Dr. Alexis Turner
@surliertexan.bsky.social
Taking the scenic route through life. Formerly: PhD in the history of science @Harvard. Currently: exchanging crappy US fascism for crummy UK fascism
Tarot, historical research, writing & editing, tutoring & consulting at drturners.com
Tarot, historical research, writing & editing, tutoring & consulting at drturners.com
Pinned
Knowledge-keeping is subversive. Remembering the stories they want to rewrite, to take from schools, to make dangerous to say, keeps our ancestors’ struggles alive. Keeping those embers lit so they can be blown back to life with a breath is power. Memory is power.
I'm trekking to a library today to get access to some databases, but I should really brush up on the state of their various results so I can search smart and make choices about which libraries I'll need to go to for what I want!
February 13, 2026 at 11:04 AM
I'm trekking to a library today to get access to some databases, but I should really brush up on the state of their various results so I can search smart and make choices about which libraries I'll need to go to for what I want!
Yes, proprietary scholarly databases like Web of Science, Scopus, Science Direct, etc. The kind you need research library membership to use because they are paywalled
February 13, 2026 at 11:02 AM
Yes, proprietary scholarly databases like Web of Science, Scopus, Science Direct, etc. The kind you need research library membership to use because they are paywalled
See for instance this post from when it first started happening. It was across a number of databases and American academic bsky was all over it for several weeks.
Sure pubmed. I believe there are only two case reports of body builders with muscle dysmorphia who have used androgenic steroids and that this isn't a purge of scientific research because it happens to be about hormones and body dysphoria. Totally plausible /s
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov?term=muscle+...
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov?term=muscle+...
February 13, 2026 at 10:59 AM
See for instance this post from when it first started happening. It was across a number of databases and American academic bsky was all over it for several weeks.
When Doge was going full tilt at the beginning of the admin, a lot of scientific databases (e.g. PubMed) started returning results that had clearly been trimmed of papers.
February 13, 2026 at 10:56 AM
When Doge was going full tilt at the beginning of the admin, a lot of scientific databases (e.g. PubMed) started returning results that had clearly been trimmed of papers.
I haven't had regular database access since I graduated so I haven't really been keeping tabs
February 13, 2026 at 9:37 AM
I haven't had regular database access since I graduated so I haven't really been keeping tabs
Hey insomniac American academics:
Did scientific research database access ever get back to normal after all those articles started disappearing from the results last year, or is access to articles still being suppressed?
Did scientific research database access ever get back to normal after all those articles started disappearing from the results last year, or is access to articles still being suppressed?
February 13, 2026 at 9:36 AM
Hey insomniac American academics:
Did scientific research database access ever get back to normal after all those articles started disappearing from the results last year, or is access to articles still being suppressed?
Did scientific research database access ever get back to normal after all those articles started disappearing from the results last year, or is access to articles still being suppressed?
The students are usually pretty quiet in this beekeeping class, but everyone has 20 questions about bees fucking.
February 12, 2026 at 8:58 PM
The students are usually pretty quiet in this beekeeping class, but everyone has 20 questions about bees fucking.
Like you even have to ask
February 12, 2026 at 1:29 PM
Like you even have to ask
I am quickly developing gripes with historical Christian beekeeping practices, but that has not stopped me from being taken with the lady saint beekeeper. I contain multitudes
It's St Gobnait's feast day, so who was Cork's medieval beekeeper @liber-ray.bsky.social @ria.ie looks at the life and times of Ireland's lesser-known patron saint of bees and beekeeping www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...
It's St Gobnait's feast day so who was Cork's medieval beekeeper?
St Gobnait was an Irish female saint associated with bees in the Middle Ages and is still celebrated by local communities today
www.rte.ie
February 12, 2026 at 9:29 AM
I am quickly developing gripes with historical Christian beekeeping practices, but that has not stopped me from being taken with the lady saint beekeeper. I contain multitudes
Philosophy is the closest discipline I can think of to recreating this problem, and I think it's often for the same reasons. "Mind" is conceived as a closed-system that ideally floats free from the world, it's internal processes are entirely self-sufficient and bias only creeps in externally
February 12, 2026 at 9:23 AM
Philosophy is the closest discipline I can think of to recreating this problem, and I think it's often for the same reasons. "Mind" is conceived as a closed-system that ideally floats free from the world, it's internal processes are entirely self-sufficient and bias only creeps in externally
I think there's a constellation of problems creating feedback loops preventing epistemic corrective mechanisms. The conflation in the industry between "logic" and "thought," for instance, encourages intellectual self-aggrandizement/self-sufficiency that feed into the processes y'all note
February 12, 2026 at 9:18 AM
I think there's a constellation of problems creating feedback loops preventing epistemic corrective mechanisms. The conflation in the industry between "logic" and "thought," for instance, encourages intellectual self-aggrandizement/self-sufficiency that feed into the processes y'all note
I feel like a valuable lesson for writing class would be learning the distinctions between "old," "older," and "elderly" lol
February 11, 2026 at 9:22 PM
I feel like a valuable lesson for writing class would be learning the distinctions between "old," "older," and "elderly" lol
( also, imho, most people aren't being entirely honest with themselves if they say they want to know the truth when they assess things. Most people in my experience are actually looking for either a) what they can make use of in a situation or b) something to make them comfortable or reassured )
February 11, 2026 at 9:08 PM
( also, imho, most people aren't being entirely honest with themselves if they say they want to know the truth when they assess things. Most people in my experience are actually looking for either a) what they can make use of in a situation or b) something to make them comfortable or reassured )
Today we learned the way to say this in Greek class ( γηρι / gyri which shares a root with geriatric lol )
February 11, 2026 at 9:05 PM
Today we learned the way to say this in Greek class ( γηρι / gyri which shares a root with geriatric lol )
*popcorn gif*
February 11, 2026 at 9:03 PM
*popcorn gif*
I think it's just so hard to choose amongst the many contenders for antichrist these days, people have decision fatigue
February 11, 2026 at 4:43 PM
I think it's just so hard to choose amongst the many contenders for antichrist these days, people have decision fatigue
For my money, I am rather a fan of truth, but I actually think this holds equal footing with asking what is right and, simultaneously, what is wise and what is compassionate. Any answer worth its salt has to be able to respond to them all. I think it's an easy mistake to default to "truth"
February 11, 2026 at 12:46 PM
For my money, I am rather a fan of truth, but I actually think this holds equal footing with asking what is right and, simultaneously, what is wise and what is compassionate. Any answer worth its salt has to be able to respond to them all. I think it's an easy mistake to default to "truth"
It's cliche to say that people see what they want to see.
It becomes less trite when you ask yourself, as a serious task, what it is YOU aim to see when you look at the world.
It becomes less trite when you ask yourself, as a serious task, what it is YOU aim to see when you look at the world.
February 11, 2026 at 12:40 PM
It's cliche to say that people see what they want to see.
It becomes less trite when you ask yourself, as a serious task, what it is YOU aim to see when you look at the world.
It becomes less trite when you ask yourself, as a serious task, what it is YOU aim to see when you look at the world.
Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night, please let me enjoy my terrible terrible social media habit ok
February 11, 2026 at 2:28 AM
Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night, please let me enjoy my terrible terrible social media habit ok
Like maybe you have a working camera laying around that you don't use any more? I have a good home for it!
February 10, 2026 at 8:17 PM
Like maybe you have a working camera laying around that you don't use any more? I have a good home for it!
Hey bsky. I have a friend who is homeless right now. He is too proud to ask for money to get himself an ID that would help him get a job, but if someone were to send him a digital camera so he could sell a few photographs to get the $ this would make his whole year.
February 10, 2026 at 8:16 PM
Hey bsky. I have a friend who is homeless right now. He is too proud to ask for money to get himself an ID that would help him get a job, but if someone were to send him a digital camera so he could sell a few photographs to get the $ this would make his whole year.
OTOH @swilua.bsky.social wants to know whether you could develop a tolerance to certain poisons and then secretly poison someone else with shared food because of course she does
February 10, 2026 at 7:08 PM
OTOH @swilua.bsky.social wants to know whether you could develop a tolerance to certain poisons and then secretly poison someone else with shared food because of course she does
My research questions are slowly coalescing around how forage options affect bee health and how certain forage does/doesn't act medicinally for the bees.
February 10, 2026 at 7:07 PM
My research questions are slowly coalescing around how forage options affect bee health and how certain forage does/doesn't act medicinally for the bees.