Whitney Barlow Robles

If I were in charge of a small liberal arts school, I would start thinking about aggressively marketing my institution as a "knowledge-first" college. One where students can escape the intrusion of constant AI and focus on deep learning and engagement.

Okay so they're superheroes basically

(this may be my favorite group of insects and this study is blowing my mind)

“I asked ChatGPT” yeah well I asked the beautifully coiffed snake god Glykon by submitting my query in writing to his prophet Alexander at the temple in Abonoteichos that has a back room nobody’s allowed to go into

Just saw THE South Park episode and my eyes will never recover but I’m happy about it.

Yeah I’ve got a bug-themed birthday party for a five-year-old to attend this weekend and will certainly be needing these

Israel is killing them all. They’re starving Gaza. A little four year old boy was eating sand. There’s nothing else we should be talking about. There’s nothing else to talk about.

Do you ever see so much conflicting modern parenting advice that you contemplate just sourcing literal wolves to raise your children?

ChatGPT advises women to ask for lower salaries, study finds A new study has found that large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT consistently advise women to ask for lower salaries than men.

Technology is not neutral (I mean, duh, but we have to keep saying it)

thenextweb.com/news/chatgpt...

When I was little, the U.S. military came to our home at gunpoint and took me and my family away. We were imprisoned for years in barbed wire camps simply because we were Japanese American. I have spent my life telling that story, hoping it would never be repeated.

The rescission bill has passed the Senate. Once it passes the House, as expected, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's budget will be zeroed out for the first time since 1967, back when TV stations still broadcast in black and white.

This colorful tropical cockroach (Rochaina metae) from the Ecuadorian Amazon is something I always hope to encounter on plants when I am visiting the region. It serves as a great example against the common misconception that all roaches are filthy and have dull colors. Just look how stunning it is!

Screenshot of the article that reads: It’s not just children. In addition to bolstering underfunded K-12 schools and protecting the rights of kids with disabilities, the department also manages the federal financial aid process for college students. “I am not certain whether or not students will be able to get financial aid next year,” Dominique Baker, a professor of education and public policy at the University of Delaware, told Vox.

Screenshot of the article that reads: While students and families are the most directly impacted by changes at the Education Department, those changes have also inspired a broader concern. Some of the programs terminated by DOGE are congressionally mandated, and if the president or Musk can simply stop them, “that means that Congress no longer actually functions,” Baker said. “There are no longer checks and balances for the executive branch,” Baker said. “A significant part of this goes beyond education and speaks to a constitutional crisis that shapes the future of our country.”

Here Vox's explainer for just what is going on at the Department of Education which includes me saying I don't have faith in financial aid disbursement next year and, oh yea, I think we're in a constitutional crisis

www.vox.com/policy/40233...

ICE agents questioned middle & high school kids at Riverside Park batting cages on NYC’s Upper West Side - asking where their parents were from.

The kids are U.S. citizens.

Thankfully, their coach intervened.

So much for baseball bringing us all together.

bsky.app/profile/atru...

"At, for instance, a Home Depot." This makes me sick to my stomach. It's why my father-in-law now takes his papers and passport with him everywhere he goes. But what if they take his papers? And what about people without papers?

You ever forget the lyrics or accompaniment to a song you wrote and then you're like oh shoot, I can't just ask the internet or my phone for help? Guess our brains do still matter.

In Ishmael's words: "Though elephants have stood for their full-lengths, the living Leviathan has never yet fairly floated himself for his portrait." So "you must needs conclude that the great Leviathan is that one creature in the world which must remain unpainted to the last."

Early whale illustrations were all sorts of funky—either drawn from stranded whales, or the product of a game of telephone.

Whale with a tentacle from Ulisse Aldrovandi, De piscibus libri v. et de cetis lib. unus (1638 edition)

Blue whale heart (Royal Ontario Museum)

Jeremy Bentham's preserved corpse—a stipulation of his will

Michel Foucault in a badass biker jacket and signature turtleneck

Preparing slides for a lecture on Moby-Dick and natural history be like

Oh yes—I have never said no to a PDF request! Though my favorite ones are when neither of us has institutional access to my article. 🫠

a man is making a funny face with his mouth open . Alt: These motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!

Reading The Bright Ages by @lollardfish.bsky.social and @profgabriele.com and it includes this line about a flood on the Tiber in 589:

Storehouses of wheat were soiled and ancient building ruined. Then snakes appeared on the plain.

Bravo

A screenshot of YouTube comments where every profile avatar has been changed to a version of the infamous (and apparently criminal) JD Vance baby face meme

I must thank the great people of YouTube for their unending commitment to humiliating JD Vance

Just wow! Can we appreciate the fact that a team from Mexico is in Texas helping with the search and rescue. 👏🏽

A nice little holiday surprise to see my book, Curious Species, featured in The New York Review of Books—along with Fanny Blanc's delightful illustration showing some of its protagonists: a handsy raccoon, an old snake in a jar, perhaps even the pickerel that inspired the book?

#BookSky #Nature

Wet Venus fly traps

Wet Venus fly traps on a bed of moss

A profusion of yellow pitcher plants

What better way to gear up for a tropical storm than scouting for carnivorous plants in the rain? Feeling lucky to live in one of just two states where Venus flytraps lurk beneath our toes.

Not pictured: a camera-shy sundew

#bloomscrolling #nature #tropicalstorm #northcarolina
#carnivorousplants

Reading the Declaration of Independence to the kids at breakfast, all about a king who “refused his Assent to Laws,” “obstructed the Administration of Justice,” “made Judges dependent on his Will alone,” “deprive[ed people] the benefits of Trial by Jury,” etc etc, it’s a sobering read!!!

A really nuanced and wide-ranging take on the hypocrisy behind MAGA’s ICE maneuvers and rhetoric

“Indigenous peoples stand in the way of White privilege over lands where White people in power are the colonizer, the settler, and the immigrant, but never the native.”

Evaluating the impact of two decades of USAID interventions and projecting the effects of defunding on mortality up to 2030: a retrospective impact evaluation and forecasting analysis USAID funding has significantly contributed to the reduction in adult and child mortality across low-income and middle-income countries over the past two decades. Our estimates show that, unless the a...

Elon Musk casually, and illegally, dismantled USAID. According to a new study in the Lancet, that action will lead to *14 million* premature deaths between 2025 and 2030.

Again: Elon Musk is directly responsible for 14 million coming deaths. 4.5 million will be children.

I use BHL nearly daily. One of those rare resources vital to both scientists and historians—and so many others (it is a TROVE). So many books (and articles, and species descriptions) wouldn’t be published without it.

“He’s easily bruising. He has bone pain. He looks pale .… He has also lost his appetite …. His mom is terrified that these are symptoms that his leukemia situation might be deteriorating.”

A 6-year-old with cancer is languishing in a U.S. detention camp. Who will answer for this cruelty?