Dr. Katharine Dickson
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metaomicsnerd.bsky.social
Dr. Katharine Dickson
@metaomicsnerd.bsky.social
Microbiome engineer and biomethane scientist by training; climate, agriculture, science, and biotech policy and politics wonk by calling. I 分かる some 日本語.

Bluesky’s first Anaerobic Fungi Guru.

Opinions my own. She/her. ☸️ (Jōdo Shinshū)
Texas is not California minus taxes.
Ther insatiable greed is killing us. Literally.
December 28, 2025 at 5:46 AM
today's hot take is that I don't think there's some weird impending AI-enabled technofascist dystopia as much as there are a bunch of rich tech bros in SF huffing their own farts who are very good at coding but intensely bad at knowing how society actually functions
December 28, 2025 at 3:33 AM
Reposted by Dr. Katharine Dickson
How effective is protesting? According to historians and political scientists: very
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
How effective is protesting? According to historians and political scientists: very
From emancipation to women’s suffrage, civil rights and BLM, mass movement has shaped the arc of US history
www.theguardian.com
December 28, 2025 at 1:25 AM
Their pants are really in quite the twist about women getting more postsecondary degrees, I suspect.
December 27, 2025 at 11:03 PM
Reposted by Dr. Katharine Dickson
Our government’s priorities are entirely backward. And purposefully so.
December 27, 2025 at 3:11 PM
it's a lot of fun to force people who suggest things but are bad at planning to do all the planning, it's like watching someone suddenly realize they have to avoid a train wreck. big popcorn moment
December 27, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Make a Bond movie a PhD defense:

Dr.? No.
Make a Bond movie academic:

Herr Professor Doktor Doktor No
Make a Bond movie academic:

This Grant is Not Enough
December 26, 2025 at 8:39 PM
Make a Bond movie academic:

This Grant is Not Enough
Make a Bond movie academic:

Diamonds are Forever but this Contract is Just for One Year and Even Then Only if the Classes Make Enrollment and if No FT Faculty Want to Teach them Online Over the Summer for Extra Money Instead of You.
Make a Bond Movie academic

Best, Russia
December 26, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Reposted by Dr. Katharine Dickson
If the US invested in child care and had national policies like paid leave comparable to other industrialized countries, we would generate $775 billion of economic activity a year. The question should not be, “how can we afford to do this?” The question is, “how can we afford not to?” Let’s do this.
Most New Yorkers can’t afford childcare.
December 25, 2025 at 3:36 AM
Reposted by Dr. Katharine Dickson
There are only two offenses the Constitution goes out of its way to specifically say merit impeachment, and this is one of them.
GOP operatives Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman, convicted election fraudsters, were paid $960,000 in the second quarter to secure a pardon for a former nursing-home operator who defrauded the government of $38 million. Trump pardoned the man, Joseph Schwartz, last month.
Inside the New Fast Track to a Presidential Pardon
Even some of the president’s closest advisers have been surprised by a number of the recent series of pardons.
www.wsj.com
December 25, 2025 at 10:47 PM
don't really think I trust a company run by someone with constant anxiety
December 26, 2025 at 1:36 AM
みなさん!ブルースカイへようこそ。
December 25, 2025 at 6:49 AM
Reposted by Dr. Katharine Dickson
Just wanted to add that imprisoning people in buildings that weren't designed for mass occupancy can quickly lead to atrocious conditions. That description in Joy Kogawa's Obasan, of the Hastings Park cattle barns during the Japanese-Canadian internment? My mom said it was much worse.
December 24, 2025 at 5:58 PM
In the spirit of the holidays, remember that something given without attunement to the receiver isn’t a gift; it’s either a bribe or a wage.
December 24, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Reposted by Dr. Katharine Dickson
We don’t spend enough time discussing how the entire MAGA movement is kept afloat by the constant threats of stochastic terrorism orchestrated by the president of the United States.

Congress, the courts, much of the media … all kept in line by the mob boss and his army of anonymous goons.
December 24, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Reposted by Dr. Katharine Dickson
The judge also ordered that teachers have a right to misgender trans youth even when the parents know of and are supportive of their trans child. Just in case you thought this was actually about parental rights.
24 Dec 2025 @rikiwilchins.bsky.social -- Judge overturns CA school policy on outing trans kids, rules parents have right to know & teachers a right to tell them but no mention of child's rights. Case likely bound for Supremes. Weirdly CA law allows abortion w/o parental notification.
Federal judge rules California teachers are allowed to ‘out’ transgender students to parents
The ruling applies to all public schools in California and is a victory for two teachers who claimed that district policies violated their constitutional free speech and religious rights.
edsource.org
December 24, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Epstein Files EFTA000025010 to 25013. Marked graphic for disturbing text.
December 24, 2025 at 3:33 AM
In a hilarious turn of events, I had to dig out my dissertation to find a citation for my microbiome policy piece.
December 24, 2025 at 12:10 AM
Reposted by Dr. Katharine Dickson
I highly recommend watching this segment, not just because the CBS News execs and the White House didn’t want you to, but because these men were tortured and they deserved to have their voices heard.
!! Here’s a link to full video of the 60 Minutes segment that Bari Weiss killed last minute, via @jasonparis.bsky.social:

is.gd/paU8Ko

(It was uploaded to the Global TV app in Canada, seemingly by accident, and has now been taken down)
December 22, 2025 at 10:46 PM
Reposted by Dr. Katharine Dickson
Must say, while interviews with established PIs with deep cuts to their funding are important, the principal and longest term effects are on the trainees. An entire generation wiped of confidence.
December 23, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Reposted by Dr. Katharine Dickson
Powerful short documentary about the researchers affected by NIH grant terminations and broad extortion of universities.

youtu.be/DaTOmUZHeik

1/2
Death By a Thousand Cuts Capstone Archive Submission
YouTube video by Usha Sookai
youtu.be
December 23, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Reposted by Dr. Katharine Dickson
We aren't talking about the PA who has 5 figure student loan debt. We are talking about the fancy talking heads who have had seven figure salaries for years. I think Anderson Cooper can afford to leave 60 minutes with the support of his CNN salary.
As someone who often hates his job, this whole moralizing argument is really grating. People need their paychecks. How do you know they aren’t all actively looking for another job? Who in this economy can afford to just quit their job because their boss is a jackass?
December 23, 2025 at 12:53 PM
Reposted by Dr. Katharine Dickson
Americans having to bootleg broadcast news about our government’s offshored concentration camp is a level of fascism that immediately precedes democratic societies dropping leaflets on us from weather balloons.
And now someone has uploaded a version that wasn't filmed off a TV.

There's also the torrent link there, which is probably the fastest way to download the 60 Minutes segment on CECOT if you want to save the file locally to your computer.
Pulled 60 Minutes segment on CECOT : CBS : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
This is a screen recording of a 60 Minutes segment about the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) prison in El Salvador, which was intended to be...
archive.org
December 23, 2025 at 12:49 AM