Here's an insect I'd never seen before: Berkshiria albistylum. A tiny, poorly-known soldier fly. Hanging out in the yard just minding her own business.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Moved into a new house last fall. The yard was fine, but mostly neglected. The sprinkler system had broken at least 5 years prior and was never fixed. Infrequently mowed.
Imagine my surprise this spring when a sizable chunk of the front yard did this:
@wendinoakland These are our local Texas equivalent, showy primroses, Oenethera speciosa. Pretty common roadside wildflower. We're quite happy to have them!