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Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them)

@jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social

11K followers 1.1K following 12K posts

Evolutionary biologist and professional nerd. Asst Prof, University of Alaska Anchorage. queer af, they/them. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️✡️ jfmclaughlin.org

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Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them) @jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social · Oct 21

Hello new followers! I'm Jess (they/them), and I'm a newly minted Assistant Professor at U University of Alaska Anchorage! I study evolutionary genomics, mostly in birds, and mainly post my various (mis)adventures and pet pictures. Welcome!

Jess leans against a purple computer in a shared lab space. They are grinning like the absolute dork they are.

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Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them) @jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social · 3h

I saw this wooden square thing floating next to the bank and was like "surely that's not *actually* an urn, it's gotta be just a wooden accent from someone's dock or something?" and boy was I surprised

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Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them) @jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social · 3h

Waited a couple hours but needed to get home, so put the urn out of the way. Just got confirmation that APD picked it up and should be able to find the family/friends with the info available. Glad I could help in some small way on getting him where he needs to be.

Reposted by Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them)

Nicole 🪲 @fossilforager.bsky.social · 13h

Unfortunately it looks like we won’t be hitting the preorder minimum for these hats unless we get some more orders!

So if you’re interested in a leafcutter ant hat or are considering holiday gifts, please preorder! 🐜🌿

Available below ⬇️

A photo of an olive green dad cap with two embroidered brown leafcutter ants holding leaves. It is photographed on top of a rock.

A photo of an olive green dad cap with two embroidered brown leafcutter ants holding leaves, but photographed from a different angle. It is photographed on top of a rock.

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Reposted by Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them)

derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 10h

I interviewed one of these factory workers in Los Angeles. She gets paid three cents to sew a zipper, five cents for a collar, and seven cents to prepare the top part of a skirt.

This is how fast fashion brands like Fashion Nova can put "Made in USA" tags on dress shirts that retail for only $25

"Every day at 6 am, Bilma boards a bus that shuttles her to downtown Los Angeles’s Fashion District. When she reaches the garment factory an hour later, she starts working immediately, without punching in. Like thousands of other garment workers in the United States, Bilma’s wages aren’t tethered to the clock but rather to the quantity of operations she executes. Three cents for a zipper or sleeve, five cents for a collar, and seven cents to prepare the top part of a skirt before she passes it onto the next sewing operator in line. Assembling an entire dress earns her a mere 15 cents. Bilma toils away on garments primarily for fast-fashion labels such as Fashion Nova, Lulus, and Lucy in the Sky, who prioritize quickly stocking on-trend items over the quality of materials. These companies peddle things like $80 maxi dresses, $25 poplin dress shirts, and $5 crop tops, all modeled by beautiful people and bedecked with the tantalizing promise of low-cost glamor."

"This worker payment system, known as “piecework” in the garment industry, is how US-based manufacturers can sidestep labor laws that require companies to pay at least the minimum wage. Rather than compensating Bilma for the exhausting 12-hour shifts—a regimen that, according to LA County’s minimum wage requirement, should yield $202.80—her pay is determined by the individual tasks she performs, which can fluctuate daily. Despite her adept handling of hundreds of garments a day, Bilma’s earnings typically linger around $50 per day. That’s $300 weekly for the standard six-day grind and $350 if she opts for Sunday labor. Doing what she can with this modest income, Bilma spends $400 a month to live in a two-bedroom apartment with six other people, some of whom are day laborers. In this crowded arrangement, two occupants squeeze into each bedroom, while two more lay claim to the living room. Bilma sleeps in the corner of the bustling kitchen."

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Reposted by Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them)

CeeJay Johnson-Yellow Hawk @adriftalchemist.bsky.social · 10h

updates for kipnuk, kwig, and kong

20 ppl are missing in kwig 🥺

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Reposted by Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them)

Funranium (AKA Phil Broughton) @funranium.bsky.social · 9h

I am very tired of this, but a quick review.

In America, it is legal for you to own your bullshit laser, no matter how it got into the county.

How you use your bullshit laser matters. Most jurisdictions escalate to felony for lighting up any law enforcement. Doing to them in the sky is ++Felony.

Jake @jakeythesnakey.bsky.social · 10h

This is such an astoundingly bad idea that I kinda think it’s a false flag or an op of some sort

Merits aside, it is insanely easy to be caught if you do this and the punishment for doing this is much more severe than you’d guess.

(@faineg.bsky.social often writes on stuff like this)

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Reposted by Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them)

Karen Fisher, PhD @fisherke.bsky.social · 10h

-80 freezer at -20

Marjorie James Keenan @unenthusiast.com · 1d

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

rm -rf ~/

hammancheez @hammancheez.bsky.social · 1d

"The chancellor approved it"

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Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them) @jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social · 8h

Luckily there's a name on it so they can track down the family

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Reposted by Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them)

Corinne Smith @corinne-smith.bsky.social · 11h

At least 20 people are unaccounted for in Kwigillingok, in the Y-K Delta as of Sunday morning, and several homes were flooded and carried away by the remnants of Typhoon Halong - the worst storm on record.

Damage is still being assessed along the coast of Western Alaska
www.kyuk.org/alaska-state...

A major storm is bringing dangerous flooding and hurricane-force winds to Western Alaska

The remnants of Typhoon Halong have already caused damaging flooding in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. The storm is expected to move north and continue into Monday.

www.kyuk.org

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Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them) @jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social · 9h

My guess is someone meant to spread them from a boat but fumbled a bit when the moment came?

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Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them) @jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social · 9h

Anyways watching some moose at the boat launch while I wait for APD to come pick up the urn I found floating in the lake?

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Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them) @jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social · 9h

My day just got *so* much weirder than expected 😬

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Reposted by Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them)

CeeJay Johnson-Yellow Hawk @adriftalchemist.bsky.social · 16h

omg, guys… the western alaska villages are getting hit hard. this is worse than merbok

it’s a helpless feeling watching watching these villages cry out for help on social media. where is the national guard??

many of these villages have kids here in sitka at edgecumbe

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Reposted by Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them)

Darren Irwin (he / him) @darrenirwin.bsky.social · 16h

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

"Developed new species concept"

Marjorie James Keenan @unenthusiast.com · 1d

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

rm -rf ~/

hammancheez @hammancheez.bsky.social · 1d

"The chancellor approved it"

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Reposted by Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them)

Dianna Gunn Does (Fictional) Murders 🇨🇦 @diannalgunn.bsky.social · 16h

Cat went to emerg, managed to pass his stool, they gave him anti nausea meds. He's home now and napping, unfortunately hasn't eaten so I'm still a little worried ☹️ and out $360 sooo maybe toss a coin to my Ko-fi? ko-fi.com/diannagunn

Dianna Gunn Does (Fictional) Murders 🇨🇦 @diannalgunn.bsky.social · 23h

Love being woken up at 4AM by the sound of a cat puking

Doubly love when he pukes a second time when I'm almost back to sleep

Triply love when I also watch him try and fail to poop, and must therefore get up to do poop watch

Quadruply love this happening the night before a big book launch

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Reposted by Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them)

Derek Hennen, Ph.D. @derekhennen.bsky.social · 1d

Hell yeah

Archway with text over the door part of a longer message, message over door reads "Be trans"

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Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them) @jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social · 1d

Yeah, I grew a basketball sized cauliflower this year, so my hopes were high. But these just didn't do as well, and we'll get our first snow any time now. I left the tiniest ones for now to see if they can get any bigger before then.

Reposted by Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them)

R.S.A. Garcia (BUY THE NIGHTWARD) @rsagarcia.bsky.social · 9d

This Oct, as a breast cancer survivor in treatment since 2021, I'm doing a thread on stuff I wish I'd been told.

I'll update as I go, but the first thing I'll share is every person's body & treatment is different. Some fear symptoms or side effects they might never get. Don't be afraid to fight 1/3

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Reposted by Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them)

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 1d

So weird to be on a text-based social media with people who have atrocious reading comprehension but are also very longwinded

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Reposted by Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them)

🇬🇾🗽Sydette The Dreaded Gorgon🗽🇬🇾 @blackamazon.bsky.social · 1d

Yeah I really need help with this . I’m gonna go hyperventilate into a bag but this has gone bad quickly

🇬🇾🗽Sydette The Dreaded Gorgon🗽🇬🇾 @blackamazon.bsky.social · Apr 10

Welp it’s gotten real real if you can please help. If you can’t it’s really hard out here so share

gofund.me/a5ee0064

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Reposted by Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them)

Erin Biba @erinbiba.bsky.social · 1d

Hey remember that time an Atheist spent an entire week on here calling for the ethic cleansing and complete elimination of Jews because they said it was the only way to fight Israel?

Atheists refuse to account for the ethno-part of Jewish ethno-religion when they whine about ending all religions.

...
Maybe. But behind the annoyance of the atheist there is typically much less bigotry, authoritarian tendencies, tax evasion, science denialism, closeted sexuality, etc.
October 11, 2025 at 3:50 PM

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Reposted by Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them)

Free Łink - Matthew R Francis @bowlerhatscience.org · 1d

it's all atheist proselytizers online and JW proselytizers in meatspace, and I can avoid the JWs by pretending I'm not home

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 1d

Atheist proselytizers are the religious proselytizers I’m most likely to come into contact with and they’re just as annoying as all of the other ones I experience

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Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them) @jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social · 1d

Okay just for everyone like "that's a normal sized sprout", a comparison with the ones currently at the grocery store

A single sprout in the same hand, nearly the size of all the ones in the firat pic combined

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Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them) @jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social · 1d

I mean, I just buy the standard ones you get at grocery stores, perhaps they're passing off small cabbages as sprouts

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Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them) @jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social · 1d

Guess I'm just used to grocery store ones that are golf-ball-sized instead of marble-sized

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