Degen Pener
degenpener.bsky.social
Degen Pener
@degenpener.bsky.social
Independent Editor/Journalist. Nature, Culture, Design
Reposted by Degen Pener
Right now, DOGE is saying that any new hires have to be approved by their office.
In 1980, when IL Governor Thompson said any new hires had to be approved by his office, the Supreme Court said it was unconstitutional politicization of hiring.
What about now?
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
February 15, 2025 at 11:03 PM
Reposted by Degen Pener
World's richest man ends America's modest aid to the world's poorest people.

I'm not a big believer in hell, but willing to make an exception
February 3, 2025 at 8:33 PM
Reposted by Degen Pener
Sunlit basidiolichen, Lichenomphalia umbellifera. Northwest Territories, Canada. #lichen #mushroom #fungifriends #fungi
December 18, 2024 at 2:15 AM
Transfixing:
Here’s a common scaly-foot (Pygopus lepidopodus) licking its eye clean in Little Desert last night. Legless lizards are awesome.
December 16, 2024 at 5:49 AM
Reposted by Degen Pener
Please re-tweet so I can quit X. I've got 45k followers there, just 500 here. When I get to 5k I can dump Musk forever

I'm the director of @centerforbiodiv.bsky.social. Follow me for real-time, insider takes on endangered species, climate, public lands, oceans, toxics. We sue Trump alot. Very alot.
December 13, 2024 at 10:58 PM
Reposted by Degen Pener
Apparently it is #BlackFlyDay (I think that's what it's called 😛) - here's a lovely velvety black hoverfly, Pipiza species (probably P. noctiluca) from Somerset last spring
November 29, 2024 at 12:45 PM
This is a wild plan to combat cane toads in Australia:
November 28, 2024 at 6:18 AM
Reposted by Degen Pener
Some interesting results from Jo Carpenter! Impacts on beech last is from sheer numbers of rats rather than prey switching as thought? #NZES2024
November 26, 2024 at 1:45 AM
Reposted by Degen Pener
Jorunna funebris is our #Nudivember species today. They feed on sponges in the Indo-Pacific regions.

www.inaturalist.org/observations...
Mourning Dorid (Jorunna funebris)
Mourning Dorid from Makadi Bay, Hurghada, Egypt on August 7, 2014 at 11:57 AM by Hsini Lin. big one
www.inaturalist.org
November 24, 2024 at 6:28 PM
Big likes for auroch like:
I will post here various photos of #Heckcattle from the Neandertal-Museum in Mettman which I recently visited. This lineage has some #Watussi cattle ancestry, what resulted into some specimens with particularly spectacular #aurochs alike horns, even among the cows (as those in the photos below).
November 24, 2024 at 5:43 PM
Quite the thread botanically speaking:
When botanist Richard Deakin examined Rome’s Colosseum in the 1850s, he found 420 species of plant growing in the ruins: cypresses and ilex, pea plants and more than 50 types of grasses.

But some flowers growing there mystified him. They were so rare they were found nowhere else in Europe.
November 24, 2024 at 5:07 PM
The phrase “magic poo ring” was not on my Tuesday bingo card:
Blue-Footed Boobies and the magic poo ring.

Blue-footed Boobies nest in a simple scrape on the ground. Guides told us that the Booby, while shading their eggs from the harsh sun, turn to face the sun throughout the day, and that's why there is a ring of poo around the nest. 🧵
November 20, 2024 at 3:13 AM
Reposted by Degen Pener
The hedgehog, once common throughout Scotland, has been updated from “least concern to near threatened” in the latest International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of threatened species

Story by me for @theferret.scot

theferret.scot/hedgehogs-ne...
Hedgehogs under threat in Scotland as population falls by more than 100,000 in 20 years
Hedgehogs have been listed as “near threatened” by a global wildlife organisation as the population in Scotland is down nearly 50 per cent over the past two decades.
theferret.scot
November 18, 2024 at 8:36 PM
It's an official goodbye: The slender-billed curlew declared extinct, the "first mainland European bird to go extinct in half a millennium": www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/new...
The slender-billed curlew is declared extinct
This is the first mainland European bird declared extinct in 500 years.
www.nhm.ac.uk
November 19, 2024 at 5:26 PM
For the new winter issue, C magazine gave me the opportunity to meet and interview six amazing furniture designers based in the greater Los Angeles area - meet these six inspiring creators here: magazinec.com/design/why-s...
Why SoCal Is the Next Great Hub For Design
See how L.A. is taking the design world by storm. Meet the creative minds behind SoCal Design and explore the city's thriving furniture design scene.
magazinec.com
November 18, 2024 at 8:59 PM
In tandem with the rights of nature legal movement, some nonprofits and other organizations are now giving a place for voices of nature on their boards, writes Sophie Tolhurst at Atmos: atmos.earth/why-the-art-...
Why the Art World Is Making Nature Its Boss | Atmos
To fight the climate and biodiversity crisis, cultural organizations are looking to recruit nonhuman voices to governance.
atmos.earth
November 18, 2024 at 8:37 PM