Mike Urbancic
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urbancic.bsky.social
Mike Urbancic
@urbancic.bsky.social
1.4K followers 1.3K following 2.9K posts
teaching professor of economics, faculty unionist at the University of Oregon | pedagogy, astronomy, tabletop gaming, parodies, data visualization, maps, sundry | #TeachEcon #EconSky 📈📉 | alum UArizona & Berkeley Econ | he/him
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urbancic.bsky.social
Borders get tricky when the courses of rivers meander over time!

(Many such cases for state borders along the Mississippi River, for instance.)

I can certainly see how this might lead to misunderstandings. Hopefully nothing serious.
screenshot of a satellite view from Google Maps of the mouth of the Rio Grande and the international border between the United States and Mexico. The border follows the previous course of the river, which now flows a bit farther to the north. This leaves a sliver of sand on the southern bank of the river in U.S. territory.
November 20, 2025 at 11:47 PM
urbancic.bsky.social
50th anniversary celebration at Prince Pückler's this afternoon!
balloons and customers standing in line in front of the Eugene ice cream shop Prince Pückler's on a sunny afternoon
November 15, 2025 at 10:49 PM
urbancic.bsky.social
BOOOOOO!!!!!!!
screenshot of a weather forecast Time. Conditions. Temp. Feels Like. Precip. 9pm. rainy cloud icon. 51°F. 51°F. 45% 10pm cloudy icon. 50°F. 50°F. 10% 11pm. cloudy icon. 49°F. 49°F. 3%
November 12, 2025 at 4:54 AM
urbancic.bsky.social
CNN, my sibling in cyberspace, put down the AI and run in the opposite direction
Coming up in California: California voters will decide if they want to adopt a new congressional map. Democratic leaders hope will help their party win five more seats and help protect the party’s narrow majority in the House ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Polls close at 11 p.m. ET.
November 5, 2025 at 3:58 AM
urbancic.bsky.social
Armus has just endorsed Andrew Cuomo
The malevolent entity known as Armus from the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Skin of Evil" stands, looking like a human-shaped mass of dripping tar.
November 4, 2025 at 4:25 AM
urbancic.bsky.social
Barnaby's favorite night of the year!
a plastic skeleton seated with a blanket and bowl of candy on his lap on the front porch of a house. He's dressed in a gray United Academics of the University of Oregon T-shirt and black beanie with the logo of the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation, and is accompanied by smaller skeletons and skulls.
November 1, 2025 at 2:26 AM
urbancic.bsky.social
Amusingly, the Google search for "wooden barrel manufacturer" *wasn't* about Hundreds of Beavers, which I watched again tonight with ~20 college students.
title screen for the film Hundreds of Beavers projected on the screen of a darkened lecture hall
October 25, 2025 at 8:02 AM
urbancic.bsky.social
sexy wooden barrel manufacturer
A skeet from lacey @byelacey.bsky.social that says “your halloween costume is "sexy" + the last thing you google searched” “this year i'll be going as "sexy bus schedule"
October 25, 2025 at 7:51 AM
urbancic.bsky.social
One of my exams today included a question with this statement as one of its possible responses:

"The atomic number of the element berkelium is 97."

The exam was in a room with two very large periodic tables.

Still, it was so validating when a student stopped me to take a closer look at my shirt!
selfie of Mike Urbancic at Sy's Pizza in Eugene, Oregon, wearing a dark blue shirt with yellow lettering giving the periodic table entry for the element berkelium: chemical symbol: Bk atomic number 97 half life: 1400 years atomic weight: 247.07
October 22, 2025 at 9:10 PM
urbancic.bsky.social
This is Radiskull.

He and his buddy, Devil Doll, may kill you one by one--just for fun.

Or they might be in the mood to kick it and sing some tunes.

Neither of them are Nazis, nor are they doing Nazi things.
still of a Flash animation of Radiskull and Devil Doll from the early '00s. A large floating skull with lots of teeth, angry red eyes, a red headband, and purple, spiky hair in front of colored stylized lightning bolts. At the left, his small, horned, smiling companion Devil Doll seems to be dancing.
October 22, 2025 at 10:27 AM
urbancic.bsky.social
Eugene #NoKings
yellow sign held at a protest rally with the words: THERE ARE 4 LIGHTS with drawings of two lights on each side of the numeral 4.
October 18, 2025 at 9:58 PM
urbancic.bsky.social
Eugene #NoKings
cardboard sign held at a protest rally with the handwritten words in black marker: RESPECT EXISTENCE OR EXPECT RESISTANCE
October 18, 2025 at 9:55 PM
urbancic.bsky.social
Eugene #NoKings
poster board sign held aloft at a protest rally marching down a street. On a black background, in blue, white, and red letters in positions that evoke the flag of the United States the words: Immigrants! Fuck Yeah! Below are six colored patches in rainbow order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.
October 18, 2025 at 9:41 PM
urbancic.bsky.social
Last night I *finally* watched the Finnish film SISU (think John Wick period piece with Nazis and a different outcome for a key character), and one of the first things I saw at #NoKings in Eugene was this hoodie.

🤯
close-up photo of a blue hoodie with the word "Sisu" superimposed on a flag of Finland. over the hoodie the wearer is wearing a red jacket.
October 18, 2025 at 9:34 PM
urbancic.bsky.social
still from The Office of Pam when she says, "They're the same picture."
October 6, 2025 at 1:14 AM
urbancic.bsky.social
I *know* that I shouldn't lick the blade of the immersion blender.

But this chocolate frosting is SO. YUMMY.

😩
close-up.photo of the business end of an immersion blender with remnants of chocolate frosting in all of the hard-to-scrape nooks and crannies as well as the sharp, sharp blade.
October 5, 2025 at 5:27 AM
urbancic.bsky.social
trickle-down economics explained
photo of a Ransom Notes card with the prompt "How do you explain trickle-down economics?" with three responses of words on white magnets arranged on black metal trays: on the upper right: my boss collect treasure share maybe not crisis on the lower left: kill mean die ban kick destroy world is fantasy on the lower right: old man with soul disease grabs more
October 4, 2025 at 7:04 PM
urbancic.bsky.social
Light rain is a very authentic way to start the new academic year at the University of Oregon.

Good luck, everyone!
an overcast, rainy day at the northern end of Memorial Quad on the campus of the University of Oregon, including the large, yellow O logo on the south side of the Lillis Business Complex.
September 29, 2025 at 8:50 PM
urbancic.bsky.social
The Duck is going to have to fly pretty damn fast to get from the UO campus to Happy Valley in the next two hours.
selfie of The Oregon Duck and a short-haired Mike Urbancic wearing a NASA T-shirt with tree branches in the background.
September 27, 2025 at 9:30 PM
urbancic.bsky.social
zodiacal light!
photo of the night sky over a dark ridge that is sloping downward to the right. There is a diagonal, tall triangle of light starting from the ridge between a tree (further up the ridge and to the left) and a telescope dome (down the ridge and to the right. In terms of the background stars, the light starts at the ridge in Leo and sweeps up and to the right toward Jupiter (in Gemini). Zodiacal light is caused by sunlight shining off of interplanetary dust orbiting the Sun near the plane of the ecliptic.
September 27, 2025 at 12:55 PM
urbancic.bsky.social
Wellington Paranormal's Officer O'Leary at Sergeant Maaka's office looking disheveled, with orange grime in her face and uniform. She's looking at someone sideways, with a concerned expression.
September 25, 2025 at 10:44 PM
urbancic.bsky.social
Quite a crowd gathered to listen to @sanjanacurtis.bsky.social talk about the origins of elements!

(And the crowd is still growing.)
dozens of people sitting and listening to a presentation by Sanjana Curtis in the upper room of Claim 52 Brewing, with more folks standing at the periphery.
September 23, 2025 at 1:23 AM
urbancic.bsky.social
*Picard voice*

There are FOUR dryer balls!
close-up photo of four wool dryer balls resting together inside the white interior of a clothes dryer
September 21, 2025 at 7:14 PM
urbancic.bsky.social
idk, feels a bit personal after my layoff notification in June 🤔
photo of a television screen with an image from the end of a University of Oregon advertisement: We Make You Go above the large yellow O logo
September 20, 2025 at 8:26 PM
urbancic.bsky.social
UPDATE:
flag of New Hampshire--the state seal in the center of a dark blue field. The center circle of the seal has been replaced with a white circle with the symbol of a XOR logic gate, with text above and below so that it says "Live Free XOR Die".
September 18, 2025 at 7:58 PM