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Ainsley S

@americanbeetles.bsky.social

I hope you like pictures of bugs. Curating at CMNH, teaching at CMU, beetling everywhere

7790 Posts7944 Follower1322 Folgt
Ainsley S@americanbeetles.bsky.social · 4h ago

we have to stop recruiting volunteers with the same brain as me. I was trying to help this last one ID a galerucine chrysomelid and 45 minutes later we’re nerding out about bog bodies

Debbie Gale Mitchell@heydebigale.bsky.social · 10h ago

Okay genuinely asking— what does accountability look like for Holden Thorp and Hank Green? What I’d like to see: I’d love if @holdenthorp.bsky.social set a clear journalistic standard at SCIENCE and prohibited the use of LLMs for researching, writing, and editing publications at SCIENCE.

Debbie Gale Mitchell@heydebigale.bsky.social · 4d ago

So in the last two weeks EIC of Science and a famous science communicator have lost massive amounts of credibility because of their reliance on LLMs... Some examples of how to lose trust with your audience to share with my students I guess.

Fart Vision@slugworlds.bsky.social · 18h ago

hot take legos are actually bad for ginning kids up to be engineers because a completely self-consistent forwards- and backwards-compatible system that's easily interchangeable and can be expanded upon indefinitely with no attention paid to tolerances isn't how any engineering actually works

Ainsley S@americanbeetles.bsky.social · yesterday

I suppose one could also argue this is true of taxonomy and systematics, it's all "facts" until you realize that (1) published info is often wrong in the light of new data, and (2) every author has a different take on what the correct facts are

Aparna Nair@disabilitystor1.bsky.social · yesterday

"History involves sorting and organizing hundreds of thousands of facts" I remain astounded by how loud and wrong people are about what history actually is.

Post See new posts Conversation Megan Stevenson @MeganTStevenson I haven't heard people talking about this, but AI is an absolute game changer for doing historical research. History involves sorting and organizing hundreds of thousands of facts— a massive logistical/memory problem made so delightfully easy with agentic research. 1/ 1:31 PM · Jul 29, 2026 · 126.1K Views Relevant View quotes Megan Stevenson @MeganTStevenson · Jul 29 I did an OCR conversion of all my PDFs to make text files, built a semantic search index, and can just let my agents roam free to answer questions, fact-check, dig up interesting stories, quotes, etc. It takes a lot of the hard work out, as well as a lot of the human error. 2/2
Alex Wild@alexwild.bsky.social · 3d ago

I love finding old tree wounds, the leaking sap ferments into a yeasty mush that persists for years and is full of weird bugs. Here's a flat clown beetle, Hololepta sp, pulling a fly larva out of the muck. Western New York, last month.

Macro photos of a strangely flat black beetle, its body smooth like plastic, with pincer-like jaws pulling a yellow grub from mushy wet brown goop.Macro photos of a strangely flat black beetle, its body smooth like plastic, with pincer-like jaws pulling a yellow grub from mushy wet brown goop.
jordan@jordantyranny.bsky.social · 2d ago

GIRL SNAKE CATCHER. she makes a snug little income by securing reptiles for traveling shows SHE JUST GRABS THEM (The Washington Bee, Washington DC, November 8, 1902)

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Professor Euan Ritchie FAMS@euanritchie.bsky.social · 2d ago

This article is excellent. It speaks volumes about how governments take so many in the environmental and conservation sectors and communities for granted theconversation.com/australia-ha.... As H5N1 begins to spread and devastate Australian wildlife the dire consequences of this are evident.

Australia has long relied on volunteers and wildlife carers. As bird flu spreads, they will need support

Volunteers have been a mainstay of conservation in Australia. As bird flu spreads, they must be supported – and kept safe.

theconversation.com

Ainsley S@americanbeetles.bsky.social · 2d ago

yooooo it's the great big book of ALL vols. 1-5 of this delightful anthology!! In which I have a teeny tiny part (srsly so tiny, it's "speculative biology" about pseudoscorpions)

🌿🔮😈FORTUNA MEDIA 😈🔮🌿@fortunamedia.bsky.social · 2d ago

48 HOURS REMAIN! Our THIRD STRETCH GOAL unlocked MINUTES before crossing the two-day threshold! Have YOU 🫵👁️👁️reserved your copy (or *copies?!*) of Almost Real: the Speculative Biology series powered by an all-star cast of creators? www.kickstarter.com/projects/alm...

A screenshot of the Almost Real Book 1 and Vol. 6 campaign funding bar, reading "$57,030 pledged of $40,000 goal, 764 backers, and 47 hours to go"
Karen K. Ho@karenho.bsky.social · 2d ago

If you are an expert on air quality and have 10-15 minutes to talk to me today or tomorrow about important things journalists should know while reporting on wildfires and smoke, my DMs are open, or you can email me at karen at OpenNews dot org.

Ainsley S@americanbeetles.bsky.social · 3d ago

this evening we are enjoying Frank & Barrera's 2010 paper on staphs in the genus Belonuchus lurking around water-filled Heliconia bracts and snatching tasty mosquito pupae out of the water like inverse crocodiles

Belonuchus cephalotes lurks at the surface of a Heliconia phytotelma, just waiting for ONE plump, tasty mosquito larva/pupa to get within yoinking rangeare-you-kidding-me action shot of a successful Belonuchus cephalotes, skittering away with its succulent pupal meal (a Wyeomyia nearly the size of the beetle)
Ainsley S@americanbeetles.bsky.social · 3d ago

go see this in NY then take the Acela to DC and check out the Throne of the Third Heaven at the Smithsonian MAA, perfect pairing americanart.si.edu/artwork/thro...

The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millennium General Assembly

The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millennium General Assembly is a complex work of art created by James Hampton over a period of fourteen years.

americanart.si.edu

Art Viewer@arthistory.bsky.social · 3d ago

NYPL has the full print of Dürer’s Triumphal Arch on exhibition and you should definitely go see it if you’re in NYC.

Multi-sheet Renaissance print of an articulated sculpted embellished triumphal arch (a fantasy designed only for the print)