Dr. Catherine Scott

Health advocates shocked as Carney Liberals back away from pharmacare program Health advocates say they’re shocked to hear the federal government may not sign more pharmacare funding deals, which would leave coverage uneven across the country.

www.ctvnews.ca/montreal/art...

Insiders say Carney government rejected NDP demands before crucial budget vote The opposition NDP wanted the minority Liberal government to devote roughly $10 billion to affordable housing, pharmacare and other priorities.

In case you need a reminder, here's how the Liberals are behaving now.

www.thestar.com/politics/fed...

Yea, the NDP need *major* change and/or we need a new left party.

But here's question for the "NDP can't win" / "NDP are no better" commenters I get constantly:

Was it better when the Liberals had a minority and the NDP held balance of power, or is it the same now that it's just the Libs and Cons?

Both Carney and Poilievre backed the strikes. The NDP condemned them. If bipartisan support for bombing countries bothers you as much as it bothers me, contact your MP ourcommons.ca/members and tell them Canada should be a voice for diplomacy, not rubber-stamping unauthorized military action.

@ibycter.bsky.social has done some experimenting with this on a slightly larger scale recently and may have some tips

Congratulations!!! Well deserved!

This recent RCT of an "AI stethoscope" claims the technology "shows promise" for diagnosing cardiovascular conditions.

It does not.

It is a textbook example of the risks of conducting unprincipled 'per protocol analyses'. Once again, peer review at a major medical journal has failed.

🧵 1/

Kansas Sends Letters To Trans People Demanding The Immediate Surrender Of Drivers Licenses "The legislature did not include a grace period."

It seems all Kansas-issued trans drivers' licenses are invalid, effective tomorrow

It is now illegal for trans people to drive a car until they surrender their license at a DMV (that most will need to drive to) and have it reissued with the wrong gender marker

This was never about woman's sports

an image in 4 quadrants, each one containing a literal image of the animal and text top left: goose barnacle - not a goose - a barnacle top right: barnacle barnacle - a barnacle - a barnacle bottom left: goose goose - a goose - a goose bottom right: barnacle goose - not a barnacle - a goose but also a barnacle if you ask a 12th-18th century english and so it also counts as a fish

bringing back some #InvertebrateShitposting from the archives

As @daviddark.bsky.social wrote, "I suspect we become what we sit still for, what we play along with, and what we abide in our attempts to access more perceived power and more alleged influence."

The boys’ club: How Epstein’s influence shaped the exclusion of women in STEM In one email, an AI researcher suggested it’s “hard to be brilliant if you are worrying if you look fat or why another woman hates you.”

"But he didn't know" okay, great, but did he speak out against an overtly sexist, racist power broker, or did he accept the invitations and the money? Because this culture doesn't just happen. It's created by the consent of the people who have access to those spaces.

19thnews.org/2026/02/epst...

I know OpenAI's CEO is one of (the?) largest Trump donors. Beyond "GenAI is evil," which, you do not need to convince me, I am looking for *specifics* here: what are the ethical ramifications of giving your money to Anthropic that academics should think about when using Claude Code?

The fundamental premise behind AI-enabled cheating is that coursework is merely busy work, because your'e just doing it for professors.

We would never say that showing up for football practice is merely busy work because you're just doing it for your coaches.

Men's health is important. But have a look at this in context:

1) In combination with other moves (see links below), this looks like another pitch to conservative voter bros.

2) It's framed in terms of -- you guessed it -- economic productivity.

Same, but I recall it being super fun!

Did you ever see Men with Brooms?

"Moderna's CEO announced the company will no longer invest in new Phase 3 vaccine trials for infectious diseases: 'You cannot make a return on investment if you don't have access to the U.S. market. Vaccines for Epstein-Barr virus, herpes, and shingles have been shelved.” 9:12 AM Feb 12, 2026 604.8K Views

In terms of what cures are being lost:

- Epstein-Barr virus is perhaps the major trigger for multiple sclerosis
- herpes simplex virus causes cold sores, genital herpes, infections in babies, deadly meningitis
- shingles virus causes an intensely painful disease

With the shuttering of the Walter Reed Biosystematics Unit last year by the US Army we are loosing a lot of expertise and future expertise in insect taxonomy and ecology.

This is a devastating blow to Canadian dipterology, entomology, ecology, and beyond. Please share.
#diptera

@dipterists.bsky.social @teamdiptera.bsky.social @canentomologist.bsky.social @entsocamerica.bsky.social @entsocontario.bsky.social @entsocbc.bsky.social @royentsoc.bsky.social

A lime green felt background with a hand embroidered grass Snake head turned to the left with its tongue out .

"Grass Snake"
Hand embroidery thread painting artwork
#StunDay #embroidery #NationalSerpentDay #WildlifeArt

Gladys Mae West obituary: mathematician who pioneered GPS technology She made key contributions to US cold-war science despite facing huge barriers as a Black woman.

"Despite her groundbreaking work, West was long left out of histories that discussed the development of GPS."

What a remarkable woman. RIP Gladys Mae West.

7 Reasons Teens Say No to AI Some young people only turn to artificial-intelligence chatbots as a last resort, citing concerns about relationships, creativity, the environment and more.

As these teens describe, AI can diminish human relationships; devalue art; threaten the environment; lead to laziness; give unreliable results; pose privacy concerns; and be misused.

So, please, stop with the narratives of inevitability and let's embrace a pedagogy and politics of refusal.

Discworld QOTD, from The Last Continent

‘“We put all our politicians in prison as soon as they’re elected. Don’t you?”

“Why?”

“It saves time.”’

Equity, Ethics, and genAI in Academia Generative AI tools are openly accessible, increasingly normalised, and mostly inequitable. They’re a great example of a marketing success benefiting a specific industry that has quickly ignited a …

Equity, Ethics, & genAI

“students & staff are reminded of the risks & advised of ‘prohibited’ uses at the same time as inhouse genAI tools are actively promoted […] ethical responsibility is passed on to staff & students, with few clear guidelines...” ecologyisnotadirtyword.com/2026/01/30/e...

And lots that are non specialists, who use the pitchers for prey capture and/or ovoposition sites (which @forthespiders.bsky.social has studied in North America)

Yes, there are crab spiders that are obligate pitcher dwellers—Misumenops nepenthicola and Thomisus nepenthephilus (guess which plants they are associated with?)

3-panel comic. (1) [Three small arthropods on ocean floor.] ARTHROPOD 1: Now that we’re multicellular, what are your plans? I’m gonna evolve little legs and swim around with them! ARTHROPOD 2: I’m gonna evolve sharp pincers and use them to crunch stuff! ARTHROPOD 3: I’m gonna evolve glands to make string from my butt and use it to construct elaborate geometric nets hundreds of times my size to catch other animals. (2) [Silence] (3) ARTHROPOD 1: *Dude.* ARTHROPOD 2: Can you *please* just be normal about this? ARTHROPOD 3: *What??!*

Early Arthropods

xkcd.com/3199/

There are also some spiders that live in them!

actions to take as ICE intensifies ways to support MN and your own community

As state terror amps up, here's a list of actions you can take now--

a lot of resources

and a list of upcoming virtual trainings on a number of topics:

The biggest challenge Canadians face right now involves the utter disconnect between Carney’s rhetoric and his actual policies. It makes it so difficult to even begin a debate about what actually standing up to the US would look like.