Yes please, Outlook, could you cancel some meetings for me?

The Canadian Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Research is launching a US-style attack on EDI in Tri-Council funding. As part of this attack, they are demanding disclosure of confidential demographic info + reviewer comments of all Canadian researchers who have applied b/w 2000-2025.

Birds but they get spookier each time. 🎃👻 Enter if you dare...🚪

This particular part of the article is my current life. (And yes I teach about cat behaviour.)

How your email finds me. Photo from my collection, no date/info.

Really hope no dairy calves ever get loose in this airport.

📣 Are you interested in applied animal ethology and perceptual abilities of animals? Do you want to help us disentangle how animal emotions are modulated by their sensory environment? Then, you might be the postdoc we are looking for🌠 More info: www.slu.se/en/about-slu... #appliedethology #postcoc

Opportunity in animal welfare with a great supervisor:

Everybody makes money out of academic authors except the authors...News. Wiley is the latest academic publisher to reach a multi-million deal to allow access to its content to AI developers, with no opt out, let alone payment, for the authors who created that content.

📢Applications are now open for the UFAW Animal Welfare Student Scholarships! Are you a student with an idea to improve #animalwelfare? UFAW scholarships offer the chance to bring your research to life and gain hands-on experience. 🔗 Apply here: ufaw.org.uk/awss#animalwelfare?📅 Closing date: 28 February 2026

The naturalist Jane Goodall died today at 91. Hope, she argued, is not merely “passive wishful thinking” but a “crucial survival trait.” Revisit a conversation with Goodall, from 2021: nyer.cm/F55JtsS

Research is the key to unlocking Canada’s future and it needs proper funding. The federal government must uphold its Budget 2024 commitment to Canadian researchers. Read the Coalition for Canadian Research’s open letter: www.caut.ca/news/coaliti...

Sitting alone in my office during my first office hours of the term, as usual. 🥲

The feeling of every cat owner.

First day back at work, and I have a new paper out! authors.elsevier.com/a/1lnmV2gKRh... A review of what we know and the many things we don't know about environmental enrichment for ruminants, with @drmariarorvang.bsky.social and two other lovely colleagues who are not on BlueSky. 🐐🐑🐄

I would like to thank all the @dalhousie.bsky.social students (& their families), with special acknowledgment to the leaders in the #DalStudentUnion, for supporting us at @dalfaculty.bsky.social to #KeepDalStrong. It meant a great deal - we will work to ensure the semester is successful for you!

Elsewhere in universities' core purposes in danger of being compromised by leaders and politicians who don't seem to understand them...

Leo had a good #caturday

An example of how this fight is not just about wages and not just about professors.

Thank you for this, @halifaxexaminer.ca - "A lockout is not a strike". The terms used in much of the media and the university's official communications are misleading. www.halifaxexaminer.ca/morning-file...

Do these tactics sound familiar?⬇️ How to run a university in Canada? Outsource it to this management consulting firm @dalfaculty.bsky.social #keepdalstrong 💪 nationalpost.com/feature/how-...

DFA President explains the past 24 hours and urges the @dalhousieu.bsky.social board to negotiate rather than dictate. Talk to us at the table ti #keepdalstrong @ansut.bsky.social @cupe3912.bsky.social @caut.bsky.social

Another day, another head-scratching decision from @dalhousieu.bsky.social … Rather than returning to the table with @dalfaculty.bsky.social, they release another public statement to create more chaos 😳 #keepdalstrong

The @dalhousieu.bsky.social Board of Governors' "offer" for interest arbitration won't resolve this. It's just creating further delays. Bargaining on the issues important to our members is required. Stop with the stunts, let's get back to the table and talk. It's the only way to #KeepDalStrong

🤯 Admittedly I can't access the full text thanks to lockout but I did find this related post: www.timeshighereducation.com/news/univers...

Patti Doyle-Bedwell is on DFA’s Bargaining Team. She urges the @dalhousieu.bsky.social Board to come back to the table- we are now on day 7 of complete silence from the Board. Time to talk, don’t you think? #keepdalstrong @ansut.bsky.social @caut.bsky.social

Nearing 1 week of being locked out by the powers that be at Dalhousie. Confused and frustrated to have heard absolutely nothing from the administration, while hearing stories of the negative effects this is having on my colleagues and students, but determination levels are high on the picket lines!

Faculty are concerned about the impact this lockout @dalhousieu.bsky.social is having on students and the fall term. Admin, let’s get back to bargaining and #keepdalstrong @ansut.bsky.social @caut.bsky.social

As a pandemic nurse and PhD student at Dalhousie, the lockout means something more By Cameron Albright

Apparently my auto-reply has now been shut off, along with my access to email. Sorry to anyone who tries to get in touch.

Students have set up an open letter, which students can sign, in support of @dalfaculty.bsky.social! THANK YOU! forms.cloud.microsoft/pages/respon...

So it begins. I'll be spending the coming days on the picket line instead of preparing my teaching, at the insistence of Dalhousie. Let's hope they choose to come back to the table soon so we can all get back to work. #KeepDalStrong

For those learning about the Dalhousie lockout from media coverage like this: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/... It's important to know that that average salary is for "full professors" - a rank many never reach and those who do typically far into their careers.

Nova Scotia approves glyphosate spraying on 3,577 acres of drought-stricken, fire-prone forest By @joanbaxter.bsky.social

What gif pops up when you type your name? OK, this is #4 but it's the best one.

Georgia Mason vs. a cow-calf talk? #isae2025problems ##isae2025

Unlike humans, hens are less likely to take risks / more fearful around puberty - Anna Rentsch. #isae2025 She suggests we should be considerate of this sensitive age for management like moving birds.

Kicked off #isae2025 @applied-ethology.bsky.social with a great talk on why we should care about insect welfare from @beebytes.bsky.social, more into protocol behaviour in pigs!

Do people think our jobs are to predict text?

New paper from my lab! Testing for laterality in calves' responses to a novel object: doi.org/10.1016/j.ap... Many animals prefer to view potential threats from the left eye, but across the group, we didn't find evidence of this in most measures.

The real reason academic conferences exist is that after you have marinated your brain in hundreds of books on a single field of study for 10+ years there are only so many people you can speak coherent sentences to, and it’s a pleasure to have them all in one place 😅

Ever wanted to feel like a terrible human being? Be forced to fast your cat for 12 h before blood tests.

Courtesy of Carole Fureix: apparently my original mink boredom paper is considered adult content by Bing? 😂

This educational bird video gave me one of my new favourite descriptions of an animal: Northern flickers "have a jackhammer for a face". 😂 www.instagram.com/reel/DLIIL-y...

Why haven't I given my predator cues names like this?

Hurray for Steve! That's quite a record.

Gonna set this as my out of office in August