Meredith Swett Walker

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Meredith Swett Walker

@meredithswalker.bsky.social

I am an unrepentant proselytizer for science & nature and inept watercolorist. Got a Ph.D. in bird behavior & hormones then morphed into a mom, science communicator and non-profit aide-de-camp. She/Her
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If it’s not helpful to you, by all means ignore this, but I’m just saying… It really helps me to recenter myself to think “Oh right. The worst fucking people on the planet want me to feel like we’re doomed. Fuck those guys, actually.”
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Comparative political scientist here. Assassination attempts are *always* bad, regardless of the target's politics.
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The plan also includes infusing Christian nationalism into every facet of government policy by calling for a ban on pornography and promoting policies that encourage “marriage, work, motherhood, fatherhood, and nuclear families.”
What is Project 2025?www.washingtonpost.com It’s a blueprint for what a second Trump administration could look like, dreamed up by his allies and former aides. Here are some of the proposals.
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Did you know songbirds, not just hummingbirds, can be pollinators too? We’ve got a little video on TikTok about a cool research project out of Colorado State U. that we are collaborating on 🪶🌎🧪https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPREcWA27/
TikTok - Make Your Daywww.tiktok.com
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Keeping Trump out of the White House isn’t the only thing that needs doing and it isn’t enough to solve all problems facing the country & world but if it isn’t done then all those problems get exponentially worse in ways I don’t even know how to express and it scares me when people pretend otherwise
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Evan Gershkovich, whose trial in Russia starts today, has been detained on “nonsense charges” for more than a year now. “He is being held by gangsters who consider hostage-taking a normal business practice," I wrote in March: www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...
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If you needed a handy infographic on just how much journalistic malpractice is going on at everyone's favorite publications
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Google serving up AI responses to HEALTH-related queries is one of the most dangerous applications of this whole stupid thing. Anyway, bookmark and subscribe to trusted sources of information while you can still find them. pressgazette.co.uk/platforms/de...
'Devastating' potential impact of Google AI Overviews on publisher visibility revealedpressgazette.co.uk Google AI Overviews: Exclusive Press Gazette research reveals impact of AI-generated search on publisher visibility and Google traffic.
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59 years ago today, Griswold v. Connecticut guaranteed the right to birth control. Justice Thomas says the Supreme Court should "reconsider" that ruling. And this week, 38 GOP senators voted against the Right to Contraception Act. Republicans are coming for birth control.
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The main thing to understand about abortion ban exceptions do not exist. They are ornamental. They’re like plastic fruit. They are not meant to be used, they’re just there to make the ban look reasonable. bsky.app/profile/jbou...
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"After taking office & examining 100s of pages of curriculum, Gore was shocked by what she found—and didn’t find. The pervasive indoctrination she had railed against simply did not exist. Children were not being sexualized & she could find no examples" of CRT. Former allies started threatening her.
A GOP Texas school board member campaigned against schools indoctrina…www.texastribune.org Courtney Gore, a Granbury ISD school board member, has disavowed the far-right platform she campaigned on. Her defiance has brought her backlash.
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"Bird-washing?" "Dish-twitching?" IBP biologist Ramiro Aragon multitasking at the field house where his crew is staying near Stanislaus NF in CA's Sierra Nevada. The crew is keeping a "birds seen while washing dishes" list. 7 species and counting! #AlwaysBeBirding🪶
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It is worth noting that a mere six years ago, a teenaged girl made it her Girl Scout Gold Award project to raise the age of child marriage in New Hampshire from 13 to 16; it took her two tries to get a bill passsed. www.refinery29.com/en-us/2018/0...
JESUS CHRIST!!!!!!!!!!
This Girl Scout Fought Against Child Marriage — & Scored A Winwww.refinery29.com New Hampshire raised its minimum age of marriage to 16 as a result of Cassandra Levesque's efforts.
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Wordle 1,052 X/6 ⬜🟨🟩⬜🟨 🟩🟩🟩⬜🟩 🟩🟩🟩⬜🟩 🟩🟩🟩⬜🟩 🟩🟩🟩⬜🟩 🟩🟩🟩⬜🟩 Seriously!?
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Every few years I put a feeler out in case anyone knows something: I want a globe of the Earth, but I only want the rock part. I want to see under Antarctic ice, and I want seamounts and canyons. Theoretically this should be possible--the data exists, mostly?--and I even have a 3D printer Help?
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There's a reason @highcountrynews.bsky.social is currently the only publication other than our local newspaper that we pay for a subscription to. I *loved* this essay celebrating enjoying just *being* outdoors, without needing to turn it into a sport. www.hcn.org/issues/notes...
Notes on not sending it - High Country Newswww.hcn.org Not all people who enjoy the outdoors do sporty things.
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New paper out in Ornithological Applications by Jones, H. H., C. Ray, M. Johnson, and R. Siegel (2024). 🪶🌎🧪 Check it out here: doi.org/10.1093/orni...
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🪶🌎🧪New work published in The Wilson Journal of Ornithology (@wilsonornithsoc.bsky.social) from IBP's Peter Pyle and Lynn Schofield on sapsucker molt. Read about it in our latest blog post. bit.ly/3Q2Ga6Y
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CORRECTION! Hannah is still an ACTIVE MAPS bander at age 90+ ! Go Hannah! What an inspiration!
Former MAPS bander Hannah Suthers was featured in USGS's "Women in Bird Banding" article. She founded the Featherbed Lane Bird Banding Research Station in New Jersey which is one of the oldest privately-run bird banding stations in the US. 🪶🌎🧪
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Which taxa of birds do these clues point to? 🪶
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Some people (mostly of the kind who use "woke" as an insult) criticize Scientific American for covering political issues, but we've been advocating for the teaching of evolution since the Scopes Monkey Trial in 1925 and we're not about to stop
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Quick portrait of a Crested Caracara 🎨 Do you ever get the urge to just drop everything and draw something, then carry on with your day? That's where this guy arose from. I love caracaras, they're endlessly fascinating. We're lucky to have these weird falcons around!