Luke Holbrook

Last RT inspired some more thoughts on interviewing. Lesson 1: Get them talking. Always ask faculty you meet about what they do. 1/n

@gstrike56 @ScoopyWoopy885 @camelkhann @zayzyverse @SouthApe @Marco03170867 It’s more accurate to say that all lizards (and snakes) are lepidosaurs, and that “lizards” do not form a natural taxonomic group. Similar to the situations with “fish” and “monkeys.”

@ScoopyWoopy885 @camelkhann @zayzyverse @SouthApe @Marco03170867 All Lepidosaurs are Lizards, including Snakes. That is like saying birds are not dinosaurs.

"Am I a joke to you?"

Happy #WorldTapirDay to all who celebrate!

Catching up with vert morph friends at #NERVES2024

@dr_klassen @ObsFromLife Not to mention paying taxes.

@ObsFromLife So, welcoming strangers, treating aliens like citizens, feeding the hungry, housing the homeless. I wonder if that’s what he means.

@mualphaxi @alxcharlesdukes A lot of the critique of standardized tests is that they track school quality, quality of preparation, and other environmental variables, rather than individual capability. Are those controlled for in this study?

@alxcharlesdukes Happy to clarify: you have to figure out which students are capable of being taught at a given level. That ability isn't distributed equally.

University of Texas data dump on test-optional students. I've been waiting for this! Ivies will never publish out of embarrassment, but UT did. Test-optional admits had a first semester GPA 0.86 points lower than those who submitted SAT/ACT. A whole grade! The median SAT of those who asked not to have their score considered for admission was nearly 300 points lower than those who wanted them considered (1160 vs 1420). That's more than a standard deviation!

@hapyresearchers We get paid so much in exposure.

Academic jobs are low paying jobs with enormous amount stress and pressure but we are still in it, why? Wrong answers only 😉

@WrightingApril Outrageous! I can’t understand how anyone can even rationalize such exclusion.

@DrLMRobinson @NickJMatzke We had this and it always annoyed me. If it’s needed for bureaucracy, why not ask for this at hire? I actually had colleagues who looked through UG transcripts. Imagine questioning hiring a PhD in plant systematics as a botanist because they didn’t take an UG botany course.

Old Dog Needing New Phylogenetic Trick asks: What software do people use for visualizing/editing trees from .tre files? Used to use FigTree, but that has gone wonky on both my Mac and PC.

@BklynCollege411 @BrooklynAnthro @ChesterLabCUNY @DenverMuseumNS @NSF Awesome! Congrats!

“This funding will support half a decade of exciting research and paid undergraduate assistantships.” @BrooklynAnthro's Stephen Chester (@ChesterLabCUNY) + @DenverMuseumNS colleagues have been awarded a collaborative research grant from the @NSF. brooklyn.edu/bc-news/profes…

@dr_klassen @jfrickuga @drjchernov Admin bloat follows from cuts to public funding. Unis increase enrollment to compensate. Result is more work and more strain on resources. Admin’s response to more admin work is to hire more admins; for everyone else: “Well, guess you’ll have to work harder with less.”

@jfrickuga @drjchernov This is #1. New (needed!) buildings for modern pedagogy and research is #2. Admin bloat is #3.

@tim_mccourt @drjchernov @jfrickuga Each crisis (9/11, 2008, COVID) results in reduction of state revenue. In NJ, by law you can’t really cut K-12, prisons, or police, so higher ed is one of the first things to get cut. Those cuts never come back, so unis increase enrollment to compensate.

@drjchernov @jfrickuga Have been looking for a comprehensive econometric study to answer this question for some time. For public universities what has crowed out support for higher Ed. Cost of K-12? Medicaid expansion? Expanding prison populations? Would like to see a more definitive answer.

@evilsmaug @ClementYChow I agree and would add that it’s a topic that invites a lot of misconceptions. This example might actually be one of the better ones, because it’s more likely that a viewer just sees the skulls and takes nothing from the tree rather than misinterpreting the phylogeny.

@LukeTHolbrook @ClementYChow Assessment is absolutely a problem across museums. Understanding phylogenetics requires or is at least best appreciated with background info such as classification, homology, natural selection, speciation. That’s a heavy lift!

Phylogenies in museum displays almost never work. Never seen a good example of one. Have you?

@evilsmaug @ClementYChow Isn’t assessment a problem for any museum exhibit? I’m sympathetic to your point, but I feel like invoking assessment is holding phylogeny to a standard that we’re not necessarily applying to geology, ecology, etc.

@ClementYChow Very cool! Who learned what though? How do you know?

@WrightingApril Rewatched that opening sequence, and I think there are two species of tapir in it. Definitely T. terrestris, but I think there are also some T. bairdii. Kubrick borrowed zoo animals, so I could see him getting different species from different zoos.

@WrightingApril I always figured that it was because Kubrick thought they looked “prehistoric.” Apparently he originally was shown a pig for the role, and then asked if they could get anteaters or tapirs. So I think he had some notion that whatever was the prey in the scene should look “exotic.”

@AntSymbiosis @WrightingApril At least around African primates. Tapirs do live among Asian primates today, and have done so for a long time.

Happy World Tapir Day to all who celebrate!

@WrightingApril Definitely going to add this to my course! I also use the Benghazi hospital case for a forensic application of molecular clocks, though I don’t think that was ever admitted as evidence in court.

We’re hiring a Lecturer in A&P. Feel free to DM me if you have questions. jobs.rowan.edu/en-us/job/4983…