Reposted by Rachel MitchellDr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 26/03/2026if Wikipedia, an org with a shoestring budget and volunteer workforce can ban use of llms, what excuse do large orgs and universities have 7820271
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 26/03/2026Ecologists! I have received four sets of paper reviews back in the last month, and two had obviously AI generated reviews: @plos.org and @journalofecology.bsky.social. We also have reviews from @journalofecology.bsky.social that I strongly suspect were AI. Our peers are intellectually lazy. 291
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 16/03/2026If you are going to use AI to "help" you review, engage your brain and evaluate what the AI is flagging! It can't reason, and it is going to flag the things a 1st year grad might. Also, "internally inconsistent", immediate 🚩for AI use. Looking at you @journalofecology.bsky.social Reviewer 1. 101
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 25/02/2026Welp, just got an obviously AI-generated review back from @plos.org. Love that there was no disclosure and a students manuscript has been fed to the machine. 120
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 06/01/2026Oh NSF, for having the "best merit review system" you sure have problems with consistency! 010
Reposted by Rachel MitchellLeslie Rissler @ljrissler.bsky.social · 11/12/2025NSF - Forced reorg - POs down ~ 40% (DRP, most rotators not renewed, retirements) - Forced move (and we have to pack and clean) to a building with no furniture, little to no conference space for panels, inadequate 🛜, …) I personally love the boxes they gave us for packing. “Details matter” 🙃 12372203
Reposted by Rachel MitchellAlessandro Rigolon @alerigolon.bsky.social · 30/10/202518-29 year olds: bless your heart, you were duped so badly. From +5 to -51 (!!!) 5668
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 30/09/2025Just in case you ever forget that #rejectionistherule this was the ranking on a grant declined yesterday by the NSF. 000
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 03/09/2025I was literally just thinking about this. You know how they could, but don't screen for testicular cancer? Wonder why? Your modern doctor doesn't mean to cause pain, but our technology is a legacy of ignoring women's pain and discomfort. AND mammograms are inaccurate and lead to painful biopsies 020
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 21/08/2025futurism.com/commitment-j...futurism.comPeople Are Being Involuntarily Committed, Jailed After Spiraling Into "ChatGPT Psychosis"People experiencing "ChatGPT psychosis" are being involuntarily committed to mental hospitals and jailed following AI mental health crises. 100
Reposted by Rachel MitchellMichael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 22/07/2025Are you a natural resource or agricultural economics PhD or postdoc interested in real world policy work? Come work with CEPP's growing food team on quantifying subsidies in the dairy and beef industry! If not, pass the word! careersearch.stanford.edu/jobs/food-sy...careersearch.stanford.eduFood Systems Resource Economics Fellow, Stanford Law School in School of Law, Stanford, California, United States*NOTE: This position has been deemed critical/has specific funding, has been approved by the Law School for posting, and is exempt from the hiring... 2125
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 10/07/2025Cutting until you hit something vital is the capitalist way.vital.isVital – Ljómi og lífsgæði 020
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 10/07/2025Who is this article kidding? Error prone, probabilistic, hallucinating AI is coming for my University job! 110
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 10/07/2025So many ecological processes are highly tied to VPD. Here, Atmospheric aridity strongly influences fire behavior. 010
Reposted by Rachel MitchellLora Kolodny @lorak.bsky.social · 06/07/2025The percentage of tasks AI "agents" are currently failing at may spell trouble for the industry... futurism.com/ai-agents-fa...futurism.comThe Percentage of Tasks AI Agents Are Currently Failing At May Spell Trouble for the IndustryThe best AI Agents are currently failing about 70 percent of the tasks assigned to them, as investments are expected to drop off a cliff. 1221260
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 01/07/2025You can't make this stuff up folks: retractionwatch.com/2025/06/30/s...retractionwatch.comSpringer Nature book on machine learning is full of made-up citationsWould you pay $169 for an introductory ebook on machine learning with citations that appear to be made up? If not, you might want to pass on purchasing Mastering Machine Learning: From Basics to Ad… 262
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 24/06/2025Taught Fire Ecology for the first time this past semester. Just checked my course reviews: my work here is done. 060
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 24/06/2025For me, the biggest concern with these plants in the Sonoran basin and range is their transformative nature; increased fuel loads and continuity in a fire sensitive system during the pyrocene will transform the Sonoran. 010
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 23/06/2025Today a bronzed cowbird sang to me at very close quarters. One of the most bizarre bird songs I have ever heard from the gorgeous little parasite. macaulaylibrary.org/asset/45159macaulaylibrary.orgML45159 - Bronzed Cowbird (Bronzed) - Macaulay LibraryMacaulay Library ML45159; © Geoffrey A. Keller; Arizona, United States 000
Reposted by Rachel MitchellFoz Meadows @fozmeadows.bsky.social · 18/06/2025my hottest educational take is that schools should actively, non-punitively teach students how to admit when they don't know something, aren't sure or have made a mistake, with various teaching frameworks adapted to support this ideal, because people who can't admit fault are breaking the world 8152821465
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 18/06/2025Post an insect that looks like it's generated by AI, but isn't! I found one of these in my yard for the first time ever after being an Arizona resident for 30 years. Giant mesquite bug (5th instar; Thasus neocalifornicus) Glamor shot vs the one in my yard. #inverts 1142
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 17/06/2025#terriertuesday #terriertuned Midge's theme song is Donna Summer's "Bad Girl", deployed liberally when she is chewing something she stole underneath a bed 2602
Reposted by Rachel MitchellJulie DiCaro @juliedicaro.bsky.social · 13/06/2025I still cannot get over a woman who shows up to a jungle prison in full glam make up complaining about “political theater.” 315524
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 30/05/2025My partner is at a NASA event and someone just presented linear regression as AI and machine learning. Which 1) tells you where we are in the hype-cycle and 2) illustrates how woefully ignorant of statistics many parts of astronomy are 072
Reposted by Rachel MitchellEd Zitron @edzitron.com · 14/05/2025www.wheresyoured.at/lost-in-the-... 837490
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 27/04/2025And just like that, Midge is down to her pajamas for the summer #btposse 2140
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 23/04/2025Are you a #scientist worried about #AI taking your job? Don't hold your breath...I asked Gemini to make a conceptual diagram of adaptive plasticity, and got this breathtaking nonsense... 120
Reposted by Rachel MitchellOndrej Mottl 🌿💻📈🌍⏳ @ondrejmottl.bsky.social · 20/04/2025Hey #Rstats friends👋, I am looking for some real life examples of using #targets 📦 for a large-scale #ecology project. There are a couple of ways of doing things, so I am genuinely interested how people have been using this amazing tool⚒️ Please boost♻️ 41313
Reposted by Rachel MitchellDaniel Swain @weatherwest.bsky.social · 17/04/2025"Effective today, sources tell Science, NSF’s division of grants & awards is returning all grant proposals previously approved for funding and awaiting final signoff to program officers who oversaw the initial review. In the meantime, according to those sources, NSF will not make any new awards." 36236
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 11/04/2025Please, if you are ever a PO or handing out any kind of award, NEVER EVER reach out to a PI and tell them their proposal is fundable, but you don't have funds, but you might in the future. Never, do this. NEVER. Just wait for the funds to come in and make your decision. They don't need to know. 000
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 08/04/2025#terriertuesday #thenandnow. Two terriers could not be more different. Dexter the schnauzer is "Mr.Perfect", always minding, while Midge the border arrived full of chaos, and while she has mellowed, she will never be rid of the bees in her brain. 3582
Reposted by Rachel MitchellDavid Malakoff @davidmalakoff.bsky.social · 31/03/2025NEW: The number of new grants handed out by the National Science Foundation since President Donald Trump took office has fallen by nearly 50% compared with the same 2-month period 1 year ago. | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...science.orgNSF has awarded almost 50% fewer grants since Trump took officeThe reasons aren’t clear—and the agency’s director claims the president’s policies haven’t slowed grant awards 08373
Reposted by Rachel MitchellFunctional Ecology @funecology.bsky.social · 26/03/2025⭐️2025 Calow-Grace Review⭐️ Plant functional traits & the entangled phenotype - Sandra Díaz reviews concepts that have long been at the core of #ecology & #evolutionary #biology but are at risk of being increasingly ignored 🌎🧪fesummaries.wordpress.comPlant functional traits & the entangled phenotypeSandra Díaz This is a plain language summary of a Functional Ecology Calow-Grace Review article which can be found here. Focusing on plants, I review concepts that have long been at the core of eco… 04816
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 26/03/2025Experiments: they don't always work!! But you can pivot! We had very low germination of our seeds, but we are now assessing moisture retention directly in our seedballs 050
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 19/03/2025Look at these brilliant undergrads (including one from my lab) teaching the world how to remove the scourge of stinknet!! www.instagram.com/reel/DHZTchp...instagram.comInstagramCreate an account or log in to Instagram - Share what you're into with the people who get you. 120
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 18/03/2025Are we still doing that #rejectionistherule thing? Because I had a grant rejected today! But also, my hamster is cute. So who really won today? 160
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 07/03/2025Mentorship was key to me becoming a scientist, and I try really hard to pay it forward and encourage my students to do it as well!!! 021
Reposted by Rachel MitchellNicole Tersigni @nicsigni.bsky.social · 05/03/2025you’re fired. wait you’re rehired. email us a list of things you’ve done today wait forget it you’re fired again. come back your job was important. you’re fired. or hired. come in to the office. wait the office has no computers go home. we are the department of government efficiency. 15249609326503
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 02/03/2025Little mammillaria nestled at the base of a saguaro in a tiny crack within a drainage. 070
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 01/03/2025When saguaro are drought stressed, they self prune and drop limbs. It's been a very dry year at Saguaro National Park. 1424