iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

They do know that “SI” is basically the metric system, right? … probably not actually.

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 it’s not news. Maybe it’s manipulation to paper over poor business strategy and smaller than anticipated economic impact. But if I’m wrong, no shade to our new robot overlords. People are cynical by nature. www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

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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 · 09/09/2026

Today was Oreo cookie clay minerals ... and this afternoon after labs let out, we're doing a Stratigraphic Sundaes social event (think cross-section puzzles, but with ice cream). If only there was a demo that involved fresh fruit or veggies (actually, fruit tomography demos are great)

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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 · 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

But he invokes Jevon's Paradox-favorite of geoscientists-which, based on coal as an example, says that the more efficiently a resource can be used, the more it is consumed (not the less). EK says that knowledge will be like coal-more efficient use means more demand for knowledge.

A line drawing of a Watt steam engine. The black and white ink drawing has large geared wheel, a oscillating arm, and several pistons, connected by a wooden T-shaped frame.

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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 · 22/03/2026

I thought most bikes already came with a burrito-holder as standard equipment.

A photograph of a bicycle's inner frame with a wrapped burrito in the water bottle holder.

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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 · 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 · 23/01/2026

I'm no fan of the Bored of Peace, but in fairness, realistic map projections have never been a strength of US government logos, even from organizations who should know better. Our planet just has a pesky amount of ocean on it.

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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 · 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 · 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 · 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 · 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 · 09/08/2025

I couldn’t resist looking at the gage data. The Vance family bump is a small plateau on Aug 2. So it’s smaller than rainstorm related pulses on the river. But still a classic example of ruling class humans who are used to exerting their will over people trying to also rule nature. Earth dissents.

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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 · 12/06/2025

Um, @nytimes.com, Leo IV, who was born in Rome in the year 790 CE, was probably not the first American pontiff. Numeracy (and Roman numeralcy) matters.

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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

Optimism is submitting new proposals to the 2025 NSF call for research projects requiring Antarctic fieldwork. Advocacy is reminding my senators’ offices that US scientists can’t be leaders in polar #geoscience without funding. Polar environmental change affects all Americans. #StandUpForScience

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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

Exploring Lava River Cave outside of Flagstaff with first and second year @colgate.edu Earth & Environmental #Geosciences students. It’s a truly amazing lava tube and a great bunch of inquisitive people to geologize with! 🧪⚒️

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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

Commercial satellite data hosted & distributed by the @polargeospatial.bsky.social has been a mainstay of my #NSFFunded research--letting us see a changing #cryosphere in near real time. The stoppage of NSF renewal funding hurts science, slows discovery, & makes us vulnerable to polar hazards.

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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

How do folks feel about this #datavis from @nytimes.com? Dark is high cloud cover; bright is low. I did a double-take when I saw it an was briefly excited to go look up--except I know it's cloudy in central NY where I am. Surely dark = low magnitude when you're mapping. Also dark = night sky?

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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

Come find fault with our students! I mean, come find faults *with* our students. Colgate Earth and Environmental Geosciences is seeking a Visiting Assistant Professor in Structural Geology. Review starts May 16. apply.interfolio.com/167020 NB: No interesting structures in the photo, just seds. 🧪⚒️

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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 13/04/2025

In a break from geoscience related content, we've got 6 new chicks scheduled to join our #backyardchicken flock next week. Crowd-sourcing excellently nerdy candidate chicken names. Thoughts?

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Joe Levy @colddirt.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

@colgate.edu student scientists rocked planetary research tonight at the #LPSC2025 poster session. Gully channel head formation initiated, mysteries of RSL unlocked, and Antarctic analogs explained! ⚒️🧪🚀

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