Joe Mason
@moreorloess.bsky.social
UW Madison Geography, opinions are mine. Geomorphology, soils, dunes, loess, in the Midwest, Great Plains, northern China. He/him. Living on Ho-Chunk lands.
I see Leonid Brezhnev is posting here from the grave, in French (Brejnev). Maybe Krouchtchev will join him.
November 13, 2025 at 9:34 PM
I see Leonid Brezhnev is posting here from the grave, in French (Brejnev). Maybe Krouchtchev will join him.
New analysis well-timed given the rogue wave hypothesis on the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
An 18-year dataset from the North Sea reveals that rogue waves are not freak accidents but particular products of ordinary swells stacking up—an insight that could make prediction possible
Dangerous Rogue Waves Aren’t Random—They’re Predictable
An 18-year dataset from the North Sea reveals that rogue waves are not freak accidents but particular products of ordinary swells stacking up—an insight that could make prediction possible
www.scientificamerican.com
November 13, 2025 at 2:14 PM
New analysis well-timed given the rogue wave hypothesis on the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
Speaking of this part of Colorado, Killing for Coal by Thomas Andrews is well worth reading, on organizing and strikes in the Colorado coal fields leading up to the Ludlow Massacre and the "Ten-Day War" that followed. The most interesting part of the story for me was how often the conditions of work
November 13, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Speaking of this part of Colorado, Killing for Coal by Thomas Andrews is well worth reading, on organizing and strikes in the Colorado coal fields leading up to the Ludlow Massacre and the "Ten-Day War" that followed. The most interesting part of the story for me was how often the conditions of work
Spanish Peaks, Colorado, from the Plains to the east. September 1979. Showed this during a lecture and it turned out a senior auditor in the class was from Trinidad (the city in Colorado, not the island) and talked about what it was like growing up there.
November 13, 2025 at 2:39 AM
Spanish Peaks, Colorado, from the Plains to the east. September 1979. Showed this during a lecture and it turned out a senior auditor in the class was from Trinidad (the city in Colorado, not the island) and talked about what it was like growing up there.
It really is one of the great mysteries why Microsoft never fixes things like this. And then there's the embedded images flying around Word docs...
Proposal: instead of pouring resources into AI, tech companies first figure out a way for people to be able to copy slides from one PowerPoint presentation to another without the formatting getting all fucked up
November 13, 2025 at 2:18 AM
It really is one of the great mysteries why Microsoft never fixes things like this. And then there's the embedded images flying around Word docs...
Reposted by Joe Mason
Proposal: instead of pouring resources into AI, tech companies first figure out a way for people to be able to copy slides from one PowerPoint presentation to another without the formatting getting all fucked up
November 11, 2025 at 8:35 PM
Proposal: instead of pouring resources into AI, tech companies first figure out a way for people to be able to copy slides from one PowerPoint presentation to another without the formatting getting all fucked up
Reposted by Joe Mason
people have been torturing themselves over "regards," "cheers," "very best," and whatever else to sign their emails when "DO NOT REPEAT THIS INSIGHT" has just been sitting there
November 13, 2025 at 12:44 AM
people have been torturing themselves over "regards," "cheers," "very best," and whatever else to sign their emails when "DO NOT REPEAT THIS INSIGHT" has just been sitting there
Reposted by Joe Mason
I think we need to ask how many Times higher-ups were acquainted with that island or a ranch in New Mexico or just his place in New York.
November 13, 2025 at 12:38 AM
I think we need to ask how many Times higher-ups were acquainted with that island or a ranch in New Mexico or just his place in New York.
So were all of the worst in elite academia and the tech world penpals with him? Can this bring down all of them at once?
November 13, 2025 at 12:03 AM
So were all of the worst in elite academia and the tech world penpals with him? Can this bring down all of them at once?
Reposted by Joe Mason
Today is a good day to remember, and to say, that the #MeToo movement was right, and was righteous, and has been vindicated over and over again. There was no overreach. There was no excess. There was no they-went-too-far.
So much work remains to be done.
So much work remains to be done.
November 12, 2025 at 11:16 PM
Today is a good day to remember, and to say, that the #MeToo movement was right, and was righteous, and has been vindicated over and over again. There was no overreach. There was no excess. There was no they-went-too-far.
So much work remains to be done.
So much work remains to be done.
Reposted by Joe Mason
EXCLUSIVE: Former University of Iowa professor Chris Jones has announced an exploratory committee for Secretary of Agriculture in Iowa, a major step toward running for office. @ninaelkadi.com reports:
EXCLUSIVE: Clean Water Advocate Chris Jones Takes Step Toward Iowa Agriculture Secretary Run
“I think we need to rethink agriculture,” the professor-turned-advocate tells Sentient.
buff.ly
November 12, 2025 at 11:15 PM
EXCLUSIVE: Former University of Iowa professor Chris Jones has announced an exploratory committee for Secretary of Agriculture in Iowa, a major step toward running for office. @ninaelkadi.com reports:
Reposted by Joe Mason
Even before I was a writer, I was always certain that if you could say the exact same thing in way that is more accessible and more engaging to read, you should. Scientists are also humans, so why wouldn't scientists want to enjoy reading manuscripts instead of slogging through them? Be the change!
Scientific writing and writing for the public are very different. As I do both, is that difference eroding for me? And if it is, is that good or bad?
Are my academic and non-academic writing styles converging? And would that be good?
I spent the first 25 years of my academic career writing scientific papers (and the grant proposals to fund them, of course). I never found that easy – although it got easier through time (and it c…
scientistseessquirrel.wordpress.com
November 12, 2025 at 9:08 PM
Even before I was a writer, I was always certain that if you could say the exact same thing in way that is more accessible and more engaging to read, you should. Scientists are also humans, so why wouldn't scientists want to enjoy reading manuscripts instead of slogging through them? Be the change!
Reposted by Joe Mason
Really wild how all these Harvard scientists and mathematics guys constantly talked about how Jeffrey Epstein was this brilliant, "misunderstood" man and then you read his emails and he's clearly a barely literate lecher, extremely easy to understand
November 12, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Really wild how all these Harvard scientists and mathematics guys constantly talked about how Jeffrey Epstein was this brilliant, "misunderstood" man and then you read his emails and he's clearly a barely literate lecher, extremely easy to understand
Reposted by Joe Mason
New #OpenAccess volume by Huiyi Wu and Mackenzie Cooley: "Knowing an Empire: Early Modern Chinese and Spanish Worlds in Dialogue" 🗺️
The book unveils how both empires developed comparable systems to gather, order, and wield knowledge about their local worlds.
🔗 bit.ly/3XqwYN
#HistSci #Sinology
The book unveils how both empires developed comparable systems to gather, order, and wield knowledge about their local worlds.
🔗 bit.ly/3XqwYN
#HistSci #Sinology
November 12, 2025 at 2:37 PM
New #OpenAccess volume by Huiyi Wu and Mackenzie Cooley: "Knowing an Empire: Early Modern Chinese and Spanish Worlds in Dialogue" 🗺️
The book unveils how both empires developed comparable systems to gather, order, and wield knowledge about their local worlds.
🔗 bit.ly/3XqwYN
#HistSci #Sinology
The book unveils how both empires developed comparable systems to gather, order, and wield knowledge about their local worlds.
🔗 bit.ly/3XqwYN
#HistSci #Sinology
A day full of totally unsurprising news.
November 12, 2025 at 6:00 PM
A day full of totally unsurprising news.
Really tempted to use that 30% off U of MN Press sale to get a book on "why the Kensington Rune Stone myth matters to American culture"
November 12, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Really tempted to use that 30% off U of MN Press sale to get a book on "why the Kensington Rune Stone myth matters to American culture"
I went outside and saw...clouds. It's okay, I'll just say it could never rival my memory of the northern lights blazing across the sky as my dad drove our VW microbus north toward The Pas, Manitoba, fifty-some years ago.
November 12, 2025 at 2:49 AM
I went outside and saw...clouds. It's okay, I'll just say it could never rival my memory of the northern lights blazing across the sky as my dad drove our VW microbus north toward The Pas, Manitoba, fifty-some years ago.
Nice big stabilized dunes just east of Oquawka on a Mississippi River terrace. Saw them on a North-Central GSA field trip I went on as an M.S. student. Met a lot of people working on Quaternary geology and geomorphology in the Midwest for the first time, including my future Ph.D. advisor.
November 12, 2025 at 1:09 AM
Nice big stabilized dunes just east of Oquawka on a Mississippi River terrace. Saw them on a North-Central GSA field trip I went on as an M.S. student. Met a lot of people working on Quaternary geology and geomorphology in the Midwest for the first time, including my future Ph.D. advisor.
Fields around two former meanders of the Dordogne River east of Sainte-Foy-la-Grande in southwestern France, in 1950 (left) and today. I walked that road along the river in 1975. I suspect the narrow fields perpendicular to the channels were gone by then, but of course I didn't know to check.
November 12, 2025 at 12:21 AM
Fields around two former meanders of the Dordogne River east of Sainte-Foy-la-Grande in southwestern France, in 1950 (left) and today. I walked that road along the river in 1975. I suspect the narrow fields perpendicular to the channels were gone by then, but of course I didn't know to check.
Our oaks look good this afternoon.
November 11, 2025 at 10:19 PM
Our oaks look good this afternoon.
Reposted by Joe Mason
"Produced water", brimming with salt + chemicals, rises with oil + gas, then gets shot back underground by injection wells. The contaminants it contains turn up in people's wells + on farmland.
It's happening more often @grist.org explores why:
grist.org/accountabili...
It's happening more often @grist.org explores why:
grist.org/accountabili...
Toxic wastewater from oil fields keeps pouring out of the ground. Oklahoma regulators failed to stop it.
Salt water laced with cancer-causing chemicals, a byproduct of oil and gas drilling, is spewing from Oklahoma oil wells.
grist.org
November 11, 2025 at 7:01 PM
"Produced water", brimming with salt + chemicals, rises with oil + gas, then gets shot back underground by injection wells. The contaminants it contains turn up in people's wells + on farmland.
It's happening more often @grist.org explores why:
grist.org/accountabili...
It's happening more often @grist.org explores why:
grist.org/accountabili...
Reposted by Joe Mason
NOAA cut funding for critical parts of the tsunami and earthquake detection system in Alaska, primarily in the Aleutians. I spoke to Wash Post about negative impacts. But, hey, what are the chances of a deadly tsunami being triggered in Alaska? (Gift article, not behind paywall) ⚒️ wapo.st/4qKvavQ
This lab is key for tracking deadly waves. Its sensors are about to go offline.
After NOAA cut funding to the lab that’s been monitoring seismic activity for more than 25 years, nine stations tracking tsunami-causing earthquakes for the agency will go offline by the end of the mo...
wapo.st
November 11, 2025 at 7:37 PM
NOAA cut funding for critical parts of the tsunami and earthquake detection system in Alaska, primarily in the Aleutians. I spoke to Wash Post about negative impacts. But, hey, what are the chances of a deadly tsunami being triggered in Alaska? (Gift article, not behind paywall) ⚒️ wapo.st/4qKvavQ
Reposted by Joe Mason
This event was critical in the decline of apple industry in Iowa which had been one of the top producing states in the country.
November 11th, 1940:
An Armistice Day storm raged across the Great Lakes Region and the Upper Midwest. A blizzard left 49 dead in Minnesota, and gales on Lake Michigan caused shipwrecks, resulting in another 59 deaths. Up to 17" of snow fell in Iowa.
An Armistice Day storm raged across the Great Lakes Region and the Upper Midwest. A blizzard left 49 dead in Minnesota, and gales on Lake Michigan caused shipwrecks, resulting in another 59 deaths. Up to 17" of snow fell in Iowa.
November 11, 2025 at 1:58 PM
This event was critical in the decline of apple industry in Iowa which had been one of the top producing states in the country.
Reposted by Joe Mason
Trump aims to ease EPA reporting rules on 'forever chemicals' - The Hill
thehill.com/policy/energ...
thehill.com/policy/energ...
thehill.com
November 11, 2025 at 3:25 AM
Trump aims to ease EPA reporting rules on 'forever chemicals' - The Hill
thehill.com/policy/energ...
thehill.com/policy/energ...