Joe Mason
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moreorloess.bsky.social
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.
The battle was Tippecanoe. I should have known. HS named after William Henry Harrison.
February 11, 2026 at 12:43 AM
Reposted by Joe Mason
#route66 gas stations in Dwight, Odell, Normal, and Mt. Olive
February 10, 2026 at 11:26 PM
Reposted by Joe Mason
Like 75% of the US Olympic curlers are from Minnesota. A lot of them curl out of two clubs in Saint Paul, one club is in Frogtown, a neighborhood that has been very heavily targeted by ICE. These curlers are good neighbors.
US Olympic Curling Team member speaks out against ICE:

"I'm proud to represent Team USA. But we'd be remiss if we didn't mention what's going on in Minnesota and what a tough time it's been. What's happening is wrong. There's no shades of gray."
February 10, 2026 at 10:03 PM
Reposted by Joe Mason
US Olympic Curling Team member speaks out against ICE:

"I'm proud to represent Team USA. But we'd be remiss if we didn't mention what's going on in Minnesota and what a tough time it's been. What's happening is wrong. There's no shades of gray."
February 10, 2026 at 8:58 PM
I learned to read from a stack of old comic books someone left in a house we lived in when I was kindergarten. Or at least that's the story I was told, and I do remember the comics. Scrooge McDuck, Superman, and the Prisoner of Zenda, Classic Comics version.
Nancy By Ernie Bushmiller
April 18,1964
February 10, 2026 at 11:18 PM
Reposted by Joe Mason
Veteran Norwegian Woodcarver (1941)
4028 Queen Ave. S (Flescher)
Source: Hennepin County Library

Flescher, a native of Laikanger Sogn, Norway, is shown setting his mahogany wood carved model 7 foot ship with electric motor, 'The Midnight Sun,' out for a sail on Lake Harriet. See P38124-38128.
February 8, 2026 at 10:00 PM
Reposted by Joe Mason
Here is a talk I gave last week on glacier slip for the @igsoc.bsky.social Global Seminar Series. www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFY2...
4 Feb 2026 - Luke Zoet's "Examining How Glacial Slip Varies Across Different Bed Conditions"
YouTube video by International Glaciological Society
www.youtube.com
February 10, 2026 at 6:28 PM
Reposted by Joe Mason
SUPER excited to see this live in the world. In particular hugely admire this team's dedication to openness and transparency about methodology, code, assumptions.

Every tool has strengths and weaknesses, but sharing openly is how the whole community can improve. Big kudos @carbonplan.org
Today we’re launching Open Climate Risk, a fully open option for U.S. building-level climate risk data. It’s unique because it allows you to see not only risk scores, starting with wildfire, but also the complete underlying dataset, methods, and codebase. carbonplan.org/research/cli...
February 10, 2026 at 5:03 PM
When I walk around the Capitol Square I sometimes wonder if I can distinguish the vehicles of D and R legislators and staffers in the reserved spaces. Probably can't. It's some MAGA Republican driving that Prius down from northwestern Wisconsin to get the most from the mileage reimbursement.
February 10, 2026 at 4:03 PM
Reposted by Joe Mason
For decades, Kathy Jefferson Bancroft pushed agencies to see Owens Lake as a living place, not a technical problem.

Her work in California’s Owens Valley protected sacred sites and reframed water as something with memory, limits, and consequence.
Kathy Jefferson Bancroft, guardian of a stolen lake
In California’s interior, a long, straight aqueduct carries snowmelt south to a city that grew as if water were a birthright. Along the way it passes a valley that was once defined by water and…
news.mongabay.com
February 10, 2026 at 3:30 PM
Reposted by Joe Mason
I just saw that TP advertised their halftime show as "All-American Halftime Show". It was rather a "Minimal American Halftime Show".

Benito's was truly All-American, the other one was an embarrassment.
February 10, 2026 at 3:15 PM
Reposted by Joe Mason
I mostly am interested in how governments add administrative burdens on citizens. This is a case where the government allows private actors to add burdens. It comes from a sensible idea: "experience ratings." But an incentive to discourage layoffs has become an incentive to contest payments.
February 10, 2026 at 2:08 PM
Reposted by Joe Mason
If you want to try my tool, which currently is only working on windows, please take a look at my latest v1.0.0 release: github.com/morrismc/REM...

everything should be projected in UTM!
if you have any issues, please log them on GH!
#ClaudeCode
@opentopography.org
February 9, 2026 at 8:37 PM
Reposted by Joe Mason
opentopography.org/blog/new-pac...

the open topography tool requires a bit more python know how and I've been using it for years. But with some new coding tools out there now, I wanted to put together a GUI interface for making REMs, linked in next post
New package automates river relative elevation model (REM) generation | OpenTopography
opentopography.org
February 9, 2026 at 8:37 PM
Reposted by Joe Mason
Relative elevation models are both compelling visualizations of fluvial systems but also frankly useful for geologic mapping of terraces or quantifying zones of potential flood inundation. Several years ago Open Topography coded up an method for using python to make REMs (see below) 🧵
February 9, 2026 at 8:37 PM
Reposted by Joe Mason
Very cool paper. A journey through the rangelands of Latin America w those who live and make their livelihoods there.
New paper describing the current state of Latin American pastoralism, trying to provide a global view, with the support and participation of the Pastoraméricas network. Glad to have contributed to it, Greta Semplici being the main author.

doi.org/10.1111/jlca...
The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology | Wiley Online Library
Pastoralism worldwide faces a complex landscape of increased pressures and exclusion. Beyond ecological and economic challenges, pastoralists suffer eroding cultural identity, limited generational re...
doi.org
February 10, 2026 at 3:19 PM
Also, if you have kids who were briefly involved in the very small world of speedskating, you will have met a bunch of young people who went to the Olympics and their parents.
If you teach large gen ed classes at the University of Wisconsin you are sooner or later going to see that a past or present student is at the Olympics.
Uhhh. Yes. You can have the extension to (checks notes) COMPETE AT THE OLYMPICS www.nbclosangeles.com/olympics/202...
February 10, 2026 at 2:21 PM
If you teach large gen ed classes at the University of Wisconsin you are sooner or later going to see that a past or present student is at the Olympics.
February 10, 2026 at 2:16 PM
Reposted by Joe Mason
Someday, their names will live in infamy.
Trump Allies Near ‘Total Victory’ in Wiping Out U.S. Climate Regulation
www.nytimes.com
February 10, 2026 at 4:17 AM
This is the Wisconsin license plate you really want. Not the new blackout or yellow oleo plates. Go try out a nearby trail segment and then get one of these to support the Ice Age Trail Alliance. I see more of them every day.
February 10, 2026 at 3:54 AM
Reposted by Joe Mason
The Box Springs (L) and Fish Lake (R) SNOTEL stations in southern Utah have 9% and 3% of the 1991-2020 median snow water equivalent for this date. They've barely accumulated snow this winter; most of it has melted after short periods of accumulation. Several other stations in the region at 0-3%.
February 9, 2026 at 1:03 AM
Reposted by Joe Mason
Sunset over the rice paddies of Northern California 🌾🌅
February 10, 2026 at 2:35 AM
Reminds me that I've seen little tractors like this on vineyard slopes in Austria and Germany that look way too steep to drive equipment on at all. One was plowing, up and down the slope, I guess for a new planting. 🤷‍♂️
Advertisement for Renault N73 Vigneron tractor, built between 1960 and 1964. Diesel-powered, 1.4-liter engine, 20 hp.
February 10, 2026 at 2:24 AM
Ice on Chesapeake Bay and in Chincoteague Bay, 2/3/2026. Sentinel 2 image. Pocomoke City, Maryland, is near the center of the image. See the next post for zoomed in views.
February 10, 2026 at 2:09 AM
Reposted by Joe Mason
Scoop from @henry-redman.bsky.social, who has been in Western Wisconsin & Minneapolis all week: Twin Cities ICE presence extends into Wisconsin
wisconsinexaminer.com/2026/02/06/t...
Twin Cities ICE presence extends into Wisconsin • Wisconsin Examiner
ICE agents involved in the agency's surge into Minnesota have regularly crossed the border into nearby western Wisconsin communities.
wisconsinexaminer.com
February 6, 2026 at 2:47 PM