@akpinion
PhD in Ecology & Conservation Biology. Ichthyology, phylogenetics and systematics. Mostly posting about fishes. akpinion.com Senckenberg Natural History Museum in Dresden, Germany. https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=10zv6gkAAAAJ
Hey fellow scientists, I'm just letting you know that if you're promoting something with some junky AI image, I'm not gonna click. You've got a workshop, a conference, a new paper?
Just not gonna bother. You want a bespoke image? Hire an illustrator.
"Human writing often includes some clunky phrases, like this passage from Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, caused by the author's aversion to punctuation: 'As well ask men what they think of stone.'"
This is the stupidest g.d. thing I have read all day.
Some video of the new species ๐๐ช๐ต๐ค๐ฉ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ฏ๐ข๐ฌ๐ข๐ฏ๐ข, the blind loach discovered from a well in Northeast India
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDhl...
"Weโre all bearing witness to the institutionalization of intellectual violence at a university that should be free from aggressive political interference."
Yeah, I guess thatโs the best I can do with what I know right now.
Wont be using any programs generated by AI.
An historic black and white illustration of a paper nautilus floating on the ocean. There are boats, a city and hills in the background.
๐ Huge news for BHL: The Field Museum is taking over the hosting of BHLโs website, servers & infrastructure, ensuring long-term stability and access for its 63+ million pages of open biodiversity literature. Learn more:
blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2026/02/tran...
#BHLTransition #ILoveBHL ๐ ๐ ๐งช
Just published: A very unusual fish, described here as a new genus and species of loach, and the first groundwater-dwelling fish reported from Northeast India. Meet ๐ฎ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐! Open access article here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
This is what reporter Julie K Brown uncovered in her explosive reporting for the Miami Herald, which in turn led to his re-arrest and eventual death in prison, which led to All of This. One thing his plea got him, in addition to a lenient sentence (he could leave jail 6 day a week to work!)...
THE DIGITAL CALCULATOR This marvelous machine was the 1970s' most notable contribution to the impressive list of time-and-labor-saving devices that have made it possible for Ameri-cans, since the Second World War, to waste time in job lots and get less and less done-with sleekness and precision of style. The time you can waste (I speak from experience) going chuk, chuk, chuk, chuk on your calculator and watching the little numbers go dancing across the black windowโall the while feeling that you are living life at top speed โis breathtaking. Earlier additions to the list: the direct-dial long-distance telephone, the Xerox machine, the in-office com-puter, the jet airliner (not to mention the Concorde). The jet airliner, for ex-ample, encourages you to drop everything, hop on a plane, and go to Los Angeles, or wherever, at a moment's notice. Later on you can't understand how the better part of a week got shot. In light of my own not exactly staggering literary output, I have become interested in the life of Balzac. I am convinced that the reason this genius was so productive-he published at least sixty books
between ages thirty and fifty-one-was that he enjoyed no time- or labor-saving aids whatsoever, not even a typewriter. He dropped nothing and went nowhere on a moment's notice, not even to Maisons-Laffitte, which was twelve miles from Paris. He didn't ring up anybody in Brittany, much less London. He either wrote a note by hand or said the hell with it. There
I really should double check things I think I remember. It wasnโt an essay, just a entry from โIn Our Timeโ about cultural icons of the 70s. Here it is in full:
An observation I've been thinking about:
Around 2020, we were told that US political & corporate elites had been gripped by "wokeness" & thus become obsessed with climate change & diversity. This wokeness was alleged to be so severe & monomaniacal that it threatened the entire culture & economy.
If Jeff Bezos could afford to spend $75 million on the Melania movie & $500 million for a yacht to sail off to his $55 million wedding to give his wife a $5 million ring, please don't tell me he needed to fire one-third of the Washington Post staff.
Democracy dies in oligarchy.
A staggering statement from former Washington Post editor Marty Baron: "This ranks among the darkest days in the history of one of the world's greatest news organizations."
Front-page of the Eagle for 01-30-26, headline 'Students, Faculty Decry Censorship; Hundreds rally for academic freedom"
Today's front-page of the Bryan Eagle showcases the very large protest for academic freedom held on the Texas A&M campus by @tamu-aaup.bsky.social last night
Definitive NY Times video analysis. Obviously, many people filmed the shooting. But it was the woman in the bright pink coat who (apparently) captured the iconic image of Pretti, hat off, falling to the ground, his killer pointing a gun at his back.
www.nytimes.com/video/us/100...
A flyer for a fish biomechanics course at the Friday Harbor Labs this summer.
Every other summer we run a fish biomechanics course at Friday Harbor Labs. It is an awesome opportunity to learn the tools of biovisualization while experiencing the rich fish diversity of the Salish Sea. Come join us!
๐งช
Darren has uninstalled copilot
If, you me, you have NO WISH WHATSOEVER to have some annoying and un-asked-for bit of AI constantly begging for attention... you can UNINSTALL the thing.
This line graph illustrates the percentage change in agency staff levels from the previous year for nine major U.S. federal scientific and health organizations between the fiscal years 2016 and 2025. The agencies tracked include the CDC, Department of Energy, EPA, FDA, NASA, NIH, NIST, NOAA, and NSF. For the majority of the timeline between 2016 and 2023, the agencies show relatively stable fluctuations, generally staying within a range of +5% to -5% change per year. However, there is a dramatic and uniform plummet starting in the 2024โ25 period. Every agency depicted shows a sharp downward trajectory, with staffing losses ranging from approximately -15% to over -25%. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows the most significant decline, dropping to roughly -26%, while the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shows the least severe but still substantial drop at approximately -15%.
This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again.
www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
Kevin is right -- holy hell! -- but among many other things, this obit demonstrates the possible price of resistance.
Watchingamerica.com
โโฆmakes available in English articles written about the U.S. by foreigners, often for foreign audiences, and often in other languages. We are a unique window into world opinion.โ
Phylogenomics of Cypriniformes, the most diverse order of freshwater fishes: consensus, challenges and limitations
Hiranya Sudasinghe, Ralf Britz, Michael Matschiner, Kevin Conway, Heok Hui Tan, Maurice Kottelat, Rajeev Raghavan, Neelesh Dahanukar, ...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
It shouldn't even be a question. So dissappointing that it is.
Why do you want to help them? We should not be accepting any interference of LLMs into evolutionary biology.
9 years ago (2016) - Yegua Creek, Brazos River
Our new open-access book has been published today. Please download and share
www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...
Yes yes yes!
Darren pointing at screen during a technical check at Lightroom, saying "So that is an AI monster - do not use", while working with two other people.
When it comes to creative and artistic works I have NO interest in anything included in the AI catchall (caveats required because machine-learning has its place WRT handling data). I will never use it. Do I want an AI copilot? No no no, no I do not; I despise the fact that I am even asked.
I'm a little wrong here, y'all! We have a couple more weeks to fight for the IMLS. It'll be through the House Appropriations Committee on July 21. Get on the phone. Get in inboxes.
Your messaging? The Murder Bill is going to make libraries *even more crucial* now.
appropriations.house.gov/schedule
did some reporting on the impact of DOGE's cuts to the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the court cases that are preserving the agency (for now), Trump's threats to slash federal arts spending, and the importance of IMLS to libraries and schools everywhere: slate.com/life/2025/05...
New paper out by Kole Kubicek, Ralf Britz & Kevin Conway in Biology Letters
๐งฌ Heterochrony & Innovation: What the Pectoral Fin Spine of Catfish Reveals About Evolution
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/abs/10.1...