Deric Tilson's blow-by-blow account of the Iberian blackout is some of the finest energy reporting I've read. You may not care for Breakthrough, but if you want to understand how the grid really works, you absolutely need to read this piece. www.breakthroughjournal.org/p/blackout

Just sent some support to my alma mater, UW-Madison, on "Fill the Hill" day. If you EVER wanted to support higher education... now would be a pretty good time. Send a message that you think universities and students are pretty cool (or at least better than not having universities!). uwflamingos.com

Greetings New England! Come chat about a badly outdated book with me, at Tufts, on October 16th if you're in or near Boston. humanities.tufts.edu/events/unive...

🌿 On #WorldHabitatsDay Europe’s habitats are in trouble. 📉 81% of habitats protected under EU law are in poor or bad condition — and most are still declining. We need full implementation of environmental law, shows #EuropesEnvironment2025: www.eea.europa.eu/en/europe-en...

10/2/74: Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 D Sargent/DP Roizman w/Matthau/Shaw/Balsam ++ Nails mid-70s NYC From us/70s Movie Podcast: open.spotify.com/episode/5tSx... More Savvy @janetmaslin.bsky.social rev also cool '74 movie time capsule: archive.org/details/sim_... BLFJ: brightlightsfilm.com/the-taking-o...

In the passing of Jane Goodall, I took the chance to revisit Donna Haraway's revolutionary book "Primate Visions". Goodall makes an important, complicated appearance here, along with a host of other women leaders in primatology, who turned the field on its head. www.versobooks.com/products/136...

Wrapping up my 8th and 9th grant since April when almost all my labs funding was terminated. $1.1M. So far got $330k funded by rewriting a grant for work I was supposedly funded to do. This is the least fun I have had in this job. I know I am sadly not alone and more important things are defunded

Just finished watching The Sting—great movie. Released in 1973, set in 1939. I regret to inform you that the same time difference is a movie set in 1991. Good. Night!

Interesting to read Carl Sauer arguing in 1966 that American anthropologists (Kroeber and Steward specifically) underestimated the Indigenous populations of present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic in 1492 by a factor of of ten, also discussing the extent of land under cultivation at that time.

New edition of The Commons is out, and its major. The challenge of microplastics and flooding, along with the secrets of leaf-peeping and revelations about Wisconsin's freshwater springs. All in font sizes I can read. Kudos to Nelson Institute's incredible writing staff! nelson.wisc.edu/the-commons/

Flood risk lines are mapped to keep us safe. What happens when they can be bought? Dr. Beth Tellman tells it like it is. nelson.wisc.edu/the-commons/...

Sustainable food systems means new sources of plentiful protein. Just ask Valerie Stull, a consummate interdisciplinarian. nelson.wisc.edu/the-gateway-...

Linking transportation needs, human health, and climate solutions, Maria Daniela Castillo has helped make East Fenway humane, accessible and even... groovy. A transportation planner with the City of Boston, and an extraordinary interdisciplinary scholar. nelson.wisc.edu/at-the-corne...

Amintas Brandão brilliantly connects remote sensing to work by Brazilian federal prosecutors halting industry-driven deforestation. Land change science and political ecology, together, have always been the Dream Team. nelson.wisc.edu/every-pixel-...

Intro to Environmental Justice let’s goooooo ♥️🔥

We’re proud to announce that UW–Madison has earned its first STARS Gold rating from the AASHE. This milestone reflects the hard work of @uwchancellor.bsky.social and many across our campus community who are committed to building a more sustainable future for all.

Growers in California tend to not be as anti-solar as other places with farmland the United States because the questions are (1) Do I make more more money in agriculture? and (2) Do I have water? If the answer is no to either, the answer is yes to solar.

What looks like an amazing book by a brilliant Indigenous scholar is on sale through the link below (and blurbed by the greats @hiokinai.bsky.social Hi'i Hobart and @brdemuth.bsky.social Bathsheba Demuth). Arctic governance and colonial administration are the most fascinating topics!

Really excited to start reading @sprucehen.bsky.social 's new book 'Ice Geographies'! From reading the prologue I can tell this is exactly the kind of narrative I hope to see more of in the coming years - and I'm sure this book'll help achieve that :) Plus the cover art is wonderful!

Our incredible team includes @moreorloess.bsky.social @sprucehen.bsky.social @creekthinker.bsky.social @chaseprairie.bsky.social and many more!

It’s such an enormous joy to share that our interdisciplinary team of Indigenous and settler scholars has launched the publicly accessible version of our work on land dispossession!! We have multiple modules available to educators (and the public!) at the link below…

Whether you're into Degrowth or Abundance, or whatever, you'll agree closing the life cycles of critical materials is a good idea. Innovation is happening here for Lithium. news.wisc.edu/recycling-li...

Preparing for what will most likely be the last time I teach my soil geomorphology course. I'm realizing that my goal all along--though never really achieved-- has been to study the soil geomorphology (and geomorphology in general) of places like Lonely Road, i.e. "flat" to most people, and

A group of Indigenous and settler scholars (including Hilary H. Hunt and the incomparable @moreorloess.bsky.social) have created these AMAZING educational modules on dispossession. While of interest to US Land Grant institutions, they are universally relevant. campushistory.wisc.edu/education/in...

Joel DeMott's absolutely brilliant "Seventeen" was about a more working class bunch of kids than I knew, yes, but the stories and scenes felt dead on to me: turbulent adolescent chaos in 1983. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/16/a...

BOTD Nicolas Roeg!! MCCT5: 5)Walkabout 4)Performance 3)Bad Timing 2)Man Who Fell to Earth 1)Don't Look Now More: @filmnickjames.bsky.social: www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so... Jason Wood: mubi.com/en/notebook/... @brofromanother.bsky.social: www.theringer.com/2018/11/26/m...

Not sure what I was expecting when I sat down to watch "The Shout" (1978), but the cast sold me (Alan Bates, John Hurt, and Sussanah York): a bizarre Peter Wier-like psychodrama that really plays on how cool the British can remain, even under super-weird circumstances. www.imdb.com/title/tt0078...

Oh to be in Scotland: This summer, the largest ever indoor exhibition by Andy Goldsworthy takes over the National Galleries of Scotland in the heart of Edinburgh. Feat over 200 works, stunning installations, drawings, photographs, films, sketchbooks and archival items dating back to the mid-1970s

Important new piece by Indigenous scholars—including ecologists @1nativesoilnerd.bsky.social and @niiyokamigaabaw.bsky.social (who is here at #ESA2025 this week)—who set out eight steps to stop marginalization in academia and to enable a shared Indigenous agenda in science.

I'm a climate realist (as opposed to, say, a climate "catastrophist"). But climate reality is getting really real. And in summer, it bites. [Annual days when temperatures exceeded 85°F, 80-84/20-24; Copernicus ERA5 data; Ronnkvist, Haskell-Craig, et al., via NYT].

“American Academy of Arts&Sciences reports 96.3% of humanities grads age 23-32 fully employed. Earnings in humanitiess comparable to social/life sciences, job satisfaction levels too. A serious mismatch bw actual employment for hum grads +general perception." www.mellon.org/voices/human...

If you heard that UW's storied Science Hall might get a long overdue refit, you heard right. Advanced planning is all I can report, but recent budget and donors mean it may get an upgrade. Now we need friends to invest in what's going on INSIDE the old red giant! cpd.fpm.wisc.edu/planning/sci...

Tom Lehrer was a staple in our household, as a child in the early 1970s. Then, radio silence. Lehrer: “Political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.” www.nytimes.com/2025/07/27/a...

BOTD Philip Seymour Hoffman!!!! MCCT5 (6)Capote (5)Almost Famous (4)Most Wanted Man (3)Magnolia (2)Late Quartet (1)Devil Knows More @david-rooney.bsky.social: www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie... @byclaytondavis.bsky.social: variety.com/lists/philip... Le Carré: www.nytimes.com/2014/07/20/m...

Those following the Tour de France may have only just learned, as I did, of the relatively recent deforestation of Mont Ventoux. The mountain has gone through successive waves of deforestation & reforestation over a few thousand years. phys.org/news/2017-01...

We at the Nelson Institute chose to retain commuter work flexibility after the pandemic. The analysis shows this resulted in environmental/carbon benefits and worker happiness yields ("WHY" - my newly invented metric) academic.oup.com/ieam/advance...

For those interested in probability, this recent study of online chess comfirms the relative possibility of long winning streaks (for a player with a large n number of games against typically weaker opponents). Worth a close look. hdsr.mitpress.mit.edu/pub/ex6vbavk...

Kestrel looking at you #birds

As a student of games, especially board games, I am struck by the total failure, over recent years, to properly gamify the intriguing struggles encapsulated in "Capital, Volume 1".

🧪 BREAKING (good news): Senate subcommittee says NO! to Trump's proposed slashes to NASA & NSF funding. Today, the subcommittee said to keep NASA + NSF funding at $33.9 billion, the same as in FY24. See 7:15 below. Full Senate appropriations committee meets tomorrow about it. 🧵 1/3

You may know geographer David Zurick from his amazing travelogues and explorations in Asia, but check out his new book of Great Lakes photography: "The Third Coast" Superior in winter! nupress.northwestern.edu/978081014867...

"Malaysia... effectively banned all shipments of plastic waste from the United States." www.nytimes.com/2025/07/01/c...

I feel seen.

Integrity to the end of a tale, including and especially a dark one, is essential to the art of storytelling. It is crucial if all the pieces lead down the same dark path. "Chinatown" is perfect in this way. Here's @midcenturycinema.bsky.social

Former Federal employees, especially those working in conservation, are keen to find new options. Sadly, with universities under seige, we can't easily absorb all of this truly remarkable talent. Bumpy days. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/20/u...

Mr. Fox: Where did you come from? Mr. Fox: What are you doing here? Mr. Fox: I don't think he speaks English or Latin Mr. Fox: Pensez-vous que l'hiver sera rude? Mr. Fox: I'm asking if he thinks we're in for a hard winter. Mr. Fox: What a beautiful creature. Mr. Fox: Wish him luck boys.

The 2025 "Forest and People" meeting in Aussois, hosted by Francois Libois and colleagues at CNRS and beyond, was GREAT. Filled me with hope for the future, and that is no small lift.

Alex (now age 9) has taken to reading this book from the (now dated) series "Gravity Falls", filled with ciphers, puzzles, and madness. The boy is basically reading a Cthulhu Mythos tome. I think it's great.

Attn grads in Geography, Enviro Sciences and Studies. My sense has long been that the study of (even basic) #EnvironmentalEconomics is critically important for untangling complex problems. I don't always agree with assumptions in these models but the rigor is impeccable. aae.wisc.edu/research/env...

"LSC was the nation’s first department of agricultural journalism ... and now we are the first to launch a PhD program in science communication." The end of an era in @uw-lsc.bsky.social. Huge thanks to @brossard.bsky.social for all her work positioning LSC at the very top of our field ...