My colleague @stephseifertphd.bsky.social just published new groundbreaking work on hantaviruses in the United States as part of our shut down @viralemergence.org project. Want to prevent hantavirus outbreaks here? Fund her work. wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/...

I deactivated for 24 hours because the hanta stuff is driving me crazy, and… then we got the “it’s over” email from NSF. So I’m posting this as a temporary signoff, but you know where to find me online. Thanks so much for the support in the nine months we’ve been fighting this.

Tired: worrying about catching hantavirus after reading something on the internets whipped up by grifters and alarmists. Wired: worrying about the destruction of infectious disease and pandemic preparedness research and programming by Russell Vought and Donald Trump.

Openly weeping

SPACE RUPAUL: remember, it’s always polite to let the other man shoot first GUEST JUDGE YODA: old Michelle is

as long as we’re honoring loadbearing posts in star wars history, would be remiss not to bump this one

happy star wars day to this tweet in particular

are any of you good at gull id's? i am NOT and i would love to know what you see in these pictures. thank you!!!

Good afternoon bird enjoyers

Birding tip! It’s okay to have some birds you never get good at. It’s okay if you make it to 29 and still can’t really do swallows and swifts by giss. It doesn’t make me less of a birder. You. It doesn’t make you less of a swallow. A birder. If I can’t tell apart swifts and swallows you’re still a s

Steve was kinda cooking here

what i need this morning is for the cat to stop biting me

This could be the week

Nicole Saphier is a better communicator than Casey Means, and she's actually a licensed, practicing doctor (breast radiologist). That seems like enough to get confirmed. But she has troubling views on vaccines and public health. My latest: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

New paper (w @elizabethacox.bsky.social ): Labor Market Impacts of ICE Activity in Trump 2.0 ICE activity reduced employment for undocumented immigrants in US, did NOT increase employment for U.S.-born workers & generated negative spillovers in immigrant-intensive sectors bit.ly/3QZWbxW

Big thread gone because (1) escaped containment and (2) news cycles will do the work of telling you guys to stop freaking out today, which was the point of it. If you got to read my 11pm thoughts on geopolitical subtext, congrats

ICE is everywhere. In 2022, ICE made arrests in 30% of counties. In 2025, ICE made arrests in 62% of counties. We ask: Do ICE arrests spark political action? Theory and prior evidence suggest it should. We find that ICE activity mostly does not mobilize citizens.

Not particularly irritated about it, but did get accused of sexism for using the phrase "the girls are fighting" about geopolitics, which is a fun reminder that I have to code-switch between how I teach young people as a visibly queer-coded man and how I post on a website of web-not-native 40+ yo's

sometimes the youtube recommendations really do deliver

wow i cant believe they have a pool at former mayor rudy giuliani's memorial service. glad i wore jeans, im gonna take a dip. waters cold but feels good. the jeans are like a wetsuit, i could get used to this

I’m probably gonna end up teaching with this cruise ship thing next spring

Should I post an actual explainer about this or just keep laughing to myself

Maybe the place for the girls (IHR States Parties current and former) to be fighting is not Bluesky subtweets

Unless you are on this boat or have my job, hantavirus on a boat has no risk or relevance to you. Fascinating object lesson here on why we don’t tweet out the Disease Outbreak News most of the time (you people are all, at best, still traumatized from 2020, and at worst…)

??

Richard Dorkins

Do you guys ever think about how they ended the Deborah hospital emergency contact scene with Bless The Telephone

Gm post Bella’s

Doctors & researchers close to UCSF are circulating a petition to block Vinay Prasad's return to the university. They cite: -suppression of scientific findings -allegations of abuse -harmful rhetoric attacking public health -conflicts of interest form.jotform.com/260836126659...

There's an autism crisis, all right -- a "crisis of public trust" as RFK Jr and other high-profile officials fuel misinformation, advocates say. My latest: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

maybe I’m done with you people

Some useful public speaking tips from Freud here.

This @iojournal.bsky.social article from @lorenzocrippa.bsky.social et al. is one of the most important recent pieces on corruption, American politics, and democratic backsliding. It is an empirical research note, but I think its theoretical implications are much bigger. 1/n🧵

The Epstein files are not the only documents the government is hiding.

Kinda burying the lead here, NPR

Tapping the sign again. Protesting the indecency of the foul vulgarian you’re sparring with is like -100 culture war points

The official Lyft x @ifbookspod.bsky.social cross-promotion goes kinda crazy ngl

Went to a new boxcar diner for some 7pm breakfast food and they’re playing I Don’t Care by Fall Out Boy

(I make a "mouth" with the side of my hand and draw little eyes above it) Richard Dawkins: hmmmm (I put lipstick around the "mouth") Richard Dawkins, suavely: well hello

instant classic

Dawkins used to be a leading expositor of the very basic evolutionary biological principle that apparently ordered, complex structures and behaviors do not in fact require consciousness

End of day update: my lab is still down five (5) million dollars

Applications for the Simons Graduate Fellowship in Ecology & Evolution are open for incoming PhD students entering programs in Fall 2026 or 2027! If you are looking to start a program in 2027 and interested in my lab, let me know. I'd be happy to chat about this opportunity.

I Lived It: someone got mad that my grant acknowledged the existence of RCP8.5

matty this is your lawyer speaking. please keep posting this shit

Once again, I think it is extremely important to have a deep understanding of Alex Jones to understand everything about the modern political system, but ESPECIALLY where RFK Jr. is headed

what i need, fundamentally, is two million dollars