Michael Skvarla
@napoleonicento.bsky.social
PhD in entomology, professor of insect ID. Co-host of @Arthro_Podshow. Slava Ukraini. Views are my own.
wow — the preprint host, arxiv, is banning authors for a year if they submit papers with hallucinated citations 🤖
Helen Branswell 🇨🇦@helenbranswell.bsky.social · 4mo agoI find this unsettling: A new study in #Lancet shows that the number of faux citations in scientific articles is on the rise, and #AI is likely to blame. @aniloza.bsky.social reports. www.statnews.com/2026/05/07/l...
Four: The motivation for program is a Memorandum to make American "Science and Technology" double plus good. But here in the real world we don't make science great simply through disruption, destruction, and hype. That approach is childish and fundamentally cannot achieve stated goals
Cool, so NSF is now going to be used to essentially launder money to tech bros because universities are just too cumbersome and disciplinary oversight and regulations and accountability are all just too stifling for innovation. $1.5B for “X-Labs.”
NSF X-Labs
NSF's mission is to advance the progress of science, a mission accomplished by funding proposals for research and education made by scientists, engineers, and educators from across the country.
nsf.gov
On May Day, the Trump admin fired a mine safety commissioner & closed the Pittsburgh office of the agency that handles mine safety disputes. @kimkelly.bsky.social reports on what that could mean for coal miners already facing black lung, silica dust & dangerous work: inthesetimes.com/article/trum...
Trump’s Latest Target: Coal Miners’ Safety
In one fell swoop, the Trump administration took an axe to the agency tasked with handling legal disputes around mine worker safety. It could signal even deeper cuts to worker protections coming down…
inthesetimes.com
There are approximately 2.8 million trans people in the US. That means FOURTEEN PERCENT of American trans people have moved across state lines in the past 18 months.
emily sunshine@threnody.northsky.social · 4mo agogwen does fantastic work as usual on some of the 401,000 trans people who’ve had to flee hostile territory in their own country in the past 18 months.
Good morning readers; Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands. Russia launched a massive 30-hour attack across Ukraine: 1,500+ drones and 50+ missiles. With 100+ dead and 50 homes hit, it’s one of the heaviest attacks in 4 years.
NEWSFLASH: Putin launches massive attacks after signaling war’s end
Some say it was the largest aerial attack since the full-scale invasion began. Over 100 people dead and 50 residential buildings hit across Ukraine.
counteroffensive.news
The honest version of this post would note that these are white Republicans trying to eliminate the district of the state's only Black US rep. You cannot tell this story properly without headlining the racism.
The New York Times@nytimes.com · 4mo agoGov. Henry McMaster of South Carolina, a Republican, plans to call the state legislature back for a special session that will be focused on redrawing the state’s congressional maps. The effort could eliminate the state’s sole Democratic district.
Reposting this thread because I think we could all do with a lil green snail with two shells.
Bronwen Scott@snailseyeview.bsky.social · 2y agoWe’ve looked at snails with one shell and slugs with no shells. Now let’s have a look at a snail with two shells, because Nature laughs at our puny attempts to pigeonhole. In today’s #AtoZ – J is for Julia (Juliidae) (1/9) Pic: © uwkwaj CC BY-NC
Pollinator declines are leading to human impoverishment and malnutrition. This study in Nepal bodes poorly for the future of food. www.livescience.com/animals/inse...
'Insect apocalypse' is already fueling malnutrition in some regions, first-of-its-kind study reveals
In a first, researchers quantify how pollinator declines contribute to food insecurity.
livescience.com
Four Pillars Gaming published hundred of AI-generated profiles over the past four months and when people asked to be taken down, they doubled down, defended their process, and refused. The ramifications of hallucinatory LLM "histories" threaten to erode truth and destroy the historical record.
AI-generated profiles of TTRPG designers ignite fury across social media
4 Pillars Gaming’s new website adds AI-generated slop to an already ephemeral online historical record.
rascal.news
Satellite imagery shows that at least 46 towns and villages in southern Lebanon have been heavily damaged or, in some cases, entirely flattened by the Israeli Defence Forces. Bellingcat’s interactive map reveals the scale of the destruction: www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/05...
Satellite Imagery Shows Ongoing Demolitions Across Southern Lebanon - bellingcat
Dozens of towns and villages within the IDF's “Yellow Line” in southern Lebanon have been heavily damaged or destroyed in recent months.
bellingcat.com
In case you wondered, this is ongoing in Minneapolis. They are still stealing our neighbors. Just because the rest of the country decided to move on doesn't mean it stopped.
Elliott Payne@elliottpayne.org · 4mo agoPeople on the ground everyday are saying that just in these first 13 days of May there’s been more ICE activity than there was all of April. We don’t know what this means exactly, but this is why we need to make sure we’re still connected to our neighborhood networks and looking out for each other.
When can I get my letter of marque from this private navy?
Gwen C. Katz@gwenckatz.bsky.social · 4mo agoThen I guess it's not a financially sustainable organization. They'll have to close some locations or shorten their hours. Alternatively, we could end the public navy and let private navies provide this service.
Watching a series of former Confederate states rush to eliminate any vestige of black representation in the House pretty much answers the question whether the Voting Rights Act was still necessary.
Georgia's governor signs a comically transparent law. It makes local elections in 5 big blue counties nonpartisan, to give GOP candidates a chance to win without a party label in places like Atlanta. And it doesn't change anything in the rest of the state, for red counties to know who's GOP.
Brian Kemp signs law making many metro Atlanta races nonpartisan
The law applies to most local government races in Democratic-dominated areas. A court challenge is expected.
ajc.com
A rather unique one today, this is a leucistic northern cardinal that frequents our botanical gardens. Many volunteers and other photographers had told me about her for months but I finally spotted her myself a couple weeks ago. 😍 #BirdOfTheDay #FeatheredFemmes #Birds #Cardinals #Photography
SOURCE CALL: I’m looking to talk to a doctor who treats trans patients and can speak to the reality of how much fat actually impacts surgical outcomes for gender-affirming surgeries. It’s for an @assignedmedia.org article about the unique experiences of fat trans folks.
We’re hiring a herpetology curator @nhm-london.bsky.social - come join us! jobs.nhm.ac.uk/internal/Job...
Senior Curator in Charge, Herpetology:South Kensington
jobs.nhm.ac.uk
#ProcB in @nytimes.com | A marine stem-myriapod from the Silurian Waukesha Lagerstätte, Wisconsin, USA: terrestrial traits pre-date the transition to land: doi.org/10.1098/rspb...
nytimes.com
Range of motion and myology support a digging function for the forelimbs of alvarezsauroid dinosaurs royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...
Range of motion and myology support a digging function for the forelimbs of alvarezsauroid dinosaurs
Abstract. Numerous lineages of theropod dinosaurs display notable modification of the forelimb, particularly reduction in size and number of digits. Alvare
royalsocietypublishing.org
Please enjoy baby Alligator Gars feeding on brine shrimp (Artemia), set to a Bluey instrumental 🙂 🐟🧪gars are planktivorous at this stage (20 mm, 12 days post-hatch), but will soon switch to eating insects and fish! They’re also already breathing air!
Huge news! I'm co-producing Alexandre O Philippe's new doc IN SEARCH OF NOSFERATU. Our team (including @pattonoswalt.bsky.social) is scouring the world for uniquely aged prints of Murnau's classic. 🚨 CAN YOU HELP? 🚨 Any leads on old prints, VHS, etc, please hit me up! Our treasure hunt is global!
Patton Oswalt Joins ‘In Search of Nosferatu’ Doc from ‘Chain Reactions’ Filmmaker
Patton Oswalt previously appeared as a talking head in Alexandre O. Philippe‘s wholly original Texas Chain Saw Massacre documentary, Chain Reactions. The pair are officially reteaming on Philippe’s ne...
bloody-disgusting.com
Thinking today of my late studiomate Jesse Hamm. He drew a lot of great pictures and wrote wonderful essays on the art and craft of illustration and cartooning. Here's a link to one of my favorite of his essays, on Alex Toth and cartoon realism: sirspamdalot.livejournal.com/89372.html
