David Kerstetter, Ph.D.

I hope the standard reply from all of those workers was, “Eat a bag of dicks.”

Sending support and solidarity to my friends and colleagues in the USGS, NOAA, NSF, NPS, State, and Energy.

Yes, it’s a travesty, and it’s a cost she shouldn’t bear. However, discovery will be very entertaining and informative.

Someone needs to slowly, carefully explain to (checks notes, Harvard BA and UVA JD) RFK Jr the difference between “causation” and “correlation.”

Also lost in the discussion is that there’s little benefit for anyone to *do* a review, especially if that time could be spent with a proposal or something that gets counted on faculty/tenure reviews. Bean-counters are going to count.

Let’s (better) incentivize reviewers for their volunteered time.

Not going any better in Sunrise against the Cats tonight, FWIW.

2025 in a nutshell, lol

YouTube video by henry Gattaca 12-fingered pianist

Most found “GATTACA”… forgettable, but it was actually prescient in many ways. youtu.be/rUOlnvGpcbs?...

For my aquatic science colleagues, an "Assistant Professor - Aquatic Biology" faculty position opening in Georgia: bit.ly/4mUpBrG

Bravo, @theoatmeal.bsky.social, and thank you.

The American Fisheries Society extends our support to the furloughed fisheries and aquatics professionals affected by the U.S. federal government shutdown. Read our full statement on the shutdown and its impacts on natural resources here fisheries.org/2025/10/afs-...

So tired of all the ICE commercials during college and NFL football. Much like AI, the more aggressive the marketing, the worse the product.

Proudly serving in federal LE shouldn’t require hiding behind masks. I’ve hope that public sentiment is finally filtering through to their hiring shortfalls.

Not that traditions/norms or even laws provide guiderails for this cabal, but aren't there federal personnel rules against serving in multiple official capacities? Perhaps some exigency for "acting" officials?

Facts are stubborn things.

I was enlisted NG for 6 years, and actually enjoyed my service. However, the NG shifted in the mid-90s into just another Army rotational force, even overseas -- no longer the local, "1-weekend/month" deal we'd all been sold and agreed to. I ETSed 6 months before my NG unit's rotation to Iraq, FFS.

PIs don’t make those decisions, and it’s an awful market for academia — don’t just say it’s easy to find a position elsewhere.

However, I’d be fine with any uni-level R1 and grant reporting to have an asterisk on that number for any Compact Campus.

This particular issue could finally be “the bridge too far” for the current SCOTUS… but with Robert’s, even this isn’t the legal easy call it should be.

Benjamin Franklin once said, "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

Higher Ed forgets this truism at its peril.

Best college game I’ve seen this season, and that’s a statement. Can’t remember if I’d ever seen a strategic self-safety before today, but it was brilliant.

Remember too, folks, that Congress and/or SCOTUS could shut this down anytime… and they choose not to.

I really, really don't like this timeline... RIP, Dr Goodall.

Well said, @sjcfishy.bsky.social.

Best thoughts to all my fed colleagues, and please reach out if there’s anything I can do to assist.

Yes, but with the sinking feeling that even if we (as a country) get through a temporary furlough, all the good, experienced folks we’ve nurtured for decades will be gone.

We need SCOTUS-proof — CJ Roberts-proof — federal employment agreements.

This is the point all the major media outlets are (intentionally?) missing. SCOTUS has deemed the Impoundment Act irrelevant, so what options remain?

"Out of the mouths of babes" comes unvarnished truth. You don't need a religion as a parent to know that's 100% on-point.

You're assuming that they're being paid to think and report critically or through logic.

A chart of "Major concerns of PhD candidates." The top text says, "Financial pressures top the list of concerns faced by PhD candidates, but concerns differ among the sexes. Those studying in the United States rank the political landscape as their main worry." The chart shows that in the full survey, political landscape is the biggest concern for about 20% of students (a bit higher for women than men) but there's an annotation saying "In US PhD students, this rose to 64%". Overall, the highest-rated concern was financial pressures at around 40%.

That's quite the chart annotation.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

That’s a hell of a bet for a product few want to use. I’m only angry by the likelihood that any losses to Musk, Altman, et al. will be borne by taxpayer bailouts, again under the guise of “too big to fail.”

There was always a strategic reason for installing Nuñez and others around the state universities (beyond the usual cronyism). They all know this will hurt their respective institutions, but their complicity with DeSantis is assured.

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)

NSF Graduate Fellowship announcement is finally posted!

www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

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