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WestPhillyMatt

@westphillymatt.bsky.social
133 followers 230 following 375 posts

Retired earth scientist; 36 years with the US Geological Survey and the Smithsonian Institution. From Philly; landed in San Francisco 50+ years ago.

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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 16h
Warren Hellman tribute band “the Wronglers” rehearsing with Jimmy Dale Gilmore at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, San Francisco. (my old friend Nate Levine on guitar)
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Celebrating Dolly day with a book drive at the Unitarian Church of San Francisco. (Note the Dolly votive candle on the altar with the gift books.)
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Smithsonian’s Secretary to Resign as Trump Tries to Rule the Institution www.nytimes.com/2026/09/08/a...
nytimes.com
Smithsonian’s Secretary to Resign as Trump Tries to Rule the Institution (Gift Article)
In the face of escalating White House attacks about how museums present American history, Lonnie G. Bunch III has announced his decision to depart.
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Sigh… the end of an era. But—We’ve got to keep defending the Smithsonian Institution during this nightmare in Washington. “Smithsonian chief to retire as Trump fights to reshape the institution”
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
“ make money, not friends” I’m guessing that this is an Elon Musk-inspired motto painted on the back of a Tesla. Sad statement.
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
RIP Dolly
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Posters at the Unitarian Universalist Church in San Francisco.
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
For all my Deadhead friends. 
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Must be from Philly.
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
A KQED reporter joined my Crissy Field & climate change walking tour and filed this report. www.kqed.org/science/1993...
kqed.org
Reporter's Notebook: A Climate Tour of Crissy Field Reveals Both Past and Future | KQED
A beloved San Francisco shoreline sits at a nexus of both nature and the built environment, of both history and the future.
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Filling “the cloud” with useless debris.
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
California quail reintroduction to Presidio and Crissy field, San Francisco (from the newsletter of the Golden Gate bird alliance)
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Good overview of the current science regarding the when and how of human arrival in the Americas. If you don’t want to listen to the full 20+ minute presentation, the short version is: Humans most likely arrived in the New World along the coastal route (kelp highway) at least 22,000 years ago.
fb.watch
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
« First Unitarian Church of San Francisco, Franklin & Geary. Originally built in 1889 and designed in the Richardson Romanesque style, the landmark building also houses the gravesite of the influential 19th-century minister Thomas Starr King. »
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
One of the many trumpian-maga efforts to suppress objectivity and a critical understanding of US history. news.artnet.com/art-world/an...
news.artnet.com
I Watched the Unhinged Anti-Smithsonian Congressional Hearing So You Don't Have To | Artnet News
Anthea Hartig is called to answer for changes of ideological bias at the National Museum of American History.
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Detailed article about the earthquake. (I was one of several scientists interviewed for the piece) www.elnuevoherald.com/noticias/ame...
elnuevoherald.com
Expertos advirtieron durante décadas sobre los riesgos sísmicos de Venezuela; la prevención nunca llegó
“La falta de atención, o el interés por el beneficio por encima de una planificación cuidadosa y reflexiva, desgraciadamente conduce a estas terribles catástrofes”.
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
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auntyr.bsky.social @auntyr.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Everytime the U.S. has a hurricane, the storm always makes its way up to Canada and causes major floods in the east! The U.S. needs better Gulf water management to keep their storms from entering Canada! They have refused to do anything about their hurricanes and we need to raise tariffs! 🤣🤣🤣
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The New York Times @nytimes.com · 22/07/2026
In @nytopinion.nytimes.com “We are a nation that has moved at speed from the realm of fact colored by opinions to a kingdom of delusion infested with fear,” our columnist Bret Stephens writes about Vice President JD Vance’s recent interview with Joe Rogan.
nyti.ms
Opinion | Call the Veep, Agent Mulder!
Have the “space Jews” come to get us at last?
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
One of the many examples of Trumpian fascism.
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
After many weeks of overseas travel, it’s great to be home in San Francisco amongst our friends and neighbors!
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
What a story! Messi will face Yamal on Sunday in the Argentina-Spain World Cup final.
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
Another attack on peer-reviewed climate science: Trump Administration Taps Climate Science Critic to Oversee Flagship Report www.nytimes.com/2026/07/10/c...
nytimes.com
Trump Administration Taps Climate Science Critic to Oversee National Climate Assessment (Gift Article)
Matthew M. Wielicki has criticized the scientific consensus on global warming as alarmist. Now he’ll oversee a major federal report on the topic.
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
www.facebook.com/reel/1540828...
facebook.com
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
Norway scores!
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
In Lisbon, watching the Brazil vs Norway game. Not too many Norway fans here.!
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Belgium rallies to tie quite it! Quite a game! Let’s see if Senegal can make a comeback.
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Looking like another European power team is going down.
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Raise a 🥃 to immigrants, who make or nation great!
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Berlin wall murals.
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
The former Prussian Academy of Science, where Albert Einstein was a member until 1933, when he resigned over Nazi policies.
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
Stolpersteins in front of Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz (national library), Berlin. Six of these nine “remembered” individuals escaped Nazi persecution by fleeing to other countries. The other three were deported and murdered in Nazi concentration camps.
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
“acclaimed artist Yadegar Asisi is the creator of the monumental Pergamon Panorama, a massive 360° walk-through experience depicting the ancient Greek city of Pergamon (in modern-day Turkey) as it appeared in 129 AD.” Berlin Pergamon Museum.
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Views of Stockholm.
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LAFAYETTE @lastudiolafayette.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Midsummer festival in Stockholm; the biggest holiday of the year.
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Galician origins of my Puerto Rican wife.
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
Caminantes cansados, frente el Catedral de Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, España.
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Monumento a la Madre del Emigrante, Gijón. Statue of a mother, facing west, in Gijón, Spain (on the north coast, on the Cantabrian Sea) beckoning to her children, who have emmigrated to the New World. Most of us from the americas, have someone like this in our past.
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Guardian US @us.theguardian.com · 28/05/2026
"No country can guarantee safety if it lacks functioning asylum laws, honest courts, impartial officials and the will to protect people from detention, coercion, disappearance or onward removal," write James A. Goldston and Natasha Arnpriester.
theguardian.com
The US has deported thousands to third countries. This must stop | James A Goldston and Natasha Arnpriester
Monitors estimate 17,500 people have been sent to countries they may never have visited – and where they could face further danger
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
I bought a medal of Santa Cecilia (patron saint of musicians) in Madrid. I started wearing it yesterday but so far I’m not seeing much improvement with my mandolin playing…. (Santa Cecilia is playing an organ. I thought this was an anachronism, but apparently the organ was invented in 246 BC)
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Congrats to San Francisco in landing this talented orchestra conductor! Welcome Dr. Chan to our symphony! The first woman in this role after more than a century. www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
sfchronicle.com
San Francisco Symphony names Elim Chan as its first female music director
The Hong Kong-born conductor will succeed Esa-Pekka Salonen as music director, becoming the first woman to lead the orchestra in its 115-year history.
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
The horror of our times continues
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University of Pittsburgh Press @upittpress.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Thanks to @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social for this terrific interview with Peter Sopplesa about his new book, Paris After Haussmann: Living with Infrastructure in the City of Light, 1870-1924! newbooksnetwork.com/paris-after-...
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WestPhillyMatt @westphillymatt.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Nuclear power plant on the Rhône River, near Valence, France. (About 70% of France’s electricity is sourced from the nuclear industry, and the country is second among European countries in terms of the production of the most carbon-free electricity
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D. C. Fitzgerald @dcfitzgerald.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Black Heron or Black-Egret (Egretta ardesiaca) engaging in canopy feeding…this is so the heron can see past the surface reflection to spot fish. #nature #birds #wildlife #biology
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Andrew Weinstein @andrewjweinstein.com · 07/05/2026
There is something deeply pathological about Chief Justice Roberts insisting the Supreme Court isn’t political while sitting atop the most ideological supermajority in modern history.
apnews.com
Chief Justice John Roberts says Supreme Court is not political
Chief Justice John Roberts says Supreme Court justices are not “political actors.” He says justices are making decisions based on the law, not their personal policy preferences.
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Don't forget: my old Yale Law classmate Clarence Thomas refused to recuse from Jan. 6 cases despite his wife's involvement in the plot. And he's taken at least 100 gifts worth over $2 million while serving, including from GOP donor Harlan Crow. He's a disgrace to the Court.
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Abilu Tangwa. @abilutangwa.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
10 Reasons to Love Solar Power 1. Zero CO₂ to run 2.Infinite fuel 3.sunlight 4Cuts air pollution 5.Creates local jobs 6.Low water use 7.Price keeps dropping 8.Powers homes + grids 9. Works off-grid too 10. Energy independence Future-proof tech
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