Kevin Winker
@kevinwinker.bsky.social
Alaskan. Educator & researcher. Museums, birds, biodiversity, evolution, genetics, ecology, wildlife, environment, zoonotic disease, and...
https://www.universityofalaskamuseumbirds.org/
https://www.universityofalaskamuseumbirds.org/
Reposted by Kevin Winker
This is a genuinely huge, sweeping victory today for the University of California—or rather, for us, its faculty, acting through our faculty associations, while the UC itself maintained a strict policy of deer-in-headlights silence.
The Trump admin has given up its appeal of a powerful injunction:
The Trump admin has given up its appeal of a powerful injunction:
Trump administration drops appeal of court order blocking $1.2-billion UCLA settlement
The Trump administration dropped its appeal of a major higher education case in which a federal judge blocked its $1.2-billion settlement proposal to UCLA over alleged civil rights violations. It will...
www.latimes.com
February 14, 2026 at 4:57 AM
This is a genuinely huge, sweeping victory today for the University of California—or rather, for us, its faculty, acting through our faculty associations, while the UC itself maintained a strict policy of deer-in-headlights silence.
The Trump admin has given up its appeal of a powerful injunction:
The Trump admin has given up its appeal of a powerful injunction:
Standing together in the face of divisive politics and working together is *the* solution. Thank you, National Governors Association. And Congress, please show us more of this.
thehill.com/homenews/adm...
thehill.com/homenews/adm...
thehill.com
February 10, 2026 at 8:35 PM
Standing together in the face of divisive politics and working together is *the* solution. Thank you, National Governors Association. And Congress, please show us more of this.
thehill.com/homenews/adm...
thehill.com/homenews/adm...
Enjoyed working with coauthors on our recent paper in PeerJ on divergence in Beringian birds. Interesting results: divergence events spread over time muddy the signals, and we need new calibrations for shallow divergence times estimated using high-covergage Illumina data.
peerj.com/articles/206...
peerj.com/articles/206...
Mitogenomes reveal the timing and distribution of divergence events among trans-Beringian birds
Glacial cycles operating across Beringia have repeatedly exposed large swathes of the Bering Land Bridge, intermittently isolating and reuniting North American and Eurasian taxa. In high-latitude bird...
peerj.com
February 3, 2026 at 10:26 PM
Enjoyed working with coauthors on our recent paper in PeerJ on divergence in Beringian birds. Interesting results: divergence events spread over time muddy the signals, and we need new calibrations for shallow divergence times estimated using high-covergage Illumina data.
peerj.com/articles/206...
peerj.com/articles/206...
Reposted by Kevin Winker
I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
Stay free
Stay free
Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)
YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen
youtu.be
January 28, 2026 at 5:02 PM
I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
Stay free
Stay free
Reposted by Kevin Winker
1. The thing about science that these jokers don't understand is that science cannot be vibe-coded.
Whatever its flaws, the point with vibe coding is that you're trying to quickly make something that sorta works, where you can immediately sorta see if it sorta works and then sorta use it.
Whatever its flaws, the point with vibe coding is that you're trying to quickly make something that sorta works, where you can immediately sorta see if it sorta works and then sorta use it.
“The idea is to put ChatGPT front and center inside software that scientists use to write up their work in much the same way that chatbots are now embedded into popular programming editors.
It’s vibe coding, but for science.”
It’s vibe coding, but for science.”
OpenAI’s latest product lets you vibe code science
Prism is a ChatGPT-powered text editor that automates much of the work involved in writing scientific papers.
www.technologyreview.com
January 27, 2026 at 10:09 PM
1. The thing about science that these jokers don't understand is that science cannot be vibe-coded.
Whatever its flaws, the point with vibe coding is that you're trying to quickly make something that sorta works, where you can immediately sorta see if it sorta works and then sorta use it.
Whatever its flaws, the point with vibe coding is that you're trying to quickly make something that sorta works, where you can immediately sorta see if it sorta works and then sorta use it.
Reposted by Kevin Winker
There is a cost to science denial.
January 27, 2026 at 9:29 PM
There is a cost to science denial.
Reposted by Kevin Winker
I just thought everyone should see this
January 22, 2026 at 11:02 PM
I just thought everyone should see this
Reposted by Kevin Winker
This must be weird news to see if you’re one of the literally hundreds or even thousands of university administrators who preemptively censored faculty, scrubbed websites, changed the names of centers, etc.
Trump administration drops legal appeal over anti-DEI funding threat to schools and colleges. This leaves in place a federal judge's ruling that the anti-DEI effort violated the First Amendment and federal procedural rules. (Via AP) apnews.com/article/dei-... #ncpol #nced
Trump administration drops legal appeal over anti-DEI funding threat to schools and colleges
The Trump administration is dropping its appeal of a federal court ruling that blocked a campaign against diversity, equity, and inclusion threatening federal funding to the nation’s schools and colle...
apnews.com
January 23, 2026 at 1:45 PM
This must be weird news to see if you’re one of the literally hundreds or even thousands of university administrators who preemptively censored faculty, scrubbed websites, changed the names of centers, etc.
Reposted by Kevin Winker
[AI bubble bursts] billionaire tech bro: the stupid consumer did not understand it
January 22, 2026 at 2:42 AM
[AI bubble bursts] billionaire tech bro: the stupid consumer did not understand it
Reposted by Kevin Winker
This is an excellent analogy, because my recollection from grade school is that the pen on the right looks fun and exciting, and then you play with it for a few minutes and realize it's not actually useful for anything and in fact makes some tasks more cumbersome, and never think about it again.
yeah, just out of interest, how many people choose the pen on the right for real work or art? See a lot of them in professional workplaces, do you?
January 22, 2026 at 12:21 PM
This is an excellent analogy, because my recollection from grade school is that the pen on the right looks fun and exciting, and then you play with it for a few minutes and realize it's not actually useful for anything and in fact makes some tasks more cumbersome, and never think about it again.
25th. It's time. Tiny sliver of humor:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSDI...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSDI...
"Piece of Denmark" - Marsh Family parody of "Piece of My Heart" by Erma Franklin on Greenland/Trump
YouTube video by Marsh Family
www.youtube.com
January 20, 2026 at 6:43 PM
25th. It's time. Tiny sliver of humor:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSDI...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSDI...
Reposted by Kevin Winker
These are the icy mountains of Pluto. It took 9 years to get these magnificent images… and 4.8 billion kilometers.
January 18, 2026 at 7:39 PM
These are the icy mountains of Pluto. It took 9 years to get these magnificent images… and 4.8 billion kilometers.
Case No. gajillion of People Don't Like AI (but with a new twist):
www.artnews.com/art-news/new...
www.artnews.com/art-news/new...
Alaska Art Student Arrested for Eating Another Student’s AI-Generated Art in Protest
A University of Alaska student was charged with a misdemeanor for eating another student's AI-generated art in protest.
www.artnews.com
January 18, 2026 at 7:59 PM
Case No. gajillion of People Don't Like AI (but with a new twist):
www.artnews.com/art-news/new...
www.artnews.com/art-news/new...
Reposted by Kevin Winker
Wow, sure would be pretty crazy if a ton of experts in the artificial intelligence field relentlessly warned everyone about this state of affairs being inevitable over and over for years.
January 17, 2026 at 11:38 AM
Wow, sure would be pretty crazy if a ton of experts in the artificial intelligence field relentlessly warned everyone about this state of affairs being inevitable over and over for years.
Reposted by Kevin Winker
Nice to see strong support in Congress: “In an 82-15 vote, the Senate approved a minibus budget bill to fund agencies involved in science and the environment, among other issues, through Sept. 30. The bill passed in the House last week by a vote of 397 to 28.” www.nbcnews.com/politics/pol...
Congress passes bill to fund U.S. science agencies, rebuffing Trump's requested cuts
The Senate voted to provide billions more to NASA, NOAA and the National Science Foundation than the president had asked for.
www.nbcnews.com
January 16, 2026 at 6:14 PM
Nice to see strong support in Congress: “In an 82-15 vote, the Senate approved a minibus budget bill to fund agencies involved in science and the environment, among other issues, through Sept. 30. The bill passed in the House last week by a vote of 397 to 28.” www.nbcnews.com/politics/pol...
DOGE's ignorant hacking echoes in remote Alaska military base. Bring on the MREs.
www.stripes.com/branches/arm...
www.stripes.com/branches/arm...
Fort Greely struggles to feed soldiers due to impact of cuts initiated by DOGE
The home to the 49th Missile Defense Battalion faces “a critical disruption in food service” resulting from “a loss of essential civilian positions.”
www.stripes.com
January 14, 2026 at 7:24 PM
DOGE's ignorant hacking echoes in remote Alaska military base. Bring on the MREs.
www.stripes.com/branches/arm...
www.stripes.com/branches/arm...
Reposted by Kevin Winker
We've got ISSUES. Literally.
We scraped >100k special issues & over 1 million articles to bring you a PISS-poor paper. We quantify just how many excess papers are published by guest editors abusing special issues to boost their CVs. How bad is it & what can we do?
arxiv.org/abs/2601.07563
A 🧵 1/n
We scraped >100k special issues & over 1 million articles to bring you a PISS-poor paper. We quantify just how many excess papers are published by guest editors abusing special issues to boost their CVs. How bad is it & what can we do?
arxiv.org/abs/2601.07563
A 🧵 1/n
January 13, 2026 at 8:27 AM
We've got ISSUES. Literally.
We scraped >100k special issues & over 1 million articles to bring you a PISS-poor paper. We quantify just how many excess papers are published by guest editors abusing special issues to boost their CVs. How bad is it & what can we do?
arxiv.org/abs/2601.07563
A 🧵 1/n
We scraped >100k special issues & over 1 million articles to bring you a PISS-poor paper. We quantify just how many excess papers are published by guest editors abusing special issues to boost their CVs. How bad is it & what can we do?
arxiv.org/abs/2601.07563
A 🧵 1/n
Reposted by Kevin Winker
Most journals practice special issues fairly responsibly. But it's the worst offenders that contribute most of the PISS. ~90% of PISS in our data come from just 150/904 journals.
And it's exactly who you think it is. #MDPI #Frontiers
13/n
And it's exactly who you think it is. #MDPI #Frontiers
13/n
January 13, 2026 at 8:27 AM
Most journals practice special issues fairly responsibly. But it's the worst offenders that contribute most of the PISS. ~90% of PISS in our data come from just 150/904 journals.
And it's exactly who you think it is. #MDPI #Frontiers
13/n
And it's exactly who you think it is. #MDPI #Frontiers
13/n
Spring semester is off to a start.
January 13, 2026 at 7:04 PM
Spring semester is off to a start.
Reposted by Kevin Winker
New analysis: 0.25% of 2025 Bluesky posts contained citations to research...while only 0.000006% of X/Twitter posts did.
In raw numbers, X still has 2x the research-based posts that Bluesky does (though they are harder to find): but it took Twitter 10 years to get there vs just 2 years for Bluesky
In raw numbers, X still has 2x the research-based posts that Bluesky does (though they are harder to find): but it took Twitter 10 years to get there vs just 2 years for Bluesky
THREAD
The first full year of tracking research on @bsky.app
Hi, we are Altmetric, and we track how research is communicated across the web.
We now have one full calendar year of Bluesky research data and thought we'd have a looksie.
The first full year of tracking research on @bsky.app
Hi, we are Altmetric, and we track how research is communicated across the web.
We now have one full calendar year of Bluesky research data and thought we'd have a looksie.
January 9, 2026 at 6:23 PM
New analysis: 0.25% of 2025 Bluesky posts contained citations to research...while only 0.000006% of X/Twitter posts did.
In raw numbers, X still has 2x the research-based posts that Bluesky does (though they are harder to find): but it took Twitter 10 years to get there vs just 2 years for Bluesky
In raw numbers, X still has 2x the research-based posts that Bluesky does (though they are harder to find): but it took Twitter 10 years to get there vs just 2 years for Bluesky
Reposted by Kevin Winker
this is a fascinating statistic. i would assume this is to a great degree simply the obvious fact that green energy is by definition a growth sector. fossil fuels is not, notwithstanding the big run up in production in FF in the last 20 years.
Wall Street’s biggest banks made more money financing green projects than they did from working with fossil fuel companies for a fourth straight year, even as they faced ongoing pressure to pull back from the business
Banks Notch Higher Fees From Green Bonds Than Fossil Fuel Debt
Wall Street’s biggest banks made more money financing green projects than they did from working with fossil fuel companies for a fourth straight year, even as they faced ongoing pressure to pull back from the business.
bloom.bg
January 2, 2026 at 4:05 PM
this is a fascinating statistic. i would assume this is to a great degree simply the obvious fact that green energy is by definition a growth sector. fossil fuels is not, notwithstanding the big run up in production in FF in the last 20 years.
Ouch. Last day of the year rolls in with a chill.
December 31, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Ouch. Last day of the year rolls in with a chill.
It has been awhile since we've seen temperatures like these.
December 28, 2025 at 8:10 AM
It has been awhile since we've seen temperatures like these.
And the hits just keep coming. This is like what we had 20+ years ago.
December 27, 2025 at 6:35 PM
And the hits just keep coming. This is like what we had 20+ years ago.