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Dr. Vaskar Nepal

@nepalvaskar.bsky.social
114 followers 197 following 27 posts

Assistant Professor of Biology at Western Illinois University; Research and teaching on aquatic animals; fish-lover; #Rstats; Dad x2

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Reposted by Dr. Vaskar Nepal
🎃Darin S Pumpkins🎃 @darinself.com · 30/06/2026
This sport is the best
static.klipy.com
football is life
ALT: football is life
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Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 24/06/2026
Sports Commentary xkcd.com/3262/
Comic. [A person and a second person with a ponytail sitting at a table with a screen showing a soccer game behind them.] PERSON 1: They could be in trouble. Over the last 36 years, they’ve gone 0 for 2 when they’ve scored in the 37th minute to lead 2-1 against a team whose country comes before theirs alphabetically. [caption] I wish sports commentators hadn’t discovered p-hacking.
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Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) @cms.int · 24/06/2026
Many animals rely on darkness to rest, feed, move safely and find their way. But artificial light can disturb these natural rhythms, including for migratory species like sea turtles, bats & birds. Watch this video to learn how small changes at home and in our communities can help protect wildlife.
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Dr. Vaskar Nepal @nepalvaskar.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
This is so good. Can I provide this as printed handouts to my students?
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Nick Sousanis @nsousanis.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Finally finished @philipcball.bsky.social's wonderful "How Life Works"! When I hit the part on the 2nd Law felt compelled to share my comic on Entropy from a few years back, bits of which I'm expanding on in the new work (& one reason I read this brilliant book!) spinweaveandcut.com/sketching-en...
a single page comic about entropy - how everything tends towards disorder, and those brief moments when things go against that downward flow - specifically life. Opens with linear rod of small rectangular panels on how things get more disordered. 

The rest of the page has a much less regimented structure. In the background is a river in black that flows from upper left to lower right end of page. Over it is a spiraling panel structure that has the primary narrative. This begins with a trio of narrow rectangular small vertical panels arranged in descending order. Within them a sequence where a ball falls down stairs. A white arrow stems from the panels and points into the Y of the word yet In large black letters. This moves reading flow across the page to the right side where there are three mirroring vertical panels to the left side except these are arranged in ascending order left to right. Inside them are images of swirls - perhaps a cyclone viewed from space. And then, on the right edge, the panels align with the arm of a spiral of panels. And now we see a sequence depicting swirl of gases to birth of a star, a diagram of new elements forged in its core to star and  planet (earth) orbiting. Then swirls of clouds on earth, lightning, rain, water, volcanoes and spiraling to the center: circular panel with caption “swirls keep forming”. Now spiral path reverses from the center to show organic molecules, then dna. Outside the panel path a maple “helicopter” spirals into the panels, to sprout and grow into a tree

This second spiral arm comes out of the center and returns to standard reading order. A river has flowed behind the whole page and in the last panel, a person is seen putting a finger in creating swirls in the water - as life and stars are swirls drawing from entropy's downward stream...
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Demetri @phdemetri.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Don't fall in love with your paper drafts
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Dr. Vaskar Nepal @nepalvaskar.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Harry Kane is the most complete and versatile player I have ever seen.
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Dr. Vaskar Nepal @nepalvaskar.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
If this trend keeps, I and my coauthors won’t be able to publish in the MDPI journals. And that’s okay with me. 😁
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Dr. Vaskar Nepal @nepalvaskar.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Intriguing question
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Daniel Bolnick @danielbolnick.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Measles cases have accelerated alarmingly over the past couple of years. From the Washington Post editorial. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
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Andrea Howard @drandreahoward.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
A presentation is not a comprehensive overview of the whole accompanying paper. It’s the key methodological points, results highlights, and essential take-away messages. Lots of people have started including QR codes to their preprints at the end. This is a great idea! (9/11)
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Natee (they/them) @himmapaan.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
I hate painting epoccipitals almost as much as I hate painting teeth. In fact, no, more than teeth. I can at least choose to hide the latter. 😅
Detail of the same watercolour study of the head of Coahuilaceratops as in the quoted post, with the epoccipitals -- the spikes bordering the shield-like head frills of ceratopsians -- painted in.
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Per Engzell @pengzell.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
your feedback was kind gentle and correct and still i resent you
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Dr. Vaskar Nepal @nepalvaskar.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
At the Chesapeake Community Research Symposium, where I will be presenting some work looking at common gotchas when using bioenergetics models to calculate habitat suitability indices for fishes.
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Noppy @thomasnoppers.com · 23/05/2026
Today is my birthday. If you wanna give me something: Spread my art. Thank you.
Shopkeeper Boro looks out of his tea shop’s round window with a cup of tea. A spring morning sumbeam illuminates his head. Two pluffin birds approach him joyfully.A drawing of pokenon bulbasaur standing on a little rock and just absolutely BASKING in the sun. Taking it allll in. Surrounded by green lush leafs and tropical venusaur flowers. Tropical leafs cast a shadow.
 A colourful sunny line art drawing. You see the top side of a beach. on one side, on a cliff there is a dog sleeping peacefully on the grassy surface. Eyes blisfully squint, surrounded by flowers and birds. In the distannce. On a rock in the sea, sits a merman, looking lovingly at the dog. Sun shines in their faces. Today is good.A colourful chill isometric drawing. hand drawn and coloured. Optimus is chilling, sitting behind a barn in a farmland. looking at the birds that just landed on his arm. It’s a nice summer sunset.
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Prof. Martin Solan @profbenthos.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
*JOB* We are seeking a marine ecologist to investigate how physical disturbance - bottom trawling - influence carbon, nutrient and greenhouse gases. The advert is now live until 08/06/2026. PLEASE CIRCULATE WIDELY. jobs.soton.ac.uk/3416326HN
jobs.soton.ac.uk
Job Opportunity at the University of Southampton: Research Fellow in Marine Ecology
We are seeking a highly motivated Marine Ecologist to join our collaborative research group at the University of Southampton. This position is funded by the NERC C-FLOOR highlight topic and offers a u...
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Richard McElreath 🐈‍⬛ @rmcelreath.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Hey Gandalf, what animal is closely related to maize?
section of terrible phylogeny showing "fly" embedded within plants, closely related to maize and riceGandalf falling off bridge, still from Fellowship of the Ring, where he says "Fly you fools!"
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The Upshot @upshot.nytimes.com · 13/05/2026
Gift link: The drops in U.S. scores go beyond the pandemic and cut across income, geographic and racial divides, new data shows. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/13/u...
nytimes.com
Your School District Is Probably Scoring Worse Than 10 Years Ago
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Dr. Dominic Royé @drxeo.eu · 04/05/2026
On my way to #EGU26, perfect time to drop a new post! 🗺️ Something I've been wanting to write about: Mercator projections still showing up in high-profile journals. So here it is: projections you should stop using (for most things) 👇 #gis #rstats #dataviz dominicroye.github.io/blog/map-pro...
dominicroye.github.io
Map projections: a practical guide to common mistakes and how to fix them
Researcher in climate science at MBG-CSIC
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Emil Hvitfeldt @emilhvitfeldt.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
peanuts strip "the Mountain", shows Snoopy followed by 4 little birds. Snoopy says: "Someday, troops, someone will ask you why we climbed this mountain, and you can answer simply, "because it was there!"
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Information is Beautiful @infobeautiful.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
World's most contagious falsehoods See all 70 bit.ly/IIB-Mythconc... data & sources bit.ly/KIB_Mythconception
ALT: An infographic titled "Common MythConceptions: World's most contagious falsehoods" debunks popular myths. Examples include: Napoleon wasn't short; sharks can get cancer; bulls don't hate red; bananas grow on plants, not trees; bats aren't blind; goldfish have more than a 3-second memory; and MSG doesn't cause headaches. Each myth is represented by an icon and a brief explanation. Bubbles vary in size based on the myth's popularity. Created by David McCandless from the "Information is Beautiful" project.
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Retraction Watch @retractionwatch.com · 21/04/2026
An author in China with nearly 500 preprints has continued to add his daughter’s name to papers – despite her insistence she was not involved.
retractionwatch.com
‘I asked him to stop’: Father adds daughter’s name to over 100 preprints without her permission
Anja/Pixabay An author in China with nearly 500 preprints has continued to add his daughter’s name to papers – despite her insistence she was not involved.  Shifa Liu, whose papers list affili…
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Space @redditspaceviewes.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
NASA just dropped the closest image ever taken of Jupiter...
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Katie O'Reilly @drkatfish.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Following completion of the largest dam removal in US history in 2024, the Upper Klamath River saw its first naturally hatched Chinook salmon this year - a promising sign of recovery for both the fish and the tribes that historically relied on them www.ijpr.org/wildlife/202...
ijpr.org
Chinook salmon are hatching in Upper Klamath for first time in a century
The Klamath Tribes are celebrating evidence of Chinook salmon spawning in Klamath River tributary.
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Anthony Ricciardi @ecoinvasions.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
phys.org/news/2026-04...
phys.org
Mosquitoes reach Iceland for the first time as the Arctic heats up
In what is possibly another sign of climate change, mosquitoes have landed in Iceland for the first time. For many years, the island was the only Arctic country that could claim to be mosquito-free. B...
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Chelsea Parlett @chelseaparlett.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
This is another great example of a rule that resonates with me: When someone asks you to send more time consuming/interacting with material than was spent creating it, it is 🫩SOUL CRUSHING🫩
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Dr. Vaskar Nepal @nepalvaskar.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Students in my ichthyology class made these posters on sensory systems in fishes. Rather happy with most of these.
A handmade poster on electrosensation in fishes. Beautiful sketches of channel catfish, hammerhead shark, paddlefish and electric eelA handmade poster on vision in fishesA handmade poster on chemoreception in fishes. Three sections are titled Chemoreception, Olfaction, and GustationA student presenting a poster on chemoreception and several others listening enraptured.
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Dr. Vaskar Nepal @nepalvaskar.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
Great news. Just yesterday, I tried fitting some of the models on the vignette pages, but the package didn’t have those models. I was perplexed, but this makes sense.
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Scientific American @sciam.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
The intermediate value theorem shows us how to find an even center on an irregular shape
scientificamerican.com
The mathematically correct way to slice a pizza
The intermediate value theorem shows us how to find an even center on an irregular shape
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Reuters @reuters.com · 07/04/2026
Thousands of small fish defy gravity to climb Congo waterfall reut.rs/4tx89gs
reut.rs
Thousands of small fish defy gravity to climb Congo waterfall
A species of small fish has been observed by the thousands climbing a vertical waterfall 15 metres (50 feet) tall in the Democratic Republic of Congo in a behaviour ​that illustrates the surprising and ingenious ways animals can adapt to extreme environments.
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Dr. Vaskar Nepal @nepalvaskar.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
This is how I learned that lme4 now has ar1(). How did I miss this awesome update?
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David Powell @davidpowell.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
Claude is amazing. Just two years ago, my youngest was crying all the time and acting like a baby. But then Claude came out and now she’s crying less and acting more like a toddler.
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Saloni @scientificdiscovery.dev · 29/03/2026
You ask: "Where's my flying car?" I ask: "Where's my omnibus p53 cancer drug?"
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Danielle Navarro @djnavarro.net · 21/03/2026
Decided that the time has come to wrap up the series of #rstats art pieces I've been posting recently. As usual, the pieces themselves are released under CC-BY licence, and the source code is linked to from the gallery page
art.djnavarro.net
Nautilus – Art by Danielle Navarro
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Physicians for a Healthy Democracy @physiciandemocracy.medsky.social · 21/03/2026
@simonmaechling.bsky.social #medsky
Kids in High School: “I don’t understand why I have to take basic science classes.  When I am ever going to use this stuff in my life?!”  As adults: “Vaccines cause autism, GMOs are unsafe, climate change is a lie, and the earth is flat.  I’ve done my research.  If you disagree with me, you’re sheep!”
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Nick Sousanis @nsousanis.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
Students wrestle w/Why Superheroes Matter (to them)? Some fantastic responses – comics, videos, songs. Some of the strongest ones, saying a lot in rather short comics (if hard to share format-wise here). I struggled to define this project, but these really sang! spinweaveandcut.com/superhero-cl...
a four page comic in which a student traces his interest in dragon ball and other manga properties back to a common origin in superman...a three page comic in which the student looks at the different aspects of superheroes that can apply to their life, and then how it helps them see the superhero inside a four page comic about working for the public good with community service and organizing and politics and how there are limitations, but how superheroes don't have those limitationsa comic about how superheroes can inspire when we feel powerless
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Braasch Lab @ Michigan State University @fishevodevogeno.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
Happy St. Patrick’s Day 🍀 from the emerald bowfin! It’s not easy being green! How does it do it? We don’t know for sure, but suspect it is biliverdin. More research in the works… 🧪 #EndlessFishMostBeautiful
An emerald bowfin
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RJ Andrews @infowetrust.com · 12/03/2026
Every field needs someone who keeps it from forgetting itself. @datavisfriendly.bsky.social has spent decades doing just that: giving data graphics a memory. My latest for CHARTOGRAPHY: www.chartography.net/p/data-graph...
chartography.net
Data Graphics Need a Memory
How Michael Friendly gave charts a history.
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Ramin Nasibov @nasibov.me · 12/03/2026
Another day, another stupid Excel chart.
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David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈 @whysharksmatter.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
The #1 threat to sharks and rays, by far, is unsustainable fishing practices (not just shark finning). But the #2 threat is habitat loss. Learn more about it: saveourseas.com/worldofshark...
saveourseas.com
How does habitat loss affect sharks and rays? - Save Our Seas Foundation
When an area of ocean or coastline is changed or degraded beyond the point that it can serve as a home for the species that live there, or is even destroyed entirely, that’s habitat loss.
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Saloni @scientificdiscovery.dev · 11/03/2026
This still sounds kind of crazy to me, but I'll be speaking at the TED Conference this year. They have written a very nice bio of me.
Saloni Dattani believes anyone can love science — if they can understand it. A communicator and researcher focused on medical innovation, she works to build trust in science and celebrate those tackling the biggest problems in global health. She is a cofounder, editor and writer at Works in Progress magazine, which publishes long reads on ideas to improve the world, and she advises the philanthropy Coefficient Giving on clinical trial reform. She cohosts (with Jacob Trefethen) the Hard Drugs podcast, discussing how AI and other breakthroughs are improving healthcare.I'm speaking at TED2026
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Methods in Ecology and Evolution @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Published📖 Validating a low-cost alternative to body surface area estimation: Implications for energy budgets and scaling relationships of ectotherms 🦎 🐍 🔎 Read more:
buff.ly
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NPR @npr.org · 09/03/2026
For decades, parents were told to help children build willpower like a muscle, to resist things like junk food and too much time on their screens. But new research suggests a better strategy. n.pr/40g9n3g
n.pr
Kids' willpower is no match for fast food and screens. Try this instead
For decades, parents were told to help children build willpower like a muscle, to resist things like junk food and too much time on their screens. But new research suggests a better strategy.
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Our World in Data @ourworldindata.org · 09/03/2026
One and a half million people are killed by animals every year. Almost one million by other animals, and more than half a million from direct conflict among ourselves. Almost all of these deaths from other animals are caused by just two types: mosquitoes and snakes.
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Matt Cowgill @mattcowgill.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
I started making this R package 6 years ago. I finally have it in a state I'm happy with, thanks to Claude Code #Rstats github.com/MattCowgill/...
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ICES - International Council for the Exploration of the Sea @icesmarine.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
"Wait, R can do that?" Yes! Vector data, raster analysis, interactive maps, spatial queries. All reproducible, all documented. 📢Sign up for our training course now Intro to mapping & spatial analysis with R 📅25–29 May📍Copenhagen ⏰Deadline 30 March www.ices.dk/events/Train...
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Appendix N Entertainment @appendixn.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
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Dr. Vaskar Nepal @nepalvaskar.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
This year, in my home country, a politician was found to have big trash bags full of money in his house. He later claimed the video was AI generated.
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Daniel Bellingradt @dbellingradt.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
In 1550, one Elephant Power (EP) was the equivalent of 10 Horse Power (HP).
A man working a plow in a field - carried by a small elephant. This detail is from Sebastian Münster's Cosmographiae uniuersalis, vol. 6, 1550.
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Prof Andy Field @profandyfield.com · 05/03/2026
Publication date looms ever closer ... physical copies exist (at the @sagepub.com London office, I await my own copy with excitement).
A wooden table with two books stacked on top of each other. The bottom book is the hardback edition of Discovering Statistiocs using R and RStudio by Andy Field, on top of it is the paperback edition. the hardback has a blue cover with plain text, the paperback has a he§xagonal pattern and a graphic-novel style female space pirate weirlding a futuristic gun out of which smoke forms the capital letter R.
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