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Dr Darren Abbey @thebiologistisn.bsky.social · 10h

I will probably have all these plants in pots rather than taking up garden space for the season. Actually, I'll probably have them wherever they'll fit, either in pots or the ground.

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Dr Darren Abbey @thebiologistisn.bsky.social · 10h

The first two culling steps will happen before they get planted into the garden, saving a great deal of space.

Once in the garden, 1/16 will survive the later culling. So, I'll need enough initial space to plant out 48 plants to have decent odds of finding 3 target plants. More would be better.

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Dr Darren Abbey @thebiologistisn.bsky.social · 10h

Next year, I'll start many seeds from this project.

¼ will be culled as seedlings because they have green stems.

¾ will be culled when they start showing spines.

¾ of will be culled for having green unripe fruit.

¾ will be culled for having too small fruit.

3/256 will remain at the end.

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Dr Darren Abbey @thebiologistisn.bsky.social · 17h

Varieties of the species are grown as vegetables by many communities, though they're more bitter than is common in the average American diet.

Recipes I've seen are similar to recipes using bitter melon, such as in a stew with meat.

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Dr Darren Abbey @thebiologistisn.bsky.social · 17h

There is a very small rate of hybridization, so I'll need to do the same process a few generations to filter those out. After three generations, the odds of the recessive allele still being present will drop to small enough that I won't have to worry about it.

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Dr Darren Abbey @thebiologistisn.bsky.social · 17h

I'll save seeds next year from each plant separately.

The next year, I'll grow a bunch of seedlings from each set of seeds. If a batch shows ~25% green stemmed seedlings, I'll cull that entire batch. This will leave me with only seedlings with two copies of the dominant allele.

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Dr Darren Abbey @thebiologistisn.bsky.social · 17h

⅔ of the black stem plants next year will carry a hidden copy of the green stem trait.

If I get three plants with all the recessive traits I want, on average, one of them will also have two copies of the dominant dark stem trait.

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Dr Darren Abbey @thebiologistisn.bsky.social · 17h

It'll take a few years to stabilize the new variety. The recessive traits will be done next year, but the dominant stem color will take longer because I'll have to filter out the hidden recessive green stems trait.

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Dr Darren Abbey @thebiologistisn.bsky.social · 17h

My goal: Black stems, white to red pumpkin shaped fruit, with no spines.

The pumkin-on-a-stick variety grown for florists is covered in spines. Maybe spines would discourage deer, but they make it painful to manage the plants, so I'll be doing away with them.

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Dr Darren Abbey @thebiologistisn.bsky.social · 17h

I harvested my Pumpkin-on-a-stick hybrids and hung them up to dry. The other variety used to make the hybrid is one of mine that has white unripe fruit.

Next year, I should be able to find some plants that look like Pumpkin-on-a-stick but with white unripe fruit.

Pumpkin-on-a-stick plants cut and trimmed, hanging from the ceiling to dry. The stems are black, with numerous somewhat pumpkin shaped fruit ranging from bright orange-red to green.

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Reposted by Dr Darren Abbey

Shiv Ramdas Mens Rice Activist @nameshiv.bsky.social · 8d

Prime Day falling on a date that isn't even prime is the sort of abomination that shows why billionaires need to be stopped

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Reposted by Dr Darren Abbey

Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 3d

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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Reposted by Dr Darren Abbey

Aussie Moths @wa-moths.bsky.social · 3d

Spotted around 10 of these lovely moths all sheltering amongst the prickly branches of a local native Grevillea yesterday.

I think this is a Concealer Moth, but I haven’t been able to ID it more specifically despite its striking appearance.

#teammoth #ausinverts #wildoz #Lepidoptera #inaturalist

A side view of a moth with yellow forewings that have a dark stripe along their edge and at the bottom as well as a dark arc near the bottom. The moth clings to a thin green stem

Picture of the Grevillea (Wilson’s Grevillea) and its red flower that the moth was sheltering in

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Reposted by Dr Darren Abbey

LostArcNZ @lostarcnz.bsky.social · 3d

The solutions proposed for New Zealand's (and virtually every other country's) problems are always like:
"We need to make people work for more years"
"We have to cut back on services, I'm sorry, there is just no other way"
"We have to cut benefits for young people"

never:
"We need to tax the rich"

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Reposted by Dr Darren Abbey

Living Safely With Covid @covidsafenz.bsky.social · 5d

#LongCovid “No one is immune to this”

Offered rest home care at 24: the lonely plight of formerly healthy young Kiwis suffering with long Covid

The pandemic never ended, and we're all living proof of that.

www.1news.co.nz/2025/10/10/o...

Offered rest home care at 24: the lonely plight of young Kiwis with long Covid

A group of young Kiwis prove what international studies show: that long Covid has a particularly debilitating effect on young people. But how much medical support is there for them?

www.1news.co.nz

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Reposted by Dr Darren Abbey

Healthcare-Global @healthcare-global.bsky.social · 5d

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Reposted by Dr Darren Abbey

Nikkolas Smith @4nikkolas.bsky.social · 4d

after millions of views and shares of my Portland Frog art. (thank you all🙏🏾) I got requests to highlight priests, and chickens, and Chicagoans, and T-Rexes, and more… all of us who refuse to bend the knee. so this is for US.
𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚃𝚊𝚕𝚕.
𝚆𝚎 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚆𝚒𝚗.

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Reposted by Dr Darren Abbey

Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 5d

A few minutes ago in the House:

- Speaker Mike Johnson officially cancels votes next week, extending the House recess through a fourth week

- House Republicans block Democrats from passing a bill to pay the troops during the shutdown, ensuring they will miss paychecks next week

House Press Gallery: During today's pro forma session, the Clerk read a message from the Speaker designating Tuesday, October 14 through Sunday, October 19 as a district work period.

Punchbowl's Briana Reilly: House gaveled in and out of its pro forma just now w/o recognizing Rep Elfreth, who was seeking to UC a mil pay bill from Rep Sykes.

Elfreth told reporters after that House Dems stand “ready and willing to take” up standalone legislation to pay troops.

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Reposted by Dr Darren Abbey

Patrick Hruby @patrickhruby.bsky.social · 7d

True story:
1. Guy blows through stop sign on residential street next to a preschool, almost killing me + my dog
2. I catch up at next stop sign and tell him off
3. Woman onlooker backs me up, standing in front of his car
4. Guy bumps woman with his car then drives FULL CITY BLOCK with her on hood!

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Reposted by Dr Darren Abbey

Artologica aka Michele Banks @artologica.net · 9d

Ink paintings of mitosis in drosophila embryos were a little too niche for the art festival crowd, but I know my Blooskies will love them #sciart 🧪🪰 www.etsy.com/shop/artolog...

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Dr Darren Abbey @thebiologistisn.bsky.social · 6d

Some wild-growing hops (Humulus lupulus) found growing along a street in berlin.

A cluster of hops cones, with one intact leaf.

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Dr Darren Abbey @thebiologistisn.bsky.social · 6d

Peacemaker has been a lot better than the new Superman movie.

The goofiness fits with Peacemaker and his cohorts where it didn't with Superman.

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Reposted by Dr Darren Abbey

LOLGOP ❌👑❌ @thefarce.org · 6d

Read these two pieces together:

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Reposted by Dr Darren Abbey

Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan @london.gov.uk · 6d

Thanks to London’s bold action, almost 10 million people are now breathing cleaner air.

That means fewer children will grow up with stunted lungs and fewer people will have to suffer from asthma, dementia and heart disease.

London hits clean air milestone 184 years early - ULEZ makes 'big difference'

A professor has branded the success a 'truly remarkable turnaround for the city's air quality'

www.mylondon.news

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Reposted by Dr Darren Abbey

Democracy is not a spectator sport! 🇺🇦 @grrlscientist.bsky.social · 8d

the next national PEACEFUL protest is on 18 October

WILL YOU BE THERE? or will you watch the nation collapse into tyranny? cuz it's ONE OR THE OTHER now

#politics #tyranny #FascistAmeriKKKa #PoliticalViolence #PeacefulProtest #RESIST #NoKings #18October

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