Latest Blog Posts

See categories and tags in the blog archive


  • Ooh, Shiny!

    I finally returned to The Cnidae Gritty because I found a groove with Shiny app development again!

    Since my postdoc in France, I’ve been wanting to improve a barebones photo annotation script that I created there.

    ...read more


  • Trust Science!

    Trust the science?

    Trust the scientists?

    Trust {the |}scien{ce|tists}!

    Ahh. That’s safe.

    Wait, what science? Or which scientists?

    ...read more


  • Pseudoquasivegetarianism

    2016 was a pivotal year for me.

    For the past four years, I had been traveling the world and studying coral reefs from every region. I was becoming an expert on their evolution and their interactions with various microbes. I knew these ecosystems had been in decline for decades, that climate change was a major threat, and that some people had claimed that eating meat and flying in airplanes were major contributors to climate change.

    ...read more


  • Big guys shout 'merde!' louder

    New preprint!

    Bacterial sepsis triggers stronger transcriptomic responses in larger primates

    I am happy to report that a paper I’ve been working on for a long time is finally available

    ...read more


  • Maybe it doesn't Matern

    Calling all bored and crazy Stan coders. I need a long term coding partner.

    I’ve been doing a lot of completely solo work for a couple years now, and you can guess the result. I have a couple of really awesome models that I am proud of, and yet they’re (1) not quite what I want, (2) probably way more complicated and messy than necessary, and (3) sitting there, waiting for me to figure out how to be a real modeler and justify them.

    ...read more


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iNaturalist

Ryan's most recent taxonomic discoveries

(observations of taxa that he'd never before uploaded)

Zophobas atratus

Giant Mealworm Beetle

2025-09-08

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!

Trochosa ruricola

Rustic Wolf Spider

2025-09-08

ID confirmed

Steatoda triangulosa

Triangulate Combfoot

2025-09-07

ID confirmed

Cymatogaster aggregata

Shiner Surfperch

2025-08-30

ID confirmed

Phacellophora camtschatica

Egg-yolk Jelly

2025-08-30

ID confirmed

Diadumene lineata

Striped Green Sea Anemone

2025-08-30

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!

Dendronotus iris

Giant Nudibranch

2025-08-30

ID confirmed

Pyralis farinalis

Meal moth

2025-08-28

ID confirmed

Prenolepis imparis

American Winter Ant

2025-08-24

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!

Sphex ichneumoneus

Great Golden Digger Wasp

2025-08-24

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!

Dolichovespula maculata

Bald-faced Hornet

2025-08-19

ID confirmed

Melanoplus femurrubrum

Red-legged Grasshopper

2025-08-16

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!

Cladonia fimbriata

Trumpet Lichen

2025-08-15

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!

Stachys mexicana

mexican hedgenettle

2025-08-15

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!

Minettia magna

2025-08-12

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!

Halictus tripartitus

Tripartite Sweat Bee

2025-08-03

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!

Chrysoperla carnea

carnea-group Green Lacewings

2025-08-03

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!

Bombus mixtus

Fuzzy-Horned Bumble Bee

2025-07-19

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!

Epitheca spinigera

Spiny Baskettail

2025-07-19

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!

Forsythia koreana

Korean goldenbell tree

2025-07-19

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!


Bookwyrm.social

Ryan recently finished reading:

Abaddon's Gate

James S.A. Corey

Finished July 20, 2025

3 stars

Caliban's War

James S.A. Corey

Finished June 27, 2025

4 stars

Leviathan Wakes

James S.A. Corey

Finished June 15, 2025

4 stars

These were the Sioux

Mari Sandoz

Finished May 11, 2025

No rating

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

Dee Alexander Brown

Finished May 1, 2025

5 stars

The Behavior and Ecology of Pacific Salmon and Trout

Thomas P. Quinn

Finished April 18, 2025

5 stars

Le lion, la sorcière blanche et l'armoire magique

C. S. Lewis

Finished March 28, 2025

No rating

Logging in Grays Harbor

Brian Woodwick

Finished March 12, 2025

4 stars

Treaty Justice

Charles Wilkinson

Finished Jan. 25, 2025

5 stars

The Once and Future King

T. H. White

Finished Dec. 29, 2024

5 stars

...and is currently reading:

I Sing the Salmon Home

Rena Priest

The journals of William Fraser Tolmie, physician and fur trader

William Fraser Tolmie

Quichotte

Salman Rushdie

The Divine Comedy

Dante Alighieri

Blood Struggle

Charles F. Wilkinson

Asimov's Guide to the Bible

Isaac Asimov