H.K. Andersen

@hkandersen.bsky.social

2870 Followers 615 Following

Philosopher and historian of science at Simon Fraser University, working on explanation, causation, pragmatism, time. Very geeky about science fiction/fantasy. Also photography. she/they

Two palm tree tops are silhouetted against a dark blue sky with a small crescent moon to the right of them. The glowing part of the crescent is the bottom edge of the moon, and the rest of the moon is still slightly visible as lighter than the sky around it.
On a rough thick brown paper notebook cover is a line art drawing of a snail. It is sluglike with a lovely curved shell, and lots of great texture details in fine point ink. It has two glorpy eyes on stalks and two mouth tentacles for waving slowly and sighing. It is a handsome boi.
Intersecting angles of brutalist concrete quadrangle style buildings, in the twilight with a dark blue sky behind
A meme format with new details filled in. On the left, it reads, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Then a red arrow with text above and below. Above text reads, Kissing a guy's wife is fine if you kiss him too. Below text reads, Everyone is imperfect, but being honest and forthcoming about our mistakes is the path to redemption.
A plasma ball in a completely dark room, zoomed in to show the oiston part that generates the streams of electrons. The slow motion makes it easier to see the snaking gliding motion of the streams of electricity.
sunset colours with silhouettes of about twenty crows sitting at the very top of a tree or flying just above the trees
Sunset sky over a pond with cat tails.
A view of a ridge of very rocky sharp mountains with the tops covered in snow, fading into a far horizon of even more mountains, seen over the wing of an airplane
Dark looming clouds that are slightly out of focus are visible through a window with streaks of rain on it. The streaks are in crisp focus and the little drops are silvery and bright.
View looking down into a tin lined with paper, holding four stacks of mooncakes. Two stacks are round with a flower pattern on top, two stacks have square cookies with a different flower pattern on top. This picture was taken earlier today and already those stacks are half gone.
Time lapse video of a multi layered mountain scape with fog and clouds. There is a lot of swirling at different altitudes and further north or closer to the viewer.
An elegant grey heron strolls around in knee deep water in a big decorative pond in the Academic quadrangle of Simon Fraser University. There are reflections of the brutalist building of the AQ in the water. A small mallard decoy floats near the heron. The heron strolls around a bit, facing the viewer. You can't see them in this shot but there were several enormous koi lounging nearby, quite unconcerned about the heron because they are larger than the heron's body.
A grey heron sits atop a concrete brutalist building. The building has regular lines but they are somewhat distorted because of the angle at which the photo was taken. The light is weirdly sepia coloured, a result of all the smoke.
The wreckage of an espaliered apple tree trellis, broken into pieces and pushed over, with trees branches through it. There are a lot of apples on the tree, still rather small and green but also delicious.
A hand holds up a book, Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz. The cover is very colourful, with teal and purplish reds shading into bright orange and yellow
Inside cover page of Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle
A paper wasp nest hangs nestled in the fronds of a cedar tree, viewed from the same height as the nest. The surface of the nest is whorled and woody, like an old but well maintained wooden cabin on a stormy pacific beach.
A trail into a forest. The sides are dense with bushes, and small logs lay across the entry of the trail, which help you hop over the muddy bits during rainy season. Trees rise with eerie thin light grey trunks, and leaves only up at the top canopy layer. The back of a child is visible, walking up the inclined trail into the forest. The pic is all in black and white.
A painting about two meters by two meters, under visible timbered ceiling against white walls with two deep window alcoves, a meter or so deep. The painting has a black background and is of a game animal, maybe a reindeer? But kind of a skeleton of the animal, its face is like a skull. There are brishes of browns and dark oranges that dont seem directly representational but are somehow very horror esque.
A dad and tween kid snuggled in a hammock reading a book, viewed so their heads but not faces are visible. The book could be read if zoomed in. It is about spiders. The hammock is on a small patio with greenery surrounding it. The summer evening sun washes it all in a gentle warm light.
A pair of bright red shoes on the authors feet in a book filled office
A round mango with a very vibrant dark orange colour and swirl patterns on the skin, sitting on a plain wooden table
A brutalist academic building with a wide grassy and bush filled plaza that also had a big koi pond with a bridge across it. The bridge and sidewalk leading to it are full of people in blue academic regalia, with red hoods and gold trim. Someone is carrying a sword that has a special name, at the front. A full scottish pipe band, with drums and bagpipes, plays. There really is no way to walk through or next to the procession, its several hundred people strong
An oval clear glass baking dish with yellow creme brulee in it. There are ten little patches of dark brown burnt sugar on top, with spaces in between, because trying to spoon through a full top of burnt sugar that spent the day in a fridge getting soggy would be a total mess for kids to try and serve.
A lovely ragdoll cat emerges from a doorway.
A grainy greyscale camera footage clip where a tree rises up and bushes fill the corner. A rangy looking coyote, skinny and curious, trots out of the left side of the frame, sniffing things as it trots across and into the bushes
A panoramc view of Metro Vancouver, looking westward. Burrard inlet and the north shore mountains are visible. There are streets and neighborhoods laid out in a grid over big hills, and a cluster of high rises in the middle distance. The sky is orange with sunset light and a high layer of grey-blue clouds above.
Giant pink flowers
A group of out of focus philosophy MA students listen to the local archaeological expert on Squamish historical sites, while standing in the aide of a road in the middle of a whole set of sites that go back 1500 to 12 thousand years
A fuzzy big bee with shiny eyes and leg bits on a grass stem, leg extended and on the stem as if doing a ballet routine warm up. The stem is right in the middle of a blue iris with yellow highlights and a very deep, rich colour.
A hand holds up a bright red berry, rather like a raspberry but more golden tinged in hue. Out of focus behind the hand is a trail, with trees framing a blue sky and greenery all around
Time lapse of rain clouds
A statue of Terry Fox, viewed from behind, on which sits perched a rather chipper crow. It is glossy black in the morning sun, framed against the blue sky and some of those weird bushes Arthur Erickson put around the Academic Quadrangle at Simon Fraser University campus. This is no quothing raven, it is definitely a spring chicken I mean crow.
A sign that reads, no rhubarb picking except on cake business, in the distinctive font in which Bilbo's sign read, no admittance except on party business.
Holding up the book Reclaiming The Self in Psychiatry: Creating Personal Narratives for a Humanist Science, by Şerife Tekin. There is a green hedge behind the book and a glimpse of blue sky above.
A screen announces the conference title. A wall with three stained glass windows is behind.
Two paperback academic books books lay side by side on a wooden surface. On the left is Realism for Realistic People by Hasok Chang. On the right is Cognitive Ontology: Taxonomic practices in the mind-brain sciences by Muhammed Ali Khalidi.
A corner on an office counter. Grey and beige. A black cable plugs into a socket with orange outlets. A stack of pamphlets sits in a pile. An upside down apple rests alone.
A koi pond in a green space surrounded by a mid century modern academic building. On the surface of the water, in the foreground, is a strange green looking unknown thingy that had a spiky crystalline shape. It could be kryptonite.
A video as the author walks up to somewhat gothic door frames with two brass revolving doors, and goes through the doors. The interior is revealed to be a huge soaring cathedral room complete with arches that go up three stories. There are students working at large oak tables around the main floor area. Its dark in there but that adds to the very gothic spooky cathedral effect.
Time lapse of thick clouds and mist moving over a landscape layered with mountains.
Swirling mist illuminated by the setting sun, with futuristic glass walkways.
A copper embosser, the handheld variety, rests on a blank sheet of paper. Next to it is a gold seal that it had embossed. The outer words read, From the Library of Holly Andersen. Inside the circle of these words, there is a stack of books with a mice steaming cup of tea.
A sign in a wide covered plaza. It is red, with a large Caution at the top. Then, it reads, Do Not Feed the Wildlife. There are four animal silhouettes. One is a bear, which okay, there are a couple bears who hang around, but mostly only come on campus for leftover Tim Hortons. There is a deer with a huge set of antlers, four points to a side. The most ever spotted by this author was two points a side. A racoon silhouette, which is also weirdly chubby but that is pretty accurate because the raccoons will mug you for your food. They will chase you off and be terrifying and somehow cute at the same time. The fourth and final silhouette is a pigeon. There are oretty much no pigeons on campus. But the crows rule this mountain top. They remember your face. Feed them small snacks to build your crow army. If the sign were really accurate, it would also have a seagull and a heron.
A collection of somewhat dad looking mediocre desk chairs sits at the side of a hallway. Above the collection of chairs, a sign with an arrow points to them and reads, Surplus.
A poster for a Res Philosophica conference titled Pragmatism and Scientific Inquiry. The conference is April 25 to 26 at St. Louis University. There is a webpage for more info that is on the resphilosophica.org website for conferences. It is open to the public and registration is requested. Speakers listed are Holly Andersen, Matthew Brown, Sharyn Clough, Sabina Leonelli, Joseph Rouse, and David Stump.
A long freighter ship sits in a patch of light on fark water, with a gently lit mountain behind it and lights from houses along the shore. It is night. The ski hill lights and freighter lights highlight one another.
View of the phototakers feet in new black suede boots with plaid red and black laces. The boots go above the ankle and are welted with white thread. The feet are crossed at the ankle on a wooden desk. Out of focus bookshelves in the background suggest an academic office. They look like the kind of boots that would be good for a snowy walk across campus, or for kicking ass and taking names. The red and black laces bring a very "Canada does not want your bullshit" vibe.
A long covered walkway with windows onto the sunset and warmly coloured sky. Small bird decals are visible on the windows.
A speaker stands in front in f a long black chalkboard and behind a wooden podium. Her hands are both up, palm facing outwards and down, as she answers a question. Her jacket is bright yellow and it really pops against the plain dark background. Her glasses are turquoise.
Actor Katee Sackhoff posing as Kara Thrace, known as Starbuck, from Battlestar Galactica
A raccoon on a tree limb faces the camera with a slightly panicked slightly rude sneer.
A large cylindrical concrete water tank, surrounded by trees and sky, displays a huge painted mural of an orange octopus apparently playing with bubbles.
Early evening sunset light across a panorama of mountains. The closest mountains are dark and foreboding yet also noble and cozy with a dense blanket of free trees. Clouds and fog hide the middle layer of mountains. In the farthest mountains, there is a deep blanket of fresh snow. The contrast of the white, sun-illuminated snowy mountains with the mountains hidden or shadowed by clouds is striking.
A raccoon figurine with hot pink back spikes breathes a plume of hot pink fire as it knocks over a tiny building inside a three dimensional architectural model of a residential neighborhood of mid rise apartment buildings.
A multi story concrete junction between a walkway and a plaza, with stairs leading downward and a separate staircase winding up to a higher walkway. It is evening light, deep blue, right before the sky goes black. Warm yellow lights illuminate the stairs and walkways. There are no people. It looks eerie.
Uncle Iroh from Avatar: the last airbender in a still shot where he is in a Firebender prison and getting buff by exercising secretly. In the image he is doing a one arm pull up while holding an apple.
Inigo Montoya, Wesley, and Fezzig in a still image from the movie Princess Bride.
Three main chapters from the show The Owl House are having a discussion in the house. From left to right: King, Luz, and Ida.
A still image taken from Season 2 of Good Omens, a scene in which Crowley and Arizaphale sit together in the bookshop and have tea with the newly introduced Muriel character.