Sign in

Rachel Mitchell

@funeco.bsky.social
904 followers 1.9K following 168 posts

Plant ecologist at University of Arizona, professor, plant and pet lover, parent, baker. Expect ecology, pet, plant, and baking content.

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Rachel Mitchell
Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 26/03/2026
if 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 · 26/03/2026
Ecologists! 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 · 16/03/2026
If 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 · 25/02/2026
Welp, 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 · 06/01/2026
Oh NSF, for having the "best merit review system" you sure have problems with consistency!
010
Reposted by Rachel Mitchell
Leslie Rissler @ljrissler.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
NSF - 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” 🙃
Boxing up the NSF at Eisenhower Av for the forced relocation. Boxes have “Details Matter” signage.
12372203
Reposted by Rachel Mitchell
Alessandro Rigolon @alerigolon.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
18-29 year olds: bless your heart, you were duped so badly. From +5 to -51 (!!!)
5668
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
Just 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 · 03/09/2025
I 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 · 21/08/2025
futurism.com/commitment-j...
futurism.com
People 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 Mitchell
Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
Are 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.edu
Food 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 · 10/07/2025
Cutting until you hit something vital is the capitalist way.
vital.is
Vital – Ljómi og lífsgæði
020
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
Who is this article kidding? Error prone, probabilistic, hallucinating AI is coming for my University job!
110
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
So many ecological processes are highly tied to VPD. Here, Atmospheric aridity strongly influences fire behavior.
010
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 08/07/2025
#terriertuesday #outoffocus Midge says "smile!"
2371
Reposted by Rachel Mitchell
Lora Kolodny @lorak.bsky.social · 06/07/2025
The percentage of tasks AI "agents" are currently failing at may spell trouble for the industry... futurism.com/ai-agents-fa...
futurism.com
The Percentage of Tasks AI Agents Are Currently Failing At May Spell Trouble for the Industry
The 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 · 01/07/2025
You can't make this stuff up folks: retractionwatch.com/2025/06/30/s...
retractionwatch.com
Springer Nature book on machine learning is full of made-up citations
Would 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 · 28/06/2025
A nice apricot sourdough loaf today #breadsky
040
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
Taught Fire Ecology for the first time this past semester. Just checked my course reviews: my work here is done.
Student review stating "I WILL NEVER MIX UP SEVERITY AND INTENSITY"
060
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
For 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 · 23/06/2025
Today 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/45159
macaulaylibrary.org
ML45159 - Bronzed Cowbird (Bronzed) - Macaulay Library
Macaulay Library ML45159; © Geoffrey A. Keller; Arizona, United States
000
Reposted by Rachel Mitchell
Foz Meadows @fozmeadows.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
my 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 · 18/06/2025
Post 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
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 15/06/2025
We have #nokings in #tucson #arizona
090
Reposted by Rachel Mitchell
Julie DiCaro @juliedicaro.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
I 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 · 02/06/2025
No words
000
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 01/06/2025
Sprocket; leopard gecko lady, Aged 12-13.
A yellow spotted lizard head poking out of a hole in an artificial rock hide.
130
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
My 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
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
#terriertuesday portraits
2391
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
What could go wrong with relying on AI?
000
Reposted by Rachel Mitchell
Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 14/05/2025
www.wheresyoured.at/lost-in-the-...
And these are issues that hit everything we do, all the time, constantly, unrelentingly. Technology is our lives now. We wake up, we use our phone, we check our texts (three spam calls, two spam texts), we look at our bank balance (two-factor authentication check), we read the news (a quarter of the page is blocked by an advertisement asking for our email that's deliberately built to hide the button to get rid of it, or a login screen because we got logged out somehow), we check social media (after being shown an ad every two clicks), and then we log onto Slack (and feel a pang of anxiety as 15 different notifications appear). 

Modern existence has become engulfed in sludge, the institutions that exist to cut through it bouncing between the ignorance of their masters and a misplaced duty in objectivity, our mechanisms for exploring and enjoying the world interfered with by powerful forces that are too-often left unchecked. Opening our devices is willfully subjecting us to attack after attack from applications, websites and devices that are built to make us do things rather than operate with the dignity and freedom that much of the internet was founded upon. 

These millions of invisible acts of terror are too-often left undiscussed, because accepting the truth requires you to accept that most of the tech ecosystem is rotten, and that billions of dollars are made harassing and punishing billions of people every single day of their lives through the devices that we’re required to use to exist in the modern world. Most users suffer the consequences, and most media fails to account for them, and in turn people walk around knowing something is wrong but not knowing who to blame until somebody provides a convenient excuse.
837490
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 27/04/2025
And just like that, Midge is down to her pajamas for the summer #btposse
2140
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
Are 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 Mitchell
Ondrej Mottl 🌿💻📈🌍⏳ @ondrejmottl.bsky.social · 20/04/2025
Hey #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 Mitchell
Daniel 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 · 11/04/2025
Please, 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 Mitchell
David Malakoff @davidmalakoff.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
NEW: 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.org
NSF has awarded almost 50% fewer grants since Trump took office
The reasons aren’t clear—and the agency’s director claims the president’s policies haven’t slowed grant awards
08373
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
Little cactus crowns everywhere in my garden
070
Reposted by Rachel Mitchell
Functional 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.com
Plant functional traits & the entangled phenotype
Sandra 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 · 26/03/2025
Experiments: 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 · 19/03/2025
Look 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.com
Instagram
Create an account or log in to Instagram - Share what you're into with the people who get you.
120
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
Are we still doing that #rejectionistherule thing? Because I had a grant rejected today! But also, my hamster is cute. So who really won today?
Black and white hamster sleeping in his nest
160
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
Mentorship 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
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
Spotted in the 520
040
Reposted by Rachel Mitchell
Nicole Tersigni @nicsigni.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
you’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 · 02/03/2025
Little mammillaria nestled at the base of a saguaro in a tiny crack within a drainage.
070
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
When saguaro are drought stressed, they self prune and drop limbs. It's been a very dry year at Saguaro National Park.
1424