iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Eric LoPresti @ericlopresti.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

nothing the UCI does makes a whole lot of sense...

Eric LoPresti @ericlopresti.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Really, really, really proud of Eli for this fantastic study (his master's thesis). So much effort to sort out just one thorny evolutionary history problem in California plants.

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Eric LoPresti @ericlopresti.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Everything he's done since he first got caught fudging data - in the nineties (and probable before)... I was told, in no uncertain terms, never to cite him.

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Eric LoPresti @ericlopresti.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

anyone at bohart can help, of course!

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Eric LoPresti @ericlopresti.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

any blacklight UV works well - lots powered by either 12V (car, lawn mower battery, etc.) or 5.3 V (USB), etc.

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Eric LoPresti @ericlopresti.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

lol. only 1 way to find out... the $10 hitch rack i bought a few weeks ago and a dumpster huffy.

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Eric LoPresti @ericlopresti.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

They make adapters - I wouldn't tow with them (!!!) - but for a bike rack, they are fine. I was also able to get a 2" for my 2016 Prius, which bodes well for a lot of cars, I'd assume (who the hell tows with a prius???).

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Eric LoPresti @ericlopresti.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

Charley is probably the best naturalist I've ever met - every time in the field with him has been eye-opening/mind-blowing (he's a wonderful person, too!). Nice to see so many @inaturalist.bsky.social users appreciating him in the comments users on this post: www.inaturalist.org/blog/124811

inaturalist.org

Identifier Profile: @ceiseman

This is the twenty-ninth entry in an ongoing series profiling the amazing identifiers of iNaturalist. An iNaturalist observation records an encounter between an observer and an organism or recent evid...

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Eric LoPresti @ericlopresti.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

anything that gets people out of a car is a good thing, full stop.

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Eric LoPresti @ericlopresti.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

dude, i have to keep listening to you singing "it's alright, it's alright, it's alright" over on little dawn to be able to take all this (that whole album helps). not sure that helps at all, but its true.

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Eric LoPresti @ericlopresti.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

there is an AWESOME pbs documentary on monopoly. do watch, it is sobering and hilarious (it was meant as a social critique!).

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Eric LoPresti @ericlopresti.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

i feel that 100%, here's my angry signal - put on for a protest, but now i'm just riding it around to school, groceries, etc.

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Eric LoPresti @ericlopresti.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

yeah, we're fine. just pissed off.

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Eric LoPresti @ericlopresti.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

fuck bad drivers, fuck the cop who watched this happen

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Eric LoPresti @ericlopresti.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

the (quite disturbing) video makes that abundantly clear

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Reposted by Eric LoPresti

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again. www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

This line graph illustrates the percentage change in agency staff levels from the previous year for nine major U.S. federal scientific and health organizations between the fiscal years 2016 and 2025. The agencies tracked include the CDC, Department of Energy, EPA, FDA, NASA, NIH, NIST, NOAA, and NSF. For the majority of the timeline between 2016 and 2023, the agencies show relatively stable fluctuations, generally staying within a range of +5% to -5% change per year. However, there is a dramatic and uniform plummet starting in the 2024–25 period. Every agency depicted shows a sharp downward trajectory, with staffing losses ranging from approximately -15% to over -25%. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows the most significant decline, dropping to roughly -26%, while the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shows the least severe but still substantial drop at approximately -15%.

91147768500

Reposted by Eric LoPresti

Andrea Berardi @aeberardi.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

So pleased to have been included on this paper, which is all PhD candidate Sierra Jaeger from the LoPresti lab! @ericlopresti.bsky.social

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Eric LoPresti @ericlopresti.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

IMO - that shouldn't be an (unpaid) reviewer's job, especially in citation-dense papers - we have enough to do besides looking into every reference. Its either on the publisher or the reader, unfortunately.

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Eric LoPresti @ericlopresti.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

my post-break brain couldn't do any serious writing today... but i got through a lot of moths!

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Eric LoPresti @ericlopresti.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

"i swear that email must have gone to spam" (my approach to the required hazardous waste training for the undergraduate students that... count seeds in my lab).

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Eric LoPresti @ericlopresti.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

it was, unfortunately, a little bit of a slog (it describes a lot of trips collecting caterpillars), though with bits of absolute nuttiness thrown in. www.amazon.com/Moths-Myths-...

amazon.com

Moths, Myths, and Mosquitoes: The Eccentric Life of Harrison G. Dyar, Jr.

Amazon.com: Moths, Myths, and Mosquitoes: The Eccentric Life of Harrison G. Dyar, Jr.: 9780190215255: Epstein, Marc: Books

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Eric LoPresti @ericlopresti.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

I read Harrison Dyar's biography a few years back and his hobby tunnels weren't anywhere near the strangest part.

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Eric LoPresti @ericlopresti.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

flannel moth caterpillars (megalopygids, puss caterpillars) are amongst the strangest we have. but, even stranger is the fact that they make LITTLE BOWL-SHAPED POOP. how have i not learned this? why does this not seem to be all over the internet?

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Eric LoPresti @ericlopresti.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

i used to think OA was the solution, but now that the big publishers are doing it, its just another way of skimming off the top.

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Eric LoPresti @ericlopresti.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

yeah, that much is true everywhere. that's why unions are important in setting those bounds.

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Eric LoPresti @ericlopresti.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

Unions good. I do think most research universities classify them as employees - ours are, and are given benefits (I wouldn't feel comfortable taking students if not!). Professional degrees are different though, I think (but I don't know much about those).

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Eric LoPresti @ericlopresti.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

google scholar alerted me to a paper citing a (great) Abronia paper - weirdly it was on fish biology. and with that i have happened into my first published and obviously used AI for referencing paper...

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Eric LoPresti @ericlopresti.bsky.social · 11/10/2025

the first one of those i saw threw me for a total loop, too. what weirdos.

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Eric LoPresti @ericlopresti.bsky.social · 09/10/2025

i only like driving because i don't have to do it much! (and because of that, i have fun, impractical cars!)

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Eric LoPresti @ericlopresti.bsky.social · 09/10/2025

8 emails later, no resolution and the springer OA people are giving me the run around. $3900!

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Eric LoPresti @ericlopresti.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

I had a solicited commentary "accepted" at a Springer Journal and now they are asking me to pay a publication fee. What an utterly sleazy move - here, do something for us and we'll make you pay for it.

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Eric LoPresti @ericlopresti.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

i don't see any problem telling about the existence of sci-hub...

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Eric LoPresti @ericlopresti.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

A couple years ago, I found a weird wasp moth - sent it to Bill Taft and Anthony Cognato at Michigan State and lo and behold, it is a new species. Introducing Synanthedon nielseni!

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Eric LoPresti @ericlopresti.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

you can get the big ones right in front of the back legs so they also can't kick you (they have sharp nails)

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Eric LoPresti @ericlopresti.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

i've been doing tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, and... dill (the dill and not garlic or scallions or whatever sounds weird to me, but a restaurant here does it and it somehow works great)

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Eric LoPresti @ericlopresti.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

and always worth mentioning the general population declines from massive land conversion to... anything but real habitat (obviously not direct mortality, but direct mortality really matters because when populations already low)

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Eric LoPresti @ericlopresti.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

i like to tap on their windows as i pass them when they are sitting at green lights...

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Eric LoPresti @ericlopresti.bsky.social · 08/06/2025

recently, i explained to my students how MOOCs were this THING THAT EVERYONE TALKED ABOUT FOR A YEAR (or so) and then they disappeared. they had never heard of them (including my mid-late 20's grad students). let's hope this fades as quick.

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Eric LoPresti @ericlopresti.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

i knew i had bought a UV camera for something...

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Eric LoPresti @ericlopresti.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

yep, but of course someone will use these data without checking.

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Eric LoPresti @ericlopresti.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

i got halfway to work this morning (admittedly, the whole ride is only 10 minutes) and realized i was still wearing my bright yellow crocs... wouldn't have turned around for the helmet, but had to for real shoes

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