iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Soooo does this mean he’s the second FEMA administrator who can also teleport to the Waffle House?

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Maybe it’s time to go back to carrying a road atlas in my car

Google Maps image showing Lake Ontario as “Lake America.”

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

The ubiquitous Ponderosa appears in westerns, in songs, and other aspects of US culture. A favorite example of mine is David Lynch, who was fascinated with wood, fire, and forests. (The Log Lady!) His father, a USFS & USDA research scientist, wrote a classic monograph on the Ponderosa Pine. 2/2

A sepia photograph of a man and small child, both holding kindling and standing in front of a house with a large conifer tree in the background. The man wears a dark coat and cap, and the child wears a dark coat and a toboggan hat. The photograph is of future filmmaker David Lynch, and his father, forestry research scientist Donald Walton Lynch.

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Faculty Backrooms (the mailboxes, ancient fridge, and coffeemaker are all around the corner)

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

If this lady was still around, they’d already be out of business. (Never expected to be endorsing Carrie Nation and the WCTU, but here we are.)

Black and white historical photograph of a stern older woman with gray hair wearing a black jacket and mourning veil while holding a Bible and a hatchet.

Women’s Christian Temperance Union leader Carrie Nation photographed with her trademark hatchet and Bible, which she used to do battle against saloons and alcohol sales.

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

A Midwestern transplant to Southern California, and one of the great LA writers, he was mostly unique in the optimistic technofuturism of mid-20th century sci-fi. Though often sympathetic to his characters, he was highly dubious of humans and technology, and what that portended for our future. 4/5

Photograph of Ray Bradbury, 1975. Photo by Alan Light.

Bradbury is shown smiling in a camelhair blazer and shirt and tie, with his trademark horn rim glasses, and shock of white hair.

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

It was incorporated into The Martian Chronicles, his dark, lyrical novel (inspired in part by Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio) retelling American—and specifically Californian—history as a science fiction story in which humans first destroy Martian civilization, and then destroy their own. 2/5

“Descent,” cover image for a 1989 edition of The Martian Chronicles. Two Martians, one wearing a mask, look out over a landscape of fanciful Martian architecture, canals, and a red landscape dominated by jagged rocks that resemble the Vasquez Rocks used in numerous Star Trek episodes and other sci-fi productions of the mid-20th century. The artist chose to pick the moment the Earth craft enters the Martian atmosphere like a meteor, portending the destruction of Martian civilization.

https://www.michaelwhelan.com/galleries/descent/

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Today (August 4, 2026) is the day the smart house dies in Ray Bradbury’s “There Will Come Soft Rains,” his remarkably prescient and (very!) short story from 1950 about an automated “intelligent” house in California—complete with roombas and a chatty AI—and its last day after a nuclear war. 1/5

The first page of a 1950s comic book adaptation of the Bradbury short story by Wally Wood, which can be read in full here:

https://marswillsendnomore.wordpress.com/2012/10/16/ec-comics-ray-bradbury-there-will-come-soft-rains/#jp-carousel-14622

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

In The Odyssey I was also not expecting to see a scene paying homage to the monologue scene in “Paris, Texas,” but here we are.

In a scene from “Paris, Texas,” a 1984 film by Wim Wenders, actor Harry Dean Stanton talks on the phone facing away from a see-through mirror, behind which actress Natasha Kinski listens to and responds to the story he tells.

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

But Duluth was supposed to be “climate-proof!” (Not posting to be snarky, but to highlight that there are no “safe” places, no true refuges. We are all marching into the inferno, and the only recourse is to work together to change course and try to save everyone, everywhere.)

Promotional image for the city of Duluth, Minnesota, with a view of a bridge and a vast lake at sunset, and the slogan “the most-climate proof city in America.”

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Glad you enjoyed it! It’s wild! By the time the continental republic transforms into a cornucopia that spews out Model Ts, hamburgers, hot dogs, baseballs, and TVs, there was really nothing left to say except:

A black-and-white photograph of film director Martin Scorsese saying, “This is cinema.”

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Personally, I always liked his later photo collages, which depicted landscapes not as romantic or heroic, but instead reflected the mundane and messy ways humans inhabit, use, and misuse the natural world. 3/4

“Pearblossom Highway,” 1986. This collage composed of small photographs depicts an intersection on a California highway that traverses the high desert Mojave on the northern fringes of metropolitan Los Angeles. The background of the picture is dominated by blue sky and Yuccas, but the foreground is dominated by highway signs and abandoned beer and oil cans.

Unlike some of his earlier work, this is not an idealized depiction of Southern California, and is a response to a long tradition in US landscape painting and photography that depicted idealized landscapes as embodiment of human values or “untouched” wilderness, rather than depictions of actual places and how humans have changed them.

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

No other artist more alluringly depicted—or profited from—the appeal of the sun, swimming pools, palm trees, Modernist architecture, freer lifestyles, and privatized leisure of postwar Southern California than David Hockney. 1/4

David Hockney’s painting “A Bigger Splash” (1967), depicting the splash (but not the diver who would’ve created it) at the end of a diving board in the backyard swimming pool of a peach-colored mid-century Modernist house with a flat blue sky and palm trees in the background. An appealing but strangely uninhabited image of Southern California’s culture of privatized leisure.

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

I just spent several days on a NPS research trip with university colleagues. Though they are chronically underfunded and understaffed—never more than right now—US national parks archives have incredible resources and amazing archivists and staff. And they have views that are *truly* without equal.

Bright orange and red eroded pinnacles and hoodoos in Cedar Breaks National Monument.

A view looking west over the eroded orange and red hoodoos of Cedar Breaks National Monument, and the green forested landscape beyond it. The overlook is at an elevation over 10,000 feet, on the western edge of the Markagunt Plateau.

Massive red sandstone walls loom over trees on the canyon floor in Zion National Park, eroded by the Virgin River and its tributaries in southwestern Utah.

Towering orange and white sandstone canyon walls loom above the Virgin River and hiking and wading tourists in this view looking into the Narrows in Zion National Park.

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

A route linking Tongva villages became Wilshire Blvd. One, Kuruvungna, had sacred springs reminding the Spanish of Santa Monica’s tears, inspiring names of the city, bay, and mountains. The springs remain. “It’s covered with concrete now, but there are these layers of history, just below our feet.”

A Mexican cypress planted more than 150 years ago shades the meandering waters at the Kuruvungna Sacred Springs, on the grounds of University High School near Barrington Avenue in Westside Los Angeles. A sacred and historic site for the Tongva, the spring can be visited on the first Saturday of each month.

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

And take a look at this musical lineup. Milli Vanilli?!?!? Instead of playing the national mall, these should either be the upcoming lineup at a fourth-tier casino (“Only 2 miles from the OK state line!!!”), or performing at a Gen X high school reunion at the Ramada Airport.

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

The Salt Lake Tribune’s Pat Bagley on Utah’s governor trying to ram through a gargantuan new AI data center with almost no notice, even though it’ll use more energy than the entire state and need lots of water. Maybe those can come from Asia too!

Huge AI center visualized as a Death Star looming over the Salt Lake Valley.

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

I’m excited to be headed to Philadelphia for the Organization of American Historians 2026 conference to participate in a roundtable, “Climate Histories of the United States,” on Thursday at 11 AM. It should be a great conversation! See alt text and link for more info. www.oah.org/conferences/...

Thursday, 11:00 AM-12:30 PM

Climate Histories of the United States: A Roundtable

The scholars on this roundtable will discuss how U.S. historians are integrating climate frameworks into their research and teaching, and how historians can provide historical perspective on climate policy debates.

Chair: John Brooke, Ohio State University

Panelists:
• Leila Blackbird, Brown University
• Lawrence Culver, Utah State University
• Katherine Grandjean, Wellesley
College
• Eric Herschthal, University of Utah
• Emily Pawley, Environmental History, Dickinson College

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

Purely for childhood nostalgia, I like that NASA has resurrected the 1970s-90s “worm” logo. (Hilariously the older one is called the “meatball.”) That red logo is a remnant of a more hopeful moment for space exploration and society, and despite everything it makes me glad to see it in space again.

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Apparently Schrödinger's Tortoise is still with us!

Image of Gonzo the Muppet from a Muppet Christmas Carol

Jonathan the Tortoise, who did NOT die!

Jonathan the Tortoise is alive and well

• He's ~193 years old - the longest-living land animal on Earth

• A suspected crypto scammer went viral on April Fools Day pretending to be his vet

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

So we may or may not have a Schrödinger's cat situation going on with Jonathan the tortoise. April fools and all that. (To be clear, I’m rooting for both the cat and Jonathan.)

Conflicting information about the status of Jonathan. The governor of Saint Helena may have just gone to check on him and found that he is in fact alive. However, this remains unverified. Schrödinger's tortoise!

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

It’s so weird! Are the branding consultants even *in* LA? The SLC 2034 branding is also weird. They’ve combined the world’s ugliest font, a fantasy version of a full Great Salt Lake, and made the whole thing gray. (To evoke the incoming arsenic dust storms from the empty lakebed?)

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

Third stage guild navigators, obviously.

A third stage guild navigator arrives to interrogate the emperor in David Lynch’s “Dune,” 1984.

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

The formation is named for Floyd Dominy, the unstoppable, unapologetic Director of the Bureau of Reclamation, responsible for Glen Canyon Dam, and numerous other dams. He was the Robert Moses of Reclamation in the US, and this vast mass of unstable silt may well be his most lasting monument. (4/7)

Vintage Floyd Dominy, Director of the Bureau of Reclamation 1959-1969, speaking in the opening scene of the excellent PBS documentary Cadillac Desert, based on Mark Reisner’s landmark book.

(He indeed had no apologies.)

Vintage Floyd Dominy, continued.

Whatever his flaws, lack of certainty and absence of drive were not among them.

“I have no apologies. I was a crusader for the development of water. I was the Messiah! I was the evangelist . . .”

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

It’s inexorably moving southward, deeper into the canyon and the lake, eroding away to reveal the glory of Glen Canyon, now visible again, including places once thought lost under lake waters forever, like the Cathedral of the Desert. (3/7)

The Cathedral of the Desert. Utah slick rock at its most sublime, loved by authors Edward Abbey and Wallace Stegner, and the few other non-Indigenous people who knew it. When it disappeared beneath the waters of the lake, it was assumed no one would ever see it again.

Another view of the Cathedral of the Desert. Many spectacular natural sites like this, as well as many ancient and contemporary Indigenous sites, were drowned by Lake Powell. Now they are returning, sometimes surprisingly intact.

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

It’s caused by the Dominy Formation, a vast tongue of silt and mud slowly making its way into remnant Lake Powell, which once would’ve been carried to the Pacific by the Colorado River, but is now building up behind Glen Canyon Dam. (2/7) attheu.utah.edu/facultystaff...

A view of the Dominy Formation, in what was once the northern end of Lake Powell.

The lake last reached full capacity in 1983. As of early 2026, it is only 25% full.

Exposed silt layers of the Dominy Formation.

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

One of these channels became an improbable but hugely popular surfing spot. When I lived in Munich, I always enjoyed watching the surfers, all patiently waiting in line for their turn, a highly organized German version of California or Hawaii, improbably airdropped into Bavaria. (3/4)

Surfers waiting their turn on the endless wave.

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

It’s also a remarkable example of flood control. Located north of the Alps, Munich experienced spring floods when snows melted. The vast park is part of the flood plain of the Isar River, with multiple channels carrying water through the park, turning a hazard into a recreational amenity. (2/4)

Aerial view of the park, with the river visible. Multiple channels carry part of its waters through the park, once a dangerous floodplain.

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

(Gift article below.) Munich’s Englischer Garten, one of the world’s largest urban parks, larger than NYC’s Central Park, is one of the great achievements of landscape architecture, filled with trails, vistas, lakes, and Biergartens, all in the English style of landscape design. (1/4)

Cathedral towers and other historic landmarks of central Munich, seen from the English Garden.

An aerial view of the southern end of the English Garden looking north, with the Isar River visible on the right side of the park. The river, fed by snow melt from the Alps south of the city, had a history of flooding.

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

Boy do I have a depressingly timely movie for you

Bison fall to their deaths down a cliff face in a black and white poster for the film Eddington.

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

Gee maybe I’ll check out bluesky for a sec

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

Most people don’t realize how soon the Colorado River basin will be in crisis. Lake Powell may reach deadpool by the end of 2026. It won’t generate electricity, and no water will flow out of it to the Grand Canyon, Lake Mead, and all the cities and farms downstream that depend on it.

Illustration showing the hydropower and river outlets for Glen Canyon Dam. These are far above the bottom of Lake Powell, and as the lake level dwindles, may soon be above the lake’s surface, rendering them inoperable, and reducing the lake to a functionally useless “dead pool.”

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Announcing this terrible climate and environmental policy decision in front of a portrait of President Teddy (Added 75 million acres to the National Forest system, created 18 national monuments, 5 national parks, and broke up Standard Oil) Roosevelt is certainly a choice.

Donald Trump stands at a podium with the presidential seal. Behind him is a fireplace with books and golden urns on the mantle. Above that is a portrait of President Theodore Roosevelt on horseback.

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

If LA developers are turning the former headquarters of Sunkist into housing, hoo boy does this California historian has some promotional image ideas for you!

A Sunkist California Dream orange crate label with a fairytale cottage and white peacocks, because why not?!?

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

And so, with Bad Bunny and the Puerto Rican electricity crisis, the climate disaster finally made it into the Super Bowl. This is the kind of image that might show up in a history timeline or even a textbook someday.

Bad Bunny strides with a Puerto Rican flag beneath power poles and utility workers symbolizing the electricity crisis in Puerto Rico, made exponentially worse by Hurricane Maria striking the island in 2017.

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

The moment Miss Piggy stares at the camera with such rage that the film melts?

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

Indeed! The Salt Lake Tribune also posted this grim headline and photo today. One of the state’s swankiest ski resorts currently looks like a gravel pit.😬

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

As an example, here’s some historical perspective on winter 2025-2026 snowfall in Salt Lake City—a place that’s supposed to be hosting the Winter Olympics eight years from now:

A chart listing the lowest winter snow accumulations in Salt Lake City. The previous record low was the winter of 1933-34, when Salt Lake recorded 14.3 inches of snow.

The new record is this winter, 2025-2026. Total recorded snowfall is 0.1 inches.

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

As Colorado River Basin states squabble over water yet again, it’s almost like John Wesley Powell was onto something way back in 1878 when he warned how important it would be to carefully plan homesteading, agriculture, and development in the arid US West.

Map of the Arid Region of the United States, in John Wesley Powell’s Report on the Lands of the Arid Region of the United States, 1878.

Western US Drainage Basin Snow Water Equivalent, Jan 27th, 2026, USDA.

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