Well, yes, you are correct that this sounds rude and anti-renter. What a jackass
Jonathan C Slaght
@jonathanslaght.com
Author: Tigers Between Empires (2025). Owls of the Eastern Ice (2020, Best Book per NYT/WSJ, PEN America winner, Nat Book Award longlist). Work: Regional Director Temperate Asia @wcs.org. Home: Mpls https://linktr.ee/jslaght
I'm excited about this but also a little worried. Experiences in Russia show success when several tigers are released at once - males & females - rather than one at a time (so that they can concurrently establish territories). 1/2
The Times of Central Asia@timesca.com · 3d agoLatest from our Stephen M. Bland Kazakhstan has released a tiger into the wild for the first time in more than 70 years, marking a major step toward restoring the species in the Ili River delta https://ow.ly/3ETK50ZvKjS #WildlifeConservation #TigerRestoration #Kazakhstan #EndangeredSpecies #Tigers
I think there is a First Amendment argument to be made here
The New Republic@newrepublic.com · 3d agoPresident Trump is banning students majoring in degrees that don’t make enough money from taking out college loans. Degrees for social work, art, religious studies, teaching aides, and music will be hit the hardest. trib.al/aaAEu6v
Good luck Ümit. 🥹 @jonathanslaght.com (who I am sure already knows all about this...but...🤷🏻♀️). qazinform.com/news/tiger-r...
Tiger returns to Kazakhstan's wild after more than 70 years
A female Amur tiger named Ümit was released into the wild at the Ile-Balkhash State Nature Reserve on July 31, marking the first return of a tiger to Kazakhstan's natural habitat in more than 70 years...
qazinform.com
it is International Owl Awareness Day! May you now be aware of the weird and wonderful Blakiston's fish owl! 🦉
nice piece at @pbs.org Nature by @wcs.org colleague Justine Alexander, about snow leopard conservation in Mongolia: www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/...
Nature did a short piece on our preprint about how LLMs will affect the practice of science; my more detailed thread is below.
Scientists using LLMs will ‘do more, less well’, modelling study predicts
Research suggests that the combination of incentives to publish and the use of large language models will lead to more papers, but they will be less refined.
nature.com
Carl T. Bergstrom@carlbergstrom.com · 2w ago1. We—@eduede.bsky.social, @mjcrockett.bsky.social, Kevin Gross, and I—have a new preprint on the arXiv today, based on ideas that emerged during an @sfiscience.bsky.social workshop in November 2024: The unintended consequences of large language models as a labor-augmenting technology in science.
some nice feedback on Tigers Between Empires from a reader today: "Just finished Tigers and I’m in that space I can’t quite define that I enter after reading a very, very good book"
just incredible to watch the US president take Iran's side when my state's water systems are under cyberattack
The easiest possible layup for a President at war with another country would be to explain that they are attacking us. Trump won't do that because he views Minnesota as a bigger enemy than Iran.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 6d agoTrump: "We heard in Minnesota there was a cyberattack and they blame it on Iran. I don't think so. I blame it on Minnesota because they're grossly incompetent. Iran's got bigger problems than worrying about Minnesota."
And here's one in Vienna (not Virginia!). Lots of sustainability related research at this university www.wu.ac.at/en/the-unive...
WU Launches “Journalist in Residence”
The WU Vienna University of Economics and Business is launching its first-ever “Journalist in Residence” program.
wu.ac.at
this is key to the findings: "the team [added] Spanish-language papers, papers from smaller journals[,] and samples from a museum in central Mexico" to English sources, doubling their dataset. So much info out there if people are willing to investigate non-English records!
Bethany Brookshire@beebrookshire.bsky.social · 6d agoDid you know North and South America used to have a sea between them? South America was the Australia of the early Miocene, marsupials and all. Then, they joined at the Isthmus of Panama. And mammals from the north flooded south. Uh oh... www.sciencenews.org/article/mamm...
nice opportunity (in Miami, FL, November 8-14, 2026) for journalists who cover science, environment, etc. Please share! Details + application here: ntbg.org/news/ntbg-en...
Apply for the National Tropical Botanical Garden's Environmental Journalism Program at The Kampong in Miami - National Tropical Botanical Garden
Offered in Miami, Florida November 8-14, 2026 The Hawai‘i-based National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG) is […]
ntbg.org
look, Panthera is great. But if you're reading a book about past and ongoing efforts by Wildlife Conservation Society to conserve Amur tigers, written by someone who works for WCS, and you want to donate money? Maybe Panthera (who does not work with Amurs at all) should not be your first thought
I don't think Iran has a solid understanding of domestic US politics if they are going after Minnesota to get to Trump www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/u...
U.S. Sees Iran as Likely Behind Cyberattack on Minnesota Water Systems
Investigators cautioned that the assessment was preliminary. There were no indications that any water supply had been rendered unsafe to drink.
nytimes.com
it's International Tiger Day! How about you pick up my book charting the remarkable recovery of Amur (Siberian) tigers in northeast Asia? It's got stinky biologists, harrowing adventure in the snow, & lots of tigers! @moonpalacebooks.bsky.social has signed copies: moonpalacebooks.com/item/f10yIDk...
Tigers Between Empires by Jonathan C Slaght | Moon Palace Books
A Best Book of the Year: Scientific American, The Minneapolis Star Tribune, CounterPunch, The Telegraph, BookPageA Chicago Tribune Most-Anticipated Book of the Season“Epic .
moonpalacebooks.com
any book list with the likes of Aldo Leopold, Jane Goodall, and Dan Flores is one I am proud to be on: bookstr.com/list/10-rema...
10 Remarkable Books by Conservationists and Wildlife Advocates
Discover ten nonfiction books by conservationists and wildlife advocates, featuring Jane Goodall, Theodore Roosevelt, and inspiring nature writing.
bookstr.com
at the moment I am juggling hundreds of nonfiction titles as a 2026 National Book Award for Nonfiction judge. What's one more book? Picked up Lily Brooks-Dalton's RUINS today solely due to @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social's endorsement on the back: "a stunning mystery... beautiful...highly recommended"
ash on our tent from wildfires, ten days ago on the edge of the Boundary Waters, Ely, Minnesota
hey @adamweymouth.bsky.social - LONE WOLF on the shelves at the International Wolf Center in Ely, Minnesota!
Check out this vertical. Our camera trap recently caught a jaguar’s near miss at an artificial watering hole in the Maya Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala. You may recall, as droughts intensify, the water has been placed to provide relief. Wildlife videos are a lucky byproduct.
I don’t get why so many of you think our president is in mental decline, all he’s doing is imposing new taxes on you, because he thinks he’s punishing Canada, for being on fire
Hey, Portland, just a reminder to get your tickets now for this incredible event. Marlon James is amazing and I can promise as the in-conversation partner a rollicking good time along with some great and serious conversation about James' new novel and career. www.powells.com/events/marlo...
Marlon James in Conversation With Jeff VanderMeer
The Legendary Independent Bookstore
powells.com
well, I never expected to be published in a Stanford journal, but the McKnight Foundation asked me write my thesis to the philanthropic world after the MN ICE surge: when there is an emergency, just... give money to people on the ground doing the actual work. as fast as possible. radical, I know.
Giving Can Be Simple (And During a Crisis, It Must Be) (SSIR)
When the village cannot wait, philanthropy must learn from community.
ssir.org
"Under the change, responsibility for investigating cases involving federal immigration officers would likely fall to Homeland Security Investigations, an arm of ICE, effectively leaving the agency to investigate itself, according to guidance circulated among F.B.I. and ICE agents."
Federal Agents Were Told FBI Will No Longer Investigate ICE Confrontations
Senior officials deny such a change is in the works, despite guidance shared with agents around the country in recent days.
nytimes.com
