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Austin Lawrence, PhD

@humanaustinology.bsky.social

1.7K followers 920 following 73 posts

Paleoanthropologist, anatomist. Trying to figure out the evolution of the human hip and pelvis. Assistant Professor of Anatomy at Western University of Health Sciences. I ride bikes, play drums, and do what my dog tells me. 🏳️‍🌈/Ace. he/they

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Austin Lawrence, PhD @humanaustinology.bsky.social · Jan 8

I'm very excited to share a new paper out this week with co-authors Ashley Hammond and Carol Ward.

doi.org/10.1016/j.jh...

3D acetabular orientation vectors (normal vectors to the acetabular plane) overlayed on a human pelvis and shown in views representing the median plane, lumbosacral plane, and orthogonal comparative plane. Colors of the vectors and colors and symbols for the data points represent their taxonomic group. Within each view, all vectors are the same length. The view in the orthogonal comparative plane (top left), which approximates an anterior/ventral view, and the view in the median plane (center right) show that humans and most fossil hominins have more ventrally oriented acetabula than other groups but that groups do not differ in their acetabular orientation relative to the lumbosacral plane. The view in the lumbosacral plane (bottom left) approximates a cranial view and shows that humans have more ventrally oriented acetabula than other extant anthropoids, which have predominantly laterally facing acetabula.

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Austin Lawrence, PhD @humanaustinology.bsky.social · 28d

I have also been wrestling with this since I heard the news. Calling this “political violence” while advancing white supremacist policies and advocating for violence against and the removal of whole classes of people is the height of hypocrisy. And yet, here we are.

Reposted by Austin Lawrence, PhD

Ted Leo 🍉 @tedleo.bsky.social · 28d

Getting sick of the term “political violence” when a public figure closely aligned w/one ideology or other is a victim. ICE is also political violence. Armies are also political violence. Not sure of my point - just wish for a term that doesn’t immediately wall an act like this off from all the rest

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Austin Lawrence, PhD @humanaustinology.bsky.social · Aug 27

Congratulations!! I have been eagerly awaiting this since I talked to Terry about it last spring. This is a fantastic paper with some really fascinating results.

Reposted by Austin Lawrence, PhD

Caitlin S., PhD @paleophile.bsky.social · Aug 8

THIS IS A F'ING 5 ALARM FIRE.

#SaveUSScience

www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and to improve the process of Federal

www.whitehouse.gov

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Reposted by Austin Lawrence, PhD

Robert Mahon @bedform.org · Jul 25

No money for emergency rescues but hundreds of millions for concentration camps…

NBC News @nbcnews.com · Jul 25

FEMA is preparing to send $608 million to states to construct immigrant detention centers as part of the Trump administration’s push to expand capacity to hold migrants.

FEMA to send states $608 million to build migrant detention centers

FEMA is starting a “detention support grant program” to cover the cost of states building temporary facilities, according to an agency announcement.

nbcnews.to

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Reposted by Austin Lawrence, PhD

Kara Jorgensen @authorkaraj.bsky.social · Jul 18

I found a non-exhausted list of Indigenous radio stations that you can donate to in order to keep them afloat after the defunding
If anyone has a better list, please let me know, and I will happily repost it (I couldn't find anything on here)

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Reposted by Austin Lawrence, PhD

Aaron J. Waltke @goodaaron.bsky.social · Jul 18

I can confirm the PBS Passport is a very good deal for $5/month or $2.50/month if you do yearly.

Thousands of hours of top notch content. NOVA is great. The new Ken Burns doc on Leonardo da Vinci is excellent.

You can sign up at the link below!

www.pbs.org/passport/lea...

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Reposted by Austin Lawrence, PhD

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @aoc.bsky.social · Jul 3

I don’t think anyone is prepared for what they just did w/ ICE.

This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined.

It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.

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Austin Lawrence, PhD @humanaustinology.bsky.social · Jun 30

This is really cool! I am looking forward to reading this in more detail. And I owe you an email…

Austin Lawrence, PhD @humanaustinology.bsky.social · Jun 29

When I lived in Chicago there was a stretch of “protected” bike lane between the parking row and the curb that people constantly parked in. It was the most dangerous part of my commute. Markings and physical barriers like this would have been a huge improvement.

Reposted by Austin Lawrence, PhD

David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · Jun 29

Yuriana Julia Pelaez Calderon, an organizer with the Los Angeles-based Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, was picked up by men in an unmarked car last Wednesday, and nobody knows where she is. She made a phone call late Friday and the information she gave is chilling:

Juli was able to make a phone call late Friday and told her family that:

She is in a warehouse, but she does not know the location

She believes that the people who picked her up are bounty hunters

There are many others being held where she is being held.

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Ed Burmila @edburmila.bsky.social · Jun 26

If you are not alarmed at the type of thing these people now feel 100% comfortable saying out loud that they would have been scared to type into a group chat 10 years ago for fear that anyone might ever see it, I don't know what to tell you.

Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · Jun 26

Rep. Andy Ogles, a Republican from Tennessee, has sent a letter to Pam Bondi calling for Zohran Mamdani to be stripped of his citizenship and deported.

Andy Ogles: Zohran "little muhammad" Mamdani is an antisemitic, socialist, communist who will destroy the great City of New York. He needs to be DEPORTED. Which is why I am calling for him to be subject to denaturalization proceedings.
Attached is my letter to @AGPamBondi.

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Reposted by Austin Lawrence, PhD

Wagatwe Wanjuki @wagatwe.com · Jun 26

the way calling for the deportation of any visible non-white person is rapidly becoming normalized is a huge cause for concern.

Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · Jun 26

Rep. Andy Ogles, a Republican from Tennessee, has sent a letter to Pam Bondi calling for Zohran Mamdani to be stripped of his citizenship and deported.

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Joshua Reed Eakle 🗽 @joshuaeakle.com · Jun 23

We just had a political assassination in the United States last week.

We CANNOT let this leave the news cycle and be forgotten.

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Austin Lawrence, PhD @humanaustinology.bsky.social · Jun 20

Tales Teeth Tell (Tanya Smith) and First Steps (Jeremy DeSilva) are both great and very accessible.

Reposted by Austin Lawrence, PhD

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · Jun 14

With the tragic assassination of a Minnesota Democratic leader, I’m going to underline this point again.

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · Jun 13

I know there's a lot going on, but the Secretary of Homeland Security declaring that federal troops are in California and Los Angeles to "liberate" the state and city from its duly-elected leaders really is a fourteen-alarm fire.

Sylvia Chi 齊思涵 @sylviachi.bsky.social · Jun 13

It's mind-blowing how little attention this extraordinary statement has received. It's briefly mentioned in a couple news articles, but this MSNBC opinion piece is the only extended discussion of it I've seen: www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · Jun 3

If you burn down a forest, you don't miss out on lumber for just that season. You have to replant all the trees, nurture them, and wait for them to grow.

The science and research budget cuts happening now are wanton, senseless arson. Recovery, if it ever happens, will take generations.

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Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · May 31

How bad will it be? Catastrophic.

Proposed cuts to #NSF, #NIH, and #NASA will set the US R&D landscape back 25 yrs+, cause economic and job loss now, and undermine innovations to come.

But, this is the WH's *proposed* budget.

Speak up now before it is too late.

(inflation adjusted $-s below)

NSF, NASA and NIH budgets per year, inflation adjusted from 2000-2025 along with the proposed cuts. NSF includes research component only. Massive cuts across all sectors, well below support spanning 25 years.

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Emilio M Bruna @brunalab.bsky.social · May 31

Proposed cut to NSF Biology budget is 70%.

70%. Seventy.

Call your senators & reps nonstop. Give them numbers on NSF impact for state/district. tableau.external.nsf.gov/views/NSFbyN... explain this will decimate the economy if their districts, especially if it has a major research univ. 🧪

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Mina Kimes @minakimes.bsky.social · May 30

Musk should be asked about this in every interview he does now and forever. To ignore it is a dereliction of duty.

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/o...

There is one place, however, where Musk, with the help of his minions, achieved his goals. He did indeed shred U.S.A.I.D. Though a rump operation is now operating inside the State Department, the administration says that it has terminated more than 80 percent of U.S.A.I.D. grants. Brooke Nichols, an associate professor of global health at Boston University, has estimated that these cuts have already resulted in about 300,000 deaths, most of them of children, and will most likely lead to significantly more by the end of the year. That is what Musk’s foray into politics accomplished.

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Jeffrey Mervis @policyhound.bsky.social · May 31

Trump's detailed vision for NSF's 2026 budget is not a pretty picture. www.science.org/content/arti...

Final NSF budget proposal jettisons one giant telescope amid savage agencywide cuts

Trump’s 57% proposed cut to agency would drop grant success rates to 7% and gut education and training

www.science.org

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Reposted by Austin Lawrence, PhD

Kristian G. Andersen @kgandersen.bsky.social · May 30

Here's the NIH's proposed budget - from $48 billion to $27 billion. NIAID, current ~$7 billion cut to ~$4.2 billion.

The proposed 15% cap on indirect costs remains.

Again, these budgets are passed, and our leadership in science, technology, and innovation is gone.

www.hhs.gov/sites/defaul...

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Austin Lawrence, PhD @humanaustinology.bsky.social · May 30

JFC

Juan Escalante @juansaaa.com · May 30

A private jet known as “Trump Force Two” which was used to transport JD Vance during the election is now being used to deport migrants to Central America, records show

Vance’s Trump Force Two Campaign Plane Now Being Used for Deportation Flights

The vice president’s private plane is now being used to send migrants to South and Central America.

www.thedailybeast.com

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Austin Lawrence, PhD @humanaustinology.bsky.social · May 30

Yes