I have been trying to get this published as an op-ed, but I am going to post it here since I think it is timely in light of the "consent" extortion events.

Deafening Quiet from the Scientific Establishment

jeremymberg.github.io/jeremyberg.g...

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The pattern on the back of this Nepenthes pitcher plant takes me back to playing MS-DOS games in the 90s.

Master's degree position at Towson University with Daniel Caetano on macroevolutionary and phylogenetic comparative methods! Daniel is an awesome human and a great mentor, share with your students!
caetanods.weebly.com/join-the-lab...

I wrote this piece about 7th anniversary of Jamal Khashoggi's murder.

On the costs of speaking the truth in today's world.

And how Jamal's memory still stalks Saudi Arabia--- and the Washington Post.

open.substack.com/pub/karenatt...

It was waiting for this BlueSky post, because now you have indeed notified everyone.

DHS is proposing a rule that would end "duration of status" for J, F and other visa holders. This would decimate the international graduate student and postdoc population, which are a crucial part of the United States biomedical workforce. There's still time for you to comment on the proposed rule.

Ever wondered how to incorporate fossils as tips in a phylogenetic tree?
Our new paper provides a comprehensive guide!

#EarlyFossilFriday
#FossilFriday
#TipDating
#Phylogeny
#EvolutionaryBiology

Mitch Hedberg:

"An escalator can never break: it can only become stairs. You should never see an 'Escalator Temporarily Out Of Order' sign, just 'Escalator Temporarily Stairs. Sorry for the convenience.'"

RIP

The success of a social media platform allowing such communities is whether I can see and interact with posts that hit the 5 people who care about my hyperspecific nerddom or ask a weird niche questions in peace without spam, trolls, and pr0n flooding my feed--not that anything I do goes viral.

This thread says scientists on blue sky stoke political flames, rather than build science communities, as evidenced by viral posts being political. The problem w/social media is the optimization target--but we evaluate the success of domain-specific science discourse by virality metrics? Huh?!?

The rampant violations of academic freedom and intrusions on extramural speech are escalating rapidly. Faculty members have the right to speak or write as citizens, free from institutional censorship or discipline. Expression of opinion as a citizen does not constitute grounds for dismissal.

We write to remind leaders of colleges & universities of their fundamental duty to protect academic freedom & the absolute necessity to ensure that the freedom to discuss topics of public import without constraint is not curtailed under political pressure.

2/4

I am recruiting a PhD student this application cycle to explore questions on the evolution of morphological variation and phylogenetics. I'm especially seeking folks interested in fossil marine inverts. Please reach out to me if interested! Portal opens Nov. 1 eeb.utoronto.ca/education/gr...

It’s definitely gonna die…

“There’s a hyperparasitoid (Hypopteromalus tabacum) on a parasitoid (Cotesia congregata) on a Sphinx (Ceratomi catalpae) on a tree (Catalpa sp.) by the pond in the middle of VT.” Fun find this week. My mind is all children’s songs these days but the lyrics might need some work….

I'm hoping to take 1 MSc & 1 PhD student next year in the areas of Phylogenetic, Computational, and/or Evolutionary Paleobiology. Please reach out if you are interested in joining the @oupaleobiology.bsky.social, especially if interested in working on fossil echinoderms. Link for more info below. 🧪

🚨 🐜 is there a Bluesky starter pack for researchers who don’t study ants but who get lightheaded every time there’s an awesome ant paper? CC @mariusw.bsky.social @jrichardalbert.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Congrats!!!

Registration is now open for #SSB2026!

I'm so excited to see many of you here in Baton Rouge in January! We're going to hear great talks, discuss the immeasurable value of natural history collections, and continue to strengthen our scientific community.

ssb2026.github.io

@systbiol.bsky.social

Another exciting #SSB2026 workshop to highlight:

A Primer for Phylogenetic Causal Inference

with @oschwery.bsky.social & @pseudacris.bsky.social

Also, lots of new info on the website and more soon:

ssb2026.github.io

Follow for the latest updates!

@jembrown.bsky.social @systbiol.bsky.social

🚨Woo our new paper now out in accepted form in @systbiol.bsky.social -

We use phylogenetic analyses to argue that the evolution of diverse social contexts has reshaped avian life histories.

academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan...

If you corrected by minutes played, or defensive possessions, the gap between Tisse and everyone else would be absurd. He missed most of last season and played less than half the minutes of most of these guys.

📢 deeptime: an R package that facilitates highly customizable and reproducible visualizations of data over geological time intervals

🔗 doi.org/10.1080/2096...

Fully #openaccess in @bigearthdata1.bsky.social with insight about deeptime📦 development and code examples!

#rstats #geology #paleontology