Karen Poole

I taught composition and technical writing at OU for three years. This decision is a disgrace. If instructors are expected to treat personal beliefs as formal “evidence,” then why even bother offering courses?

This thread is 💯. Labor precarity in academia means the evisceration of faculty governance and academic freedom, opening the door to administrative purges of the most vulnerable. And faculty-esp tenured faculty and academic leaders-who aren't defending their trans colleagues are enabling it.

So yeah, this is fundamentally about trans people and that cannot be elided, but the ways in which junior faculty are targeted and disposed of, while academic jobs are increasingly precarized, and political grandstanders seek to influence academic governance are fucking terrifying for everyone.

My nephew‘s favorite color has consistently been purple since he was little, and he’s now nearly 11. He otherwise likes boy coded things, and I’m always wondering if he‘ll veer away from purple, but so far no!

Also check out Svaha! svahausa.com

Cannot be geologist without a Brunton pocket transit.

As you’re preparing for your Thanksgiving meal, remember the skilled work it took to get that food to your grocery store.

Tell us your favorite Thanksgiving dish, and we can share some of what we know about the work behind the ingredients.

This is a fascinating & kind of terrifying piece, the way it rules out various reasons for collapse you might guess (famine, climate) to leave the impression these people just decided to slaughter each other

"YOUR TURKEY IS A DINOSAUR" infographic, featuring the skeletons of a Velociraptor and turkey, helpfully labelled with osteological features which turkeys (and all birds) inherited from their theropod ancestors. It's grayscale for easy printing at home!

I made an infographic for this very reason!

Every year I encourage my viewers to print it out for their Thanksgiving turkey dinner, Christmas goose feast, Boxing Day budgie buffet, or any other ritual when people gather to dismember bird carcasses. I'm not a meat eater, but I try not to judge

There is NO FUCKING EXCUSE for this to be happening.

I had a baby die in my arms of pertussis some fifty years ago. It was a HORRIBLE death. But my fellow nurses said to me, "It's almost stamped out now, they're all getting the shots, we won't be seeing this again."

HOW THE FUCK ARE WE HERE. 😡

Isaac Chotiner: "You would have to be brain-dead to read this piece and not immediately wonder who is funding Semafor Gulf." Quote post of Ben Smith saying: "Fascinating @msergie piece on covering a monarchy" about a Semafor article on Saudi Arabia's crown prince Smith responds to Chotiner: "That's a hell of an allegation/implication, Isaac. To figure out the literal answer to your question, you'd either have to look and see who the sponsors are in the email (I haven't checked today!) or read our publicly disclosed list of investors. I believe you're trying to imply that it's the Saudi government? Have you read more of our coverage, or just this tweet? My impression — correct me if I'm wrong — is that you're working on zero information and smearing us in general, and an experienced journalist @msergie whose work I suspect you're totally unfamiliar with in particular." Chotiner responds:"I’m not making any allegation. I’m making a simple point about how an average reader—myself included—might respond after reading this ridiculous piece"

Ben Smith: "Just asking questions! Come on. You genuinely know better. Or read Mohammed's long career of work covering the Gulf and the Syrian war before you imply he's some kind of stooge." Noah Kulwin: "The point is not about who funds your reporting/if your colleague is a “stooge”. Isaac’s comment is that the reporting is so bad so as to make a reader wonder who is funding it" Smith: A reader, sure. A journalist who can do very basic homework, kind of lame. Chotiner: "You are right, I’ll do some homework now by perusing Jay Solomon Semafor pieces, and reading Jason Greenblatt Semafor columns. In the meantime, I will formally say that I am making no accusation and was just astonished at how inane the piece was"

Chotiner quote-posts with "I see Semafor loves running column after column by this guy (https://semafor.com/author/faisal-j-abbas), who also publishes pro-Saudi conspiracies about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi https://arabnews.com/node/1386291" Ben Smith's post says "I hope I'm not overreacting, but it makes me crazy when people I think of as reporters do this "just asking questions" stuff. Feel free to report it out by googling/asking me/reading our various scoops and reports about the region — these two just now" and links to two Semafor articles

Chotiner quote posts Ben Smith: "You might have heard that the UAE is helping destroy Sudan, but at the next Semafor event, all is well." Screenshot says "Held at Abu Dhabi Finance Week, Semafor will spotlight insights from the Global Findex 2025 report and the Global Digital Connectivity Tracker, translating global research into actionable, locally relevant conversations. As the third stop on The Next 3 Billion Tour, this edition explores how the Gulf's growing investments in Africa can accelerate digital connectivity and financial inclusion. With Abu Dhabi's focus on sustainable finance, digital transformation, and cross-border collaboration, it offers a strong platform to examine how technology and capital can work together to expand access and opportunity." Ben Smith's post says "Just asking questions! Come on. You genuinely know better. Or read Mohammed's long career of work covering the Gulf and the Syrian war before you imply he's some kind of stooge."

A new kind of rapid Chotining. Please appreciate the alt-text.

It's weird to not only have lived through an information revolution but also now living through its undoing, all within less than a generation.

Every year since she would pile loads onto his plate even after he said he was full. Despite everyone joking about Joe hating/loving sweet potatoes, she kept right on believing he loved them, and making a big batch “so there’s plenty for Joe.” 2/2

My Uncle Joe (actually a fairly distant cousin) had at some point in the past politely complimented my grandma’s sweet potato casserole (despite loathing sweet potatoes). Grandma took the polite compliment to mean “sweet potatoes are Joe’s absolute favorite”…1/2

USAJOBS connects job seekers with federal jobs across the United States and around the world as the official employment site for the federal government These positions may be filled for a six month seasonal period, but can vary due to weather conditions, project needs, or funding. Anticipated Entry on Duty: <strong>April 2026</strong> <p>For more par...

New seasonal paleontology positions available for Dinosaur National Monument, Petrified Forest National Park and Fossil Butte National Monument. Apply soon, they close after they receive a certain number of apps! #NPSpaleo #PaleoJobs

www.usajobs.gov/job/850816000

www.usajobs.gov/job/850816700

the economic success of the U.S. is significantly built on the land grant universities and in particular their excellent agricultural science tradition.

Influencers made millions pushing ‘wild’ births – now the Free Birth Society is linked to baby deaths around the world A year-long investigation reveals how mothers lost children after being radicalised by uplifting podcast tales of births without midwives or doctors As Esau Lopez was asphyxiated for the first 17 minutes of his life on Earth, the atmosphere in the room remained serene, even ecstatic. Acoustic music crooned from a speaker in a modest two-bedroom apartment in a suburb of Pennsylvania. “You are a queen,” murmured one of three friends in the room. Only Esau’s mother, Gabrielle Lopez, felt something was wrong. She was pushing hard, but her son would not be born. “Can you help [him] out?” she asked, as Esau crowned. “Baby is coming,” the friend replied. Four minutes later, Lopez asked again, “Can you grab [him]?” Another friend murmured, “Baby is safe.” Six minutes passed. Again, Lopez asked, “Can you grab [him]?” Continue reading...

Influencers made millions pushing ‘wild’ births – now the Free Birth Society is linked to baby deaths around the world

It’s widely known (and, I think, pretty uncontroversial) that learning requires effort — specifically, if you don’t have to work at getting the knowledge, it won’t stick.

Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.

Nice 3-year teaching+research postdoc at NYIT!
careers-nyit.icims.com/jobs/4126/po...
The human anatomy teaching experience is tremendously valuable; for people in our fields (e.g., morphology, biomechanics, palaeontology) it opens up great faculty job opportunities! And the NYIT faculty are great.

So I’m in the Epstein Files Transcript: Look. I know that on this channel, I often criticize prominent people for actions that I find detestable: accepting dark money and failing to disclose it, producing propaganda for Big O…

Mainstream news covered the Jeffrey Epstein emails related to ppl like Trump. Today, I want to take a look at Epstein's correspondence with prominent atheist and physicist Lawrence Krauss, who asked the pedophile's advice on responding to accusations of sexual assault skepchick.org/2025/11/so-i...

A stock photo of a hand reaching out to touch a mirror that contains a mirror-image of the hand.

So, this is wild:

In 2015, the podcast Invisibilia featured a woman with a very unusual condition.

Whenever Amanda (not her real name) sees someone else experiencing something - sneezing, getting stung by a wasp, eating chocolate - she physically echoes a version of what they’re feeling.

1/

COWEN: The stupidest question possible: Why don’t we just make more GPUs? ALTMAN: Because we need to make more electrons. COWEN: What’s stopping that? What’s the ultimate binding constraint? ALTMAN: We’re working on it really hard. COWEN: If you could have more of one thing to have more compute, what would the one thing be? ALTMAN: Electrons.

I laughed at loud. These people are so pathetic; our enemies are numbskulls. They will kill us all and still not know hs physics.

COWEN: The stupidest question possible: Why don’t we just make more GPUs?

ALTMAN: Because we need to make more electrons.

conversationswithtyler.com/episodes/sam...

the stunning next skull attributed to t. imperator

art of t. imperator soaring over a lagoon on a sunny day, plant material clasped in its beak

incredible! a gorgeously preserved skull from tupandactylus imperator has been described, offering new insights into its dietary ecology and soft tissues 😻
www.scielo.br/j/aabc/a/6Hv...
(art by maurilio oliveira)

OpenAI needs to be shuttered permanently, its assets appropriated for public use, & Altman punted into the phantom zone.

If you are not in academia, you might not know this, but job interviews used to be held at conferences IN HOTEL ROOMS. Women candidates in a hotel room alone with often all-male committees. People sitting on beds! The horror stories I've heard.

Dr. @renpoole.bsky.social: Sauropods were offensively big because they were actually photosynthesizing.

Send tweet.

#2025SVP

Hey SVPers, how's your travel going for #2025SVP?

I've had one flight cancellation, but a fairly smooth process rescheduling. Should still make it on schedule.

Good luck, and I hope to see you there!

This obit of Watson is *amazing*.

Laughs in traveling to and from a conference next week.