Keith Barker

Alpine forget-me-nots are my fave!

Have you begged for reimbursement through Chrome River yet?

5. The right-wing enthusiasm for AI science is not about doing better science faster. It’s about eliminating one of the most effective forms of societal resistance to authoritarian control.

There is an exception for Broadway shows, if that’s your thing.

Babylinks

A while ago I finally moved on…to parenting nightmares. Part of my brain always has to catastrophize.

This plan is utterly insane and would cause catastrophic environmental degradation and loss of outdoor opportunities throughout the west — it would accelerate the decline of forests and wildlife, and seriously restrict hiking, camping, fishing, birding, hunting, etc.

In addition to deploying the standard elision of theory and wild ass speculation.

My son and I can confirm that the protest went on as planned, though with a memorial slant due to recent events. Sorry no pics of our own, we decided to leave electronic devices home today.

The level of gaslighting around the Cold War is elite.

The synonym list for dismantling has a lot of good candidates.

Gutting
Dismantling
Demonizing
Destroying
Divesting from
Hostilely taking over

Can we keep the boat if we name it Harvey Raw Milk

‘Half the tree of life’: ecologists’ horror as nature reserves are emptied of insects A new point in history has been reached, entomologists say, as climate-led species’ collapse moves up the food chain even in supposedly protected regions free of pesticides

For the past 5 months I’ve been privileged to live surrounded by incredibly biodiverse Panamanian rainforest, & it’s been a wonderful experience. But the relative rarity of some insects is deeply disturbing. There is no more important story in the world right now. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The 2026 federal budget proposes eliminating the USGS Ecosystems Mission Area, threatening bird banding, research, and conservation nationwide, endangering 100+ years of vital ecological data. www.aba.org/proposed-bir...

Pls share: I'm seeking ornithologists willing to comment about how the Bird Banding Lab &/or Breeding Bird Survey are crucial to their research & conservation efforts, for a piece for @therevelator.org defending these programs. Reply, DM, or email me at rebecca dot heisman at gmail. #ornithology

Happy Birthday!!!

Restoring Gold Standard Science By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 7301 of title 5, United

🚨Hiding under 6 sections of science sounding rhetoric is an edict to appoint officers at each agency that will be responsible for detecting research that isn't "Gold Standard Science" as defined by the White House🚨

Stay tuned for rapid response action!

www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

Have had to do this multiple times over the years with museum outreach folks, architects, designers, etc. with varying degrees of success, so I sympathize. But if that’s your core business…

Also the dire wolf is sister to a whole clade of canids that includes wolves among many others. Shapiro knows and understands this but they need to educate everybody else on staff.

A chocolate cake with red and white decorations and lit candles shaped as the number 75. Bold text reads: ‘The NSF Turns 75 Today. What has it done over the past 7 decades?’ The background is a celebratory red with a spray-paint texture.

HAPPY 75th, NSF!

We’re celebrating this milestone by highlighting some of NSF’s most transformative accomplishments—innovations that have shaped our world and continue to drive progress in health, technology, the environment, and beyond.

Read on 🧵(1/11):

SSE, SSB, and ASN logos. Text: Tri-societies Week of Action for NSF. Science under siege: Over 1000 NSF grants have been terminated by political appointees- threatening the foundation of American innovation and education, and more cuts loom; entire research programs are being erased without explanation. What’s at stake? STEM education for K-12 students, jobs and infrastructure in rural communities, support for veterans in research and education, cybersecurity and national defense innovation, global leadership in science and technology. Join the week of action: Contact Congress: Switchboard: (202) 224-3121, tell them to protect NSF. Share your story: Post on social media #WithoutNSF #SupportNSF #SaveNSF, engage local media; use our media tool to reach out to local reporters and newspapers; engage others: communicate the importance of NSF to colleagues, friends, and family.

Join us in the evolution tri-societies Week of Action for NSF!

Call/write congress, engage with colleagues, friends and family about the importance of NSF funding!

Scan the QR code on the attached image for instructions and scripts.

We must make noise! Pls RT!!!!
#WithoutNSF #SaveNSF #SupportNSF

*** Academic BFD alert ***

We just published a new global bird phylogeny. It synthesizes the work of thousands of researchers before us, and it will grow and improve over time. @snacktavish.bsky.social @birdsoftheworld.bsky.social www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Repeated behavioural evolution is associated with convergence of gene expression in cavity-nesting songbirds - Nature Ecology & Evolution The authors performed phylogenetically controlled behavioural assays and analysed brain transcriptomes across five avian families, identifying convergent patterns of gene expression associated with aggression and nesting behaviour in obligate cavity-nesting birds.

Very excited to see this super fun collaboration with @jacanamama.bsky.social finally published!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A New Future for the Biodiversity Heritage Library The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is the world’s largest open access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives. A global consortium of over 660 contributors, BHL has made more …

I have the honour of gathering and sharing your responses to @biodivlibrary.bsky.social’s "hopeful, but uncertain, future".
Your voices are uplifting and galvanising. Please keep sharing your thoughts – we are listening! 💬 🌿 🌏 #ILoveBHL blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2025/04/new-...

a cartoon of a person riding on the back of a dragon with the moon in the background Alt: Chihiro (a young girl) riding on Haku (a blue-maned dragon) in the moonlight.

One of my faves.

Had my first today too!

About the Biodiversity Heritage Library The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is the world’s largest open access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives. BHL is revolutionizing global research by providing free, worldwide access to knowledge about life on Earth. To document Earth’s species and understand the complexities of swiftly-changing ecosystems in the midst of a major extinction crisis and widespread climate change, researchers need something that no single library can provide — access to the world’s collective knowledge about biodiversity. While natural history books and archives contain information that is critical to studying biodiversity, much of this material is available in only a handful of libraries globally. Scientists have long considered this lack of access to biodiversity literature as a major impediment to the efficiency of scientific research.

In addition to EVERY-FUCKING-THING ELSE

The most vital of tools, the Biodiversity Heritage Library, is apparently homed at the Smithsonian. For obv reasons, the Smithsonian cannot retain it

For free, you can access biodiversity-related texts going back to the 1400s!

www.biodiversitylibrary.org

Trump swings budget ax at USGS biology research Plan to eliminate $307 million ecosystem program could face obstacles in Congress

All wildlife research at USGS will be eliminated. All research and science centers. All coop units. BBS, BBL…. gone.

www.science.org/content/arti...

Anting?