Author | Lightnews

Ashley Reynolds, Cat Lady PhD @ashleyreynolds.ca · 4d

Super important update to our estimates of the number of birds killed by domestic cats each year in Canada!

Jonathan J. Chu @jonathanjojochu.bsky.social · 8d

How many #birds are killed by #cats in Canada? Between 19-197 million! This is the main result from my first chapter of my PhD thesis just published in Avian Conservation and Ecology. ace-eco.org/vol20/iss2/a...
@gowelizabeth.bsky.social
@ryannorrissci.bsky.social

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Reposted by Ashley Reynolds, Cat Lady PhD

Jonathan J. Chu @jonathanjojochu.bsky.social · 8d

How many #birds are killed by #cats in Canada? Between 19-197 million! This is the main result from my first chapter of my PhD thesis just published in Avian Conservation and Ecology. ace-eco.org/vol20/iss2/a...
@gowelizabeth.bsky.social
@ryannorrissci.bsky.social

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Reposted by Ashley Reynolds, Cat Lady PhD

Des Fitzgerald @desfitzgerald.bsky.social · 11d

Seeing people nonchalantly post stuff like makes me feel like I'm going crazy honestly.

A post from an academic on blue sky that says: "I'm learning about "prompt engineering" when asking LLMs to extract data. I now add this to all instructions:

Style
Be concise, analytic, and specific (cite page/figure if provided). If essential info is missing, keep going but flag Unclear and exact data needed. Never invent data.

#academicsky"

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Ashley Reynolds, Cat Lady PhD @ashleyreynolds.ca · Sep 15

I finished the lecture with five minutes to spare and only noticed one typo while I delivered it

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Ashley Reynolds, Cat Lady PhD @ashleyreynolds.ca · Sep 15

My students: what’s on the midterm????

Me: I haven’t even finished making the lecture I’m giving you in half an hour, I have no idea.

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Reposted by Ashley Reynolds, Cat Lady PhD

Kaedan O'Brien, Ph.D. @deadbovids.bsky.social · Aug 29

Whenever dealing with elephants, bovids, dogs, and frankly a lot of other mammals, we should always assume deep population structure and frequent hybridization

Owen Goodchild @paleowen.bsky.social · Aug 29

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Columbian mammoth mitogenomes from Mexico uncover the species’ complex evolutionary history

Paleogenomic studies suggest that Mammuthus columbi derives from an ancient hybridization between Mammuthus primigenius and Mammuthus trogontherii. While its habitat spanned from North to Central Amer...

www.science.org

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Ashley Reynolds, Cat Lady PhD @ashleyreynolds.ca · Aug 29

oh no why did I come on here, this week was already stressful enough

Reposted by Ashley Reynolds, Cat Lady PhD

Dr. Nick Posegay @nposegay.bsky.social · Aug 27

There will be many casualties from UChicago ending ('pausing') PhD admissions in Humantities, but one which I am keenly aware of: this is close to a death sentence for teaching cuneiform in the United States (esp. Sumerian, Hittite, Elamite, Eblaite, Luwian) and it will affect the whole world.

Annette Yoshiko Reed @annetteyreed.bsky.social · Aug 27

“Chicago has long helped to keep alive tiny fields & esoteric areas of humanistic study... Without the univ’s support, & the continued training of grad students who can keep these bodies of kn going, entire spheres of human learning might eventually blink out.” www.theatlantic.com/culture/arch...

If the University of Chicago Won’t Defend the Humanities, Who Will?

Why it matters that the University of Chicago is pausing admissions to doctoral programs in literature, philosophy, the arts, and languages

www.theatlantic.com

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Ashley Reynolds, Cat Lady PhD @ashleyreynolds.ca · Aug 14

Do you think it will be all human stuff, or will zooarchaeology make an appearance? I know very little about humans, but study animals that were alive at the same time as them so there is some overlap

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Reposted by Ashley Reynolds, Cat Lady PhD

Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · Aug 13

The First Lego League is a competition that schools from all over the place compete in. As part of the competition they need to consult with an expert. A lot of clubs use our program to make that connection.

This year's theme is archaeology. It's all-hands-on-deck for archaeologists.

Skype a Scientist @skypeascientist.bsky.social · Aug 13

This is an official Skype a Scientist HQ Mayday Alert to all Archaeologists.

We've already gotten more requests for archaeologists than we have archaeologists. We have 38. We need a lot more than 38!

Dig yourself into this database, we NEED ya
www.skypeascientist.com/sign-up.html

Sign Up

Skype a Scientist gives you the opportunity to connect with students and the public around the world.

www.skypeascientist.com

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Reposted by Ashley Reynolds, Cat Lady PhD

Andrej Spiridonov @andrejpaleo.bsky.social · Aug 13

The history of late Quaternary-to recent European bisons:
"The abundance of European bison specimens responded negatively to the extent of forest cover, including Holocene cycles."
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....
🧪 ⚒️ #Paleobio #EvoBio #Macroecology

Diets of bisons and the climate change in the late Quaternary.

Variation of bison occurences through time and the tree cover and climate proxies.

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Ashley Reynolds, Cat Lady PhD @ashleyreynolds.ca · Aug 13

It could always be worse, I got this once. In a Word Perfect document. After the paper was published.

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Caitlin G. DeAngelis @caitlindeangelis.bsky.social · Aug 13

One important thing to understand about Harvard is the Metaphor Hedge.

The Metaphor Hedge is a block-long lilac hedge outside the Barker Center. They could have chosen any kind of bush for this, but they chose lilac. Then they prune it ruthlessly so it cannot bloom.

(pic is late April)

a long green hedge with one teeny tiny visible lilac blossom

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Reposted by Ashley Reynolds, Cat Lady PhD

Gabriel Ugueto @serpenillus.bsky.social · Aug 13

I missed #worldelephantday yesterday but here are some sketches of some extinct elephant relatives 🐘

Rough sketches of Mammut americanum (top) and Deinotherium giganteum (bottom)

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Reposted by Ashley Reynolds, Cat Lady PhD

Large Marge Sent Me 👻 @restingdinoface.bsky.social · Jul 18

This sucks, and we keep hearing the same story over and over. Privately-owned dinosaurs, in someone’s foyer or on loan to a museum, can’t be studied because they can be yanked from view or sold again with no notice. No access, no reproducibility, no sustained long term care. Only assholes do this.

Jurassic perk? A rare dinosaur skeleton from a Utah museum sells for massive amount at auction

A Ceratosaurus skeleton sold for millions of dollars at auction Wednesday. It had previously been owned by Thanksgiving Point.

www.sltrib.com

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Reposted by Ashley Reynolds, Cat Lady PhD

Jen C Mars @jencmars.bsky.social · Jul 18

A friendly neighbor

I think this is Melissodes bimaculatus, a local solitary bee, and a male given the very long antennae. All around a very good bee!

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Reposted by Ashley Reynolds, Cat Lady PhD

Sami Mark @samimarkart.bsky.social · Jun 21

I have a dream of selling items in aquarium gift shops, for now I’m occupying myself by drawing the things I’d like to see in one!
#bsnm 🐡🐙🦑

hand holding a bumper sticker with text that reads “i’d rather be at the aquarium.” with a blue background and various ocean species surrounding it.

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Reposted by Ashley Reynolds, Cat Lady PhD

Craig Shackleton @craigshackleton.com · Jun 15

It is really really sinking in for me the degree to which LLMs are the ultimate expression of right wing anti-intellectualism. Its proponents are literally mocking the idea that anyone would ever want to learn anything, know anything, develop any actual skill, or have a thought of their own.

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🌻OK MR. SUNSHINE!🌻 @entobiologist.bsky.social · Jun 11

the new developments on inat inspired me to make a diagnostic thread for every insect order because there's only like 30something of them. going to try and avoid exceptions and extremely technical characteristics when possible. 🧵

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Reposted by Ashley Reynolds, Cat Lady PhD

franz @franzanth.bsky.social · Jun 11

Even if iNat seems dispensable to you due to your abundance of local resources, it's the only thing people like me have.

They're now taking feedback from the community so this is our chance to steer them in a better direction.

I don't want the platform to die, I want it to do better.

iNaturalist @inaturalist.bsky.social · Jun 11

(2/3) In the meantime, we don't want to lose track of any of the really valuable feedback coming in. If you have significant or longer feedback, suggestions, or ideas you’re willing to give us to inform the development of the project, please use this form: inaturalist.typeform.com/to/hCrKAbW0

iNaturalist grant funding from Google: Community feedback

Please share your feedback with us

inaturalist.typeform.com

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Celeste Ng @pronounced-ing.bsky.social · Jun 11

One of the best things about iNaturalist is that there were actual people out there, looking at others' photos and sharing their actual knowledge. Community based science. Adding GenAI tools defeats that entire purpose.

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franz @franzanth.bsky.social · Jun 11

the iNaturalist situation is basically this, but replace artists with taxonomists

twarda.bsky.social @twarda.bsky.social · Jun 11

And thus getting rid of the original artist cuz they can't pay the rent. While the 'poor' AI bro is selling the trained data to oblivious folks and getting rich. But how long it will take the AI bros realize there are no artists left, and the only content they can scrape is their own now?

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Rachel Gilmore @rachelgilmore.bsky.social · Jun 10

Wow.

If you follow me because you thought I'd be blindly loyal to any politician or party, you followed me for the wrong reasons.

My job is to hold power to account and to give a voice to the voiceless. Even when that might be unpopular.

I'm a journalist, not a cheerleader!

KD Terry @terryawhile.bsky.social · Jun 10

@rachelgilmore.bsky.social

I posted a piece supporting you after CTV cancelled your daily election coverage. I thought it was unfair, and so did many who follow me, and reposted what I wrote.

What happened to you? Your coverage was edgy, true. Now, it’s downright Anti-Carney. Unfollowing you! 🖕

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Reposted by Ashley Reynolds, Cat Lady PhD

Karma Co-op @karmacooptoronto.bsky.social · Jun 10

🪡 Have a portable sewing machine?
Join our growing cadre of fabric fixers for the repair cafe!
🗓️ Sunday, June 22, from 12-3pm.
📍 Outside Karma Co-op (739 Palmerston Avenue, Toronto), weather allowing. Rain location inside store.
💵 Free to attend!
#RepairCafe #TorontoCommunity #ZeroWaste

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Reposted by Ashley Reynolds, Cat Lady PhD

Dianna Gunn Does (Fictional) Murders 🇨🇦 @diannalgunn.bsky.social · Jun 9

Canadians, I realize all eyes are on the US but:

Carney's introduced Bill C-5 which is basically Doug Ford's Bill 5 but for the whole country, allowing corporations to do whatever the fuck they want to our land in the name of the economy, Indigenous rights and environmental concerns be damned

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