Derek Hennen, Ph.D.

I like my job but....

If gender were the immutable biological reality they claim to believe it is, they wouldn't need to spend so much energy policing it like this.

Last year, Live Nation donated $500,000 to Trump’s inauguration fund.

Your Data Will Be Used Against You (and not just by ICE/CPB). All these technologies will make their way to ordinary law enforcement.

An Army Corps project could wipe out one of Florida’s last thriving coral reefs The fate of one of the last thriving coral reefs in Florida may be imperiled by plans to widen the shipping channel leading into Port Everglades.

The US army corps of engineers is considering, right now, what would be the largest destruction of coral reefs in US history. To make a port slightly bigger.

People know this, right?

www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

🧪🦑🌎

The discovery of a new “species” invariably leads to the discovery of new “species interactions” - new connections in the web of life. Here, the discovery of a new gall wasp also uncovered EIGHT new interactions with other insects - some likely new species as well. #biodiversity @ymilesz.bsky.social

a public utility does not need to turn a profit. this is intentional.

please stop treating us like we’re dumb

bsky.app/profile/eshe...

I've got some beaver butt beetles on their way to me from a friend!! What a catch!! www.bugguide.net/node/view/96...

🆕 Never Post! Not What You Know, but How You Know: Science Communicators Roundtable Mike talks with science communicators Alex Dainis, Trade Dominguez and Joe Hanson about what it’s like trying to do their job in today’s information environment. * Call us at 651 615 5007 to leave...

Massive delight to get to talk to @alexdainis.bsky.social, @tracedominguez.com and @drjoehanson.bsky.social for @neverpo.st about what it's like being a science communicator right now, in this information environment.

“Almost all the 165 people killed in the attack were girls aged between seven and 12, according to local officials. There were around 170 girls at the school in southern Iran’s Minab at the time.“

A double-tap strike on little girls at school.

I see the concentration camps are doing their jobs. This is their purpose, to warehouse and neglect, to kill with neglect.

The approximate cause of death for Anne Frank was the Nazis. The specific cause of death was the outbreak of Typhus at Bergen-Belsen camp, which overtook her (and others) from chronic malnutrition and medical abuse. These conditions are not, in character, unlike our system of immigration camps today

A flyer for Myriapod Meet-Up 2026. The flyer has a picture of a millipede on it. The millipede is tan and has a cone-shaped head.

Myriapod Meet Up 2026 will be on 1 April, 8AM - 5PM (EDT). This online event will include short talks, and a chance to share and discuss research about myriapods (and other multipedes, e.g. Onychophora). Anyone may participate in this free event (no need to give a talk).

Good article, but the framing is wrong. There is not a dearth of interest in taxonomy. There is a scarcity of funding and positions, which is a deliberate choice by funding agencies and institutions. The youth love taxonomy! It's the olds that are failing to meet their passion!

For months, @jacksonwryan.com has been looking into why so many video games sites have become full of gambling and casino stories, unusual author images, and, most recently, the use of AI. We've connected these sites to Clickout Media. Here's what we've learned.

A titan of vaccine development sees his field’s achievements slip away Stanley Plotkin, the 93-year-old "godfather of vaccines," is watching his field’s achievements slip away.

Stanley Plotkin had a major hand in the development of a number of vaccines in use today; he designed the rubella vaccine. He remembers the world before widespread use of vaccines & knows what's coming as vaccine policy is rewritten & vaccine confidence is eroded. www.statnews.com/2026/03/02/s...

Thanks for the tip. I've been working on figuring out Andrena to get through our backlog of specimens at Virginia Natural Heritage. Some of them make sense and others I'm putting off until later, but I'm enjoying the challenge.

Thanks Michael!

Thanks; mostly I'm looking for more info on recognizing A. arabis here in Virginia. Ribble's paper on Rhacandrena refers to this one for more info.

Me trying to sneak my way into the function.

"American innovation" now refers to making a kind of atrocity cronut by combining insider trading with war crimes.

2023: 63 cases. 2024: 283 cases. 2025: 2,279 cases. 2026: 1,111 cases (so far).

DENYING YOUR CHILD OF VACCINATION IS CHILD ABUSE.

This is data on measles cases in the USA by year.

there's a lot of specific overwhelming and massive crises happening at once and every single one has at its root elites who did crimes and never suffered consequences for it.

things every single republican president of your lifetime has done

- started a war in the middle east
- completely destroyed the economy

That atttenuated plumpness from front to back is very endearing

You sound like an unhinged person if you in plain words describe what’s happening, but the Trump admin demanded Anthropic’s AI be able to kill things for it w/out human approval and also do mass surveillance.

Anthropic said no, and now the admin is trying to destroy the company in retaliation.

Finally, some good news!!

I continue to be fascinated by the phenomenon whereby an expert engages with any of the LLMs on their field of expertise and is instantly horrified by the wrong answers, and then goes on to use it for things they are not experts in as though it won’t be just as bad for those.