iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Russian armed forces hit the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences today with a drone, burning it to the ground. The Kholodny Institute of Botany, which houses the National Herbarium of Ukraine, is 210 yards away. 2.04 million specimens.

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

So many questions. Besides the obvious ones- were candidates barred from voting for themselves? If I lived in Mexico I’d dress up as Nicolás Zúñiga y Miranda every f&*$#g year for Halloween.

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

When we're hiding from Skynet in underground bunkers in 6 months we'll at least know that the folks that brought us the AI technology were super handsome. Christ almighty.

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I hope to post this at 9:28 EST, the exact moment Ziad Jarrah and Saeed al-Ghamdi breached the cockpit of United 93, 25 years ago. Their struggle with pilot Jason Dahl and First Officer LeRoy Homer was relayed to Cleveland air traffic, as these pilots thought to key their mics as they fought back.

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

I've been really surprised at the lack of coverage of Gloria Steinem's death. This woman was a true gangster- someone who knew how to keep people's attention AND respect. Someone who knew the value of clear rhetoric, unlike the over-thought word salads we often hear today. RIP.

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Happy birthday to the sprawling, wild, gifted colossus that has provided myself and my family more than I could ever list. If you can't love a flawed thing, you probably can't love anything at all.

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

Can you guess which one of these three statements will be in hundreds of GOP ads this cycle? When the Democratic candidate in your district loses by 0.8 points this fall you can thank brain-dead rhetoric like this. "defund the police" anyone?

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

As a Kentuckian I am compelled to also point out that KY has two endemic Solidago species: S. albopilosa and S. shortii. Well actually S. shortii is known from one site in southern IN. Damn you Hoosiers.

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

While I'm on the record as generally hating AI (and trying in vain to turn it off in Google), lookey what I saw the other day. @tropicalbotany.bsky.social @mobotgarden.bsky.social

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

How did I miss this yesterday? Somewhere Gary Larson is feeling mighty satisfied.

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

I typically tell people I'm an architect.

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

Essentially the soundtrack of my high school life.

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

Mixed feelings today about starting my Gen Bio II lectures on natural selection dressed as Jim Jones.

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

Enjoyed running a chromosome counting workshop for @mossmatters.bsky.social and his students at TTU this weekend. Also enjoyed working with Xanthisma texanum, which has one of the lowest chromosome numbers in plants (2n = 8). #GunsUp

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

Purple thumb Thursday- meiotic chromosome count of Iva annua (Sedgwick Co., KS). 34 chromosomes at prophase I, then 17 chromosomes in the haploid cells of anaphase II.

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

Nice photo Chris! Here's one from SW Wisconsin.

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

My #McClintockLetters to the editor was published last week in my hometown newspaper- the Hickman Co. (KY) Times. Thanks to @cornellasap.bsky.social‬ for coordinating this effort.

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

Somewhere LBJ is smiling watching MAGA Republicans realize they can't touch Medicaid without feeling 100,000 volts.

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

Instead of pulling out the hacksaw to add it to the voucher, I think @sutherlandbl.bsky.social probably wants the large Claytonia virginica tuber on the left for cultivation. Didn't know they got this large- FNA says up to 20cm! Sumner Co., KS.

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

My latest picture of "Snowball," the piebald fox squirrel on WSU campus.

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

One of the saddest and perverse legacies of communism is its failure to build a tolerant society, despite this being a central goal. This is the map of the winners of each of Germany's constituencies yesterday. Blue is the AfD, and yes that is the former East Germany.

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

Been posted many times before, but simply too good (or bad) not to post again.

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

In one hour I teach in a room with an exterior door that lacks weather stripping.

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 23/12/2024

I didn't even notice that Latine was an option in the Pew poll, but it looks like even fewer Hispanic people prefer it! I'll stick to the terms (Hispanic and Latino) that it appears that the vast majority of those folks prefer.

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 22/12/2024

Maybe a first step would be to stop using terms (Latinx) that are essentially never used by the very people we (white people) think we are "honoring."

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

My Schnauzer Ernie is the sweetest dog on the planet. Loud ass toddlers can get right up in his face and he's totally calm. At the vet he turns into a bloodthirsty maniac and has to wear a Hannibal Lecter-level muzzle.

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

Plantsgiving motivation- check out this histogram of species diversity by orders, found in our local grocery store. Hat tip-Chris' "grocery store botany" lab. Some non-edible species of course, but if you can't win species diversity why not go for higher-level clades?

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

5000 stainless beads = 2500 herbarium specimen extractions

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 30/10/2024

As we enter the accelerating zeitgeist whirlpool of national terror, here is a photo of an Inuit girl with her puppy.

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 16/10/2024

WTF is up with Marsilea vestita's distribution in AR and LA? Is it really just following the Arkansas then Mississippi Rivers? Why isn't it restricted to rivers in other areas? Why isn't it found farther north along the Mississippi? Some sort of crazy collection bias? What am I missing?

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 09/10/2024

Had my students evaluate native (subsp. americanus) vs. invasive (subsp. australis) Phragmites australis. Looks like invasive stuff in Wichita. Now to genotype KS herbarium material...

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 03/10/2024

Department is replacing our copier, and the old one is in the hallway unattended. Only one thought comes to mind.

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 18/09/2024

I've got a lead for the source of the Hezbollah pagers.

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 24/08/2024

Sometimes I forget how many Nazi deaths were sealed about 5 miles away from my house here in Wichita. (B-29 Assembly Line @ Boeing, 1944)

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 09/08/2024

If you want to start your weekend happy, here's the online fundraising status for David Dempsey, the treasonous J6 clown who just got 20 years in jail. Turns out attacking countless police officers doesn't make you a pity case. Best of luck with the Federal corrections officers BTW.

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 04/08/2024

To the nation of Canada, I don't think 16-year old me ever thanked you properly for the Crash Test Dummies. Sorry for the delay.

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 30/07/2024

Live look at Maduro's grip on power in Venezuela:

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 27/07/2024

I know and love many LGBTQ folks, but also many people that are skeptical or downright opposed to those goals. To my queer friends- this sort of thing is terribly counterproductive.

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 04/07/2024

Hell or high water this is what Mo and I will be doing on our first night in Mexico City.

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 28/06/2024

As a lifelong Democrat, it pains me to say how much I wish this article wasn't behind a pay wall at 10:50pm.

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 27/06/2024

Given the title, I naively thought the authors considered plants. I was of course wrong.

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 25/06/2024

If this is a section on the website of the journal you're considering publishing in/reviewing for, maybe think twice. #theladydothprotesttoomuch

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 22/06/2024

2028 might be our only chance. There are after all far fewer of us than boomers or millennials. There's a nightmare scenario where we go directly from burnt out hippies to people who have never seen a hard-line phone.

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shockerbotany.bsky.social @shockerbotany.bsky.social · 06/06/2024

Meiotic chromosome squash day 3! Toxicodendron radicans, Sedgwick Co., KS; 2n = 30

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