@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.

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alexwild, to photography
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Big Bluestem grass in an Illinois prairie.

alexwild, to random
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The Supreme Court telling us they’re totally legitimate, and to not worry about all the bribery in the background.

alexwild, to random
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One of our most attractive local potter wasps, the Toltec Potter Wasp, Parazumia tolteca. New photograph from this weekend.

alexwild, to random
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It’s beating around the bush to talk about the “ethics crisis” at the Supreme Court.

Say it bluntly. Justices are enriching themselves by selling rulings.

alexwild, to climate
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As the world’s oceans hit the warmest temps ever recorded, we’re somehow still encouraging this:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-04-28/exxon-blows-out-expectations-as-oil-output-climbs-from-new-wells

dell, to random
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If you got laid off by some chud who did a third as much work as you last year and you want to talk to a reporter about the time he got drunk at the office juneteenth party and started putting pan-african colored cupcakes down his pants while bragging about the time he shoved his fiancée off a ledge in a deserted national park in 1997, my DMs are open.

alexwild,
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@dell anyone who has fought crowds in national parks knows there hasn’t been a “deserted” one since maybe 1982. The incident was probably on BLM land.

alexwild, to random
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The life cycle of an ant (Camponotus festinatus) laid out in a single photograph: eggs, larvae of various ages, a silk-covered pupa, and an adult worker. At 's Brackenridge Field Laboratory, in Texas.

alexwild, to random
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Tornado watch, y'all.

https://www.wunderground.com/severe/us/tx/austin/KTXAUSTI1820

alexwild,
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Also, rabies. Awesome.

https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/rabid-bat-found-at-zilker-park-city-says/?utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=socialflow

alexwild, to photography
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This is one you'll need to scroooooollllll dooooowwwwwnnnn for.

(Eurymerodesmus flat-backed millipede. Texas)

alexwild, to random
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The stench of corruption on the supreme court is worse than a pile of rotting corpses in an Alabama ditch.

https://www.levernews.com/thomas-helped-kill-eviction-ban-threatening-benefactors-business/

alexwild, to random
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This Texas Ag trans purge pisses me off, even on top of the obvious human rights issue. Even though I'm not the target, it affects me and my work.

We see a substantial number of nonbinary and trans students in the UT entomology class I teach. In the part of the course where we discuss entomology careers, I now have to note that some of the state jobs previously open to them- that they are qualified for- will exclude them for no reason other than hate.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/3967225-texas-ag-commissioner-issues-anti-trans-dress-code-for-agency-employees/

alexwild, to random
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“Their calculation is the same as it was for Jews in the 1930s: It doesn’t matter if we end up in a homeless shelter far away, it is still safer than living under this fascist government.”

-Brynn Tannehill describes the human tragedies beginning to unfold under violently extreme Republican rule.

https://newrepublic.com/article/172097/republican-plot-end-trans-america

kitoconnell, to politics
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I've a new story out today @TexasObserver based on a document leaked to me from the Department of .

Workers are now expected to dress "in a manner consistent with their biological gender" (whatever that means!) according to a memo released April 17. An employee told us they fear for + coworkers: https://www.texasobserver.org/sid-miller-department-agriculture-dress-code-transgender/

+

alexwild,
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@kitoconnell @TexasObserver

As a biologist, I'd be happy to testify in any court case that "Biological Gender" isn't a meaningful phrase.

alexwild,
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@kitoconnell @TexasObserver

Also, in adopting their concept, one has to completely ignore Neurobiology, Genetics, Endocrinology, Psychology, and plenty of real world biology, so that "Biological" is reduced to nothing more than external genital morphology at birth. It's pretty offensive to biologists just on that front alone, before even getting to the human rights issues.

alexwild, to random
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Faculty at West Texas A&M vote No confidence in their inappropriately proselytizing president.

“Wendler has presented his personal opinions and religious beliefs in online blog posts as the official position of the university. Faculty leaders said those opinions go against the university’s mission, violate state and federal law, damage the university’s reputation and hurt fundraising efforts”

https://www.texastribune.org/2023/04/17/west-texas-tamu-walter-wendler-no-confidence/

alexwild, to random
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An Australian harvester ant, Meranoplus unicolor, lugs a large grass seed back to her nest. Queensland.

alexwild, to random
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Elon Musk operates the largest Nazi communications platform in the world now. Literal Nazis, promoting genocide, amplified through his platform.

You may not like it, but it’s true, and if that’s not a dealbreaker for you, and you’re still posting there, I have some bad news about what 1930s you would have done in the face of rising European fascism.

alexwild, to random
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Republicans passed a bill in Texas to end countywide-voting, which allows voters to choose polling locations that are convenient or have short lines, and a bill allowing the state to take over county election administration on flimsy pretexts.

If signed into law, the fix is in. Republicans will close locations in opposition areas to engineer impossibly long lines for democrats, but keep voting fast and easy for Republicans.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/texas-senate-passes-bill-end-countywide-voting-election-day-rcna80829

alexwild, to space
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I personally don't find this acceptable.

https://futurism.com/wildlife-starship-explosion

alexwild,
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@MarkBrigham Feds probably more receptive than Texas state government.

alexwild,
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According to the GBIF biodiversity database, here's what lives around the SpaceX launch facility:

https://rb.gy/e3juv

alexwild, to random
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Not terribly impressed with SpaceX's wanton destruction of south Texas's coastal habitats.

alexwild, to science
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This was always my favorite speculation on why insects are attracted to porch lights- that they accidentally spiral in while trying to maintain level flight relative to the sky- and now there’s some empirical support.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2369508-we-finally-know-why-insects-are-attracted-to-lights/

alexwild, to random
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The bluest known bioluminescense of any insect is produced by larvae of a predatory keroplatid gnat, Orfelia fultoni, which lure flying insects to a sticky silk trap. Gatlinburg, Tennessee, USA.

Close-up photograph showing a glowing blue worm in green moss.

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