Natalie Wright, Ph.D.

I went to elementary school on US military bases. I lived on US military bases as a kid. The idea it’s ok to kill kids because they live on a military base is disgusting and ought to make all US service members furious.

(The idea it’s ever ok to kill kids is disgusting)

They killed schoolchildren, Chuck. Your “imploring” isn’t going to solve shit. Resign and let someone willing to fight against fascism take over.

Americans do not want this. They do not want another war in pursuit of regime change. They want relief from the affordability crisis. They want peace.

Today’s military strikes on Iran — carried out by the United States and Israel — mark a catastrophic escalation in an illegal war of aggression. Bombing cities. Killing civilians. Opening a new theater of war.

i wish the leaders of our party in congress could just say this without attaching an entire page of disclaimers

Brilliant. 😁

A bumper berry harvest has New Zealand's weird flightless parrot in a rare mood for romance New Zealand conservationists have been fighting for years to keep the kakapo, the world’s only flightless parrot, from disappearing, with intensive conservation efforts.

Need some good news? Kakapo, New Zealand's endangered flightless parrots, are having a great year. #ornithology

New Zealand’s endangered flightless parrots are feeling horny.

At our favorite local Mexican restaurant, my 5yo recently struggled to eat runny queso with chips. She gave up on using chips and just stuck her straw into the bowl of queso and started drinking.

*whispers* nothing prevents you from also creating a queso straw. there are no rules, only queso.

I teach at a college where each student says “thank you, Professor,” as they walk out of class every day. It’s delightful and sweet and they do it even after I’ve given them a beast of an exam or they’re turning in a major assignment.

WHAT. That’s absurd.

They are the bane of my existence.

Cheering us on in public while demeaning us in private isn’t allyship. It isn’t support. It’s bullshit misogyny.

Every woman in a male-dominated field knows this playbook. The men who act like their friends, who pretend to support them. But who, when they think the women won’t hear, laugh at jokes at their expense. Suck up to abusive, predatory men. Uphold the boys’ club above all else.

They don’t realize that their non-apology excuse that they support the women’s team, cheer them on, congratulated them on their win makes their locker room behavior worse, not better.

They support the women’s team in public, but in private laugh at them.

I am so full of rage at the US men’s hockey team. It seems like such a small thing, given all the other things that fill me with rage. But their laughter at a rapist demeaning the best women athletes in the world exemplifies how we ended up here.

“Is not supposed to read well” is in direct contrast to “should communicate facts efficiently.”

If it doesn’t read well, it cannot communicate efficiently.

Serenity. “I’m a leaf on the wind.” 😭😡

I messaged childcare to let them know kid2 won’t be there today and her teacher replied that she’s the 3rd kid this morning to have a stomach bug. So I guess we’re in good company. And know where she got the bug from (not that we had much doubt).

Thanks. It’s shockingly bad. 😭😭 Not every virus has hit every person in the household, thankfully, and so far us parents have been hit sequentially rather than simultaneously. But I had really hoped we’d gotten through the worst, but nooooo. Stomach bug in kid 2 at 4am. 😭😭😭

We haven’t had nonstop illnesses like this since we first started childcare. This winter is utter misery. The only break in illness we had was the week of snow days, when it was -7°F and we were all trapped inside the house.

If you emailed me weeks ago and I still haven’t replied, know it’s not you, it’s the parade of influenza A, RSV, influenza B, colds, and (last night) norovirus that have hit my household in a relentless parade of terrible since the kids went back to school after winter break.

Absolutely! And I think the lower power individuals (grad students, admin staff) are much more likely to see & recognize signs that someone (of any gender) will be problematic.

YUP. Some people treat admin staff as lesser. Those people generally are assholes who make the department culture worse for everyone.

When all the female grad students tell you a candidate seems arrogant & smarmy & they don’t like him, but it’s all vibes, maybe hire one of the other candidates who are just as amazing researchers, but don’t give off bad vibes. Cuz in my experience those vibes have proven right 100% of the time.

Especially now…you’re hiring a colleague. The state of US science and academia requires that you and your colleagues stand up for each other and have each others backs.

If they’re great researcher but there are obvious flags, trust me, there are other great researchers out there to hire

This is evil. How monstrous does one have to be to do this to children?

A group of students made Valentine’s Day cards for us Biology professors and they’re so sweet and nerdy and made me cry. 💜💜

Also they baked delicious cookies for us. I love this job.

Look, I was extremely on top of planning today’s class. I even wore my Sulidae dress to talk about a paper on specialized air sacs in soaring birds. I have to make up for that with-it-ness today by not being with it on Monday.