Nick Gardner

Always figure examples of your character states in your character descriptions (I agree)! #2023SVP

Finally deleted Twitter and it feels good. Also, #laborday #WVU
Solidarity now, solidarity forever.
I wonder if anyone gave WVU's general counsel a bsky invite xD

They fuck up almost every major reporting. For instance, the story covering WVU fails to investigate admin fiscal mismanagement and relies on an he said/she said between admin and faculty. No actual investigation of their own.

NYT can't seem to help themselves from finding a way to write the dumbest shit ever.

"Gee refuses to address what seems to be the root cause of WVU’s budgetary crisis: the rapid withdrawal of state funding from the school." And Gee is refusing to ask the state for the money. Whew, this essay nails what's happening.

I'm not sure if I'm more excited about Bandringa or Diplocaulus: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1591542039/diplocaulus-plushie-a-new-paleozoic-pal/description

I also would want a Greererpeton PLEASE AND NOW AND THANK YOU.

God, I hope this is a joke but knowing the direction he has been taking Twitter, I wouldn't be surprised if it's not. If he was smart, he'd at least make it a paid feature rather than disabling it entirely.

Useful new paper on the stem-turtle Odontochelys. While I wasn't aware it was presumed to be anything but a marine animal, this is nice evidence to bolster that interpretation. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2023.1175128/full

Fuck this noise: https://www.popsci.com/technology/iowa-chatgpt-book-ban/

Clearly what happens when people jump on the tech hype train without having a clue about the technology themselves.

You can call the new Field Museum Spinosaurus cast Sobek all you want, but it's gonna be forever Swimbo to the rest of us. :)
https://www.redbubble.com/shop/?query=swimbo&ref=search_box

I'll be presenting not one but two short talks at this weekend's PRI Summer Symposium in Ithaca, NY.

This isn't the thing you already know about. But you're at the top of the list once I understand more about why it was where I found it and once I have permission from the curator to talk about it openly.

I like being in the field but there's something to be said for rediscovering forgotten materials in collections. Last week's impromptu collections visit exposed some pretty big things to have been forgotten in terms of Paleozoic paleontology.

Welcome to Bluesky, @jgn-paleo.bsky.social

These are fantastic. :)

I really dig this. Will there be more of this type of series for other groups?

Just sold another two stickers with this design. I didn't realize otter themed merch has remained popular! At least 10 sales int the past week of anything with otters.
https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/107949674

Pleased to report an abstract I'm lead author on has been accepted to this year's SVP. I'm not planning on attending due to scheduling conflicts but am excited for my co-authors who will be presenting preliminary findings from our field work in the WV Late Carboniferous.

Yep. It's fossil hunting, not fossil picking. We were out w a PhD student looking for fossil sharks recently & out of the 3 of rest of us, not 1 but me has a degree in STEM, but were smoking finding fossils left n right while they couldn't find anything. You have to look. You have to take chances.

Hey, white folks, if you’re confused about what’s going on, you are witnessing a classic supremacist move. Folks in power are betting that those of us calling out Bluesky’s failure to protect black folks will get tired of speaking up before they get tired of covering their asses. Prove them wrong

The Montvales at The Purple Fiddle in Thomas, WV on Jul 16, 2023.
One of their songs-
https://youtu.be/bXB5f4YQDBY

Screenshot from "7 Days to Die": "Crack-A-Book: Making Scholars Feel Superior Since 1874"

Once Bluesky allows open signups, we'll see a massive horde of nazis and antiblack reply trolls descending on this app.

I see very little in terms of readiness and attitudes of the Bluesky staff, the technology, or the tooling made available to users or instance admins for this scale of onslaught.

Has anyone gotten an update on their SVP abstracts? :)

That WWE guy looking approvingly at 12.000 Hollywood writers on strike, then getting excited at 160,000 actors announce their strike, then losing it 340,000 ups Teamsters preparing to strike

What a week, what a week

Pyjama catshark with head to toe black stripes on a grey shark swimming over a rocky sea floor. 📸 Andy Murch

2 pyjama catsharks with head to toe black stripes on a grey shark swimming over a rocky sea floor. 📸 Andy Murch

Pyjama catshark with head to toe black stripes on a grey shark swimming over a rocky sea floor. 📸 Andy Murch

Even in My Octopus Teacher, one of the most serene, empathetic docs you’ll ever see, sharks are the villains. In this case, these ferocious pyjama catsharks (Obscure Shark 13, Poroderma africanum). But don’t kid yourselves, the pyjama sharks love it. 🦈🧪

On the Origin of GENERA by Edward D Cope AM

When you asked for Darwin but the person who went shopping got supermarket brand

i’ll just use whichever app has the most screenshots from all the others

Someone needs to tell Gordon Gee's staff to GTFO social media. Oh wait, social media told them pretty well.

Legit email from supposed journalist: "I did not reach out to experts for this due to wanting to reach common people with little to no experience & I hope you understand why."

This is supposed to explain why our local paper published a story on alleged Devonian seahorses "found" by a local.