iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Kelsey J.R.P. Byers @plantpollinator.bsky.social · 16h

"I didn't design it to go and do those things!" "Yes, but you also didn't explicitly train your dog to kill a human, and yet it did, so..."

091

Kelsey J.R.P. Byers @plantpollinator.bsky.social · 16h

Friend pointed out that if your dog goes and harms someone, you can be held criminally liable for the actions of the dog. So why can't we hold AI companies criminally liable for the actions of their "AI" agents, e.g. providing false evidence to the police, hacking government and corporate systems?

55214

Reposted by Kelsey J.R.P. Byers

John Martin @pilning.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

New plant for me during a mostly sunny autumn week in Norfolk. Asarina procumbens (Trailing Snapdragon) on a church near Cromer, looking splendid. I have failed to find it a few times before e.g. Llandudno. Thanks @bramblebotanist.bsky.social for gen #wildflowerhour

Asarina procumbens looking very happy and flowering well having come through the summer heat and drought on a church wall

Asarina procumbens closer view of the flowers

1574

Reposted by Kelsey J.R.P. Byers

Ian Senior @ians4ad.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

We found a very patient #lizard on yesterday's Norfolk Flora group meeting. Was climbing up a pine tree. Stayed still for ages while we all got a few shots of it. @bsbibotany.bsky.social

0162

Reposted by Kelsey J.R.P. Byers

Bob Wong @bbmwong.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Monash University is offering a fully-funded PhD scholarship to an outstanding student in animal behaviour/evolutionary ecology. Choose from eight project areas. For information about what project I'm offering, please DM me or see application form: forms.gle/ia9t4KPD3FKT.... Deadline: 15 Nov.

05977

Reposted by Kelsey J.R.P. Byers

Emily Hunt @emily.space · 05/10/2026

translation: "The world should accept some bad things happening for the benefits of my personal fortune"

47313

Reposted by Kelsey J.R.P. Byers

Russ Jones @russincheshire.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

For policy reasons relating to Europe, immigrants and economics Harold Macmillan Anthony Eden Ted Heath Benjamin Disraeli William Gladstone David Cameron Alec Douglas-Home and Winston Churchill wouldn't have been allowed in your cabinet, you feckless wazzock www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

I'm a classic old school Conservative, says Kemi Badenoch

The Tory leader seeks to echo Margaret Thatcher as she sets out her guiding political principles.

2230972

Kelsey J.R.P. Byers @plantpollinator.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Welp that's good to know given that is the exact reason I use a wheelchair... (mine is POTS but episodes tend to spiral into low blood pressure and then fainting via autonomically mediated syncope so!)

000

Kelsey J.R.P. Byers @plantpollinator.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

The website says the tapestry is displayed at 80cm viewing height, which is a little taller than my wheelie-accessible dining table. But the height of the *casing* is what matters - I don't want to be directly in line with the casing edge for example. We'll see!

000

Kelsey J.R.P. Byers @plantpollinator.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

"Buggies and large bags are not permitted into the experience." Sucks to be a disabled parent who can't carry their kid, I guess... and I sure hope they train staff on wheelie buggies! I know buggies are often an access nightmare (esp. for wheelie folks like me) but they can also be an access need!

000

Kelsey J.R.P. Byers @plantpollinator.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Ahh good to know, thank you, as I will be someone with a bag myself!

100

Kelsey J.R.P. Byers @plantpollinator.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

"[it] is accompanied by a large print guide designed for visually impaired visitors. It contains the entire experience text and can be viewed on... your smartphone or other device." And I'm sure that low vision folks won't at all be harassed by staff when they stop to read on their phones.

100

Kelsey J.R.P. Byers @plantpollinator.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I hate when they say things like "large bags are not permitted into the experience" - what is large exactly? Is my overstuffed messenger bag with medical equipment "large"? I can't check it, it contains controlled substances and medical stuff I might need during the exhibition!

110

Kelsey J.R.P. Byers @plantpollinator.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

And this is why I almost cried in gratitude when friends who had just adopted a puppy asked me to come stay with them during his critical developmental window so he could learn that wheelchairs are okay things to be around and how to be polite about them.

030

Kelsey J.R.P. Byers @plantpollinator.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

If you want more "how is that a bird", go image searching for Bearded Tits (aka Bearded Reedlings)... arguably the World's Roundest Birds.

110

Kelsey J.R.P. Byers @plantpollinator.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Ugh, I'm very sorry to hear that! Can I ask what kind of security was there, if you're willing/able to share? I've been to the BM but not in a while and security with a wheelchair and medical baggage is always crap, so...

110

Kelsey J.R.P. Byers @plantpollinator.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

This is really good to know - thanks for the thread! Going in October as a wheelie with AuDHD and hadn't even considered that this might be a nightmare.

110

Kelsey J.R.P. Byers @plantpollinator.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

That statement was TRULY dreadful, it's a great example of how to blame the disabled person and try to pretend you're doing anything about it and that it was already fine why are you complaining?

110

Reposted by Kelsey J.R.P. Byers

Pride in STEM @prideinstem.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Pride in STEM's Small Grants scheme is open! The theme this year is “Empowering Queer People With STEM”. The deadline is October 31, and it is for projects exclusively in the United Kingdom! prideinstem.org/2026/10/01/s...

11814

Reposted by Kelsey J.R.P. Byers

Dave Mazella @davemazella.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

If you wanted to spot the precise blind spot of higher ed journalism, it would be this: what is happening is not the usual ups & downs HE has always had, but an intentional DOGE-like destruction of a crucial infrastructure of lives & careers that serve literally millions of lives. @chronicle.com

12612

Reposted by Kelsey J.R.P. Byers

Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) @bsbibotany.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Our annual membership special offer opens today! Join us this month to start enjoying 15 months of membership benefits for the price of 12. Benefits to you: social/training/access/opportunities & more Benefits to our wild plants: in a changing world, your support is vital! bsbi.org/blog/2026/10...

A group of inclusive botanists stands near the edge of a lake in Aberdeenshire, pointing at some of the aquatic plants and sharing ID tips. Image: Ian Francis

A wet meadow in the Yorkshire Dales, full of Ragged Robin and other wild flowers. Image: Ken Readshaw

Julia Hanmer, BSBI Chief Executive. look up and smiles, surrounded by colleagues on an orchid-hunting trip in the Peak District. Image: Sarah Woods

03615

Kelsey J.R.P. Byers @plantpollinator.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Oddly our best way to get the cat to the vet (1 mile/1.6 km away, no car) is to put her in a hard-sided carrier with a wire front and load that onto the supporting legs of my mobility scooter, which I then ride. Her nose is in the boundary layer of smells (so many smells!) & she gets a smoother ride

020

Kelsey J.R.P. Byers @plantpollinator.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Yeah :-/ Sad to say hers was built on a whole giant passel of lived experience, to put it mildly and politely and less trigger-y.

040

Reposted by Kelsey J.R.P. Byers

Peter Flax @pflax1.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

For the most part, driving is super inefficient but at least it's really expensive and also quite dangerous.

2243057

Reposted by Kelsey J.R.P. Byers

Society for the Study of Evolution @sse-evolution.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

💬 In the latest Evolution Exchange, SSE President Dr. Gina Baucom talks with Dr. Stacy Krueger-Hadfield and Dr. Daniel Ortiz-Barrientos about doing a PhD or postdoc abroad. www.evolutionsociety.org/news/display... @dortizba.bsky.social @gbaucom.bsky.social

Headshots of Dr. Krueger-Hadfield and Dr. Ortiz-Barrientos. Text: What Nobody Tells You About Doing Your PhD Abroad with Dr. Stacy A. Krueger-Hadfield and Dr. Daniel Ortiz-Barrientos. The Evolution Exchange, a monthly conversation series from the Society for the Study of Evolution.

02018

Reposted by Kelsey J.R.P. Byers

Arachtober @arachtober.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

For #Arachtober 1st, an image I have been saving for 11 months. This encounter was exciting because Pirate Spiders do not weave orb webs. They commandeer other spiders' webs. She likely ate the resident. This was the first I have seen in a web. Pirate Spider (Mimetidae) #macrophotography #spider

Small white and tan spider in an orb web.

37026

Kelsey J.R.P. Byers @plantpollinator.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Having seen the bird in question - this is hilarious

1115

Kelsey J.R.P. Byers @plantpollinator.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

... I hadn't even registered that - thank you for shining that light into that very ugly corner. Needed to hear that.

020

Kelsey J.R.P. Byers @plantpollinator.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Turns out mom was right when she told me I wasn't allowed to date the boy 2 years older than me when I was in secondary school. He was awkward but seemed ok. Ten years later he went into a ragefest when I visited the *state* he lived in without telling him (was on a trip with another friend). ...

150

Kelsey J.R.P. Byers @plantpollinator.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

When the authority figure(s) don't protect one, and even worse either join in or encourage it by laughing off (which is, honestly, a form of joining in)... the culture is too poisonous to survive. If only it would then die off and not go on to get its next victim.

010

Kelsey J.R.P. Byers @plantpollinator.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

It wasn't SA. But it sure as hell was close to assault - I was screaming and crying and saying "no" as loudly as I could - and it was creepy as fuck.

120

Kelsey J.R.P. Byers @plantpollinator.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

And the sad part is that while I register that as bullying... nobody got punished. Nobody got told that it's not okay to touch someone without their consent. Instead, those other campers got told, verbally even, by the authority figures that touching without consent was okay, encouraged even.

140

Kelsey J.R.P. Byers @plantpollinator.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Yup! I still remember the horrible, odd as it sounds, non-consensual tickling at summer camp. The counselors egged the other campers on, weird little me clearly deserved to be violated in that way. Thankfully it stopped when I instinctively kicked one of the kids in the face. But what the fuck.

240

Kelsey J.R.P. Byers @plantpollinator.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Needed this after all the terrible news this week.

051

Reposted by Kelsey J.R.P. Byers

Memento (spooky) Morty 🌙 @mementomorty.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

"But I am very poorly today and very stupid and hate everybody and everything." (Charles Darwin writing to friend Charles Lyell on October 1 1861)

a letter that is almost unreadable due to the penmanship, but it says "But I am very poorly today and very stupid and hate everybody and everything."

1519229

Kelsey J.R.P. Byers @plantpollinator.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

And I automatically tried to write "I'm sorry that happened to you" and no, it didn't "happen to you." It wasn't a random event that the universe dropped in your lap. A person made a **conscious** choice to be a shit and do that to you. And people wonder why we don't automatically trust any more

130

Kelsey J.R.P. Byers @plantpollinator.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Oh gosh - both the horrid act (repeated, I'm sure) and the consequences to your feelings about your body. I am so sorry you experienced that. I am glad that you are still here, but I am so very, very sorry to hear that they did that to you. So not okay. At all. Anywhere, anywhen, to anyone.

130

Reposted by Kelsey J.R.P. Byers

Cynthia Sax @cynthiasax.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

So much THIS. Right now, I'm thinking, for example, of all the women on the Cornell Campus trying to study, to learn, to bond with others while knowing they are surrounded by so many potential rapists and that the leaders are accommodating and supporting these rapists.

2241

Kelsey J.R.P. Byers @plantpollinator.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

It's sad that one of my favorite things about being older is that I no longer (almost ever) get harassed on the street on account of my assumed gender. Now it's on account of the wheelchair, but at least it's (a) less frequent and (b) generally feels less immediately physically dangerous.

040

Kelsey J.R.P. Byers @plantpollinator.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

and that's not even touching the blatant sexism I and so many others have experienced as AFAB folks in professional spheres, or the events that happened at conferences, or... yeah. It's just all too much. Once is too much. A hint of once is too much.

130

Kelsey J.R.P. Byers @plantpollinator.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Yeahhhhhhh. Now remembering not just the actual physical SA, but the catcalling, street harassment, being followed by the (male) police in a foreign country where that was the norm, wolf whistles, being hit on at 15 by a random stranger on the street and feeling unable to walk away...

240

Kelsey J.R.P. Byers @plantpollinator.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Thank you for raising this really important point. Each of us relives it, and often also feels pressured to divulge the details - or even that it happened at all - in order to try and make the point to folks who Just Don't Get It and refuse to change. (yes, by saying "us", I am indeed divulging)

170