Claire G. Griffin
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polargriffin.bsky.social
Claire G. Griffin
@polargriffin.bsky.social
3.6K followers 2.1K following 640 posts
Asst Prof, Ex-pat Texan, biogeocheminist and arctic scientist, excited about organic matter and rivers. Water science, fluffy pet photos, #QueerinSTEM, and crafty things.
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polargriffin.bsky.social
Claire G. Griffin @polargriffin.bsky.social · Feb 24
I have been making a playlist of Fresh Water Songs for my Hydrology class, with some help from friends. It's pretty great! Please enjoy.

open.spotify.com/playlist/7jl...
Fresh Water Songs
Playlist · cofertest · 70 items · 8 saves
open.spotify.com
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
debkrol.bsky.social
#klamathriver a year after the final dam removal: lots of fish, recovering health. www.azcentral.com/story/news/l...
A year after the last dam was removed, Klamath River has 'come alive' with salmon
As the Klamath River continues healing from 100 years of mismanagement, tribes and environmentalists must deal with funding cuts and policy changes.
www.azcentral.com
October 10, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
chasingray.bsky.social
If you're curious about how I got into aviation (or seek assurance that I really do have an aviation background), (yes, some folks continue to suggest my high-time pilot husband is the person who really writes this stuff) (sigh), here's a new profile from @adn.com. /1 www.adn.com/arts/books/2...
Author and pilot Colleen Mondor continues to shine a light on Alaska’s aviation industry
Mondor’s email newsletter Probable Cause covers a range of aviation-related subjects, with accidents a particular focus.
www.adn.com
December 4, 2025 at 5:37 PM
polargriffin.bsky.social
Genuinely sad about Claude! Cal Academy is one of my favorite museum/aquariums and Claude was a delight to see whenever I was in SF
calacademy.bsky.social California Academy of Sciences @calacademy.bsky.social · 2d
It's with heavy hearts that we share that Claude, our beloved albino alligator, has passed away at the age of 30. Claude brought joy to millions of people at the Academy and across the world during his 17 year tenure. We will miss him dearly. 🤍
Claude, an American alligator with albinism, lounging on his favorite heated rock.
December 3, 2025 at 2:24 AM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
bakerdphd.bsky.social
Article title: The NYT wrote more about Harvard last year than all community colleges combined

I posted three main figure from the article below

www.vox.com/2014/7/23/59...
Line graph of the ny times mentions of Princeton, Yale, Harvard, and the literal words "community college" which shows that each of those institutions was talked about more than all community colleges. Data goes from 1860 to 2010. Community colleges are basically never mentioned until the 1960s and then plateau at around. 5% of total articles by 1980 (and that continues until 2010). Princeton, Yale, and Harvard start above 0 but before. 5% in the late 1800s but soon jump to vertebrae 1 and 2.5%, generally moving together until WWII when Harvard moves to being the most cited at 2 to 2.5% while Princeton and Yale continue to move together around 1.5 to 1%.
December 3, 2025 at 1:23 AM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
donmoyn.bsky.social
3. This would create just a unending flow of zero-value paperwork, amidst a culture of fear. Just all the best aspects of the USSR in one neat package.
cantb.bsky.social Brendan Cantwell @cantb.bsky.social · 3d
TX Tech has a flow chat for guidance on what can be taught in the university system. Two things:
1. Very little content seems to be permitted. This is partisan control of the curriculum.
2. I would not enjoy teaching under these conditions, but I really would not want to be a Chair or Dean.
Flow chart from TX Tech memo showing that most class materials must be reviewed by chair, dean, and provost, and that all curricular material must be disclosed
December 2, 2025 at 12:43 AM
polargriffin.bsky.social
Nightmare of a flowchart.
cantb.bsky.social Brendan Cantwell @cantb.bsky.social · 3d
TX Tech has a flow chat for guidance on what can be taught in the university system. Two things:
1. Very little content seems to be permitted. This is partisan control of the curriculum.
2. I would not enjoy teaching under these conditions, but I really would not want to be a Chair or Dean.
Flow chart from TX Tech memo showing that most class materials must be reviewed by chair, dean, and provost, and that all curricular material must be disclosed
December 2, 2025 at 12:48 AM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
abegoldfarb.bsky.social
when someone tells me not to use em dashes because AI uses em dashes
Scene from OFFICE SPACE with Michael Bolton replying to Samir Nagheenanajar: “No way. Why should I change? He's the one who sucks.”
November 30, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
tressiemcphd.bsky.social
I have come to the idea that we have to collectively, brutally, ritualistically kill Target just to show capital that we truly aren’t fucking around.
December 1, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
nycsouthpaw.bsky.social
This is murder. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a spoken directive, according to two people with direct knowledge of the operation. "The order was to kill everybody," one of them said. A missile screamed off the Trinidad coast, striking the vessel and igniting a blaze from bow to stern. For minutes, commanders watched the boat burning on a live drone feed. As the smoke cleared, they got a jolt: Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck. The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack - the opening salvo in the Trump administration's war on suspected drug traffickers in the Western Hemisphere — ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth's instructions, two people familiar with the matter said. The two men were blown apart in the water.
November 28, 2025 at 6:16 PM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
jesbattis.bsky.social
Universities are assembling larger and larger teams to deal with academic integrity issues--mostly focused on AI--while simultaneously holding AI "writing" contests, AI-themed events, "hey, come play with these fun tools!" The messages are so mixed, it's criminal. Because AI is bloated with money.
November 28, 2025 at 10:36 PM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
carnage4life.bsky.social
Elon Musk and the Trump administration gleefully shutting down USAID “has already caused the deaths of six hundred thousand people, two-thirds of them children.”

People throw around terms like genocide quite freely online but it’s hard to find other words to describe this level of man-made death.
USAID shutdown has led to hundreds of thousands of deaths | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
The Trump administration’s decision to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths from infectious diseases and malnutrition, accord...
hsph.harvard.edu
November 28, 2025 at 11:24 AM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
sanho.bsky.social
“Gawande noted that the toll will continue to grow and may go unseen because it can take months or years for people to die from lack of treatments or vaccine-preventable illnesses—and because deaths are scattered.“
November 27, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
zacklabe.com
Nearly the entire Canadian Arctic Archipelago recorded temperatures warmer than 5°C above the 1981-2010 baseline in October 2025. And as I shared yesterday, sea ice in the Baffin Bay is currently a record low for the date... Hudson Bay too (I'll share that next).

Data from doi.org/10.24381/cds...
Regional map of the Canadian Arctic showing October 2025 temperature anomalies. Most areas are warmer than average. Anomalies are calculated to a 1981-2010 baseline with red being warmer than average, and blue being colder than average.
November 25, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
shawn1959.bsky.social
Public land grant universities with a mission to serve the residents of their respective states are the great economic equalizers. So of course Republicans and billionaires want to destroy them. 😖
November 23, 2025 at 6:04 PM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
alanallport.bsky.social
Really important to stress that the Crown Jewels of the US higher education system were never the Ivies or elite SLACs (other countries have equivalents of these) but the well-funded, large, cheap, and excellently staffed public state university systems bringing high quality education to the masses.
November 23, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
joolia.bsky.social
the nuzzi story is fun and all but at the center of it is the elevation of a man who has dedicated his life to making children catch preventable diseases to a position where he can enact harm at enormous scale
ddiamond.bsky.social Dan Diamond @ddiamond.bsky.social · 15d
CDC has overhauled its website to assert that “the claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim”
Autism and Vaccines QUESTIONS AND CONCERNS PAGE 2 OF 9 | ALL PAGES J For Everyone NOV. 19, 2025 KEY POINTS • The claim "vaccines do not cause autism" is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism. • Studies supporting a link have been ignored by health authorities. HHS Research on Plausible Biologic Mechanisms between Vaccines and Autism HHS will evaluate plausible biologic mechanisms between early childhood vaccinations and autism. Mechanisms for further investigation include the impacts of aluminum adjuvants, risks for certain children with mitochondrial disorders, harms of neuroinflammation, and more. * The header "Vaccines do not cause autism" has not been removed due to an agreement with the chair of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee that it would remain on the CDC website.
November 20, 2025 at 3:19 AM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
prideinstem.bsky.social
Happy International Day of LGBTQIA+ People In STEM!

How are you celebrating it?

#LGBTQSTEMDay #PrideInSTEM
The logo for LGBTQ+STEM Day, with the hashtags below and the date 18 of November, over a rainbow background
November 18, 2025 at 8:30 AM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
stephenbheard.bsky.social
Occasional reminder that if you're interested in the history and practice of scientific writing, and folks who give advice about scientific writing, I made a starter pack: go.bsky.app/TwZVnjU
November 18, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
stacescases2.bsky.social
Like some kind of grim Omen of things to come, #Hawaii ’s #Kilauea volcano just unleashed a MASSIVE WING SHAPED eruption with lava fountains soaring 1,500+ feet high
November 17, 2025 at 7:04 AM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
doktrock.bsky.social
⚒️🧪 Earth and Atmospheric Sciences (among other programs) to be eliminated at University of Nebraska-Lincoln #UNL. A tragedy all around. #Geosciences
ljelkins.bsky.social Dr. Lynne Elkins @ljelkins.bsky.social · 24d
They are really planning to go through with these cuts at Nebraska, despite recommendations not to. Unbelievable.

If you want to hire highly qualified, very successful earth and atmospheric sciences faculty in teaching and research, quite a few are probably looking for jobs for next year.
Final Budget Reduction Plan | Budget Process | Nebraska
budgetprocess.unl.edu
November 17, 2025 at 7:04 PM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
ljelkins.bsky.social
They are really planning to go through with these cuts at Nebraska, despite recommendations not to. Unbelievable.

If you want to hire highly qualified, very successful earth and atmospheric sciences faculty in teaching and research, quite a few are probably looking for jobs for next year.
Final Budget Reduction Plan | Budget Process | Nebraska
budgetprocess.unl.edu
November 10, 2025 at 11:19 PM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
donmoyn.bsky.social
Trump's campaign to kill an industry where America runs a massive trade surplus is succeeding
November 17, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
mikesacks.bsky.social
This whole piece is all the actual horribles on parade, and this one is just infuriating
April 7 Brian McEntire, Civil Rights Division: My goal was always to become an attorney in the Civil Rights Division. That was my dream. I ended up working a lot on fire department cases. In Cobb County, Ga., we got information that even though African Americans and whites were applying for positions at about an equal rate over the previous decade, 90 percent of the hires had been white and 10 percent had been African American. And we didn't quite understand why that was. So we did an investigation and found out that there was a credit check that was disproportionately knocking out African Americans, particularly for student loan debt. And when we asked them why they were doing that, their response was essentially, Well, if a firefighter is deeply in debt and he's fighting a fire, he might steal grandma's pearls. So we brought suit. In February, we got a note saying that the attorney general wanted us to withdraw the case. The next day, division leadership insisted that we put additional language in the notice of dismissal that implied it was all about reverse discrimination. I didn't know, quite frankly, if I could sign it. If I have to say what I argued before was illegal, then I could have been accused of misleading the court, which could have ended up with me being disciplined, sanctioned and my bar license revoked. So I did not sign it. My colleagues didn't sign it. They pulled us all into a room, and we were all prepared to get fired because none of us were going to sign. My boss signed a modified version of the notice of withdrawal on our behalf. We also had a racial-discrimination case involving the sole African American attorney working for the Mississippi State Senate, who, during the years she worked there, was paid less than half of what her similarly situated white colleagues were making. It was as clear-cut a case of disparate racial treatment you could find. The Senate stalled the case until Trump's appointees could come in and order our section to drop it. When you talk about the rule of law and treating people fairly and equally, that's obviously a slap in the face.
November 17, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
bakerdphd.bsky.social
Jim Ryan wrote a letter to UVA detailing his "resignation" and I'm gonna get some fresh tea before I read it because I feel pretty certain I'm gonna be filled with righteous anger by the end

I'll do a thread but here's the full letter provided by the chronicle

www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...
Jim Ryan letter
www.documentcloud.org
November 14, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
genandgenes.bsky.social
Are you located in the DC-Baltimore-Philadelphia-New York corridor?

Have you always wanted to have your very own 11 foot long papier-mâché hammerhead shark?

Now available for free!

Perfect for museums, community centers, or your living room!

Save this lovely creature from imminent destruction!
Picture of shark sculpture by MICA student Mayali Geyling. Picture of shark sculpture by MICA student Mayali Geyling.
November 14, 2025 at 7:41 PM