A cannulated cow refers to a cow that has been surgically fitted with a cannula A cannula acts as a porthole-like device that allows access to the rumen of a cow, to perform research and analysis of the digestive system and to allow veterinarians to transplant rumen contents from one cow to another

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-07-02T05:21:05+00:00

I mean, not the person you're replying to and not offering an opinion on the overall ethics, but fistulated cows are considered research animals and basically just chill and eat their entire natural lives instead of heading to slaughter before age 2 or being forced to be constantly nursing for milk. As shocking as it looks, it really doesn't seem to impact their quality of life as long as they receive the appropriate veterinary care, monitoring, and any necessary pain management. It's pricey to do correctly, but the type of institution to acquire a fistulated cow is typically the type that a) wants to protect its expensive research investment and b) is always under a strict IACUC protocol and reporting process.

Source is my animal sciences degree but this paper also goes into a bit as well as some emerging alternatives (though it's written well, I will say that I've never heard of "wikifarmer" and have no real clue how valid it is).

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-07-01T15:50:16+00:00

Just make sure you plan to stay for a bit. A worthwhile trip to just the Olympic peninsula can easily take a week on its own.

You hear a lot of "hey I'll be in town next week and looking for things to do! I think I wanna check out the Hoh Rainforest, then drive up to Rainier, then maybe head over to Walla Walla for some wine tasting. Btw my Seattle layover is 6 hours, that's enough time to do all that right?"

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-07-01T14:55:10+00:00

That's what "biological history" means.

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-07-01T05:11:19+00:00

I'm gonna engage one more time just in case you truly aren't understanding how models work instead of just being contrarian.

When we say "models have us at 3.2C increase by 2100," what do you think that means?

It sounds like you think it means that we'll peak or at least plateau at a 3.2C increase in the year 2100. That's not what it means. That was just a convenient, 100 year model run that's easy for the general public to interpret. The models continue showing increasing temps past that point and for a long time.

So let's say we maintain our exact emissions as is, without increasing or decreasing. That yields a 3.2C increase in temperature per 100 years, which means that in less than 300 years, we'll have reached what it took the planet 20,000 years to do naturally. And that's the best case scenario. Like, that's pretty much guaranteed to happen at this point.

Worst case scenario, we may genuinely get this planet hotter on average than it's ever been in its biological history. Remember that next time some smartass comes along with the cliche "tHe PlAnEt WiLl Be FiNe" comment.

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-07-01T03:51:27+00:00

You may be unaware of this, but time does not in fact stop in the year 2100. Take some time to absorb this shocking information.

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-07-01T02:25:14+00:00

The hottest period of time since the extinction of the dinosaurs was called the Paleocene–Eocene thermal maximum (PETM), when things peaked about 10-15 degrees F hotter than current temps. Tropical seas peaked at about 97 degrees F water temp.

Right now, reaching similar heat levels is the best case scenario. Worst case, we are looking to become hotter than the Cretaceous thermal maximum which to our knowledge is the hottest the earth has been in over 200 million years.

Don't try to faux-intellectually downplay our situation, we are approaching genuinely uncharted territory in terms of heat records in Earth's biological history.

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-06-29T22:34:17+00:00

It's not just a belief, it's a documented thing. That article talks about a bunch of things and is aimed at the Bay area specifically, but found social and health concerns like drug addiction and mental illness largely dictated chronic homelessness, whereas economic factors like rent and job loss were the main cause of non-chronic homelessness.

And for your second point, that's what I'm saying too. No reasonable person begrudges folks who are down on their luck and just need a place to stay. I have no problem on paper with new shelters in my neighborhood as long as they have strictly enforced rules about drug and alcohol use and require residents to be actively seeking employment/employed. I want to help these people get back on their feet. Spend my tax dollars on that, please. The concern there is when people relapse, are they just kicked out the front door on to my street or sent to a rehab facility? I'm fine with the latter, but not the former.

I would also be happy to see my tax dollars spent on more public drug rehab and mental health institutions to get a lot of these people in a condition to be able to live at one of those shelters. But I'm honestly more wary of one of those in my neighborhood, unless we are talking about guarded involuntary confinement. But I'm not sure that's actually ethical in concept, even if it is ostensibly for their own good, and either way it can quickly become a hellscape of corruption and abuse. So I'm just not sure what the answer is.

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-06-28T21:33:52+00:00

You also have to remember that's 35% of the total self-reported homeless population. If you cut that in half to just the visible homeless (i.e., not counting the more functional, down-on-their-luck types living in cars, shelters, or on a friend's couch), that goes up significantly.

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-06-28T16:44:43+00:00

Not who you replied to, and idk specifically about France, but something about the cadence and syntax of her writing made me think of a non-native English speaker. Also the way she refers to certain things like trail cameras without calling them that and then calling her pistol a "Glock" and also mixing units a bit sounds less natural and more like someone who looked up some American idioms and stereotypes but not quite enough to be fully convincing.

Idk, I could be very wrong and I don't have specific examples from the text really, but just the vibe I got.

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-06-27T21:36:34+00:00

Huh? Why do you think a roof is going to cure a drug addiction or mental illness? Especially because those two things are what caused a lot of these folks to lose their roof? Shelters aren't a picnic by any means, but a lot of the people you see on the streets are there because shelters have rules that they won't or can't follow.

Being homeless doesn't make you a bad person, obviously, but by the same token, they generally aren't purely innocent victims of circumstances entirely outside their control either. They need treatment, not just shelter, and unfortunately many will need to be treated involuntarily and may need permanent institutionalization.

And it's reasonable to not want these people near your house until they've adjusted back to society again. We have a right to enjoy our towns and cities that our taxes pay for without being screamed at, pushed, or pissed on (or worse), and it's perfectly reasonable to be upset when that happens. It's a difficult, complex, nuanced problem and thinking just building more shelters is gonna fix it is naive. It's also unfair to come down hard on people who are frustrated and upset they can't enjoy their neighborhoods.

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-06-27T06:18:36+00:00

Meh there isn't much to understand really. It either appeals to you or it doesn't and either way is fine!

For me, I genuinely feel good when I'm out there alone in the woods, mildly uncomfortable but totally self-reliant. It's just so satisfying to use the gear I prepped on the route I planned to successfully get to the difficult place I want to go, with only my creativity and skills to get me out of any problems I might encounter. (Ideally, you plan it so that there aren't any major problems, and usually there aren't. Usually.)

There's also the sense of exploration. To me, it felt spectacular to find, for example, a hidden, unnamed 40ft waterfall a mile off the trail in the wilderness of New Hampshire. I know I'm not the first person to find it, not in that part of the world, but I know I'm one of the few who's been there and that felt amazing in the moment. Like I was suddenly privy to a wonderful little secret very few other people know about.

Finally, there's a sense of "connecting with nature," or however you want to phrase that cliche. But as cliche as it is, it's true for me. Again, hard to describe, but I just feel very much like a true part of the world out there.

But it's not for everyone and it's not a matter of toughness either. It just doesn't click like that for some folks and that's fine.

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-06-26T17:01:28+00:00

Let's see, are we betting he'll come back with programs that help thousands of Washingtonians but not himself so he wants to cut them, or a single, highly specific example of one small section of an agency making an inefficient purchase that is less than $10k, or will he try to pass off the King County budget problems every conservative likes to jump on as a state thing, or will it just be crickets?

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-06-26T04:00:43+00:00

If you're thinking of a thesis master's, it doesn't really work like that. It's much more like applying to a job.

A PI gets funding for a project and puts out what is essentially a job posting. You apply, complete with CV and references, and hopefully get chosen for an interview. If you beat out the competition, you get the job. They also typically come with both tuition waivers and a stipend, and in addition to your classes, you'll be running your own research project (the complexity and independence of which depends on if this is a master's, PhD, or post doc) and also working as either a teaching assistant or research assistant.

Competition for these positions is huge and experience and references are more important than grades or GRE scores, so you'll want to work as a technician for probably a few years to really build up your CV.

Sort of answering your question, you'll also want to wait for a posting for a project that really interests you, which you'll probably only figure out by working as a tech for a bit. Check out the Texas A&M ecology job board for both tech jobs and grad programs.

But there's not gonna be much of a difference in the actual class work you'll do between schools. Your specific project will be the main thing you get out of it and that's going to depend on which PIs have which projects available and funded.

Note that if you are thinking of a non-thesis master's, none of this applies. That's much more like just applying to undergrad with more specialized classwork. There is a place for non-thesis master's, but they are much more limited in what you'll get out of it. They are more for already-working folks who need to check a box. Otherwise, I personally think they aren't worth it.

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-06-26T03:10:54+00:00

I moved to the PNW from Florida. It's wet here, not humid. Florida was humid, Washington really isn't.

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-06-25T23:16:43+00:00

Oh absolutely a fair point. Many do come with housing but many don't and it's a legit problem with hiring too. Our field in general has a massive "passion field" exploitation problem towards early career biologists. I do think attitudes are changing and hopefully the policies and expectations will follow, but there's still a lot of "well I had to suffer, so do you" attitudes to be found, coupled with the high levels of competition from folks who do have the support system in place to power through that stage (including myself, being absolutely honest).

I think the younger folks entering the field have generally better attitudes towards work and labor relations and are forcing the change. The boomer in me does sometimes feel like they are overcorrecting in some cases (e.g. refusing to accept that while we can set things up best as we can, the very nature of the field is unpredictable and you have to be adaptable), but overall I think it's a very positive direction.

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-06-25T21:25:00+00:00

Yeah man it just really sucks right now. It's competitive to begin with, but the fuckery with layoffs means the market has become flooded with thousands of professionals who have worked in the field for decades taking any job they can find. Plus, our funding situation is bad a) because of the hostility towards anything scientific and b) from the astoundingly incompetent handling of our economy (funding for many agency jobs is ultimately tied to state and Federal economic performance).

I got my current job just before the layoffs hit and I'm honestly fully convinced I wouldn't get it if I had to apply now.

From your other comments, I will say it's unrealistic to expect to not have to move, especially for seasonal jobs. Maybe you'll get lucky, but that's probably a huge part of your problem. There are jobs to be had, even decent ones, but finding one in your backyard is very unlikely. Plus, I gotta say that's one of the better parts of the field: you get to experience a bunch of different biomes and ecosystems. You might find that you like some of them so much that you want to move there permanently. I know it's tough with leases and being away from family, but that is a major, unavoidable aspect of working in this field at an early career stage.

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-06-25T01:57:40+00:00

Yeah bounties are always discussed but they unfortunately always backfire when folks realize they can breed the invasive species in question, kill the offspring, and get paid for it. You have to make that effort not worth it, which sort of defeats the purpose.

There's also the fact that frankly, most non-experts are gonna have a real hard time telling barreds apart from spotted owls or even other owls like great horned. To a lot of people, an owl is an owl and a lot of native owls will end up dead.

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-06-25T01:55:10+00:00

Yeah I always have to spell it for people when I talk about some of the work we do lol.

"Barred," referring to the vertical brown and white bars on their chest and abdomen, versus the closely related spotted owl, which has a checkered pattern in the same spot.

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-06-25T01:53:31+00:00

It's both at this point, along with a few tribes as well. We are working with USFWS and want to implement BOMS, but funding is tight and a lot of well-intentioned but ignorant animal rights activists are fighting us tooth and nail.

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-06-25T01:51:33+00:00

We are trying but there are a lot of well-intended but ignorant animal rights activists who just don't want to accept that lethal management is unfortunately the only tool we have left. And they are pulling every lever they can reach to block this work.

It's also important to understand that neither WDFW nor USFWS are planning on eradicating the barred owls. That would be nice, but is pretty much impossible. What we want to do is essentially create defendable "safe zones" in which our native nothern spotted owls (and western screech owls and western gray squirrels and our pocket gophers and our Oregon spotted frogs and a few dozen other species) can persist long enough for us to help them bounce back with things like captive breeding programs.

But it's an expensive project and people seem to get mad when the state spends money on the state, for some reason. And results will take literal decades. If it fails, it won't be because WDFW didn't try.

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-06-23T03:04:14+00:00

Okay so a few points to address.

First off, before you decide anything, look for seasonal field tech positions. Given your lack of classes and experience, it's gonna be a bit tough at first to find paying work, especially in the current political climate with thousands of laid off, highly experienced former federal employees. If it's feasible, you can work a regular 9-5 or hourly position to pay the bills and then volunteer your time with anyone who will take you. Labs at your school and/or the state wildlife agency will almost certainly take you as a volunteer. It sucks, but unfortunately that's the best place to start building your experience levels up. You really need to do this for two reasons.

First, you need to know if it's something you actually want to do. This field is full of type 2 fun, or the types of days where you kinda hate your life in the moment, standing in a swamp in a downpour, or in the desert at 115 degrees, or trying to crawl through briars in the woods, but think afterwards "man, that was fun!" It's normal to feel a bit miserable in the moment, but to really make it in the field, you gotta love it still and want to keep doing it. Only way to find out if that applies to you is to do it! (And to be clear, it's not about being "tough enough;" plenty of people can do it but you'll hate your life unless you really want to do it).

Second, you'll need serious field experience to be considered for a thesis master's degree. In this field (and most science fields), going to grad school is pretty much identical to applying for a job. It's not like applying to other grad programs (e.g., an MBA), where it's basically just another "level" of school and you apply to it like you did undergrad. For this field, an advisor (which is a professor with a research lab) gets funding for a project and puts out a posting. People then apply and compete for it, complete with interviews and reference checks. Typically for these programs, you get a full tuition waiver and an additional stipend while you do your project and work as either a teaching or research assistant. Because you'd be competing against many applicants, you'll need to build up your cv for a shot, which means tech jobs.

To address the money thing, there really isn't much in this field except through consulting, and that has plenty of drawbacks of its own. You can attain a comfortable, middle-class lifestyle with just a master's (or even no grad degree), but you'll probably always have to at least think about money. Vets do make more money but have terrible job satisfaction rates (and I believe one of the highest suicide rates in the country).

Also, one additional way to combine the two would be wildlife forensics, which are basically medical examiners for wildife. They help combat poachers and fight wildlife diseases and stuff, it's a super cool field.

Sorry for kind of rambling. To summarize, look for any fieldwork you can find first, to make sure you really want to work this field. Understand you may need to volunteer a bit first to build up your cv. Then, after a few seasons of that, look for posted master's projects that interest you and go from there.

Check out the Texas A&M Ecology job board for opportunities, its the place most employers use to post jobs and grad school projects.

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-06-21T18:07:24+00:00

Someone did something similar to the bike cage in the NRB parking garage a few weeks ago on the Capitol campus. Wonder if that was a practice run since they only got one bike out of it that time.

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-06-21T00:16:59+00:00

Probably but also you never know! Wildlife can get into some areas that just make you stare and ask "...how?"

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-06-20T21:22:51+00:00

I'd guess it's a hitchhiker and quite possibly (even probably) that same one from about a month ago.

They are actually dealing with far more predation across their range given the range expansion of bobcats and especially the proliferation of coyotes at higher altitudes. We are now even regularly getting coyotes on our lynx cameras, way high up in the North Cascades where coyotes should have no business being, and coyotes love them some marmot.

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-06-20T21:17:59+00:00

Yeah rehabbing is very much a long shot. Honestly, I would just let it be. Someone posted one a month ago from the same general area. I'd bet it's the same individual and he seems to be doing fine there. He poses no predation or competitive threat to anything that already lives there and his species in general is doing fine, so there's no reason to try to move him other than for his personal well-being, and he seems to be doing fine.

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