Arwen Mohun

This is very enlightening. Musk's grandfather played a leading role in the Technocracy movement (cult might be a better word). Musk is apparently just playing out a family script, including giving his kids numbers instead of names. Technocratic thinking run amok.

Opinion | The Rise and Fall of Elon Musk His belief that liberal democracy has failed and that technologists should lead can be traced to the unusual life of his grandfather.

Excellent & disturbing Jill Lepore piece about the family origins of Musk’s ideas: www.nytimes.com/2025/04/04/o...

If you want to know more about risk perception and risk in history: 💙📚 #booksky

Plane crashes, pandemics, toxic spatulas. How do we live with so much risk? The world feels more menacing, even if it isn’t.

Put on my risk expert hat for this interview: www.vox.com/even-better/...

YouTube video by Sony Pictures Classics THE PENGUIN LESSONS | Official Trailer (2025)

Speaking of penguins: youtu.be/xdjEXNX1nSA highly recommended. The penguin deserves an Oscar.

I have tariffed
the penguins
that are on
Heard Island

and which
you were probably
assuming
did not export goods

forgive me
they were taking advantage of us
so cunning
and so cold

Visited the #AtlantaAquarium and lucked into a private tour of whale shark feeding. Reminded me of this moving book about why aquariums now emphasize conservation over spectacle (and why Atlanta doesn't have Orcas). 💙📚 #booksky

Today's theme: books as tools for coping with this terrible historical moment. 💙📚 #booksky #umpteenbooks

One of my favorite horse novels: I don't share Smiley's enthusiasm for thoroughbred racing but she makes a convincing case that she knows what both people and horses are thinking. 💙📚 #umpteenbooks #booksky 🐎

Spring is coming and I have horses on the brain.This one's chock a block full of interesting facts and stories. 💙📚 🐎 #umpteenbooks #booksky

You-know-who's confusion about transgenic mice reminds me of Stuart Little, E.B. White's charming story. Perhaps the first transgenic mouse? 💙📚 #umpteenbooks #booksky

A person in a mask holding a painting that says “hands off my transgenic mice”

At @standupforscience.bsky.social and the signs are statistically significantly excellent

My first podcast interview about American Imperialist: available on the New Books Network newbooksnetwork.com/american-imp...
💙📚 #booksky

Empires: past, present, and aspirational are on my mind. Maya Jasanoff's biography of Joseph Conrad insightfully connects past and present through the life of one man. 💙📚 #umpteenbooks #booksky

Speaking of parrots, here's another favorite animal book (with a historical perspective). De Waal had a front seat view of behavioralism's detrimental impacts, particularly on primate research. 💙📚 #booksky #umpteenbooks

Wish I lived closer. I'd bring Kaos, our grand old lady sun conure.

Archimedes, Merlin's owl companion says "there is no owl" when he closes his eyes and wants to be left alone--a catch phrase in the house I grew up in (and still relevant). 💙📚 #booksky #umpteenbooks #humananimalbooks

How about a very different humans and animals book? 💙📚 #booksky #umpteenbooks

A few favorite animals in human history books, starting with our closest relatives, primates. What are your favorites? 💙📚 #booksky #umpteenbooks

Listening to @theresthistory.bsky.social guys on Leopold II in the Congo Free State. Glad that I'm not the only one noticing parallels between Leopold and Donald Trump. My book about American complicity with Leopold might have come out a year too early, but seems very relevant now. 💙📚 #booksky

This series haunted my visit to Singapore. What if there were trapdoors to heaven and hell all over that squeaky clean city? 💙📚 #umpteenbooks #booksky

Winter's Tale makes me think of other books that use an element of magic or magic realism to make familiar places strange. This series is addictive 💙📚 #umpteenbooks #booksky

Loved it! Some of the imagery is unforgettable. Has haunted my imagination since the first time I went to New York and the Pine Barrens.

A different kind of winter book: 💙📚 #umpteenbooks #booksky

Another favorite winter book #umpteenbooks #booksky 💙📚

Trying again with winter themed books for the book challenge 💙📚 #booksky #umpteenbooks

In my happy place doing research at the U.S. National Archives yesterday. Oasis of calm and competence amidst the Trump/Elon induced government services crisis. Did notice heavy attention to preventing theft. Anything to do with classified docs in Mar Lago showers?

DR Congo: MSF adapts response as violence spreads in South Kivu MSF is exploring ways to scale up emergency response in Minova, Bukavu, and Uvira

Having written extensively about the historical roots of the current crisis in the Congo, this is particularly heartbreaking. Please do what you can to support relief efforts www.doctorswithoutborders.org/latest/dr-co...

submarine radar operator drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes in a sealed and submerged sub.

Meanwhile, the researcher part of my brain is underwater thinking about the sensory experience of serving on a WW II sub--eighty guys jammed in a pressure vessel, air thick with diesel, male sweat and anxiety, cigarettes, coffee and cooking odors.

Here's some California shoreline shots to go with Rachel Carson.