Wandering Scientist

Pine marten

this is fascinating

Not going to get dragged into stupid internet fight about math education in CA

Please clap

NYT: A wise and deeply moving letter to the editor from a retired history teacher Liz Zucker.

“Ignorance is not bliss. It’s just ignorance.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/o...

can bad prose be sexually transmitted

My favorite was driving through Upper and Lower Wallop on a trip to the UK and driving past a sign for Wallop Defense Systems. Which is a real company.

I still giggle about it more than 20 years later

The Justice Department subpoenaed more than 20 doctors and hospitals that provide gender-related care to minors (including puberty suppressants, hormone therapy and surgeries) accusing them of having “mutilated children in the service of a warped ideology.” Trump had already issued a series of executive orders dismantling protections for trans people, banning them from military service and allowing open discrimination by federal workplaces. The subpoenas demanded patient information protected by privacy law. Barbara Schwabauer, Civil Rights Division: It’s one thing to say we’re no longer going to stand up for trans people in this administration, we’re not going to file briefs in support of them. But to affirmatively go after them? I could not in good conscience continue to be a part of that. These are teenagers.

Attorney Barbara Schwabauer explains her decision to leave the Justice Department's Office of Civil Rights rather than comply with a Trump administration order to subpoena the medical records of transgender teens

Honestly, the best part of getting older has been aging out of a lot of the bullshit directed at young women

Don't get me wrong, the condescending "wine mom" shit is annoying, too, but way less annoying than what I had to put up with as a young woman

I have never figured out how to explain to my make friends how shitty it felt to think some scientist I looked up to was interested in my ideas only to discover he was actually interested in my body

Folks, I did it. I made the Cooks Illustrated competing pear crisps, and then I made my friends judge them blind.

And it is a beautiful, touching story about family, identity, and the choices we make to look after those we love.

Check it out!

My mom has a set of these, too!

Finally, thinking about my daughters and their friends. I once thought it would be better for them but now I worry it will be worse

Everything my generation put up with to get a seat at the table to make things better for the next generation and yet here we still are "debating" the same things

I can reassure the New York Times that networks of mutual protection, and misogynist retaliation efforts that benefit abusive men at the expense of the young women they prey upon, are very much still intact post-Me Too.

Thinking most about all of the women who didn't get that

And now we're all living through and elite panic about how hard it is for men these days

We all deserve better

Also thinking about all of us who had to navigate bullshit like this to get the careers we want

Or if we couldn't get that at least a life we feel good about

I suspect she has recognized herself in these emails

Or maybe there were multiple women who recognize themselves because these men never do this sort of thing just once

Anyway, I am thinking of her today. I hope she got the career she wanted despite having to navigate this bullshit

The other reason of course is that I want people to still be able to buy the books I published! Here they all are: annorlundaenterprises.com/books/

I 100% agree! I loved these books and I am not just saying that because I published them. Getting to publish books I loved was such a privilege! My little publishing company is on hiatus, but one reason I don't shut down completely is that I harbor hopes of reopening some day, maybe when I retire

Just in the past 3 days, I happened to speak to an academic, a US politician and a former Biden official who had all received death threats and severe harassment from the MAGA movement. It's now a common experience. I am sorry MTG has to live through the same thing, but she can't be surprised

This is important context from Julie K. Brown.

With alt text.

The most #SanDiego of headlines.
@abc10news.bsky.social

You know that feeling when you're in the required anti-harassment training and then one of your coworkers asks a question and you realize you never want to be alone with him ever again?

Yeah. Having that feeling a lot this week

Apologies for the crap weather

It also really highlighted the tough academic job market. She thought both candidates were really great and from her description they both sounded great... but there's only one position (and one more candidate who will also probably be great)

My daughter wanted to call to talk about the guest chem lectures they had this week (her college is hiring) and she was so enthusiastic about the things they talked about... I am jealous! Maybe when I retire I will find a college that will let me audit classes

The cutest, tiniest little round-eared rabbit you have ever seen.

Timeline cleanse: Yesterday I was introduced to the teporingo (volcano rabbit) — it’s like a rabbit crossed with a pika and is only found on Popocatépetl and three of the other volcanoes near Mexico City: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcano...

Even funnier the Ken Starr does show up in the emails

It all would have been much easier if, as would have happened if we were remotely a serious country, it all ended with the Access Hollywood interview.

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM Kay Ryan The room is almost all elephant. Almost none of it isn't. Pretty much solid elephant. So there's no room to talk about it.

The room is
almost all
elephant.
Almost none
of it isn’t.
Pretty much
solid elephant.
So there’s no
room to talk
about it.

-Kay Ryan, “The Elephant in the Room”
#everynightapoem