Dr. Catherine Scott

Our blessed cornball prophet

Canadians can’t afford rent. Food bank use is at a record high. Wages are stagnant while the rich are getting richer than ever before. Of all the people who could use this kind of federal support right now, venture capitalists are at the bottom of that list. www.theglobeandmail.com/business/art...

Or maybe more succinctly: we must recognize AI as the weapon of the adversary

Ok yeah since multiple people asked, I'm personally fine. But no, Indonesia as a whole is not fine. We haven't been fine for a while. I'm actually surprised this didn't make international news earlier.

This is one of my recent favorites, a Crescent-eyed Spider in this genus, Selenops. The family is called ‘Flatties,’ and you can see why, they are extremely flat spiders. Their flat shape lets them squeeze under bark or hide perfectly against a wall. #Arachtober #spider #macro #macrophotography

For #Arachtober, those interested in spider identification should check out the Spider Genitals project on iNaturalist. It's a really great source of close up imagery of palpi and epigyna for reference when you are doing ID's. Often has habitus images too! www.inaturalist.ca/observations...

I've worked on dozens of interpretive media projects over the last 15 years, and I've learned a few things along the way. If you have a site that would benefit from interpretive signage, why not join me for a free webinar on October 13th to learn about best practices? 3common.com/event/6ab591...

Moth 5/12 - Ashinaga #Art #SciArt

This is one of those things I'm going to keep reposting until you're sick of it. It's not just because I want to make sure everyone sees it. I want everyone to see it multiple times. I want it in your long-term memories so that it's something you use and share and don't forget when you scroll away

Does my Speak-n-Spell feel pain when I type O-U-C-H? The jury is out. Philosophers and neuroscientists say that's fucking stupid, but I called a guy from the Center for Pretending that Household Electronics Are Sentient and he said there's no way to know for sure.

This is an excellent resource for anyone who supervises trans+ folks doing fieldwork but, also, many of these recommendations are applicable well beyond fieldwork, for anyone leading, supervising, mentoring, employing, or otherwise collaborating with trans+ colleagues I highly recommend it:

Beetle 4/11 - Anthaxia #Art #SciArt

I just honestly can't get over that Save Women Sports, an anti-trans group could only find five trans athletes competing K through 12. Five. The NCAA president testified a year and a half ago or so that there were less than 10 college level trans athletes. What the fuck are we doing, people

Oh and "there's good AI" they shout, assuming we never considered that, but also with their clear goal of using AI in a deflated sense (that only helps companies)... Yes, there's good computational models. So what? bsky.app/profile/oliv...

Three final things: Carney isn’t returning to a hardball strategy from 2018. He’s returning to the Trudeau strategy that Carney rejected in 2025 in favour of appeasement and the pursuit of a negotiated comprehensive trade and security agreement. From Sept 2025.

It took Mark Carney almost two years and billions of dollars in concessions to recognize what was *immediately* obvious in Nov 2024: that Trump won’t keep his word. Going forward, Carney needs to explain this profound miscalculation, and if his strategy has changed to reflect reality.

there’s a lot more nuance to it but as a basic principle you could do a lot worse than unions good, billionaires bad happy Labor Day, everyone

Omg look what the Canadian mint made 🕷️🕸️ www.mint.ca/en/shop/coin...

Attention Philadelphia! We're hosting a rally to demand that Drexel University maintain The Academy of Natural Sciences Museum open to the public. Join us on Tuesday morning at 10am in front of the academy. Please spread the word, we need all hands on deck! RSVP here: luma.com/1qwnrqz2

The problem with being a good (I hope) reviewer who responds promptly to requests and provides on-time or not-ridiculously late reviews is that you just keep getting more and more requests. I wonder what proportion of active researchers are carrying the bulk of the reviewing burden?

A wee purple damselfly to wrap up #InverteFest. They come in a range of beautiful colors and it always surprises me to see these jewel tones. Also, here’s a free art book filled with incredible invertebrates! #BugSky 🌿

The "Lake America" hissy fit "highlights the cost of Canada not having its own Google Maps equivalent or mapping APIs, Levy said, leaving a huge portion of online activity powered and collected by American companies." #datasovereignty #digitalsovereignty www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Yet more copytheft. Why would we tolerate an “industry” based on wholesale lawbreaking?

"we should rename Mar-a-Lago something funny, make Google display that" My brother in Christ, the Ontario legislature can declare Google's workers in Ontario to be unionized and assign their collective labour rights to whichever union will be most militant, think bigger

“What are you hoping to achieve with tools sold as “AI” that cannot be done with traditional [methods] that already exist? Is that outcome so valuable that it outweighs the ethical problems of using these tools?” There is no ethical use of “ai”

And sure, any individual query and/or brag about an individual query is just a small part of that. But why contribute at all? And more to the point, why say so and then scold everyone else for pointing out how shameful it is? >>

helping the tech barons further centralize wealth and power, benefitting from the atrociously exploitative labor practices that "cleaned up" system output, etc. >>

Just to name a few, every time you use (let along brag about using) a synthetic media extruding machine, you are helping to build the case for the next hyperscale data center, helping to normalize the data collection (theft & surveillance) they are built on, >>

We present: The Art of #InverteFest - August 2026 Edition A digital art book showcasing the work of 100 artists, in celebration of overlooked invertebrate fauna. Thank you to the artists who contributed to our book! Download & submit to the next edition: invertefest.com/#artbook #Art #SciArt

WTAF. “If our schools are not teaching our youth how to write a book report using artificial intelligence, we are doing them a disservice,” Assemblyman Clyde Vanel (D-Queens Village), one of Albany’s most prominent boosters of AI, told the Chronicle in a recent interview

6. Climate change shouldn’t be treated as an abstract environmental issue anymore. It’s also about health, homes, food, energy bills, insurance, infrastructure and whether the places we live remain comfortable and safe.

5. There’s something deeply strange about living through increasingly obvious climate disruption while politicians become less willing to talk about why it is happening and what we can do about it. The crisis is becoming harder to ignore, but apparently easier to avoid discussing.

We need YOU to spread the word about @skypeascientist.bsky.social - our *free* program that matches scientists w/classrooms & more! When educators sign up, they can tell us who told them about us. We'll hold a monthly drawing for $150 of science supplies* from the referrers! SkypeAScientist.com

we should all buy someone a book in Dolly’s honor today

We’re not in the habit of recognizing celebrity deaths here at 925. That said, Dolly Parton is a national treasure and some folks here joke that Dolly is our Locals patron saint. After all her song “9 to 5” is our anthem. Today we remember all the love and kindness Dolly brought the world.

I saw her say that, as a child, she saw some women w/ big hair & long nails & makeup & thought they were so glamorous. Her mom said, "Those women are trash," & Dolly thought, "Well, I guess I want to be trash when I grow up." She chose her style b/c it was her idea of beautiful, not for anyone else.