J. Chris Pires (@jchrispires) — Bluesky Profile

4 hours ago

The same company behind Alligator Alcatraz was just paid $313 million to build another one in Surprise, Arizona.

I’m fighting to get the answers the community deserves.

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4 hours ago

“Just watching his online reporting and broadcast, you could see that he was not aligning with [Weiss’s] agenda,” a CBS source said about Scott MacFarlane. “He would not mince words when reporting about the Trump administration and January 6 or anything really.”

Indeed, check out the clip below:

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4 hours ago

Iran being able to disrupt the world economy by closing a small channel feels like the Death Star having an exhaust port you can shoot that makes the whole thing explode

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4 hours ago

$11.3 billion could cover any of the following for a full year:
-1.4 million people on Medicaid
-19 million kids getting free school lunches
-1.4 million people getting affordable housing
-1.1 million hungry seniors fed
-0.8 million children given free child care

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4 hours ago

Washington State Passes ‘Millionaires’ Tax’ It would be the first income tax in Washington, affecting an estimated 20,000 households. Some of the wealthiest are leaving for Florida.

Lawmakers in Washington State have agreed to tax people who earn over $1 million in the state’s first income tax.

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14 hours ago

Depth and sea surface temperature drive post-release condition of reef-associated fishes Shifting fishing practices and warming waters pose growing challenges to sustainable fisheries management, particularly through their combined effects on post-release survival. This study investigates how depth of capture and sea surface temperature (SST) influence post-release condition – used here as a proxy for short-term, delayed mortality – in five recreationally important, reef-associated fish species along Florida’s Gulf coast: gag (Mycteroperca microlepis), gray triggerfish (Balistes capriscus), greater amberjack (Seriola dumerili), red grouper (Epinephelus morio), and red snapper (Lutjanus campechanus). Post-release condition was defined based on a combination of swim score and externally visible barotrauma symptoms. Using a long-term observer dataset (2015–2024), we first assessed temporal trends in each predictor and then applied species-specific ordinal logistic regression models to evaluate environmental and biological drivers of post-release condition using data from 2022 to 2024. Models were developed and fit using Bayesian methods to account for parameter uncertainty. Increased fishing station depth, our proxy for capture depth, was a consistent predictor of poorer post-release condition for all species. Meanwhile, SST effects were species-specific, with gray triggerfish showing the strongest thermal sensitivity. Long-term fishing depth and SST data were used to back-calculate post-release condition scores over time. Increases in average fishing station depth over time corresponded with worsening predicted condition outcomes in four of five species from 2015 to 2024, suggesting rising post-release mortality risk. These findings highlight the need to integrate environmentally and temporally driven variation in post-release mortality into stock assessments and fishery management decisions. Adjusting fishing seasons to minimize thermal stress and depth-related injury could reduce post-release mortality, supporting climate-resilient management of vulnerable reef fish stocks.

Depth and sea surface temperature drive post-release condition of reef-associated fishes www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 🦑 🧪

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13 hours ago

A graphic with people taking a selfie together on a cell phone with text over the image reading, '5 reasons why you should join us for our first Sea the Future event, a climate dance party!'

The most powerful action we can take toward solving the challenges facing our ocean planet isn’t despair, it’s imagination and celebration in community. 🎧🪩🎶

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12 hours ago

First Footage: Wild Octopus Recognizes Itself in Mirror? YouTube video by Tom Gruber

Octopus 'mirror test' in the wild! 🐙🦑🐋
I have some thoughts:

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11 hours ago

🌊 Dive Safety Officer Kim Malkoski shares her insights from her long career as a scientific diver and dive instructor, including some of the incredible ecosystems she’s witnessed below the waves.
🏊‍♀️ Get to know this Human of WHOI: go.whoi.edu/diver-kim

#HumansofWHOI #WomenInSTEM

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4 hours ago

This is a big fat lie. And this guy was in charge of our negotiations with Iran that involved all sorts of technical details? It’s truly amateur hour.

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5 hours ago

Covering sessions daily at the Commission on the Status of Women this week, one question keeps coming up for me:
How can responsible media better amplify the institutions trying to address global crises?
Too often we are not meeting the moment — we are being entertained by it.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus & @DrTed...• 6h
Global military expenditure just hit $2.7 trillion - in a single year.
According to @UN estimates, ending world hunger by 2030 would require $93 billion annually.
That means we spend almost 30 times more every year on killing each other than on making sure everyone eats.

This is Director of WHO. And that’s exactly the point I’m trying to make all day every day this week.

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5 hours ago

Every once in a while, I throw research queries into AI to test it against what I know. It fabricated a quote and attributed it to a DEA official in Colorado. When I called it out, it apologized for the "imprecision." I pushed back again and this was the response. Wild.

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2 days ago

Lichen are unique organisms made up of a combination of fungi and algae that are symbiotic, supporting each other.

The algae makes food through photosynthesis, which helps the fungi. In return, the fungi provide structure and retain moisture for the algae. Together, they form a self-sufficient partnership.

Lichen can grow on non-living things like rocks, powerlines, or fences but are often found on tree bark.

Trees that grow slowly tend to have more lichen on their trunks and branches. Faster-growing trees produce new growth rings each year, causing the bark to expand and any lichen on the surface to fall off. Slower-growing trees don’t expand their bark as much, allowing more lichen to grow.

Identification
There are many types of lichen around the world, with a wide range of textures and colors. Some lichen form long, ornate structures up to two inches tall. Others create small cup-like shapes or grow flat like leaves.

Different species of lichen can often be found in the same area, looking like a colorful coral reef. Lichen colors often become more vibrant after it rains.

A common lichen you may find in the environment is the cracked-shield lichen,Parmelia sulcata. It is light blue, almost white, with a flat, bark-like texture.

Another common lichen found in Texas is the slender orange-bush,Teloschistes exillis, which is bright orange and grows very low, sometimes blending in with the rocks.

Management
Lichen are self-sustaining and do not harm trees or people. While some people remove lichen to improve aesthetics, this is only a temporary fix, as lichen may continue to grow over time. It’s best to leave them alone.

They provide food and shelter for many small animals and nesting material for birds like hummingbirds and warbling vireos. Throughout history, people have used lichen for food, dyes for clothing, and medicine. Many lichen are sensitive to pollution and if present, can indicate that air quality is good.

Orange/yellow colors in lichens indicate it contains usnic acid, a molecule supposedly used by the human body to convert consumed protein into muscle mass. Info in alt
Foraging Texas: Lichen www.foragingtexas.com/2007/07/lich...
#TheOutpost 🌱🌿🚶‍♂️🍄
#FungiFriends

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1 day ago

Photo of a cream coloured lichen growing flat on dark coloured rock. The lichen is roughly square in shape and is covered in several dozen bright orange discs (the apothecia) of varying sizes. The discs are reproductive, spore-producing structures.

Orange Rocky Posy Lichen, Rhizoplaca chrysoleuca. NWT, Canada. #lichen #fungi #fungifriends Lichen is about 3cm wide/high.

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1 day ago

A group of about twenty purple and wavy tentacle-like fingers rise from orange fir needles covering the ground. This fungi is named purple spindles for good reason. This group of spindles stands about eight inches tall at its highest.

This weird fungus is Alloclavaria purpurea, better known as purple spindles. They're so tentacley!

📷 Canon R5
Canon RF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM
M, f/8, 1/4, ISO 400
Stack of 5 images
11/9/24
Northern Oregon Coast

#mushroom #fungifriends #mushrooms

🍄📷 📸🎞 🌿🌱 🟢 🍄 🍄‍🟫

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3 days ago

the president has no idea what he has set in motion. none.

www.wsj.com/livecoverage...

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2 days ago

Taylor Swift
Pearl Jam
Olivia Dean
Zach Bryan
Oasis
The Cure

What do they all have in common?

They've all spoken out about Ticketmaster ripping off fans.

But Trump just gave Ticketmaster the equivalent of a corporate pardon.

It's a betrayal of every fan in America.

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1 day ago

Chief Justice Roberts’s Vendetta Against the Voting Rights Act He’s been railing against it since the early 1980s.

John Roberts attacked the Voting Rights Act when he was a lawyer in the Reagan administration. On the Supreme Court, he's been working to make his wish to destroy the law a reality. bit.ly/4uduYXR

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21 hours ago

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https://www.ft.com/content/e99229ce-3571-4126-99e2-346e7cc6f5ac

Middle East war costs regional tourism industry $600mn a day
Thousands of travellers cancel trips after cities such as Dubai are targeted by Iranian strikes

Dubai’s Burj Al Arab hotel was hit by falling debris after a missile was intercepted © Getty Images
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Stephanie Stacey in London

Published5 HOURS AGO

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War in the Middle East is costing the region’s tourist industry $600mn a day in lost visitor spending, according to estimates from a global trade body.

Flight cancellations, airspace closures and increasing unease among prospective travellers are damaging the region’s tourism economy after Tehran launched strikes on multiple countries in the Gulf in the wake of US and Israeli attacks.

After Trump destroyed international tourism in the US, he moved onto destroying it in the ME.

www.ft.com/content/e992...

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16 hours ago

there was also a Stanford study that found that a surge in AI slop by lazy people actually created significantly more work for others who had to decipher and correct it

this "I'm being efficient" (but not really) vibes well with the American obsession with artifice and appearing productive

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2 days ago

NC Bradford Pear Bounty Please read program requirements below before registering!

Bounty on the plant available in only 1 out of 25 states where it's invading:
www.treebountync.com

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2 days ago

A collage of six photos, with labels, arranged in a grid, illustrating the ecological threat posed by this foreign invasive plant tending to colonize the landscape (create a monoculture). Graphic via Oklahoma State University.
Originating from China, Taiwan, and Japan, this invasive plant was mistakenly promoted in the United States by the feds in the mid-1960s, in a wrong-headed move by the USDA, when it was first introduced as an 'ornamental' in Maryland and Washington D.C.
The cultivar Bradford pear is another name for Pyrus Calleryana (Callery Pear), known for its offensive odor coming from its clusters of white blooms, in early spring. The cultivar is also notorious for its rapid growth rate and acute vertical branching, according to Wikipedia. Its off-putting smell is an odor the plant emits to attracts flies as its primary pollinators rather than bees. A misguided Italian-French missionary Joseph-Marie Callery (1810–1862), first sent specimens of the tree to Europe from China, hence the name 'Calleryana'. It has now spread to 25 states in the continental U.S., and found as far north as Madison, Wisconsin. The tree is now banned in Ohio, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. As of 2023, North Carolina actually put a bounty out on these trees: the state will reward you with 5 free native trees for every Callery Pear turned in. More info: treebountync.com
"Callery pears sometimes form extensive, nearly homogeneous stands in old fields, along roadsides, and in similar disturbed areas. The species was first noticed spreading outside of human cultivation in the 1990s, and by the latter half of the 2000s, Callery pear trees were widespread and could be found in habitats ranging from wetlands to forests."

Farmland & prairie both vulnerable to this #invasivespecies: PSA about detection, prevention, control and eradication of Pyrus Calleryana (Callery Pear), blooming everywhere this time of year, with awful-smelling flowers.
#Gardening
#Agriculture
#Weeds
#horticulture
#preventthespread
#bioInvasion

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14 hours ago

Every coach in the league is the child of a former head coach and the NFL is taking this approach!

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15 hours ago

Sources to
@NFLonCBS
: The NFL is reviving its Accelerator Program after a one-year hiatus, but the league will now invite non-diverse participants into the program originally created to increase and advance minority talent at the highest levels of teams. Story to come.

Here's the NFL capitulating to the most unpopular president of all time.

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1 day ago

Book cover. "When trees testify. Science, wisdom, history, and America's Black botanical legacy" by Beronda L. Montgomery.

Look what arrived!
Latest from @berondam.bsky.social 💚
I've been jealous of my US-based friends who received their copies last month; UK delivery was slow.
It's good timing, I'm travelling on Saturday to University of Georgia (US) to meet with the plant bio group.
Something to read en route! ✈️

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1 day ago

Just discovered this wonderful adaptation of our maize moving map (figshare.com/articles/fig...) by @andikur.bsky.social .

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17 hours ago

a plant in a red pot with the words " i 'm rooting for you " above it Alt: a plant in a red pot with the words " i 'm rooting for you " above it

Since I started as Features Editor at ASPB, I have mentored over 500 early-career plant scientists! (Conviron Scholars, Plantae Fellows, and Assistant Features Editors).
I'm so happy to have had this opportunity and to watch the plant community thrive.
You're all in my little green heart 💚

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16 hours ago

Sergio Perez Limon describing in #Zeavolution his MexMagic population to study local adaptation in maize. Pointing out that you can't make popcorn garlands with the reference genome 😂 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

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7 hours ago

“Non-diverse participants” is the euphemism of the year

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7 hours ago

The Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision has allowed billionaires and big corporations to have an outsized influence on our elections. Our democracy is paying the price.

We must keep fighting to get big money out of politics, and restore power to the American people.

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