Rain finally comin’ down

Foreground: traditional pavement
Background: permeable pavers

I now find myself wishing I could have a bowl of chili with LBJ or grits with Carter.

This was an I-don’t-need-this, but-I’m-so-interested book purchase. And I have zero regrets.

Dinner with the President, by Alex Prud’homme

Fascinating research and stories about food, eating, and politics, with recipes included.

Glad w made it safely though! I hope the semester starts well for you.

LOL seeing this post from CMI after flying through DFW. A diverted Chicago flight is currently occupying the only gate.

Jellyfish Shut Down French Nuclear Power Plant

Discharge of warm water from cooling thermal power plants has negative impacts on aquatic ecosystems. Evidently these jellyfish have had enough and are going on offense. 🏭🪼
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/11/w...

Seattle infrastructure

After visiting the Johnny Cash Museum in Nashville earlier this summer, I wanted to read more about this fascinating man.

Cash: The Autobiography, by Johnny Cash

A beautiful glimpse into a rocky yet rewarding life.

When rain falls out of blue sky, there is magic

As the first architecture student in the Stillwell Research Group, he set the bar high. Big thanks to Adam Sibal and @hassaansci.bsky.social for mentoring Jordon in engineering research.

Monday's Illinois Summer Research Symposium marked the end of a quick 8 weeks working with Jordon Shropshire-Sands. He completed a great comparative analysis of traditional construction materials compared to bio-based materials in the context of sustainable supportive housing.

Nice rainy afternoon to finish a book I borrowed from the library a while ago.

River Jordan by Rachel Havrelock of @thefreshwaterlab.bsky.social

An interesting history of an important and contested river.

Well, not perfectly. It worked for a while but now I’m getting AI summaries again. It was fun to curse with purpose

Related, I’ve learned that if you insert an expletive in your search, it will suppress AI generated results. My tests with Google have confirmed.
“What’s wrong with my f-ing green beans” >> “What’s wrong with my green beans” AI spewing

Rarely do I read books right after they release. But this one was a date-night splurge that I enjoyed.

Is A River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social

A captivating account of global rivers.

Coastal trail mud flats
#EWRI2025

I’d guess separate and Bert’s beloved paper clips must have gone down the storm sewer to be “gone forever” and not at the WWTP eventually

Safe travels!

When students graduate from the Stillwell Research Group, we take selfies. It was such an honor to hood these wonderful researchers as new Ph.D. holders.

Congratulations, Dr. Nugent, Dr. Heydari, and Dr. Sibal!

Making Dishwashers Great Again?

Residential efficiency saves water, energy, and money over the lifetime of the appliance/fixture, as we showed in 2016: pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....

Efficiency is fiscally conservative and responsible. More perspective and quotes in this @nytimes.com piece: www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/c...

A little joyful thing while students take a final exam is looking around the room and recalling something about each one of them that gives me hope. The future is bright. 😎

Gorgeous day for Chicago Water Week

OMG Chex repping Champaign-Urbana!

I treasure this man's words and actions for the least of these and creation. May we continue to do such work. Rest in peace.

Between silence and shouting, grief and hope, doubt and faith. Death does not have the last word. Happy Easter. Christ is risen.

I feel this in my bones.

From our data collection, college students in residence halls can have some strange shower habits. The 45-minute shower at 2:00 AM is really something

Is smart water meter temporal resolution a limiting factor to residential water end-use classification? A quantitative experimental analysis - IOPscienceSearchopens in new tab Is smart water meter temporal resolution a limiting factor to residential water end-use classification? A quantitative experimental analysis, Heydari, Zahra, Cominola, Andrea, Stillwell, Ashlynn S

We've shown that:
- showers can be a large portion of residential water use: iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...
- young people have different shower behaviors: iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...
- hot water is a large energy use: iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...

in @iopp-environment.bsky.social

Honestly, folks, this showerhead rhetoric is tired. Showerheads are super easy to install; no need for a licensed plumber. You want a higher flow rate? Fine. You want to save water, energy, and money? Great! There are lots of showerheads on the market that will do the job. 🚿

We had lots of fun this morning hosting Girl Scouts at Abbott Power Plant for the 2025 Girl Power event
⚡️💡🔌🏭

Big thanks to students from the Stillwell Research Group and @arstillwell.bsky.social Stillwell Power Group for hosting hands-on STEM demos