iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Vergoldet Fledermaus

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 12/07/2026

My coauthor Jay Falk's postdoctoral fellowship was terminated by the Trump administration for documenting the hummingbird example in this paper.

FIGURE 2
Open in figure viewer
PowerPoint
Operational biological sex definitions applied to hummingbirds (Bleiweiss 1992; Bleiweiss 1999; Bleiweiss 2001; Diamant et al. 2021; Falk et al. 2022; Falk et al. 2021) where sex is operationally defined by binary plumage phenotypes in the field. Each row depicts a wild individual hummingbird with morphological traits (beak length, plumage coloration), behavioural traits (territoriality) and their unobserved gamete type. This example illustrates how the same individual can be operationally defined as one sex in the field (based on external phenotypes) but classified as a different sex based on their gametes (which cannot be easily observed in the field), highlighting how definitional choices shape scientific reporting of sex.

9914392

Reposted by Vergoldet Fledermaus

Jon Phillips @jowiph.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

I would kill or die for Larry

A small operation in Oregon that hunts truffles with a trained dog has added an unpaid trainee. A cat named Larry accompanies the handler and the truffle dog into the woods every outing, works a patch of ground a little apart from them, and digs with tremendous confidence in places where there is nothing.
The handler says Larry has never found a truffle and shows no sign of understanding the assignment. He does not use scent the way the dog does and he does not respond when the dog makes a find.
He simply digs his own holes nearby and then inspects them. "He thinks he's on the team," the handler said. "He is emphatically not on the team."
TRUFFLE DOG FINDS THE TRUFFLES -
'TRAINEE' CAT DIGS RANDOM HOLES AND FINDS DIRT

36174923959

Reposted by Vergoldet Fledermaus

the hills have vrunt @vrunt.social · 15/05/2026

this is the last photo on my parents' video birdfeeder before it was mysteriously destroyed we may never know what happened

a big old bear, paws on the base of the camera

203102391686

Reposted by Vergoldet Fledermaus

Jill Twiss @jilltwiss.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

This Wall Street Journal headline might be the thing that breaks me

• LIVE
22 hours ago
Mentalist Guessed
Karoline Leavitt's Baby Name Seconds Before
Shooting

1221942269

Vergoldet Fledermaus @gildedbat.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

@372pages.bsky.social finished the current reading assignment days ago, not sure how to pass time until the next episode. Guess I'll try befriending the backyard critters.

A girl with long blond hair in a ponytail lies on the ground, propped on her forearms. The camera is looking straight on at her from ground level, over a cluster of marbles. She is looking at the marbles with a look of focus and preparing to shoot one. Several chipmunks have been badly Photoshopped into the field of marbles.

010

Reposted by Vergoldet Fledermaus

The Onion @theonion.com · 23/04/2026

Commentary: You Can’t Even Watch A Movie Anymore Without Seeing Some Theme Explored theonion.com/you-cant-even-watch-a-…

5267861205

Reposted by Vergoldet Fledermaus

Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Ending every business email now with "AND FUCK YOU IF YOU WILL NOT DO THIS."

1605722454

Reposted by Vergoldet Fledermaus

Raffi Melkonian @rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Again, I listened to this show. In this very program Tucker says he'd vote for Trump right now.

682767547

Vergoldet Fledermaus @gildedbat.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

@372pages.bsky.social NASA said the astronauts trained for the fly by with an Inflatable Moon Globe, so looks like you've got some frantic incognito googling to do tonight.

010

Reposted by Vergoldet Fledermaus

Garth Marenghi's Catbus @catbus.phd · 04/03/2026

how it started/how it's going

pan of cute biscuits decorated to look like faces

same pan baked, a horrific fucked up mass of evil

333312749

Vergoldet Fledermaus @gildedbat.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

@372pages.bsky.social I've just had the best idea. Someone on the Discord mentioned gutenberg.org and was duly corrected to guntenberg. That's it. We need a 372 archive called Project Guntenberg. I bet we can get TENS of people to upload their old fanfic!

061

Vergoldet Fledermaus @gildedbat.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

Thank you. I probably took it the best of everyone but it's not exactly an easy experience. On the up side, it has helped to highlight how many amazing people I have in my life, which is a big change from the last time I had any crisis.

010

Vergoldet Fledermaus @gildedbat.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

But all week I've been thinking about how I need this outlet again, and I miss my pocket friends.

010

Vergoldet Fledermaus @gildedbat.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

the sickest I've been in a decade, so I was mostly just unconscious. That took me like 2 weeks to get over. Then I had the joy of the worst PTSD trigger of my life, which I'm still not over, THEN my dad died in an accident. So I have not had energy for social media, to say the least.

210

Vergoldet Fledermaus @gildedbat.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

I miss you too 🥰 I've actually been wanting to come back, but shit keeps happening. Been a rough year. I'll explain more in a main thread, but -- when you shared the basset puppy link I thought "oh sweet, just when I wanted to come back" but I was sick in bed at the time with noro --

110

Vergoldet Fledermaus @gildedbat.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

I am fully reading this in the voices of George Costanza's parents.

080

Reposted by Vergoldet Fledermaus

Ian Boudreau @ianboudreau.com · 23/02/2025

Maybe corny but it was helpful for me to hear Henry Rollins saying "this is not time to be dismayed, this is punk rock time, this is what Joe Strummer trained you for... You can be thunderous in your own life, to the eight people around you. That rubs off... Goodness is viral"

202159523111

Vergoldet Fledermaus @gildedbat.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

Or to put it in other terms, "Fair or not, wife's insistence on wearing red lipstick angers her husband. Is her style hurting their marriage?" Trump wouldn't hit you if you didn't make him mad, world leaders.

010

Vergoldet Fledermaus @gildedbat.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

THANK YOU. I was literally just reposting this headline, thinking, "literally everything angers abusers. That's what they do. Abuse. You cannot work with that." This is not something occult. How the fuck is this getting past the entire fucking board at the NYT?

1380

Vergoldet Fledermaus @gildedbat.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

The new center-right chancellor has apparently ruled out forming a coalition with the far right party (the AfD), but I have no doubt that they'll worm their way into more influence. We'll see how that goes.

000

Vergoldet Fledermaus @gildedbat.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

He's retired from politics since getting fired and his party is basically dead again, so at least there's that. >_>

100

Vergoldet Fledermaus @gildedbat.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

The libertarian-esque asshole's party, the FDP, was 12% of seats in the previous election. Basically 1 guy representing 1/10th of the population torpedoed the fucking government. I am so goddamn sick of these "free market conservatives."

100

Vergoldet Fledermaus @gildedbat.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

So the government collapsed, and now thanks to this fucking ego maniac, Germany's far right party doubled its number of seats. They're almost 21% of parliament now.

100

Vergoldet Fledermaus @gildedbat.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

Catching up on the news of Germany's election today. I have been dreading this day. Basically, a guy who's an American libertarian spendthrift type, who represented a TINY minority party, in a coalition, refused to work with the coalition and agree to a budget.

100

Vergoldet Fledermaus @gildedbat.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

"Fair or not, Jewish Germans are angering Hitler. Is their style hurting Germany?" (I hate to go immediately to Hitler, but JFC. Literally everything but toadying angers Trump. That's what abusers do. Get angry and abusive. There is no working with it.)

110

Reposted by Vergoldet Fledermaus

sarah jeong @sarahjeong.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

dunno why we are debating elon musk's intelligence when we all fucking saw him play elden ring with two shields and flasks removed from quick pouch

584557690

Vergoldet Fledermaus @gildedbat.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

There are a lot of good reasons to not order any form of domicile from Temu, but mainly I assume this is how big it will be when it arrives

A visually similar pill-shaped white USB speaker with labeled dimensions: 8.27" L, 2.72" D, 2.5" H

100

Reposted by Vergoldet Fledermaus

🚀👩🏾‍🚀✨ @kianna.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

Our Black middle school had a NASA-approved mission control center. Lost funding yrs ago - conservative school board members. An elementary school here had a whole microvillage run by students - banking, groceries, businesses, everything. School got torn down 🙃 But this BS is allowed to thrive lol

21811

Reposted by Vergoldet Fledermaus

In Otter News @in-otter-news.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

IMPORTANT: Otters in hats.

1360075

Vergoldet Fledermaus @gildedbat.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

Anyway I'm glad that her sentence has been reversed and she can't be retried. I don't know anything about her, but it sure sounds like she's a poster child for needing rehabilitation instead of imprisonment. And by that I mean rehab for trauma that's led to all of this other shit.

000

Vergoldet Fledermaus @gildedbat.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

The prosecutor had witnesses testify that her husband acted 'totally different' when she was around. Evidently the volumes of meth and/or cocaine they were using had nothing to do with his behavioral change, it was all EVIL LADY MAGIC.

100

Vergoldet Fledermaus @gildedbat.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

Her husband was sentenced to life without parole, and she was basically tried for her own attempted murder, on the basis that she was controlling her husband with lady blood magic. In 2022.

100

Vergoldet Fledermaus @gildedbat.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

-she was mirandized IN ICU -her counsel made zero objections to the prosecution's BS

100

Vergoldet Fledermaus @gildedbat.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

-She went home, told her husband and allegedly asked him to kick that guy's ass. -Husband proceeded to murder the man -Defendant allegedly helped cover up the murder for fear of her husband killing her -They were both arrested years later, after her husband tried to stab her death.

100

Vergoldet Fledermaus @gildedbat.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

This story gets worse and worse the deeper you go into the background. -the defendant was raped as a teenager, and evidently had a child as a result. She ran into a relative of her rapist, who mocked her, said she deserved it, and said they were going to have her kid taken away.

100

Vergoldet Fledermaus @gildedbat.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

Meanwhile in 21st century USA... I want to know how the judge allowed this line of questioning and if they are going to be held responsible as well.

120

Vergoldet Fledermaus @gildedbat.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

I mean, how else would you tell the Josefs apart? Refer to them by their other qualities? He can't just be Josef the Fair if he's stronger than the strong Josef! We live in a SOCIETY, there are RULES.

010

Vergoldet Fledermaus @gildedbat.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

Technically the name is a comparative. Stronger. I really want to know about the history of this as a family name. Was there a Josef the Strong in the village once upon a time, and then another guy named Josef came along who was even stronger, so he got to be Josef the Stronger and now here we are?

100

Vergoldet Fledermaus @gildedbat.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

If the US is going to go all blood and soil while razing civilization, can we go back to old school surnames? My last name means Strong, and it was corrupted in expatriation. Why persist with these several steps of remove? Just let me put GILDED THE STRONG on my driver's license.

100

Vergoldet Fledermaus @gildedbat.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

In glorious confirmation of stereotype, Germany, a country with 1/4 the population of the US, has generated more than 50% as much XP. So they're studying literally twice as hard. #duolingo

Screenshot of the bringback.duolingo.com leaderboard XP count, as of noon-ish Feb 20.
Top 15 countries saving Duo
1. USA 2.63 billion XP
2. Germany 1.40 billion XP

010

Reposted by Vergoldet Fledermaus

Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 19/02/2025

Tyranny requires your fear and your silence and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage. So gather your justice and humanity, Illinois, and do not let despair overcome us when our country needs us the most.

211151883046

Reposted by Vergoldet Fledermaus

Grandiloquent Word of the Day @grandiloquentwords.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

Anxiolytic [ang-zee-uh-LIT-ik] (adj.) - Having an anxiety-reducing or eliminating effect. (n.) - Anything that reduces or eliminates anxiety. Used in a sentence: “The mysterious music had an immediate anxiolytic effect on her shattered nerves.”

415134