Steve Paulson

Studying ecology, geology, economics, and related stuff. Can now be found at @[email protected] or @stevepaulson.bsky.social

[Washington Women's Soccer @UW_WSoccer]

One more sleep in Seattle.

[Jacob Shell @JacobAShell]

The number of books I've crossed paths that actually changed how I look at the world is very few. Spengler's Decline of the West might be the primary example of this for me.
I can think of lots of other books that were formative, maybe more formative -- but in these cases they were articulating back to me ideas that had already been put into my mind in advance via normal K-12 & college education. Caro's The Power Broker, Marx's Capital, Scott's Art of Not Being Governed. Spengler also isn't simply the opposite or inversion of those "encouraged" ideas (the way that, say, Evola is).

[Garry Hayes @geotripper]

Day 7 of our Pacific Northwest field studies found us in the Grand Coulees, incredible gorges carved in days or weeks by massive floods during the latest part of the ice ages.

[Garry Hayes @geotripper]

First day on the road, geology of the Pacific Northwest. Mt. Shasta and Lava Beds national monument.

[Paige Cornwell @pgcornwell]

I met a delightful group of Australians who just landed in Seattle for Friday’s World Cup match. 7 out of 8 are already very drunk. I told the slightly more sober one the sun doesn’t fully set until 10 p.m. I’ve never witnessed someone look at me with such wonder and also panic.

[Rep. Javier Mabrey @javier_mabrey]

Gov. Polis is vetoing our bill banning surveillance pricing, allowing corporations to keep using your personal data to set prices. We’ll be back next session. The question for the dems running to be our next governor is simple: will you sign it, or side with the companies using our data against us?

[C. Bradley Thompson @CBradleyThomps1]

I'm deeply saddened to learn about the tragic death of my dissertation advisor, Gordon S. Wood. Professor Wood was America's greatest historian of the American Revolution. Even though he was 92, he was still as intellectually active as he was when I met him 40 years ago. R.I.P.

[Mike Levin @MikeLevin]

This is really stupid, and it’s not getting enough attention.

The Trump administration is pulling a working $368 million ocean monitoring system out of the water, equipment taxpayers already bought, built, and sank into the deep ocean.

And they are doing it right when the oceans are behaving in ways that alarm the scientists who study them.

Record-breaking temperatures.

A system of Atlantic currents that may be lurching toward collapse.

The response?

Yank out the instruments and walk away.

That is not budgeting. That is smashing the gauges while the engine is on fire and calling it efficiency.

For what? The Trump administration dressed it up as a “nimbler approach” and “smart lifecycle management,” which is fancy nonsense for “we shut it off and hoped nobody would ask why.” There is no return-on-investment analysis. They cannot show taxpayers save a dime, because the gear is already paid for and the science it produces protects real money and real lives.

The kicker: the same people killing the monitors want to mine the deep sea for minerals. So they are destroying the only tools that could measure what that mining does. That is not an accident.

That is the point. You cannot see the damage if you break the instruments first.
https://t.co/MzE4AW1QBv

[Give A Shit About Nature @giveashitnature]

The United States has more than 90,000 dams on its rivers. Many of them no longer generate power, hold back floods, or serve a purpose at all. They just sit there, aging, holding the water back.

Take one out, and the ecological recovery can happen breathtakingly fast.

In 2024, the largest dam removal in American history finished on the Klamath River, where four dams came down along the Oregon-California line. Within days, Chinook salmon were pushing into water they hadn't reached in generations.

By the fall of 2025, they had climbed all the way into the upper basin, spawning in streams that had been sealed off for more than a hundred years.

Damon Goodman, a regional director for California Trout, put it plainly: the rivers "seem to come alive almost instantly after dam removal."

Maine's Penobscot tells the same story. After two dams came down, the river herring went from a few thousand fish a year into the millions, and with them came back the eagles, ospreys, and otters that live off the run.

A dam is one of the few environmental problems you can fix by subtraction. Take the wall away, and the river seems to remember what it was.

[Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz]

A book and a letter that changed my life. After I read The Geometry of Biological Time, I wrote to its author and asked if I could come work with him. His reply, scrawled in his characteristic magic marker, led to his becoming my most important mentor.

[Rami Elghandour @RamiElghandour]

I love Rutgers and it’s disappointing and heartbreaking to see it abandon its students and its ideals. My full statement.

[Utah Geological @utahgeological]

The latest Survey Notes is out! Explore the hidden depths of the Great Salt Lake through bathymetric lidar, discover Utah’s pozzolan deposits, and take a geological tour of iconic local filming locations. Read the full issue here–https://t.co/JmpYX12v8v
#utahgeology

[California Geological Survey @CAGeoSurvey]

NEW RELEASE! Sierra Nevada Earth Science Atlas

The Sierra Nevada Earth Science Atlas provides the most detailed geologic framework mapping of the Sierra Nevada that has ever been made.

https://t.co/yRn6CbXFyd

[Reem Ibrahim @ReemAmirIbrahim]

"Banning" social media for under-16s actually just means every single adult will be required to prove their age (probably through ID/ facial recognition) to use the majority of the internet.

This will not protect children, but it will pave the way for Digital ID.

[Grateful Dead @GratefulDead]

On this day in 1969, the Grateful Dead played the Avalon Ballroom with LA legends the Flying Burrito Brothers. Their run turned out to be the last rock shows held at the Avalon for nearly 35 years, closing out one of San Francisco's most storied venues without anyone fully knowing it at the time. Little did they know, Jerry Garcia stood mesmerized stage-side by pedal steel wizard Sneaky Pete Kleinow's revolutionary sound, sparking Garcia to grab his own steel guitar soon after and birth the New Riders of the Purple Sage.

[Nick Zentner @GeologyNick]

New lectures! 700 seats. Free and open to all. No tickets. Downtown Ellensburg, Washington, USA. 📷

[Jonathan Eisen @phylogenomics]

California quail - seen this AM at UC Davis. So fancy. So cute. And the California State Bird.

I keep posting such pics b/c (1) the world is a beautiful place at least some of the time and (2) everyone probably could use a little #NatureTherapy here and there.

[Erik Skopil @Erik_Skopil]

Since being snubbed on Tuesday, Etute has led Oregon to two wins, averaging 18.0 points and 11.0 rebounds, on 13-of-23 shooting, with five blocks.

Not one of the best 25 players in the league?

Doubtful.

[nikki mccann ramírez @NikkiMcR]

If having “a boat land there 500 years ago” isn’t a basis to claim ownership of the land boy do i have some news for the self proclaimed “Heritage Americans”

[Steve Paulson @stevepaulson]

@nyliberty @GoDucks continual 90+ DB noise is pretty annoying.

Maybe at least turn it off while the teams are playing.

And turn it down when they aren’t. We’d like to chat with our neighbors