Melissa Hughes

New band name just dropped

Dude took a nap in my grad lab also, because he was too bored to listen to the grad students who had invited him to speak.

Student (excited): Here’s what I’m working on!

Trivers: that sounds interesting. Is there someplace I could take a nap?

Same.

My “representative”

I think there are a lot of academics who were knowingly attended dinners and lunches where they knew Epstein would be in the 2010s that are telling themselves that actually it's cool because it's not like they're pedophiles but by the 2010s he was an unrepentant convicted pedophile, folks

Take a look at this insane image the Illinois College Republicans posted and then read their statement about how they're not trying to excuse or glorify violence.

It’s 2026. There is a measles outbreak in the prison for babies

Bob fucking Trivers just pouring his perverted transphobic heart out to the most notorious pedophile in the world. Disgusting. Why am I not surprised?

Reporters should be asking congressional Republicans what *other* kinds of Americans they think deserve to be executed in the street by the president's goon squad.

"So you support the murder of a mom and a VA nurse, but what about an Eagle Scout or a kindergarten teacher? How about a priest?"

Our black brothers and sisters have long warned us that someday, it would head our way, too.

Columbia Heights school leaders speak out after ICE detains kids ICE agents have detained students on their way to and from school and also tried to get onto school property, the Columbia Heights superintendent said in an emotional news conference Wednesday.

"it’s unclear when or whether Liam will be able to return for his stuffed turtle, his hat, and his W worksheet" sahanjournal.com/education/ic...

Independent autopsy in ICE shooting death of Renee Good released by law firm in civil investigation The results of an independent autopsy for Renee Good have been released as part of a law firm's civil investigation, two weeks after she was shot and killed by a federal agent in Minneapolis.

I've been waiting for this.

Independent autopsy of Renee Good is in. It's strong evidence against Agent Ross, given what it means about the second or third shot through the left-side window.

It's the second and third shots that make the easiest criminal case of a willful killing.

Ok I need to spell this out more slowly, clearly: Greenland is Inuit land and nobody but Inuit should be getting to decide what happens to it

Greg Bovino is out here in a green trench coat sieg heiling to his “troops” who are all out to hunt human beings by race and Corey Booker et al still doing close up videos of their concerned faces acting like the issue is body cams & “oversight” and too little training.

Allowing preventable diseases to run rampant seems like an odd choice for a state dependent on tourism

Oh I’m so glad my university has gone all-in forcing AI “education”…

Stop falling for the “untrained” narrative.

Yesterday I had my organizational class meeting for Ornithology, the only class in the department taught almost entirely in the field. A student afterwards told me they were so excited because “this is what I thought biology classes would ALL be like!”

He Studied Why Some Female Birds Look Like Males

"I don’t know why my fellowship was terminated. I suspect that it has something to do with studying a species that doesn’t fit the binary of what we expect to see in nature, with completely different males and females."

@carlzimmer.com profiles my wonderful coauthor @jjinsing.bsky.social Gift link.

These dumb takes always go one way.

They never run a photo of a billionaire in Central Park, calling out a capitalist for hypocritically enjoying a public park like some kind of commie

Me eyeballing the coming semester like:

(Mostly white bodega cat scowling over a box of nicotine patches, painkillers in the background)

My 2026 word: intrepid.

I’ve been reflecting on the (my) need for greater courage so this is strangely appropriate…

Flu numbers are high in most states and almost all cases are variants of H3N2 and the vaccine includes H3N2

Get your flu vax if you haven’t already! Even if you still get the flu, the symptoms will be easier to manage if you get vaccinated!

It took a lot of recent refugees gathered together at Los Alamos to make an atom bomb. Not just Fermi.

THIS. Plus they’re learning that “good writing” is the dry corporate-speak slop that LLMs produce. So when they do write, that’s the voice they mimic.

Absolutely right.

AI might be able to summarize (poorly) what we currently know, but a major goal of historical research is to find the hidden surprises out there.

Let me illustrate …

Cool history! (For animal behavior folks, too)

Bending your institution to meet the prejudices of your dumbest, meanest students is a surefire way to destroy a university.

Now any student can just scrawl “the Bible says this is wrong” on any test and skate to an A at the Oklahoma Football Outlet and Diploma Factory.

Oh my god

Can’t wait for my administration to start dropping this new (?) buzzword