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chasingmicrobes

@chasingmicrobes.bsky.social

3.7K followers 9.7K following 3.2K posts

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chasingmicrobes @chasingmicrobes.bsky.social · 21d

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No promises, but if @evoquant.bsky.social hosted a buttload of pre-computed antiSMASH v8 results would anyone be interested in paying for fast access to those (in traditional antiSMASH view)?

Probably subscription and a very small per-genome fee.

fry from futurama says just out of curiosity in a cartoon

ALT: fry from futurama says just out of curiosity in a cartoon

media.tenor.com

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David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈 @whysharksmatter.bsky.social · 3h

ICYMI, here is the press release for my study with @drjuliawester.bsky.social - we surveyed over 800 scientists who use social media. They overwhelmingly agree that Twitter is no longer useful or pleasant, and that for all professional online scientist goals, Bluesky is superior.
🧪 #SciComm 🌍

“Twitter sucks now and all the cool kids are moving to Bluesky:” Our new survey shows that scientists no longer find Twitter professionally useful or pleasant

My colleague Dr. Julia Wester and I have a new paper out in the journal Integrative and Comparative Biology reporting on the results of a survey distributed to over 800 scientists, science educator…

www.southernfriedscience.com

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Erik Hoffner @erikhoffner.bsky.social · 3h

Bloomberg analysis reveals that electricity in areas near data centers has risen, a lot: www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

Energy is up to 267% costlier in areas w/ a data center nearby:

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Andrew D Thaler @drandrewthaler.bsky.social · 4h

You don't have to judge Columbus by the standards of today. His tenure as governor of Hispaniola was so horrific that he was dragged back to Spain in chains to answer for his many crimes.

Plus he never set foot on any land that would ever be a part of the United States of America.

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 16h

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 16h

Co-sign. Under no circumstances should you EVER consider doing something so insanely reckless, dangerous, and illegal.

I hope this is a false flag; if not, whatever person did this thinking that they were striking a blow for justice is a moron.

Jake @jakeythesnakey.bsky.social · 17h

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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chasingmicrobes @chasingmicrobes.bsky.social · 16h

elmo from sesame street is surrounded by flames

ALT: elmo from sesame street is surrounded by flames

media.tenor.com

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Tyler King @tyleraking.com · 18h

Another illustrative example of how we are in a social media war for democracy. “Twitter is not real life” except when the administration consumes more sm than an ai web crawler.

Nicholas Slayton @nslayton.bsky.social · 19h

The Texas Military Department confirmed to @taskandpurpose.com it had replaced some of the 200 National Guard troops sent to Chicago for not being "in compliance" with validation standards. This came after photos of heavyset NG members were widely mocked. taskandpurpose.com/news/texas-n...

Some Texas National Guard troops replaced in Illinois after failing to meet standards

An unspecified amount of Texas National Guard troops were replaced in Chicago, shortly after photos of their appearance were mocked.

taskandpurpose.com

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Philip Gourevitch @pgourevitch.bsky.social · 20h

Mali has announced that US nationals visiting the West African country will be required to post a bond of up to $10,000 (£7,500) for business and tourist visas, in response to a similar requirement the Trump administration has imposed on its citizens.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Mali imposes $10,000 visa bond on US visitors in reciprocal move

The West African state says it has introduced an "identical visa programme" for US travellers.

www.bbc.com

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Gregory Pratt @royalpratt.bsky.social · 21h

ICE / Border Patrol threatening to arrest a cyclist for following and recording in Chicago

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Heidi Kitrosser @heidikitrosser.bsky.social · 1d

At the risk of sounding naive, I think it's worth engaging w folks like Rogan when they express regrets. Yes, he and others should've seen this coming. But they didn't, & I think many are sincere that they do NOT want this inhumanity. There's common ground here.
www.thedailybeast.com/joe-rogan-tr...

Joe Rogan Trashes ICE Barbie’s Immigration Stunts in Podcast Rant

The world’s most powerful podcaster also proposed an alternative approach to immigration policy.

www.thedailybeast.com

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shawn @mulchy.bsky.social · 23h

for those unfamiliar with “orange crush,” check out this piece from @bdolinar.bsky.social.

it’s legitimately wild that the state had these guys out doing crowd control.

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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 2d

Imagine that

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Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 23h

It's notable that one of the people who was invited to the White House for their "antifa round table" was Nick Sortor, a guy who has literally worked for "InfoWars." The feds are approaching the media aspects of this situation like an unabashed authoritarian state would. bsky.app/profile/opb....

OPB @opb.org · 1d

Right-wing media influencers are now being welcomed into the federal government to promote its messages. This kind of media access shows a deepening alliance between the Trump administration and an online world willing to misrepresent facts if it means furthering political goals.

Right-wing influencers shape nation and Trump’s understanding of Portland protests

Social media personalities, conservative media outlets and the Trump administration itself are blending online content to serve the administration’s policies.

www.opb.org

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Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · 1d

Folks whose jobs, postdocs or grad school fellowships or applications were cut short--drop them a line

Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 3d

Lost Science is a new NYT series of accounts from scientists who have lost their jobs or funding. You can send your story to the Times here www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/c...

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Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 3d

As coding gets more plug and play, it becomes IMPERATIVE for us as educators to teach fundamentals about what the statistical tests are comparing and assumptions.

Students might not need to understand how to code things up, but they should understand what the snippets are doing and why

Terry McGlynn @hormiga.bsky.social · 4d

Y'all. I just got ChatGPT to do everything in R for this manuscript. I mean EVERYTHING. And it's all legit and reproducible. I'm shook.

How are we mentoring our trainees in statistics now? Who needs to learn coding in R line by line, and who doesn't?

scienceforeveryone.science/statistics-i...

Statistics in the era of AI

How do we mentor, teach, and do stats when AI can do so much of the work?

scienceforeveryone.science

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Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 1d

IMHO, LLMs will be an economic negative for years.

They'll do a worse job than humans,

but will still replace humans because they're cheaper for employers,

but really they're costlier, it's just that lots of costs get externalized to society by our horrible energy/tax policies.

Lose-lose-lose.

The Real AI Risk is ‘Meh’ Technology That Takes Jobs and Annoys Us All

While AI doomsday scenarios dwell on the risks posed by superintelligent robot overlords, one Nobel-Prize winning economist fears a more mundane possibility.

www.bloomberg.com

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chasingmicrobes @chasingmicrobes.bsky.social · 1d

Either or both incompetency on a grand scale or they are lying about it being a mistake.

Apoorva Mandavilli @apoorvanyt.bsky.social · 1d

The Trump administration on Saturday scrambled to rescind layoffs of hundreds of CDC scientists who were mistakenly fired on Friday night in what appeared to be a substantial procedural lapse.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/h...

Trump Administration Is Bringing Back Scores of C.D.C. Experts Fired in Error

www.nytimes.com

chasingmicrobes @chasingmicrobes.bsky.social · 1d

Doesn't change my thoughts

chasingmicrobes @chasingmicrobes.bsky.social · 2d

Trump and Vought prioritizing RIFs of things Democrats support so, of course, they have sent RIF notices to scientists and staff at the CDC.

Because disease only affects one political party 🤔

a cartoon of spongebob and patrick saying we are not cavemen we have technology

ALT: a cartoon of spongebob and patrick saying we are not cavemen we have technology

media.tenor.com

chasingmicrobes @chasingmicrobes.bsky.social · 1d

"Error"

a bald man in a blue shirt is giving a peace sign .

ALT: a bald man in a blue shirt is giving a peace sign .

media.tenor.com

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chasingmicrobes @chasingmicrobes.bsky.social · 1d

Make noise, use your voice. It still works.

Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 1d

Update from @apoorvanyt.bsky.social Trump Administration Will Rehire Scores of Experts Fired in Error. Gift link: nyti.ms/48JjSSf

Trump Administration Will Rehire Scores of Experts Fired in Error

Friday’s layoffs swept up scientists involved in responding to the measles outbreak and running an influential journal. An official acknowledged the mistakes on Saturday.

nyti.ms

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unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 1d

Request denied/unanswered.

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unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 1d

Father Larry attempts to walk toward the detention center.

ISP prevent people from moving forward. Lieutenant Col Bradley says he's making a call and dialing the ICE facility, but also says people may be waiting a while.

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unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 1d

A group of hundreds of faith in coalition who started at a Maywood church just arrived at the detention center for a eucharistic procession.

They want to offer communion to detainees inside, but won't be able to get past the barricades and fence on Beach Street.

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Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 2d

New from me at Cato: I go through the numerous and massive First Amendment and academic-freedom violations of Trump's proffered "compact" with universities and then talk about the mechanism by which it would be enforced, by way of what I describe as a "retroactive push-button guillotine."

Universities Must Defend Their Independence by Rejecting Trump's "Compact"

The Trump administration has proffered a “compact” to universities that would require them to surrender their independence and academic freedom. How many First Amendment violations can we identify in ...

www.cato.org

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Chris Murphy @chrismurphyct.bsky.social · 1d

They are building a Propaganda State.

They are cooking the books on job creation.

Now they are rigging death numbers so no one knows how many people die because of their attacks on vaccines and science.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg @sherylnyt.bsky.social · 2d

BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Doznes of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice:

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