Earth Day Eve | University of Michigan Heritage Project How a handful of Michigan grad students launched the modern movement to save the Earth.

Happy Earth Day!

Always a good moment to remember that the incredible student-led "Teach-In on the Environment" was an important precursor to the first Earth Day. @umich.edu

heritage.umich.edu/stories/eart...

Touch grass = go read a book. Really. Read More Books!

Thanks to @joshrgreenberg.bsky.social and @commonplacejrnl.bsky.social for giving me space and @johngmarks.com for being first on deck. You should *definitely* read John's book.

the flu vaccine was literally invented by the US Department of War during WW2

heritage.umich.edu/stories/the-...

A poster showing a library worker shelving books, underneath the words "National Library Workers Day."

Today is #NationalLibraryWorkersDay! Part of #NationalLibraryWeek, this is a day to recognize and celebrate the hard work of library support staff and librarians. Are there library workers and librarians that have helped you, over the course of your reading life? www.librarything.com/tag/librarians

They're just little guys. You can look at them for free and you can look at them up close if you pay for Bird Premium (binoculars or camera). They're just doing behaviors. They will never email you.

Every Ann Arborite's goal is to get covered by the @annarborobserver.bsky.social - really appreciate the care that @drew-journalist93.bsky.social took in describing our work. And thrilled that it resonated with @ypsicity.bsky.social!

annarborobserver.com/tax-imbalance/

Motown girl group Martha and the Vandellas not only recorded an anthem for the civil rights era – they fought for fair pay and proudly called themselves divas Classic songs ‘Nowhere to Run’ and ‘Dancing in the Street’ captured the revolutionary spirit of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.

Wrote a piece about Martha and the Vandellas, civil rights, and their place in the history of Black women R&B groups. I also created a YouTube playlist (in the comments) with some of their hits

Trillium blooming in MI

Marsh Marigolds blooming in MI

White Trout Lily blooming in MI

Spring keeps springing. This morning at Furstenburg Park, that includes Trillium, Marsh Marigolds, and White Trout Lily.

Georgia O'Keeffe
Blue wave Maine
1926

One thing I want to say about American higher education is that I’ve never had an administrator or colleague tell me to dial it back even on the current moment. My baseline is just “leave me alone” but Michigan has been very supportive.

Cloths to make a thread

Back in 2020 we published a special issue of "Critical perspectives on AI in education" in Learning, Media & Technology - now we've got a call out for a follow-up that I hope really advances fresh forms of AIed critique @lmt-journal.bsky.social think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issu...

In the footsteps of Linnaeus: scientists share their passion for species from tiny wasps to hairy plants – in pictures For his project ‘De Oförtrutna’ (The Relentless), photographer Christer Björkman pictured Swedish scientists working in the spirit of Carl Linneaus, the botanist who created the modern taxonomic syste...

This is lovely:
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

#science #biology

An anthropomorphic piece of sliced bread and a bunch of red roses smiling, walking hand-in-hand. The slice of bread carries a red banner that says "We Want It All" Beneath the image it says Haymarket Books Est. 2001, Chicago IL

We want it all

New design collab with @harebrained.bsky.social

I'm all in for analog too, which is why I so excited to be teaching this summer at the UM Biological Station in Northern Michigan. This video of Marjorie Weber's UMBS class "Insights from Trees" gives a sense of what learning is like there.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNOB...

A male bluebird stands on top of a shepherds hook

Bluebird posting will continue until morale improves 🪶

I heard a reporter from Axios interviewed on NPR the other day (Marketplace Tech, I think) talking about how the tech companies are putting out new models every 6 months to 1 year and how each model is more "powerful" than the previous.

🧵>>

Franklinia, A Beautiful Extinct Tree I am repeating this story about Franklinia because it fits well with the discussions we are having about spring trees.

This amazing white flower is found on the Franklinia tree. Franklinia is beautiful and extinct. It can no longer be found in our forests to which it was once native. Read about it here, and let us know in the story comments if you have seen this tree. Story is open to everyone.

DESI Completes Planned 3D Map of the Universe and Continues Exploring The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) has completed its originally planned five-year mission and will continue.

An exciting astronomy milestone was hit last night, as DESI completed its original 5-year survey mapping 40 million galaxies in the night sky!

DESI continues operation, now aiming for an 8-year survey and ~60 million galaxies. 🔭🧪 #cosmology
newscenter.lbl.gov/2026/04/15/d...

A group of adults wearing jackets stand along the railing on the front deck of a large white research vessel named “W.G. Jackson.” The image promotes the Michigan Lakes and Streams Association 65th Annual Conference, titled “Renewing our Waters, Renewing our Promise,” taking place May 1–2, 2026, in Muskegon, Michigan, with a call to “Join Us” and registration information at mymlsa.org.

We'll be at the Michigan Lakes and Streams Association conference May 1-2... will you?

We'll have an informational booth! Many of us will be providing MiCorps Cooperative Lakes Monitoring Program training, and Dr. Jeremy Hartsock will be speaking about aquatic plants.

mymlsa.org/mlsa-events/...

Here's a direct link to the paper. eric.ed.gov?id=ED661566

Annaliese Paulson, Kevin Stange, and Allyson Flaster showed these "high enrollment despite lower majors" patterns nicely with College and Beyond II data.

scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=e...

The story of ed tech is a repeated loop of massive hype and massive disappointment

See MOOCs, and now AI

Evidence can interrupt this unproductive cycle

The Stanford SCALE Initiative, led by rock star Prof Susanna Loeb, brings evidence to the conversation scale.stanford.edu/sites/defaul...

Opinion | Just Because I Wrote This Doesn’t Mean I’ll Be On Your Panel About A.I.

Colson Whithead on how important it is to do "the freaking work." If you leave it to the gooch, you're cooked.

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/15/o...

Alright Gulf Coast, South Carolina, southern Oklahoma and Arkansas, it's go time for y'all now!

Start of the approximately 3 week long peak migration period

BirdCast is predicting we'll have 133 million birds above the continental US tonight and they're especially headed your way

Lights out!

Congratulations Gina! This is super cool, and I look forward to reading any book that might sprout up during this fellowship. 🌿🌾🍀

Remarkable tropical katydid, newly described 🧪

If you loved the lichen version shared below, how about hot pink? 🩷

@mongabay.com reports this species changes to a pastel pink & then to green, mimicking how many tree leaves develop in Panama, more details here: news.mongabay.com/short-articl...

Welcome home, Pippin! 🤍🟢
Our beloved Pippin has returned. Many will remember he departed last summer with something tangled around his foot. We feared the worst.

Pippin has returned to us with his right foot missing and a limp but otherwise appears well.

📸:Liam Francis Shanley

The United States is destroying itself | Rebecca Solnit The daily news can’t adequately convey the administration’s sabotaging of our government, economy, alliances and environment

Once again, Rebecca Solnit helps us to focus on important things.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...