iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Maitri @maitri.vatul.net · 29/08/2025

“If New Orleans goes, we won’t lose mere possessions but one of the world’s greatest cities and many of its greater citizens.” - me on August 28, 2005 20 years ago, we had just reached Houston after 16 long hours on the road, and I stayed for what turned out to be six months. vatul.net/640

vatul.net

Day 0/1: Katrina Update #5: Evacuated To Houston

This is my first chance to update everyone since D and I evacuated New Orleans for Houston 16 hours ago. First off, thank you to EVERYONE for keeping us in your thoughts . If I could only express to y...

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Maitri @maitri.vatul.net · 23/08/2025

Hi #geosky, it’s been a minute. Where can I find the latest trends and techniques in geologic map making? How are undergraduates learning to map - on paper or using digital techniques? If digital, what tools are prevalent and who are the leading experts/researchers in this area? TY! #geology #maps

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Maitri @maitri.vatul.net · 25/05/2025

Book 19 of 2025: Signs Preceding the End of the World by Yuri Herrera, political scientist & Tulane prof. Second 5 stars given. 📚💙 “Don’t let it get you down. They don’t understand it either, they live in fear of the lights going out, as if every day wasn’t already made of lightning and blackouts.”

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AGU (American Geophysical Union) @agu.org · 02/05/2025

Even when the political winds shift, science must keep moving forward. That’s why @AGU and @ametsoc are stepping up with a first-of-its-kind special collection on climate change in the U.S.—across 29+ peer-reviewed journals. 🌍📚 Read all about it: buff.ly/6G05hQD

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Maitri @maitri.vatul.net · 18/04/2025

If you're interested in downloading available data quickly, I found the DownThemAll website scraper extension for Firefox pretty useful. ⚒️🧪

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California Geological Survey @cageosurvey.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

The Sierra Nevada Earth Atlas showcases California’s longest and tallest mountain range and its iconic geologic features. It represents the most current, complete, and largest-scale, range-wide syntheses of geoscience data. Learn more - www.conservation.ca.gov/cgs/document...

Geologic map of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The different colors on the map are different types of rocks.

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Maitri @maitri.vatul.net · 02/04/2025

On, Wisconsin! On! 🦡 🧀 💚

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Maitri @maitri.vatul.net · 30/03/2025

Where can someone who lives in Yakima, WA (in the ash fall path of a Mt Adams eruption) get accurate scientific information as they are hearing only inflammatory local news? They are far away enough that they would not have to evacuate, but would like to be better informed/prepared. 🧪⚒️

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Maitri @maitri.vatul.net · 13/03/2025

Book 5 of 2025: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. Read this bit of dialogue set in the 1980s and now staring at Oregon 2025. #youdiedofdysentery #BookSky💙📚

"You're not supposed to make me laugh.
Do people truly die of dysentery?" Sam asked.
"In the olden days, I guess they did."

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Maitri @maitri.vatul.net · 06/03/2025

Mardi Gras Day | March 4, 2025 | New Orleans, LA “The system of patriarchy can function only with the cooperation of women.”

Dressed as Medusa for Mardi Gras Day; planning to make and collect stones for the foreseeable future.

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Jordan S. Carroll 🌹 @jordanscarroll.bsky.social · 22/02/2025

the rise of the fascist nerds was anticipated by Ellen Ullman's 1995 essay "Out of Time: Reflections on the Programming Life."

Real techies don’t worry about forced eugenics. I learned this from a real
techie in the cafeteria of a software company.

The project team is having lunch and discussing how long it would take
to wipe out a disease inherited recessively on the X chromosome. First
come calculations of inheritance probabilities. Given a population of a
given size, one of the engineers arrives at a wipe-out date. Immediately
another suggests that the date could be moved forward by various
manipulations of the inheritance patterns. For example, he says, there could be an education campaign.

The six team members then fall over one another with further
suggestions. They start with rewards to discourage carriers from breeding.
Immediately they move to fines for those who reproduce the disease. Then they go for what they call “more effective” measures: Jail for breeding. Induced abortion. Forced sterilization.

Now they’re hot. The calculations are flying. Years and years fall from
the final doom-date of the disease.

Finally, they get to the ultimate solution. “It’s straightforward,” someone
says. “Just kill every carrier.” Everyone responds to this last suggestion
with great enthusiasm. One generation and—bang—the disease is gone.

Quietly, I say, “You know, that’s what the Nazis did.”

They all look at me in disgust. It’s the look boys give a girl who has
interrupted a burping contest. One says, “This is something my wife would say.

When he says “wife,” there is no love, warmth, or goodness in it. In this
engineer’s mouth, “wife” means wet diapers and dirty dishes. It means
someone angry with you for losing track of time and missing dinner.
Someone sentimental. In his mind (for the moment), “wife” signifies all
programming-party-pooping, illogical things in the universe.

Still, I persist. “It started as just an idea for the Nazis, too, you know.”

The engineer makes a reply that sounds like a retch. “This is how I know
you’re not a real techie,” he says.

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Maitri @maitri.vatul.net · 22/02/2025

⚜️ KREWE OF KING ARTHUR PARADE RAIN DELAY!⚜️ Due to 100% chance of downpour tomorrow, King Arthur is now a night parade and will roll on Tuesday at 5:30pm. See y’all on the route! #NOLAsky #mardigras

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Maitri @maitri.vatul.net · 21/02/2025

Listen to me about deep and indiscriminate layoffs in science, tech, and engineering (private and public sector). Once the talent is gone, it is gone. For a whole generation or more. A company/research institution cannot simply recoup its former power by hiring back staff/contractors here and there.

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Maitri @maitri.vatul.net · 16/02/2025

Krewe du Vieux rolls! We march and dance and claim these streets tonight with even more of our sociopolitical satire because this is what we are fighting for. Let’s remember the krewe’s philosophy following Katrina: Preserve our culture and heritage first, and the recovery will follow. #NOLASky

Krewe du Vieux is Revolting! Title float.

SOUL brass band with the dancing Muffalottas!

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Cian 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ (he/him) @cbdawson.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

“But it is up to scientists to do the reading — and to follow our consciences. More than universities are on the line: the lives of our students and colleagues are on the line.”

physicsworld.com

US science in chaos as impact of Trump's executive orders sinks in – Physics World

US science hit by staff layoffs, slashed budgets, axed diversity programmes and cancelled conferences

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Maitri @maitri.vatul.net · 13/02/2025

We have so many things to do!

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Maitri @maitri.vatul.net · 11/02/2025

Reported a Google Maps content error: This portion of the Gulf of Mexico is erroneously labeled. The Gulf of America does not extend beyond the southern maritime boundary between the US and Mexico. If you’re going to do it, do it correctly. Higher accuracy generates greater use.

Screenshot of Gulf of Mexico with “Gulf of” in American waters and “America” in Mexican waters, where it is actually the Gulf of Mexico.

Official Mexico-US maritime boundary agreements for Gulf of Mexico drawn in 1970 and 1978.

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Maitri @maitri.vatul.net · 06/02/2025

“human drivers who sometimes demonstrate a unique interpretation of the standard rules of the road” - So much to unpack just in this clause of the whole sentence.

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Maitri @maitri.vatul.net · 06/02/2025

All of this to lower the earning power of qualified people they consider less than. Newsflash: This is a time of mergers and layoffs. If you can’t do the remaining jobs, it doesn’t matter that you belong to the oberklasse.

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Maitri @maitri.vatul.net · 05/02/2025

DEI is not the inclusion of unqualified people. We are extremely (over) qualified, do not want to be segregated and excluded because we look different, and just want to do the damned work. Support us or get out of the way.

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Maitri @maitri.vatul.net · 04/02/2025

Timely. Humans are the barely self-aware descendants of jacked-up prokaryotes on a somewhat rare floating rock, on our way to becoming something else. Can we take a collective step back and chill?

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Maitri @maitri.vatul.net · 01/02/2025

All glory to the HYPNOTOAD!!!!

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Maitri @maitri.vatul.net · 01/02/2025

Good opportunity to update the names of the scientists listed on the museum’s crown molding to reflect the contributions of women to science and industry. 🧪

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Jane Lebak @janelebak.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

If people knowing the law is stopping you from doing what you want, then the people knowing the law is not the problem.

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Maitri @maitri.vatul.net · 28/01/2025

From the Andrea Carlson “Shimmer on Horizons” collection at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Oil, acrylic, gouache, ink, colored pencil, and graphite on paper. Ancestor and Descendant, 2023 Perpetual Care, 2024 Cast a Shadow, 2021

“Ancestor and Descendant” artwork by Andrea Carlson. Oil, acrylic, gouache, ink, colored pencil, and graphite on paper

“Perpetual Care” artwork by Andrea Carlson. Oil, acrylic, gouache, ink, colored pencil, and graphite on paper

“Cast A shadow” artwork by Andrea Carlson. Oil, acrylic, gouache, ink, colored pencil, and graphite on paper

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Auschwitz Memorial @auschwitzmemorial.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

Auschwitz was at the end of a long process. It did not start from gas chambers. This hatred was gradually developed by humans. From ideas, words, stereotypes & prejudice through legal exclusion, dehumanization & escalating violence... to systematic and industrial murder. Auschwitz took time.

A bird's-eye view of a former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp showing a wide dirt pathway flanked by parallel rows of barbed-wire fences. Groups of visitors walk along the path, surrounded by the remnants of brick structures and barracks, now reduced to foundations. Green grass contrasts with the somber history of the site, as the path leads toward a guard tower in the distance.

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Maitri @maitri.vatul.net · 26/01/2025

The average American can function without eggs but not without coffee. The best part of workers grinding is Folgers in their cup after all.

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Maitri @maitri.vatul.net · 25/01/2025

Book 3 of 2025: Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror “… horror as catharsis through entertainment … a way to work through your deepest pain and fear—but for Black people that isn’t possible, and for many decades wasn’t possible, without the stories being told in the first place.” 📚💙

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Maitri @maitri.vatul.net · 23/01/2025

Elders with disabilities have a special place in my heart. Aging is undignified enough and then topped with this? For what? I hope the people who authorized and conduct this never have to undergo such treatment. Wait, what am I saying? I hope they do and soon. Day 4. Yup, I’m keeping days again.

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Maitri @maitri.vatul.net · 21/01/2025

And I say this with the utmost seriousness: Don’t eat the yellow snow.

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Maitri @maitri.vatul.net · 21/01/2025

Gulf of Mexico coast, USA | January 21, 2025 Flick says he saw some grizzly bears near Pulaski's candy store!

A couple of inches of snow on a front yard.

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Maitri @maitri.vatul.net · 20/01/2025

- Answering questions on gravimetry, - Catching up just enough on Bluesky, and - Book 2 of 2025: The Framed Women of Ardmore House by @bschillace.brandyschillace.com 🧪⚒️📚💙

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Maitri @maitri.vatul.net · 18/01/2025

And so it begins again. I like working two jobs in January and February. #kreweoftucks

Mardi Gras throws and decorations that will be turned into Krewe of Tucks throws. #NewOrleans

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Mike Brown @plutokiller.com · 17/01/2025

Just had a sample of the Eaton Fire ash that is in my driveway run on the department XRF. Is there titanium (new house paint)? Yup. Lead (old house paint)? You betcha. Heavy metals? Check. Treat that ash like it's toxic folks (because it is)

$A computer screen with a display showing output from an xray diffraction spectrometer.$ $Close up view showing fraction of metals. Fun stuff.$

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Maitri @maitri.vatul.net · 17/01/2025

The biggest joke and often glossed over is that those wanting to ban DEI practice achieved their status through “meritocracy or a hard work ethic.” Don’t argue on their terms. Break down these assumptions first to expose the inherent mediocrity and bigotry.

alabamareflector.com

UAB students, UA professors sue Alabama over state law banning DEI programs • Alabama Reflector

Alabama students and professors sued the state, alleging that SB 129, which restricts DEI funding and "divisive concepts" in colleges, violates their constitutional rights.

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Jacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

I'm looking for musicians, artists, writers, filmmakers, etc. who are passionate about translating science to a broader audience. The field is at the intersection of geoscience, paleo, climate, biology, and conservation. This is a funded opportunity. Tag your favorite STEAM folks, please!

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Maitri @maitri.vatul.net · 15/01/2025

Certified fresh: the Earth Science Women starter pack with almost 70 global women geoscientists for you to follow! Please help me out and submit more names, especially LBTQ+ women and women of color. Also any feeds that should be included. Rock on, sisters! go.bsky.app/BLDWXKt 🧪⚒️

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Doing Asbestos I Can @geologist.bsky.social · 12/01/2025

Caring about anyone who is not a straight white male was just this weird phase they were all going through. www.theverge.com/2025/1/10/24...

theverge.com

Amazon is ‘winding down’ some of its DEI programs

The company also updated its “Our Positions” page.

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Wendell Pierce @wendellpierce.bsky.social · 09/01/2025

I’m in Los Angeles in the middle of disaster. It feels the same way it did 20 years ago in New Orleans.The lesson learned from back then & today: love those around you and create loving memories. They will sustain you in difficult times.Tragedy is defined by how you respond to it.

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Maitri @maitri.vatul.net · 14/01/2025

Having lived through a disaster or three, I encourage survivors to keep a journal. Bear witness. Record the reality on your ground vs. what the media and others might portray. Tell your story here or elsewhere, even bits, what matters most is that you tell it. This is important now more than ever.

onbeing.org

Bearing Witness: How To Help When Feeling Helpless After a Disaster | The On Being Project

The aftermath of natural and man made tragedies such disasters such as the Grenfell Tower fire in London reveals the deeper, inner work that's required for true public and personal healing.

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Maitri @maitri.vatul.net · 13/01/2025

I refer to them as the Startup Unicorns but Startup Cicadas is a lot more apt.

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Maitri @maitri.vatul.net · 12/01/2025

Yeah so … how about something pretty from Wisconsin? Proterozoic Baraboo quartzite clasts in a quartz-rich vein. The pink sparkly thumbnail is a complete coincidence. #geology 🧪⚒️🧀

Hand sample of quartz vein containing pink quartzite clasts. Thumb for scale.

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Maitri @maitri.vatul.net · 11/01/2025

The Cult of the Rubber Chicken is risen, with a resounding rendition of “The knife stays in the box!”

The head of a golden sparkly rubber chicken wearing a purple feathered crown.

Rubber chicken with king cake in a box with a knife.

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Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 10/01/2025

More than 100 years after its initial review that blamed Black men, the Dept. of Justice just released its report on the 1921 Tulsa race massacre The report says the attack “was so systematic and coordinated that it transcended mere mob violence”

theguardian.com

DoJ releases its Tulsa race massacre report over 100 years after initial review

DoJ report acknowledges attack ‘was so systematic and coordinated that it transcended mere mob violence’

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