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)

Mycena leptocephala

Nitrous Bonnet

2025-11-02

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!

Xerocomellus diffractus

2025-11-02

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!

Philoscia muscorum

Common Striped Woodlouse

2025-11-02

ID confirmed

Polytrichum juniperinum

juniper haircap moss

2025-10-30

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!

Hypholoma capnoides

Smoky-gilled Hypholoma

2025-10-30

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!

Mycena robusta

2025-10-30

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!

Boletus fibrillosus

2025-10-30

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!

Bolitophila

2025-10-30

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!

Woodwardia fimbriata

giant chain fern

2025-10-30

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!

Marasmius oreades

fairy ring marasmius

2025-10-28

ID confirmed

Steatoda grossa

False Black Widow

2025-10-22

ID confirmed

Russula fragilis

Fragile Brittlegill

2025-10-21

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!

Paxillus cuprinus

Coppery Pax

2025-10-21

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!

Pteridium aquilinum pubescens

Hairy brackenfern

2025-10-19

ID confirmed

Thamnophis ordinoides

Northwestern Garter Snake

2025-10-16

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!

Larus glaucescens

Glaucous-winged Gull

2025-10-05

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!

Podilymbus podiceps

Pied-billed Grebe

2025-10-05

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!

Potamogeton praelongus

white-stemmed pondweed

2025-10-05

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!

Cipangopaludina chinensis

Chinese Mystery Snail

2025-10-05

ID confirmed

Cyclophora

Mochas

2025-10-03

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!


Bookwyrm.social

Ryan recently finished reading:

Seattle's Commercial Aviation

Ed Davies

Finished yesterday

3 stars

The journals of William Fraser Tolmie, physician and fur trader

William Fraser Tolmie

Finished yesterday

4 stars

Unfamiliar Fishes

Sarah Vowell

Finished Oct. 2, 2025

3 stars

Quichotte

Salman Rushdie

Finished Sept. 16, 2025

2 stars

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

...and is currently reading:

Tell the Truth

Billy Frank

I Sing the Salmon Home

Rena Priest

Blood Struggle

Charles F. Wilkinson

Asimov's Guide to the Bible

Isaac Asimov