Notices by Megan Lynch (she/her) (ml@ecoevo.social)

UC Davis student I'm acquainted with online could use help paying rent & making expenses since losing a job.

Their crowdfunder has been stalled at $190 for 2 weeks now.

If you're able to spare something, I'm sure it would help. I know them as a tireless fundraiser for others.

https://chuffed.org/project/120254-funding-for-necessities-after-job-loss

I'm just an older disabled grad student pretty isolated due to the ableism of my institution, so maybe this is something going on already, but just in case not...

With federal scientists and scientists at places depending on fed funding being at risk right now, it seems really important to have not just institutional but secure personal contact info for folks one is working with, especially cross-discipline work on emerging diseases (human, animal, plant...). #USpol #Science

Please boost: If you are in STEM (esp Botany, Germplasm Conservation, Horticulture) and can help me put together a CV and "marketing strategy" that would be attractive in the EU, NZ, etc. please give me a holler. I'm not sure what I can afford, but if you do sliding scale or are open to barter, that would be lovely.

Ideally I'm looking for something that plays to my interdisciplinary strengths, ability to knit micro with macro, and increasing #accessibility in STEM.

@plantscience

Please boost: One thing I miss here in the Fediverse is scuttlebutt from UC Davis and UCs in general. I used to be able to get some of that from the birdsite.

If you're at UC Davis, esp if you're an undergrad (I'm not, but I like to stay in touch with what's going on in the undergrad experience), let me know. Let's find each other.

I don't want Reddit, Discord, and Facebook to be the only choices. @academicchatter

#DavisCA #UC #AcademicChatter

Monterey Bay Aquarium employees are unionizing.

Pass it on.

https://mbaworkersunited.org/news/our-public-letter #Union #Labor #MarineBiology

For zod's sake, PLEASE stop making progressive communications inaccessible.

If you want to get the word out about your union, etc., please make sure all images have alt text, all PDFs are accessible ones, etc.

It literally helps your words reach more people. #Accessibility #Union #Labor

@skinnylatte What's the difference between a running vest and a photographer's vest?

Threats to Urban Forests in the US.

There is a downloadable tool linked in the PDF. At least for me, it opened as an Excel worksheet in my browser, but with some errors so I'm not sure if it was intended to be Excel.

https://www.fs.usda.gov/nrs/pubs/Rooted-in-Research/nrs_rooted-res_45_december2024.pdf #UrbanForest @plantscience

I hadn't read this in the news when they began this reorg back in October. Just saw it now due to a banner on another FDA page.

https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/fda-organization/fda-modernization-efforts-establishing-unified-human-foods-program-new-model-field-operations-and #USpol #FoodSafety

Dr. Glaucomflecken on an actual policy Blue Cross/Blue Shield has instituted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWA2aQYXDbo #Healthcare #Capitalism

@papajohn @pluralistic I think "enshittification" is too broadly applied if it's applied to fruit breeding/growing in this case.

Fruit breeding/growing has plenty of capitalism in it as practiced today, but I am yet unaware of the phenomenon of making something free & service excellent 'til a massive market is locked in, and then purposefully undermining that in order to monetize as much as possible.

There are tradeoffs between taste/aroma and shelf life that are built into plant species.

Aw, too bad this can't be legible in one photo. I don't have time to make a photomosaic right now.

This is an example of something neoliberals have made rarer in the US: Public art on public restrooms (ungendered accessible restrooms).

Beautiful tile mosaic bas-relief of major types of oaks (bristle-cupped oaks, ring-cupped oaks, black/red oaks, white oaks, golden oaks) and some of the fauna they support. #PublicArt #DavisCA #Art

I wasn't sure a list of which universities have unionized grad students existed, but apparently this list does!

https://www.bestcolleges.com/research/graduate-student-unionization-efforts/

#Union #Labor #AcademicChatter @academicchatter

With ableist academia's rollback of online accessibility again, Tuleyome's webinars are some of my only exposures to scientists speaking about the natural world.

"Nature and You: What Makes California Rattlesnakes Tick?"

Aug 22, 2024
07:00 PM US Pacific Time

"The talk is free and open to the public, however a $5 donation is suggested to help support the lecture series."

https://www.tuleyome.org/event-details/359 #California #Nature #COVIDisNotOver

It's always such a giveaway that they mention parents before disabled people.

Disabled people aren't important enough, but abled parents OTOH...

My university and the professional societies I belong/ed to all rushed to push back on online options as soon as abled people felt they didn't need them and were content for things to remain inaccessible and dangerous for disabled people.

#DisabledAndSTEM #Sexism #Ableism

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02533-z @disability @academicchatter

I'll re- #introduction since a lot of new folks are arriving. I'm a 57-year old disabled Masters student in horticulture & agronomy. I've been doing work on carob for a decade, but in grad school I'm working on almond.

Most of my life was in arts & humanities and I have always had an interdisciplinary approach to things.

Interested esp in anti-ableism, accessibility (in hort, in cycling, etc), fruit breeding, podcasting and more. #botany #horticulture #PlantScience

https://www.alieward.com/ologies/carobology

Typical professional society/grad school panel:

"How to feel like you're achieving work/life balance without actually changing anything about the system that ruins your health, your community and your work/life balance"

#DisabledAndSTEM #AcademicChatter @academicchatter

From the "things I'd love to use" file:

Does anyone know of a website where you can find centers of origin for plant species as well as what the original growing conditions there were (geology, soils, sun/shade, humidity, temp)? #Botany @plantscience

Years ago I bought what was supposed to be an heirloom striped cultivar from Annie's Annuals, but it never came true - flowers were a solid rose red.

Not all flowers determine their coloring the same way, and variegation/chimera is another aspect on top of that, but I'm not sure how it's done in Dianthus.

However this year, some are red and some are a lighter tint of the same red.

Most of the former Plant Science Twitter seems to be on Bluesky. What are your favorite Fediverse accounts (institutional and/or personal) for keeping up with academic botanical news? #Botany #AskFedi @plantscience @academicchatter