Stephen Baines

Nice to see so many arriving! I have mostly studied how elemental cycles are affected by phytoplankton and the things what eats ‘em. Although I often get sidetracked! Recently my lab has moved inland to work on nitrogen transformations and organic matter decomposition in wetlands.

Trump has made ICE way less popular than the IRS www.pewresearch.org/fact-sheet/h...

"A new survey of 1,000 American adults found that the strongest supporters of transgender sports bans are not the people who admire women most: they are the people who hold the most hostile views about women."

Young et al have an interesting paper out, demonstrating that the Laurentide Ice Sheet started to advance between 2000 and 1000 years ago, possibly heralding the inception of the next glacial cycle. However, due to rising CO₂, the advance stopped in the 1960s. www.science.org/doi/full/10....

Not that long ago, three major lower-court rulings against the executive branch on three unrelated topics would’ve been a busy *month,* and outlets would’ve rushed to write up such a run of adverse rulings. Now, it doesn’t feel unusual when we get three on the same *day.* It’s all … exhausting.

BREAKING: The 9th Circuit rules 2-1 to dismiss DOJ's effort to force California to remove 20,000 purported noncitizens from the voter rolls based on data CA officials view as faulty. Majority: Bennett (Trump) Sanchez (Biden) Minority: Bumatay (Trump) storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

It's really damning. The accusations are numerous and well-supported. But I was really struck by the descriptions of Trump's behavior -- the name dropping, strong-arming, and attempts to buy off silence. His gross rivalry with Epstein. It's all so familiar. It's shit he's been doing his entire life.

There are only two explanations for the NYT's habit of presenting GOP operatives and donors as true swing voters: 1. Their reporters and editors are somehow incapable of running a simple Google searches, showing just a staggering level of journalistic incompetence 2. They want to the GOP to win

bluesky has four types of users

this might rank as one of the most important outcomes of the night if it happens. would give dems the ability to begin to make north carolina a democracy

Beyond disgusted by even more rape allegations against the President of the United States. "In total, more than 25 different women...have independently accused Donald Trump of rape, sexual assault, or other sexual misconduct." Report w/ new details: democrats-judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-su...

This drives me CRAZY. I grew up playing sports w/ boys. I played on a U12 boys select soccer team, b4 switching to a U12 girls team that kept beating us. Nobody had any issue with any of it. Youth sports have never had the strict sex/gender boundaries that “XX-XY” activists are now trying to defend.

I live in a rural town and, like, I don't know how to tell you this, but the girls play on the boys team and vice versa all the time because otherwise we don't have enough players for a game and it's literally always fine so stop being weirdos about kids sports and just let trans kids play.

Not an exagerration.

This is a good way to put it.

Brazil’s results tonight are a big endorsement for the idea that every country should have a second “are you you sure about that” election a couple weeks after the first one for the important stuff

Lula has been reelected president, Brazilian media has now called. An extraordinary comeback for the left-wing politician who trailed by 2 points in round 1 but managed to hold off Flávio Bolsonaro, the former president's son.

Lula looks like he wins easily... although nearly half the country of Brazil still voted for fascism.

EL-SAYED: I get that the President takes personal offense to my first name. He doesn't mind as much when it's the Saudis who are funding his son-in-law's private equity. Doesn't seem to mind as much when it's the Qataris who are giving them a $400 million private jet…

C'mon Lula.

look, nothing is simple and i have no parsimonious explanation for anything here, but a student protest movement, focused on corruption & authoritarianism, just won a major european election. a big deal.

Bolsonaro-friendly mayors appear to be sabotaging public transport on Election Day. Buses aren’t running in Lula-friendly areas, flights and ferries mysteriously canceled. Traffic lights have gone out and people’s power cut in Salvador, indigenous people’s travel restricted

A crow watches another crow fly in front of the full moon. 🐦‍⬛ 🪶

I knew Amy Acton’s birth creature and pedo enthusiast looked familiar.

Three days after the August primary, election workers in one Washington county went to check for late mail-in ballots. They expected no more than a few dozen. Instead, there were more than 500 — each a vote that wouldn’t count.

Are you MAD, NYC? Go vote! Feels good! Early voting started TODAY! Go to vote.nyc for all the details!

It’s never been more clear that racism is a scam perpetrated by wealthy elites to convince working people to blame someone other than the wealthy elite.

"In total, since taking office again, Mr. Trump exempted 202 facilities in 39 states & Puerto Rico from clean-air regulations that were going into effect. Some were among the country’s worst industrial polluters, including chemical manufacturers, copper smelters & coal-burning power plants." MAHA!

JUST POSTED: Today at The NYT we are publishing a major investigation into how President Trump used his executive powers to expose millions of Americans to greater cancer risks. A six month-long investigation built on more than 10,000 pages of FOIA records. Read it www.nytimes.com/2026/10/24/c...

The New York Times wrote articles that were like "the impossible-to-characterize elusive politics of Elon Musk / he's lost interest in politics" right before he became *literally the largest GOP donor in history* the next election cycle. Twice. Two times!

In a little-noticed webpage update, the Environmental Protection Agency has announced a plan to decommission its online web archive at the end of the year, a move that would wipe tens of thousands of publicly available environmental resources from the web.

Sorry still thinking of $1,200-$1,800 dollar console just conceptually. Those are Real Computer numbers. You can just get a real computer for that kinda cash. The entire premise of the console is “this is a baby computer you don’t control but it’s standardized and affordable” but they can’t do that.

NEWS: the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders have unionized and the Cowboys have agreed to recognize the union

Early voting in NYC starts TOMORROW, y'all! You know I'm gonna be there because I'm always MAD as HELL and voting makes me feel BETTER. I wish we still had the big fucking mechanical levers because those felt GREAT to pull when you're MAD but it's still GREAT to VOTE! Info here: vote.nyc

The Exxon ad Exxon doesn't want you to see. New from Adam McKay @ghostpanther.bsky.social and voiced by Woody Harrelson.

I thought he was going to drain the swamp?

MIND-BLOWING STATS: A record two-thirds of new cars in China are now electric (NEVs*), while combustion-car sales have fallen by two-thirds since they peaked in 2017 – In 2020, ~95% of sales were combustion-engine cars – By Sep 2026, they crashed to 33% – On the flip side, NEVs hit a record 67% 🧵

The reason we keep hearing about desperate schemes to boost Republican chances in the midterms—Announce we're buying Russian diesel! Sue to preemptively reject a Democratic victory in Alaska!—is because they don't have a secret plan that will overturn a midterm loss, not because they do.

Some cities it's just not worth fucking with

This cop chased two women who had allegedly shoplifted diapers; gun drawn. When the mother lifted up Kohen to show the cop she had a baby in the car, he fired - killing the baby. Shoplifting charges were never filed. Mississippi ruled the shooting “justified”.

We literally have the largest bike-touring event in the world which has been an annual summer state tradition for FIFTY YEARS. There's a giant exhibit in the state historical museum about it. This is comical.