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Karen James

@kejames.bsky.social

7.7K followers 2.6K following 2.6K posts

Environmental geneticist & outdoorswoman into eDNA, botany, evolution, space, sci-comm, skiing, Outlander & kindness • auntie • cat mom • honorary dog mom (she/her) 📍Unceded Wabanaki land (aka Maine)

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Karen James @kejames.bsky.social · 27d

Thank you for loving my turtles, everyone. 🥹

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Karen James @kejames.bsky.social · 20m

I’d be happy to introduce you to a couple Lep folks I know at the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario who I think have written up similar things if that would be helpful.

Karen James @kejames.bsky.social · 42m

Good! Now all the rest.

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Karen James @kejames.bsky.social · 12h

As far as I know, fishing boots don’t have heels, but these sure do. Hrrrrrr.

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Karen James @kejames.bsky.social · 13h

Oh wow.

Karen James @kejames.bsky.social · 13h

Fun fact: JD wrote that song in 10 minutes, on an Aspen chairlift, in the year of my birth, 1973, after an exhilarating ski run, and yes, that absolutely does further cement his place in my heart.

Karen James @kejames.bsky.social · 13h

I have loved John Denver since I was a 3-year-old girl in pigtails, just learning to ski in the Colorado high country. You might think that’s corny, but if so, please watch this performance of Annie’s Song and say it to my face. *dons boxing gloves* youtu.be/4Nz-AT70ZX0?...

John Denver - Annie's Song

YouTube video by Scottie Lore

youtu.be

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Karen James @kejames.bsky.social · 15h

Oh man, these are dark.

Dark and true.

🫠

McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · 15h

What is the name of your least favorite child?

In what year did you abandon your dreams?

What is the maiden name of your father's mistress?

Nihilistic Password Security Questions

What is the name of your least favorite child? In what year did you abandon your dreams? What is the maiden name of your father’s mistress? At what...

buff.ly

Karen James @kejames.bsky.social · 20h

Oh no! Holding you all in my thoughts. ♥️

Reposted by Karen James

Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 21h

Lol the Nobels can't even acknowledge women's contribution to discovery. But sure let's acknowledge The Machines.

Headline from an article in Nature this week that states "Prizes must recognize machine contributions to discovery. The future of science will be written by humans and machines together. Awards should reflect that reality."

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Karen James @kejames.bsky.social · 21h

The Nobel committee, until today, apparently:

a group of people are sitting around a table with the words `` we don 't serve their kind here '' written above them .

Alt: Star Wars Cantina scene: a group of aliens are sitting at a bar and the bartender is pointing at droids (off screen) saying, “we don 't serve their kind here”

media.tenor.com

Karen James @kejames.bsky.social · 1d

“Some illegal rabble rouser” – Pontius Pilate, probably

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

Mike Johnson: "If you're a young, pregnant American citizen women who shows up in an ER and you get treated and they pay the hospital less for treating you than some illegal rabble rouser who came in from some South American country to do us harm, that is wrong."

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Karen James @kejames.bsky.social · 1d

Right? It’s wild he chose THAT as his example.

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Reposted by Karen James

David Roberts @volts.wtf · 1d

The Atlantic, the NYT, the Post, the Free Press, Persuasion ... god, so many others ... they did it. They participated in the destruction of norms against bigotry & now bigotry is running rampant, out in the open, at the highest levels.

Great work everyone.

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Karen James @kejames.bsky.social · 1d

Timeline cleanse: the “whale pump”

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 1d

The global whaling industry experienced a boom c. 1840-1950 as technology allowed whalers to hunt the Southern Ocean around Antarctica.

Under standard models, we would have expected krill populations to have *exploded*.

Instead, they DROPPED exponentially.

Let's talk about the KRILL PARADOX.

Change in distribution and abundance of southern right whales. (A) Shows historical and contemporary wintering distributions (Figure 1 from Carroll et al., 2018), and (B) shows decline in abundance and subsequent recovery (solid line is the mean, dashed line shows upper and lower 95% CI). Modified Figure 1 from Jackson et al. (2008). Contemporary sightings are divided into regions where large aggregations are seen during winter: Argentina (ARG), Brazil (BZL), South Africa (SAF), southwest Australia (SWA), south central Australia (SCA), and New Zealand sub-Antarctic (NZSA) and regions where sightings are typically of small numbers of individuals per year. The large aggregations are IWC management units and correspond to historical whaling grounds, although another 5 whaling grounds show little sign of recovery. Summer feeding areas are poorly described and so not shown.

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Karen James @kejames.bsky.social · 1d

Awful. And also. Why are we contracting janitors and cafeteria workers instead of hiring them as staff? 🧐

I can think of a few reasons, but none of them are good.

Karen James @kejames.bsky.social · 1d

Bah Hahbah

Karen James @kejames.bsky.social · 1d

Ha, so they’re the same in this case!

Karen James @kejames.bsky.social · 1d

Do you mean CM (Carl Morck)?

Reposted by Karen James

Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 1d

Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE

nyti.ms

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Karen James @kejames.bsky.social · 1d

Thinking a bit more about this, I would like a documentary about I Can Has Cheezburger someday.

Can has?

Karen James @kejames.bsky.social · 2d

Apropos to my last post, anyone else miss I Can Has Cheezburger sometimes? Ceiling cat, basement cat, lolrus and his bucket, etc. etc..., those were fun, innocent times.

Karen James @kejames.bsky.social · 1d

This @variety.com interview with Gary Oldman is *chef kiss*. He’s such an amazing actor, and I happen to be in love with Slow Horses right now… okay, yes, in part because of my strong nostalgia for the real London, but hey ho. youtu.be/pRqCFKBTHhU?...

Does Sir Gary Oldman Know His Lines?

YouTube video by Variety

youtu.be

Karen James @kejames.bsky.social · 2d

Sometimes you hike up the trail to see the autumn leaves at their peak and you just see fog.

Wood signpost on a rock cairn with some huckleberry bushes behind it and fog all around

Reposted by Karen James

Scott Santens @scottsantens.com · 2d

Everyone needs to know that Dolly Parton responded to a climate disaster in her community with a temporary universal basic income for everyone who lost their homes.

Here's a short documentary about it:

The Great Equalizer: What Dolly Parton & a Tennessee Wildfire Can Teach About Universal Basic Income

YouTube video by In The Mesh

youtu.be

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Karen James @kejames.bsky.social · 2d

Yes. Thanks!

Karen James @kejames.bsky.social · 2d

Thanks! Someone else beat you to it but I'll let you know if they forget to send it.