The town pond that adjoins my back yard is getting taken over by water caltrop, an invasive. I’ve started clearing it out, but it’s a lot of work. If any CT friends are keen for a few hours of killing an invasive while floating on a nice pond, let me know. I’ll trade beer and company for help.

The town pond that adjoins my back yard is getting taken over by water caltrop, an invasive. I’ve started clearing it out, but it’s a lot of work. If any CT friends are keen for a few hours of killing an invasive while floating on a nice pond, let me know. I’ll trade beer and company for help.

Sixty-nine million American women changed their name when they married. The SAVE Act was written knowing exactly what that means for their paperwork. actionnetwork.org/letters/tell...

Tell Your Senators: Protect our Democracy, Vote NO on the SAVE Act

Contact Congress today!

actionnetwork.org

Damn, even the Spelling Bee game is getting in on the Covid origins conspiracy theories:

Officially recruiting postdocs at GW. If you are interested in genetic novelty, structural variation, or evo genetics please get in touch! We have data sets on mulitple organisms with large population sizes (Drosophila, Megalonaias nervosa) and species in decline (fireflies, mussels, elephants).

🚨NEW PAPER 🚨 "Deconstructing empirical fitness seascapes across scales of granularity" published in #G3 (@genetics-gsa.bsky.social) 1/2 The fitness landscape has been among the most influential instruments in evolutionary theory for nearly a century. But we often treat them as fixed and static.

The form to fill out to join this program is quite short :)

Casey terHorst@ecoevolab.bsky.social · last wk.

EEB Mentor Match is now open! But apps due soon (8/17). Mentees: get help applying for grad school or fellowships in ecology & evolution. Mentors: senior grads, post-docs, or faculty in these fields willing to give advice Org by Diversity Cmte of @asn-amnat.bsky.social Pls share! eebmentormatch.com

A surfeit of empathy would seem a poor explanation for Democrats’ dismal approval ratings, even as Donald Trump alienates most Americans by enriching himself, gilding Washington and waging war without a strategy

How the American right came to hate empathy

…while practising its oldest form

bit.ly

“Trump has rejected disaster aid for Democratic-run states at the highest rate in the 47-year history of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.” Right now people in blue states are basically paying federal taxes as if they’re colonized territories of red states. www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

My comment on NSF-2026-OTR-0001, NSF's obsequious gutting of their own procedures, replacing them with OMB's proposed rules undermining federal grantmaking with their ideological agenda. Need guidance on commenting? @standupforscience.net has you covered: fight2win.standupforscience.net #NSF

Is everyone aware of the General Motors streetcar conspiracy? In the mid-20th century, auto and oil interests bought up electric streetcar systems across the US and systematically replaced them with bus routes and paved roads, funneling commuters toward private cars.

General Motors streetcar conspiracy - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I am looking for PhD students and postdocs to join my lab at the University of Pittsburgh in Fall 2027. Anyone excited about urban evolution, hummingbirds, & community engagement, please reach out! And/or find me at #AOS2026 this week! More info here: www.valentina-alaasam.com

FYI, a filmed version of the Hadestown musical is in theaters right now and it is spectacular.

Synchronicity; seeing this news story and onion article side by side in by Bluesky feed.

The disclosure marks the first time a bank has formally tied money laundering concerns to Trump's family business.

Capital One says it closed Trump Organization's accounts after anti-money laundering probe

The disclosure marks the first time a bank has formally tied money laundering concerns to Trump's family business.

reut.rs

After years of being told that undocumented immigrants and small community healthcare providers were the source of rampant healthcare fraud, the report says the overwhelming majority of alleged fraud came from, corporations. 😡 #DemVoice1 #ProudBlue #Pinks theintercept.com/2026/07/31/i...

Corporations, Not Immigrants, Are Responsible for Vast Majority of Healthcare Fraud, OIG Report Shows

Trump officials are focused on immigrants, but the Department of Health and Human Services report on healthcare fraud doesn’t even mention them.

theintercept.com

Prosecutors admit contractors hired by Trump “botched” the renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool as they sought to drop charges against the former Olympic canoeist who was accused of vandalizing the landmark. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/31/u...

Charges Dropped Against Ex-Olympian David Hearn Accused of Damaging Reflecting Pool

A former Olympian will not face trial after federal prosecutors acknowledged that the Trump administration’s claims of vandalism were false.

nytimes.com

Bordeaux, France, has now recorded more days above 40°C in 2026 alone than during the entire 105-year period from 1920 (when observations began) to 2025. This is deeply shocking.

Very cool pair of papers demonstrating little link between amount of additive genetic variation and amount of nucleotide variation within species: journals.plos.org/plosbiology/... www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Levels of additive genetic variation vary substantially between species

Adaptive potential determines how populations respond to environmental change. This study compiles evolvability estimates from over 170 multicellular species, revealing substantial variation across th...

journals.plos.org

Study Finds Most Americans Can't Find Where They Are Being Deported On Map

Great thread.

c0nc0rdance@c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 5d ago

I love this image of the Great Buddha statue in Nara, with the tiny monks capturing the grand size of the statue (15 m/50 ft). It was built as part of the original temple complex by edict of Emperor Shōmu in 743 AD. Let's talk about how SMALLPOX spread Buddhism in Japan. (📷: Yomiuri Shimbun)

Job posting: Associate Professor in behavioral ecology and cultural evolution within the Department of Ecology and Evolution (DEE) at the University of Lausanne. Deadline for applications is 30.09.2026: wwwfbm.unil.ch/releve/appli... (there is a button to switch to English at the top right)

"more teachers departed public school classrooms in Texas than at any point since at least 2007, the earliest year with state data...From 2020 to 2025, the state lost 35,000 teachers who would have stayed in the classroom...That’s equivalent to nearly 10% of the current teacher workforce."

Anne Lutz Fernandez@lutzfernandez.bsky.social · 5d ago

This new data compiled by @mattbarnum.bsky.social is invaluable. It makes clear that worries about the teacher shortage, downplayed by contrarians, were and are warranted. Importantly, it raises a largely ignored factor affecting student mental health, behavior, and academic success.

No professional accomplishment has ever made me happier than this. theonion.com/translator-o...

Translator Of Original ‘Minions’ Epic Poem Slams ‘Sexless, Bloodless’ Film Adaptation

PHILADELPHIA—In a 4,500-word essay published in Harper’s Magazine, Emily Wilson, known for her popular translation of the Minions epic poem, blasted the latest film Thursday as a “sexless, bloodless” ...

theonion.com

Have I mentioned how much I love political cartoons?

but it is very clear that almost anywhere in the US, the 0-year postdoc salary puts a household of two right in the middle of the income distribution.

JFC

BK. Titanji@boghuma.bsky.social · 6d ago

The enshitification of everything by AI knows no bounds. I had colleagues attending this IAS session text me screenshot. You have to not care by a lot to be this sloppy. "US government map of Africa mislabels every country at global conference" www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

++BREAKING++ The UK and Spanish governments have issued a joint statement overnight: "[We] agreed that this summer’s wildfires demonstrated that climate change was now a national security emergency facing Europe and threatening our way of life." www.gov.uk/government/n...

"politicizing science remains a vital political tactic." "Wednesday’s hearing was another example of how criticizing scientists has become an important outlet for the [Republican] party – and where relitigating the Covid crisis justifies skepticism of a broad range of science."

Prof Sheena Cruickshank@sheencr.bsky.social · 7d ago

Good summary of what the insanity that was the Fauci hearing yesterday was about- basically a senators vendetta against Fauci and overall an attack on science versus conspiracy theories. An absolute shocking display from the Republican senators involved.

The Chinese Communist Party, once famous for pillaging from the natural world, has set to protecting parts of it. But the country’s “eco-authoritarian” approach deserves scrutiny

China’s mightiest river is coming back from the brink

But eco-authoritarianism is not all roses

bit.ly