iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 6h

165 years ago TODAY, Charles Darwin had a normal one. "I am very poorly today & very stupid & hate everybody & everything. One lives only to make blunders.— I am going to write a little Book for Murray on orchids & today I hate them worse than everything…" I think about this letter a lot.

darwinproject.ac.uk

To Charles Lyell 1 October [1861] | Darwin Correspondence Project

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Matthew A. Barnes @drbarnes.org · 24/09/2026

Getting requests for my papers is one of my favorite things

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Larkin Francis, PhD, MSW @mwfrancis.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

PLEASE ask me for my article! It's always a thrill to know that someone wants to read it, and I hate that knowledge is gatekept like this. Not only do we not get paid if you pay the fee, but we have to pay the journal thousands of dollars for the "privilege" of making it open-access (not paywalled)

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Matthew A. Barnes @drbarnes.org · 15/09/2026

Especially as frequency and intensity of droughts increases due to climate change 🥵

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Matthew A. Barnes @drbarnes.org · 15/09/2026

Our work reveals that constructed water catchments in the Sonoran Desert are not used as expected (😍) by red-spotted toads 🐸 during low rainfall summers ☀️, suggesting a need to consider other water management actions to support desert amphibians.

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Matthew A. Barnes @drbarnes.org · 15/09/2026

In this paper, we assessed whether red-spotted toads 🐸 differ in their breeding aggregations at tinajas and constructed waters during low rainfall summers by measuring male calling activity over four summers with varying rainfall ☀️/🌧️

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Matthew A. Barnes @drbarnes.org · 15/09/2026

📢 New Publication! 📢 Roth S, Barnes MA, and Griffis-Kyle K. In press. Desert amphibian calling effort changes in response to monsoonal precipitation at constructed but not natural waters. Ecosphere 17: e70732. esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Isolated water sites used by amphibians in the Sonoran Desert include (a) unmodified tinajas, (b) modified tinajas, and (c) constructed waters. Photo credit: Sadie A. Roth.

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Matthew A. Barnes @drbarnes.org · 04/09/2026

It's been decades, but the survey still caught me. mydialect.us/quiz-standar...

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Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 31/08/2026

macabre = “muh-KAHB” Worcestershire = “WOOSS-ter-sheer” omnipotent = “ahm-NI-puh-tunt” reticent = “RET-uh-sunt” epitome = “ih-PIT-uh-mee” myriad = "MEER-ee-ud" Never make fun of someone if they mispronounce a word. It means they learned it by reading.

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Matthew A. Barnes @drbarnes.org · 31/08/2026

Even as our academic rankings fall in response to the assault on faculty academic freedom, it's nice to see the students are having a good time www.usatoday.com/story/sports...

usatoday.com

New party school rankings are out. See where your school is

On Monday, Aug. 31, Niche.com released its 2027 Party school rankings... and there's a new No. 1.

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Matthew A. Barnes @drbarnes.org · 27/08/2026

Also relevant: the province is named after the lake, not vice versa

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Matthew A. Barnes @drbarnes.org · 27/08/2026

Pretty wild that one of the leaders of the #WarOnScience is a medical doctor

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David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈 @whysharksmatter.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

The conservation impacts of recreational fishing, including "catch and release" fishing, are far more serious than most people realize. In my latest blog post, I review the science and evidence. www.southernfriedscience.com/the-conserva... 🧪🌍🦑🐟

southernfriedscience.com

The conservation impacts of recreational fishing

Fishing for fun, even “catch and release” fishing, can sometimes have a significant impact on fish species of conservation concern. When most environmentalists think about the impacts o…

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Andrew D Thaler @drandrewthaler.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

FYSA, Ontario is named after the lake, not the other way around. It literally means Beautiful Lake. And yes, that means it translates to Lake Beautiful Lake.

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Gaia Vince @wanderinggaia.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Oh no, not Dolly! 😭

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Texas Observer @texasobserver.org · 20/08/2026

Earlier: In an attempt to overcomply with Texas law, the University of Houston will eliminate over 100 women's studies, gender and sexuality courses from the core curriculum. It won't be enough to appease extremist Republicans.

texasobserver.org

University of Houston Is Gutting Its Gender and Sexuality Classes. That Won’t Stop Texas' Crusade Against Higher Ed.

College administrators wrongly hope that anticipatory obedience will satisfy a GOP-run Texas Legislature that is increasingly hostile toward education.

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Chronicle of Higher Education @chronicle.com · 13/08/2026

Tenure is meant to rest on scholarly merit and peer review. But recent denials at several universities, often reversing strong faculty support without detailed explanations, have prompted questions about political interference. chroni.cl/3SvTXYg

chronicle.com

Has Partisanship Infected Tenure Decisions?

Several recent denials have raised questions about political influence.

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 29/07/2026

Fauci accuses Rand Paul of having an "unhinged obsession with calling for my prosecution" and of making "repeated slanderous comments," then says "although it pains me to do so... under advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the 5th Amendment to refrain from answering your questions."

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Kate Starbird @katestarbird.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

The GOP scapegoating attacks on Dr. Fauci, a spectacle designed to affirm the conspiracy theories of a brain-wormed base, are chilling. What scientist or public servant, in their right minds, will choose to put themselves on the line during the next pandemic or crisis? www.cnn.com/2026/07/29/p...

cnn.com

Dr. Anthony Fauci repeatedly invokes the Fifth in dramatic Senate hearing about Covid pandemic | CNN Politics

Dr. Anthony Fauci, who led the US government response to the Covid-19 pandemic, invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, refusing to testify Wednesday just minutes into a Capitol ...

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Matthew A. Barnes @drbarnes.org · 29/07/2026

The shameful treatment of Dr. Anthony Fauci is not only agonizing to watch on his behalf, but also really dangerous for the USA in general, as it probably leads many scientists to question the value of sharing their expertise with the government.

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Matthew A. Barnes @drbarnes.org · 24/07/2026

Ha. I agree 100% that version information is critical; I just think it belongs in the methods and wonder why we have apparently singled out The R Core Team as belonging in the literature cited for their product, unlike every other software or tool we use in research.

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Asher Elbein @asherelbein.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

I think people who do not work in media have trouble grasping how genuinely terrifying it is watching organization after organization (even those ostensibly held by entities able to fund them!) continually get carved down into nothing. Lights going out all over

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Matthew A. Barnes @drbarnes.org · 24/07/2026

Good point, but this makes using R for statistical analysis vs. other programs is like (in my field) choosing one DNA extraction reagent or PCR machine over another. We just list the company in the methods description, we don't cite them. Unique recognition for R still feels arbitrary.

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Matthew A. Barnes @drbarnes.org · 24/07/2026

So does the "Microsoft Core Team" just need better branding to achieve similar citability like the "R Core Team"?

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Matthew A. Barnes @drbarnes.org · 24/07/2026

...and the recent OMB suggested revisions will make this even more transparent, unabashed, unscrupulous

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Stand Up for Science! @standupforscience.net · 24/07/2026

SCIENCE AND HEALTH IN AMERICA IS IN DANGER. Vought's OMB Proposal will put all federal grant funding into the hands of Trump's political appointees. Trump continues to spread climate-change denialism and tears down environmental regulations. 🧵

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Matthew A. Barnes @drbarnes.org · 24/07/2026

This isn't a hill I'm looking to die on (I'm just a little distracted on a Friday afternoon and should probably head home) but the unique treatment of R relative to others seems arbitrary at best, begrudging for-profit companies at worst.

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Matthew A. Barnes @drbarnes.org · 24/07/2026

Can we also cite other literature based on whether we like the first author or not :) Seriously though, I guess my follow up question to that is why in-line recognition isn't enough and why the R Core Team uniquely 'deserves' to be in the literature cited?

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Matthew A. Barnes @drbarnes.org · 24/07/2026

I hope your reviewers/editors chime in then- why do they think stats programs need to be cited while others don't?

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Matthew A. Barnes @drbarnes.org · 24/07/2026

(I do cite packages btw. I just think reporting that we used R and the version number in the main text and not literature cited section seems like it is more consistent with every other software we use)

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Matthew A. Barnes @drbarnes.org · 24/07/2026

Why is the base R program the only software that gets included in the literature cited? Shouldn't every paper also include multiple "Gates et al." citations for Word, Excel, etc? (I'm asking this flippantly, of course, but I welcome thoughts on why some people treat R so special)

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Julian Sanchez @normative.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Beyond being terrible guidance to give people on the specific issue… this is not how science works. A mountain of studies have failed to detect any link. That’s all the “ruling out the possibility” science can do.

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Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

This is a good summary of everything HHS Secretary RFK Jr. is doing both publicly and behind the scenes to destroy the US vaccination program. He even wanted to end requirements for the polio vaccine. He will not stop, and Republicans in Congress will continue to do nothing about it.

reuters.com

Inside RFK Jr.’s push to dismantle decades of U.S. vaccine policy

Insider accounts reveal the scale of the health secretary's ambitions to curb childhood immunizations and unearth a link between vaccines and autism.

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Morgan @larubia22.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

28 years of cyclosporiasis testing Screwworms eradicated in the US in 1966. Measles eradicated in the US in 2000. All are back because of this science denying administration.

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Matthew A. Barnes @drbarnes.org · 15/07/2026

Too bad we can't study gender affirming care at public universities in Texas...

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The Ricciardians @ricciardilab.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Underwater architects

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