Species @ risk ⬆️ 68% over past 20 yrs in Ontario's Greenbelt, a vital refuge. Doug Ford's repeal of ESA w Bill 5, & Golden Horseshoe development, among issues described in this report, put our wildlife at risk of extinction. Solutions? Pp 17-19 here. catalog.ontarionature.org/greenbelt-sp...

The good muscleologists of the American College of Sports Medicine recently released a new meta review of/consensus on resistance training. Lots of interesting stuff here & not just for athletes. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC... @starrevartan.bsky.social

That’s what the sickening Ontario government ad I just watched said. As well as blaming people for not being able to afford homes yet still seeking to exist, it celebrated corruption, cops, and shutting down life-saving harm reduction sites. Corruption, sadism & death paid for w our taxes.

"Israel struck a major pharmaceutical factory in Tehran that is one of the country's top producers of cancer drugs and anaesthetics." "The only reason you would hit this target is to try to limit medicine production in Iran." #Israel #Iran #USA #Healthcare #Military

👀

A 4-post thread about rabies and screwworm😀. Over on Twitter, poster @giveashitaboutnature described a 30-year USDA program that targets raccoon rabies in central US w/ helicopter drops of fish-flavoured ravioli w/ safe oral rabies vaccine inside. 1/4

Oh my.

It is funny to be in the middle of an energy and medicine revolution while the part of the tech industry that draws attention to itself is entirely devoted to scams and exploding rockets.

It seems like almost everyone is moving away from fossil fuels... with Canada being an embarrassing exception. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Yup. Yup we should. thewalrus.ca/why-your-cre...

Contrary to what Steven Rosenbaum claims in this fascinating interview about the AI-hallucinated/reworked quotes in his book about AI’s fraught relationship with reality, he did in fact use AI to write his book. Everything he says he used AI for IS part of writing.

Science—but not using LLMs to write or review papers or treat or inform patients!—is where AI of various kinds is actually useful. Huge data sets too vast for humans to analyze but w/ valuable secrets…this is where the technology is actually NOT just a scam pushed on us by perverse gazillionaires.

The natural world is so full of wonder & strangeness. I love @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social.

I’m thinking about US researchers who do global health research in the Global South and now need to worry about removing authors from low and middle income countries Epistemic injustice will worsen www.science.org/content/arti...

wow.

This gathering on tech justice and data centre organizing was the most exciting political event I attended this year - so happy the content is now live. I loved being in conversation with the brilliant Jacinta González. Sneak peak reading from mine and @astra.bsky.social's new book!

Youtube just showed me an ad for private healthcare—'annual review', implying it provides reassurance & might save your life, when in fact equivalent services are covered for all Canadians under medicare—from the company Medcan. This should be illegal in Canada.

To be clear, the findings of this report are not just an interesting sports curiosity. The material support of illegal settlement clubs is a direct violation of international law. It means FIFA and UEFA are actively financing (as well as normalizing) apartheid. These are crimes against humanity.

"Ideally I would like to see a few people killed as opposed to a lot. We can do it either way.” Utter sociopath who shld not ever in a million yrs have been allowed anywhere near a post responsible 4 well-being of anyone or anything. Nevermind leadership of the most powerful/dangerous country ever.

More important stuff from Internet Archive @archive.org

🧵 We tend to think the internet is permanent, but VANISHING CULTURE—the new 📚 from Internet Archive—starts with a simple reality: our digital record is far more fragile than we think 🕳️ 📖 Read for free: archive.org/details/vani... 🛒 Purchase in print: www.betterworldbooks.com/product/deta... ⬇️

I wonder if this will have the impact that is urgently needed. I’m not optimistic, but I would dearly like to have realistic grounds for optimism here.

Wow, this is nice of the IRS.

Yes this is bad in every way I can think of.

Colossal Biosciences recently announced a new artificial egg. Here's my earlier look at what their genuinely fascinating genetic engineering projects really mean for extinct species like dire wolves and (oops not yet!) kiwis, and for existing, endangered species. 1/2 www.salon.com/2025/05/15/w...

@nickhunebrown.bsky.social may I DM you? I have a pre-pitch question about two partially-baked pitch ideas, & no longer see guidelines online. Can email if preferred but this is small & quick.

This seems bad. No really, it's bad. It's been increasingly distressing over the past several years across issues that we all observe a bad trend, then watch it become 'normalized', without any meaningful (esp systemic, which is what's needed) response from our elected officials to reverse it.

So many species that we associate with a certain habitat -- grizzly bears in the mountains, condors by the coast, jaguars in the jungle, etc etc -- live there not because it's the only place they can/used to/like to live, but because that's all that we've left for them

The fact that this is so backward really gets me. I expect (tho oppose) neoliberal policy but there are jobs & money to be made in less existentially-intolerable forms of energy, even if that were the only issue worth considering!

PHO Bonnie Henry: one of four Canadians from MV Hondius who arrived in BC May 10 developed fever, headache two days ago. Preliminary testing positive for Andes strain of hantavirus, confirmatory testing pending. In hospital.

Strong policy from arXiv! Hallucinated citation = ban for a year from arXiv, and 'subsequent arXiv submissions must first be accepted at a reputable peer-reviewed venue'. [repost: I incorrectly characterized Dietterich before - he is the vice-president of arXiv's external advisory council].

Saudi Arabia suggests Middle East non-aggression pact with Iran - https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/saudi-arabia-suggests-middle-east-non-aggression-pact-iran

more bizarre errors from the @nytimes.com Canada desk: there are no "overlapping ranges" of grizzly bears or polar bears in Saskatchewan, even in the "far north" of the province. where is this stuff coming from? www.nytimes.com/2026/05/13/w...

🧵 The literary canon is shaped as much by chance as by merit. Brad Bigelow (@neglectedbooks.com) explains why forgotten books deserve to be found & preserved. 📚 Read Bigelow's essay & more in VANISHING CULTURE from the #InternetArchive 🔗 archive.org/details/vani...

Writers traditionally shed words in May, which can make them awkward and skittish. Don't worry, they aren't sick, don't have rabies, and probably won't bite. If you see one in the middle of it, toppled over, words spilling out of them, just put a cloth or cardboard box over their head. Do not feed!

Rather than an expensive feline health food, it seems that raw pet food is a public health risk that can also kill your cat. I do not think it should be sold. www.iflscience.com/for-the-firs...

REUTERS: “The civil rights group NAACP said on Wednesday the new congressional map approved last week by Tennessee Republicans intentionally discriminated on the basis of race against Black ‌voters.” www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

This edges towards but doesn't mention the fact that travellers are afraid of being turned back, arrested, deported to some random country, or held incommunicado in some horrific detention centre/re by this increasingly bananas republic (not lovely NYC, the US). Or are just pissed off about it all.

Valuable analysis from @nolore.bsky.social on Carney's AI promise that no one asked for & which is going 2 privatize public goods while nationalizing extraordinary financial & environmental costs. Also good reminds us that Telus is gobbling up universal healthcare. open.substack.com/pub/noralore...

Very.

Carney fans, rationalize away! www.policyalternatives.ca/news-researc...

Inside your brain is a PINECONE, rapidly filling with BRAIN SAND, and it's evolutionary evidence of your FOUR-EYED FREAK ancestors. Let's talk about the tiny eye inside your brain, the pineal gland. We start with Galen, 2nd century AD, who called it, in Greek 'konario' (κωνάριο), "pine cone".

No elbows.

What a fantastic title, just for a start.

Also LibreOffice is amazing. I feel like such a chump that I used to pay for Microsoft 365.

personally I think it's a very big deal that the Canada bureau chief for the @nytimes.com — certainly one of the highest-paid journalists in the country — asked an unspecified "AI tool" what Poilievre said & published its AI-hallucinated quotes in her reporting.

My friends, this Mother’s Day tribute is one of my favourite stories I’ve written. This is for all the goth moms, unapologetically unique mother figures, & real ones in our lives bc we’re all part of the glorious animal kingdom (queendom). www.salon.com/2025/05/11/y...

Hot off the press. A well referenced high quality statement from the International Hantavirus Society. High level: - Andes strain is different - some spread will occur - pandemic potential is tremendously low - lots to learn - what happens next is up to us zenodo.org/records/2007...

Our current Acting CDC Director said his entire plan for pandemic preparedness is to fire everyone responsible for it.

Woo-hoo!