Derek Hennen, Ph.D.
@derekhennen.bsky.social
Entomologist & Myriapodologist: leaf litter critter enthusiast.
Author of Ohio Millipede Field Guide.
"Scientist & avowed Swiftie" -Rolling Stone
Richmond, VA
www.derekhennen.com
Author of Ohio Millipede Field Guide.
"Scientist & avowed Swiftie" -Rolling Stone
Richmond, VA
www.derekhennen.com
Reposted by Derek Hennen, Ph.D.
As the negotiations over DHS budget continue, please remember: the ICE detention budget alone was exploded in 2025 so it is now 62% greater than the entire Bureau of Prisons. People are not clocking what this infusion of cash to build concentration camps will do to our society.
February 9, 2026 at 2:58 PM
As the negotiations over DHS budget continue, please remember: the ICE detention budget alone was exploded in 2025 so it is now 62% greater than the entire Bureau of Prisons. People are not clocking what this infusion of cash to build concentration camps will do to our society.
Why should we fight to fund the NSF and NIH when they steal public money to give to their cronies? The review process is no longer fair and we can't pretend it is under this regime.
Many students said they were careful to avoid "banned words" in their GRFP applications, but in some cases it was unavoidable. Now they're wondering if these words led to their RWR notifications.
“My project is about bears and ‘black’ is a trigger word,” one Redditor wrote. “Insane.”
“My project is about bears and ‘black’ is a trigger word,” one Redditor wrote. “Insane.”
Students applying for NSF funding are having their applications “returned without review” for being “ineligible,” despite their proposed research falling squarely within the application guidelines. eos.org/research-and...
February 8, 2026 at 10:25 PM
Why should we fight to fund the NSF and NIH when they steal public money to give to their cronies? The review process is no longer fair and we can't pretend it is under this regime.
New Molumbo just dropped
uploaded 20 new sticker designs to the shop
ko-fi.com/ascalaphid/s...
ko-fi.com/ascalaphid/s...
February 8, 2026 at 10:20 PM
New Molumbo just dropped
Reposted by Derek Hennen, Ph.D.
I have yet to see any evidence that there is a market for AI-generated books outside of people being tricked into thinking they are not AI-generated books. AKA, it is a project of scamming and deceiving people, and really should be treated as fraud
February 8, 2026 at 6:55 PM
I have yet to see any evidence that there is a market for AI-generated books outside of people being tricked into thinking they are not AI-generated books. AKA, it is a project of scamming and deceiving people, and really should be treated as fraud
Reposted by Derek Hennen, Ph.D.
Interested in the ecosystem services provided by leaf-litter arthropod communities? Read all about it in the latest 'Value in nature' post: 'Hidden treasures'. #biodiversity #nature 🌐
mscaterino.pika.page/posts/hidden...
mscaterino.pika.page/posts/hidden...
Hidden treasures - Leaf litter arthropods and the good that they do - Value in nature
I spend the majority of my research time looking at minute arthropods that live in soil and leaf litter. These species represent a large proportion of biodiversity, hundreds of thousands...
mscaterino.pika.page
February 8, 2026 at 11:30 AM
Interested in the ecosystem services provided by leaf-litter arthropod communities? Read all about it in the latest 'Value in nature' post: 'Hidden treasures'. #biodiversity #nature 🌐
mscaterino.pika.page/posts/hidden...
mscaterino.pika.page/posts/hidden...
Reposted by Derek Hennen, Ph.D.
Officials in authoritarian regimes frequently make absurd false statements in public to signal their loyalty
BASH: Is this measles outbreak a consequence of the administration undermining support for vaccines?
DR OZ: I don't believe so. Secretary Kennedy has been advocating for measles vaccines
BASH: Oh, come on
DR OZ: I don't believe so. Secretary Kennedy has been advocating for measles vaccines
BASH: Oh, come on
February 8, 2026 at 5:55 PM
Officials in authoritarian regimes frequently make absurd false statements in public to signal their loyalty
Reposted by Derek Hennen, Ph.D.
half a billion dollars per year for a single concentration camp. the dhs nazis are bleeding this country dry
ICE HAS PURCHASED A WAREHOUSE NEAR EL PASO, TX.
The cost of this warehouse was $123M. It will operate at an estimated cost of $620.5M per year. It removes $300K from the state’s annual tax revenue. It will hold up to 8,500 detainees.
The cost of this warehouse was $123M. It will operate at an estimated cost of $620.5M per year. It removes $300K from the state’s annual tax revenue. It will hold up to 8,500 detainees.
DHS buys El Paso warehouses for $123 million ICE mega detention center as deportation capacity expands nationwide
El Paso is a strategic location for the Trump administration because of Biggs Army Airfield, from which deportation flights have increasingly taken place. The mega facility is among several nationwide...
elpasomatters.org
February 7, 2026 at 9:11 PM
half a billion dollars per year for a single concentration camp. the dhs nazis are bleeding this country dry
Reposted by Derek Hennen, Ph.D.
ICE told nurses this Minneapolis man “purposefully ran headfirst into a brick wall.”
What actually happened is that they pulled him from a car, beat him so viciously with a steel baton that he had 8 skull fractures, 5 life-threatening brain hemorrhages, and couldn’t remember he had a daughter.
What actually happened is that they pulled him from a car, beat him so viciously with a steel baton that he had 8 skull fractures, 5 life-threatening brain hemorrhages, and couldn’t remember he had a daughter.
February 7, 2026 at 5:54 PM
ICE told nurses this Minneapolis man “purposefully ran headfirst into a brick wall.”
What actually happened is that they pulled him from a car, beat him so viciously with a steel baton that he had 8 skull fractures, 5 life-threatening brain hemorrhages, and couldn’t remember he had a daughter.
What actually happened is that they pulled him from a car, beat him so viciously with a steel baton that he had 8 skull fractures, 5 life-threatening brain hemorrhages, and couldn’t remember he had a daughter.
Reposted by Derek Hennen, Ph.D.
Richard Dawkins. Steven Pinker. Lawrence Krauss. Jonathan Haidt. Robert Trivers. Prominent atheists and scientists who have pushed anti-trans propaganda for years. They all had ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Some received huge research grants and island trips, and all of them benefited from their ties.
You’re not crazy. The anti-trans movement is not organic; it was funded by pedophilic billionaires like Jeffrey Epstein who backed a network of conservatives to accuse the same people they were sexually abusing of being the real danger. @madycast.com exposes the truth in our in-depth report.
Epstein Backed ‘Billionaires’ Dinner’ Network of Prominent Anti-Trans Figures
Lawrence Krauss, Richard Dawkins, Steven Pinker and other anti-trans influencers personally benefited from a right-wing academic social group backed by infamous human trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, somet...
transnews.network
February 6, 2026 at 8:13 PM
Richard Dawkins. Steven Pinker. Lawrence Krauss. Jonathan Haidt. Robert Trivers. Prominent atheists and scientists who have pushed anti-trans propaganda for years. They all had ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Some received huge research grants and island trips, and all of them benefited from their ties.
Reposted by Derek Hennen, Ph.D.
This is really an instance of a very longstanding trend where secular pundits end up unwittingly aligned with fundamentalists in treating the crudest and most extreme version of any faith as the genuine article and everything else as somehow inauthentic.
Trump's attempt to crush a religious uprising might be obvious if the press corps treated everyone’s faith as equally authentic, hence equally legitimate. It doesn’t.
February 6, 2026 at 9:49 PM
This is really an instance of a very longstanding trend where secular pundits end up unwittingly aligned with fundamentalists in treating the crudest and most extreme version of any faith as the genuine article and everything else as somehow inauthentic.
Reposted by Derek Hennen, Ph.D.
Shocked that the same president who was endorsed by the KKK would stoop to this level.
This whole administration is rife with Neo-Nazis and groypers, nowhere moreso than in Trump’s Gestapo. When we win, we must disband DHS, prosecute ICE, and prevent this walking atrocity from ever happening again.
This whole administration is rife with Neo-Nazis and groypers, nowhere moreso than in Trump’s Gestapo. When we win, we must disband DHS, prosecute ICE, and prevent this walking atrocity from ever happening again.
BREAKING: President Trump removes a racist video depicting the Obamas as apes. The White House initially defended the post, then blamed it on a staffer.
Trump shares racist video depicting the Obamas as monkeys
The White House defended Trump's post, saying it was "from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle."
nbcnews.to
February 6, 2026 at 9:22 PM
Shocked that the same president who was endorsed by the KKK would stoop to this level.
This whole administration is rife with Neo-Nazis and groypers, nowhere moreso than in Trump’s Gestapo. When we win, we must disband DHS, prosecute ICE, and prevent this walking atrocity from ever happening again.
This whole administration is rife with Neo-Nazis and groypers, nowhere moreso than in Trump’s Gestapo. When we win, we must disband DHS, prosecute ICE, and prevent this walking atrocity from ever happening again.
Reposted by Derek Hennen, Ph.D.
We wrote a whole paper on this in 2017, on the women who often leave the field sciences as their only route to get away from harassment
anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
February 6, 2026 at 2:06 AM
We wrote a whole paper on this in 2017, on the women who often leave the field sciences as their only route to get away from harassment
anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Reposted by Derek Hennen, Ph.D.
paid summer internship in our museum, it is in BOTANY but you cannot get in there without walking through the insect collection and being subjected to Beetle Facts drive.google.com/file/d/1jNNy...
CMNH Botany Internship Solicitation 2026 .pdf
drive.google.com
February 5, 2026 at 5:01 PM
paid summer internship in our museum, it is in BOTANY but you cannot get in there without walking through the insect collection and being subjected to Beetle Facts drive.google.com/file/d/1jNNy...
Reposted by Derek Hennen, Ph.D.
Tree farms are farms, not forests.
⚠️ The results indicate that, even after more than a century, plantations do not fully reproduce the ant communities of mature forests, highlighting the importance of conserving native forests and incorporating faunal metrics into the evaluation of ecological restoration.
February 5, 2026 at 5:11 PM
Tree farms are farms, not forests.
Reposted by Derek Hennen, Ph.D.
Civil rights activist Medgar Evers was shot in the back by a Klansman in 1963.
The National Park Service has removed visitor brochures from Evers' museum and reportedly plans to remove references that call his murderer a “racist"
The National Park Service has removed visitor brochures from Evers' museum and reportedly plans to remove references that call his murderer a “racist"
Medgar Evers’ killer was a Klansman, but Trump administration says stop calling him a racist - Mississippi Today
Among anticipated changes to a new visitor brochure for the Medgar & Myrlie Evers Home National Monument is no longer using "racist" to describe the killer of the civil rights leader.
mississippitoday.org
February 5, 2026 at 3:20 PM
Civil rights activist Medgar Evers was shot in the back by a Klansman in 1963.
The National Park Service has removed visitor brochures from Evers' museum and reportedly plans to remove references that call his murderer a “racist"
The National Park Service has removed visitor brochures from Evers' museum and reportedly plans to remove references that call his murderer a “racist"
Reposted by Derek Hennen, Ph.D.
A giant wind farm in Wyoming died after facing permitting delays. In Indiana, a solar project stalled after the Trump administration blocked it from using a taxpayer-funded database.
A federal permitting ‘blockade’ is hitting renewables projects hard. Story with @bradplumer.bsky.social:
A federal permitting ‘blockade’ is hitting renewables projects hard. Story with @bradplumer.bsky.social:
A Trump ‘Blockade’ Is Stalling Hundreds of Wind and Solar Projects Nationwide
www.nytimes.com
February 4, 2026 at 6:21 PM
A giant wind farm in Wyoming died after facing permitting delays. In Indiana, a solar project stalled after the Trump administration blocked it from using a taxpayer-funded database.
A federal permitting ‘blockade’ is hitting renewables projects hard. Story with @bradplumer.bsky.social:
A federal permitting ‘blockade’ is hitting renewables projects hard. Story with @bradplumer.bsky.social:
A few snail shells for you, before bedtime. Photo 1: Gastrocopta ?pentodon Photo 2: Pomatiopsis lapidaria Photo 3-4: Discus whitneyi
February 5, 2026 at 2:52 AM
A few snail shells for you, before bedtime. Photo 1: Gastrocopta ?pentodon Photo 2: Pomatiopsis lapidaria Photo 3-4: Discus whitneyi
Reposted by Derek Hennen, Ph.D.
MAGA is a movement of America haters who despise this country and are conspiring to destroy it
February 4, 2026 at 4:58 PM
MAGA is a movement of America haters who despise this country and are conspiring to destroy it
Reposted by Derek Hennen, Ph.D.
“If I am killed doing this, throw my body at the White House, martyr the shit out of me & raise hell. Do not be sad. Do not think I would do anything differently. I would do it over & over again — this is too important to sit down & shut up and not do anything.” www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...
Pursued by federal agents, suburban ICE observers remain resolved
After a frightening pursuit by federal agents, suburban ICE observers say fear hasn’t stopped them from protecting their communities.
www.mprnews.org
February 4, 2026 at 3:45 PM
“If I am killed doing this, throw my body at the White House, martyr the shit out of me & raise hell. Do not be sad. Do not think I would do anything differently. I would do it over & over again — this is too important to sit down & shut up and not do anything.” www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...
Reposted by Derek Hennen, Ph.D.
I wrote about Minnesota and ICE and how average Americans are reclaiming the power that the administration is abusing.
www.pbump.net/o/this-is-wh...
www.pbump.net/o/this-is-wh...
February 4, 2026 at 3:57 AM
I wrote about Minnesota and ICE and how average Americans are reclaiming the power that the administration is abusing.
www.pbump.net/o/this-is-wh...
www.pbump.net/o/this-is-wh...
Reposted by Derek Hennen, Ph.D.
Reposted by Derek Hennen, Ph.D.
Floored by this story. A man wrote a pollite email to a federal prosecutor objecting to the deportation of an Afghan seeking asylum. DHS responded with an administrative warrant to get the man's info from Google, then visited his home to intimidate him.
DHS Hunts Down 67-Year-Old U.S. Citizen Who Criticized Them in Email
The Department of Homeland Security is using a little-known tool to go after its critics.
newrepublic.com
February 3, 2026 at 11:14 PM
Floored by this story. A man wrote a pollite email to a federal prosecutor objecting to the deportation of an Afghan seeking asylum. DHS responded with an administrative warrant to get the man's info from Google, then visited his home to intimidate him.
Reposted by Derek Hennen, Ph.D.
Are female economists treated differently than males in academic seminars?
These authors wanted to know whether gender shapes how scholars are treated when presenting research.
So they built a massive dataset of 2,000+ economics seminars, job talks, and conference presentations from 2019–2023...
These authors wanted to know whether gender shapes how scholars are treated when presenting research.
So they built a massive dataset of 2,000+ economics seminars, job talks, and conference presentations from 2019–2023...
February 3, 2026 at 8:54 PM
Are female economists treated differently than males in academic seminars?
These authors wanted to know whether gender shapes how scholars are treated when presenting research.
So they built a massive dataset of 2,000+ economics seminars, job talks, and conference presentations from 2019–2023...
These authors wanted to know whether gender shapes how scholars are treated when presenting research.
So they built a massive dataset of 2,000+ economics seminars, job talks, and conference presentations from 2019–2023...
Reposted by Derek Hennen, Ph.D.
This is insane. ICE is out of control here, still. They must leave.
happening this morning in Minneapolis -- ICE agents drawing guns on observers. I reiterate again that it is only a matter of time before DHS kills more innocent people in Minnesota. Congress needs to shut this shit down right now.
February 3, 2026 at 4:49 PM
This is insane. ICE is out of control here, still. They must leave.
AI is a tool of fascism.
SCOOP: Palantir's AI has been deployed at HHS since last March to audit grants, grant applications, & job descriptions for anything related to "DEI" or "gender ideology"
The goal was to ensure compliance with 2 of Trump's executive orders:
www.wired.com/story/hhs-is...
The goal was to ensure compliance with 2 of Trump's executive orders:
www.wired.com/story/hhs-is...
HHS Is Using AI Tools From Palantir to Target ‘DEI’ and ‘Gender Ideology’ in Grants
Since March of 2025, the Department of Health and Human Services has been using tools from Palantir and the startup Credal AI to weed out perceived alignment with “DEI” or “gender ideology.”
www.wired.com
February 3, 2026 at 6:20 PM
AI is a tool of fascism.