🐸

I told my intro bio students this week that I much prefer labs where I don’t know the answer. Then I can be a researcher along side them. (But we do have some labs . . .)

one response to this (correct) observation is to say “well, the cops will attack you no matter how you dress and behave.” that’s right. images of cops and ICE beating grandmas and kids in inflatable frog costumes is a win for the opposition.

If you're going to the No Kings protest in your area on Saturday, you need to know your rights. www.aclu.org/know-your-ri...

this is an incredibly ominous beginning to a future with a largely carved out federal emergency response system

We use concept maps a couple of times a quarter in our biology classes. I am excited to share this information and talk about it more with my colleagues.

This Is Fascism

Sadly, with the cuts to Dept of Ed grants, there will be no money to pay for tech “solutions” to unfunded mandates. <insert ironic eye roll here>

it’s shocking how much this boils down to “people shouldn’t be allowed to disagree with me, and especially not allowed to agree with the people who were better-liked than me in college”

🐸🐸🐸 🐸🐸🐸🐸 🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸 🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸 🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸 🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸 🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸 🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸 🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸 FROGS TOGETHER STRONG Find a frog gathering near you www.NoKings.org | October 18

a key thing about vought — and all of these guys — is that they have a totally top down and hierarchical vision of the world. they believe that the cultural changes they hate can be turned off by destroying the federal government because they can’t imagine that they emerged bottom-up in society

The deportation order is based on Vedam’s conviction for murder—a crime he did not actually commit and for which he’s now been wholly exonerated. He entered the US at 9 months old and was a legal permanent resident before his conviction. We are so, so, so far from the light of justice.

I invested in a “proto-bird” inflatable (dinosaur for non-biologists) for this coming Saturday. Spirit Halloween pop-ups FTW!

kidnapping

an incontestable fact of the second trump administration is it is actively trying to sicken and kill as many americans as it can

"President Trump continued to describe Portland as a city on fire Friday even as residents enjoyed the first fall rain and the lone demonstrator at the city’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement building was dressed as a pink Care Bear." Sometimes there is a good sentence or two in the NYT.

Well now I'm definitely going to a protest that day.

Trump announces 1500% tariffs on Lutefisk

"When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognize courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist."

Dr. Jane Goodall filmed an interview with Netflix in March 2025 that she understood would only be released after her death.

There really are no whistleblower protections in place any more. This administration does not recognize any boundaries.

If you have reason to contact a federal worker, know that their out of office reply was out of their control.

I was sent this by a Georgian this morning. 2025 premiums vs 2026 premiums for someone making $65k a year. Republicans in Washington did this. This is what I'm fighting to stop. This is what’s at stake in this shutdown fight.

Shutdown rules aren’t neutral. They favor agencies aligned with GOP priorities, while those aligned with Democratic priorities bear the brunt of furloughs. Furlough Rates: EPA: 89% Dept. of Education: 86% Dept. of Labor: ~75% DHS / ICE / CBP: ~0% Bad incentives → biased outcomes.

Sonja is the best. All of her writing is so insightful. If you haven't seen "Machine Yearning," check it out. ⬇️ And, there's more of her writing on AI here: sonjadrimmer.com/public-writing

I would be fired under this higher ed system.

Dam been writing a book about this and she just TikToked it in 90 seconds.

I stand with PBS. I stand with NPR. I stand with Stephen Colbert. I stand with Jimmy Kimmel. I stand with the First Amendment. PERIOD.* *Also #ReleaseTheEPSTEIN_Files

This looks like a great resource to unpack with students.

""Hate speech does not exist legally in America. There's ugly speech. There's gross speech. There's evil speech. And ALL of it is protected by the First Amendment." -- Charlie Kirk, 2024

I wrote about Them. www.pbump.net/o/what-they-...

Columbia University canceled a class tight by @karenattiah.bsky.social Now WaPo fired this columnist in the wake of last week’s twisted protection around the CK news. It will never be enough.

As a career biology faculty at a community college, involved in national-level discussions about what we should teach in intro bio, I support that the role of teachers is to help develop people from novice to more expert. Debates amongst novices rarely lead to learning.

Oregon has been hit by these irrational and cruel cuts to support for children

I did one season as a wildlands firefighter many years ago. Trust is the highest priority and stays with your crew boss, ends with the incident command team.

I did not know about Dr. Rossiter or her work, but I want to help promote this important spotlight. Women in science are still overlooked.

Wow. This might be good enough to insert into the metabolism unit of my Intro Bio course this year. You say, “powerhouse of the cell,” RFK Jr says, “mitochondrial challenges.”

This tattoo, by InkedMongoose on IG, is perfect. No notes.

Wow. Anyone else seeing this request from NSF? What if I have not submitted a DNA sample to 23&Me? 🙄

🛩️ US Air Force veteran ⚖️ DOJ employee 🥖 Sandwich assassin In a time of monsters, a hero rises

A reminder that at some point humans have set boundaries for AI. Meta’s AI humans have set some appalling boundaries.

A possible upside to catching many of the colds that run through my community college bio classroom . . .

Legalized sports gambling plays on our worst instincts. I remind myself daily that evolutionary theory predicts cheaters in every system.

It s is International Cat Day! Celebrating with BB, Tonka, and Sashi

I am beginning to think that Republican transphobia does not, in fact, have fuck all to do with supporting the athletic endeavors of women

this work saved millions of lives in 2021, won the Nobel Prize in 2023, and is cancelled in 2025

Wait until someone points out the Willamette River runs north.

It seems fairly clear that Donald Trump thinks gravity makes water flow "down" from the Pacific Northwest to California, because there is absolutely no system that connects the water in Oregon and Washington to Southern California.