’t.

Interesting! 2021 is the year when I received the highest citations for my work, and that’s been declining since. Apparently that’s part of a global pattern! dynamicecology.wordpress.com/2026/01/15/s...

Posting this dialogue from “The Good Place”… for no particular reason.

“This is the way.”

Yes, JD. Let’s ask them if they think a stay at home mom, avowed Christian, and widow of a veteran deserved to be shot in the face and left to bleed out in her own car after dropping her 6-year-old off at school, for the crime of looking out for her neighbors. Let’s ask everyone running for office.

I'm now "Pottery Barn Rule" years-old. Deeply ironic (but no longer surprising, sadly) that Will's column today was published by one of the papers that was leaked information about the abduction mission... and chose not to tell anyone.

Sure would be interesting for someone (UK? France? Venezuela?) to call an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council right now. Russia and PRC might go along just to see how much they can help destabilize the USA internally.

Would love to see a journalism school at a major university convene a panel on journalistic ethics. Invite all the main players, see who declines. I’d PPV to see a real conversation with folks like John Dickerson and Rachel Maddow publicly eviscerate those who declined attending.

“Because stewardship doesn’t show up on efficiency metrics. Because expertise takes years to build and seconds to dismiss.” Never forget that surveys still show broad public support for science. It’s the institutional memories across agencies that is likely gone forever.

I’ll take it! Here’s to a better 2026 for all of us.

For the right person, this is a once-in-a-lifetime unicorn dream job 🦑🧪🌍 futureleadership.com.au/opportunitie...

The time-line cleanser I needed this Saturday. Some of these responses are so good, it’s tough to even find a favorite.

Dean Martin, born Dino Paul Crocetti, son of Italian immigrant Gaetano Crocetti Frank Sinatra, son of Italian immigrants Antonino Sinatra and Natalina Garavanta Merry Christmas to everyone except Stephen Miller and his enablers and handlers

One of my all-time favorite holiday songs, made all the more poignant with the passing of Kirsty MacColl far too early in 2000 and then Shane MacGowan more recently in 2023. Best Christmas Eve wishes to those who celebrate tonight.

Now we know who was either asleep in class regarding the Tuskegee experiments or is so psychopathic that it’s okay for kids to needlessly suffer and potentially die.

A palate cleanser, of sorts. Posts like this are why I love the BlueSky community. Happy holidays to all.

The take-home public message is that scientists “know things… subversive things” — very, and eerily similar to the sub-message about why the talking animals were caged in the “Wicked” movies.

Mel Brooks having to bury Rob Reiner is against all laws of nature and I’m not ok about it

The endgame here is getting the Supreme Court to declare that the entire civil service system is unconstitutional. Which is to say, this administration does not want us to be a modern, efficient, globally competitive nation-state.

I think about all the years - decades! - I’ve worked to share solutions to fisheries problems in other countries and show American good-will… then I see this “national security strategy” and become enraged anew. A hearty and repeated GFY to this “Administration.”

Sorry @nytimes.com , for those of us in the sciences, this is not a "quiet policy change". 🧪🦠💊🌍 It is however a disaster for society. The U.S. Is Funding Fewer Grants in Every Area of Science and Medicine www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Yes, exactly.

These were always it's goals (per Project 2025; data access goals were incidental to Heritage). We need to hound every DOGE person legally until their only remaining option versus jail-time is exile in some pariah nation-state.

The challenge was limiting it to four, lol.

🎵 “Join Ice” - @wellesmusic on Colbert

Republicans have shown time-and-time again that it’s not about the economic gains or losses, whether TPS or SNAP or a half-dozen other programs (including education).

For the life of me, I don’t know why this is surprising. None of these people were brought in to manage an agency or make it run better. Their sole goal was to destroy the effectiveness of federal government actions in the public eye. FFS.

THIS IS BIG For non-academics who might not understand why: 1. Sen. Warren is still a Harvard professor so this is a call coming from inside the house 2. As a tenured law prof, Warren knows it is a VERY big deal from a labor standpoint to call on Harvard to ignore tenure. The bar for this is HIGH.

What a photograph. “Nearly two dozen arrested as faith leaders protested outside a federal immigration facility near Chicago…” Arrested large amounts of peaceful clergy face first on pavement is a pretty good sign you’re not the good guys in the story. www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

Your Daily Dose of Humanity... A Key West restaurant is serving up free spaghetti sandwiches to those in need during these difficult times. Another look at Key West life from @gwenfilosamedia.bsky.social...

I do give Frontiers some credit for planning to include a statement with each article generated in part with AI. All journals should do so, IMO. However, voluntarily giving them a lab dataset for them to use for generating a paper via their own AI engine? Absolutely the f*ck not.