"PhD position in nitrogen use efficiency and wood formation in forest trees at Umea Plant Science Centre, Umea, Sweden *Application Deadline: 2/10/2026" Read more here: https://www.slu.se/en/about-slu/work-at-slu/jobs-and-vacancies/doktorand-i-vaxtbiologi/ #PlantSciJobs

🧵 NSF is reducing external review requirements and eliminating routine expert panels, citing staff shortages that this administration implemented. This change expands program officer authority. But the solution to flawed accountability isn't less public accountability.

This guy gets it:

NEW: After pushing hundreds of thousands of government employees to leave their posts and dismantling many government technology units, the Trump administration is launching an effort to recruit new technology talent. www.nextgov.com/people/2025/...

*stares longingly*

Hit & Run on Granby Street. I'm okay (not dead, at least). Some abrasions, my knee is sore. Filed a police report. You can hear the driver honk just before hitting me. Didn't stop at all, but just kept going. Granby through Riverview needs protected bike lanes as well. This was the 2nd time.

Merriam-Webster’s human editors have chosen ‘slop’ as the 2025 Word of the Year.

Happy Chanukah to all who celebrate. Let’s focus in the light for now, shall we? Praying for peace.

Happy Hanukkah to our friends who celebrate. Rachel Posner, a rabbi’s wife in Kiel, Germany, took this photograph in 1931 -- a potent reminder that fascism must be fought in every generation, even if it's wrapped in an American flag and a red hat.

Bondi victims include Holocaust survivor Among the victims of the Bondi Beach attack were a Holocaust survivor, a young French tourist and a rabbi, multiple media outlets reported. With replies by 🎓Cas Mudde, 🎓Ruud Koopmans, 🎓Victor Asal +140 more scholars.

As Jews around the world gather to celebrate Chanukah this week, we are horrified to hear of the antisemitic attack on our fellow Jews in Australia. No one should be afraid to light a Chanukiah. No one should be afraid to attend a community gathering or go to school. (1/2)

Australian news reporting that the hero bystander here is named Ahmed al Ahmed. Muslim, father of two.

Just saw people arguing that the shooting in Sydney wasn’t antisemitic because Chabad is a Zionist movement, and killing Zionists is fine. Fucking ghouls. Get fucked.

This is a horrific act of antisemitism during a time meant for light & celebration. My heart breaks for the Bondi Beach community & my thoughts are with all those who lost loved ones & the entire Jewish community as we condemn this evil. Antisemitism has no place in our world.

This piece, to be specific.

Just to be clear. This is who is running ICE. Attacked his partner, attempted to strangle her and if that wasn't enough the little nugget of information mid way through the article that informs us that she was 18 and he was in his FORTIES when their relationship started.

This column on Vox is the biggest pile of steaming AI crap I've seen this year. Human's aren't running out of ideas. Instead, those with power and money don't want to listen to ideas that threaten their power and money. Ideas are plentiful. Putting those ideas into action is the hard part.

Michael C. Rockefeller got shipwrecked in 1963, washed up on an island, and was promptly eaten by cannibals.

I grew up in NJ and when I was 4 got to see Peter Pan on broadway from a balcony seat. When Peter Pan (Sandy Duncan ❤️) exclaimed “move your blooming ass” to the lost boys I apparently leaned over the balcony and yelled “SHE SAID ASS!!!!”According to family lore Sandy Duncan may have skipped a beat.

The Trump administration’s push to eliminate DEI from the fed government is now reaching national park gift shops. A memo directs staff to review merchandise for compliance with an order from Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to halt activities related to DEI, accessibility, or “environmental justice.”

The Hotshot Wakeup guy claims that hiring and retention at the USFS is bad but it’s been bad for many many years so nothing is different. Give me a fcking break. He’s always been on both sides guy/Trump apologist. thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/p/forest-ser...

I started getting reports of an unseasonal Joshua tree bloom in the last few weeks, and looking over records on @inaturalist.bsky.social it's pretty widespread! So we're putting out the call for folks to record this "bonus bloom" and help us study it 🌿 lab.jbyoder.org/2025/12/10/w...

Just over here thinking about how that tech sector bazilionaire slashed federal science because he did not think it was important.

With support from Microsoft, Stripe, and Shopify, Running Tide billed itself as on the cutting edge of carbon removal. In the end, it resorted to dumping thousands of tons of wood chips in the sea. www.wired.com/story/how-th...

Field botanist job with Virginia Natural Heritage, based in Roanoke, VA. $55-65K pay range. Please share widely! www.jobs.virginia.gov/jobs/field-b...

Let’s discuss the USDA “summary and analysis” of comments on their “reorganization plan” (I.e. a 5 page memo with no details) www.usda.gov/sites/defaul...

Ugh. My brother lives in Norway and our dad just died and we are trying to visit mom in NJ as much as possible and will the suckiness ever f*cking stop??????????????????????

SKULL OF THOMAS AQUINAS: TAKE A LEFT NOW PRIEST: No, the GPS says we have to keep going— SKULL: I KNOW A SHORTCUT PRIEST: Do you remember the last ti— SKULL: FOR THOSE WITH FAITH, NO EVIDENCE IS NECESSARY; FOR THOSE WITHOUT IT, NO EVIDENCE WILL SUFFICE

🚨 Today, I formally introduced articles of impeachment against Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. RFK Jr. has turned his back on science and the safety of the American people. Michiganders cannot take another day of his chaos.

SCOOP — Gregg Phillips, a conspiracy theorist with no emergency management experience who helped produce the election-denying documentary ‘2000 Mules’ with Dinesh D’Souza and has faced numerous legal inquiries, has been named head of FEMA’s Office of Response and Recovery. My story:

Christmas dinner hits different there

Pregnant Ichthyosaur fossils are my new favorite thing.

Additionally, it appears that all of EPA's previously extensive "indicators of climate change" pages have been scrubbed entirely. The pages no longer exist; there are numerous dead links on the current/live EPA site, and no indication they have been moved to a new URL.

This is absolutely awful. This was one of the best resources for climate indicators data, and my go-to share for help answering public questions. Luckily I captured some of them on my new U.S. climate page a few months ago: zacklabe.com/united-state...

"The group rallied amid frigid conditions at the Target store on East Lake Street, alleging it allowed agents to stage raids in the parking lot. 'You cannot celebrate our communities on your commercials while letting ICE stalk them in your parking lot'...” www.startribune.com/twin-cities-...

Climate injustice: “…in the aftermath of extreme weather events, lower-income neighbourhoods are less likely to rebuild and do not return to their pre-disaster state, whereas higher-income areas rebuild and tend to improve compared with their pre-disaster state…”

Winter is one of the best times to educate people about car-centric policies because when it's snowy you can clearly see how little our cities care about anyone not traveling in a car. Even if you're not some activist, someone walking in winter can appreciate how much an unplowed sidewalk sucks.

Welp, we can finally create performance plans and rate the employees we supervise in the gov system again and there’s big red letters at the bottom of the page that say “🚩You are responsible for ensuring this plan does not include DEIA language”

I’m catching up on the Sabrina Carpenter-White House drama (for some reason) and I’m once again appalled at how disgusting the people in charge of the administration are.

Who has made this 🤣

Study after study shows campaign ads barely move the needle. So where does money’s real power come from? I ranked the five ways money corrupts politics—from least to most corrosive. What I’ve learned from 15 years of tracking political money:

Saw a Langston Hughes exhibit at the Nevada Museum of Art today. I’m not usually a poetry person, but this resonated

To remember William Bond, you could listen to his powerful talk on behalf of grasses! It is a seminal lesson in savanna ecology. Personally, I also find it nice to hear his voice. jgpausas.blogs.uv.es/2021/02/21/a... 🧪🌎🔥🌿🌳🪴🌐 #PlantScience #savanna

I'm very sad to say William Bond, of the University of Cape Town & Fellow of the Royal Society (@royalsociety.org ), has passed away. It is a great loss. He was an enthusiastic ecologist and a critical thinker. I learned a lot, and I still had a lot to learn from him. RIP. 😢 🧪🌎🔥🌿🌳🪴🌐 #PlantScience

when someone tells me not to use em dashes because AI uses em dashes

It is good to see Senators call out the USFS Chief on lack of fuels reduction, staff shortages, and impacts on wildfire in the US. www.merkley.senate.gov/merkley-klob...

My “Cousins Chat” is currently blowing up with very strong opinions about potato latkes. Tis the season, I guess.

Actual good news! A past MS student of mine and @bkshriver.bsky.social had his first, first-authored paper accepted in Restoration Ecology today! It is about post-fire reseeding in the Great Basin. I will post a synopsis when it publishes. Congrats Martin (not on BlueSky)!

“One mile on a bike is a $.42 economic gain to society, one mile driving is a $.20 loss.” “Which means that Copenhagen, a city of 1.2 million people, saves $357 million a year on health costs because something like 80% of its population commutes by bike.” #CityMakingMath Some costs aren’t costs.