Ian Rose

I swear. I promise you. You don't want to know.

Go to sleep. Now. Do not read further. Turn off your phone. Throw it in the bay. Abandon modernity. Whatever it takes, Do. Not. Look.

Tree of Peace, Spark of War - JSTOR Daily The white pines of New England may have done more than any leaf of tea to kick off the American Revolution.

The first episode of the new Ken Burns American Revolution documentary gives a quick passing mention to the Pine Tree Riots. If you're curious about how New England white pines figured into the run up to the war, I wrote about it last year over at JSTOR Daily:

daily.jstor.org/tree-of-peac...

In my almost non-existent free time, now that it's cold and dark outside, I've been learning to edit Wikipedia on the subjects I know best. Mostly I'm fleshing out the pages on extinct vulture species, but I expect I'll branch out from there.

It's super addictive. Is this my video game now?

15,000 Km Flight: Meet ‘Marich’, The Vulture Who Travelled Across 4 Countries And Returned To India The European Griffon vulture ‘Marich’ took flight from Halali Dam in Vidisha has returned to India after an epic migration, covering Pakistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan before being spott...

Vultures are such impressive flyers. Meet Marich, the griffon vulture who went on a 15,000 km tour of southern and central Asia, only to return to Dholpor, India. All of this after rehab from an injury.

Rest up, Marich. Thanks for all the data.

#birds #vultures

zeenews.india.com/india/15000-...

I cannot blame any immigrant, documented or otherwise, for skipping any legal procedure right now. Why follow the law, if following the law gets you detained and deported? There is no winning, by design. There is no "right way".

Lane County advocates report at least 15 new ICE detentions Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained at least 15 people in Lane County on Wednesday, according to local advocates.

Enjoying your local Oregon wild mushrooms this fall?

15 people were taken by ICE in Lane County this Wednesday, including 5 at the BLM Springfield office, legally applying for permits to pick mushrooms and salal berries.

#oregon #pnw

www.klcc.org/politics-gov...

WATCH LIVE: Rep. Vindman holds news conference on Trump's 2019 call with MBS after Khashoggi murder Rep. Eugene Vindman, a Virginia Democrat, was a legal adviser to the National Security Council at the time of the phone call and said he reviewed a transcript of the call.

A group of 37 House Democrats is calling on the Trump administration to release the transcript of a call between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and President Donald Trump in 2019 following the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. https://to.pbs.org/4idxure

Remember, we're supposed to hate offshore wind because it ruins the view.

1) There is no legal basis on which such an executive order against state-level "AI" regulation could possibly be enforced. No state or institution should comply w/ this in advance. Many will, obviously, because every EO this man puts out is a set of marching orders for his cronies; but none should.

#Wisdom is back!
The world’s oldest known living banded bird, Mōlī (Laysan albatross) queen, has returned to Kuailhelani (Midway Atoll). #Birds

A headshot of the gorgeous King Vulture, Sarcoramphus papa, a mostly dark purple head with yellow bill, orange neck and a red eye ring. Photo credit: Instituto Últimos Refúgios, Creative Commons 4.0 license. More information: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Urubu-rei_%28Sarcoramphus_papa%29_-_King_Vulture.jpg

I just saw the King Vulture included on a clickbait listicle of the world's ugliest animals. I know it's not the worst thing that someone said today, but it is maybe the most straightforwardly wrong.

I'm not linking to it. I'll just put this here and judge anyone who believes it. #birds #vultures

Screenshot of Bluesky profile + Follow Elizabeth Weiss @eweissunburied.bsky.social 29 followers 16 following 18 posts Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at SJSU. National Association of Scholars Board Member. For science over superstition. Research, not reburial. Author of "On the Warpath: My Battles with Indians, Pretendians, and Woke Warriors"

Block this account.

This is a fascinating thread on how AI can reinforce delusions.

My tldr: It used to be hard for wingnuts to find support and validation for their unhinged conspiracy theories. Now AI gives them both instantly and that’s not great, Bob.

I can't express enough how much I don't want this to be my beat. I just want to write about cool science and neat animals. But here we are.

Conservation Leaders Unite to Oppose Steve Pearce BLM Nomination The Trump pick to lead the land management agency has ties to anti-government extremists

It would be hard to think of a worse choice for BLM director than Steve Pearce. If his oil industry ties and voting record weren't enough to disqualify him, his history of siding with violent extremists should be.

My latest for @sierramagazine.bsky.social :

www.sierraclub.org/sierra/conse...

Back in the day we could only achieve this by putting an incorrect tape into Teddy Ruxpiin, truly we have made great advances

I’m so old I remember when the Constitution had an emoluments clause.

Let me tell you about the other Epstein files the Trump administration is STILL HIDING — records that aren’t affected by the bill Congress passed today.

🙋🏻‍♀️ independent fact checker here!

Yes there are many freelance fact checkers and editors. But fact checking is not a priority for pubs. We were the first to be fired as the industry imploded

So there’s no desire to hire us, even independently

I work on books and am hired* paid directly by authors

Royal Society B cover with AI generated image of endocasts.

AI slop gracing the cover of Royal Society B. Not only in AI yellow but scientifically nonsensical. Come on. I'm certain human photographs and artworks were ignored to platform ... this.

Did you know that buying direct from publishers often means more royalties to an author? Don't sleep these University Press holiday sales ya'll!

These monsters never willingly give up power. They just maneuver around the crisis before coming back full circle.

I remember when we could barely get a radio tag on a large seabird. A 60 mg solar powered radio tag is ridiculous. Tech can be so amazing when we use it to understand the world, instead of just to sell ads.

You will not entertain your imposter syndrome today. Not today, and not in a world of Donald Trumps and RFK Jrs and Olivia Nuzzis. There are so many imposters, everywhere, in positions so far above their quality. You can do that thing, and should, if only to save us from all this actual mediocrity.

“she flamed out and faded away” is such funny framing for a woman publishing an excerpt of her book in vanity fair, where she also works. I wish I could flame out and fade away so successfully

a cartoon character is pointing at a chart that says disco record sales Alt: Disco Stu from the Simpsons is pointing at a chart that says disco record sales

10 points last week. 16 points this week. If these trends continue, aaayyy. Go Birds.

What are your top 5 movie genres? Mine are:

1) Extremely alien aliens
2) The real monsters are us
3) The real ghosts are generational trauma
4) Legal and journalistic competence porn
5) The villain kind of has a point

I live in a news-starved town where the college newspaper is definitely the best one we have, and I suspect that's true of a lot of college towns. The student journalists at The Crimson are a great example, and deserve all the recognition for their work, but they're not the only ones.