@alexwild@mastodon.online
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alexwild

@alexwild@mastodon.online

Curator of Entomology at the University of Texas at Austin. Photographer of more living ant species than any other person, and still hasn't reached even 10% of them.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

alexwild, to random
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The police state advances in North Carolina, as a white supremacist UNC board transfers millions of DEI funds to policing.

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article288473709.html

alexwild, to Texas
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Austin is paying up to $3000 in rebates to homeowners who replace grass lawn with low-water alternatives.

https://www.austintexas.gov/news/austin-waters-waterwise-landscape-rebate-program-helps-residents-save-money-and-conserve-water

alexwild, to random
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UT Austin has unjustly fired a professor at the Pro-palestinian protests.

Jay Hartzell is a toxic racist whose tenure at UT has brought violence, mistrust, and mass violations of constitutional rights. He cannot lead this university and must resign.

https://www.statesman.com/story/news/crime/2024/05/10/professor-richard-heyman-ut-austin-pro-palestine-protest-arrested-fired-interfering-police/73639778007/

alexwild, to random
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Every now and again I put a few photos into the public domain.

Here's a gallery:

https://www.alexanderwild.com/Professional/Public-Domain

alexwild, to random
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Rare photo of developing larvae inside a nest of Mexican honey wasps, Brachygastra mellifica.

alexwild, to random
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Portrait of a blow fly, Lucilia cuprina.

#Calliphoridae #Diptera #Lucilia #Insects

alexwild, to random
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Bloomscrolling.

alexwild, to Texas
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UT Austin, my employer, beats and jails students engaged in peaceful protest, then manufactures propaganda that deeply misrepresents what the students were doing and had planned to do.

How am I supposed to work at an institution willing to hurt any students I recruit to come here? This is untenable.

https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2024-05-03/uts-war-on-students/

alexwild, to Texas
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Texas Republicans are poised to gut higher ed in Texas, purging faculty for their political views and replacing independent academic inquiry with ruling party propaganda.

https://www.axios.com/local/austin/2024/05/01/university-texas-pro-palestinian-protests-ut

alexwild,
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"The beatings will continue until y'all discover and disseminate knowledge"

alexwild, to Texas
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For all the hand-wringing over “illegals” breaking the law, this story of an illegal dam that messed with the water supply of millions of people downstream, built on the private ranch of one of the border wall contractors, is something.

https://www.kxan.com/texas-water/illegal-dam-on-james-river-torn-down-while-another-dam-pops-up-in-mason-county/

alexwild, to random
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One of my favorite local insects is the Mexican honey wasp Brachygastra mellifica, a relative of hornets that makes and stores honey.

Earlier this week I took a new photo of a live nest, in cutaway, thanks to Jo-anne Holley's research lab here at UT.

alexwild, to random
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Biology faculty at UT are meeting today to talk about a hiring plan. I really don't envy their job of trying to make a department located in Texas attractive.

We're in the middle of an ongoing purge of black staff, the adminstration just called in the state police to beat and jail students, and no one in their right mind would want to risk pregnancy to have a family here. It's bleak.

alexwild,
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Also tenure itself is very much in danger here. Salaries are going to need to be insane.

alexwild, to random
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Gotta say, Jill Stein showing up to a protest is a big red flag of political ratfuckery. I hope WashU student protesters can figure out how to keep these outside manipulations and grifters at arms’ length.

https://www.studlife.com/news/2024/04/27/protestors-hold-pro-palestine-march-through-campus-start-encampment

alexwild, to random
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The UT Austin Reddit has a large collection of student perspectives on the protests and administrative response. And it does not look good for the administration.

https://www.reddit.com/r/UTAustin/

alexwild, to random
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Campuses aren't being rocked by protests.

They're being rocked by politicized administrators ordering students beaten and jailed to satisfy the political elite.

Let's be clear who is causing the violence.

alexwild,
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alexwild,
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@thepoliticalcat it sucks here. The Texas elite would not hesitate to pull a Tiananmen Square.

alexwild, to random
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Jay Hartzell, President of the University of Texas at Austin, yesterday broke the single most important compact that academics have with each other and their institutions: do not intentionally hurt students.

The TX governor, for his own political purposes, sent state troopers to campus before a student protest even began. Hartzell both let these outside law enforcement agencies in, and provided cover for the violence they inflicted on dozens of peaceful, unarmed UT students.

alexwild,
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The political elites of Texas are trying to create the optics of violent chaos on college campuses, for reasons that I won't go into here but are clear if you've been paying attention this election year.

It is the duty- perhaps the most important duty- of UT faculty, staff, and administrators to provide for the safety of students. Upper admin helping the state use our students as punching bags is such a core violation of this duty that it is unlikely trust can or should be regained.

alexwild,
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Hartzell must resign.

alexwild,
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@thejacenallen not everything is about Biden.

alexwild, to Texas
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First statement from University of Texas at Austin president Jay Hartzell about today’s protests.

image/jpeg

alexwild,
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The UT faculty council responds appropriately.

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