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freshwater fELA 🇨🇦

@not-klaatu.bsky.social

Michael D. Rennie, Professor of Aquatic Biology at Lakehead University, Research Fellow at the IISD ELA. He/him. Dad w/ 3 awesome kids. Klaatu barada nikto. Views = mine. http://ceelab.ca

276 Posts803 Follower426 Folgt
Kent Fellows@gkfellows.bsky.social · 3d ago

In addition to @alexusherhesa.bsky.social 's well reasoned and understandably scathing critique of this recent MLI Study, I would assert that even if the authors addressed all of Alex's concerns, the paper STILL wouldn't actually show what it purports to. Let me explain in a too lengthy thread 1/16

Alex Usher@alexusherhesa.bsky.social · 3d ago

Here is my letter to the MacDonald Laurier Institute on the subject of their appalling research. Use as you will. I recommend sending something of your own, though. And if you know anyone associated with MLI - and Board directors, say - send it to them, too.

Carl Zimmer@carlzimmer.com · 5d ago

UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke to combine herbaria, creating the third-largest university plant collection in the United States ncbg.unc.edu/2026/08/31/u...

UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke to combine herbaria, creating the third-largest university plant collection in the United States - North Carolina Botanical Garden

The combined herbaria will create an unmatched archive for studying plant diversity in the southeastern United States (Chapel Hill, N.C.— Aug. 31, 2026) UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke University will unite....

ncbg.unc.edu

Tom Near@tjnear.bsky.social · last wk.

1/7 🐟🧬 New preprint! "The largest radiations of freshwater fishes initiated at the K-Pg boundary" Phylogeny of Otocephala: Clupeiformes, Alepeocephaliformes, & Ostariophysi 144 species, UCEs + whole genomes, Bayesian dating. 11,700+ species covered. Here is what we found 🧵👇

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Carl T. Bergstrom@carlbergstrom.com · 2w ago

As LLMs get better at certain tasks and much more convincing, it's a useful exercise to ask about a subject you know intimately. Here, ChatGPT 5.6 diagrams the wrong game, doubles down, then finally admits its mistake. It cites a paper that doesn't exist, doubles down, and finally confesses again.

ChatGPT query: Diagram the enquist model of agonistic signaling [poster output]User: This is fucked up. So you just made that up. ChatGPT: Yes. I did, and you’re right to call it out. My first description was not a faithful account of Enquist’s model. I supplied a plausible generic sequence for agonistic assessment—“initial assessment → signaling → reassessment → escalation”—without having verified that those were actually the stages or assumptions in Enquist (1985). Then, when you challenged the “prior information” point, I compounded the problem by giving another specific reconstruction instead of checking the source first. I’ve now checked secondary material explicitly discussing Enquist’s 1985 model, and it describes the model as one in which players choose among possible displays/actions in an agonistic game, with the evolutionary question being when those choices can constitute honest signaling. That is importantly different from the staged assessment process I initially gave you. So: do not use either of my previous stage descriptions as a representation of Enquist (1985). I should have looked up the paper/model before answering a source-specific question.ChatGPT: Yes. You’re right — again. The poster actually says: Enquist, M. (1985). “Communication during agonistic encounters.” In R. R. Hinde (Ed.), Advances in the Study of Behavior, Vol. 15, 65–106. Academic Press. And that citation is not the original Enquist model paper I should have been using. I made three separate errors here: I generated an unverified citation, then misreported what the poster said twice. That’s a basic source-handling failure. If you want, I can now do this properly: verify the actual Enquist agonistic-signaling model from the primary paper and give you only the real sequence/stages, with no reconstruction. User: The paper on the poster doesn't even exist. ChatGPT: Correct. That poster citation is fabricated. I generated a title and book chapter that do not exist.
John Michael McGrath@jm-mcgrath.bsky.social · 2w ago

It carries real risks but if Canada is ever going to use the energy weapon, a midterm election where US voters are already primed for sensitivity about gasoline and electricity prices would be the time to do it.

Thomas Seal@twseal.bsky.social · 2w ago

Carney's statement says important progress was made in talks but "last-minute changes in the US proposed terms were unfair, uneconomic, and called into question the reliability of any deal" Full statement:

Marco Festa-Bianchet 🇨🇦@marcofesta.bsky.social · 2w ago

5 former chairs of the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, myself included, raise alarm over the Carney gov't proposed 'major projects' initiative. It will lead to extinctions, likely including southern resident killer whales www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

Proposed changes to endangered species law would 'stab it to death,' says scientist | CBC News

The former chairs of a panel that advises the federal government on endangered wildlife have published an open letter highlighting concerns over proposed changes to the Species At Risk Act, which they...

cbc.ca

The Beaverton@thebeaverton.com · 3w ago

“I would never have agreed to be a diplomat in Canada if I knew I’d have to be diplomatic to Canadians,” says Pete Hoekstra

"I would never have agreed to be a diplomat in Canada if I knew I'd have to be diplomatic to Canadians," says Pete Hoekstra

OTTAWA - Tensions between Canada and the United States flared this week when US Ambassador Pete Hoekstra was captured on a live microphone admitting that he regretted his decision to accept a diplomatic post in Canada, citing his lack of interest in being diplomatic toward Canadians.

thebeaverton.com

freshwater fELA 🇨🇦@not-klaatu.bsky.social · last mo.

What it looks like when people have principles and stand up to corruption. I feel like we haven’t seen this as a society as often as we used to, or as much as we should.

Karen Pauls@karenpaulscbc.bsky.social · last mo.

#Breaking: #FIFA president Gianni Infantino said on Friday ‌world soccer's governing body has scrapped plans to sell a stake in the World Cup to private investors ⁠after ⁠widespread ‌backlash. www.cbc.ca/sports/socce...

Stephen Heard@stephenbheard.bsky.social · last mo.

In which I vent about the foolishness we display when we say "Our budgets have been cut? We'll just have to do more with less". That's a losing strategy, every time. Why do we teach toddlers, but not governments, that choices have consequences?

The foolishness of “doing more with less”

I got a little bit riled up the other day, and I realized that it might be worth sharing because the thing that riled me is a longstanding pattern in academia (at least in Canada, anyway). It’s a w…

scientistseessquirrel.wordpress.com

Marco Festa-Bianchet 🇨🇦@marcofesta.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Stunning indeed. There were likely many introductions of fish, wildlife and plants by people thousands of years ago. Some oral tradition and archeo evidence in N Am for plants (butternut), fish (trout above falls), reptiles (turtles as totems) mammals (mountain goats!) on islands. 🧪

Chris Harrod@profchrisharrod.bsky.social · 2mo ago

stunning paper highlighted by @profcolinbean.bsky.social www.cambridge.org/core/journal... Time to change our thinking about fish distributions? This is amazing. Did stone age fishers introduce fishes to Scandinavian mountain lakes 5000 ybp? Were they doing the same elsewhere in Europe?