The New Twin Fossil Shock | Ember How the energy crises of the 2020s speed up the electric age

interesting piece about the similarities and differences between the energy shocks of the 2020s and those of the 1970s ember-energy.org/latest-insig...

the beauty and drama of this image, my gosh

discussing the last deglaciation (~20-10 ka) in my undergrad gen-ed climate course this week and want to incorporate more about the marine biosphere –– for example, what were effects of meltwater pulses (e.g., MWP-1a) on marine life? (besides the drowning of shallow-water corals from SL rise)

oh my

"The project isn't the deliverable. The project is the vehicle. The deliverable is the scientist that comes out the other end."

I encourage grad student advisors (and grad students) to read this. All the pithy hot takes miss the point, this is a breath of fresh air.

ergosphere.blog/posts/the-ma...

Maybe some are going to chatbots, but others (me 👋) have ditched most social media and are spending time doing things in the physical world w/ real people –– and I have several text threads w/ friends and others that are fun and engaging (and that don't need to be broadcast b/c come on who cares)

a wooden mortar and pestle for when we need to gently and carefully break up and disaggregate sediment samples (but don't want to break grains, since we do particle-size analysis later) –– mud samples especially turn into 'clods' as they dry out

beautiful day here 😎 –– did some spring cleanup of the moss between flagstone in our little backyard garden, which is basically removing the tiny debris that is covering the tiny plants –– it's either meditative or tedious depending on my mood

Opinion | Craigslist Made Me Rich. Giving the Money Away Is Easy.

my guess is that this particular ultra-wealthy person is an outlier –– it seems that most that get to this level of wealth have at least one component (likely multiple) of the 'Dark Triad' personality traits and are focused on wealth-as-power www.nytimes.com/2026/03/30/o...

we had a great turnout in our little town, was a beautiful sunny (if a bit cool) day –– definitely mostly middle-aged to Boomers but with some younger people too

only one counter-protester that I saw and then some college-aged bros thinking they are cool and edgy by being apathetic

the Cambrian units around here have a generally similar interbedded/interlaminated limestone-dolostone facies that Fred Read nicknamed 'ribbon rock' –– I've seen a variety where the yellow is beautifully laminated internally (sometimes w/ ripples) –– has been interpreted as tidal flat environment

I don't have any data to back this up, but ... (a great way to start, right?) ... I feel like students are submitting assignments as close as possible to the deadline more than they used to.

As if the stated deadline (e.g., 11:59pm in Canvas) is the "target" instead of simply sometime before then.

I just crunched the numbers for us (have had our EV almost one year) ... we are paying an average of $29/month to charge our car at home (at $0.16-0.17/kWh) ... cost for gasoline for the miles we typically drive per month would've been approximately double that (and obviously more than double now)

"In a bid to make sure a repeat of last year’s scandal does not happen, the competition's official Tossmaster, Kyle Mathews, has enlisted a specialist rock expert to help protect the championship's integrity."

Tossmaster! 🤩

I'm definitely not an expert in measurements from ice cores or the complexities of this type of ice, but this disclaimer in the Conclusions seems key:

"Palaeoclimate records from the Allan Hills BIA probably contain an interglacial preservation bias ..."

I'm probably overly cynical about it, but it seems these venture capitalist types aren't interested in building something that is has real value to the user and longevity –– they'll deploy the algorithms that get engagement (e.g., rage and controversy), rake in the ad $$$, and move on

Bluesky announces $100M Series B after CEO transition | TechCrunch The additional funds have been used to scale Bluesky's team, while the company continues to develop Bluesky's app and the underlying ATProto that powers it.

BlueSky is one of the few social media sites I'm still on at this point (and, even then, I don't engage much) –– maybe this leads to increasing enshitification and the demise of the platform and my mood is that if these tech companies fail and go under, oh well techcrunch.com/2026/03/19/b...

I sometimes think about how much and how hard I worked to deliver good instruction during that time ... and *everyone* I knew was doing that with their classes

Deglaciation of the Prudhoe Dome in northwestern Greenland in response to Holocene warming - Nature Geoscience The ~500-metre-thick Prudhoe Dome in northwestern Greenland completely deglaciated 7,000 years ago, highlighting the sensitivity of the ice sheet to mid-Holocene warming, according to luminescence and...

Prudhoe Dome, a 2,500 km^2 by 500 m thick ice cap in NW, Greenland, completely melted away and then regrew all within the Holocene 🤯 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

"Please reach out if you have any questions or need help"

the small % of students that do end up engaging with me end up saying 'Thanks, this was very helpful, I understand this better now!' –– yes, this is in fact my job, I'm not here to trick you

Poster showing our profile picture (stylized logo of Scientific Ocean Drilling) over a set of five photos: a thin section, a row of cores, a microbiology lab, an ice sheet, and the derrick of the ship at sunrise.

Hello BlueSky! We’re here to bring you the latest opportunities and news in U.S. scientific ocean drilling and amplify the work of our community and partners. This account is managed by the U.S. Scientific Ocean Drilling Coordination Office (SODCO).

My perspective on this (if anyone cares):

Just get it done. If a tool/app is used to help, fine (and your advice). If it's done manually, that's fine too. It doesn't matter. Get it done, declare victory, and move on.

I see students spend sooo much time/energy messing around, just do the thing!

or, the plan was to destroy it ... the billionaires who want to run the world know that they need to either control information, or at least make it inaccessible/unreliable ... maybe a cynical take, but I think these megalomaniacs are truly the worst of humanity

I'll write a blog post about this study when I get a chance. It was several years in the making and we learned a lot working on it.

Many thanks to co-authors, including @zzsylvester.bsky.social, as well as the reviewers and the associate editor for their contributions and ideas.

Photograph of a sediment core highlighting thin (<0.5 cm) silt to very fine sand beds. Tick marks on left side are each one millimeter. From Figure 3 of Varela et al. (2026).

Excited that this paper, led by former PhD student Natalia Varela (based on her dissertation), is now out!

We use the occurrence & characteristics of thin, silty turbidites from the Ross Sea to interpret Antarctic Bottom Water outflow since ~3.3 Ma.

agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

Many programs (like ours) allow students to transition from MS to PhD after a year if everything is going well. This provides the student an opportunity to really "feel" the various aspects of grad school, to come to an informed decision. Ask prospective advisors if their program does that. 2/2

My advice to undergraduates:

Do *not* sign on to a PhD just because it's a 'next step' and you don't know what else to do. A master's program is a much better option in that scenario. You can find out if you genuinely enjoy the endeavor and, if not, it's only 2 years and you get a great degree! 1/2

omg perfect, lol

I suppose it's a good moment to mention that the most neglected subdivision of sand is 'very fine' (63-125 µm)

so many people, including some sedimentologists, will just completely skip over 'very fine' and go from silt to 'fine' sand (125-250 µm)

don't forget about 'very fine' sand! 😁

excellent ... we need so much more of this, across generations, and from many genres/styles ... and if those songs already exist and I'm ignorant, I need to know about it!