iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The dying oak tree we had to take down is now hosting new life in the form of mushrooms, moss and lichen (themselves a symbiosis of fungi and algae or cyanobacteria). Life uh...finds a way

Clusters of brown and white shelf mushrooms growing on a cut oak log lying in the grass.

Green-brown moss growing on bumpy oak bark

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

He does an excellent job presenting the complex science so that a lay reader can understand its importance, presenting scientific thought in its historical context, conveying the sheer wonder he feels at the complexity and beauty of nature, and even ending on a hopeful view of the future. Beautiful!

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Just finished the audiobook of Togetherness by @rowhoop.bsky.social and I can tell it's going to be one of those books that sticks with me. If you have care about ecology, evolution, climate change, fungi, lichen, plants, the gut biome, mutual aid, or just what it means to be a human, read it!

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Pottery! Detailed descriptions of throwing, carving, etc, as my protagonist makes a piece that I also made in real life. Hope other people find it as interesting as I do. 😅

A large shallow bowl made of white clay that has been painted black and then carved away, leaving a black crow design and spirals and stars.

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Right?! Like even just being able to sense the light of the Milky Way is nuts...actually using it to navigate somehow is...a whole other level.

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Somehow we have acquired too many books, both purchased and adopted. The @laworldcon.bsky.social freebie table is clearly a fae trap designed to sell suitcases. #worldcon

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

I missed a few but I did my best! I have gone to as many weird science facts panels as I could because I love collecting these tidbits.

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

The most matriarchal mammalian society is the spotted hyena. The females have more testosterone than the males and an enlarged clitoris larger than the male's equipment, which is also their birthing canal. 😱

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Chickens only ever have one working ovary and it is always the left one. Roosters crow at 140 decibels (jet engine level) and have a flap in their ear that closes when they do so in order to not deafen themselves.

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Crocodilians are one of the most ancient lineages of reptile. They have an intense bite force, but the muscles that open the jaw are very weak. So just don't let them open their mouth!

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Hippos sweat a red fluid, but it is not blood. It acts as an antibiotic, sunscreen and insect repellant.

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Hippos are very muscular, with 2% body fat. They are so dense they cannot swim, they run along the bottom of the river and jump to breath.

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

The smallest reptile in the world is the nano chameleon. It can sit on a sunflower seed. The smallest (known) vertebrate is the Brazilian flea toad. 3 of them can sit on a sunflower seed.

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

The smallest mammal in the world is the bumblebee bat and the smallest bird is the bee hummingbird.

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Herring communicate by passing gas and clicking so mechanically that during the Cold War, Sweden spent a lot of money trying to find Russian submarines that were just herring schools.

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

The 2nd most expensive naturally occurring liquid is scorpion venom. The most expensive is champion racehorse semen at $49 million/gallon.

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Greenland sharks live up to 510 years and are pregnant for 8-18 years.

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Dung beetles roll up to 1000 times their body weight using their back legs. How do they navigate backwards? They seem to use galactic light from the Milky Way!

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Male palm cockatoos advertise how cool they are by cutting drumsticks to drum on their nests to attract mates. Only known example of an animal using a tool to make music.

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Ever wondered what part of a starfish is the head? It's all the head! We don't know what the rest of the body would look like; those genes have been turned off.

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

The largest amoeba in the world can reach 8 inches across.

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Kangaroos have 3 separate birth canals!

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

A/V issues continue to plague @laworldcon.bsky.social but at least we get excellent animal facts from @tkingfisher.com. Falcons get all of their water from drinking blood!

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

In the Fungus Among Us @laworldcon.bsky.social panel, I learned "they are a KINGdom" and "It's all mushroom puke" from JS Fields and worked on a very appropriate embroidery.

An embroidery hoop with a purple fabric printed with a mushroom pattern, half covered in embroidery.

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Today at @laworldcon.bsky.social I learned that sabertooth animals still exist (water deer!), saw SO MUCH beautiful work in the art show, watched how to spin wool with a drop spindle & a wheel, & acquired enough books that we will probably need another suitcase. Zero regrets, 100% inspiration.

A brown furred water deer stands in grass looking over its shoulder. Large white tusks curl out of its mouth, incongruously fierce looking on an herbivore.

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

This year I managed to read all the Hugo nominated novels, novellas, short stories and poems. And because I'm attending #worldcon, I got to cast my votes and will be attending the award ceremony on Sunday! Can't wait!

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Listening to @adapalmer.bsky.social explain her papal election larp and every new detail is more deliciously, impressively unhinged than the last. #lacon #worldcon

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

I believe it was actually the phrase "go down in my haunted basement" that I found...suggestive

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

Honorable mentions: The Rose Field by Philip Pullman, The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern, The Shadow of the Leviathan series by Robert Jackson Bennett, Hell Followed After Us by Andrew Joseph White, and Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

This year I set a goal of reading 50 books. Then I got in the groove of being able to listen to fiction while doing chores and suddenly...I had read or listened to 91 books in 2025. Here's my top 5!

The covers of my 5 favorite books of 2025: The Everlasting by Alix E Harrow, Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell, Ladies in Hating by Alexandra Vasti, The Incandescent by Emily Tesh, Piranesi by Susanna Clarke.

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

I just finished No Gods, No Monsters and am excited I will be able to read the whole thing!

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

...look forward to the already-published sequel. That being said, I am a bit surprised at the win for this book. All the books this year were quite strong, but my vote would have gone to Someone You Can Build a Nest In. That one's going to stick with me the longest & was the most surprising.

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

...an engaging read, Sherlock Holmes meets Shadow & Bone with a dash of Pacific Rim Kaiju just for extra spice. I've been on a murder mystery kick lately so it quite fun to see a take on the genre that also went in for fantasy world-building. I enjoyed the main character a great deal and...

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

...which for some reason was not available at any libraries within 100 miles of Peoria, either in physical or audiobook form. I got about 2/3rds of the way through it before it was, of course, announced as this year's winner. Hopefully it will be more available from here on out! I found the book...

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

...interrogating questions of purpose and sentience and free will against the backdrop of a post-human robot wasteland. Both were excellent reads, but I believe Alien Clay will linger longer, taking up space in my brain. Finally, I get a hold of The Tainted Cup by RJ Bennett...

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

On the other hand, both novels do have a wryly humorous male-identified main character grappling with existential questions, so maybe they aren't that different after all. Alien Clay went hard on the creeping, invasive dread of biological contamination while Service Model was a bit more abstract...

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

Hugo Award novel nominee reading progress: Finished the project just 2 days late. 😆 First of all, before the ceremony, I read Service Model by A Tchaikovsky, a book so different than his also-nominated Alien Clay that I boggle to imagine what that man's brain is like from the inside...🧵

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

We did do some No Thank You Evil with them when they were younger, but it's been awhile. This is definitely their first Grown Up RPG. Very interested to see how it goes, and I am loving the somehow perfect yet unexpected choices presented to the players throughout the setup period.

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

Just starting Service Model now, will post again when I finish it!

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

And the whole vibe of it never quite gelled for me. It always felt like there was a great story just slightly offset from the story I was actually reading.

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

The Ministry of Time by K. Bradley: Ok, I love Connie Willis and can usually roll with narratives of British bureaucracy carrying on in the face of fantastical events. So I should have enjoyed this more than I did. There were some good bits, but I found the main viewpoint character uncompelling...

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

...as well as depicting codependency, abuse, trauma, and recovery in a fantastical setting (a theme this year?).

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

Someone You Can Build a Nest In, J Wiswell. I picked this one up without knowing it was a nominee, just intrigued by the monsterous queer love story. It. Is. So. Good. Also pitched to my particular interests. At times laugh out loud funny, it nails an outsider observation of humanity's absurdity...

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

...The ecology of Kiln is fascinating and Tchaikovsky does an excellent job of transforming the initial fear of the alien way of life into admiration and acceptance.

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

Alien Clay, A. Tchaikovsky: Somehow, despite Tchaikovsky's inhuman ability to drop multiple books a year, this was the first I had heard/read of him. I really enjoyed this, not just because it speaks to my anti-fascist ideals. The protagonist is full of dry humor and keen observation...cont'd

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Karen Tanenbaum @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

A Sorceress Comes to Call, T Kingfisher: Read this awhile back before it was nominated because I love most stuff by Kingfisher/Vernon. I found this one to be a good read although not one of my favorites. It does an almost too-good job of depicting trauma and abuse under a fairy tale facade.

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