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)

Ruppia maritima

widgeongrass

2025-02-01

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!

Bucephala clangula

Common Goldeneye

2025-02-01

ID confirmed

Larus glaucescens × occidentalis

Olympic Gull

2025-02-01

ID confirmed

Crucibulum laeve

common bird's nest fungus

2025-01-25

ID confirmed

Adelges cooleyi

Douglas Fir Adelgid

2025-01-22

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!

Rumex occidentalis

western dock

2025-01-22

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!

Artemisia suksdorfii

coastal mugwort

2025-01-22

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!

Barbarea orthoceras

American yellowrocket

2025-01-22

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!

Gallionellaceae

iron bacteria

2025-01-22

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!

Galerina marginata

Funeral Bell

2025-01-13

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!

Laccaria amethysteo-occidentalis

Western Amethyst Laccaria

2025-01-12

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!

Entoloma sericeum

Silky Pinkgill

2025-01-12

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!

Amanita pantherinoides

Western Panther

2025-01-12

ID confirmed

Leptoglossus occidentalis

Western Conifer Seed Bug

2025-01-09

ID confirmed

Mastocarpus papillatus

Turkish washcloth

2025-01-01

ID confirmed

Armillaria

honey mushrooms

2025-01-01

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!

Periplaneta australasiae

Australian Cockroach

2024-12-21

ID confirmed

Gryllus lineaticeps

Variable Field Cricket

2024-12-16

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!

Erodium moschatum

musk stork's-bill

2024-12-15

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!

Azolla filiculoides

water fern

2024-12-15

Help me confirm this ID or suggest another!


Bookwyrm.social

Ryan recently finished reading:

The Once and Future King

T. H. White

Finished Dec. 29, 2024

5 stars

The Last Resort

Sarah Stodola

Finished Dec. 5, 2024

4 stars

Coral Whisperers

Irus Braverman

Finished Nov. 23, 2024

4 stars

Parent Effectiveness Training

Gordon Staff

Finished July 11, 2024

4 stars

Dutch

Pimsleur

Finished July 11, 2024

4 stars

El león, la bruja y el ropero

C. S. Lewis

Finished March 2, 2024

4 stars

Exhalation

Ted Chiang

Finished June 26, 2023

5 stars

East of Eden

John Steinbeck

Finished June 11, 2023

4 stars

Erased: the untold story of the Panama Canal

Marixa Lasso

Finished June 4, 2023

4 stars

Atlas Shrugged

Ayn Rand

Finished Jan. 2, 2023

1 star

...and is currently reading:

Le lion, la sorcière blanche et l'armoire magique

C. S. Lewis

The Divine Comedy

Dante Alighieri

Blood Struggle

Charles F. Wilkinson

Asimov's Guide to the Bible

Isaac Asimov