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Rik Smith

@profrik.bsky.social
382 followers 514 following 31 posts

Environmental Science professor at Columbia Basin College. Turning our small city lot into an urban homestead. Birds. Expect photos of birds from me here, I think.

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Rik Smith @profrik.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
The child “discipline” chapter is heartbreaking to read!
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That @mohu dude @handle.invalid · 25/01/2025
I’ll be honest and say that I disagree with every fucking Exec Order of the past 4 days. But I’m also jealous. I wish Democrats acted like this in return… We come into office “seeking bipartisanship” and consensus. The next Dem president better be honey badger riding a tsunami of exec orders.
media.tenor.com
a skunk with glowing eyes and a meme pool logo in the background
ALT: a skunk with glowing eyes and a meme pool logo in the background
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Rik Smith @profrik.bsky.social · 25/01/2025
This album was released in 1982. I was 21. I was in the Air Force. My roommate was gay. I didn’t know it yet. (This was pre-Don’t Ask Don’t Tell - no one told!). Joe Jackson changed my perspective on masculinity with this record. It’s good to listen to it again. And that damn piano! Whew!
A photo of Joe Jackson’s album, Night and Day, with a martini and turntable in the foreground.
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Rik Smith @profrik.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
A little Art Farmer to go with my Bailey’s Irish Cream. This album is so cool! Recorded in 1976, Farmer’s flugelhorn is as mellow as my drink.
A photo of Art Farmer’s album, At Boomers, with a turntable and a glass of Bailey’s Irish Cream in the foreground.
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Rik Smith @profrik.bsky.social · 18/01/2025
Another Wayne Shorter album to go with my second Bloody Mary of the day. #saturdayjazz
A photo of Wayne Shorter’s album, Adam’s Apple, with a turntable and a Bloody Mary in the foreground.
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Rik Smith @profrik.bsky.social · 18/01/2025
Wayne Shorter and a Bloody Mary to start the weekend. #saturdayjazz
A photo of Wayne Shorter’s 1959 album, JuJu, with a turntable and a Bloody Mary in the foreground.
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Kate Starbird @katestarbird.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
We're down to the wire here, but the UW Center for an Informed Public is taking applications for (2) postdoctoral scholars. Review starts very soon. For more info about these positions, including qualifications & instructions for applying: Read more: lnkd.in/g6q_spek Job posting: lnkd.in/gJ7x5Zwk
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Rik Smith @profrik.bsky.social · 12/01/2025
I imagine it every day and nearly weep.
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Peter Gleick @petergleick.bsky.social · 11/01/2025
If you think slowing or stopping #climate change is too expensive, you have it backwards. Failing to slow or stop #climatechange is what's expensive. www.bbc.com/news/article...
bbc.com
LA wildfire damages set to cost record $135bn
Some of the most expensive properties in the US have been wiped out by the fires.
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Rik Smith @profrik.bsky.social · 11/01/2025
Sticking with sax tonight. Really like this Puzzle Punch (rum, Campari, Demerara, bitters) and how it pairs with a new favorite sax player, Mike Casey @mikecasey.blsky.social. The complex rhythms and interplay of instruments is like rum, Campari, and a dried blood orange slice! #fridayeveningjazz
A photo of Mike Casey’s new album, Valencia, with a rocks glass and a red drink in the foreground.
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Rik Smith @profrik.bsky.social · 11/01/2025
After the Hank Mobley, I decided to sweeten things up a bit with a Love & Murder (Campari, green chartreuse, lime juice, and saline!) and some Melissa Aldana. I can’t recommend this album highly enough! #fridayeveningjazz
A photo of the cover of Melissa Aldana’s Echoes of the Inner Prophet album and a cocktail glass with a pink drink in the foreground.
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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 11/01/2025
Elon’s estranged daughter has re-entered the chat
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Rik Smith @profrik.bsky.social · 11/01/2025
A smoky drink (Six Figure: mescal, white vermouth, yellow chartreuse) to go with some gorgeous smoky jazz. Hank Mobley. OMG! #fridayeveningjazz
A photo showing the cover of the Hank Mobley jazz album, Workout, with a rocks glass and a cocktail in the foreground.
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Rik Smith @profrik.bsky.social · 08/01/2025
I’m so sorry to hear that. I wish you all the best memories of your time with your father!
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Rik Smith @profrik.bsky.social · 14/12/2024
Yeah. Same.
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All In with Chris Hayes @allinwithchris.bsky.social · 14/12/2024
"There is not a vaccine that Kennedy thinks is safe or effective," says @brandyzadrozny.bsky.social.
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Rik Smith @profrik.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
The Freethinkers bookclub I’m in just selected it for our February read. Really looking forward to it!
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Qagggy! @qagggy.bsky.social · 08/12/2024
I did some field research awhile back to see how the Dutch do bike lanes in industrial areas and—folks—they're better than the shit we have in the city.
Green semi truck crossing a bike lane protected by a wide grassy area and trees. Photo by me.Red protected bike lane crossing a driveway. Photo by me.Protected intersection with red semi truck. Photo by me.Nice red protected bike lane as far as the eye can see. Photo by me.
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Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
As I put it a few years ago in my blunt advice to Irish cities, “Your goal SHOULDN’T be to replace a million fossil fuel vehicles with a million electric vehicles. It should be to replace a million fossil fuel vehicles with 250,000 electric vehicles. The main answer MUST be FEWER cars driven LESS."
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 07/12/2024
The vast majority of us when the gas industry tells us we need to burn more fossil fuels to solve climate change
A picture of a man who is bald with tattered clothes and has Viet and looks hagged staring with a forehead Brow had something off into the distance with an alien man standing behind him the picture is from the TV show Star Trek the Next Generation and features an episode in which the captain of the ship captain picard is tortured by being constantly told that four large lights are actually five large lights and he struggles to eventually deny this despite the evidence in front of him being that there are in fact four lights
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Rik Smith @profrik.bsky.social · 01/12/2024
What’s the first album you remember buying with your own money?
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David Zipper @davidzipper.bsky.social · 30/11/2024
If you're thinking about getting an e-bike, now is the time to pull the trigger www.cnn.com/2024/11/28/e...
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Rik Smith @profrik.bsky.social · 30/11/2024
Alex Wild, Chaos Agent
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Rik Smith @profrik.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
You really need to just stick to history and stop making everything so political!
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Rik Smith @profrik.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
Done!
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Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started @gothamgirlblue.com · 24/11/2024
On a serious note though, Democrats have to stop accepting GOP framing on everything. There is no border crisis, instead we need immigration targets. DEI doesn’t discriminate, but we do need integration. Bathroom laws are bullshit; civil rights aren’t up for discussion.
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Rik Smith @profrik.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
It’s great to finally be one of the coolest people!
A tattoo of Darwin’s tree of life with “I think” at the top.
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
1. Consent in our pseudo-democracies is strained at the best of times, but it hangs on the belief that there is some kind of justice: through inquiries, tribunals, sometimes even the law, powerful people who commit crimes against us will one day be held to account. But what if this no longer works?🧵
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Rik Smith @profrik.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
Today I needed to go to a Union training. I regularly take the bus to campus, but have not used it to get around town much. Damned if it wasn’t easy and convenient. I realized I can use that same route to go to the grocery store, mall, & liquor store, to name a few. I’m a bit embarrassed & ashamed.
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Rik Smith @profrik.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
Damn. I was pretty close. Good game!
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Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
There’s one thing I know for sure after 33 years working in cities all over the world — there’s nothing inevitable or unchangeable about the way your city is. Your city is the result of decisions & choices. Like every city. Different decisions or choices could have been made, and STILL can be made.
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Rik Smith @profrik.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
A. Cotton B. Alfalfa C. Lentils
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Rik Smith @profrik.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
My wife is right (always)! I don’t smile when I take a selfie. 😡 About to ride my new (to me) Tern HSD to the pub for a beer and grading.
Tern HSD eBike in a driveway, ready for a trip to the pub. A selfie of me scowling at the camera before riding my eBike to the pub.
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Dr. Merritt Rae Turetsky @queenofpeat.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Why the big smile? Because I am holding something we take for granted but is pretty miraculous. Peat is organic matter that boldly defies decomposition, suspended in between life and death. As a result, it stockpiles carbon from the atmosphere. Peat belongs in bogs not bags. Pass it on.
Woman scientist posing with a hunk of peat and smiling.
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Jen Mercieca @jenmercieca.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
"Throughout U.S. history Americans have fought over whether to define themselves via the civic ideals in the Declaration of Independence or authoritarian ethnonationalist assertions that the country rightly belongs to a subset of its people whose will, interests, & cultural practices should prevail.
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Andrew Kniss @wyoweeds.bsky.social · 15/11/2024
"A person who merely refuses to learn what can be known is not a skeptic, but rather an ignoramus; a person who raises questions but does not seek their answers is not a skeptic, but a bullshitter." This piece is more a critique about media coverage than of RFK. defector.com/what-the-fuc...
defector.com
What The Fuck Is A "Vaccine Skeptic"? | Defector
At darker moments, contesting this kind of stuff in the wake of the 2024 election—and all the shameless, shameful, unforgivable work the American media did to produce that election’s outcome—feels as ...
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Rik Smith @profrik.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
Hoping you feel better soon!
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Rik Smith @profrik.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
Not the best shot - I think I took it through the kitchen window - but definitely a bird (Cooper’s Hawk) feeding.
An immature Cooper’s Hawk sitting on a fence, hunched over, eating a songbird.
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Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started @gothamgirlblue.com · 16/11/2024
The Democratic Party is radically to the left of where it was in 2000 and it’s also not left enough and both of these things can be true simultaneously because our cultural context has changed and the politics necessary to move us forward has changed with it.
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Rik Smith @profrik.bsky.social · 15/11/2024
Yes. We live in Kennewick. 👋 from the shrub-steppe.
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Michael E. Mann @michaelemann.bsky.social · 15/11/2024
"Climate crisis : Scientists warn of imminent Atlantic current collapse with global consequences" by Samir Sebti for Daily Galaxy: dailygalaxy.com/2024/11/clim...
dailygalaxy.com
Climate crisis : Scientists warn of imminent Atlantic current collapse with global consequences
The world's leading climate scientists have sounded the alarm on a potentially catastrophic event that could reshape our planet's future. In a stark warning,
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Rik Smith @profrik.bsky.social · 15/11/2024
We don’t have this exact model, but we really like the range. www.cafeappliances.com/appliance/Ca...
cafeappliances.com
Café™ 30" Smart Slide-In, Front-Control, Induction and Convection Range with In-Oven Camera|^|CHS90XP2MS1
With this induction range in your kitchen, your cooking experience will exude a new level of technological elegance. Gourmet Guided Cooking, advanced temperature sensors and an in-oven camera work tog...
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Rik Smith @profrik.bsky.social · 15/11/2024
Who?
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Rik Smith @profrik.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
Great Starter Pack! Thanks, Jen!
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Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 11/11/2024
THREAD: I’m going to share this thread here to clearly state my perspective on electric vehicles, car dependency and better cities, for all those who frequently ask me about it, including media, elected leaders and many others. Here goes. Please share it frequently if you think it will help. 🧵#EVS
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thalassa 🌻🔆 @th.alassa.pink · 29/10/2024
If you prefer landscape mode: youtu.be/Vf5MThSniiY. ☺️
youtu.be
“I disagree with Kamala’s position on the war in Gaza. How can I vote for her?” Here is my answer:
YouTube video by Bernie Sanders
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Rik Smith @profrik.bsky.social · 16/10/2024
Can’t believe I haven’t posted a photo of our cats on here.
Two black and white tuxedo cats side by side looking at the camera
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Microplastics Sommelier @leastactionhero.bsky.social · 17/07/2024
having encountered a lot of justifications for the electoral college over the years “to avoid cannibalism” is by far the most persuasive
Carson Krow
@carsonkrow
Historically, tribes of cannibals spawned children who ate humans because that's all they ever knew— it was normal to them
That's why the electoral college is so important
Tribalism is very real and the people in one or two states shouldn't be allowed to choose for every state
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