Dr. Kassandra Ford

As a note, this needs to be transported in a mini van, bigger SUV, or a truck of some kind!

Help needed!! The summer got the best of me in terms of getting my shark sculpture to Minnesota, but now I really REALLY need some help!

If anyone is making road trip legs between Baltimore or Pittsburgh towards the Midwest, PLEASE let me know!

My fish lab would love to see this happen! Thanks 🦈

71.5% cut to BIO. Just...jesus fucking christ on a bike

I was briefly interviewed by NPR about the housing market!

Come meet me to transfer a shark sculpture! It fits in my Honda Odyssey, so any vehicle with at least that much space would work.

The first leg is to Pittsburgh and I can meet you halfway.

In this hellscape, bring a little good to your world. Also, my kids think I'm moderately cool now.

Oooo could work!!! Thanks, Milton!

Please send me a DM or reply here!

Thank you!!!! 🦈

The amazing @genandgenes.bsky.social can meet someone halfway to Pittsburgh from Baltimore.

Some possible other stops:
Pittsburgh
Cleveland
Toledo
Chicago*
Milwaukee*
Madison*

I can likely pick it up from one of the * locations if it can be stored for a couple of days/weeks in a garage or basement

Hi folks, I've got a follow up request about my large (~10ft) shark sculpture 🦈

Can this network help me come up with a caravan of folks who can transport the sculpture from the Baltimore area to the Illinois/Wisconsin/Minnesota area?

The sculpture fit in a minivan! And I can help w/ gas money

Was looking (first casually then more seriously) from Dec-April to buy with my mom for some multi-gen housing in MN. Now waiting at least 6mo to 1y due to concerns about interest rates, wild markets, and trying to save more for a down payment. She moved into my unit and we resigned the 1y lease.

alright i have my laptop, guess i'm livetweeting the dire wolf preprint.

so a quick reminder: this is not yet peer-reviewed, so there's some different expectations re: quality.

also let's be clear, i'm a hella biased reader, bc i don't trust the hype they're courting

Thanks RC @rchoover.bsky.social for giving a really toothy talk about dentition in Stichaeids to my ichthyology class, today! Also, special thanks to the research mentors as well! @kassthefish.bsky.social, @karlycohen.bsky.social, and @cmdonatelli.bsky.social

Scientists love to debate and argue, but if there are 3 things every scientist absolutely agrees on, it's that:

1. Climate change is real
2. Vaccines work
3. Those are NOT dire wolves 😤

🧪

And this is why science communication and science literacy is so important. 🧪

“De-extinction” is to biodiversity loss what “Mars colonization” is to climate change—wishful thinking that is at its core impossible but nevertheless sucks up attention and resources from actual solutions to these crises (which, ultimately, might be the whole point)

All jokes I've made about species concepts during my career aside....

YIKES. This is BS.

NSF slashes prestigious PhD fellowship awards by half US National Science Foundation announces lowest number of Graduate Research Fellowship Programme recipients in 15 years.

The NSF's flagship fellowship program typically gives offers to 2,000+ young scientists. This year, in the face of looming budget cuts, that number was halved: only 1,000 received an offer. Our story on what that means for the science talent pipeline: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Dear students, faculty and staff, We are writing to inform you about a deeply concerning situation involving one of our international graduate students at the University of Minnesota. We learned that, on March 27 at an off-campus residence, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials detained a graduate student enrolled on our Twin Cities campus. We are actively working to gather more details about this incident.

Well, UMN has officially been hit. We just got an email from our president that an international grad student was detained yesterday. No further details provided.

This. Is. Crushing.

Phylogenomic species delimitation of studfishes (Fundulidae: Fundulus ): evidence for cryptic species in agreement with the central highlands vicariance hypothesis | Zootaxa

Congratulations to Bell affiliate @pjhundt.bsky.social on his recent publication, which describes several new species of studfish! Peter Hundt has added many fish specimens to the Bell’s collections. Read more about his research in our blog post: www.bellmuseum.umn.edu/blog/newly-d...

Ordered IMMEDIATELY 👀

Trying to come up with the words to say.

I'm terrified for our students.

We just received an email that an international grad student at UMN has been detained. Minnesota has laws stating police are not required to provide info to ICE. Admin claims no info was given.

How can we protect our people?

I would buy the heck out of this 👀👀

TransGENETIC ≠ TransGENDER

Say it again louder for those in the back (and apparently also those in the front who are unable to read things correctly)

I think I'm set! Found a wonderful person in town who can hang on to it until I can coordinate getting it 😊 thank you though!

Is this what I expected for my life? No. Would I change it? Also no 😂

Omg y'all are actually the home for the sculpture for the time being. But we're planning on finding this shark a new (temporary) home so y'all have space for your new exhibits and sculptures 😊

I think we've got it covered!! Thanks everyone! Stay tuned for my upcoming ask of folks with mini vans willing to caravan it across the country to get it closer to Minnesota ☠️

Happy to help 🙃

Okay huge ask/question. Do I know anyone in the Baltimore area who could store a ~10ft shark sculpture for me? I was supposed to go pick it up this month but my schedule has gotten chaotic. I could pick it up later in the spring or early summer 👀

It should fit in a mini van or Suburban for transit

Yay!! A federal judge in California sided with a coalition of unions, temporarily barring the Office of Personnel Management from ordering federal agencies to terminate probationary workers, stating that the firings were ‘illegal, should be stopped, and rescinded.’