Through happenstance, today I ended up helping a wildlife rehabilitation group release a fox into the open space by our house. Such a cute little guy. Never know what's going to happen.

Relatedly, at an academic conference, which muppet are you? I guess I'm probably Bobo the Bear.

OK, now I really want to try this on spindle structure in yeasts on either side of whole genome duplication that led to S. cerevisae. I tried that survey at one point but there were technical issues. Maybe this would fix them.

My department is soliciting suggestions for a new name, and we will have a faculty vote. I proposed two. I am hoping, against all logic and odds, that one of them carries the day. Oh please, oh please. 1) The Island of Misfit Toys 2) Biology of Small, Hopelessly Integrated Things

"Jesus wept"

Cleaned out the series of blue bird nest boxes we maintain along the edge of the arroyo by our house today. A small thing, but it felt positive and placeful. Spring is coming.

Reposting because 1) its critical information on NIH funding; 2) Princess Vimentin is a cool name. Although I'm old enough to remember when the vimentin knockout mouse came out. IF function was a big question at the time and vim-/- crawling around and making baby mice was initially like...hmmm.

Far out. Now they need to genotype Boulder, CO raccoons. Chautauqua raccoons vs. Boulder Creek path raccoons. You don't want to mess with those creek path raccoons. Try to clip a bit of ear like they did with those squirrels and you'll be missing digits.

Getting asked about how academics can continue to do science & inspire trainees even in the midst of a continued (escalated) assault on science, reason, truth, & human rights. I don’t have great answers. I would love to hear from mentors about advice they’re giving to trainees/ colleagues.

boy that gyre sure keeps getting wider

Screenshots from a video DHS is sharing on X, about 20 heavily-armed agents confronting then tackling one guy at a gas station, shoving his partner aside, then threatening photographers with pepper spray. Noteworthy not for its now-routine brutality but for DHS showcasing it.

A good read. It is falling apart. But I think the idea of shifting block grants to universities will be a disaster at many institutions. Instead of a large scale hunger game playing out within "fields" it will become local small scale hunger games that are nasty and political.

Aaronson a success story for sure. But there's so much potential. Loss of developed talent at the MLS Next, MLS Next Pro, college game nexus is an issue. As is a continued emphasis on physicality vs soccer IQ. And of course pay to play. We'll get there, eventually.

From LSE… What makes students feel included in introductory STEM courses? An analysis of nearly 2,000 student responses shows that teaching practices, policies, and classroom interactions matter. www.lifescied.org/doi/10.1187/...

The Canvas grade book sucks so F'ing bad. God I hate it.

A revisit of an important book. On its failure to envision a positive role for government...it's hard to cast back to the days of pork barrel water projects that Reisner was reacting to. It was a reactionary time-make it stop. Now, of course, government doesn't undertake much, save breaking things.

Periodic missive on girl pre-teen music scene. HuntR/X (like a drug, get it?) is out. Better hurry up with that sequel. Katseye is in. In time for Xmas. "Internet Girl" OMG. A song about ironically pretending to be ironic about being ironic. Perfect for the online teen vibe.

Trying to install the Univ CA mandated Trellix shit so I can submit grades. Bought a Cyber Monday stripped down burner Mac for the install. But for some reason can't disable all the privacy/security controls for the install to work. Very frustrating. There should be high level firings over this.

"Perception": a piece that is sort of a reflection on Blake's the Marriage of Heaven and Hell with the famous doors of perception line but then gets tied into my own obsession with the koan of owls. Straight to the void.

Suburban Trees. Something I wrote to work myself out of a strange mood. #poetry

A interesting read. At least for me, with attempts at creative thought, an image "appears" first, and is subsequently attended by words that try to bring it forth. T.S. Eliot wrote "between the conception and and the creation falls the shadow". Sounds like AI is too insubstantial to cast one.

Thanksgiving is the holiday where we get to reconnect with the eternal cycle of fall midterm grading. For all who celebrate.

Interesting read on really key issue. Seems like (if followed correctly) even twins raised apart inflate heritability. Wonder why...how mom specifies a maternal program into egg cytoplasm? So like not the code but the hardware. Or is that just an equally deterministic metaphor?

I'm not a fashion dude. Nonetheless, I can't help but wonder-is this autoclavable?

A huge district court victory for the University of California. District courts find facts. This one found "overwhelming evidence" that the Trump administration has pervasively violated the First Amendment in its efforts to coerce and intimidate the University of California. News story here—

I hear you. I'm old but seems to me science, like so much else, has been caught up in what Paul Virilio calls the dromocratic society, the tyranny of acceleration, compressing everything. Give me a good old fashion 35 page Genetics article, reclaiming slowness, collecting thought.

"This urgent order to clear away the entire, centuries-old idea of disciplinary governance in one fell swoop is both radical and without even a functional ideology—an especially pure plane of the empty-mind austerity satirized from Office Space to Severance." Adam Rzepka wp.me/p8xr4h-dil

Geeky thing but for my cell biol class I've long wanted to build a teaching model of the Sec61 translocon big enough for a large lecture hall to demonstrate how START and STOP signals are read to make trans-membrane proteins. Here it is-behold. Students seemed to like it-fun class session.

An informative, clearly written article for anyone seeking insight into the "whys" underlying the current malaise of today's universities. The why of increased tuition for larger classes, the why of bloated admins disconnected from university mission, etc. stevenmintz.substack.com/p/the-univer...

A nice summary. Bridge pieces like this integrating theoretical and practical pedagogical considerations are valuable. I wish more of them explicitly considered scale as a factor. What you can do with 50 is much different than with 300.

Long view on epically shitty day. Shut down reveals evolution in D's ability to fight. But caucus fractures, fumble at end. If true, prediction would be internal push for caucus leadership change. D's respond to electoral pressure and shame. R's respond to ridicule. Message is keep piling both on.

H5N1 jumping back and forth between migratory sea birds and pinnipeds, spreading around the southern Pacific. 97% pup mortality in some colonies. Koyannisquatsi.

A nuanced read, bringing in the importance of DEI as an antidote for dealing with the complexity of individual legacies and science's past.

Another bad look for UC system leadership. “Due to the severe budget constraints currently facing UC, the PPFP faculty hiring incentive is sunsetting as of fall 2025,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “ Yeah, that's not the reason.

Strange, I suppose, but with the election results coming in tonight I find myself thinking of Liz Cheney. We have little in common, but I reflect that the life of a father can fit a pattern, has a sensibility, while the life of a country, with teeming millions, moves in fits and spasms.

I guess this is a piece about ballooning spiders, the big and the small, the horror and transformation that attend all scales. It was influenced by artist Tomás Saraceno's work. #poetry Ballooning

Wow, the microtubule networks they are visualizing in these organisms are nothing short of jaw dropping. Anytime you swell a specimen for a look see you have to worry about artifacts...but, overall, damn. This is discovery at its best. 🔬

I get Haaland is a generational athletic talent. And Bournemouth has to stop coughing up the ball midfield. But criminy... If I wanted to watch "kick the ball to the big fast kid up front" futbol I could go to the Ulittle AYSO fields. Baggy shorts and screaming parents would be more interesting.

First morning with white crowned sparrows under the feeders in good numbers. They've arrived. That, and light angle, most dependable signs winter has come to SoCal. It's good to see them again. Welcome, my Zonotrichia fence row friends. Make yourselves at home and enjoy the season.

Example of how science is moving towards activism. All the individual stories and motivations that prompt a decision. Interesting in that NC-11 is quite the cultural leap from Chapel Hill. But if he can flip it that would be amazing. Go Paul!

What It’s Like to Watch An Internet-Based Ideology Break Containment talkingpointsmemo.com/tpm-25/what-...

Need to exorcise words or what needs to get done will not get done. Kutya'i is a Cahuilla word for Wind Spirit, like the strong Santa Ana winds we get in SoCal. And in SoCal no matter north, south, east or west you see foothills and then big mountains. so this piece kinda flows from that. #poetry

Read this and then think through the implications of the whole UC Trellix debacle.

The UC Regents finally released the “settlement agreement” the Trump administration proposed in August. It’s a doozy. UC alumni, faculty, staff, students, parents, donors—and all citizens of California: Now is the time to let the UC Regents know you do not want them to sign this bad deal.

American Nations was a pivotal book for me. Looking forward to getting a copy of his new one and seeing how Woodard's thinking has cast forward in light of....events.

I have seen too many junior-to-mid career people making this mistake so I need to get this message out there: Once you get your first big award (R01, CAREER, standard NSF, BL2 DoD), your most important task is to publish papers that cite that grant for support.

A timely read deserving of broader dissemination beyond the readership of Nature Cell Biology.

Thinking about my kid tonight. Finishing his NSF GRFP application and sending out emails to possible graduate school mentors. 21 years. Hard to believe. They say days go slow, years go fast. I guess this piece is kind of like that. #poetry

Perception #poetry