Ben Young Landis

Let me know if this posting experiment worked! I'm still playing with how best to use LinkedIn and Bluesky after my hiatus.

If you follow ocean policy, you know that the Trump administration’s aggressive push for deep-sea mining is rapidly shaping up to be the defining ocean policy issue of this second term. As this… | M... If you follow ocean policy, you know that the Trump administration’s aggressive push for deep-sea mining is rapidly shaping up to be the defining ocean policy issue of this second term. As this head...

If you follow ocean policy, the Trump admin’s aggressive push for deep-sea mining is THE ocean issue right now. From Guam’s fight on the frontlines (glad NPR covered this yesterday!) to the shaky economics, I put a little primer on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

From Taipei, Taiwan: New Bloom Newsletter, March 4, 2026 Does Taiwan Truly Remember the 228 Massacre, 79 Years Later? • KMT grosstalgia • FAP espionage • Iran • Trump • tariffs • Myanmar • medtech migrant workers • 買了都沒穿 • TransUtopia

Check out the latest New Bloom Substack! Here we look at the history of the 228 Massacre, recent impacts from Iran on Taiwan, and our latest events

Childish Things It’s been over seventy years that Taiwan has faced military threats from China. This last time, the drills were launched right before the end of the year, because the Chinese government apparently fel...

Wrote about the age of manchildren running the world in my latest for @flaminghydra.com

Photo of Mahi Mahi stuffed animal dolls

Photo of mackerel gin sold by Fish Bar in Hualien Taiwan

Photo of marine fisheries education postcards sold at Fish Bar Hualien Taiwan

And yes, Fish Bar in Hualien, Taiwan, actually sells booze, in addition to fisheries outreach. Mackerel-dashi infused gin for your gin and tonic! And the cutest mahi-mahi plushies (sold in sexually dimorphic pairs!) 🦑🐡🧪

www.fishbar.com.tw

Instagram Create an account or log in to Instagram - Share what you're into with the people who get you.

#TeamFish friends in Alaska, Washington, California: These marine educators from Hualien, Taiwan are doing a U.S. West Coast swing and want to meet like minds in fisheries/mariculture/coastal science outreach! Do reach out and say hi!

🧪 www.instagram.com/fishbar8
🦑 www.instagram.com/p/DVtEj_wkocg/

The Pokémon Company Is Actively Recruiting PhD Holders With Backgrounds in Ecology to Work in Tokyo Special research.

I know there are *so* many of you evolution and ecology fiends out there who'd be perfect!! "The Pokémon Company is specifically looking for those with research experience in animal and plant ecology, with Japanese and English language skills on top." (IGN) nordic.ign.com/pokemon-poko... #SciComm 🧪

15 years after Fukushima meltdown, an innkeeper makes radiation surveys to revitalize her hometown Tomoko Kobayashi reopened her inn in northeastern Fukushima to bring a sense of normal life back to her deserted hometown five years after the nuclear disaster.

"'We are not professional scientists, but we can measure and show the data. What’s important is to keep measuring, because the government maintains that it’s safe, as if radiation no longer exists... But we know for a fact that it’s still there.'" (AP) apnews.com/article/japa... 🧪

NO NO NO YOU DON’T

GUYS LET ME PLEASE SPREAD THE GOSPEL OF FREE TAX USA

federal is free, state is $16, handles even my chaotic freelancer taxes just fine, same step-by-step “designed for normies” kind of interface as TurboTax but NOT EVIL

tell everyone you know

www.freetaxusa.com

I’m in Brazil right now and some random woman wished my friend and me “Feliz Dia das Mulheres!” (Happy Women’s Day!). Granted Brazilians love to celebrate everything, but it would be nice if the holiday was appreciated *a bit* more in the US.

Horizontal photo of a crayon sketch of an anchovy with mouth closed

I enjoyed some anchois frais marinés today at my friends' restaurant, so here's Engraulis encrasicolus / European anchovy for #SundayFishSketch today. Bon appétit! (And always a fun reminder that anchovies look like real-life Muppets with their big eyes and exaggerated mouths!) 🦑🐡🧪

Did you know there's a new option for registering 2D artwork with the U.S. Copyright Office?

Group Registration for Two-Dimensional Artwork (GR2D) now lets you register 2–20 published two-dimensional pieces with a single application and one filing fee as long as they're from the same calendar year.

Group Registration of Two-Dimensional Artwork (GR2D) | U.S. Copyright Office Group Registration of Two-Dimensional Artwork (GR2D)

The application is now available through the Copyright Office’s online registration system: www.copyright.gov/registration/gr2d/

PRC military flights around Taiwan fall - Taipei Times Bringing Taiwan to the World and the World to Taiwan

Honestly, it's anybody's guess as to why there has been such a drop in PLA air intrusions, at best we have educated guesses but I'm wary of hot takes on the matter

www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/...

Join us for the third session of our five-part reading group on Taiwanese History 101!

Pre-Ordering Books Makes You More of a Citizen of Literature Recently on Bluesky, I was shouting as usual about Lessons in Magic and Disaster, my novel that comes out in about a month. (It's about a young trans woman...

All caps: PREORDERS MAKE A HUGE DIFFERENCE IN THE LIFE OF A BOOK

as @charliejane.bsky.social explains here: ”When you pre-order a book, you are taking a more active role in supporting that book and that author, and it makes your relationship with both quite a bit more meaningful.”

Podcasters that are making series based on aggregating information from books:
1. Cite the books
2. Encourage your listeners to read past the information you gave them

Otherwise what you’re doing is a little culture vulture-y

The other thing I need to say is that PUBLICATIONS NEED TO COVER CULTURE INCLUDING BOOKS

I keep hearing that publications are declining to do book reviews. Places like @physicstoday.aip.org and WaPo got rid of their book sections entirely 🧪

We want people to learn about science but where?

“Nolen said she recently visited one of the communities in Utah seeing high numbers of measles to talk with people who have been infected about their experience with the virus… Nolen said the people she spoke with told her that contracting measles was much worse than they expected.”

Patients say measles 'worse than expected' as Utah hits 350+ infections, doctors say Health officials plead with residents to vaccinate against measles as Utah hits 358 infections.

Over 120 people have been hospitalized due to measles in Utah alone. "It is, at this time a real threat in our state and something we can do to stop it," said Dr. Leisha Nolen, state epidemiologist… pleading for people to get themselves and their children vaccinated.” @jackiantonovich.bsky.social

Iran conflict and China: How it is unsettling Beijing and its ambitions China is not feeling the shock of war in the Middle East - yet. But it is feeling the ripples.

#BBCNews - 'What is the game plan?': The Iran war is unsettling China and its ambitions
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

US asked Ukraine for help fighting Iranian drones, Zelensky says Ukraine's president says Kyiv will only help if doing so does not deplete its own air defences.

#BBCNews - US asked Ukraine for help fighting Iranian drones, Zelensky says
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
#UkraineWar

Exclusive: US investigation points to likely US responsibility in Iran school strike, sources say Military investigators believe it is likely that U.S. forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls' school that killed scores of children on Saturday, two U.S. officials told Reu...

Reuters Exclusive

"U.S. military investigators believe it is likely that U.S. forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls' school."

"The strike would rank among the worst cases of civilian casualties in decades of U.S. conflicts in the ​Middle East."

Wearable Air Samplers Reveal How Wildfire Shapes the Exposome

My story on researchers using silicone wearables to understand what’s in wildfire smoke is also my 1st for @jmirpub.bsky.social

Many thx to Krystal Pollitt @yalesph.bsky.social, Mary Margaret Johnson @hsph.harvard.edu & Heather Stapleton @duke-university.bsky.social!

Tomorrow!

Next Monday! I’ll be leading this again

MoCA Taipei just has such excellent curation. Latest exhibition, an exploration of Taiwanese artist collectives, has several excellent/weird installations, including this stunning driftwood sculpture of the skeleton of a specific beached whale.

See this thread: bsky.app/profile/pyba...

Bluesky: stop speculating about the motivations behind all our decisions and actions

Users: no problem! Just let us know what is going on and why so we don’t have to guess!

Bluesky: No 🫶🏻

We’ve been literally BEGGING the team to hire a dedicated, skilled, professional public communicator but they’d rather just blame us for not having enough information….because they’ve chosen not to give it to us.