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Jehannine (J9) Austin

@j9austin.bsky.social

4.5K followers 680 following 930 posts

Genetic Counselor, Professor/Dept. Head at the University of British Columbia. Editor in Chief: Journal of Genetic Counseling. Prez of International Society of Psychiatric Genetics. Unceded Coast Salish Territories. They/them

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Jehannine (J9) Austin @j9austin.bsky.social · Nov 11

Hi! Thought I’d introduce myself for new people 🙂 I’m a Canada-based researcher exploring clinical applications of genetics, especially in the context of psych conditions. I have depression/anxiety, I’m a genetic counselor, journal editor, I’m agender. I post here about all sorts! Nice to meet you!

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Jehannine (J9) Austin @j9austin.bsky.social · 1h

The other thing apart from mask fit that mattered a lot to me was air pressure. Mine was initially set at 12 and it was just awful.. Im now at 4-6 and it’s perfect for me. Congrats on a great start though, regardless! :)

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canadaboatgaza.bsky.social @canadaboatgaza.bsky.social · 2h

Mskwaasin Agnew (Dene/Cree, Salt River First Nation) was among the humanitarians on board Conscience that was illegally boarded by Israel in international waters.
We are asking everyone to contact the Canadian Government (email addresses & phone numbers on the poster)
#EyesOnGaza #EndGazaBlockade

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Joseph Fasano @josephfasano.bsky.social · 16h

I hope this reaches you.

To a Life in Despair

Don't. Don't go to the bridge.
Don't wake in your coat in the morning light
and carry those stones into the river.
Don't find your father's pistol
in the attic, hidden in the family albums.
Don't. Don't pour the pills
into the whiskey, the walls dissolving
like your childhood. Don't, just don't choose
not to wake.

Stay. Just stay.
Tell yourself you'll do it tomorrow.
You can always walk alone into the darkness.
But not yet. Not yet. Not this soon.
I don't have a reason
to give you. All I have
is the morning, and the autumn wind,
and the child you once were
in the darkness, looking at the new moon
through the ruins, saying
save me, save me, save me,
and the moon looking back
with her vacant
face
saying I promise, I stone-
cold promise
that the face of utter
hopelessness
is the face of something just about to change.

—Joseph Fasano

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StrictlyChristo 🦋🇺🇦🌻❌👑 @strictlychristo.bsky.social · 1d

Greta Thunberg speaks to the press after being released from illegal detainment in Israel: "I could talk for a very, very long time about our mistreatment and abuses in our imprisonment. Trust me, but that is not the story.”

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Jehannine (J9) Austin @j9austin.bsky.social · 1d

So this just happened 😭 again 😭

I called trying to get a vaccine in September (which is when we need them really at the latest) and was told none till mid October.

So here I am. Feeling furious and resentful that this is just how we seem to have to live now. And everything hurts.

A positive covid test sitting on a marble bathroom counter top. Ugh 😩

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Gwen Snyder is undead @gwensnyder.bsky.social · 4d

Watching Jay, I realize I am simply exhausted by folks in positions of leadership who are driven to distraction by critique.

If you can't function with critique and pushback, a leadership position is not for you.

Leadership REQUIRES you to absorb and process the critique of stakeholders.

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BWJones @bwjones.bsky.social · 2d

He’s not wrong tho…

🌮 Lucky Shitt 🇨🇦 🇪🇺 🇲🇽 🇺🇦 @luckyshitt.bsky.social · 2d

60 seconds of therapy

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KOJAMF🤘🖤🤘 @kojamf.bsky.social · 3d

Dr. Jane Goodall filmed an interview with Netflix in March 2025 that she understood would only be released after her death.

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Mike Galsworthy @mikegalsworthy.bsky.social · 3d

The Trump Action Tracker is a British academic’s answer to Trump “flooding the zone” with anti-democratic and anti- rule of law behaviours.

It’s a one-stop-shop for logging thd lot. And the neta-analysis of what is happening is very enlightening… darkly.

See TrumpActionTracker.info

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Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) @autisticadvocacy.org · Jul 29

Generative AI changes what things mean because it focuses on words, not the meaning. It adds words, changes meaning, and makes "plain language" that is not accessible. We know, because we tested it. Generative AI has no place in plain language. autisticadvocacy.org/2025/07/asan...

Dark grey textured background. There’s a lighter grey box with text that reads: Artificial intelligence is when a computer program does things that normally need to be done by humans. We call artificial intelligence “AI” for short. There are lots of different kinds of AI.
The way AI works is by using data from people. Data is information a computer can read. AI programs read data made by people to understand what to do.
Generative AI is a specific kind of AI. Generative AI can use data to make new things.
Generative AI can create many kinds of new things, like:
text
images
music/movies
and more
People have already started using generative AI to write plain language.

Grey textured background. Text reads: In our statement, we explain the reasons why people should not use generative AI to write in plain language. Plain language is an important part of making things accessible for people with disabilities. Using generative AI makes “plain language” that is not actually accessible. We hope anyone who writes in plain language will not use generative AI.
Here are the reasons we talk about in our statement:
Generative AI changes what things mean
Plain language is an idea that is too new for generative AI to understand
Generative AI focuses on words, not ideas
Generative AI has discrimination built-in
Plain language is by and for disabled people
Read our full statement to learn more about each of these reasons.

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🏳️‍⚧️ Alexandra Merideth Erin [she/her] @alexandraerin.com · Jun 19

To sum up: interactions you have with other human beings through text are still interactions with other human beings. Interactions with LLMs are not, but they are designed to look and feel like that, in ways that will train you to forget that other people are people.

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Jack Tripper @chadstanton.blacksky.app · 3d

The fact they jumped straight to AI actors modeled after women when, if I’m not mistaken, male actors are a higher labor cost kind of says it all doesn’t it,

Dr. Damien P. Williams Wants A Better Sociotechnical Paradigm @wolvendamien.bsky.social · 3d

Like… it's kind of right there, no?

"AI" generated image of woman with dark hair sitting in a chair in front of posters with random shapes and symbols meant to look like images and text on movie posters, all superimposed with a post from k.w.bogen reading
"AI actresses can't negotiate. They can't say they'd prefer their bodies not be shown certgain ways. They can't refuse degrading scenes. They can't express distress about disturbing content. They can't ask the creators :why would you do that to me? Why put any woman through watching that? If AI film winds up being the path, we're about to see an entirely new generation (and more brutal depiction) of media misogyny."

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s. eek smith 👻 @sesmith.lol · 3d

I realize the distinction between what is real and what is not feels increasingly tenuous these days but come on

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Andrea Junker @strandjunker.com · 3d

“Terrible things are happening outside. Poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. Families are torn apart. Men, women, and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared.”

Diary of Anne Frank
January 13, 1943

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Jehannine (J9) Austin @j9austin.bsky.social · 4d

It’s (IMO) the best season of the year 😍🎃

A stunning array of pumpkins and gourds in greens oranges yellows and whites and a whole variety of shapes and sizes. I haven’t counted but there must be hundreds in the picture - the whole frame is full. They are all on top of each other and there are no gaps visible.

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Petra Boynton @petraboynton.bsky.social · 5d

It's key we encourage new scholars to appreciate those who've gone before, whether in or outside universities, and that it's the people behind the research who are just as interesting as the research itself.

That was one of the ways I started to warm towards research/methods. When it felt human.

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ᚇᚐᚏᚉᚅᚓᚄᚄ ᚋᚐᚅᚔᚃᚓᚄᚈᚓᚇ @ciara2001.bsky.social · 5d

This is such a lovely thread:

Miranda Keeling @mirandakeeling.com · 5d

For many years I have been posting little observations online. What you may not know is that for many years, artists have been illustrating them - for no reason other than they wanted to respond. Below is a thread of some of these beautiful drawings because they should be seen 🧵

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Nikita Gill @nikitagill.bsky.social · 6d

I can’t begin to tell you how damaging “the world isn’t fair, get used to it” line has been to every child’s psyche growing up and therefore has led to a world that stays unfair. If we teach children to get used to an unfair world, we are destroying the possibility of a better world.

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LisaFellarina🇨🇦Against Fascism📎 @lisafellaantifa.bsky.social · 6d

www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

Canada issues warning for citizens with gender-neutral passports travelling to U.S. | CBC News

The Canadian government is warning citizens who list "X" as their gender on their passports could have problems entering the U.S.

www.cbc.ca

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Drug Monkey @drugmonkey.bsky.social · 6d

yep. You can't make a 'better case' that convinces tyranny of the value of science since knowledge is tyranny's kryptonite.

Science Vs @sciencevs.bsky.social · 7d

This moment from our latest episode with science writer @edyong209.bsky.social is 🔥

We asked Ed — how do we talk up the benefits of science in the face of government cuts? He told us that's the wrong approach. 🧪

Listen wherever, or watch on Spotify 👇

open.spotify.com/episode/7Evh...

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Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 7d

We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.

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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 8d

"The GenAI sector’s foremost feat of marketing, then, has been the term *intelligence* itself . . . A refusal of AI in creative work begins with a refusal of that product’s ideological packaging."

www.nplusonemag.com/issue-51/the...

Large Language Muddle | The Editors

The AI upheaval is unique in its ability to metabolize any number of dread-inducing transformations. The university is becoming more corporate, more politically oppressive, and all but hostile to the ...

www.nplusonemag.com

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Armine Yalnizyan @armineyalnizyan.bsky.social · 8d

2025 in the U.S. of A., folks

JVG 骨 @jasonv.bsky.social · 8d

Absolute all-timer sentence in today's @nytimes.com

"some legal experts have called it a crime to summarily execute civilians" says today's New York Times, continuing their long tradition of whitewashing fascism

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daanis @daanis.ca · 8d

A TRC Day listicle for CBC. Enough books here to keep you going through the winter.

"These books helped me understand the willfulness of that not knowing and peoples' willingness to believe other stories about those schools."

www.cbc.ca/books/patty-...

Patty Krawec's 'must-read' books to reflect on the Indigenous experience in North America | CBC Books

Sept. 30 is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day. The Anishinaabe Ukrainian author and activist recommends 18 titles to read today and beyond.

www.cbc.ca

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Gadfly Stratton, Ph.D. @inclusivescience.ca · 9d

Calling all nonbinary scientists! There is one week left to submit your abstracts for The First International Symposium of Nonbinary Scientists, November 1-3, 2025.

Abstracts from any field of research are welcome. Priority abstract submissions will close on October 3.

Details in the link below!

Submit your abstracts to the ISNBS Symposium by October 3!

newsletter.isnbs.org

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