can you imagine sitting in that audience as a three-star flag officer — decades in the service, multiple post-grad degrees and a virtually unequaled level of command expertise — and being forced to watch this dunderheaded dry drunk give an off-brand jordan belfort seminar?

Only known from a single plant growing in the botanic gardens in Sri Lanka, the endemic Pini-Beraliya was declared Extinct in the Wild. But a post on social media about the tree has now led to the discovery of three wild populations and a recovery programme! 🌱🧪🙌🏻 news.mongabay.com/2025/08/soci...

the onion will always be brave heterodox truth tellers, even in the face of being “cancelled” by the sensitive mainstream media and anti free speech big government

On a plane right now so hopefully the pilot doesn’t get raptured.

Possibly the most Boston parking lot

Not wholly surprising that he's never met a scientist.

People say "autism never used to exist" and then you go to the Natural History Museum and the exhibit has a caption like "Born in 1762, The Revd [name] was famously irascible, steadfast in his routine, and dedicated his life to collecting 25,000 rare beetle specimens".

let me share a little story about a remarkable wasp that I encountered yesterday in our local deserts I stumbled across her, and scrambled to get a few crappy photos .... but then realized that she had a burrow, perhaps a better photo op was possible ?? here she is at her burrow entrance.

There is something deeply comforting about the fact that slime molds don't like blood or meat, considering they can move surprisingly far in 8 hours and easily fit into spaces as small as, for example, the nostrils or the folds of the brain

Is there some sort of Pulitzer for song titles

when I was a kid, I ruled out both journalism and politics for my future because as I understood them, they took a level of integrity and selflessness that I frankly wasn’t prepared to give. turns out no one else was either

the kimmel thing is bad but as long as they arent rounding people up indiscriminately based on race, building concentration camps and talking about eradicating those they deem sexual deviants, i think we’ll be ok

great news! you're not actually seeing karl rove, john yoo, and david frum criticize the administration's lawlessness more stridently than dem leadership. you, reader, were infected with rabies by a brown bat 36 hours ago and this is all just the virus working its way through your nervous system

Ta-Nehisi Coates on Charlie Kirk’s record. archive.ph/2025.09.16-2...

In memory of the recent anniversary of 9/11, I crossed back into the US at Jackman, Maine. IYKYK

The wasp family I work on has not one but two parasitoids important for coffee. Hit me up!

Yesterday's piece from @jamellebouie.net is the only high-profile piece I've seen that specifically discusses the watchlist, its effect on academics, and its effect on public attitudes toward academia as a whole. (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/09/13/o...

now wait just a minute en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyranno...

(whispers): being a spouse / parent does not inherently make you a good person

Don’t stack rocks, it’s bad in general. But ESPECIALLY don’t stack rocks – off-trail – in a place you’re specifically told not to go off the trail – on a trail THAT IS ITSELF MARKED WITH ROCK CAIRNS 🤬

It’s highly classified

Sure, you’re unemployed, but none of those stinkin’ immigrants or so-called experts got jobs either

i clicked thinking i was about to read about the ethical perils of surrogacy and instead spent 30 horrified minutes learning why silicon valley needs to die

✅ monograph revisions submitted ✅ new manuscript submitted I am so ready for a vacation 😮‍💨

Pretty sure I hitched a ride with this guy circa 1995

"Life of Brian" wouldn't get made today because it would be too conventional.

and they get all haughty and pearl-clutchy when we get angry, too. like it's weird and creepy and grounds for firing that people could care deeply about things beyond themselves, especially some little bug or fish or flower. people who do not care will weaponize the fact that you care.

not to make everything about myself, but I would argue this is true of science & academia. everything is so underfunded and unstable that anyone speaking up risks losing access to projects they've worked on for 10, 15, 20 years. the money people know we want to do good, and they use it against us.

Hello, I am furious www.liberalcurrents.com/let-it-burn-...

No problem, we just need to build a barrier between South America and Antarctica to block the southern circumpolar current, bringing cool water to the tropics to offset heating. This will not have any adverse consequences.

Article about how AI sucks and doesn’t work and everyone hates being forced to use it:

I see where she went wrong

I really think we need to have some mechanism in place for being able to say, in print and in the media, that a problem with a public figure is that they are insane. Not in a hyperbolic way. RFK Jr is a maniac.

Just got an email that my university has hired an "AI expert" for a "systemwide approach". Which made me mad to begin with, then I looked up who it was and now I'm boiling. www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ujy...

That’s right

They tried to put him through the grinder, but the people recognized a hero.

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single woman in possession of tarantulas and mulberry gardens, must be in want of funds to sponsor Washington's assassination."

Literally just broke my extendable bug net made from a Japanese carbon fiber fishing pole yesterday. Hopefully the import places I got it from before still has them in stock because there's no getting them direct for the near future.

The jerk store called, they said you missed your meds

"This is at the heart of MAHA, and why RFK and co find themselves now on the Right— they are Nazis. They believe that the weak should be culled, that you should "trust your immune system" because physical strength and health is equivalent to moral strength"

The argument in the essay only works if we have set aside the existence of standards of evidence for claims about the world.

Editing bookshelf: these are keepers! #Beetles of #Peru project! I lost track of how many species (13000?), experts I begged, the number of pubs….. And we are not done yet!!! Success will be an army of #Peruvian students studying their #insects #biodiversity

i'll say it again, my loud and vigorous support for any democrat who calls for televised hearings and criminal charges for everyone involved in DOGE. this guy should never be able to live in peace again.

listen the world is a mess but a judge ordered the Florida migrant prison closed, California passed their "fuck around, find out" redistricting, and James Dobson is dead this is the best net good news day in awhile, I really do think

Literally “stop making me hit you”