Michael Paul Nelson

😳

Best advice is to wear little bells, so the bears know you're coming, and carry bear spray. It also helps to be able to identify scat. Black bear scat has undigested bits of berries and twigs. Grizzly bear scat smells like bear spray and has little bells in it.

@brianandreas.bsky.social @storypeople.bsky.social

The last frontier of empathy: why we still struggle to see ourselves as animals | Megan Mayhew Bergman Champions of exceptionalism say humans hold a unique moral status. Yet there’s only one species recklessly destroying the planet it needs to survive

“We are nearly out of time…but not out of choices. The whale asks for more space. The river asks for standing. The tern asks for habitat and room. We can give it.”

Lovely piece!

www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

So glad, you and Johnny are definitely Number 1!

What is the most profitable industry in the world, this side of the law? Not oil, not IT, not pharma.

It's *scientific publishing*.

We call this the Drain of Scientific Publishing.

Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Background: doi.org/10.1162/qss_...

Thread @markhanson.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy 👇

Election Day, 1990 A tale of simpler times, and the poem I wrote about Trump when I was twelve.

“It still feels like something is chasing me, but nowadays, I walk alone.”

@sarahkendzior.bsky.social

sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/election-d...

Some, I hear, might even spend 75% of their time thinking about this, or contacting colleagues at other places, or reading about emigration, etc.

YouTube video by Eitoants P. 07 - Randy Newman - The World Isn't Fair

"He took a hard look around
He saw people were starving all over the place
While others were painting the town"

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FV9d...

Rainy day thought.
#poetry

Professors in a lot of places in the US feel under siege.

Watching the Oregon ash vanish - High Country News The emerald ash borer is killing the native tree. How do we make the most of the time while it’s still here?

“If we know something irrevocable has been set into motion — if we already know where the story begins and where it ends — what, then, do we do with the middle? With that space of possibility in between?”

Yes! In this space there’s a lot of work to do!

www.hcn.org/issues/57-10...

“But as long as we are alive, as long as we are resolved, as long as we are taking action to stop the worst of this, as long as we are trying to make America and the world even a bit better — have no doubt: We will triumph.”

The sacred American spaces desecrated by the American president The American faithful must find their voice if the divine American idea is to survive

There is no current writer whose wisdom and insight I respect more than @mollymckew.bsky.social’s. This piece beautifully sums up where we are, what we face, and how we shall prevail, and it has left me in tears:

Writer milestone!
I have a poem in a biology textbook!

I’m really delighted by this.
(Thanks to Margaret Riley and Princeton University Press for reaching out.)

Many Colleges Have Turned Down Trump’s Compact. Now Some Are Willing to Talk. The openness to talking to the White House points to the continued division in the sector about how best to interact with the Trump administration.

“The higher-education sector remains disorganized,” the "administration will continue to use that to their advantage.”
www.chronicle.com/article/many...

You mean someone would have paid me for this? Well, phuck! 😖
#NoKings

#nokings

#philosophersandothersensiblepeopleagainstkings

For no reason at all: I suggest you take time & watch footage from the Hong Kong democracy protests — specifically 2019-2020 protests. Get a sense of what tech-enabled anti-protest policing looks like. Those kids came up with wild stuff to withstand/neutralize “non-lethal” crowd control techniques.

Quote from THE LAST AMERICAN ROAD TRIP

Highly recommend this book!

YouTube video by thekingsarehere The Kings - This Beat Goes On/Switchin' to Glide

The only Kings I want in my country!

youtu.be/sxkjvKBPQjo?...

Sweden: The country 'prescribed' by doctors A cheeky new ad campaign claims that visiting the Nordic nation and embracing Swedish culture can improve your wellbeing – and it's turning to medical experts to make its case.

nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

Response to the ‘Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education’ | Office of the President

share.google/ziEXBOX9CEe5...

Right? Not even Doucheophales, Wankerphrates, or Pieceofcrapostotle were this bad!

The Arachne Project - YouTube A changing world and a changing vision of the role of humans in the world invite a radical reimagining of conservation. What emerging visions and values shou...

Last installment of short films from the Arachne Project. What a nice series!

www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

Book THEY KNEW published 2022

Go buy THEY KNEW. It holds up even in the stupidest situations. In fact, the stupider the situation, the better it holds up!

We have a cool new post-doc appointment available at Oregon State, with secure private foundation funding!

Help us help organizations who aspire to "nature-centrism" become more "nature-centric."

#naturecentrism #sustainability #conservation #ecocentrism

hr.oregonstate.edu/open-postdoc...

Ursula Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven