Roman T Cavallaro

The Strangers’ Case I don’t normally say this, but if you watch one thing on kottke.org today, this week, this month, make it this speech written by Shakespeare and performed by

The full clip, including McKellen's setup of the scene, is here, along with info about the riots (Evil May Day) and the text of the speech itself. kottke.org/26/02/the-st...

Over 20 years of scat analyses reveal how truffle-like fungi respond to climate change.

First paper of PHD student Emily McIntyre from @unimelb.edu.au
🦘🍄‍🟫🌱

@ausmycsoc.bsky.social
@esaplantsoilecol.bsky.social

With the $75 million Jeff Bezos spent to produce and promote the flop "Melania," he could have employed more than 180 @washingtonpost.com reporters for four years each.

(based on an average $105K annual salary/benefits/bonus package).

Priorities.

Full professor for plant ecology in Regensburg. #plantscience #plantscijobs

jobs.zeit.de/jobs/w3-prof...

Some people will be tempted to think that having the state dictate faculty teaching loads we can repair trust in institutions and avoid authoritarianism when in actuality having the state dictate faculty teaching is part of an authoritarian program.

💯💯💯

Advocates Warn of ‘Forced Labor’ Camp for Homeless People in Utah Designed to Enforce Trump Order | Common Dreams Advocates warn that Utah's massive new homeless facility, which it's building to comply with Trump's executive order on homelessness, will be an "internment camp" that subjects those detained to force...

They already chose their next hated minority group to target. It's in Project 2025. And Trump signed an order for his top people to start handling the problem of drug addiction last week.

Oct 28, 2025
Advocates Warn of ‘Forced Labor’ Camp for Homeless People in Utah Designed to Enforce Trump Order

We gotta come up with a better system than “everything rests on whether these twelve billionnaires are nice”

Don't let anybody tell you what your academic-life balance is supposed to be You do you. And please stay healthy.

Your time for doing science waxes and wanes throughout your career. Don’t let anybody tell you that you’re doing it wrong. You get to decide what’s right for you (as long as you meet your basic commitments). 🧪

I think one thing people outside Minnesota don't understand is that after Good and Pretti were killed by feds while observing, the most normal people you could imagine have made peace with the fact that they could be next, and they are still out there because they say it's the right thing to do.

"I'd like to share a story from a local paper in Coldwater, Michigan dated to the 9th of April, 1945. It tells how the US Army, under General Patton--the US 3rd Army--came onto what you might call a detention center just outside the village of Ohrdruf, Germany. The US Army brought the leading citizens of Ohrdruf to tour the facility, which turned out to be part of the Buchenwald network of concentration camps. A US Army colonel told the German civilians who viewed the scenes, without muttering a word, that they were to blame. One of the Germans replied that what happened in the camp was (quote) 'done by a few people, and you cannot blame us all.' And the American, who could have been any one of our grandfathers, said, 'this was done by those that the German people chose to lead them, and all are responsible.' The morning after the tour, the Mayor of Ohrdruf killed himself. And maybe he did not know the full extent of the outrages that were committed in his community, but he knew enough. And we don't know exactly how ICE will use this warehouse. But we know enough. I ask you to consider what the Mayor of Ohrdruf might have thought before he died. Maybe he felt like a victim. He might have thought, 'how is this my fault? I have no jurisdiction over this.' Maybe he would have said, 'this site was not subject to local zoning, what could I do?' But I think, when he reflected on the suffering that occurred at this camp, just outside of town, that those words would have sounded hollow even to him. Because in his heart he knew--as we do--that we are all responsible for what happens in our community. I urge the council to take action to stop, or stall, or at the barest minimum to think creatively about how to exercise oversight over this proposed ICE facility. Thank you."

This is brilliant. I'm so grateful for this testimony. I've transcribed it to use in letters I'm writing. Sharing the full transcription here (see alt text to copy/paste it):

Peak Reflections - Chilliwack Lake Provincial Park, British Columbia 🇨🇦

#reflection #lake #calm #tranquility #snow #blueskyartshow #pano #landscapephotography #peak #travel #britishcolumbia #chilliwackbc #nature #photography #mirror #mountains #forest #hike #explorebc #scape #explorecanada #canada

“.. Michigan has lost 6,300 manufacturing jobs since Trump took office .. Canada was Michigan’s primary export market. Now its wheat exports are down 89 percent ..”

@washingtonpost.com @scottlincicome.bsky.social
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

worth noting that the second rich people stopped being afraid of mobs tearing them limb from limb, they stopped building libraries and opera houses and stuff and started ripping the copper wiring out of the walls of society instead

this is a wicked man who knows he is being wicked and does it anyway

Vance deserves no respect in life or in death as he shows zero respect for both the living and the dead. He is desperate to be admired and to exact his cruelty upon the world.

@jk_rowling · Feb 2 This is beyond silly. Neither I, nor anybody on my team, ever met, communicated with or invited Jeffrey Epstein to anything. https://x.com/girlslasttourr/girlslasttourrr/status/2018093016548778327

Justice.gov Epstein Files official Harry Potter and the Cursed Child play invite to Jeffrey Epstein

Peggy Siegal Company: "Hi just liet us know where you like to send the tickets. Rhys Kimmitt "the tickets are on their way to Peggy's office. Please deal with Lila to arrange pickup" CC Jeffrey Epstein "Rhys please deal with Jeffrey Epstein's assistant [redacted] She will send a messenger to pick up his two dinner tickets. Thanks so much! xoxo Peggy"

To Jeffrey Epstein Ryhs Kimmitt Marisa Frank and Lila Walker from Peggy "To whom this may concern Rhys...what was not clear?" "I was very explicit with my staff and you about TWO tickets for the DINNER for Jeffrey Epstein. What genius filled the ticket order? Why wasn't his name on the DINNER list at the door? What genius thought my friend would not have a plus one when we ordered TWO tickets. What robot at the door would not let him in? This has ruined what was a perfect everning for all of us. I am incredibly emarabassed by the rigid behavior of some child minded door guard. Jeffrey is a captain of international finance and a close personal friend of mine. I know this was not done on purpose but it still is terribly upsetting. Please find out who did this and send an apology note. Thank you so much. Peggy. Jeffrey...of all nights, I left my two phones home, I was actually looking for you all night, I was with Soon-Yi and she thought you were having dinner with her husband. I am so very sorry. What a screw up.

JK Rowling has not tweeted since openly denying that her team invited the world's most notorious child rapist to a kid's play despite evidence directly disproving her claims

A woman holding up a poster board size white paper, it reads “Be a neighbor, not a Nazi” Her black shirt says “no human being is illegal”

The overflow room at the Surprise City Council meeting has also filled up (it has a 500 person capacity). I can’t tell how many are still outside but we can hear them chanting “ICE out” in here so it seems like quite a lot.

It’s hard to put into perspective how truly massive the warehouse is that was recently sold by the Rockefeller Group to the Department of Homeland Security for $70 million to build a concentration camp in Surprise, AZ. Across the street is a huge neighborhood and a school. It’s 400,000-square-feet.

The free-roaming turkeys of Saint Paul, Minnesota:

- are enormous
- don’t know where they’re going
- have no plans or motivations
- don’t understand roads
- or anything at all, really

He’s there to hold the title (and push forward his own beliefs) not to do the job, just like all the other frauds in the Trump administration.

Priority effects inhibit the repeated evolution of phototrophy - npj Complexity npj Complexity - Priority effects inhibit the repeated evolution of phototrophy

New paper out! Here's a puzzle: phototrophy, the ability to use light for energy, is one of life's great innovations. It evolved early and transformed the biosphere. But it evolved 2x. Why not just once, why not more? Our work suggests the answer is priority effects.

www.nature.com/articles/s44...

A line graph showing funding curves for all NIH projects awarded grants for fiscal years 2021-2026. The curve for fiscal year 2026 is lagging behind that for previous fiscal years substantially.

My weekly update on NIH funding.

This is for all projects.

The breakdown for competing and non-competing awards will follow.

1/4

Fungi, once again, get the cold shoulder in discussions of biodiversity loss and conservation, only mentioned in the context of plant and habitat restoration…

Why are fungal species not a conservation priority? Less than 200,000 fungal species—out of potentially millions—have been described. 🍄‍🟫 🌎

Fungi, once again, get the cold shoulder in discussions of biodiversity loss and conservation, only mentioned in the context of plant and habitat restoration…

Why are fungal species not a conservation priority? Less than 200,000 fungal species—out of potentially millions—have been described. 🍄‍🟫 🌎

Biodiversity conservation has an evidence problem — it’s time to fix it Globally, more than one million species are threatened with extinction, but often interventions intended to protect biodiversity are not rooted in robust research. The field has an opportunity to change that.

Biodiversity loss is continuing at an unprecedented rate, with species becoming extinct at between 100 and 1,000 times the average pre-human, or ‘background’, rate

go.nature.com/4rxrWvn

Academics are easily played. So many of them get off on flattery that they're completely doe-eyed and uncritical about people using them to karma-wash their reputations.

Mayor Mamdani stands behind a podium with other administration officials and community leaders with large signs saying Free Tax Prep.

Dr. Nichola Davis smiles at Mayor Mamdani while speaking behind a podium.

Mayor Mamdani speaks to reporters while behind a podium.

Yesterday we kicked off NYC’s Free Tax Prep season. That means filing your taxes at zero cost, keeping every dollar of your refund, and not getting ripped off by for-profit companies. 
 
Nearly half of all New Yorkers qualify. Get help—virtually or in person—at nyc.gov/TaxPrep

“In reality, the challenge is not the NIH policy itself, but publishers attempting to monetize a compliance requirement that should cost researchers nothing.”

Children and families, who have committed no crime, should not be suffering and do not belong in prison.

In the interest of public health and safety, Dilley should be shut down immediately.