Darnold fumbling the ring right out of the box is a little on the nose.
Morgan Robertson
@morganrobertson.bsky.social
Geographer at UW-Madison. Political ecologist, policy nerd, plant noticer, union member, Iowan, 🔱. Wetlands restoration, ecology and history are my jam. Also Australia and roller derby. USEPA HQ alum 2004-07.
TIL that Bill Withers wrote "Lean On Me" about his experience of life growing up in a small, poor, polluted West Virginia coal mining town of Slab Fork. Gives the song a whole new vibe for me.
Bill Withers - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
another day guarding the river you can't go into twice. everyone keeps asking me if they can go into the river again. buddy, you aren't the same man.
It's like the "ideal" or modal person is non-disabled with no "pre-existing conditions", and everyone else is assigned a fractional (<1) value on the basis of their deviation from that "ideal". That's quite reminiscent of eugenicist logics.
Arrianna Marie Planey, PhD MA@arrianna-planey.bsky.social · 2d agoSo. This "underlying health conditions" / "pre-existing health conditions" framing is understandably upsetting b/c amid the COVID public health emergency, it became a way of discounting the morbidity or mortality of chronically ill & disabled people. The people behind MAHA leveraged this framing.
"When the first of August came round, the Professor realized he had pleasantly trifled away nearly two months at a task which should have taken little more than a week." -Willa Cather (from The Professor's House, 1925)
By Ursula K. Le Guin
Kat Kerlin@katkerlin.bsky.social · last wk.Some avocados are female in the morning and male in the afternoon, while others are on the opposite schedule. This helps them avoid self-pollination. How do they do it? A @ucdavis.bsky.social study explains. www.ucdavis.edu/food/news/st...
Adorno: “The premier demand upon all education is that Auschwitz not happen again. Every debate about the ideals of education is trivial and inconsequential compared to this single ideal: never again Auschwitz."
That was a fucking murder, Madison. You all saw it with your own eyes. I grew up in that neighborhood. I know how Madison thinks about itself. Show up, demand justice, and prove it true.
Could Excel be conscious? We surveyed more than Jan 1 1900 people to find out.
11. The issue with modern Star Trek is that it relies on the characters being moved by friendship and found family rather than duty to something bigger than themselves.
The anatomy of an AI-supported academic article is becoming more apparent. I desk reviewed ~70 manuscripts this week for our journal. Reckon 20ish had significant AI assistance. On top of hundreds of others recently I'm starting to see patterns. Are other editors are seeing the same or similar? 1/
Damn we packed black powder into film canisters, fit a fuse, wrapped duct tape around it, and drove Lubaroff’s ‘83 Omni through suburban neighborhoods at midnight blaring the Bond theme and throwing them lit out the window
Sam Wankman-Peed, CEO of FTXXX@f1ngerless.bsky.social · 3w agoevery boomer/gen x man I've met has told me about all the formative childhood experiences they've had goofing off with fireworks
Lyz Lenz’ “Men Yell At Me” blog is required reading this week — The Myth of the One Good Man, from 1969 to Platner. Fantastic historical context. I know you subscribe because I’d be very disappointed if you didn’t.
"They just want to turn it off." A fascinating story of the librarians who have started teaching classes showing people how to remove AI "features" from their phones and apps. www.bangordailynews.com/2026/07/02/m...
These Maine librarians are helping patrons resist AI and Big Tech
Despite breathless reporting on how AI is going to change the world, Hannah Cyrus, a Bangor librarian, said that, in her experience, most library patrons aren’t finding it helpful.
bangordailynews.com
Powerful read from Amy McQuire #NAIDOCWeek
One Nation is not new or unprecedented. It is a product of Queensland's specific brand of anti-Indigenous racism
Even weeds need specific conditions to grow, and it just so happens that One Nation thrives particularly well in the blood-soaked soil of Queensland.
blackwitness.com
The nice thing about booting candidates with nazi ink immediately is you get to skip the inevitable other disclosures that happen when you don’t. www.politico.com/news/2026/07...
Exclusive: Woman who dated Graham Platner says he sexually assaulted her
The Maine Democrat denied the allegations and said, “Any accusation of non-consensual behavior is categorically untrue.”
politico.com
I think this might be one of the most incredible, unsettling and symbolic photos of today’s America I’ve ever seen. I can’t stop looking at it. From Reuters, published on the Guardian website.
Extraordinary USDA short film from 1944 shows that the word “wetlands“ was in common usage at the time, and USDA had a very good estimate of wetlands acreage. What survey did they use? What metrics and what definitions?
Blue Screen of Beth.@porkchopie.bsky.social · last mo.Snooped around a little more because I like puzzles.
A kick-ass chart by Matt McLean in @sondreus.bsky.social's fantastic retrospective of 250 years of American power www.economist.com/interactive/...
Part of a thread, but this is the crux. AI editing programs don’t edit; they completely redraw based on statistical models that will introduce new details and alter what’s already there. Using them with archival images makes the photos useless as a historical resource.
Portland Streetcar History@pdx-streetcars.bsky.social · last mo.Firstly, AI models rarely "just add color." They redraw everything, using the original image as a base but also what the AI's model tells it a streetcar SHOULD look like. As a result, you get images where details have been altered so that the image is no longer an accurate historical record.
Really interesting take on the future of ecology in an AI world. The take home: experiments and long-term studies will have increasing value. @jdrakephd.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
AI, Comparative Advantage, and the Next Decade of Ecological Research
Click on the article title to read more.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
This clipping from April 26, 1945 is the earliest use of the modern sense of the word "wetland" I have yet found. Use as a film title indicates that it was already an accepted term, and their estimate of acreage is not bad at all. Does anyone know how I go about starting to find this film?
Technically, they’re Remains now.
Mark Chadbourn@chadbourn.bsky.social · last mo.A fifth of Leave voters have died.
