@amymacpherson
Living in Ottawa on unceded Anishinabe territory. Photos and opinions my own unless otherwise specified. Don’t expect much, though, since I’m mostly just lurking here while procrastinating. She/her. Banner: trees against a sunset sky PFP: calico cat
With warmer weather on the way and March Break approaching, respiratory virus activity in the community remains steady. Influenza and COVID-19 levels are similar to what we saw last week.
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Working on a q&a lecture for a class today: The story of robots is always a story about slavery. The story of LLMs labeled as AI is a story about class, and which humans pay the cost, including the physical toll on their bodies/minds, and the lack of water and electricity, so data centers can exist.
A minor league hockey team had a wiener dog race. Zero thoughts, just vibes and absolute chaos. A thing of beauty
This image shows gauges with the Feb 28 - Mar 13, 2026 COVID Forecast scores for Canada, the provinces, and territories. From left to right: Canada: HIGH - 6.7 Alberta: HIGH - 6.5 British Columbia: MODERATE - 4.4 Manitoba: VERY HIGH - 10.0 New Brunswick: HIGH - 7.1 Newfoundland & Labrador: MODERATE - 4.7 North: HIGH - 6.7 Nova Scotia: HIGH - 6.0 Ontario: HIGH - 7.7 Prince Edward Island: MODERATE - 4.9 Quebec: HIGH - 6.6 Saskatchewan: HIGH - 8.1 A text box reads: 'The COVID Forecast is calculated from 3 equally weighted categories: 1) Current infections and spread; 2) Healthcare system impact; 3) Mortality. Within each category there is one sub-category for trends over the most recent week (Trends) and one sub-category for current parameter values relative to a specified baseline (Current values). Trends and current values are weighted equally when determining the final score for a category. All Forecast input data and sources are available here (https://datastudio.google.com/embed/u/0/reporting/42b886cf-d661-488e-b7d8-5c5836b55ab6/page/p_2yqs028mwc). Past Forecast scores are available in the table below. Forecast scores are grouped into 4 ranges: MODERATE (1 to <5, white), HIGH (6 to <10, yellow), VERY HIGH (10 to <15, orange), SEVERE (>15 red).'
Canadian COVID Forecast: Feb 28 - Mar 13, 2026
SEVERE: none
VERY HIGH: MB
HIGH: CAN, AB, NB, North, NS, ON, QC, SK
MODERATE: BC, NL, PEI
About 1 in 99 people in Canada are CURRENTLY infected.
The Toronto Entomologists' Association is holding its annual Student Symposium on March 28, 2026 1pm!
Graduate students, senior undergraduates and postdoctoral fellows are eligible to present a talk and apply for the Glenn Richardson Award.
Visit www.ontarioinsects.org/symposium/ for more info!
People refuse to acknowledge how an LLM actually works, and insist on assigning meaning and understanding to its output. There is no meaning, and the system understands neither the user’s question nor its own “response.”
Heads up: as noted by @nickpheas.bsky.social, Swordheart by @tkingfisher.com is on UK/IE Kindle sale for £1 (or €1.14). I got some for giveaway purposes.
Did you know that the bees that need saving are NOT honeybees?
Honeybees are the dairy cows of bees. People brought them over from Europe to make us honey.
The problem with honeybees, esp in resource-limited ecosystems (like hey! cities!) is that they compete with our native bees for food.
Here’s what you should do if you spot a coyote in your neighbourhood
winter sun shines high above a circular still water tank at a sewage treatment plant. The sky is blue with puffy clouds and brick buildings are on the distant horizon. the sky and sun reflect off the water in the tank. the foreground seemingly connects to the distant buildings as a catwalk on the left extends from out-of-frame bottom towards the horizon.
sewage is water with life experience.
it reflects the choices we make and carries with it the residue of our yesterdays and years.
it can unsettle us—until we realize it was once a part of us. our pasts make us who we are today.
and can inspire us to be better tomorrow.
A study I led came out in Nature Cities yesterday!
We used radar to study the role that urban landscapes play in migratory bird stopover. Spoiler: birds use cities a lot, and the patterns of their use reflect social processes and the inequities embedded in them.
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Don't forget, people! This Sunday, 9-4 p.m, one of the largest author book fairs in Ottawa will be held at the Robert Plante Greenhouses in Navan (Orleans)! I'll be there with all of ReBound Press's books (and dog treats! It's a pet-friendly venue), and I can take credit and debit!
Adult Anti-Trans Legal Risk Assessment Map of the United States. Florida, Kansas, and Texas are marked "Do Not Travel" with dark crosshatched shading. Alabama, Arkansas, Iowa, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming are dark red for "Worst Laws Passed." Georgia, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Montana, and South Carolina are orange for "High Risk Within 2 Years." Alaska, Kentucky, and North Carolina are salmon/pink for "Moderate Risk Within 2 Years." Arizona, Delaware, Maine, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin, and DC are light blue for "Low Risk Within 2 Years." California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington are teal for "Safest States With Strong Protections."
Youth Anti-Trans Legal Risk Assessment Map of the United States. Florida, Kansas, and Texas are marked "Do Not Travel" with dark crosshatched shading. The majority of states are dark red for "Worst Active Anti-trans Laws." Montana, Nebraska, Alaska, and several others are orange for "High Risk Within 2 Years." States including California, Colorado, New York, and other previously protective states are now light peach for "Moderate Risk Within 2 Years," reflecting the update that no state is considered low risk for transgender youth. No states appear in low-risk or protective categories.
1. My newest Anti-Trans Legal Risk Map is here.
For trans adults, Kansas is the newest "Do Not Travel" warning, only the 3rd state to achieve that warning.
For youth, a change to the map increases risk to Medium in many states.
Nationwide risk remains extreme.
Subscribe to support my journalism.
South Island Edelweiss blooming in the mountains, with the text "What seasonal changes are you noticing right now?" overlaid.
A Coast Live Oak observation on iNaturalist with the annotation panel open, showing "Fruits or Seeds" selected.
Close-up of an Asclepias expansa flower with annotation guidance for flowering plants and vascular plants overlaid as text. Text reads: "Documenting a flowering plant? Note what you see: No flowers or fruits, Flower buds, Open flowers, Fruits or seeds. And for any vascular plant (ferns, trees, wildflowers): Breaking leaf buds, Green leaves, Colored leaves (late season or drought), No live leaves."
A White Witch moth caterpillar on a tree trunk with annotation guidance for animals overlaid as text. Text reads: "Documenting an animal? Capture where they are in their life cycle: Egg, larva, nymph, or pupa (for insects); Juvenile or adult (for most animals); Teneral — a newly emerged adult not yet in its final form (for dragonflies and cicadas). Even indirect signs of animals count! You can annotate: Tracks, scat, feathers, hair, or bone; Nests, webs, burrows, and other constructions; Molted skin or exoskeleton; Galls on plants; Whether the organism appears alive or dead."
What's changing in nature where you are right now? 👀
First flowers, emerging leaves, migrating birds, fresh tracks in the snow, and more — your iNaturalist observations can help scientists understand how climate change is influencing natural cycles. The key is annotations: tr.ee/annotations
meme: Tired of the rat race? Sick of the daily grind? Are you ready for a more fulfilling life? Then Being Carried Away By Owls might be right for you!
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Have you registered for our FREE webinar, Decoding Bird Names with Bob Bell 🇨🇦 🐦
For more info and registration steps go to https://www.burlingtongreen.org/events/decoding-bird-names-with-bob-bell/
#BurlingtonGreen #BirdingWebinar #BurlingtonOntario #BurlingtonOnt
Folks, we've had some cancellations, which means that I have a few spots for guest experts to join us for a day of shark research!
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🧪🦑🌍
“We’re Hiring! Endangered Species Conservation Biologist, Firefly Specialist”
Join Xerces & help protect fireflies! 🪲💡
Job Title: Endangered Species Conservation Biologist, Firefly Specialist
🌎Location: Remote (IA, IL, MO preferred. Will consider AR, IN, KS, KY, MI, MN, ND, NE, OH, OK, SD, WI)
💲Compensation: $65,998/yr
📅Apply by: Mar 5
Learn more & apply at xerces.org/jobs
Hey folks, if you like stories about your heroes turning out to be bad people, and uh, like wizards and shit, I have a book out now.
A vibrant red background featuring a golden horse and 2026 surrounded by coins and money motifs appear in the background. In the lower left corner, white text reads ‘Lunar New Year.
Wishing everyone a bright and joyful Lunar New Year!
Here’s to the Year of the Horse, bringing energy, independence and plenty of reasons to celebrate.
Whether you’re enjoying a family feast or festive performances, may your day be full of happiness and prosperity!
NEW: ChatGPT and other chatbots are feeding users' fixations on real people, reinforcing users' delusional ideas and obsessions about others as they descend into unwanted harassment, stalking, and/or domestic abuse — traumatizing victims and profoundly altering lives.
futurism.com/artificial-i...
Witnessing, experiencing, or learning about tragic events can affect your mental health. The impact of stressful events can be immediate or delayed. People may feel a range of emotions and reactions which can affect their mental health. 1/2
Welcome to Standing In Line
Measles is one of those nightmare diseases that, if it hadn't been killing people for hundreds of years, people would ABSOLUTELY be pushing conspiracy theories about right now. It's too nasty in too many different directions to seem natural. But oh, boy, it sure is.
"OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limits."
This isn't a dead canary in the coal mine, it's a miner. AI doesn't work.
www.computerworld.com/article/4059...
This Valentine’s Day, we’re sending a little love to our National Capital Greenbelt. 💘💌
As the last few years have seen some serious yield challenges in West African cocoa, leading to global price volatility (and noticeable increases in the price of chocolate bars, changes in recipes, etc.), let's think about just one part of this system: pollination.
A thread 🧵
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This weekend, spread love not germs. RSV activity remains very high, while flu levels are moderate and COVID‑19 activity is low.
Reduce the spread of respiratory illness. Stay home when sick, wash your hands often, cover your mouth & nose when you sneeze or cough, and disinfect high‑touch surfaces.
Ottawa Public Health, in collaboration with McMaster University, is conducting a research study to determine whether a group cognitive behavioural therapy intervention is helpful for fathers and fathers-to-be who have been feeling depressed, sad, anxious, worried, angry or overwhelmed.
