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Dr. Catherine Scott

@cataranea.bsky.social
8.1K followers 720 following 257 posts

No-longer-a-professional arachnologist/behavioural ecologist/natural historian; current research-admin type & luddite. I also knit, sew, & have strong opinions. Pronouns: she or they

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Dr. Catherine Scott
Dr. Heather Hinam 🍁 🇨🇦 @secondnaturemb.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
I've worked on dozens of interpretive media projects over the last 15 years, and I've learned a few things along the way. If you have a site that would benefit from interpretive signage, why not join me for a free webinar on October 13th to learn about best practices? 3common.com/event/6ab591...
A handout titled So you want to make interpretive signs? 

It includes images of three different types of panels and the woman who made them. 

Join interpretive specialist, Heather Hinam for a
free one-hour webinar that will take you through
the basics of planning, designing and creating good
interpretive signage, including:
• The principles of good interpretation
• The benefits of a good interpretive plan to save
time and money
• How does interpretive planning work?
• Types of interpretive media
• What does it cost?
• When to engage professional help
She will answer your questions and will give you
the guidance to get started telling your stories in an
interesting and timeless way.

Naturalist, artist, and educator, Dr. Heather
Hinam is the driving force behind the awardwinning
Second Nature, Creative Interpretation.
For 15 years, she has combined a Ph.D. in
ecology with 30 years of experience as a nature
and heritage interpreter, and illustrator to help
dozens of clients share their stories through
engaging and beautiful media.

When: Tues, October 13, 2026
2:00 pm CDT
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franz @franzanth.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Moth 5/12 - Ashinaga #Art #SciArt
illustration of a dark brown moth with triangular wings going backwards, long legs with fluff that look like baggy jeans, and a pair of long, featherlike antennae in bright red/orange.
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Robin Hayward 🌳 🏳️‍⚧️ @canopyrobin.com · 26/09/2026
This is one of those things I'm going to keep reposting until you're sick of it. It's not just because I want to make sure everyone sees it. I want everyone to see it multiple times. I want it in your long-term memories so that it's something you use and share and don't forget when you scroll away
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 26/09/2026
Does my Speak-n-Spell feel pain when I type O-U-C-H? The jury is out. Philosophers and neuroscientists say that's fucking stupid, but I called a guy from the Center for Pretending that Household Electronics Are Sentient and he said there's no way to know for sure.
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SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
This is an excellent resource for anyone who supervises trans+ folks doing fieldwork but, also, many of these recommendations are applicable well beyond fieldwork, for anyone leading, supervising, mentoring, employing, or otherwise collaborating with trans+ colleagues I highly recommend it:
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franz @franzanth.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Beetle 4/11 - Anthaxia #Art #SciArt
illustration of a dark green-turquoise iridescent beetle with two big streaks of vivid red and two dark blue on the wings. The entire animal's surface is visibly mottled with fine hair on the legs.
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🎃 Imani Gandy Corn 🎃 @angryblacklady.blacksky.app · 20/09/2026
I just honestly can't get over that Save Women Sports, an anti-trans group could only find five trans athletes competing K through 12. Five. The NCAA president testified a year and a half ago or so that there were less than 10 college level trans athletes. What the fuck are we doing, people
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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 28/04/2026
Oh and "there's good AI" they shout, assuming we never considered that, but also with their clear goal of using AI in a deflated sense (that only helps companies)... Yes, there's good computational models. So what? bsky.app/profile/oliv...
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Dr. Catherine Scott @cataranea.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Anytime!
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Dr. Catherine Scott @cataranea.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
It’s a false widow (Steatoda grossa). Not medically significant. Also very shy and non-bitey
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Dr. Catherine Scott @cataranea.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Steatoda grossa (false widow)
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Dr. Catherine Scott @cataranea.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Teamwork?
Big yellow dog with floppy ears and a person wearing a blue collared shirt, grey hat and red glasses sit next to each other picking blueberries. The dog is big and yellow with floppy ears and has his snout in the blueberry bush.The same dog snacking on blueberries The same dog sitting in the middle of the blueberry bushes, now looking directly at the camera
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Dr. Catherine Scott @cataranea.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
The fruits of our labour. 🫐
A big yellow pouch about 2/4 full of blueberries, nestled between the legs of a person (me) seated on the ground amidst the juniper and lowbush blueberry 3 pouches (red, yellow, and blue left to right) partly full of blueberries. They are each probably about 4 litres in capacity.
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Dr. Catherine Scott @cataranea.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Lovely day picking blueberries on the East Coast Trail. Diego was a very enthusiastic participant but did little to improve efficiency.
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Blayne Haggart @bhaggart.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Three final things: Carney isn’t returning to a hardball strategy from 2018. He’s returning to the Trudeau strategy that Carney rejected in 2025 in favour of appeasement and the pursuit of a negotiated comprehensive trade and security agreement. From Sept 2025.
cbc.ca
Carney government quietly dropped more U.S. counter-tariffs than advertised | CBC News
The federal government has quietly removed more counter-tariffs on American goods than initially advertised, according to an order-in-council published online.
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Blayne Haggart @bhaggart.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
It took Mark Carney almost two years and billions of dollars in concessions to recognize what was *immediately* obvious in Nov 2024: that Trump won’t keep his word. Going forward, Carney needs to explain this profound miscalculation, and if his strategy has changed to reflect reality.
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Isabel, booonyavirus wonk @isabelott.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
“The issues [we face] now are similar to issues that other scientific and creative professions are facing, and indicate issues that all of humanity might face: how to make sure that, as AI changes the way work is done, we do not lose sight of what that work was meant to achieve in the first place.”
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Dr. Catherine Scott @cataranea.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Where geographically?
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Ryan Marino, MD @ryanmarino.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
OpenAI set $22M on fire just to steal $1M from a human who did the actual work, and that’s the business plan our economy is betting everything on? Lol.
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Micah @rincewind.run · 07/09/2026
there’s a lot more nuance to it but as a basic principle you could do a lot worse than unions good, billionaires bad happy Labor Day, everyone
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Dr. Catherine Scott @cataranea.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Omg look what the Canadian mint made 🕷️🕸️ www.mint.ca/en/shop/coin...
mint.ca
Nature’s Delight: The Spider – 1 oz. Fine Silver Coin | The Royal Canadian Mint
A web of wonder: Nature’s geometry, glistening in the sunlight.
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Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Attention Philadelphia! We're hosting a rally to demand that Drexel University maintain The Academy of Natural Sciences Museum open to the public. Join us on Tuesday morning at 10am in front of the academy. Please spread the word, we need all hands on deck! RSVP here: luma.com/1qwnrqz2
A dinosaur on a white background with the text SAve the academy of Natural sciences museum rally Tuesday Sept 8 10am in front of the academy 1900 ben Franklin Parkway. "Tell Drexel University "Keep the museum open!" with the logos for Philly Science Action, Skype a Scientist, and Green Philly
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Iron Spike @ironspike.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Doesn't look very "inevitable" to me
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Dr. Catherine Scott @cataranea.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Either works!
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Dr. Catherine Scott @cataranea.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
The problem with being a good (I hope) reviewer who responds promptly to requests and provides on-time or not-ridiculously late reviews is that you just keep getting more and more requests. I wonder what proportion of active researchers are carrying the bulk of the reviewing burden?
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Jess Taylor @loadofolbobbins.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Another hot of the presses bug for your enjoyment...this time a super fancy Golden Tortoise Beetle for the last day of #InverteFest Stats: Drawing time total 21hr 15 min #SciArt #BugSky #Insects #ArtSky #Illustration #Procreate
An original digital illustration by Loadofolbobbins of a Golden Tortoise Beetle against a white background. Overall a wide oval in shape, the main body of the beetle is like liquid gold, shining and speckled with thin lines of very small dark brown dots that form a loose almost stripe like pattern. The upper section of the beetle also has a more iridescent metallic effect in greens, yellows and blues with dark speckled markings. Surrounding the body and head the outer section of the beetle is a semi transparent plating, where you can just glimpse it's legs curled underneath it.
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Get To Know Nature @gettoknownature.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
A wee purple damselfly to wrap up #InverteFest. They come in a range of beautiful colors and it always surprises me to see these jewel tones. Also, here’s a free art book filled with incredible invertebrates! #BugSky 🌿
A long thin purple bug stands on a light brown rock facing into the camera with its big, round, appealing eyes.
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Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 31/08/2026
The "Lake America" hissy fit "highlights the cost of Canada not having its own Google Maps equivalent or mapping APIs, Levy said, leaving a huge portion of online activity powered and collected by American companies." #datasovereignty #digitalsovereignty www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
cbc.ca
Lake America replaces Lake Ontario on multiple Canadian websites after Google Maps update | CBC News
Some Canadian websites, including for the federal government, displayed maps with Lake Ontario renamed as Lake America on Sunday, a day after Google Maps announced the change to align with an executiv...
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Stephen Kinsella @stephenstroud.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Yet more copytheft. Why would we tolerate an “industry” based on wholesale lawbreaking?
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Jane Rosenzweig @janerosenzweig.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Also: a lot of decisions have been made about AI in ed by people who had not tried LLMs, did not understand how they work, were not in the classroom, did not really understand how students were likely to use them, and were driven by FOMO rather than by data/knowlege/understanding/learning.
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John Michael McGrath @jm-mcgrath.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
"we should rename Mar-a-Lago something funny, make Google display that" My brother in Christ, the Ontario legislature can declare Google's workers in Ontario to be unionized and assign their collective labour rights to whichever union will be most militant, think bigger
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Dr. Catherine Scott @cataranea.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
“What are you hoping to achieve with tools sold as “AI” that cannot be done with traditional [methods] that already exist? Is that outcome so valuable that it outweighs the ethical problems of using these tools?” There is no ethical use of “ai”
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
And sure, any individual query and/or brag about an individual query is just a small part of that. But why contribute at all? And more to the point, why say so and then scold everyone else for pointing out how shameful it is? >>
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
helping the tech barons further centralize wealth and power, benefitting from the atrociously exploitative labor practices that "cleaned up" system output, etc. >>
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Just to name a few, every time you use (let along brag about using) a synthetic media extruding machine, you are helping to build the case for the next hyperscale data center, helping to normalize the data collection (theft & surveillance) they are built on, >>
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franz @franzanth.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
We present: The Art of #InverteFest - August 2026 Edition A digital art book showcasing the work of 100 artists, in celebration of overlooked invertebrate fauna. Thank you to the artists who contributed to our book! Download & submit to the next edition: invertefest.com/#artbook #Art #SciArt
a promo image showing various pages from the book, each page showcasing different animals like a mantis, trilobite, cephalopod, beetle grub, tick, among others. the art featured shows a range of different medium, including 3D, paper cutout, pixel art, and so on.
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Dr. Catherine Scott @cataranea.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Unless you search for it. Then it implies that this is an actual alternative name for the lake
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Chris @cperez.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
"Principal investigators need cheap grad and postdoc labor to boost their own research profiles. Treating them like workers by allowing them to unionize disrupts the feudal lord-serf relationship that exists in most labs." There I fixed it for you
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Dr. Catherine Scott @cataranea.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
WTAF. “If our schools are not teaching our youth how to write a book report using artificial intelligence, we are doing them a disservice,” Assemblyman Clyde Vanel (D-Queens Village), one of Albany’s most prominent boosters of AI, told the Chronicle in a recent interview
Screenshot of an excerpt from the linked article in the quoted post reading,  “Are you familiar with those robot dogs?” he asked, in reference to the Spot brand of metal canines, recently rolled out by Boston Dynamics and marketed, largely, to police departments.

“I have one in my office now. I bought one for myself that’s going to be able to connect to AI and I’m going to bring it to work next [legislative] year because we can’t be afraid of these tools. We have to master them.”
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Dr. Catherine Scott @cataranea.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Omg!!!!!!
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Richard Waite @waiterich.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
I’m worried that governments and businesses are “pivoting” from mitigation to adaptation/resilience and then calling that their “climate” or “sustainability” plan. We need to urgently reduce emissions AND make our systems more robust to withstand inevitable amounts of warming.
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Prof Ian Hall @ianhall.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
6. Climate change shouldn’t be treated as an abstract environmental issue anymore. It’s also about health, homes, food, energy bills, insurance, infrastructure and whether the places we live remain comfortable and safe.
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Prof Ian Hall @ianhall.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
5. There’s something deeply strange about living through increasingly obvious climate disruption while politicians become less willing to talk about why it is happening and what we can do about it. The crisis is becoming harder to ignore, but apparently easier to avoid discussing.
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Dr. Cara Berg Powers @clbergpowers.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Things you could do this week to honor the impact Dolly has had: *Donate to the Imagination Library or a local kids reading initiative *Read with a kid you care about *Support and protect LGBTQIA kids *Support a Black owned business *Schedule your vaccine appointments *Show up authentically as you
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Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
We need YOU to spread the word about @skypeascientist.bsky.social - our *free* program that matches scientists w/classrooms & more! When educators sign up, they can tell us who told them about us. We'll hold a monthly drawing for $150 of science supplies* from the referrers! SkypeAScientist.com
a praying mantis is on the telephone and excited to hear someone on the phone say "Skype a Scientist has a new referral program"
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🌈Dr. Frizzle @swilua.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
we should all buy someone a book in Dolly’s honor today
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SEIU Local 925 @seiu925.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
We’re not in the habit of recognizing celebrity deaths here at 925. That said, Dolly Parton is a national treasure and some folks here joke that Dolly is our Locals patron saint. After all her song “9 to 5” is our anthem. Today we remember all the love and kindness Dolly brought the world.
Tribute-style portrait of a Dolly Parton performing in a ruffled light purple blouse, arm raised and singing into a microphone, overlaid with the lyric: "You're just a step on the bossman's ladder / But you've got dreams he'll never take away."
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Jill Weinberger @jillybobww.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
I saw her say that, as a child, she saw some women w/ big hair & long nails & makeup & thought they were so glamorous. Her mom said, "Those women are trash," & Dolly thought, "Well, I guess I want to be trash when I grow up." She chose her style b/c it was her idea of beautiful, not for anyone else.
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Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them) @jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
donated a bunch to recovery efforts after Hurricane Helene too:
edition.cnn.com
Dolly Parton pitches in toward Hurricane Helene relief efforts | CNN
Dolly Parton is doing her best to lend support to flood- and storm-ravaged areas in the aftermath of Helene.
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Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them) @jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
straight up cut a check for a million dollars to help fund the Moderna Covid vaccine:
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