Dave Baltrus 🦦
@surtlab.bsky.social
Professor at UArizona interested in genome rummaging, microbial evolution, and occasional tales about having backyard farm animals.
“I’m something of a scientist myself”
Baltrus(at)Arizona.edu
“I’m something of a scientist myself”
Baltrus(at)Arizona.edu
Womp womp
Each program told me that going to the other program would be a total waste of my time. Turns out both programs were wrong and our twin studies just overestimated the heritability 🤣
November 23, 2025 at 11:32 PM
Womp womp
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
Each program told me that going to the other program would be a total waste of my time. Turns out both programs were wrong and our twin studies just overestimated the heritability 🤣
November 23, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Each program told me that going to the other program would be a total waste of my time. Turns out both programs were wrong and our twin studies just overestimated the heritability 🤣
Just so freaking refreshing this dude
"I've long been inspired by Lina Khan's protection of people across this country in the face of corporate greed"
@zohrankmamdani.bsky.social Mamdani tells @mehdirhasan.bsky.social how Lina Khan will get creative to lower prices for New Yorkers
zeteo.com/p/exclusive-...
@zohrankmamdani.bsky.social Mamdani tells @mehdirhasan.bsky.social how Lina Khan will get creative to lower prices for New Yorkers
zeteo.com/p/exclusive-...
November 23, 2025 at 10:10 PM
Just so freaking refreshing this dude
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
Every regional public university should be blasting this message in every possible medium.
Trying to get us to advertise as: "No AI, small classes, people-first." Or something similar.
Who invests in critical thinking and who invests in an AI chatbot to help you think will be really telling.
November 23, 2025 at 8:09 PM
Every regional public university should be blasting this message in every possible medium.
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
JFC! They’re not just kidnapping people now, they’re DRUGGING them!
Local police officers and sheriffs in Mobile, Alabama, are abducting a man from the waiting room of a car dealership mechanic shop on behalf of ICE/DHS. During the kidnapping, he is administered an unidentified sedative.
November 23, 2025 at 7:13 PM
JFC! They’re not just kidnapping people now, they’re DRUGGING them!
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
This post and the threads it spawned are giving me hope for this site
Home Alone makes changes to the Die Hard formula that render it hard for me to enjoy. The McClain character should feel overawed. And in theory having Kevin be a child versus adults achieves that. But the thing is: Kevin is a god. It's not just Tom & Jerry. This is some random punks versus Anansi.
November 23, 2025 at 6:39 PM
This post and the threads it spawned are giving me hope for this site
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
I don't think adults are supposed to root for Kevin the way you root for John McClain, you're just supposed to remember being a kid and rooting for Kevin. And now you can appreciate how John Candy just totally ad-libbed in this entire scene: youtu.be/dD5Q_famjAE?...
Polka Band are bad parents | Gus Funeral Story - Home Alone scene 4k
YouTube video by This is 4K Cinema
youtu.be
November 23, 2025 at 12:34 PM
I don't think adults are supposed to root for Kevin the way you root for John McClain, you're just supposed to remember being a kid and rooting for Kevin. And now you can appreciate how John Candy just totally ad-libbed in this entire scene: youtu.be/dD5Q_famjAE?...
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
Does this mean nobody is reading my lists of five accomplishments I sent to a full email?!
Bye bye, “DOGE”.
It no longer exists as a “centralized entity”, according to the Office of Personnel Management.
@reuters.com
www.reuters.com/world/us/dog...
It no longer exists as a “centralized entity”, according to the Office of Personnel Management.
@reuters.com
www.reuters.com/world/us/dog...
November 23, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Does this mean nobody is reading my lists of five accomplishments I sent to a full email?!
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
A fascinating aspect of social media is that someone who blocked you years ago, and continues to block, can talk about something you supposedly "told" him about IQ prediction ("prediction" = correlation, not cause).
November 23, 2025 at 6:18 PM
A fascinating aspect of social media is that someone who blocked you years ago, and continues to block, can talk about something you supposedly "told" him about IQ prediction ("prediction" = correlation, not cause).
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
This piece goes unusual places
arstechnica.com/health/2025/...
arstechnica.com/health/2025/...
Why you don’t want to get tuberculosis on your penis
While tuberculosis can attack anywhere, it’s extremely rare on the penis.
arstechnica.com
November 23, 2025 at 5:58 PM
This piece goes unusual places
arstechnica.com/health/2025/...
arstechnica.com/health/2025/...
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
Really important to stress that the Crown Jewels of the US higher education system were never the Ivies or elite SLACs (other countries have equivalents of these) but the well-funded, large, cheap, and excellently staffed public state university systems bringing high quality education to the masses.
One of the bragging rights that the US ed system had in the 20th century is that we didn't have education tracks. Essentially, any kid could go to a CC or state school & major in whatever they wanted to (obviously an oversimplification). I fear this aspect of the American dream is dying.
November 23, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Really important to stress that the Crown Jewels of the US higher education system were never the Ivies or elite SLACs (other countries have equivalents of these) but the well-funded, large, cheap, and excellently staffed public state university systems bringing high quality education to the masses.
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
the Beaton Brontes never leave me
November 22, 2025 at 10:27 PM
the Beaton Brontes never leave me
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
I can't think of what would be the best Hark A Vagrant but everyone should know Kate Beaton
November 22, 2025 at 3:43 PM
I can't think of what would be the best Hark A Vagrant but everyone should know Kate Beaton
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
So: which version?
There is a surprising split among fans whether the better version is the one with/without When Love Is Gone
There is a surprising split among fans whether the better version is the one with/without When Love Is Gone
November 23, 2025 at 3:30 PM
So: which version?
There is a surprising split among fans whether the better version is the one with/without When Love Is Gone
There is a surprising split among fans whether the better version is the one with/without When Love Is Gone
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
Going on record:
My posts are a SAFE ZONE FOR PEDANTRY. Being corrected on "minor details" continues our learning & it's a humbling, useful experience.
Some of my most pedantic positions:
Apes are monkeys.
Dolphins are whales.
Tortoises are turtles.
Let's talk about taxonomy & nested hierarchies.
My posts are a SAFE ZONE FOR PEDANTRY. Being corrected on "minor details" continues our learning & it's a humbling, useful experience.
Some of my most pedantic positions:
Apes are monkeys.
Dolphins are whales.
Tortoises are turtles.
Let's talk about taxonomy & nested hierarchies.
November 23, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Going on record:
My posts are a SAFE ZONE FOR PEDANTRY. Being corrected on "minor details" continues our learning & it's a humbling, useful experience.
Some of my most pedantic positions:
Apes are monkeys.
Dolphins are whales.
Tortoises are turtles.
Let's talk about taxonomy & nested hierarchies.
My posts are a SAFE ZONE FOR PEDANTRY. Being corrected on "minor details" continues our learning & it's a humbling, useful experience.
Some of my most pedantic positions:
Apes are monkeys.
Dolphins are whales.
Tortoises are turtles.
Let's talk about taxonomy & nested hierarchies.
The *only* thing wrong about “A Muppet Christmas Carol” is the ghost of Christmas past. Needs to be 1000% more muppety.
November 23, 2025 at 3:25 PM
The *only* thing wrong about “A Muppet Christmas Carol” is the ghost of Christmas past. Needs to be 1000% more muppety.
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
In Monrovia, California, protesters are purchasing 17¢ ICE scrapers from Home Depot and immediately returning them to create long lines and slow down the entire store. Their aim is to disrupt sales and convey a message opposing ICE raids occurring in their neighborhood.
November 23, 2025 at 11:37 AM
In Monrovia, California, protesters are purchasing 17¢ ICE scrapers from Home Depot and immediately returning them to create long lines and slow down the entire store. Their aim is to disrupt sales and convey a message opposing ICE raids occurring in their neighborhood.
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
This is basically KPOP Demon Hunters if you're one of the five people left who hasn't seen KPOP Demon Hunters.
November 23, 2025 at 1:34 PM
This is basically KPOP Demon Hunters if you're one of the five people left who hasn't seen KPOP Demon Hunters.
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
Fungal friends: The University of Minnesota is hiring a tenure track medical mycologist, with emphasis on emergence of pathogens, genomics and evolution!
www.nature.com/naturecareer...
www.nature.com/naturecareer...
New Assistant Professor: Tenure Track - Fungal Biology/Medical Mycology - Minneapolis, Minnesota job with University of Minnesota - Medical School | 12848307
About the Job: The Department of Microbiology & Immunology and the Institute on Infectious Diseases (UMIID) at the University of Minnesota Medical ...
www.nature.com
November 23, 2025 at 11:42 AM
Fungal friends: The University of Minnesota is hiring a tenure track medical mycologist, with emphasis on emergence of pathogens, genomics and evolution!
www.nature.com/naturecareer...
www.nature.com/naturecareer...
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
It’s the platonic ideal of a scientific paper, and it landed appropriately in science.
November 22, 2025 at 11:44 PM
It’s the platonic ideal of a scientific paper, and it landed appropriately in science.
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
Maybe this is some of what is going on but I am feeling many are more anxious about conceiving of what NIH will be when there could be political appointees as IC directors and on advisory councils. They do need to ignore or compromise peer review to push their conspiracy theory science
November 22, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Maybe this is some of what is going on but I am feeling many are more anxious about conceiving of what NIH will be when there could be political appointees as IC directors and on advisory councils. They do need to ignore or compromise peer review to push their conspiracy theory science
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
Everyone reading that new Lizza post like Herzog listening to the bear attack recording
November 22, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Everyone reading that new Lizza post like Herzog listening to the bear attack recording
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
Imagine, if you will, that NASA updated its website to suggest gravity might not exist, prompting CalTech and CERN to release statements saying, "With great sadness, we can no longer recommend listening to NASA."
This is what's happening in epidemiology.
This is what's happening in epidemiology.
November 21, 2025 at 8:58 PM
Imagine, if you will, that NASA updated its website to suggest gravity might not exist, prompting CalTech and CERN to release statements saying, "With great sadness, we can no longer recommend listening to NASA."
This is what's happening in epidemiology.
This is what's happening in epidemiology.
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
people are reading "catch-and-kill" in the journalistic sense but she was probably just finding raccoons for him to eat
November 22, 2025 at 3:04 PM
people are reading "catch-and-kill" in the journalistic sense but she was probably just finding raccoons for him to eat