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davoh.bsky.social
Professor of Philosophy, Religion, Classics, and Environmental Studies. I study fish and forests, and the cultural ideas that connect them. Current home: South Dakota. Former homes: NY, VT, NM, PA, España.
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This is my friend and my undergraduate advisee. Read her story and share it. Check out this article from Argus Leader: South Dakota biologist feels 'thrown away' after losing job as part of federal layoffs www.argusleader.com/story/news/p...

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Dogs. These are my son’s and daughter-in-law’s dogs. They watched us as we said goodnight in the driveway after a visit this evening. I liked the light, and their faces.

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Chesterton’s Fence. en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Chester...

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

Bumblebees in Patagonia: https://davoh.org/2025/02/18/bumblebees-in-patagonia.html

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

Pelican marine phone case: https://davoh.org/2025/02/18/pelican-marine-phone-case.html

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

If you like learning new things, especially about digital tech, in an ad-free environment, check out my friend @jamie.thingelstad.com and his blog and his clean and simple weekly newsletter. weekly.thingelstad.com

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

I’m between airplanes so this will be brief: check out @jthingelstad and his Weekly Thing. So grateful for people like Jamie who help me keep learning a little more every day.

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

Left to my own devices on airplanes I often turn off the screen and think about mathematics, ecology, or both. Often I think with pen and paper, giving me a record of questions to look into when I get home.

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

Related to my previous post, here’s something I wrote about the time I invited a beggar to lunch. The conversation did not go as I thought it would. It went even better. Originally published in Sojourners online: When We Choose To See Them

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

Who is my neighbor?: https://davoh.org/2025/02/07/who-is-my-neighbor.html

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

Here’s a story I wrote for @sojo.net a few years ago, about the time I invited a beggar to lunch. His reply surprised me, and reminded me of the surprising ways and places where we might find our neighbors. sojo.net/articles/whe...

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

I cannot claim expertise but in my limited experience it seems like US foreign aid is at least a partial mitigation of factors that cause people to seek refuge, work, and sustenance elsewhere. When friends tell me they are leaving their home country, it’s usually to seek work, food, and safety.

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

Just spoke to a friend on the phone. That is, two human friends chatted. And it was good. There’s a lot of messiness in the world. Which makes friendships and friendly conversation that doesn’t need to accomplish efficient ends so valuable.

submitted 22 days ago • 0 comments

Environmental Writing Now: https://davoh.org/2025/02/02/environmental-writing-now.html

submitted 23 days ago • 0 comments

If 2/2 is #bivalveday is there another day for spiral mollusks? Like maybe 01/12?

submitted 24 days ago • 1 comment

2/2 is #BivalveDay, show us your bivalves. @spissatella.bsky.social told me about piddocks, Pholas dactylus, that bore holes through rocks. Seems like there are superstitions about "piddock stones" — holey rocks found on beaches — believed to bring good luck or something. #SciArt

submitted 24 days ago • 6 comments

I’m told that some are concerned that Netflix’s new adaptation of “Little House on the Prairie” will be too inclusive. My reply, with footnotes: davoh.org/2017/03/03/w...

submitted 24 days ago • 1 comment

For some, one of the most beautiful displays of books possible.

submitted 25 days ago • 32 comments

If you aren’t subscribed to @jthingelstad ’s newsletter you should check it out. Weekly Thing 307 / Attention, Goose, Pulse weekly.thingelstad.comJamie Thingelstad https://weekly.thingelstad.com/archive/307/ It’s one of my go-to reads ... https://davoh.org/2025/02/01/if-you-arent-subscribed-to.html

submitted 25 days ago • 0 comments

Pearls: https://davoh.org/2025/02/01/pearls.html

submitted 25 days ago • 1 comment

A little more from Leonardo's _A Treatise On Painting_: https://davoh.org/2025/01/30/a-little-more-from-leonardos.html

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

Prayer to the God of the Sick and Suffering: https://davoh.org/2025/01/29/prayer-to-the-god-of.html

submitted 28 days ago • 1 comment

Reading Leonardo On Painting. So good. For the last year I’ve been intentional about sketching and painting as a means of studying nature. There are other upsides, too: I feel better, and I enjoy doing something creative that no machine can do for me.

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

In case you’re wondering: I’m a philosophy professor who studies religions and liturgies, great texts, freshwater invertebrates, rainforest ecology, salmonids, mathematics and A.I., classical and ancestral languages, and world philosophies. Inter alia.

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

We can all learn a helpful lesson from certain religious traditions: don’t consider anyone a saint until they’ve been dead long enough to really examine their lives. A simple application of this: don’t name anything after people while they’re still alive. They still have time to let you down.

submitted 28 days ago • 1 comment

Wisdom and folly in all quarters: https://davoh.org/2025/01/28/wisdom-and-folly-in-all.html

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

Another book just arrived in the mail today. Send help. (Help = bookshelves.) Strayer’s Freshwater Mussel Ecology: A Multifactor Approach to Distribution and Abundance. (More info in Alt text!)

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

Each day this week I’m trying to send a quick note of gratitude or encouragement to people I know.

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

Fascinating how many junior faculty from around the world have reached out to me recently to talk about vocation. One said today “I only have one life. Is this really what I want to do with my life?” We all love teaching and research, but many are wondering about the costs.

submitted 28 days ago • 1 comment

Not sure what to make of airlines sending me emails telling me where others who share my astrological sign are traveling to. A) I wasn’t even sure what my sign is. B) I travel chiefly for work, not for fun or astrology. So what gives?

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

One gets the impression that not everyone in leadership has heard of Chesterton’s Fence.

submitted 29 days ago • 0 comments

In 2014 Dutch scientists left a hamster wheel outside, to see if wild animals would use it like their domesticated counterparts. The answer: hell yes! 734 visits from wild mice - plus rats, shrews, slugs ("running" being subjective here) & even frogs and snails. The apparent reason: fun. Just fun.

submitted 29 days ago • 81 comments

Two questions I ask my environmental philosophy students at the beginning of the semester: 1) Where does your water come from? 2) Where does it go when you’re done with it? Those two questions result in great conversations and projects. #Philsky

submitted 29 days ago • 0 comments