Alex Wild

Entomologist, Natural History Collection Curator, and Photographer based in Austin, Texas.

Public Key

npub135rr35lgmxeruvmlksqhhd7449777s9acfvwsys7ul23uc3u5pjs2e6n3j

NIP-05 Address

alexwild@mastodon-online.mostr.pub

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nprofile1qqsg6p3c605dnv37xdlmgqtmkl26jl00gz7uyk8gzg0w04g7vg72qegpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0ds27ymn0

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

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npub135rr35lgmxeruvmlksqhhd7449777s9acfvwsys7ul23uc3u5pjs2e6n3j

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Last Notes

2026-04-13 00:57:22 UTC

Found some common buckeye caterpillars (Junonia ceonia) on our snake herb this afternoon. #Caterpillars #Nature #JunoniaCoenia #Lepidoptera
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/116/394/674/346/633/443/original/f53ef11ad938e2d4.png
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/116/394/674/988/306/641/original/1ee817ae4e5beacb.png

2026-03-22 16:31:13 UTC

The retractable antennae of Mycetophylax fungus-farming ants leave such a distinct scrobe on the head. Photo from a few years ago from Mindo, Ecuador.
This is possibly an undescribed species. Too many ants, not enough taxonomists. #Ants #Insects #Formicidae #Mycetophylax
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/116/273/778/673/784/424/original/036a31a8b8da7dbc.png

2026-01-20 16:58:55 UTC

Toltec Potter Wasp, Parazumia tolteca. Texas.
#Hymenoptera #Vespidae #Insects
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/115/928/486/520/115/262/original/79aaf792cc494a0f.png

2026-01-16 02:20:18 UTC

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It's worth noting the tech billionaires are not trying to expand the US empire. They have incubated inside it and are planning to discard the United States like a spent shell once their new network state emerges.
In theory, those hoping to protect Europe from this new threat could find common cause with a number of more traditional American oligarchs, though it might be distasteful, because their interests are also threatened.

2026-01-15 18:49:54 UTC

Why are US fascists fixated on Greenland? It's weirder than you think and only happening because a few nutjobs became billionaires (from April, but still relevant)
https://www.thenerdreich.com/tech-billionaires-want-to-build-a-network-state-in-greenland/

2026-01-12 20:00:21 UTC

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@nprofile…djfr I think breaking our tech and oil sectors are key, they both have vast wealth and nearly unchecked power. The more they struggle, the less of a grip they'll have on internal U.S. media and politicians.
So: pull the plug on Google, Apple, Meta, etc as soon as is feasible. They are a security risk for you anyway. And transition to sustainable energy.

2026-01-12 19:24:41 UTC

I recognize that what the U.S. is doing is terrible for Europe, Canada, and for pretty much most of the rest of the world, and that y'all are right to be angry. You didn't ask for belligerent, dangerous neighbors, and you don't deserve this.
But, the best outcome for people everywhere- a stable, peaceful, rights-respecting, law-based world order- is not made more likely if y'all decide to wash your hands of the United States and just let us deal with our own problems. It is made less likely.

2025-12-24 00:02:26 UTC

Honored to have a photo on the cover of Current Biology!
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/115/771/606/504/437/439/original/085aa911d9976bcb.png

2025-11-14 15:52:58 UTC

Putting final touches on a 400 species list for a book I'm writing about ants, for the general public, worldwide coverage.
I welcome suggestions for species I should include. Whittling 15,000 species down to only a few hundred is harder than it looks, because of course it should have ALL THE ANTS.
#ants

2025-10-12 23:47:17 UTC

One of the midwest's most iconic insects, a goldenrod soldier beetle sits in a mid-summer aster. Indiana Dunes National Park.
#Cantharidae #Nature #Insects #beetle
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/115/363/858/855/129/691/original/e63294c1d21dce8b.png

2025-10-11 19:01:40 UTC

We decided the word for arranging Halloween skeletons into various scenes in the front yard is “Necroscaping”

2025-09-14 15:14:04 UTC

A nest of Syneoca cyanea warrior wasps in Paraná, Brazil. Two things I love. Wasps. And Brazil.
#Wasps #Synoeca #WaspLove #Hymenotera #Insects
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/115/203/298/258/249/567/original/34cd8f09848cb481.png

2025-09-05 02:21:00 UTC

How does one explain to young people that the internet used to be a free, open place with no ads.

2025-08-13 15:01:50 UTC

Buried in the regime's political takeover letter of the Smithsonian is the worst bit. Unlike exhibits, which are non-destructive towards primary materials, temporary in nature, and reversible, the foundational collections are irreplacable. They want to be able to throw stuff out or sell it off.
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/115/022/053/066/581/038/original/48193009580c5a43.png

2025-07-10 18:46:47 UTC

On the other hand, I love open platforms.

2025-07-08 22:29:37 UTC

Kind of amazing that the people who finally ruined the internet was the tech sector itself.

2025-07-06 14:01:13 UTC

I love how this queen Lasius arizonicus ant is smooth like glass. She’s a social parasite who , after dropping her wings, sneaks into existing ant colonies, kills the resident queen, and takes over.
So much drama. #Lasius #Ants #Insects
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/114/806/650/402/899/920/original/3467768c755a6efb.png

2025-06-10 21:03:08 UTC

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@nprofile…args The described use seems targeted to resolve a recurring shortcoming of the site, and wouldn't touch the images.
But that they seemed oblivious to how a group of nature nerds might react to a sudden partnership with the tech death star? Does not bode well for the organization.

2025-06-10 20:49:36 UTC

Controversy brewing in the iNaturalist community over the nonprofit's partnership with Google to make generative-AI text content.
#GenerativeAI #iNaturalist
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/what-is-this-inaturalist-and-generative-ai/66140

2025-06-03 12:20:52 UTC

Dung beetles are such handsome animals. Here’s a female Texas rainbow scarab, Phanaeus texensis. It is not rainbow colored like its congeners, but I’m not complaining.
#insects #phanaeus #dungbeetles .
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/114/619/388/460/440/215/original/11eea0002fd9a1c6.png

2025-05-12 15:09:08 UTC

We leave the venus flytrap outdoors in the summer. It's been busy, apparently. #VenusFlyTrap #Insects
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/114/495/490/239/027/381/original/0a8cb5cd43abf7cc.png

2025-03-04 06:10:56 UTC

After nearly a century of prosperity, the United States has decided, apparently on purpose, to become a poor country.

2025-02-27 20:59:43 UTC

A soldier ant and several regular worker ants in a Pheidole hyatti late winter brood nest. Brackenridge Field Lab, Texas. #ants #Insects #Pheidole
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/114/077/858/136/684/129/original/c5ad2e58fddd5e4c.png

2025-02-27 20:47:39 UTC

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@nprofile…uzrd not found in NYC

2025-02-27 20:40:16 UTC

Columbia = University in New York City
Colombia = Large country in NW South America

2025-02-25 21:22:01 UTC

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@nprofile…h8y7 these don’t sting, but the larger workers can slice skin with those jaws. No venom, though, so it’s not too painful.

2025-02-25 03:09:02 UTC

Had a few minutes to do some photography today. Pleased with this shot of a Texas leafcutter ant in our lab colony, standing in the fungus garden. #ants #atta #insects
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/114/062/322/665/755/977/original/a67f40b0e05cceca.png

2025-02-16 17:54:13 UTC

I've been imaging some of our searcher wasps (Ichneumonidae), in a futile attempt to stay ahead of the hyperdiversity. There are seemingly endless variations on these wasps. This is Tromatobia notator, found in a marsh along the Texas coast. #Insects #Ichneumonidae #wasps #Entomology
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/114/014/842/932/121/395/original/a0811650b94b78c6.png

2025-02-12 22:37:34 UTC

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@nprofile…m947 Nice! It's a young katydid. Not sure beyond that- immature forms are hard. Maybe Scudderia?

2025-02-10 15:23:42 UTC

Texas sky update.
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/113/980/276/551/226/749/original/711b1468f4054686.png

2025-01-21 21:22:46 UTC

We've opened registration for our annual BugShot insect photography workshop! This summer we'll be in Portal, Arizona for the start of the monsoon.
We're also very pleased to announce our newest instructor, Adrian Smith, whose exquisite high speed insect flight videos you may know from the AntLab Youtube channel.
#Insects #Photography #Bugshot
https://www.bugshot.net/bugshot-portal-arizona

2025-01-20 21:02:32 UTC

When I think of great things coming historically from the United States- the music, the novels, the art, the science, the universities, the food- almost none of it comes from the strains of oppressive white Christianity that now temporarily hold power. They’ve been opposed to all of it, all along.

2025-01-20 19:01:09 UTC

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@nprofile…fa4k ooooohhhhhh good luck.

2025-01-20 18:08:12 UTC

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@nprofile…args nice! Looks cold where you are

2025-01-20 16:54:12 UTC

How are we all doing today, Mastodon?

2025-01-20 01:32:26 UTC

One perk of being curator of a natural history collection is that our volunteers and staff bring me little treasures. Here's an Oiceoptoma carrion beetle that John Carroll found on a deer carcass in south Austin. Life- and death- goes on.
#insects #Silphidae #Beetles
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/113/858/099/045/401/509/original/c5a54769aab62ff2.png

2025-01-19 20:31:43 UTC

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@nprofile…args do you not have enough tarsi?

2025-01-19 03:08:20 UTC

It’s Saturday night. Here are two palmetto tortoise beetles with adorable feet having sex. #insects #coleoptera #beetles #Chrysomelidae
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/113/852/814/755/789/210/original/df21aa877c1fd854.png

2025-01-19 02:00:05 UTC

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@nprofile…xe4c I still miss Google plus

2025-01-19 01:21:31 UTC

TikTok is really something right now. Servers in the United States shut down in half an hour, and people are saying goodbye, telling jokes, sharing their funniest posts, and playing their own piano outros.
I’ve never once posted there, but there’s a tangible sense of loss and community, even from a lurker’s perspective.

2025-01-17 15:21:49 UTC

New study: How parasitic crickets co-exist with hostile ant hosts- Distancing and dodging. #ants #entomology #insects #science
https://phys.org/news/2025-01-parasitic-crickets-hostile-ant-hosts.html

2025-01-16 02:32:22 UTC

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@nprofile…args where I live we really only see them in the spring, which from an enthusiast perspective is a bit of a drawback compared to things like ants and leafhoppers that are around all the time.

2025-01-16 02:26:47 UTC

An absolutely gorgeous pergid sawfly, photographed in Victoria, Australia. These are herbivorous relatives of wasps. #pergidae #hymenoptera #insects #nature
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/113/835/664/321/462/862/original/ac829610688ad3ff.png

2025-01-14 19:17:51 UTC

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@nprofile…n7e2 Their bloodlust is immense. They cannot wait to try to purge this country.

2025-01-14 18:59:13 UTC

The trouble with Hegseth isn't that he's an abusive alcoholic, or that he's unqualified, or whatever. It's that he will use the military to kill U.S. citizens. That's why Trump wants him.
Republicans absolutely hate Americans and will not think twice about doing a Tiananmen Square.

2025-01-14 16:41:07 UTC

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@nprofile…acz2 This is one area where Mastodon and Bluesky run as equals.

2025-01-14 16:35:15 UTC

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@nprofile…qs6e Indeed it is!

2025-01-14 16:31:31 UTC

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Yes, I am aware that the Fediverse has a superior product in many ways, and is likely to outlive Bluesky, as well as other platforms. I do nudge people over here from BS when I can.
But the problem with Mastodon isn't the tech. It's the purist condescension, the constant sense of bitterness and sour grapes. This is a social network, supposedly. Ditch the antisocial behavior if you want people to feel welcome.

2025-01-14 16:26:46 UTC

People being snitty about Bluesky is 95% of the reason why people don't stay on Mastodon. Get the fuck over yourselves.

2025-01-14 14:39:58 UTC

A female Xorides wasp has sensed a beetle grub deep in this redbud tree, and she drills through the wood to deposit an egg on it. Illinois. #insects #Ichneumonidae #Hymenoptera #wasps
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/113/827/223/035/085/870/original/37cc2d5c10f940c1.png

2025-01-13 16:45:23 UTC

There are a lot of negative comments on Mastodon directed at Bluesky, which is honestly kind of bullshit. The oligarchs are coming for everyone, and having a diversity of open protocols is a form of resilience.

2025-01-13 16:39:54 UTC

For what it's worth, I like both Bluesky and Mastodon, I want both to succeed, and that they are doing similar things from slightly different vantage points is not needless redundancy but needed resiliency, given what we face going forwards.

2025-01-13 13:45:53 UTC

Hypnobug. Don’t stare too long at it or you’ll go under.
(Derbidae, Ecuador) #Hemiptera #Insects #color
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/113/821/345/702/727/598/original/8f2de18f33a95954.png

2025-01-12 01:27:03 UTC

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@nprofile…args Weevils have scapes too. They lack external palps in their mouths, kind of unusual for beetles, so they need their antennae to “taste” what’s at the tip of the snout.

2025-01-12 01:23:49 UTC

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@nprofile…args I always thought it was because scapes allow an insect to antennate whatever they are holding in their mandibles, which is why scapes are common in social insects.

2025-01-11 14:31:12 UTC

American elites created the greatest universities the world had ever seen, with the aim of generating humanity's deepest pool of knowledge, but when that knowledge turned out to be "American elites are the root cause of many of the world's problems" they decided to shut it all down.

2025-01-10 18:31:03 UTC

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@nprofile…5wy9 I'm not sure that's true, anymore. We had a million-acre wildfire last year in the panhandle.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Texas_wildfires

2025-01-10 02:00:37 UTC

Nervously watching the LA fires knowing that huge portions of west Austin look like this
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/113/801/588/215/180/568/original/9f704a567782f14c.png

2025-01-10 01:14:14 UTC

One of our more colorful local plant bugs, Calocoris barberi. This is an aster-feeding insect native to Texas and northern Mexico. #Miridae #Insects
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/113/801/401/965/908/270/original/ec3348a492971f8b.png

2025-01-09 02:38:38 UTC

2006 paper predicted that human-caused climate change would alter the Santa Ana winds and make California more vulnerable to wildfires.
#climate #california
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2006GL025808

2025-01-07 12:31:06 UTC

One small pro-democracy act you can do is delete your Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp accounts.
Meta is aligned with the incoming regime, and your presence there helps them.

2025-01-07 01:45:45 UTC

Just have this feeling of intense dread about January 20th.

2025-01-06 13:32:54 UTC

Cold enough for the cleansing freeze that our local ecosystem needs to stay on track and start a new year, not so cold as to screw up our shitty Texas infrastructure. This is the winter sweet spot. #atxwx
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/113/781/660/224/731/539/original/99702ff4d484caf3.png

2025-01-03 21:12:21 UTC

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@nprofile…hn0f Just like our own species, color is influenced by genetics and varies somewhat from place to place.

2025-01-03 20:40:54 UTC

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Here's one from Texas:
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/113/766/357/365/000/579/original/49371ac1f48bcda0.png

2025-01-03 20:36:03 UTC

In Colombia, some populations of the elongate twig ant Pseudomyrmex gracilis have an orange booty (sorry about the technical jargon); I thought this was a different species when I saw it because I'm used to our Texan ones with black butts. (Minca, Colombia). #ants #insects #pseudomyrmex
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/113/766/337/751/729/059/original/0bcb3ea0986e9510.png

2025-01-03 17:41:39 UTC

This is so very Austin. A free food forest. #Texas #atx
https://www.kvue.com/article/news/community/free-edible-forest-garden-in-east-austin-triples-in-size/269-9f9fbe6f-7daf-4282-9c2c-44bdbb2771dc

2025-01-02 02:14:06 UTC

The horehound bug (Agonoscelis rutila) is a native Australian stink bug that has switched hosts to feed on the introduced European horehound plant. Victoria, Australia.
#bugs #insects #pentatomidae
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/113/756/341/512/527/530/original/b0e534e3260ee878.png

2025-01-01 02:08:52 UTC

So this happened
#lemonpig
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/113/750/657/899/866/045/original/3c90e5ec6c86b460.png

2024-11-20 20:23:26 UTC

#Bluesky really straining under the weight of new sign-ups today, and probably troll attacks, now that the platform has emerged as a major unmanipulated competitor to Elon Musk's disinformation machine.

2024-09-15 22:23:28 UTC

A leafcutter bee collects nectar and pollen from a Rudbeckia flower. Indiana Dunes National Park, USA.
#Insects #Bees #Pollinators #Rudbeckia #Megachile
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/113/143/905/444/330/052/original/949e9ba39e2a6b4e.png

2024-08-31 18:21:52 UTC

Eurymerodesmus, a colorful flat-backed millipede. Texas.
#Millipede #Nature
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/113/058/018/921/241/510/original/862cc8c1fd8ac175.png

2024-08-30 20:42:27 UTC

As an update on the Twitter/Brazil thing, BlueSky is full of newly arrived Brazilians looking around and posting reaction GIFs. More than here, for what it's worth.
#BlueSky #Twitter

2024-08-28 12:18:14 UTC

Opinion: biological taxonomy should mostly be done in databases, rather than papers.

2024-07-14 23:45:22 UTC

In Colombia I finally got a photograph of the famous ant-mimicking treehopper Cyphonia clavata. They're tiny and skittish, so not so easy as some of the larger treehoppers.
The mimicry works better from afar, where the weird pronotal outgrowths look a lot like ants.
#Membracidae #Treehoppers #Cyphonia #insects
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/112/787/495/963/808/500/original/ac6dc1885286ad05.png

2024-06-12 12:34:51 UTC

Insane amount of light pollution coming from the Tesla factory in Austin. Just immense, and pointless.
#lightpollution #Tesla
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/112/603/670/135/376/172/original/7de3b506f970080a.png

2024-01-13 14:27:26 UTC

A good solid freeze like the one Texas is about to get should push back the start of mosquito season in the spring. Can’t complain about that.
#Texas #atxwx

2024-01-10 18:46:18 UTC

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The deliberate cruelty of Texas republicans is phenomenal. Is it because they genuinely enjoy the suffering of others? Is it a cynical show of power?
Who the fuck created the world's worst people and then put them in charge of the state here?

2024-01-10 18:44:49 UTC

Texas Republicans starve children on purpose.
#GOPExtremism #Texas #txlege
https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/texas/texas-usda-summer-food-benefits-program/269-e69e84dd-fc27-4707-bb69-60ddef81c5e2

2023-12-08 21:25:29 UTC

tl,dr; south of the Mason-Dixon line wasps get kinda stupid.
#Entomology #Polistes
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1010461

2023-12-06 19:42:37 UTC

American elites know that young people see the genocide in Gaza for what it is, and that this widespread perception is a very real threat to their power.
Which is why there is now a coordinated attempt to pressure universities into silencing dissent.
#Gaza #HigherEd
https://www.axios.com/local/boston/2023/12/06/harvard-mit-antisemitism-congress

2023-11-15 02:36:05 UTC

A gallery of ladybird beetles.
#Coccinellidae #Insects #Beetles #photography
https://www.alexanderwild.com/Insects/Coleoptera-Beetles/Coccinellidae/

2023-10-25 17:44:04 UTC

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@npub178r…qekt I dunno. Attempting a coup sorta is baggage.

2023-09-19 23:25:34 UTC

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@npub12hh…kdkk laws politicians put on other people that they couldn’t themselves pass.

2023-09-19 22:45:37 UTC

Apparently children in Texas aren't supposed to learn about Anne Frank, either. I wonder why?
#Texas
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/education/article/texas-teacher-anne-frank-fired-18375331.php

2023-09-18 00:09:03 UTC

There aren’t many steps between arguing to “defend Western Civilization” and digging the mass graves to make happen whatever one thinks that defense requires.
Y’all still inexplicably on Twitter need to drop it.

2023-09-16 19:31:51 UTC

One of the largest monuments to human hatred ever constructed has an environmental toll, it turns out.
#borderwall #biodiversity
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/congressional-watchdog-describes-environmental-harm-of-the-border-wall

2023-09-14 14:27:57 UTC

Gotta love the modern socialist talking point "Workers should be paid well and treated fairly, except for artists, who should make me all the stuff I like for free"

2023-09-04 14:39:20 UTC

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@npub1se6…cmph there is a difference between saying individual actions are useless (incorrect!) and individual actions are not by themselves sufficient to stop climate change.

2023-09-01 22:46:19 UTC

Twitter is serving literal, mask-off Nazi advertisements.
You should not be on that platform. At all. Unless you approve of this kind of content.
Some point soon I’m going to start blocking people here and on Blue Sky who still post there, because by now you’re actively helping white supremacists ramp up a genocide and I’m not ok with that.
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/110/992/300/948/267/567/original/aa4e40ea1d315bd0.png

2023-09-01 11:53:14 UTC

I don’t need a wake-up alarm, I have a kitten.

2023-08-31 19:48:44 UTC

Seeing more dead trees around Austin, after months of drought and record-breaking temperatures. It’s bleak.

2023-08-26 17:48:38 UTC

Planting trees as carbon offsets is ineffective at best, and a grifting, polluting scam at worst.
#climate
https://www.salon.com/2023/08/24/why-planting-trees-to-offset-carbon-emissions-doesnt-really-work-according-to-experts/

2023-08-26 01:58:00 UTC

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@npub1z4e…aasw Steiner Ranch? Figures.

2023-08-21 21:10:21 UTC

Texas sky update. Hazy, breezy, the air feels like it burns. Our 45th day in a row over 100F. I have an uneasy feeling about all this.
#atxwx #Texas
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/110/929/648/806/193/892/original/d97ca220e655ff4f.jpeg

2023-08-21 02:23:16 UTC

What’s your favorite museum, and why? Can be big, small, esoteric, national, public, private, anything.

2023-08-20 13:30:14 UTC

One place I worry about with #Hilary rainfall is the lovely desert town of Borrego Springs. Most houses are built on an alluvial fan.
#BorregoSprings #Flooding
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/110/922/174/750/236/624/original/462ce0b7dea98b21.jpeg

2023-08-16 15:50:54 UTC

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Recognize that the Texas oil billionaires are a national security risk, people who are willing to spill a lot of other people's blood to get their way.

2023-08-16 15:46:21 UTC

It's not that Americans themselves are getting more fascist, more hateful. If anything, Americans are becoming more tolerant.
It's that a small set of extremely rich people are getting bolder about funding extremism, bolder about supporting coups, bolder about buying courts.

2023-08-15 14:45:36 UTC

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We have the tech let’s make it work