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Michelle A. Rodrigues 🐒

@marspidermonkey.bsky.social

5.3K followers 1.8K following 5K posts

Primatologist. Biological anthropologist. Recovering academic. Mammal Madness fan. Dog mom to the cutest rescue dog. Expertise in social relationships and stress in monkeys, apes, & humans, and the systemic inequities in academia & science. She/her

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Michelle A. Rodrigues 🐒 @marspidermonkey.bsky.social · 7d

Starting a pinned thread of book reviews! This is the review for Apes on the Edge, by Jill Pruetz!

Michelle A. Rodrigues 🐒 @marspidermonkey.bsky.social · 20d

Time for a book review! Starting out with Apes on the Edge: Chimpanzee Life on the West African Savanna by Jill Pruetz (University of Chicago Press, 2025)! (1/11)
🧪🦊 #Primates #Booksky #ScienceBooks #BookReview

The book "Apes on the Edge: Chimpanzee Life on the West African Savanna" by Jill Pruetz on a colorful background. The cover is a picture of a young adorable chimpanzee hanging from a vine about a pool of water, with his lips just touching the ater and his reflection mirriored in the rippled pool

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Michelle A. Rodrigues 🐒 @marspidermonkey.bsky.social · 2h

When he’s going to call for communion to be withheld from JD? Or better yet, excommunicate him?

golazo.bsky.social @golazo.bsky.social · 2h

When’s he gonna chat with JD?

Joshua McElwee @joshmcelwee.org · 5h

Pope Leo told U.S. bishops visiting him at the Vatican on Wednesday that they should firmly address how immigrants are being treated by President Donald Trump's hardline policies, attendees said, in the latest push by the pontiff on the issue. For @reuters.com:

Reposted by Michelle A. Rodrigues 🐒

Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 3h

For the uninitiated: The pope being this direct and explicit to U.S. bishops about how to respond to a domestic policy happening in real time is…unusual.

Joshua McElwee @joshmcelwee.org · 5h

www.reuters.com

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Brigid Keely She/Her @brigid.bsky.social · 11h

Miyazaki: in this movie two young girls (one is a toddler) are uprooted from everything they know to start new lives near the rural hospital their mother is in; she is possibly dying of TB. Their dad works several hours away and they are largely unsupervised.

AI Bros: so homey! So comfy!

Wendy Xu @wendyxu.bsky.social · 11h

every ai bro who has reduced miyazaki to empty gentle aesthetic should no exaggeration get the judas cradle bc this man's markmaking & passion about telling WAR STORIES

three panels from the nausicaä manga depicting ohmu & giant insects

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Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them) @jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social · 10h

Whenever someone uses Ghibli or Miyazaki as a synonym for "quaint, charming, unthreatening" I'm always like "bro did we watch the same movies?"

Wendy Xu @wendyxu.bsky.social · 11h

every ai bro who has reduced miyazaki to empty gentle aesthetic should no exaggeration get the judas cradle bc this man's markmaking & passion about telling WAR STORIES

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Reposted by Michelle A. Rodrigues 🐒

Geoffrey P Johnston😎🇨🇦🇺🇦 @geoffypjohnston.bsky.social · 12h

Donald Trump is destroying American democracy, violating human rights, ignoring the rule of law, deploying the military to U.S. cities, & using the DOJ & FBI to persecute his enemies.

Trump is shredding the U.S. Constitution. And the wannabe dictator will shred any agreement he makes with Canada.

Mark Carney @mark-carney.bsky.social · 17h

President Trump and I know that there are areas where our nations can compete — and areas where we will be stronger together.

We’re focused on building these new opportunities.

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Hend Amry @libyaliberty.bsky.social · 10h

I lived most of the last twenty years in the Middle East and I never worried about gun violence or authoritarian profiling like I do when I’m stateside. I had to force my kids to lock the doors so they’d have the habit when we are home. Make of that what you will.

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Hend Amry @libyaliberty.bsky.social · 10h

at least three people I know who recently traveled abroad on holiday told me they felt they could finally breathe once they left the states. They felt safe walking at night and didn’t worry about the government knocking on their door. Their destinations were non democratic countries.

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Christina Stephens 🐯✨ @christinastephens.bsky.social · 1d

It’s not been discussed much, but when Taylor Swift says she “drinks that brown liquor” on the song Father Figure, it’s actually Malort.

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Owl's Eyes Ty @jtsdmpk.bsky.social · 12h

Living long enough to see multiple communication modalities destroyed by spam (phones, especially mobile, and Internet and email being overtaken by slop)

derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 13h

glad to be born at a time when i got to see what life was like before the internet and will be dead before AI completely destroys humanity

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Daniel Schultz @dandadad.bsky.social · 14h

The more I think about this, the more brilliant it seems. "We can't make a deal with someone who is out of his mind" puts Republicans in a terrible place. Deny the allegations and risk reinforcing them? Put Trump out on an ice floe? Stick tight to Trump and go down with him?

Eric Michael Garcia @ericmgarcia.bsky.social · 22h

Ruben Gallego on whether Trump is talking to Democrats:

“Look, the President clearly has some kind of dementia, so I think there's a he's probably talking to himself, or think he's talking to a Democrat, but I sincerely doubt that that's actually he's actually physically talking to a Democrat.“

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Robert Mahon @bedform.org · 12h

This would be a war crime if we did it in another country. But I guess doing it to priests in Chicago is just another day in Trump’s Gestapo regime.

Kurt @flglchicago.bsky.social · 14h

Here’s video of the incident

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The Fake History Hunter @fakehistoryhunter.net · 13h

I like this idea of dinosaurs as chunky boys.
Jurassic park would have been a lot more fun if these darlings were wobbling towards people and nobody ran but just turned and hugged the dorky cuddle beasts.

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Jen Mercieca @jenmercieca.bsky.social · 13h

President Miller glitched 😬

Blanche Devereaux @gingerkap23.bsky.social · 19h

Miller oopsie doodled and said the quiet part out loud, talking about DT aka himself having “plenary authority”:

A plenary power or plenary authority is a complete and absolute power to take action on a particular issue, with no limitations

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Jennifer Laughran @literaticat.bsky.social · 13h

And if you order from @bookshop.org today/tomorrow, there is free shipping on all orders! 😍

Bookshop.org @bookshop.org · 1d

Can’t decide what to buy on Prime Day?

Try: absolutely nothing, and then go support indie bookstores instead 📚

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Tze Ming Mok 莫志明 @tzemingdynasty.bsky.social · 13h

You are all the unfortunate recipients of my inner monologue

Hylobatidae @waninggibbons.bsky.social · 14h

I don't trust anyone who doesn't have an inner monologue. What the fuck do you mean you go through life without an oversight committee.

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Gail Drakes @gaildrakes.bsky.social · 2d

I just learned that the number of children in the U.S. navigating life with Long COVID exceeds that of the number of kids with asthma.

Wow.

Long COVID is here to stay—even in children

Post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC, also known as long COVID) are complex, multisystem, long-lasting complications of SARS-CoV-2 infection that profoundly impact the daily life of those...

www.thelancet.com

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Robert Mahon @bedform.org · 15h

Yes, bring back manliness like the 1790s
- wigs
- tights
- frills
- powder
- filler
- rouge
- hips out
- legs crossed

George Washington dancing, in tights and heels, powdered wig, frilly lace sleeves.

Return of George Washington painting with washington's coat flicked back, hand on his hip like a manly man. All powdered up. Bunch of men sitting in front with their legs crossed

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Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 15h

I feel like this photo of masked, armed men pepper spraying a pastor protecting his community is going to be a defining picture of this moment in America for a long, long time.

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Yo Gabapentin @yogabapentin.bsky.social · 18h

Obligatory Jenny Nicholson Tweet

Jenny Nicholson Tweet:

How come major film studios keep being like Jared Leto may have allegations, but at least he looks weird, stars in box office bombs, and is not a good actor

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Soumya Rangarajan, MD, MPP @soumya-goblue.medsky.social · 13h

#TimelineCleanse

FeMaiden 👩🏻‍🔬🧪🥽💉 @fe-maiden.bsky.social · 13h

Omg the cuteness I can’t take it do you see his freaking pants omg

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Kendra "Gloom is My Beat" Pierre-Louis @kendrawrites.com · 13h

One of the huge tensions in climate is the use of farmland for solar farms. You know the solar farms that can help halt the climate crisis as opposed to the data farms that make it worse.

Erin Fogg says Free Link @criminalerin.bsky.social · 2d

I am once again asking why these data centers are all fucking SECRETS

"A controversial plan to build a 2.2-million-square-foot data center on farmland may still happen. A rural community... is looking to settle a lawsuit recently filed by a development firm working for an unidentified tech giant."

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Michelle A. Rodrigues 🐒 @marspidermonkey.bsky.social · 14h

Saber-tooth fuzzy potatoes!!!!

Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium @ptdefiancezoo.bsky.social · 14h

Resembling saber-toothed fuzzy potatoes, these adorable rodents use their long incisors to gnaw through soil, digging elaborate tunnels. Damaraland mole rats spend nearly their entire lives underground, communicating using squeaks and growls. Meet our mole rat colony at Kids' Zone!

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Kath Barbadoro @kathbarbadoro.bsky.social · 14h

I love living in a city full of immigrants and tons and tons of people who are not at all like me and not like each other. It makes us all better and it makes our city better. I know I’m preaching to the choir by saying this on the lib app but I sometimes just get so overwhelmed by how special it is

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Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · 14h

Discussing this phenomenon w/ a group of profs. Someone morbidly joked, “& northern profs are fleeing the country.” The next person said…”even if we were all willing & able to abandon this place there are not enough jobs for us globally and the U.S. employs a huge # of international scholars too.”

‘Fear and hopelessness’: study finds one in four professors consider leaving US south

Survey by American Association of Professors shows nearly quarter of respondents are switching due to states’s politics

www.theguardian.com

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Bríd Nic Annaidh ☘️ @bridgetmcgann.medsky.social · 14h

Very important re: child hunger in Gaza and elsewhere.

You should never donate formula without the guidance of a board-certified lactation expert. Introducing formula without an evaluation is way more likely to end lactation than hunger, forcing the baby to become dependent on an unstable chain.

CAN FOOD INSECURE
WOMEN BREASTFEED?

Food insecure women can breastfeed successfully. Hunger, malnutrition, poor diets and stress can all have negative effects on breastfeeding, but women experiencing these situations can and should be supported to breastfeed if they want to.
"Only under exceptional
circumstances can a mother's milk be considered
unsuitable for her infant" WHO &
UNICEF BARRIERS TO BREASTFEEDING
Optimal feeding practices are exclusive breastfeeding up until around 6
months and nutritionally adequate and safe complementary feeding from 6 months, alongside continued breastfeeding for two years and beyond.

EVEN WHEN MOTHERS ARE EXPERIENCING EMERGENCIES, FOOD INSECURITY, HUNGER, MALNUTRITION AND POOR-QUALITY DIETS, IT IS STILL POSSIBLE, AND ALMOST ALWAYS PREFERABLE FOR THE MOTHER AND BABY TO BREASTFEED
• Women with poor diets are likely to breastfeed for a shorter duration.
• Mothers who are least likely to breastfeed are also least likely to be able to afford infant formula
• It is common for women who are eating poor diets and feeling stressed to worry that this negatively affects their breastmilk supply and/or quality. These worries are compounded by a lack of breastfeeding support and misinformation.
• The reality is that breastfeeding is physiologically robust and very resilient to changes in a mother's diet. Milk production is sustained regardless of diet in almost all scenarios.
• Breastmilk production works on a supply and demand system: the more babies suckle, the more hormones are sent to stimulate milk production.
• Although stress can slow down the let down of milk, breastfeeding can reduce stress.
• Breastfeeding can be protective against infant food insecurity as it provides a reliable and safe source of food that meets all of an infant's nutritional needs whilst protecting both mother and baby from infections and diseases.
ADEQUATE BREASTFEEDING SUPPORT IS NECESSARY TO HELP MOTHERS SUSTAIN BREASTFEEDING WHEN
DIET OR STRESS IS A CONCERN

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