Sign in

Rod Page

@rdmpage.bsky.social
1.3K followers 1.3K following 785 posts

Expat Kiwi, emeritus Professor of Taxonomy at Glasgow University, inclined to say that something sucks at every available opportunity. Biodiversity informatics, phylogeny, knowledge graphs.

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Rod Page
Eoghan Daltun 🌍 @irishrainforest.bsky.social · 11h
This is really great! www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
theguardian.com
Comedy wildlife photography award finalists 2026 – in pictures
A selection of the Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards 2026 finalists – from a shortlist featuring a caiman wearing a wig, a leopard doing a handstand, a strutting white-tailed eagle and a polar bear appeari...
212448
Reposted by Rod Page
Biodiversity Pics @biodiversitypix.bsky.social · 11h
🌍 Annals of the Transvaal Museum Pretoria: Transvaal Museum, [1911]-2009. [Source]
Africa illustration from historical archives
061
Reposted by Rod Page
Jessica Budke 🌱🥼🔬 @mossplants.bsky.social · 17h
Just listened to this great piece on @scifri.bsky.social about the importance of collections. www.sciencefriday.com/segments/are... Consider making a donation at any level to support your local natural history collection. Support @utkherbarium.bsky.social here herbarium.utk.edu/give/
sciencefriday.com
Are natural history museums in trouble?
The country’s oldest natural history museum, in Philadelphia, has closed its doors to visitors. Will other museums follow?
02316
Reposted by Rod Page
Earth BioGenome Project 🌍 @ebpgenome.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
🐐 How do we decide what to sequence next? Genome on a Tree (GoaT) brings together taxonomy, phylogeny, sequencing progress, and sample availability to help identify the species that will have the greatest scientific impact. Has your favorite species been sequenced? 🔍 goat.genomehubs.org #OpenScience
02410
Reposted by Rod Page
Ian Mulvany @ianmulvany.bsky.social · 10h
a quick note about misplaced hopes blog.mulvany.net/posts/ai-health-hy…
blog.mulvany.net
AI health hypocrisy
The following post argues that the fear of AI extinction could hold back the delivery of significant future health care benefit to the US. They call this an " invisible graveyard to refer to these lost lives, “
021
Reposted by Rod Page
Aaron Tay @aarontay.bsky.social · 19h
Complacency that leads one to go around calling themselves "superstars" or "rock stars" or cringe lines like "librarians have a super power" or "you can believe me, I am a librarian"
051
Reposted by Rod Page
Aaron Tay @aarontay.bsky.social · 19h
What i can say is complacency is what will kill us. Complacency that we and we alone have or worse already have the answers to a novel, emerging, hard multi faceted problem. Complacency that goes because this was the way we did things for decades means this is how it should be.
131
Rod Page @rdmpage.bsky.social · 21h
This #bhlsunday @biodivlibrary.bsky.social I’ve added articles from @mnhn.fr Journal de conchyliologie 1939-1951 featuring taxonomy, obituaries, and an accident in Vietnam biostor.org/reference/32...
biostor.org
Nouvelles. - L'accident de M. E Fischer-Piette
Published in Journal de conchyliologie, in 1950, in volume 90, issue 2, pages 148
010
Reposted by Rod Page
Aaron Tay @aarontay.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Now we have so many techniques, from strong rerankers using cross-encoders, LLM screening, hybrid search by merging lexical with dense retrieval methods, agentic search etc. But librarians just want to beat LLMs into shape so they can return standard boolean, any decent searcher can do! what a waste
111
Reposted by Rod Page
Aaron Tay @aarontay.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Anyway that whole passage betrays a very narrow librarianish view of search (boolean is not "fundamental" to "all search" and the idea it gives maximum retrieval is funny) and fails to answer the question, can we do better?
132
Reposted by Rod Page
Blake Matthews @ebmatthews.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Three new evolutionary ecology PhD positions are open in Switzerland (Eawag, and Uni. Bern) to work on Greenland lake ecosystems. We are interested in how stickleback and copepods evolve, and how their evolution affects the trajectories of lake ecosystem development. apply.refline.ch/673277/1403/...
apply.refline.ch
3 PhD positions in the fields of Evolutionary Ecology, Evolutionary Genomics, and Ecosystem Science
The Department of Fish Ecology & Evolution (FishEc) has vacancies for
02634
Reposted by Rod Page
Florian Atzenhofer-Baumgartner @atzenhofer.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Registration is open for CRASH, the Cultural Heritage Advanced Search Hackathon. 📍 Graz, 30 Nov & 1 Dec 2026 🔎 Register until 1 Nov: crash-this.github.io Two days to build and test search tools on cultural heritage data. Motto: Vibes and Checks. #DigitalHumanities #GLAM
crash-this.github.io
CRASH: Cultural Heritage Advanced Search Hackathon
Two days of hacking on search in cultural heritage data. Graz, 30 November and 1 December 2026. Vibes and Checks.
042
Rod Page @rdmpage.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Assistant Curator/Assistant Professor, Vertebrate Zoology (Department of Ichthyology or Mammalogy) at the @amnh.org careers.amnh.org/postings/4925 (HT TAXACOM)
careers.amnh.org
Assistant Curator/Assistant Professor, Vertebrate Zoology
The Division of Vertebrate Zoology at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) seeks an outstanding tenure-track Assistant Curator/Assistant Professor in either the Department of Ichthyology or M...
010
Reposted by Rod Page
Mika McKinnon @mikamckinnon.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Meanwhile on New Zealand:
1172
Reposted by Rod Page
Rob Waterhouse @rmwaterhouse.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I really enjoyed discussions with participants after the session, lots of interest not only in trait extraction but also in data integration for #biodiversiy research - from #literature to #observations & #genomics with @plazi-species.bsky.social @bmd-project.eu @biogeneurope.bsky.social #TDWG2026
063
Reposted by Rod Page
Janelle Zetty @janellezetty.bsky.social · 07/08/2024
www.ruthtillman.com/post/whats-u... What's Up With WorldCat? by Ruth Kitchin Tillman #cataloging
ruthtillman.com
What's Up With WorldCat? | Ruth Kitchin Tillman
At the end of August 2022, OCLC released a completely new WorldCat.org website. It looks better on mobile, but library information is now tiered on a pay-to-play basis and links intended to keep peopl...
033
Reposted by Rod Page
Mike Keesey @tmkeesey.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
PhyloPic is having an October fundraiser. The goal is to raise enough money to cover web hosting for the past six months. Please share the link, and chip in a bit if you can! www.phylopic.org
phylopic.org
PhyloPic
PhyloPic is an open database of free silhouette images of animals, plants, and other life forms, available for reuse under Creative Commons licenses. Download silhouettes for use in educational materi...
18862
Reposted by Rod Page
Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Sometimes I worry about the mental health of the UT insect collection volunteers
Photo of a glass-topped drawer of pinned white and yellow butterfly specimens with the note “undetermined pierids to give up on”
518325
Reposted by Rod Page
GBIF @gbif.org · 01/10/2026
📣 Remote contractor wanted! We're on the hunt for an expert on molecular OTU clustering and target-gene classification services as part of the GBIF SPLICE project🧬 📍 Application deadline: 30 October 2026 ⌚ 12 month contract 🔗 gbif.link/SPLICE-con...
Photo of a dumbo octopus with the text remote contractor in white text overlaid
047
Rod Page @rdmpage.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
So this is a little crazy, I vibe coded a "Miller browser" to explore RDF graphs, based on an idea in iphylo.blogspot.com/2023/04/libr..., and it kinda works. Nodes as "cards", edges as "lists" (or maps in some cases), just wander through the graph.
080
Reposted by Rod Page
Prosanta Chakrabarty @prosanta.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Please share And FYI: Review of applications will begin 11/16/26 ...
144
Rod Page @rdmpage.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Winners of the @gbif.org Ebbe Nielsen Challenge announced www.gbif.org/news/4eaECI5...
gbif.org
Four winners share the 2026 Ebbe Nielsen Challenge award
Winning projects came from Argentina, Belgium, Canada and Portugal... The 2026 Ebbe Nielsen Challenge (ENC) jury is awarding prizes to four projects from Argentina, Belgium, Canada and Portugal. This…
050
Rod Page @rdmpage.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
It still bothers me that @biodivlibrary.bsky.social is invisible in Google Scholar. It is as if BHL didn't exist, and yet so many articles that are dead ends ["citation"] in Scholar are available in BHL. The magic "citation_" meta tags are there, but there is nobody to ask "why isn't BHL indexed?"
042
Reposted by Rod Page
Terry McGlynn @hormiga.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I became a biologist because of a museum exhibit. Real artifacts tell stories that are more powerful than anything we can get from scrolling. They are part of our engine for training the next generation of scientists. 🧪 scienceforeveryone.science/the-awesomen...
scienceforeveryone.science
The awesomeness of museums
Genuine artifacts tell the richest stories that fill our souls. And they fuel the scientific enterprise.
922080
Reposted by Rod Page
dorian @doriantaylor.com · 29/09/2026
it turns out that when your stock-in-trade is hyperaddressable hypermedia that depends on zillions of URLs having bit-for-bit consistency, any filter that may rewrite those URLs is a potential liability
041
Reposted by Rod Page
Dave Brice @davebriceflies.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Calling ecologists! Diptera backlog? Need ID work done before next season? Planning lots of diptera work next year? We can help! Please contact me for Diptera ID, full species lists and conservation status etc, see dipteraid.co.uk/projects/ Please share Conicera tibialis (Phoridae) for interest.
Conicera tibialis (Phoridae)  tiny fly with huge pointed antenna
01015
Reposted by Rod Page
Towards a National Collection (TaNC) @nationalcollection.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
We are pleased to announce the launch of the Economic Impact of Collections Loss project, to be delivered by London Economics Ltd. This project aims to address the limited evidence about the economic consequences when collections, collections data or systems become unavailable. tinyurl.com/2fzd8fat
014
Reposted by Rod Page
BISS (Biodiversity Information Science and Standards) journal @biss.pensoft.net · 25/09/2026
🌍 We had a great time at #TDWG2026 in Oslo exploring "Research and Robot-ready Biodiversity Data Standards" and connecting with the global biodiversity informatics community. 📜 Had a talk or poster? Publish it free in our journal. Deadline: 9 October 2026: biss.pensoft.net/collection/6...
022
Rod Page @rdmpage.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Summary of user feedback on future interfaces for @biodivlibrary.bsky.social as part of workshop run at @tdwg.org #tdwg2026 forum.biodiversitylibrary.org/t/bhl-worksh...
forum.biodiversitylibrary.org
BHL Workshop at TDWG 2026 feedback
Yesterday @bhl_nicole and I ran a workshop on “future interfaces for BHL” at the TDWG 2026 in Oslo. The workshop was “hands on” with live demos of various tools that I’ve posted here, such as the BHL ...
0117
Reposted by Rod Page
samuel mehr @mehr.nz · 25/09/2026
A futuristic tale of an Kiwi magazine editor who never refrains from saying what he thinks. Russell Crowe stars in WORD CUNT: 2050
6518
Reposted by Rod Page
Biodiversity Pics @biodiversitypix.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
🎨 [Abel Chapman's Sudan sketchbooks] [between 1913 and 1919] [Source]
Pencil sketch from Abel Chapman's Sudan sketchbooks (1913-1919) depicting a large elephant labeled "Big Bull" with two visible tusks, standing partially obscured by grass. Below the elephant, there are rough outlines of leafless trees with height annotations of "10 ft" and "20 ft." Handwritten notes describe the size and features of the elephant and the condition of the trees, noting "Broken off at 20 ft & stripped." The drawing focuses on natural subjects with a blend of detailed wildlife and landscape elements. The upper right corner is marked with the number "12."
0226
Rod Page @rdmpage.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Jobs galore at @nhm-london.bsky.social @dissco.bsky.social - jobs.nhm.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai... - jobs.nhm.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai... - jobs.nhm.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai... - jobs.nhm.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai... - jobs.nhm.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai... including Heads of Digitisation and Technical Innovation
jobs.nhm.ac.uk
DiSSCo UK Digitiser:South Kensington
0412
Reposted by Rod Page
Joe Hanly @hanliconius.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I hate to do this with real data, but this is a persistent data vis issue in chromosome synteny riparian plots that we Need to get better at. Left, a synteny plot published today. Right, a rearranged version with exactly the same gross arrangement but with reordered chromosomes:
chromosome synteny riparian plot in which every chromosome has crossing lineschromosome synteny plot in which no chromosomes have crossing lines. The underlying structure is identical.
29639
Reposted by Rod Page
deck.blue @deck.blue · 01/09/2026
in case you didn't know, deck.blue is currently my main source of income while i'm also getting into photography work here in são paulo, so i really appreciate everyone that's currently subscribed to the patreon; making all this possible if you can't subscribe but want to help, there's a ko-fi too!
patreon.com
deck.blue — Get the most out of Bluesky.
Get more from deck.blue on Patreon. Get the most out of Bluesky.. Support deck.blue and get exclusive access to their work.
5225126
Reposted by Rod Page
Biodiversity Heritage Library @biodivlibrary.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Our #TDWG2026 Symposium continues at 4pm with "Transforming BHL: Data Extraction, Semantic Navigation & Future Interfaces". Join us as our next speakers take the stage: Christian Bölling @mfnberlin.bsky.social, Gerwin Kasperek @sgn.one, Jana Hoffman @sgn.one, and Rod Page. @rdmpage.bsky.social. 🧪 🌱
0134
Reposted by Rod Page
Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 20/09/2026
If you don't have Tripit I also recommend it. You just forward your hotel crap via email to it and it makes a little itinerary with all the info. I don't have any financial incentive or connection to these companies, I've just paid for them for years and it's rare an app just works very well
92153
Reposted by Rod Page
Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 20/09/2026
I talk a lot of shit about tech companies but Flighty is truly one of the best products I've ever used that every single time works perfectly. If you fly a lot it's worth it, connects to Tripit calendar too.
flighty.com
Flighty — Live Flight Tracker: Get flight alerts faster than the airlines
The only app that tells you everything about your flight and tracks your lifetime of travel. Get real-time updates, the fastest alerts, and delay predictions, so you're always the first to know and re...
1136413
Rod Page @rdmpage.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
OMG what a clusterfuck RDF is in the library space! Whatever happened to the simple dream of dereferencing a URL and getting metadata about the thing the URL identifies? @oclc.org, @librarycongress.bsky.social and the www.issn.org all seem to have made an ungodly mess of this.
issn.org
ISSN |  
010
Reposted by Rod Page
Aussie Moths @wa-moths.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
One of the many Plume moths that has visited our Perth Hills garden this week. This one looks like it’s playing an invisible trombone 🪊 #teammoth #ausinverts #wildoz #Lepidoptera #inaturalist
Side view of a moth either just landing or just taking off from a pale surface so the moth appears to be stood upright. The moths wings are partially open and show feathering
112123
Reposted by Rod Page
Ran Blekhman @blekhman.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
This is the future of scientific papers. Instead of a PDF, the paper is an AI agent that you can talk to, ask questions, run analyses. No more digging through supplements - just ask the paper directly: "what p-value cutoff was used in Fig 3B? Re-run at 0.01." www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Reimagining research papers as interactive and reliable AI agents - Nature
Paper2Agent converts research papers into interactive artificial intelligence agents by turning manuscripts, code and data into model context protocol-based tool-invoking systems that reproduce origin...
1866312
Reposted by Rod Page
Brandon Bishop @brandontbishop.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
This destroys the entire point of version of record.
5357
Rod Page @rdmpage.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
I can well imagine. At this point all I'm trying to do is make sure @biodivlibrary.bsky.social is looking at all the options.
000
Reposted by Rod Page
Kayce Bell @kaycebell.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Funds to support student research! October 1 deadline for @nhm.org Student Collections Study Award. Get $$ for travel expenses to collect data in our collections. Open to: - current undergrad & grad students - *not* local to Los Angeles (international applicants welcome) nhm.org/student-coll...
nhm.org
Student Collections Study Award
The NHM Collections Study Awards provide funding for undergraduate and graduate students to visit and study the collections of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, the La Brea Tar Pits & ...
01020
Reposted by Rod Page
Nicole Kearney @nicolekearney.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I’m delighted that @biodivlibrary.bsky.social will have a strong presence at #TDWG2026 in Oslo next week. I’ll be speaking in the mini-keynote session and hosting both our dedicated BHL symposium and (with @rdmpage.bsky.social) a hands-on BHL workshop. Hope to see you there! 🧪 📖 🌱 🌏 🔗 @tdwg.org
An historic illustration of a person walking across a living bridge made of fig tree rootsAn historic illustration of a person walking across a living bridge made of fig tree roots
083
Reposted by Rod Page
Daniel van Strien @danielvanstrien.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Need a historical illustration? Search 1.49 million images from British Library books and Britannica (1500s–1920s). Find similar images, download full-resolution images or transparent PNG cutouts, and explore the sources. huggingface.co/spaces/davan...
47620
Reposted by Rod Page
tdwg.org @tdwg.org · 14/09/2026
#TDWG2026 Research and Robot-ready Biodiversity Data Standards starts next week. ⬆️ Presenters upload your content by 15 September ⬇️ Attendees install the Whova app 📗 See instructions in the website See you in #Oslo 🇳🇴! 🔗 tdwg.link/2026 #research #robot #ready #biodiversity #data #standards
Description: Only one week to go. 
Welcome reception on 20 Sep at UiO Natural History Museum
Conference start on 21 Sep at UiO Aula

Picture: University’s aula by Andy Metchell. CC BY-SA 2.0
043
Rod Page @rdmpage.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
I’d follow OpenAlex and argue that the content is free, it’s the services you charge for. So nobody pays to read an article, but discovery and data service could be charged for. I like OpenAlex model where you get $US1 free a day, which equates to casual use being free.
110
Rod Page @rdmpage.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Yes, I have seen organisations delete websites (intentionally or otherwise) because content is in @biodivlibrary.bsky.social. But BHL doesn’t regard itself as an archive, so this can only end badly.
121
Rod Page @rdmpage.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
BHM search?
100
Rod Page @rdmpage.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Fair question, one reason to re OCR - apart from getting cleaner text - is that the latest tools return structured text and extract individual figures, which means BHL content could as accessible as PubMed Central.
110