Notices by Alex Wild (alexwild@mastodon.online), page 4

The fascist attempt to take over Higher Ed is partly ideological/theocratic, but don’t underestimate the part that’s sheer grift.

Republicans are finding ways to divert public money into the pockets of their friends and donors. Pay close attention to who gets the new contracts coming out of the expanded New College budget.

Whether New College meets any academic goals is immaterial, compared to Oligarchs building a new machine for bleeding us.

#Florida #HigherEd
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2023/05/03/after-desantis-takeover-record-funding-new-college

About 20 minutes of fireflies in the Smoky Mountains:

A gallery of fireflies.

#Fireflies #Insects #Photography

https://www.alexanderwild.com/Insects/Fireflies/

“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.

#Fascism #RepublicanExtremism

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

March 15 is the day people leave Twitter.

The abandonment of Twitter in the Musk era has, for now, been inconsistent and chaotic, with people leaving at different times and for different reasons.

An organized effort to promote a "Leave Twitter" day, when everyone still reluctantly there logs off for the last time, with enough advance to line up alternate sites, should help get people out.

Thus, March 15. The Ides of Musk. Spread the word.

#Twitter #IdesOfMusk #LeaveTwitterDay

For everyone showing up here again: You should stay this time.

There are no ads.

Troll farms get cut off at the source.

You can edit your posts.

You can follow hashtags.

There are no limits on third-party apps. If you are having trouble and don't like your interface or your mobile app, you can just try another one. Ivory is really good, but there are others.

#Mastodon #Twitter

DeSantis' proposal for higher ed in Florida appears Soviet: it will allow the ruling party to bypass existing university hiring structures, conduct ideological purges and make sure only Party-approved faculty teach Party-approved subjects.

Also note the emphasis on re-directing public universities to "high paying jobs" (=still serving as underlings to the ruling class), instead of producing independent public thinkers, leaders, and entrepreneurs.

#DeSantis #HigherEd #Florida

I feel bad for Mastodon. It's the cozy tea shop down the street from a raucus punk club that was just taken over by Nazis, and now all the punks are hanging out because there wasn't anywhere else to go and no one is quite sure what to do because they're good punks but they're not that into tea.

A recently-eclosed periodical cicada waits for her new cuticle to harden. Panther Creek State Conservation Area, Illinois. Photo from 2014.

#molting #entomology #cicadas #insects #photography #nature

North America’s Wasp Mantisfly, Climaciella brunnea, is not a wasp, nor a mantis, nor a fly, but a species of lacewing.

#mimicry #insects #entomology #photography