Michael Brewer
@michaelbrewer.bsky.social
Associate Professor; evolutionary biology and bioinformatics; lover of video games, fantasy literature, ttRPGs, and empathy.
📍Eastern North Carolina
🕷️🧬💻
📍Eastern North Carolina
🕷️🧬💻
Reposted by Michael Brewer
I am not sorry. This is simply true. Academics should be able to write fluently and express themselves clearly and academics should do their own work. It’s literally our job. It’s what we trained until 22nd grade to do. This is a simple observation that should require no explanation or defense.
I’m sorry, but it is disgraceful to be an academic who uses this technology to conduct research. It should be prohibited in all of our scholarly institutions, including universities and journals.
December 20, 2025 at 1:45 PM
I am not sorry. This is simply true. Academics should be able to write fluently and express themselves clearly and academics should do their own work. It’s literally our job. It’s what we trained until 22nd grade to do. This is a simple observation that should require no explanation or defense.
Reposted by Michael Brewer
railroad worms on a date
December 14, 2025 at 1:10 AM
railroad worms on a date
Reposted by Michael Brewer
“While the AI industry claims its models can “think,” “reason,” and “learn,” their supposed achievements rest on marketing hype and stolen intellectual labor. In reality, AI erodes academic freedom, weakens critical reading, and subordinates the pursuit of knowledge to corporate interests.”
AI Is Hollowing Out Higher Education
Olivia Guest & Iris van Rooij urge teachers and scholars to reject tools that commodify learning, deskill students, and promote illiteracy.
www.project-syndicate.org
November 15, 2025 at 5:24 PM
“While the AI industry claims its models can “think,” “reason,” and “learn,” their supposed achievements rest on marketing hype and stolen intellectual labor. In reality, AI erodes academic freedom, weakens critical reading, and subordinates the pursuit of knowledge to corporate interests.”
Reposted by Michael Brewer
Super useful tips & tricks for insect specimen imaging from @andrewjohnston.bsky.social! He shares how to build an affordable focus stacking system on your own.
Handy guide available here:
www.insectid.org/post/focus-s...
#ECN2025 📸 🪲
Handy guide available here:
www.insectid.org/post/focus-s...
#ECN2025 📸 🪲
November 8, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Super useful tips & tricks for insect specimen imaging from @andrewjohnston.bsky.social! He shares how to build an affordable focus stacking system on your own.
Handy guide available here:
www.insectid.org/post/focus-s...
#ECN2025 📸 🪲
Handy guide available here:
www.insectid.org/post/focus-s...
#ECN2025 📸 🪲
Sexy Kei Truck 🛻
October 25, 2025 at 11:00 PM
Sexy Kei Truck 🛻
Reposted by Michael Brewer
Introducing one of the newest species of millipedes, the colorful Apheloria uwharrie, from the Uwharrie Mountains of North Carolina. More about this species and others in its genus is in our revision in Zootaxa — www.mapress.com/zt/article/v...
October 3, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Introducing one of the newest species of millipedes, the colorful Apheloria uwharrie, from the Uwharrie Mountains of North Carolina. More about this species and others in its genus is in our revision in Zootaxa — www.mapress.com/zt/article/v...
Reposted by Michael Brewer
This is why everything sucks. It's not trans people. It's not immigrants. You are being robbed blind before your eyes and those same people also own all the tech and media networks to tell you that the cause is not them
September 18, 2025 at 6:56 PM
This is why everything sucks. It's not trans people. It's not immigrants. You are being robbed blind before your eyes and those same people also own all the tech and media networks to tell you that the cause is not them
Reposted by Michael Brewer
AI hates you, and you should hate it back. Only grifters use it and we don't have to accept it as inevitable.
New: HHS has told all employees that they should start using ChatGPT, continuing the administration's AI-ification of everything, its trust in tools that hallucinate, and the general sense that getting things right is not important or worth trying to do:
www.404media.co/hhs-asks-all...
www.404media.co/hhs-asks-all...
HHS Asks All Employees to Start Using ChatGPT
The agency tells workers "we should all be vigilant against barriers that could slow our progress toward making America healthy again."
www.404media.co
September 10, 2025 at 5:28 PM
AI hates you, and you should hate it back. Only grifters use it and we don't have to accept it as inevitable.
Reposted by Michael Brewer
To argue that science is non-political at a time when climate change, vaccines, evolution, and countless other forms of scientific research are all under intense assault seems ludicrous. The only way to understand these controversies about science is through the humanities.
In which a Yale prof calls for jettisoning humanities to make way for science-only universities.
“scientists… are being punished for the sins of [humanities scholars] because we all live under one roof. I cannot see a compelling reason for our continued cohabitation.”
“scientists… are being punished for the sins of [humanities scholars] because we all live under one roof. I cannot see a compelling reason for our continued cohabitation.”
Unyoke the Sciences From the Humanities
Arts and sciences typically cohabitate. Should they?
thedispatch.com
August 13, 2025 at 8:12 PM
To argue that science is non-political at a time when climate change, vaccines, evolution, and countless other forms of scientific research are all under intense assault seems ludicrous. The only way to understand these controversies about science is through the humanities.
@thoughtographic.bsky.social was kind enough to draw our Russian tortoise and plated lizard. The illustrations turned out great!
I highly recommend Justin’s work and encourage folks to reach out when he is taking commissions.
I highly recommend Justin’s work and encourage folks to reach out when he is taking commissions.
August 7, 2025 at 4:16 AM
@thoughtographic.bsky.social was kind enough to draw our Russian tortoise and plated lizard. The illustrations turned out great!
I highly recommend Justin’s work and encourage folks to reach out when he is taking commissions.
I highly recommend Justin’s work and encourage folks to reach out when he is taking commissions.
Reposted by Michael Brewer
I'm working on the Steam capsule for my #Centipede game, hopefully it will have its own page soon!
#GameArt #Gamedev #3D #B3D #MadeWithUnity #Unity #indiedev #indiegame #Lowpoly #bugSky #insects
bsky.app/profile/artb...
#GameArt #Gamedev #3D #B3D #MadeWithUnity #Unity #indiedev #indiegame #Lowpoly #bugSky #insects
bsky.app/profile/artb...
August 5, 2025 at 12:48 PM
I'm working on the Steam capsule for my #Centipede game, hopefully it will have its own page soon!
#GameArt #Gamedev #3D #B3D #MadeWithUnity #Unity #indiedev #indiegame #Lowpoly #bugSky #insects
bsky.app/profile/artb...
#GameArt #Gamedev #3D #B3D #MadeWithUnity #Unity #indiedev #indiegame #Lowpoly #bugSky #insects
bsky.app/profile/artb...
Reposted by Michael Brewer
next time you're in a national park, take some photos of the signage and upload it to help these archivists www.404media.co/save-our-sig...
'Save Our Signs' Wants to Save the Real History of National Parks Before Trump Erases It
Trump wants to erase any "negative" content from educational sites at National Parks. A group of data preservationists asks visitors to help them document placards and monuments, before they disappear...
www.404media.co
July 8, 2025 at 4:25 PM
next time you're in a national park, take some photos of the signage and upload it to help these archivists www.404media.co/save-our-sig...
Reposted by Michael Brewer
Today I learned there is a ChatGPT "spider ID assistant."
Please do not use ChatGPT or any other generative 'AI' to identify spiders (or anything else for that matter). A model trained on the current quagmire of misinformation and misidentified images online cannot be effective.
Please do not use ChatGPT or any other generative 'AI' to identify spiders (or anything else for that matter). A model trained on the current quagmire of misinformation and misidentified images online cannot be effective.
June 25, 2025 at 10:45 AM
Today I learned there is a ChatGPT "spider ID assistant."
Please do not use ChatGPT or any other generative 'AI' to identify spiders (or anything else for that matter). A model trained on the current quagmire of misinformation and misidentified images online cannot be effective.
Please do not use ChatGPT or any other generative 'AI' to identify spiders (or anything else for that matter). A model trained on the current quagmire of misinformation and misidentified images online cannot be effective.
Reposted by Michael Brewer
When a chatbot gets something wrong, it’s not because it made an error. It’s because on that roll of the dice, it happened to string together a group of words that, when read by a human, represents something false. But it was working entirely as designed. It was supposed to make a sentence & it did.
June 19, 2025 at 11:28 AM
When a chatbot gets something wrong, it’s not because it made an error. It’s because on that roll of the dice, it happened to string together a group of words that, when read by a human, represents something false. But it was working entirely as designed. It was supposed to make a sentence & it did.
Reposted by Michael Brewer
Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.
June 19, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.
Reposted by Michael Brewer
centrism means focusing on the good things bad people do and the bad things good people do
June 5, 2025 at 3:32 PM
centrism means focusing on the good things bad people do and the bad things good people do
Reposted by Michael Brewer
Mesquite 4 beta released! Many new features, esp. phylogenomic. Check out the trailer and longer video on the home page: www.mesquiteproject.org, and use the download link there to get a copy.
Feedback welcome! Ask and discuss on our new Google Group (groups.google.com/g/mesquite-p...).
Feedback welcome! Ask and discuss on our new Google Group (groups.google.com/g/mesquite-p...).
May 23, 2025 at 12:04 AM
Mesquite 4 beta released! Many new features, esp. phylogenomic. Check out the trailer and longer video on the home page: www.mesquiteproject.org, and use the download link there to get a copy.
Feedback welcome! Ask and discuss on our new Google Group (groups.google.com/g/mesquite-p...).
Feedback welcome! Ask and discuss on our new Google Group (groups.google.com/g/mesquite-p...).
Reposted by Michael Brewer
It's 2015. President Barack Obama has accepted a "sky palace" jumbo jet from the Qatari government, which he'll own after he leaves office. "Everybody relax," he says in an interview with the New York Times. Everyone does. The networks then televise the military parade in his honor on his birthday.
May 11, 2025 at 6:43 PM
It's 2015. President Barack Obama has accepted a "sky palace" jumbo jet from the Qatari government, which he'll own after he leaves office. "Everybody relax," he says in an interview with the New York Times. Everyone does. The networks then televise the military parade in his honor on his birthday.
Reposted by Michael Brewer
I remember watching the video years ago.
“I am utterly disgusted… I would never wish to incorporate this technology into my work at all. I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself.” m.youtube.com/watch?v=ngZ0...
“I am utterly disgusted… I would never wish to incorporate this technology into my work at all. I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself.” m.youtube.com/watch?v=ngZ0...
Hayao Miyazaki's thoughts on an artificial intelligence
YouTube video by Manhattan Project for a Nuclear-Free World
m.youtube.com
April 23, 2025 at 1:24 PM
I remember watching the video years ago.
“I am utterly disgusted… I would never wish to incorporate this technology into my work at all. I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself.” m.youtube.com/watch?v=ngZ0...
“I am utterly disgusted… I would never wish to incorporate this technology into my work at all. I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself.” m.youtube.com/watch?v=ngZ0...
Reposted by Michael Brewer
To the people who think racist authoritarians should be posting more on Bluesky: What the actual fuck is wrong with you, fuck off with that mealy-mouth "both sides" bullshit, thank you for your attention, now go fuck yourselves
April 13, 2025 at 11:05 PM
To the people who think racist authoritarians should be posting more on Bluesky: What the actual fuck is wrong with you, fuck off with that mealy-mouth "both sides" bullshit, thank you for your attention, now go fuck yourselves
Reposted by Michael Brewer
Trump's 3/27 executive order targets the Smithsonian for advancing "the view that race is not a biological reality but a social construct."
Trump argues that the exhibit's statement, below, is unscientific. He's wrong. As a biology professor and population geneticist, I agree with every word of it.
Trump argues that the exhibit's statement, below, is unscientific. He's wrong. As a biology professor and population geneticist, I agree with every word of it.
March 31, 2025 at 11:27 PM
Trump's 3/27 executive order targets the Smithsonian for advancing "the view that race is not a biological reality but a social construct."
Trump argues that the exhibit's statement, below, is unscientific. He's wrong. As a biology professor and population geneticist, I agree with every word of it.
Trump argues that the exhibit's statement, below, is unscientific. He's wrong. As a biology professor and population geneticist, I agree with every word of it.
@tylerroney.bsky.social Are you all safe? Sorry if you posted elsewhere, but I don’t have other social media accounts these days.
March 28, 2025 at 1:10 PM
@tylerroney.bsky.social Are you all safe? Sorry if you posted elsewhere, but I don’t have other social media accounts these days.
Reposted by Michael Brewer
Reposted by Michael Brewer
I had the pleasure of painting some insects and arachnids for Dungeons & Dragons recent releases!
2024 Wizards of the Coast
AD: Emi Tanji
@wotc-news.bsky.social
@dndbeyond.com
#dungeonsanddragons #dndartist #fantasyart #michelegiorgiart #insects #scorpions #illustration #dnd #arachnids
2024 Wizards of the Coast
AD: Emi Tanji
@wotc-news.bsky.social
@dndbeyond.com
#dungeonsanddragons #dndartist #fantasyart #michelegiorgiart #insects #scorpions #illustration #dnd #arachnids
March 2, 2025 at 5:53 PM
I had the pleasure of painting some insects and arachnids for Dungeons & Dragons recent releases!
2024 Wizards of the Coast
AD: Emi Tanji
@wotc-news.bsky.social
@dndbeyond.com
#dungeonsanddragons #dndartist #fantasyart #michelegiorgiart #insects #scorpions #illustration #dnd #arachnids
2024 Wizards of the Coast
AD: Emi Tanji
@wotc-news.bsky.social
@dndbeyond.com
#dungeonsanddragons #dndartist #fantasyart #michelegiorgiart #insects #scorpions #illustration #dnd #arachnids