iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Golden Alexander, living up to its name (and buzzing with pollinators).

Many tall, flat clusters of bright yellow flowers

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

A bee doing its thing on a wild geranium.

A small bee on a small pinkish purple flower.

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Adolescent Robin (actually two of them) just recently fledged from a nest tucked above a downspout.

A young Robin with lots of spots on its feathers, among lots of greenery.

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

Phlox! Just getting established under a maple.

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

A wild geranium, with its wild leaves too.

A small purple flower surrounded by heavily divided green leaves.

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

A mighty collection of pear blossoms (we'll likely get a dozen actual pears from this tree, but it's sure pretty).

Many clusters of white flowers on a branch.

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

Wild ginger, unfolding its leaves! The original also given to me by a nun, a source of a surprising amount of my garden.

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Spring Beauties! Plus the popsicle stick I used to mark them. Another lovely native in my shade garden.

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

Virginia Bluebells, living their best life in this very wet spring.

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

Not everything in my garden is native, because I'm also a huge sucker for spring bulbs. I'm enjoying this daffodil ahead of a week of storms that will likely spell the end for it

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

Next up, a Celandine Poppy (no, not that Celandine, this one is native). I was gifted the original by a nun, and it has happily spread into various corners of my yard.

A small yellow flower above deeply divided green leaves

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

Everything is awful, so it's time for a Things In My Garden That Make Me Happy thread. Hope you enjoy it. Let's start with this Bloodroot, a native wildflower that volunteered in my (city!) shade garden. I think that's a sign that I'm doing it right.

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

This is at least one of the more amusing cybersecurity trainings I've ever done.

A pointer hovering over a link to reveal the address: http://www.russianmafia.ru/stealyourmoney/forgodssakedontclick/

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

The two most important parts of Thanksgiving cooking are in progress. (Don't judge my carmelized onions and I won't judge yours!)

A big pan of Chex mix on the left, a frying pan with carmelized onions on the right.

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

Shared with permission: It's quarter-zip fleece season here in the north. You can't quite see the khaki pants but they match too. I told him that we could have coordinated on the shirt color.

Me and a student both wearing a black quarter-zip fleece, khaki pants, glasses and hair parted the same way.

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 05/10/2025

Autumn Meadowhawk, enjoying this hot and extremely dry autumn. The critters in my garden are still bringing me joy.

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

This beauty, munching on my winter carrots, will apparently become an Eastern Swallowtail. I did not have the heart to move it. Fewer carrots for me, more for it.

A vividly striped black, yellow, and white caterpillar.

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

Today in delightful student comments (seriously).

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

Tree frog on plastic deck chair. These guys will do ANYTHING to avoid actually living in a tree.

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 20/09/2025

Something stripey on my New England Asters.

A small flying insect, yellow and black striped with a green head, on a pink flower.

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

On the flip side, here's today's requirements (from the same agency, different login!):

Create password
Your password must include:
• at least 14 characters
• at least 1 upper case letter
• at least 1 lower case letter
• at least 1 number
• at least 1 special character

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

Password requirements for a login I had to set up today. It just keeps getting worse the longer you look (yes, EXACTLY 8 characters in length).

Message(s):
• Enter a new password that is 8 characters in length
• Use letters, numbers or a combination of letters and numbers
• Do NOT use spaces or special characters
• Passwords are case sensitive
• Keep your password in a safe, secure place

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

There's lots to dislike about Blackboard, but here's my most petty complaint of the day: Blackboard literally doesn't allow dates with 4-digit years. You can ONLY enter 2-digit years.

A date text box with "9/17/2025" entered, and an error in red: "Enter a valid date format mm/dd/yy"

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 30/08/2025

Some kind of swallowtail butterfly on my milkweed... or the Weigela it's growing up through, hard to say.

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

Grand Rapids's flag, officially showing our famous Calder statue against the river, is almost universally known as the "bloody saber-tooth pac-man".

250

David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 25/08/2025

I was weeding the garden and this fella came up and buzzed ME before hanging out on the neighbor's bushes. Some kind of hummingbird, no clue about the details.

A tiny gray hummingbird perched on a branch.

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

A whole bunch of pollinators enjoying my goldenrod.

Close-up of goldenrod flower with several different types of bees crawling on it.

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

An "arrow clubtail" (dragonfly?) on my yellow rose. Zoom in to enjoy the wings.

A dragonfly perched on the top of a plant. It has a long spotted black body and four delicate wings.

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

Silver-spotted Skipper, according to Seek, on my cucumbers. A delightful name for a very flappy butterfly.

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

Green stink bug. *Shrug*. It's native and unfortunately, but aptly, named.

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

Blurry and distant, but: Goldfinches are back and feeding on my coneflowers! Truly a sign of late summer for me. Soon their highly demanding kids will be screeching for food too.

Goldfinch feeding on a purple coneflower.

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

Here's a mysterious (and not very clear) one. My corn tassels are covered in pollinators. Corn is wind, not insect, pollinated. These little guys never make it down to the silk, where the pollen needs to go. Does corn still produce nectar? I don't know.

Blurry photo of a bumblebee near a corn tassel.

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

Bumblebee on a cucumber flower.

Bumblebee inside a yellow cucumber flower, attached to a vine hanging over the side of a wooden garden box.

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

Another tree frog, this one on a corn leaf. They are surprisingly willing to live in non-trees.

Small green frog on a large strappy corn leaf, with some pollen from the corn tassel around it.

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

Monarch butterfly on coneflower

Monarch butterfly sitting on a pink coneflower petal with many other flowers and leaves around it.

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

Tiny tree frog on pepper plant.

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

I teach at a month-long math summer camp for middle schoolers. Among other things, I teach a coding theory class. The camp's "yearbook" just came out with a page that was labeled "Dr. Clark should decode this". So I present you with this minor puzzle. Enjoy. (You can copy from the alt-text)

A binary code:
01001110 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010
00100000 01100111 01101111 01101110 01101110
01100001 00100000 01100111 01101001 01110110
01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101
00100000 01110101 01110000 00101100 00100000
01101110 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010
00100000 01100111 01101111 01101110 01101110
01100001 00100000 01101100 01100101 01110100
00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000
01100100 01101111 01110111 01101110 00001010
01001110 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010
00100000 01100111 01101111 01101110 01101110
01100001 00100000 01110010 01110101 01101110
00100000 01100001 01110010 01101111 01110101
01101110 01100100 00100000 01100001 01101110
01100100 00100000 01100100 01100101 01110011
01100101 01110010 01110100 00100000 01111001
01101111 01110101

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 05/01/2025

I've never seen swans hanging out on a frozen lake before. I thought they migrated. They seemed happy.

Four swans sitting on the surface of a frozen lake.

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 10/10/2024

This guy and his friends distracted my Calc 2 class for a solid 5 minutes today. Clearly wanted to learn some applications of integration.

A pigeon sitting outside my classroom window.

030

David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 27/09/2024

Reading real analysis proofs. My students are making the shortest mathematical joke with remarkable frequency.

170

David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 27/09/2024

Dang, it's not actually animating! Or am I doing something wrong? Try #2:

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 27/09/2024

Time to pull this gif out of the archive...

An emoji bashing its head against a wall.

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 24/08/2024

I can still see you. Also not a great location for getting away from me.

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 24/08/2024

Little dude is back again, doesn't seem terribly happy with me.

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 13/08/2024

101 onions, 30 heads of garlic, and more tomatoes than I can possibly use. I love my garden but it can and get overwhelming sometimes!

Many heads of garlic and onions drying on the floor of a room.

050

David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 30/07/2024

Update: the tiny frog has taken to living IN THE CAN'S SPOUT. So now every time I go to use the can it's clogged, and then I have to convince a tiny terrified frog to climb out.

A tree frog sitting on a watering can's handle.

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David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 22/07/2024

Here's all I got to grow. I blame rabbits mostly, they really did some damage before I got a fence up. I've had glorious basil plants like yours in years past, but this is not that year!

010

David Clark @dccmath.bsky.social · 26/06/2024

#HoagieHomies Time to level up from "what is a sandwich?" to "what is a deli?" (Snip came to me as "one of the most famous opinions" of recently deceased Massachusetts justice Rudy Kass.)

Portion of a court opinion by Rudy Kass in Kobayashi v. Orion Ventures, Inc. The author discusses whether a deli must serve "central European delicacies" or whether "butter croissants, tuna sandwiches, 'Teriyaki Breast O! Chicken', yogurt" etc. qualify a deli.

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