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Dr. Rebecca Johnson

@rebafay.bsky.social
501 followers 398 following 93 posts

Biodiversity scientist bringing people together & making connections for nature, conservation & the common good in #California @calacademy.bsky.social + @baynatureinstitute @togetherbayarea boards she/her

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Reposted by Dr. Rebecca Johnson
Anthony Edwards @edwardsanthonyb.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Bonkers: Sea levels are running 1.2ft above the late-20th century baseline in San Diego as sea surface temperatures are about 7°F warmer than normal. These highly anomalous ocean temperatures and heights will continue through winter along the California coast amid El Niño. #CAwx
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 05/10/2026
Holy shit.
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Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
OpenAI hacks the Australian Government this time. I don’t quite understand why these hacks don’t result in criminal charges every time. Hacking is illegal, and these systems are owned and run by companies with responsibility for their tools. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
theguardian.com
Australia news live: Anthony Albanese says OpenAI agent hacked Medicare
Follow the day’s news live
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
A reminder for Corporate Democrats: New research from Yale found that Medicare for All would save over 114,000 lives and $1 trillion a year. It's no surprise why the majority of Americans — including 90% of Democratic voters — support it.
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Dr. Rebecca Johnson @rebafay.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Also how does all this age verification work? It sounds like ‘permission’ to launch massive surveillance on our kids.
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Molly Jong-Fast @mollyjongfast.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Are we ever going to find out what happened to mitch McConnell
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The New Republic @newrepublic.com · 26/08/2026
The future of Parton’s Imagination Library has become uncertain due to the quiet machinations of Republicans in the Midwest that have sought to unravel public funding for the cause. trib.al/Z9f1GpD
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Neil Tsutsui @neiltsutsui.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
We're hiring! Our search for an Assistant Professor in Arthropod Biodiversity just opened. Come join us at UC Berkeley in the amazing Department of Environmental Science, Policy, & Management! Feel free to contact me if you have questions. aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05523
aprecruit.berkeley.edu
Assistant Professor - Arthropod Biodiversity - Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management
University of California, Berkeley is hiring. Apply now!
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Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Anybody who’s still advocating putting these tools anywhere near a school is not doing so despite the cognitive collapse they cause, but because of it. dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn...
Abstract
Using 30 months of panel data on 26,811 Chinese students in grades 7-12, we study how generative Al affects homework productivity and learning. The data combine monthly closed-book exams, high-school and college entrance exams, and homework scores and completion time across nine subjects. We exploit staggered Al adoption in a difference-in-differences design. Al adoption raises homework scores by 18% and reduces completion time by 30%, but lowers monthly exam scores by 20% within six months.
High-stakes entrance-exam scores fall by 18 and 24%, with the full penalty emerging only after about two years. The losses are largest in social science subjects, followed by STEM and languages, and are especially large for junior students, high-achieving students, and boys. The learning losses are concentrated among roughly 80% of Al users whose behavior is consistent with homework outsourcing, as indicated by exceptionally short homework completion time coupled with high homework scores. Al users who maintain similar homework completion time as non-Al users experience small learning losses.
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Evan Greer @evangreer.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
there is no such thing as "age verification." All "age verification" is actually "identity verification." You can coat it in glitter and "privacy-preserving" wrapping paper. But in the end, mandating age verification means mandating surveillance be built into software and hardware. Period.
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Dr. Rebecca Johnson @rebafay.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
This 1000% regular the companies don’t surveil kids!
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Murshed Zaheed @murshedz.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
“Trump has rejected disaster aid for Democratic-run states at the highest rate in the 47-year history of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.” Right now people in blue states are basically paying federal taxes as if they’re colonized territories of red states. www.politico.com/news/2026/03...
Trump has denied most disaster requests from Democratic-led states

A graph  showing Presidential approval rates for disaster requests from Democratic-led states and Republican-led states

Source: POLITICO's E&E News analysis of FEMA records
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Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 25/07/2026
Admirable clarity @science.org
The Trump administration hates academic science funding, full stop. They hate where that money goes, and they hate who it goes to. They want to keep all that money for themselves, to hand out to favored cronies who can help them get elected and to steer yet more money and more power back into their hands.

That’s it. That’s the story
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Exactly. The president is going to spin some incredible lies about the 2020 election and the media -- and every single Democrat in the country -- has to be ready to smack this bullshit down immediately. Not a mealy-mouthed fact check or, golly, this is weird. Call it out as an assault on democracy.
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Jon Cooper @joncooper-us.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
You only get one life. Do as much good for others as you can while you still have the chance.
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David Rothkopf @djrothkopf.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Mamdani's revolutionary idea that has entrenched power scared is that he wants to a.) listen to people and b.) help them.
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John Wares @johnwares.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. People know themselves much better than you do. That's why it's important to stop expecting them to be something other than who they are. — Maya Angelou
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Dr. Rebecca Johnson @rebafay.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Today was the first time I’ve gotten the earthquake warning! I hope everyone up in Mendocino is safe and sound.
A screen shot of the earthquake  detection alert I received on my phone- it reads Earthquake Detected Nearby-if shaking intestines/ Drop, cove, and hold on M6 estimated 118 miles away-ISGS shake alert
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Dr. Rebecca Johnson @rebafay.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
This and January 6th
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Aida 🇵🇷🇺🇸🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🇺🇦🐾🌊🦋🗽💙🐸 @latina4jesusdshw.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
Disgraceful! #Pinks #USDemocracy
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Ricky Davila @therickydavila.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
The Albanian people have been massively protesting for several consecutive days against slumlord crook Jared Kushner and Crimestress Ivanka seizing land in their country to the sum of billions of dollars to build a trashy resort. I hope they don’t stop until their evil corrupt deal is reversed.
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@amybisinthewoods.bsky.social 🍄🍄‍🟫 @amybdogsandfungi.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
We have to end his power in November. It is life or death.
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JB Pritzker @jbpritzker.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
The agenda is simple: Raise wages. Guarantee healthcare. Protect rights. End corruption. That's what Democrats should be fighting for.
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Jacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
In the latest play from Project 2025, the Trump Administration has announced plans to dismantle the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI), a $368 million network of more than 900 instruments that continuously monitor the ocean. This is a deliberate destruction of critical scientific infrastructure.
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Dr. Rebecca Johnson @rebafay.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
This is so gross and so tired.
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Erica Joy Astrella @ericajoy.astrel.la · 01/06/2026
california is gonna have so many mail in ballots that don’t get counted because people don’t know the new USPS rules that are impacting mail in voting. tl;dr don’t put your ballot in the mail today, find a ballot drop box. www.kqed.org/news/1208537...
kqed.org
Still Need to Mail Your Primary Ballot? Don’t Rely on USPS, Officials Say | KQED
State officials are warning that some ballots mailed too close to Election Day might not be counted. Here are other recommended ways to submit your ballot instead.
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 29/05/2026
NEW: A lot of bad has happened to American science over the last year but nothing comes even close to what’s about to happen if we don’t speak out in opposition to the OMB rule changes and I hope @aaas-socsci.bsky.social @apsphysics.bsky.social and others will launch public campaigns about this. 🧪🔭⚛️
news.chanda.science
It's the End of American Science As We Know It
We have 45 days to express our opposition to catastrophic changes.
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Stand Up for Science! @standupforscience.net · 28/05/2026
BREAKING: New proposed OMB regulation, applying to all federal grants, requiring grant reviews by senior political appointees and re-emphasizes that "peer review remains advisory and does not replace agency discretion". #standupforscience public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2026-10817.pdf
public-inspection.federalregister.gov
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Dr. Rebecca Johnson @rebafay.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Please comment! These changes would be disastrous for science on top of the already destructive changes we have seen.
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Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
Paris has transformed more than 300 streets outside schools into pedestrian-only “garden streets,” replacing traffic and parking with trees, benches and light-coloured paving. Torched buff.ly/ILvaxmw #ShareGoodNewsToo
buff.ly
Cool streets
Paris's school streets are effectively sculpting out instant parks in the locations where they'll provide immense public health benefits to the city's most vulnerable populations
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Elizabeth Warren @warren.senate.gov · 15/05/2026
Ban stock trading by the President. Ban stock trading by the Vice President. Ban stock trading by members of Congress. End the corruption.
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 14/05/2026
NSF funds are being repurposed away from funding academics and independent scholars to funneling civilian science money to industry 🧪 www.nsf.gov/funding/init...
nsf.gov
NSF X-Labs
NSF's mission is to advance the progress of science, a mission accomplished by funding proposals for research and education made by scientists, engineers, and educators from across the country.
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Dr. Rebecca Johnson @rebafay.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Every year I am amazed by what 100,000+ folks do together for nature!
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iNaturalist @inaturalist.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
The #CityNatureChallenge results are in! Across 61 countries, over 106 THOUSAND people worked together to document their nearby nature — resulting in over 3 million new, important data points for biodiversity science and observation.
A close-up photo of a Golden Gate Leech on a sandy surface. Text reads: "Meet the Golden Gate Leech. This species had never been recorded on iNaturalist anywhere in the world … until it was spotted in San Francisco during the 2026 City Nature Challenge."
A green tree frog clinging to a dark leaf. Text reads: "By the Numbers — 106,354 observers, 27,641+ identifiers, 76,422+ species, 3,001,825 observations, across 754 cities, 61 countries, and 6 continents. The largest annual biodiversity census in the world!"
A grid of six wildlife photos including a weevil, springtail, rust fungus, plant, sea slug, and wasp. Text reads: "Community members made first-ever iNaturalist records of 70+ species."
A grid of six wildlife photos including a nudibranch, Purple Gallinule with chick, compass jelly, jumping spider, giant cuttlefish, and bat. Text reads: "People documented 13.5% of the species known on iNaturalist!"
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Brad Johnson @climatebrad.hillheat.com · 11/05/2026
Suspending the gas tax would: * Give Big Oil billions of dollars in windfall war-profiteering profits * Starve the fund for maintaining transportation infrastructure * accelerate climate destruction It was just as criminally stupid when @hillaryclinton.bsky.social proposed it in 2008.
web.archive.org
What The Gas Tax Holiday Has To Do With Global Warming
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Dr. Rebecca Johnson @rebafay.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
What is wrong with normal door handles? I just don't even get going down this road at all.
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Dr. Rebecca Johnson @rebafay.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
May the 4th be with you
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Hank Green @hankgreen.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
Some people say we don’t build beautiful things anymore and, like, lol. Motherfuckers, we built this:
A graph from Our World In Data showing a precipitous drop in child mortality starting in the late 1800s going from an average of 48% to global rate of 27% in 1950 to the 2020 infant mortality rate of 4%, with some countries having a rate as low as 0.3%
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iNaturalist @inaturalist.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
It’s been a whirlwind weekend of community science, but the fun’s not over just yet! Now that the #CityNatureChallenge observation period has ended, it’s time to sit back, relax, and upload all your photos of wildlife from the last few days on the iNaturalist app.
A Common Spiny Flower Mantis, pink and spiky, perched on a green stem beneath a purple flower. Uthungulu, South Africa.
An oval, orange-brown Common Pygmy Woodlouse on dark soil. Glasgow, Scotland.
A Texas micropirate fly perched on a green stem, facing forward, with large dark eyes and reddish-brown legs. Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas.
Bright orange Pretzel slime mold forming a lacy network on a dark forest floor. Maran, Malaysia.
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Hank Green @hankgreen.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
NASA and Mamdani are proving that Americans are desperate to see their money spent in ways they feel good about. This, however, is not the same thing as simply spending the money on things we would feel good about but never know happened. People need to be able to see it.
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Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them) @jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
Huge congrats to my student Elle, who won an award for Outstanding Presentation at UAA's student showcase today for her poster "Accuracy, Bias, and Confidence in Two LLM Models When Queried on the Topic of Evolution"! So excited for her to get some well-earned recognition!
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Ed BooOOooOOmila @edburmila.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Again: for any big liberal donor who wants to funnel millions into fixing this country's politics, the ROI on buying any struggling paper and simply tasking it with doing real reporting on local news is vastly higher than the same $$ given to some group that does mass ad buys every election year.
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Fascist Dem Tracker @fascistdemtracker.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Maybe now with Swalwell resigning California can gain a member of Congress who actually shows up to vote.
From: https://congressvotetracker.org/articles/most-absent-members-march-2026.html

"House: The Most Absent Representatives

In the House, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA14) logged the most striking prolonged absence of the 119th Congress so far. Between September 19, 2025 and January 21, 2026 — a stretch covering roughly four months — Swalwell missed 97 of 119 roll call votes, an 82% absence rate, according to GovTrack. He returned to voting in late January, but has since missed an additional 8 of 40 votes (20%) through early March 2026. GovTrack notes that over his full career, Swalwell has missed 8.5% of all roll call votes — well above the 2.1% median for currently serving representatives."
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Dr. Rebecca Johnson @rebafay.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
An excellent statement and what leadership looks like.
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Kat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
A powerful man sexually pursuing a young woman who works for him is oppressive. It immediately limits and reshapes her future to her detriment, whether she is physically forced into it or not. It’s coercion either way, and that is why it’s so wrong. It’s an abuse of power.
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Niki Hubbard, PhD 🐙🦀 @nikihubbard.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
Once upon a time I just admired nudis and sea slugs. But it was not enough. Now apparently I'm creating an R package to celebrate their colour palettes? 😅 First up, my Sydney fave, Hypselodoris bennetti. #rstats #nudibranch #dataviz 🦑🐙🧪 #marinelife #invertebrates
Close up with a beautiful nudibranch on a rocky reef. The lower half of the image is a palette of swatches made from the nudi's vibrant colours.
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Liz Neeley @lizneeley.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
Oh no. NSF Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) program shuttered. This one leaves me winded. A good story from 2025 by @seattletimes-rss.bsky.social offers insight into what we are losing: www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...
nsf.gov
Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER)
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Sheryl Weikal says Prosecute ICE @leftistlawyer.com · 04/04/2026
Actually we should just give citizenship to every undocumented person in the United States who wants it. Walking over an imaginary line isn't some great moral atrocity. Making people live in the shadows as a permanent underclass absolutely IS.
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Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · 04/04/2026
What will happen to the 82 USFS experimental forests around the country? Many sites have decades-long experiments that are tracking how forests are changed by timber harvesting practices and climate change. As I say here, “you can't just pick up an experimental forest site and move it to SLC.”
science.org
U.S. Forest Service unveils extensive closures of research facilities
Cost-cutting move is expected to cause resignations and turmoil
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Dr. Rebecca Johnson @rebafay.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Gas is San Francisco has been over $6 for at least two weeks.
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