Kathleen Sandusky

Nicely done!

Gratification to the survivors of daily damnations (end of title) Thanks to the clouds on fire, the burning sunset, and every diminishing as beautiful as time. Thanks to the moments that are not yours, the soft part of the world you are in when you tiptoe to your mother’s room, the unending seconds until you hear her snore because the lost lyrics of the living will always escape through the mouth. Thanks to the quietness she drew from the well of nights and bottled for you by dawn—for the lilacs, the roses, and the thorns blooming in your mouth. We pocket the heart until we know what to do with it. Nature introduces spring to us like visitors. Living and leaving, we multitask at our best. When you get home, stare around like it’s another man’s. Like this can be here, like that can be beautiful. Cigar this life and light it with the sun. Breathe this poem in. Own a spot on a cliff or an edge or somewhere that can carry a stamp of your body. Become. Open a book and see this trapped time I left for you to live all over.

Thank you Poetry Foundation for sharing this gorgeous “Poem of the Day” by Oladejo Abdullah Feranmi. I needed it. I highly recommend subscribing to this e-list for a daily balm against news horrors.

“Thanks to the clouds on fire, the burning sunset,
And every diminishing as beautiful as time.”

YouTube video by Association of American Universities Facilities and Administrative (F&A) Costs Explainer

A useful explainer for indirect costs 🧪 youtu.be/yxTDlFvkvio

The HPV vaccine prevents head and neck cancers in men, study suggests The new research underscores the importance of vaccination for both sexes, experts say.

It is very important in reducing the overall risk of HPV-related cancers in males by 54%- most of these would have been head-and-neck cancers, often in the throat. www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

Photo of a cutout paper ornament that reads “joy” with sparkle paint. In the middle of the “O” there is a photo of a toddler crying.

Our daycare workers had a twisted sense of humor. This is the craft my kid came home with at ~3yo. Took me several years to get over the working mom guilt and not feel a lump in my throat looking at it but now it gets a place of honor on the tree every year. My kid thinks it’s hilarious.

In early Jan 2020 I worked at an Ontario research institute where I shared news clips with our MD/PhDs. I always included clips from @helenbranswell.bsky.social, but I wasn’t sure if a virus in Wuhan was relevant. Lesson: always listen to Helen Branswell when she’s worried. (And yes I included it.)

Carnegie Mellon University announces free tuition for all students of families earning $75K or less Students whose families earn less than $75,000 will be able to attend Carnegie Mellon University tuition-free beginning next year.

Both new and returning undergraduate students are eligible for the new CMU Pathway Program, which university leaders announced Wednesday ahead of the Jan. 2 application deadline for undergraduate admissions.

Also, if you’ve gotten this far in my silly thread, maybe you’re curious to know what I’m doing in Pittsburgh. More to come, but next week I start a job at @carnegiemellon.bsky.social and I’m super excited to learn all things CMU! (For now, I’m trying to shake my Canadian spelling…)

That’s why I’m glad to be a monthly donor to Public Source, and chose this to be my first hello-world 👋 post from the city of bridges. 🌁

Now, more than ever, local journalism matters. As large outlets shutter, consolidate and get bought out by billionaires, it is city/regional outlets that bring accountability, often driving the early breaking news that counts, and shaping the early careers of our best journalists.

Ending my dormancy to share news & a shoutout to @publicsourcepa.bsky.social. Last year when my hubby @fritzroth.bsky.social floated a move to Pittsburgh I started my deep dive on all things Yinzer. It was Public Source’s guide that convinced me I could make this city my home. #localjournalism

All - Bluesky Directory A curated collection of all things relating to the Blue Sky social media platform.

Starter packs are genius, but I was surprised there wasn't a list of them for people to find.

So I built it:
blueskydirectory.com/starter-pack...

The website monitors the packs being shared and adds the ones it finds to the database.

Missed your stater pack? Message me and I'll get it added.

Here near the #pathoftotality I keep seeing cynical comments that media outlets are overhyping the #eclipse. But I love that people are excited about astronomy & science. This phenomenon is the sort of experience that will inspire career paths for future scientists and that’s nothing but fantastic.

Bluesky is now open. Science Twitter, here’s how to use it! The once-great science twitter is, depending on who you talk to, either dying or dead. Once a vibrant place for many discussions related to my fields of marine biology, ocean conservation, and publ…

Friends, I wrote up a quick guide to getting started on Bluesky for folks who are used to old Science Twitter.

Please share it with your folks who are joining. And please let me know if I missed anything or got anything wrong. 🧪

www.southernfriedscience.com/bluesky-is-n...

Portable steamers are the best cleaning tool ever invented. They aren’t expensive and they are fantastic for grout mildew and the icky sticky hairy clumps that collect in the vents beneath your fridge.

A poem by Danusha Laméris called SMALL KINDNESSES I've been thinking about the way, when you walk down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs to let you by. Or how strangers still say "bless you" when someone sneezes, a leftover from the Bubonic plague. "Don't die," we are saying. And sometimes, when you spill lemons from your grocery bag, someone else will help you pick them up. Mostly, we don't want to harm each other. We want to be handed our cup of coffee hot, and to say thank you to the person handing it. To smile at them and for them to smile back. For the waitress to call us honey when she sets down the bowl of clam chowder, and for the driver in the red pick-up truck to let us pass. We have so little of each other, now. So far from tribe and fire. Only these brief moments of exchange. What if they are the true dwelling of the holy, these fleeting temples we make together when we say, "Here, have my seat," "Go ahead-you first,» "I like your hat."

A small solace

Grey tabby cat sitting comfortably perched in a hammock attached to a cat gym.

Another social app, another cute cat photo….