David G Haskell

Eastern Forest playing cards are back in stock! Each card a different species, each suit a different sense. Art by Ellen Litwiller, micropoems on natural history by me. All my proceeds to enviro ed and conservation. Celebrating human play and forest biodiversity 💚

www.artofplay.com/products/eas...

Front page of NYT on September 22, 2025, with large top-of-page photo of a Charlie Kirk memorial service, and the lead page-one story on the same topic.

Front page of today's NYT, Oct 19, with no story about the nationwide protests, and a "below the fold" montage of two photos, and a link to a story on page 23.

Those with sharp eyes might detect a subtle difference in NYT play last month of an event in one city, w 100,000+ attendees, versus play this morning of some 2500+ events w many millions of attendees, in all 50 states.

See if you can spot it! /s

Then you can find today's story on p A23

Timeline cleanser 🐈

Also: 3. Why are they opening a new fossil fuel powered electricity plant upwind from my house, making me pay for the infrastructure upgrades via my electricity bil, and burning down the future for our kids?

Title page of a collection of animal stories by Henry Williamson: TARKA THE OTTER, SALAR THE SALMON, THE EPIC OF BROCK THE BADGER, CHAKCHEK THE PEREGRINE.

Today I am mostly thinking about the popular inter-war literary genre 'animal stories written by fascists'. Join me.

This had me on "ribbit."

Big night
#birdcast

'When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognize courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist,' the Norwegian Nobel Committee said as it announced Maria Corina Machado as the winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize

Lost Science: all the brilliant discoveries now no longer possible, at least under this regime. Deeply sad but vitally important coverage from @carlzimmer.com and colleagues @nytimes.com

Curiosity, wonder, and the desire to improve the world through knowledge will not be snuffed out.

Take down this horrible post .. a photo that's lying about the situation. Are you trying to stoke civil war or report the actual news?

Doors 10:30am, talk 11am Oda, 295 R 8th St, New York, NY 10009

Join me and Nick Dangerfield, founder of Oda oda.co Saturday morning.
Oda makes paper sculptures/speakers that bring live sound of regenerating Costa Rican forests to our ears. The project provides funding for forest stewardship.
We'll be talking about the joys and brokenness of sound in our worlds

Why on earth is this top headline on your website? Palestinian state was just recognized by major European countries... there are dozens of world-shaking news stories yet you continue to put this one story at the top of your page again and again and again. You are being owned

Great article -- this will really open a lot of people's eyes to these amazing creatures and the scientists who study them

This is one of the few migratory species. Most stay put. The species known as "wandering glider" goes all over the globe and individuals can sometimes move thousands of miles in their peregrinations

Ha! Yes, I'm excited about the book, but even more looking forward to the eruptions of real flowers next spring. "Beautiful mortals of the glowing earth" (J Clare)

Let's be like the dragonflies and try to get the rhythms of the living world into our bones and transmitted across the generations.

So, the complete migratory cycle unfolds over three generations and no individual dragonfly gets to experience the whole pulsing exploration of the continent. But they have the seasons and the geography of North America written deep into their physiology and nervous systems. 🧵...

When he gets to his southern destination, he'll do the same. Then, a non-migratory autumnal and winter generation will hatch and hang out in the deep south for the winter. It is their offspring that will make the northward journey in the spring. 🧵...

He's headed south, guided by internal sense of direction and the shape of the lands and waters. It was his parents that flew north from the Gulf Coast this spring. After making it to New England or Canada they bred then died. 🧵...

dragonfly on concrete. green head, bright blue abdomen

Somehow, somehow the knowledge of where to go and when to leave is encoded in the genes of the green darner dragonfly.
I found this one, a male judging from his neon blue abdomen, sitting on the concrete outside a store in a strip mall in Atlanta. He likely hatched in a pond in Quebec or NY 🧵...

I'm glad that my (necessarily poor and incomplete) interpretation of forest thoughts and their meanings was useful. Thank you!

Thank you!

This is an excellent point. In my limited experience the situation is especially bad at conferences where there are a lot of industry and government representatives, many of whom pass on the cost to their employers. I left one conference early after sneaking into my own session without a name tag..

It's unbelievable that he is still in. He's not hiding his incitement of racial violence any more. He also took a chainsaw to the foundational funding and institutions of American science, and did so gleefully even brandishing an actual chainsaw on stage as a demonstration of his destructive power

Wonderful! What a beautiful gathering

Delicious!

Yes, so many varieties! There are also lots of other wild grapes in the south that are inedible to humans but good for birds. For home use, finding a muscadine with a track record of deliciousness is the best strategy. So far, the ones I have planted have not produced edible fruit

White bowl with purple and green grapes

End-of-summer fruitfulness in the SE US...muscadines.
A more complex flavor than table grapes, more tannic, with layers of cardamom and warm hay. Aroma stronger than taste. Thicker skins to give a good bite, with stout seeds.
What's the gastronomic signal of seasonal transition where you are?

Just 3 weeks to submit your opposition to opening roadless areas...

🚨Journalism job alert🚨

We're hiring an investigative reporter to join my team at @wired.com. We're looking for someone who has both traditional and non-traditional reporting skills (coding/data work/OSINT, etc). Fit the bill? Come work with me! condenast.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/CondeCareers...