Tim McKay
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timmckay.bsky.social
Tim McKay
@timmckay.bsky.social
650 followers 730 following 410 posts
Bird & nature lover; book addict; educator, astronomer, physicist; happiest outdoors. Born at 320 ppm.
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Reposted by Tim McKay
davidho.bsky.social
The Uninhabitable United States
What Climate Change Will Do to America by Mid-Century
Many places may become uninhabitable. Many people may be on their own.
www.theatlantic.com
November 12, 2025 at 12:24 PM
Reposted by Tim McKay
skwinnicki.bsky.social
This is my last and longest of three aurora threads, for the final substorm I saw from Columbus Ohio USA. It was by far the most brilliant and the strongest (at one point visible *south* of us)! It started ~11:30PM local time and lasted a full half-hour. Just unbelievably stunning!

1/10
Brilliant bands of aurora lights in the sky above a lake. There is an arc of soft green coming from the lower left, and a brilliant band of bright red above it. The two arcs meet toward the right of the photo, where they mix to make an orangish color. Behind them the sky is purplish. An almost comet-shaped blob of light fills the entire sky, terminating in a rounded tip toward the right of the frame, above an elated photographer standing on a dark dam near a cold gray lake. The colors that make up this blob are bright yellow-green and bright red, mixing together to form orange and other colors. It is stunning. You can almost hear the people in the photo whooping for joy. A mess of bright red and wispy yellow-green fills the entire sky above a gray lake, brilliant aurora with no pattern, rhyme, or reason. Two aurora bands in the sky, looking like they’ve been painted with vertical brush strokes even though the bands run horizontally. On the bottom is a soft green band. On top is a brilliant red band. They are almost touching in the center of the frame.
November 12, 2025 at 8:23 AM
Reposted by Tim McKay
davidnaimon.bsky.social
Congrats to Omar El Akkad & Leanne Betasamosake Simpson both shortlisted for the 2025 Writers' Trust Hilary Weston Prize for Nonfiction
ICYMI here are my 2025 conversations with each
Omar: tinhouse.com/podcast/omar...
Leanne: tinhouse.com/podcast/lean...
@biidaasamose.bsky.social @haymarketbooks.org
November 11, 2025 at 11:59 PM
Reposted by Tim McKay
jexpbiol.bsky.social
When downy woodpeckers pound wood with their beaks they hold themselves rigid like hammers & grunt like tennis stars to stabilise their core muscles at the moment of impact

@nickantonson.bsky.social

journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...
A downy woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens) about to drill on a hardwood tree in Rhode Island, USA. Photo credit: N. M. Moody.
November 11, 2025 at 9:18 AM
Reposted by Tim McKay
radiolento.bsky.social
Sound ON!!
November 10, 2025 at 10:30 PM
timmckay.bsky.social
Spent part of today working with the Washtenaw Bird and Nature Alliance at our Searles Preserve, making plans for future restoration of this diverse nature area, and removing invasive shrubs. Late fall in Michigan forests, amidst our first snow, is lovely.
The Washtenaw Bird and Nature Alliance board walks through the Searles Nature Preserve amidst some late fall snow. Maple and oak leaves amidst the snow on a Michigan forest floor in early November.
November 10, 2025 at 12:53 AM
Reposted by Tim McKay
aadl.org
The first snow of the season makes for the perfect cozy backdrop to A2 Community Bookfest!

Browse local authors and discover new reads right here at the Downtown Library.

Join us today from 10AM–5PM for Bookfest fun!

aadl.org/bookfest
Patrons interact with a vendor at A2 Community Bookfest! Patrons interact with a vendor at A2 Community Bookfest! A2 Community Bookfest welcome table. Comic art from a Bookfest vendor.
November 9, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Reposted by Tim McKay
alexwild.bsky.social
A charming essay by the former chair of Africana studies at Bowdoin College about the New York Times crafting elitist propaganda.
Maybe Don’t Talk to the New York Times About Zohran Mamdani
It’s remarkable, the people you’ll hear from. Teach for even a little while at an expensive institution—the term they tend to prefer is “elite”—and odds are that eventually someone who was a studen…
lithub.com
November 8, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Reposted by Tim McKay
atherton.bsky.social
Hero jury saves hoagie hurler from legal grinder www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/u...
Prosecutors Fail to Secure Indictment Against Man Who Threw Sandwich at Federal Agent
www.nytimes.com
August 27, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Reposted by Tim McKay
radiolento.bsky.social
November yellows. ❤️
some kind of fir tree whose needles turn bright yellow in autumn carpet of yellow and brown leaves. a mossy log and a large stick. few brown mushrooms. close up of a tree trunk covered in moss and lichen. sunshine lights it up and the yellow and green leaves on the tree behind two yellow mushrooms in the sunshine. one fallen over to show its gills, the other still standing.
November 6, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Reposted by Tim McKay
astrokatie.com
When a chatbot gets something wrong, it’s not because it made an error. It’s because on that roll of the dice, it happened to string together a group of words that, when read by a human, represents something false. But it was working entirely as designed. It was supposed to make a sentence & it did.
June 19, 2025 at 11:28 AM
Reposted by Tim McKay
lakemichigan13.bsky.social
Dancing in the moonlight 🌊🌊
November 6, 2025 at 11:59 AM
Reposted by Tim McKay
umwallacehouse.bsky.social
🎟️ Special Premiere of "A Savage Art: The Life and Cartoons of Pat Oliphant" at Michigan Theater!

Post-film conversation with film director Bill Banowsky, journalist Charles Eisendrath, and political cartoonist Mike Thompson, moderated by Lynette Clemetson.

Tickets 👉 https://bit.ly/3L7CX6P
November 5, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Reposted by Tim McKay
scottpb.bsky.social
As a professor of African American Studies, I endorse this message ✊🏾🤭✊🏾
A cartoon of Mamdani which asks: “what can you do with a degree in Africana/African American Studies?” “Become the mayor of the biggest city in the US!”
November 5, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Reposted by Tim McKay
sonjadrimmer.bsky.social
Mamdani says in his victory speech, “we will hire thousands of teachers.”

This, and not the proprietary chatbot classroom, is the future of education.
November 5, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Reposted by Tim McKay
unep.org
New national climate plans have barely moved the needle on limiting global warming. Yet there is hope.

According to UNEP's latest #EmissionsGap Report, accelerated adoption of renewable energy and falling costs mean we have the tools to cut emissions now: www.unep.org/news-and-sto...
Illustration of a dart missing the bullseye on a colorful target, symbolizing global temperature goals at risk due to inaction.
November 4, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Reposted by Tim McKay
anildash.com
Here's another bit of conventional wisdom Zohran completely blew away: His speech was at well above a 10th-grade level. It was complex, erudite, punctuated by deep and fluent references. You don't have to condescend to voters with baby talk! Part of re-establishing norms is speaking like an adult.
November 5, 2025 at 5:14 AM
Reposted by Tim McKay
elizkolbert.bsky.social
Thanks to @jackiefmogensen.bsky.social and @motherjones.com for a fun interview!
How to make people want to read about climate change
Pulitzer winner Elizabeth Kolbert's new book is a master class in writing about the natural world.
www.motherjones.com
November 5, 2025 at 8:06 AM
Reposted by Tim McKay
glenpeters.bsky.social
Global Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions rise again in 2024, up 2.3%.

This is our collective progress, 10 years after the Paris Agreement.

www.unep.org/resources/em...

1/
A figure showing all ghg emissions rising
November 5, 2025 at 8:24 AM
Reposted by Tim McKay
19thnews.org
Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield has won the mayor’s race, according to the Associated Press. She becomes the city’s first woman mayor, a Black woman, with housing for single-mother-led households as a major part of her legacy and platform. 19thnews.org/2025/11/mary...
Mary Sheffield smiles among a crowd of supporters. Below, text overlay reads: "Detroit elects the city's first woman mayor. City Council president Mary Sheffield ran on housing for single-mother-led households as 
a major part of her platform"
November 5, 2025 at 2:35 AM
Reposted by Tim McKay
junkboxjim.bsky.social
Milkweed in a classic fall pose.
Milkweed pod has burst open and the little seeded plumes are escaping.
November 3, 2025 at 12:40 AM
Reposted by Tim McKay
emilymbender.bsky.social
For more on the harms, definitely read @karenhao.bsky.social 's Empire of AI and for more on the bonkers ideology of Silicon Valley, @adambecker.bsky.social 's More Everything Forever.
November 2, 2025 at 2:39 PM
Reposted by Tim McKay
detroitgreenways.bsky.social
"Cleveland’s dreams for a connected, vibrant lakefront could get a powerful dose of inspiration from Detroit." Remember #AtLeastWereNotDetroit? 😊
www.cleveland.com/news/2025/11...
Waterfront transformation: Can Cleveland learn from Detroit’s gorgeous new riverfront park?
Detroit completes another piece in its goal for 5.5 miles of continuous public access along the Detroit River
www.cleveland.com
November 2, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Reposted by Tim McKay
irisvanrooij.bsky.social
“We are told that AI is inevitable, that we must adapt or be left behind. But universities are not tech companies. Our role is to foster critical thinking, not to follow industry trends uncritically.”
November 1, 2025 at 10:45 PM
timmckay.bsky.social
Made it through Halloween. Sleeping it off on #Caturday.
A large long haired cat sleeps with his belly exposed near a blanket with pumpkins on it.
November 1, 2025 at 6:18 PM