David Kerstetter, Ph.D.

David Kerstetter, Ph.D.

@fishguydave.bsky.social

NSU Fisheries & Avian Ecology Lab PI. Proud 3x W&M grad. Posts on non-biology topics too, especially regarding academia and enviro/ed politics. Opinions solely my own.

1.1K followers367 following1.4K posts

David Kerstetter, Ph.D. reposted

Just a reminder that there is no good data to support these uses in K12, we are just testing it live all on kids who won’t ever be these ages again and can’t get them back if we fuck it up.

Carl T. Bergstrom@carlbergstrom.com

"AI can draft an essay for you, especially if you give it a high quality prompt." Really? This is what MIT thinks high schoolers should learn? MIT's "Day of AI" dayofai.org provides materials for K-12 teachers and claims to have reached over 5,000,000 students to date. 1/2

This is in the same bleak vein as the tech guy who created an AI in his own voice to read bedtime books to his son. Yes, parenting is hard. Deal with it. At some point, there should be a discussion whether we'd be better off as a society if these people simply got a pet instead of having a kid.

David Gura@davidgura.bsky.social

cool, cool

It’s not just our trans community, it’s a concerted effort to ignore what the supposed base of the party wants. Really, we should be asking why D party favorabilities are in the tank as much as the R, rather than just riding a wave of “not TFG.” DSA has attraction because its positions are popular.

Josh Sternberg@joshsternberg.com

Democratic leadership should listen to what its most popular member says instead of doing this www.erininthemorning.com/p/dccc-relea...

I now have to wonder whether some of the poor grades I saw on my ichthyology students’ midterm practical exam were because they were using AI-generated anatomy guides instead of the standard guides I gave them.

Lisa Will@dustchick.bsky.social

You know how Adobe offers to summarize long PDFs? Welp, AI summaries have hit our chemistry labs, students do not see ALL the directions (and some summaries are dangerously wrong), disasters are being narrowly averted, and students are upset with their INSTRUCTOR for the experiment not working.

“Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” A substantial question is why the Miami Herald and Broward’s Sun-Sentinel *aren’t* covering this the same way.

Craig Pittman @craigtimes.bsky.social

“Every time Floridians get closer to the truth about Hope #Florida, Republicans find another way to bury it." FL GOP sues to force everyone shut up about leaked grand jury report that found $10M was stolen from sick kids. www.tampabay.com/news/florida... via @tampabaytimes.bsky.social

Never thought we'd be here, but this is what happens when we've lost our way as a nation, with so many voters in thrall to a cabal that could very clearly care less about prior generational sacrifices. It was also a team effort, from a supine R-controlled Congress to a pliant SCOTUS. Never forget.

SFDB@sfdb.bsky.social

"A world in which the White House is allied to the Kremlin was, until now, the stuff of paranoid fiction. Manchurian candidates and red presidents were fantasies, dark tales that Americans told themselves, like ghost stories around a campfire. But this alliance now exists. - Tom Nichols

David Kerstetter, Ph.D. reposted

David Kerstetter, Ph.D. reposted

What’s the secret sauce for happy scientists at work? These eight countries offer some clues| I might suggest that “Meaningful work, flexibility and job security all matter more than salaries do” is only true past a certain minimum salary.

idp.nature.comWhat’s the secret sauce for happy scientists at work? These eight countries offer some cluesMeaningful work, flexibility and job security all matter more than salaries do, Nature’s job satisfaction survey shows.

David Kerstetter, Ph.D. reposted

"Florida state government needs a refresh. The state's population is older and less White than most of America - putting it a decade ahead of where the rest of the country is heading. That makes it an ideal testing ground for policies that could have nationwide impact." - Mary Ellen Klas 🎁🔗

bloomberg.comFlorida’s GOP Governor Candidate Exposes His Party’s EmptinessWhen students at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee grilled Republican gubernatorial nominee Byron Donalds last month about his record, he promised to bring his finance background to the state’...

David Kerstetter, Ph.D. reposted

"Turning most of Florida’s local governments into beggars is not viewed by the supporters of the amendment as a bug. It is a feature." Excellent opinion piece in the Miami Herald challenging the legitimacy of Amendment 3 written by the former mayor of Key Biscayne, Michael W. Davey. 🎁🔗

miamiherald.comFlorida Amendment 3 will bring many local governments ‘to their knees’ | OpinionTax amendment would strip Florida’s 67 counties and its 411 municipalities of their independence. | Opinion

I learned today about the taxonomic revisions that now has a Class Entognatha within the sub-Phylum Hexapoda -- in other words, six-legged arthropods that *aren't* true insects in Class Insecta.

dactylioceras.bsky.social@dactylioceras.bsky.social

A giant Jurassic hunter: the earliest dipluran and its implications for hexapod body pattern evolution Sinojapyx giganteus gen. et sp. nov. Art: Jie Sun royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

David Kerstetter, Ph.D. reposted

If you haven’t already registered to vote, today is your last chance! You can still register to vote until 11:59 PM tonight so if you haven't already done so, get on it y'all!  Visit AngieNixon.com/vote to learn more about registering to vote!  Let’s win this, Florida! #AngieForFlorida

David Kerstetter, Ph.D. reposted

I enjoy living in South Florida, but I would've loved living in the South Florida weather of the 1950s.

SFDB@sfdb.bsky.social

If you want to appreciate just how much South Florida Fall weather has changed in the past 70 years, check out this article from October 1, 1956, in the Miami Herald.

David Kerstetter, Ph.D. reposted

Remember: Darwin's note of "I am very poorly today & very stupid & hate everybody & everything" was written on Oct 1 (1861). Thus we are free to celebrate Very Poorly And Very Stupid Hatred Day today.

David Kerstetter, Ph.D. reposted

It was the sadistic murder of mariners at sea that compelled me to write this for the Hill: To rebuild trust in maritime policy, the US must ratify the Law of the Sea thehill.com/opinion/nati...

thehill.comthehill.com
Mark Jacob@markjacob.bsky.social

Trump and Hegseth have killed 230+ people on boats in the Caribbean and Pacific with no proof they did anything wrong, no congressional approval, no nothing. Just 2 unhinged fascists ordering our military to commit murder. Vote against all Republicans for the sake of all that is decent.

A fantastic thread that all male parents of sons should read. I'd add that yes, talk with your sons (not AT them), but also live the example you want them to become, with how you interact with your spouse, your mother, and your female friends and colleagues. They learn what they see.

Nicole Bedera@nbedera.bsky.social

I’m seeing a lot of posts about talking to your sons in light of the Cornell article. And yes. Talk to your sons. Here are some things you should say, based on anti-violence research about what they need to hear:

David Kerstetter, Ph.D. reposted

The Emory Biology department is hiring a tenure-track ecologist at any rank. Deadline is Nov 1, link below! As I've said many times before, I couldn't ask for a more supportive department. Our faculty colleagues, dept chair, and admin staff are truly awesome ❤️ apply.interfolio.com/191783

This horrific outcome is being repeated across agencies, as outlined in Project 2025. It’s intentional.

Politics and Health 🗳️ 🩺@politicshealth.bsky.social

So fuc*ing infuriating and sad. The CDC used to be the crown jewel of the world's scientific firmament. Other countries came to us for help fighting deadly diseases. Its disease detectives learned what caused illness and helped change practices to prevent them. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/26/h...

David Kerstetter, Ph.D. reposted

I’d add “restore decision-making based on science” (and “restore scientific funding”), but… priorities. This list is a great start.

Bill Kristol@billkristolbulwark.bsky.social

“So here’s what Democrats should offer: Stop the data centers. Make AI safe. Protect your health care. Fix the rotten Supreme Court. Get us out of the Middle East. Renew our friendship with Canada. Hold the oligarchs accountable. Release the Epstein files.” www.thebulwark.com/p/democrats-...

Semi driver filling up his tank six days ago breaks $1,000 for 155 gals: "Almost 30 years of driving trucks and that's a first." Now, imagine this scene in front of every offshore commercial fishing boat loading 2500 gals before a trip. These costs are not sustainable for most US fisheries.

Anyone else miss the days when the USG used evidence-based infrastructure for decision-making? I sure do. An interesting thread 🧵 below.

Don Moynihan@donmoyn.bsky.social

New from Lauren Supplee at Can We Still Govern? The US government had gradually become better at producing and using evidence. This evidence-based infrastructure is largely invisible, important, and one more thing gutted by Trump. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-system...

Seems like it would be a great opportunity for any elected official Democrat to remind voters what they stand to protect, not just what they oppose.

Christopher Webb@cwebbonline.com

POWERFUL MOMENT Americans forming a human chain around the Kennedy Center to protect a national memorial from a president threatening to tear it down. JFK’s niece, Kerry Kennedy, called on people to show up, and they did. This will never be the Trump Center, in the people’s eyes.

Wait until recreational charter boats and commercial crab/lobster boats in the Florida Keys face similar restrictions re diesel and non-ethanol gas. French and other EU countries’ fishers have blocked entire ports for less.

The Liberal BoJack@thelibbojack.bsky.social

If you think people are angry now, then just wait until they can only purchase gas and diesel on days determined by the alphanumeric sequence on their license plates.

In a sane world, SCOTUS would recognize that they shouldn’t be hearing these cases, that lower courts and *adherence to existing law* would be sufficient. CJ Roberts owns all of this chaos.

Marc Elias@marcelias.bsky.social

🚨BREAKING: Supreme Court REJECTS Department of Justice effort to restore U.S. Postal Service mail-in voting rule. A huge victory for voting rights and free and fair elections. A defeat for Trump and his scheme to rig the elections. www.democracydocket.com/cases/trump-...

David Kerstetter, Ph.D. reposted

The cognitive dissonance of "we can't lose the technology & innovation race to China" vs. "we're gonna charge taxes and deny visas and basically make it impossible for anyone to come here to do scientific research" is astonishing, even for this administration.

Indeed. I grew up in PG County, Maryland taking amazing school field trips to these museums. It’s also a daily reminder that the GOP-controlled US Congress could stop this at any time… but doesn’t.

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David Kerstetter, Ph.D. reposted

"Under systems of intimidation and fear, seemingly impartial processes [for hiring, promotion, and recognition] will tend to reward whoever is least targeted by censorship. " - J. Nathan Matias @natematias.bsky.social Essential reading.

blog.ucs.orgProtecting Science from Government IntimidationIn an era where people can easily publish ideas and find an audience online, how much damage can a travel and immigration policy actually do to the integrity of science and industry? Lots.

A really good read on why our Navy is structured as it is, as well as what we’re losing under our dimwitted current (mal)Administration.

"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux@bretdevereaux.bsky.social

This week on the blog: why the United States Navy is a load-bearing component of the global economy, why there is no available replacement for it and thus why it is pretty bad that the American voter has decided in a fit of abject folly to vote to abandon that role. acoup.blog/2026/08/28/c...

The worst part of this EO (like the EO renaming the Gulf) is that otherwise bright, insightful agency employees are legally required to follow this bullshit. Most seem visibly pained when they have to explain the renaming, both during live presentations and in their written explanations in papers.

Jordan H.@jordanehoser.bsky.social

Trump signs Executive Order directing Interior Dept to change the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America.