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Joe Levy

@colddirt.bsky.social
1.1K followers 689 following 290 posts

permafrost & planetary geomorphologist, assoc. prof of Earth & Env. Geosciences @colgateuniv, linker of climate change to landscape evolution, ice storyteller

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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I know I’m supposed to mostly muse about drones & permafrost, but like everyone, I have been thinking a lot about AI lately. What strikes me most, & this is not an observation uniquely made by me, is the perversity with which we have invested our resources—what machines we’ve chosen to build and why
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
I, too, yearn to be hotter than a croc, cooler than a chicken. I mean, I know some pretty cool chickens.
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Maybe I’m cynical, but I can’t see announcements from AI companies as anything but marketing. Not enough pep in the stock? Share news about super tools that hack email. Worried about that Oct IPO? Suggest you need regulation & then blame the threat of regulation for poor profits & underperformance
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Happy fieldwork Friday! My team came upon some impassable chasms out in the Alvord Desert and needed to turn back. Actually, these are just mud cracks. I've been playing with macro photos of soils and sediments to better think about micro landscapes. Still a work in progress, but lots of fun! ⚒️🧪
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Paleoclimate peeps - come work with us at Colgate! apply.interfolio.com/188708 Review of applications starts Sept. 1.
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Happ #FieldworkFriday from the Alvord Desert playa in far southeastern Oregon! Hot work on the Alvord Hot Springs discharge plume during the day, followed by hanging out on the playa at sunset! ⚒️🧪
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
A little World Cup planetary science... If the Earth were the size of a soccer ball, 🌎 = ⚽ then the Moon would be the size of a tennis ball: 🌔 = 🎾 The Earth-Moon distance, 🌎 to 🌔, would be about 30 soccer balls: ⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽ or a little less than the width of the goal 🥅
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Love exploring climate change in the geological record? Want to teach about climate change with fabulous undergraduates? Yearning to advance your paleoclimate research in a supportive, scholarship-forward environment? Then come work with us at Colgate University! ⚒️🧪❄️🧪🌊🧪 apply.interfolio.com/188708
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Road salt? In my drinking water? If you live in central NY, the answer might be yes, and a lot of it. Read all about @colgate.edu Earth & Environmental Geosciences student Morgan Cecil's findings here bit.ly/hamiltonsali... - fresh out in Case Studies in the Environment. ⚒️🧪💧🧪❄️🧪
A graph showing sodium concentration from 1995 to 2025 for hour municipalities in central New York: Hamilton, Rome, Oneida, and Norwich. While Rome, Oneida, and Norwich are pretty low, less than 20 ppm, Hamilton's value is above 50 ppm and rising up to 100 ppm by the end of the graph.
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Happy #FieldworkFriday! Exploring lava tubes from above and below at Tabernacle Hill volcano outside of Fillmore, UT. 🥾🌋⚒️🧪
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
You know, we don't see the "before" part of this scene, but I think Stickman was probably provoking the rocks on the North Kaibab trail before they turned on him ⚒️🧪
A yellow rectangular reflective sign showing a black line drawing of a cliff face, rocks falling from the cliff face, and a stick person running away with one arm in the air and a spring in their step.
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
Today was a particularly effective day to teach about aeolian processes at Coral Pink Sand Dunes
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
An interesting (& maybe not quite right) read from Ezra Klein about AI and knowledge work. I agree with him that good media literacy would treat breathless news reports about AI's power and pending replacement of work as ad copy for AI companies. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/03/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | Why the A.I. Job Apocalypse (Probably) Won’t Happen
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
For all who are also deep in review of undergraduate student theses, I salute you. My students actually do get to practice Haiku Voice when we submit LPSC abstracts. The rest of the time, I push for Active Voice.
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
Happy Earth Day! I'm giving a talk on campus, the gist of which is that geoscientists don’t just care about the Earth for the Earth’s sake—we care about it because it’s our home and people who matter to us live on it. ⚒️🧪 h/t NASA’s Suomi NPP satellite for this stunner.
The disc of the Earth seen from the Suomi satellite. North America and central America are visible under swirling clouds. The ocean is light and dark blue while the land is green and brown.
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
Experiencing a little #moonjoy outside of the Ho Science Center @colgate.edu. A late evening on campus helping students put the finishing touches on their senior thesis presentations.
The crescent moon rises in a blue sky above the Ho Science Center building whose windows are illuminated in the dark.
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
Kind of weird to have an LPSC2027 save the date with no location. Is it in Texas again? Will abstracts that suggest broadening participation in planetary science is a good thing be discouraged again? If the answer to both is yes, I think my response might be, "When is DPS again?"
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
New Commission on Fine Arts renderings just dropped for the National Participation Trophy, er, #DCarch. Blank on left has a nice big frieze you can write whatever you like on. I recommend Times New Roman (the boringest font) and the Photoshop bevel effect. #monuments #DC #Architecture
Parody image of the proposed DC triumphal arch featuring a white stone arch with large golden figures on it. The text reads National Participation Trophy. Parody image of the proposed DC triumphal arch featuring a white stone arch with large golden figures on it. The frieze has a large blank area for writing your preferred message on the proposed arch.
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
Happy little mud cracks from the Alvord Desert playa at the end of a cracked-up week. #drones
A brown latticework of small mudcracks mades of irregular polygons with dark lines between the polygons.
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Spring is coming, change is coming. Audio on for peepers! 🐸
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
It feels like the subtext of recent reporting on long TSA lines is that it’s the Dem’s fault for holding firm on unmasking ICE agents and requiring judicial warrants for searches before agreeing to fund DHS. That reporting slant is just gross.
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
I have a joke about winter conditions in Antarctica, but it's kind of dark.
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
For my money, I think they'll find both more jokes and more receptive audiences when they head to AGU. #Geoscientists are a funny bunch and are usually a pretty receptive audience. A great talk is like an IgNobel prize winner: "first [it] makes you laugh, then [it] makes you think.”
nature.com
Knock knock, no one’s there. Study finds scientists’ jokes mostly fall flat
Survey examines how often academics attempt jokes during conference talks — and how these attempts at comedy land.
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
Hot new paper with cool results—using apparent thermal inertia to study permafrost and landforms in Antarctica’s McMurdo Dry Valleys. Come for the bedrock mapping, stay for the discovery of a possible new paleo-lake basin and channel spillway! ⚒️🧪❄️ doi.org/10.1080/1523...
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Central NY folks, DST got you down? Then mark your calendars to spring forward into science with the inaugural Science Pub at Lower Lake Brewery - April 2 at 7 pm. I'll be talking about road salt contamination of local water supplies & ecosystems. Come for a beverage, stay for science discussion! 🍺🧪
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
It seems like many of the industries that produce the most life support (farming, mining, caregiving) are also some of the most labor intensive and lowest margin. There's RoI if you automate a chip-fab or a iPhone plant. But is there the capital or the technology to automate real arduous labor?
nytimes.com
A World Where All Is Free? That’s Elon Musk’s Theory of ‘Sustainable Abundance.’
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
I guess they fired the graphics team at the Washington Post, too. That first icon is freestyle snowboard, right? Then cross country-skiing while angry, and Star Trek transporter accident.
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
Cold deserts are dominated by physical weathering, not chemical weathering, you say? Check out new work in @geosociety.bsky.social Bulletin showing evidence for aluminosilicate weathering in Antarctic #wetlands & #groundwater. doi.org/10.1130/B386... ⚒️🧪❄️🧪💧🧪 Starring @colgate.edu student scientists!
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
It looks like ~1,000 accepted abstracts for #LPSC2026, down from >2,000 in 2023 (typical range seems to be ~2,000 ± 300 or so). www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lps...
hou.usra.edu
LPSC 2026 - Lunar and Planetary Science Conference
We’re excited to announce that the 57th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) will take place March 16–20, 2026, at The Woodlands Waterway Marriott Hotel and Convention Center in The Woodlands...
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
I think my new definition for "mid-career" for #academics is the year that the cat you adopted in grad school and/or the dog you adopted as a postdoc reach the end of their days. This may be the real reason associate profs are so famously glum. It has been a rough few months for household mammals.
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
Go giant, slow-moving rocket, go!
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
The many faces of Crystal Geyser in Green River, UT. Spending some time with it this afternoon was a treat after a day in the Jurassic. ⚒️🧪
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
I generally think I have a pretty cool job as a geoscientist, explorer, and teacher, but I also think I will never be as cool (at least not in the eyes of my 12 year old kid) as whoever ends up with these gigs.
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
One of my students just submitted their LPSC abstract - # 1439 on deadline morning. Looks like it could be a very sparsely attended meeting. Anyone want to hang out not in TX and have censorship-free conversations about space & planetary science? We could ski & talk Mars here in central NY 🚀🪐🧪
media.tenor.com
a man wearing glasses stands in front of a blackboard with the words bueller written on it
ALT: a man wearing glasses stands in front of a blackboard with the words bueller written on it
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
Higher education #academicsky faculty folks, how does your institution handle faculty governance-related voting? In-person balloting? Do you get an email with a voting link? Sherds in a pot? Your elected faculty representative votes for you?
media.tenor.com
a kermit the frog is holding a sign that says vote .
ALT: a kermit the frog is holding a sign that says vote .
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
Good morning friends at #AGU! If you want to talk permafrost hydrology, drones, or remote sensing, drop by poster 0901 this morning from 10-12:30! #Cryosphere section by the hotdog stand. ⚒️🧪 #drones
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
I do love to see #font news gracing the NY Times. I've always felt that Garamond was the font of borrowed authority. It's on brand that "According to the State Department’s policies, other serif & sans serif typefaces including, Arial, Verdana, Garamond, & Courier, are still allowed on its website."
nytimes.com
Calibri’s Run-In With Rubio Wasn’t Its First Controversy
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
It's graduate school recommendation letter writing season again, & I have some amazing student scientists to send off into the world to help advance #geoscience research. For some reason, writing letters of recommendation always reminds me of this scene from #StarWars.
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
Why is watching snowfall so satisfying? Is there an evolutionary explanation? Does it flicker at the same rate as a campfire? You’d think we’d be adapted to seeing it as a hazard, not as the start to a cozy weekend.
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
Be cool like a Michigan elementary/middle sticker contest winner! Go vote! www.michigan.gov/sos/election...
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 01/11/2025
Particularly lovely braid bars in the emriver flume this morning for #SedimentSaturday and Family Weekend at @colgate.edu ⚒️🧪
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 19/10/2025
I am irrationally excited about this. 3rd-grade me took a stab at improving the zipper as part of a science fair project. Alternative take: zippers with tape are user-replaceable. Integrated zips might look and feel nice, but are Apple/JD-level user servicble. #design www.wired.com/story/the-zi...
wired.com
The Zipper Is Getting Its First Major Upgrade in 100 Years
By stripping away the fabric tape that’s held zippers together for a hundred years, Japanese clothing giant YKK is designing the future of seamless clothing.
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
One of my new favorite moments @colgate.edu was getting invited to judge a Fake Rock competition this week in the first year seminar “Fakes: Deception, Illusion, & Misdirection.” The course is all about illusions, art, and what counts as real. ⚒️🧪 🌎🎨
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
Oreos, cookies, and frosting in lab? It must be clay minerals day in Seds. ⚒️🧪
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
I think I figured out why my dataloggers stopped telemetering. The playa they were on decided to spend some more time as a lake. ⚒️🧪
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
Fun and games with #drone ortho-images. Here's three weeks or so of #Antarctic water track wetlands expanding during the '24-25 austral summer. The gif runs forwards then backwards to help spot change. You can see which way time's moving by looking at the shrinking snowbanks at right.
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
Wow, poster putty is a lot stronger in Europe than it is in the US.
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
It’s not “costs” and “savings,” @nytimes.com. It’s “forfeiting the revenue the government needs to its work” and “abandonment of the needy and the future.” Snuck in there is also expansion of a police state, of course. But it just ain’t “costs” and “savings.”
A bar graph showing elements of the GOO spending bill items in orange are labeled costs. Items in green are labeled savings.
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 29/06/2025
Putting together some #drone orthoimages from this past year's #Antarctic fieldwork. I noticed an oblique image in the set (all the mapping shots are nadir). Team dronie! Very RHPC: "And crawling on the planet's face, some insects called the human race. Lost in time and lost in space...and meaning."
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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
This is bad for those facing level 11 Awkward Ringlet Index warnings. And, also, for everyone. Be careful in the heat and humidity—it’s the most dangerous weather phenomenon. wapo.st/4lfEc0x
wapo.st
Maps show the cities about to experience extreme humidity and heat
Humidity will soon surge to extreme levels across 40 states. Find out where there will be excessive heat and humidity — and how humidity patterns are changing.
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