Alan Yoshioka, PhD
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thesheepcat.bsky.social
Alan Yoshioka, PhD
@thesheepcat.bsky.social
400 followers 410 following 710 posts
Come for the bugs and flowers and occasional topical verse; stay for a vision of human flourishing: faith and reason, dialogue, democracy. “Truth and love need each other.” Byzantinish Catholic,☦️ widower, Japanese Canadian,🌸🍁 medical editor.
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thesheepcat.bsky.social
Alan Yoshioka, PhD @thesheepcat.bsky.social · Nov 16
Four years on, my 2020 review of a book on Catholic Social Teaching remains as good an introduction as any to what I'm about. Along the way, I honour the memory of my beloved wife, Theresa, who truly tried to live by that teaching.
bccatholic.ca/voices/alan-...
A beautiful woman smiles with great warmth. Her headshot fills a circle within a white frame. She is looking directly towards the camera, with an expression both serene and animated, as if to express the assurance the medieval mystic Julian of Norwich writes of: "'All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.' ... This [Jesus said to me] so tenderly, without blame of any kind toward me or anybody else." The woman is white, middle-aged. Her eyes are blue. Shoulder-length brown hair is swept back from an oval face. She is wearing a deep red top and burgundy velour jacket. She has carefully coordinated her make-up, a blue scarf, and a bead necklace in warm colours. Sunglasses sit high on her head. Natural light from the left, her right, illuminates her face; a neutral background is darkened at right as if in shade.
Reposted by Alan Yoshioka, PhD
akurjata.ca
Wait, Mamdani's mom directed Monsoon Wedding??? WHAT?
November 5, 2025 at 6:53 AM
Reposted by Alan Yoshioka, PhD
gelliottmorris.com
Seven data-driven lessons from the 2025 elections

www.gelliottmorris.com/p/seven-data...
Seven data-driven lessons from the 2025 elections
Democrats outran their polls and swept statewide races from Georgia to New Jersey, on an agenda of affordability and a broad anti-Trump backlash
www.gelliottmorris.com
November 5, 2025 at 1:07 PM
Reposted by Alan Yoshioka, PhD
broadwaybabyto.bsky.social
The fact that the Trump admin removed ASL interpreters tells you everything you need to know about this regime’s stance on disability rights.

They’re eugenicists.

RFK Jr and Dr Oz constantly insinuate only the strong should survive.

Trump suggested his own disabled nephew be left to die
November 5, 2025 at 8:06 AM
thesheepcat.bsky.social
I suppose it's a good thing for us humans that this fearsome-looking dragon-like thing is only about 6 mm long.

It's the larva of a brown lacewing. If it makes it to adulthood, it'll be really pretty. Also, lacewings prey upon aphids and other pests.
#inverts
Macro photo of a long, slender reddish-brown insect with a curved beak-like front end that looks capable of tearing prey apart. Close-up photo, apparently of a molt of a brown insect with translucent lacy wings. The blurred background is mostly light green lichen on an irregular light brown surface.
November 4, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Reposted by Alan Yoshioka, PhD
dupuisj.bsky.social
This Physicist Says We Don't Take COVID Seriously Enough via @thetyee.ca

thetyee.ca/Analysis/202...
This Physicist Says We Don’t Take COVID Seriously Enough | The Tyee
We downplay the virus at our peril, warns Yaneer Bar-Yam. And children are more at risk than we thought.
thetyee.ca
October 31, 2025 at 4:40 AM
thesheepcat.bsky.social
New and improved pics for #Halloween.
1/2. A long-jawed orbweaver (Metellina sp., I believe), a whirligig mite (Anystis sp.), another prostig mite (family Rhagidiidae), and a Western earwig (Forficula dentata).
#arachtober 🐡
Photo of an intricately carved jack-o'-lantern showing a spider with very long front legs. Photo of an intricately carved jack-o'-lantern showing a mite. Eight legs surround a round central part called the idiosoma. It has many hairs. Caveats: Two dots for sensory organs are shown too large, giving the critter the aspect of a cartoon octopus. Oh, well! The front part, called the gnathosoma, from which the two palps extend downwards, is not shown clearly. Photo of an intricately carved jack-o'-lantern showing an eight-legged creature oriented towards the left. Photo of a jack-o'-lantern showing a long-bodied insect with distinctive appendages curved inwards at the back. Caveat: The head is shown too large.
October 31, 2025 at 6:19 PM
thesheepcat.bsky.social
I'm pretty much ready for #Halloween.
L to R: whirligig mite (Anystis sp.), another prostig mite (family Rhagidiidae), and Western earwig (Forficula dentata). The pièce de résistance, a long-jawed orbweaver jack-o'-lantern (not shown), was completed this afternoon.
#arachtober 🐡
Photo of three intricately carved jack-o'-lanterns. The legs of the arachnid at left are nearly radially symmetric; the arachnid in the middle has long forelegs and bright bands across its body; the insect at right has long, segmented antennae and converging arcs (barely visible from this angle) at the back. The background is leaf-covered lawn, very dark.
October 30, 2025 at 11:39 PM
thesheepcat.bsky.social
Tiger fly (Coenosia sp.) taking off from my neighbour's fence yesterday. Vancouver, BC.
#inverts 📸🪰
A close-up flash photo freezes the motion of a dark gray fly just above the light gray surface it has sprung up from. Its legs are all extended, and its wings are spread at an angle. Large, dark red eyes dominate its head. It has black bands along its thorax and black patches on its abdomen. It casts a recognizably fly-shaped shadow.
October 30, 2025 at 4:07 PM
thesheepcat.bsky.social
The replies are pretty amusing too.

Not that it would have mattered much in the days before electronic submission, but I *think* the filenames of my own drafts didn't ever match the pattern *steamingpile*.wp*.
earlymodernjohn.bsky.social John Gallagher @earlymodernjohn.bsky.social · 14d
Genuinely delighted to download a PhD thesis from a university repository where the author has neglected to remove the words "BITCH THIS IS YOUR THESIS" from the filename.
October 30, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Reposted by Alan Yoshioka, PhD
justinling.ca
In my column today, I note that Trump's freakout over the anti-tariff Reagan ad let slip a basic fact: He's very worried the Supreme Court is going to declare his tariffs unconstitutional.

It's in Canada's strategic interests to make that argument. #GiftLink
www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...
www.thestar.com
October 30, 2025 at 2:51 PM
thesheepcat.bsky.social
Hilarious little video by Instagram reel creator spaghettysean about how to take good photos of an earthworm so someone can tell which of more than 6000 species it might be.
#inaturalist #inverts 📷🪱
www.instagram.com/p/DQUSJjMDOmN/
Screenshot from Instagram: At left, a woman in a white lab coat stands beside a whiteboard on which is a labelled drawing of a worm. The superimposed transcript of the video says, "a worm." At right, text posted by spaghettysean explains, "Ad If you’re an earthworm in the midst of an identification crisis, this is for you. (If you’re not, well ... now you know a bit more about identifying earthworms.)" @inaturalistorg is tagged. Several users react, amused. 1,282 likes 1 day ago. Photo of a white woman in a homemade earthworm costume. She wears a light brown sweater. A light brown stocking on the top of her head gives it a rounded point. Dark disks cover her eyes. Her expression is puzzled and surprised. Caption: "The what?"
October 29, 2025 at 3:32 PM
thesheepcat.bsky.social
The F-winged barklice (Graphopsocus cruciatus) were out in force yesterday. I saw at least three on my neighbour's fence.
#inverts
Macro photo of a bug-eyed insect perched head-downwards on a nubbly light brown vertical surface. On its long ovalish wing is a darker brown F, from which it gets its name. The background and foreground are quite blurred.
October 28, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Reposted by Alan Yoshioka, PhD
altspaceforce.altgov.info
"Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed. The ability to destroy a planet, or even a whole system, is insignificant next to the power of the Force." - Lord Vader

"We’re going to win this war - not by fighting what we hate, but saving what we love!” Rose Tico
Edited photo of unknown origin showing the white house with a death star/ball room being constructed on the east wing
October 24, 2025 at 8:20 PM
thesheepcat.bsky.social
Not as spectacular as the swallows of Capistrano or anything, but the Ptenothrix (Ptenothrixen? 🙃) have returned to Marpole, Vancouver!😍
#inverts
www.inaturalist.org/observations...
Macro photo of a creature with an ovoid body, cream with a complex pattern in dark orange and dark red, including a carrot shape at the back. It walks away from the camera on a wet, nubbly, gray surface. Macro photo, in side view, of a six-legged creature with an ovoid body and small roundish head. It has a complex pattern in maroon, olive green, and cream. It stands or walks on a gray surface. Macro photo, in side view, of a six-legged creature with a cream-coloured ovoid body and small roundish head. It has a complex pattern in olive green and maroon. It stands or walks on a sandy brown surface..
October 25, 2025 at 2:51 AM
thesheepcat.bsky.social
They can put a man on the moon, but they can't make a tent that doesn't leak, so the nation's only alternative is to build a ballroom that will seat nearly 4 times as many guests as Buckingham Palace's. Got it.
#EastWing
Oop, pardon me, can't turn your eyes for a sec! More than 5 times as many.
October 25, 2025 at 12:10 AM
thesheepcat.bsky.social
Stinkbug aficionados – or, er, detractors, for that matter – this is way cool! I wonder if other kinds of stinkbugs exhibit the same phenomenon.
These stinkbugs coat their eggs in fungi to protect them from parasitic wasps
An unusual relationship could shed light on how insects choose their partners
www.science.org
October 24, 2025 at 4:53 PM
thesheepcat.bsky.social
Outstanding thread!👏
eliothiggins.bsky.social Eliot Higgins @eliothiggins.bsky.social · 22d
Verification asks: can we reliably establish what is true? Deliberation asks: can we debate and decide fairly together? Accountability asks: can we hold power to account? If one or more of those breaks down, democracy doesn’t just wobble, it hollows out.
October 24, 2025 at 4:56 AM
thesheepcat.bsky.social
Said Ronald, in hope, most of all,
That, answering liberty's call,
Berlin be united,
No longer benighted,
"Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

Said Donald, "This joint is too small.
There oughta be a beautiful hall.
We'll hold our events
Inside, not in tents.
Make room for it. Tear down this wall!"
October 24, 2025 at 1:05 AM
Reposted by Alan Yoshioka, PhD
thebulwark.com
After authoritarian regimes are toppled, monuments to the authoritarians are *always* removed. If America's republic survives, the ballroom should be treated no differently. www.thebulwark.com/p/we-will-te...
We Will Tear Down the Trump Palace Ballroom and Casino
Thinking like a dissident movement.
www.thebulwark.com
October 23, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Reposted by Alan Yoshioka, PhD
chenoweth.bsky.social
Lately I've seen many references to the 3.5% rule. A few years ago I pulled together this Q&A on potential uses and misuses of this statistic. www.hks.harvard.edu/sites/defaul...
The cover page for a discussion paper called "Questions, Answers, and Some Cautionary Updates Regarding the 3.5% Rule" by Erica Chenoweth. In the image, peaceful protesters can be seen in front of the US Capitol building.
April 1, 2025 at 2:32 AM
Reposted by Alan Yoshioka, PhD
annabower.bsky.social
My signal is annabower.24 if any other United States Attorneys want to text me!
annabower.bsky.social Anna Bower @annabower.bsky.social · 23d
EXCLUSIVE: One Saturday afternoon in October, my phone lit up with a notification.

I glanced down at the message.

“Anna, Lindsey Halligan here,” it began.

So began my text exchange with the woman who is prosecuting the president's perceived political enemies.

www.lawfaremedia.org/article/anna...
"Anna, Lindsey Halligan Here." Anna Bower Monday, October 20, 2025, 5:40 PM Share On: f X inK My Signal exchange with the interim U.S. attorney about the Letitia James grand jury.
October 21, 2025 at 4:34 AM
Reposted by Alan Yoshioka, PhD
dieworkwear.bsky.social
the year is 2030. the white house remains half demolished because president trump refused to pay construction workers and musk gutted government spending. two thieves sneak into the white house using a truck mounted ladder and steal the constitution
The White White East Wing has a big gaping hole.
October 21, 2025 at 5:50 AM
thesheepcat.bsky.social
"Can wicked rulers be allied with you,
those who contrive mischief by statute?
They band together against the life of the righteous,
and condemn the innocent to death."
—Psalm 94:20-21
#NoKings
October 18, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Reposted by Alan Yoshioka, PhD
adamkinzinger.substack.com
John Solomon didn’t stumble onto a secret — he recycled one. The Jan 6 committee’s phone-metadata subpoenas were public and reported years ago. This is how the right keeps the outrage machine humming: rename oversight as spying, erase timelines, and sell déjà vu.
open.substack.com/pub/adamkinz...
The Right’s Favorite Magic Trick: Turning Old News Into New Scandal
John Solomon’s “discovery” about Jan 6 phone records isn’t a scoop — it’s a rerun dressed as revelation.
open.substack.com
October 15, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Reposted by Alan Yoshioka, PhD
alexwild.bsky.social
Huh. Apparently I have a photo in the NYTimes today.

(Licensed not to the Times, but to the museum exhibit it covers, which is allowed)

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/a...
What Does an Ant Smell Like?
www.nytimes.com
October 15, 2025 at 3:09 PM