04.03.2026 17:00
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This year, in my home country, a politician was found to have big trash bags full of money in his house. He later claimed the video was AI generated.
A man working a plow in a field - carried by a small elephant. This detail is from Sebastian Münster's Cosmographiae uniuersalis, vol. 6, 1550.
In 1550, one Elephant Power (EP) was the equivalent of 10 Horse Power (HP).
A wooden table with two books stacked on top of each other. The bottom book is the hardback edition of Discovering Statistiocs using R and RStudio by Andy Field, on top of it is the paperback edition. the hardback has a blue cover with plain text, the paperback has a he§xagonal pattern and a graphic-novel style female space pirate weirlding a futuristic gun out of which smoke forms the capital letter R.
Publication date looms ever closer ... physical copies exist (at the @sagepub.com London office, I await my own copy with excitement).
Here with the Western Illinois University Department of Biological Sciences for the annual Illinois AFS Conference! 🐟🎣
We had two students holding podium presentations, and three presenting posters! 🐠
A line graph showing NSF grant awards made through 2/27/26 for fiscal year 2026 compared with grant awards for fiscal years 2021-2025.
NSF Update (Awards through 2/27/26)
Directorates to follow
1/10
dr. tom WHAT
Header of an email indicating I died.
wow spoiler alert, random emailer
No good natural history collections in Kathmandu, but there are a couple you could check out. I have a few contacts in Kathmandu if you really want to meet some fish nerds. Let me know.
Einstein is an Al with a computer. He logs into Canvas every day, watches lectures, reads essays, writes papers, participates in discussions, and submits your homework — automatically.
There are many interesting and challenging questions about AI and education, but what to do about a student who makes use of this sort of service is really not one of them.
Hey Prosanta, are you going to Nepal for research or fun?
The U.S. spent $30 billion to ditch textbooks for laptops and tablets: The result is the first generation less cognitively capable than their parents
"I seem unreliable, but I'm actually very reliable. You just have to trust the process." Alysa Liu, U.S. Olympic figure skater
When I’m two weeks behind on my grading.
A nicer print.data.frame method showing column types, as well as a subset of rows. Inspired by data.table's print method.
I think the main issue is that many people, quite reasonably tbf, don't like the default base data.frame print method...
But this is easy to override! gist.github.com/grantmcdermo...
We aren't saying they'd win gold every time, but they'll definitely place. Which fish are you cheering for?
Seen online: ProPublica is hiring a data reporter, 5 yrs data journalism exp req'd. Salary $110K-$135K. Knowledge of Python or #RStats.
US remote or option to work in NY, DC, Atlanta, Chicago, Phoenix or Berkeley
More info:
job-boards.greenhouse.io/propublica/j...
#DDJ #JournalismJobs
Manuelli, L., Clément, G., Herbin, M. et al. A dual respiratory and auditory function for the coelacanth lung. Commun Biol (2026). 🐟🧪
doi.org/10.1038/s420...
In the large: Mortality in France, 1816-2016.
Jennifer @JenYetAgain@beige.party in 2017 a popular twitter game was to type a partial phrase then see what your phone auto-completes it with. this proved so popular that it is now the only business model in the US. Feb 9, 2026 at 4:35:18PM Boosted by 968: Favourited by 1324:
mom they’re roasting the US economy on mastodon again
The collections at @nhm-london.bsky.social are full of glorious specimens esp the Flies. But they also come with lots of extra information
Roger Crosskey wrote down his feelings 50 years ago about this species complex - his frustration evident
@dipteristsforum.bsky.social @dipterists.bsky.social
Babbage, 1830, discussing the problem that scientists selectively report findings that they want to be true.
Confirmation bias is a strong human tendency. This is why we need to design science in a way that prevents conformation bias from leading us away from the truth.
roses are red
violets are blue
both make sugars
from atmospheric CO2
🌹🌹🌹
Detailed illustration of a female Blue Crab, as seen from above.
My illustration of one of the most iconic keystone species of the U.S. Atlantic Coast, the Blue Crab (Callinectes sapidus, female), or "beautiful, savory swimmer."
🧪🌿🌎🐡 #wildlife #scicomm #sciviz #wildlifeart #illustration #scientificillustration #natureart #sciviz #scicomm #crabs #BlueCrab
Treat data like blood donations. Ask A LOT of questions.
Whose blood is this? Where did you get this blood? Why is there so much blood? Does the person you collected this blood from know you have it? Did anyone see you take this blood?
Now replace “blood” with “data”
#dataBS
THE DIGITAL CALCULATOR This marvelous machine was the 1970s' most notable contribution to the impressive list of time-and-labor-saving devices that have made it possible for Ameri-cans, since the Second World War, to waste time in job lots and get less and less done-with sleekness and precision of style. The time you can waste (I speak from experience) going chuk, chuk, chuk, chuk on your calculator and watching the little numbers go dancing across the black window—all the while feeling that you are living life at top speed —is breathtaking. Earlier additions to the list: the direct-dial long-distance telephone, the Xerox machine, the in-office com-puter, the jet airliner (not to mention the Concorde). The jet airliner, for ex-ample, encourages you to drop everything, hop on a plane, and go to Los Angeles, or wherever, at a moment's notice. Later on you can't understand how the better part of a week got shot. In light of my own not exactly staggering literary output, I have become interested in the life of Balzac. I am convinced that the reason this genius was so productive-he published at least sixty books
between ages thirty and fifty-one-was that he enjoyed no time- or labor-saving aids whatsoever, not even a typewriter. He dropped nothing and went nowhere on a moment's notice, not even to Maisons-Laffitte, which was twelve miles from Paris. He didn't ring up anybody in Brittany, much less London. He either wrote a note by hand or said the hell with it. There
I really should double check things I think I remember. It wasn’t an essay, just a entry from “In Our Time” about cultural icons of the 70s. Here it is in full:
I have heard a lot of very smart people pronounce the English word “vary” as “va-rai” instead of “va-ree.” I used to do the same, and I can see why we do so (fly, dry, cry, …).
The initial "G" on a print from 1532. A man sitting in the G and is working with a geographical instrument. This is a detail from "Introductio Geographica Petri Apiani" (Augsburg, Staats- und Stadtbibliothek, 2 LR 18#(Beibd. 2)
Being busy as an academic back then. Sitting in your working spacing (here it's the Initial "G"), wearing your thinking hat, doing scientific stuff with instruments (he's measuring), and forgetting the world outside (in this case a page in Latin about geography). The year is 1523. #academicchatter
Map showing projected changes to the Chesapeake Bay area due to sea level rise.
The fast-sinking Chesapeake Bay region offers a window into future scenarios for tidal wetlands.
Learn more on #WorldWetlandsDay: https://scim.ag/4aayxov
First dance
Book with paper roses
Laughing during a toast
You nerds will appreciate this.
I got married on Saturday! It was wonderful.
It was at a rare and historic book library, and we leaned into the theme.
Table centerpieces were books checked out of our library based on our interests, themed to that tables’ guests.
And Eileen made paper roses.