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.
Reposted by Joe Mason
If you haven’t been following it, it probably seems like the China stuff is all Trump, but it’s not. McCarthyism 2 was building in Congress for several years. I’ve testified in a House hearing that veered into China shit. This isn’t “another Trump overreach” or whatever - it’s fucking bipartisan
November 14, 2025 at 6:12 AM
If you haven’t been following it, it probably seems like the China stuff is all Trump, but it’s not. McCarthyism 2 was building in Congress for several years. I’ve testified in a House hearing that veered into China shit. This isn’t “another Trump overreach” or whatever - it’s fucking bipartisan
Reposted by Joe Mason
Many of academia’s most esteemed dumdums and goofuses spent the last calendar year trumpeting that Trump’s attacks on science undermine our competitiveness with China. Look what it got them. Thank you for participating willingly in McCarthyism 2. The American scientific experiment is now concluded
November 14, 2025 at 6:16 AM
Many of academia’s most esteemed dumdums and goofuses spent the last calendar year trumpeting that Trump’s attacks on science undermine our competitiveness with China. Look what it got them. Thank you for participating willingly in McCarthyism 2. The American scientific experiment is now concluded
Reposted by Joe Mason
Refinding joy in exploring streamflow data 😍 just looking at the stories gages tell about rivers.
Here’s the Allagash River (ME), 1980–2020. Each line: a year of daily flow (Jan–Dec). Colors show each day compared to normal: green ≈ normal, blue = high, red = low. 🌊💧
#Hydrology #DataViz #sciArt
Here’s the Allagash River (ME), 1980–2020. Each line: a year of daily flow (Jan–Dec). Colors show each day compared to normal: green ≈ normal, blue = high, red = low. 🌊💧
#Hydrology #DataViz #sciArt
November 12, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Refinding joy in exploring streamflow data 😍 just looking at the stories gages tell about rivers.
Here’s the Allagash River (ME), 1980–2020. Each line: a year of daily flow (Jan–Dec). Colors show each day compared to normal: green ≈ normal, blue = high, red = low. 🌊💧
#Hydrology #DataViz #sciArt
Here’s the Allagash River (ME), 1980–2020. Each line: a year of daily flow (Jan–Dec). Colors show each day compared to normal: green ≈ normal, blue = high, red = low. 🌊💧
#Hydrology #DataViz #sciArt
Reposted by Joe Mason
During the height of the pandemic, Tyson used Palantir to predict Covid-19 infections among meatpacking workers down to a nearly exactly figure. But rather than using this data to increase worker protections, Tyson used it plan for labor shortages + plant closures
My latest for @sentientmedia.org
My latest for @sentientmedia.org
November 13, 2025 at 7:49 PM
During the height of the pandemic, Tyson used Palantir to predict Covid-19 infections among meatpacking workers down to a nearly exactly figure. But rather than using this data to increase worker protections, Tyson used it plan for labor shortages + plant closures
My latest for @sentientmedia.org
My latest for @sentientmedia.org
My generation.
(Library Mall, UW Madison, ca. 1970)
(Library Mall, UW Madison, ca. 1970)
November 14, 2025 at 2:46 AM
My generation.
(Library Mall, UW Madison, ca. 1970)
(Library Mall, UW Madison, ca. 1970)
Reposted by Joe Mason
The ex post facto bullshit would eliminate virtually all federal scientific funding.
“The prohibited activities would include joint research, co-authorship on papers, and advising a foreign graduate student or postdoctoral fellow. The language is retroactive, meaning any interactions during the previous 5 years could make a scientist ineligible for future federal funding.”
U.S. Congress considers sweeping ban on Chinese collaborations
Researchers speak out against proposal that would bar funding for U.S. scientists working with Chinese partners or training Chinese students
www.science.org
November 14, 2025 at 2:22 AM
The ex post facto bullshit would eliminate virtually all federal scientific funding.
If I had some connection of any kind to Harvard University, I might be embarrassed this week. Luckily, I'm entirely a land grant/regional comprehensive product.
November 14, 2025 at 2:26 AM
If I had some connection of any kind to Harvard University, I might be embarrassed this week. Luckily, I'm entirely a land grant/regional comprehensive product.
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.