Phil Garnock-Jones
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theobrominated.bsky.social
Phil Garnock-Jones
@theobrominated.bsky.social
2.1K followers 920 following 1.7K posts
Retired botanist, focusing on flower biology. 🐸🎸
My book "He Puāwai, a natural history of New Zealand flowers" (Auckland University Press, 2025) illustrated with >500 stereo pair photographs.
Whakatū, Aotearoa. orcid.org/0000-0002-2539-4152
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Phil Garnock-Jones
iandunt.bsky.social
Whole fucking thing makes me sick to my stomach. An abject fucking liar, a man who lies as easily as he fucking breathes, threatening an organisation which strives for truthfulness. And plastic patriots like the Mail and Farage urging him on. Jackels.
November 11, 2025 at 7:24 AM
theobrominated.bsky.social
Too much of this sort of thing lately. Spiders, hornets, millipedes, clams.
korimakoecology.bsky.social Andy McKay @korimakoecology.bsky.social · 5h
Terrible biosecurity news. 😔
Lake Rotomanu will be closed to motorised watercraft from tomorrow (12 Nov), following the discovery of the freshwater clam Corbicula fluminea. Here's what you need to know 👇 * As an interim measure, New Plymouth District Council will close Lake Rotomanu to motorised boats, which are at the highest risk of spreading clams. * Other recreational users will be required to thoroughly check, clean and dry all gear before leaving the lake shore. * The road access and carparks will remain open. * Surveys are being carried out this week, checking for clams in the nearby Waiwhakaiho River as well as other lakes across Taranaki. * Once those results are available, further decisions will be made as to how to manage the incursion and what, if any, restrictions will remain in place. We will keep you informed. This is the first discovery of the clam in New Zealand outside of the Waikato River and Lake Taupō Aqua Park. We’re disappointed that the clam has made its way to Taranaki, as we had been working hard to keep it out. But our focus now is on working with Biosecurity New Zealand and local partners to ensure it does not spread into other Taranaki lakes or rivers. We appreciate it is coming into summer and the lake is a favourite spot for many boaties. But you will understand how important it is we act quickly – Corbicula can take over a waterway and have long-term effects on recreation and the environment. We are asking for your support. Whether it’s Lake Rotomanu or any other waterway, it's more important than ever you check, clean and dry everything that has been in contact with the water before moving between waterways. Lake Rotomanu will be closed to motorised watercraft from tomorrow (12 Nov), following the discovery of the freshwater clam Corbicula fluminea. Here's what you need to know 👇 * As an interim measure, New Plymouth District Council will close Lake Rotomanu to motorised boats, which are at the highest risk of spreading clams. * Other recreational users will be required to thoroughly check, clean and dry all gear before leaving the lake shore. * The road access and carparks will remain open. * Surveys are being carried out this week, checking for clams in the nearby Waiwhakaiho River as well as other lakes across Taranaki. * Once those results are available, further decisions will be made as to how to manage the incursion and what, if any, restrictions will remain in place. We will keep you informed. This is the first discovery of the clam in New Zealand outside of the Waikato River and Lake Taupō Aqua Park. We’re disappointed that the clam has made its way to Taranaki, as we had been working hard to keep it out. But our focus now is on working with Biosecurity New Zealand and local partners to ensure it does not spread into other Taranaki lakes or rivers. We appreciate it is coming into summer and the lake is a favourite spot for many boaties. But you will understand how important it is we act quickly – Corbicula can take over a waterway and have long-term effects on recreation and the environment. We are asking for your support. Whether it’s Lake Rotomanu or any other waterway, it's more important than ever you check, clean and dry everything that has been in contact with the water before moving between waterways.
November 11, 2025 at 9:44 AM
theobrominated.bsky.social
I think you’re correct. In this, and probably only this, I am more English than kiwi. It’s the beetroot not the egg.
spissatella.bsky.social Katie Collins @spissatella.bsky.social · 4h
Presumably this is bc the English are simply not ready for a burger with a fried egg and a big slice of beetroot 🤔
November 11, 2025 at 9:39 AM
Reposted by Phil Garnock-Jones
jeroenvandersluijs.bsky.social
Insect decline signals a deep ecological imbalance

#pollinators
#pollinatordecline
#insectdecline
#ecosystemservices

Integrating insect-mediated services into national accounting systems ... is critical to preventing irreversible ecological collapse.

india.mongabay.com/2025/11/inse...
Insect decline signals a deep ecological imbalance [Commentary]
Insects, representing over two-thirds of known biodiversity, provide critical ecosystem services such as pollination, and pest regulation.
india.mongabay.com
November 11, 2025 at 9:22 AM
Reposted by Phil Garnock-Jones
andrewmichael.bsky.social
That argument was thin anyway.
"Why should I bother doing good things when other people are doing bad things?"
November 11, 2025 at 8:52 AM
Reposted by Phil Garnock-Jones
bioeconomyscience.bsky.social
🎉 Congrats to Dr Jessie Prebble of the Bioeconomy Science Institute on receiving a Mana Tūāpapa Fellowship from Royal Society Te Apārangi! Her research will explore how plants support climate-resilient peat bogs. #BioeconomyScience #RoyalSocietyNZ #ClimateResilience

🔗 bit.ly/49bepnm/
November 11, 2025 at 12:00 AM
Reposted by Phil Garnock-Jones
bgrueskin.bsky.social
Kyle Kingsbury is not a journalist. He is not an op-ed writer.

He is a computer safety researcher.

And he has written one of the most compelling, comprehensive accounts of the ongoing hell in Chicago that you could possibly imagine.

In under 1600 words.

aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...
I Want You to Understand Chicago Politics Chicago 2025-11-08 I want you to understand what it is like to live in Chicago during this time. Every day my phone buzzes. It is a neighborhood group: four people were kidnapped at the corner drugstore. A friend a mile away sends a Slack message: she was at the scene when masked men assaulted and abducted two people on the street. A plumber working on my pipes is distraught, and I find out that two of his employees were kidnapped that morning. A week later it happens again. An email arrives. Agents with guns have chased a teacher into the school where she works. They did not have a warrant. They dragged her away, ignoring her and her colleagues’ pleas to show proof of her documentation. That evening I stand a few feet from the parents of Rayito de Sol and listen to them describe, with anguish, how good Ms. Diana was to their children. What it is like to have strangers with guns traumatize your kids. For a teacher to hide a three-year-old child for fear they might be killed. How their relatives will no longer leave the house. I hear the pain and fury in their voices, and I wonder who will be next. Understand what it is to pray in Chicago. On September 19th, Reverend David Black, lead pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, was praying outside the ICE detention center in Broadview when a DHS agent shot him in the head with pepper balls. Pepper balls are never supposed to be fired at the head because they can seriously injure, or even kill. “We could hear them laughing as they were shooting us from the roof,” Black recalled. He is not the only member of the clergy ICE has assaulted. Methodist pastor Hannah Kardon was violently arrested on October 17th, and Baptist pastor Michael Woolf was shot with pepper balls on November 1st. Understand what it is to sleep in Chicago. On the night of September 30th, federal agents rappelled from a Black Hawk helicopter to execute a raid on an apartment building on the South Sho…
November 9, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Reposted by Phil Garnock-Jones
westcoastrogue.bsky.social
A mature conversation? Ok then. I sincerely think that politicians who have sold public assets without getting everyone's approval should be jailed for theft, and people who bought it should be done for receiving stolen property.
November 10, 2025 at 4:42 AM
Reposted by Phil Garnock-Jones
bencollins.bsky.social
It’s important to achieve bipartisanship with Republicans so they can arrest Barack Obama for something they read on the Epoch Times’ Facebook page written by a Chinese cult member in 2019.
kylegriffin1.bsky.social Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 14h
Breaking MSNBC:

The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida called a division-wide meeting this afternoon, following the resignations of two prosecutors who were asked to take part in a vast "conspiracy" investigation into former intel and law enforcement officials.
U.S. Attorney investigating alleged grand ‘conspiracy’ calls unit-wide meeting after two prosecutors resign
Career prosecutors on “pins and needles” after flurry of subpoenas approved.
www.msnbc.com
November 10, 2025 at 10:42 PM
theobrominated.bsky.social
iNaturalist's AI identification system is often surprisingly accurate, but yesterday its best IDs for this animal were (1) yellow-eyed penguin, (2) cattle, (3) dog, (4) horse. Biology, medicine, and agriculture would unravel without accurate taxonomy.
A little terrier dog. It is white with a brown head and a couple of large black patches on its body. It's wearing a red collar and standing on a lichen-encrusted rock.
November 10, 2025 at 11:09 PM
theobrominated.bsky.social
#RemembranceDay
A bright red poppy flowerit has four glossy red petals, each with an elongated black but white-tipped spot at the base, black stamens with yellow pollen, and a central green ovary tipped with 11 radiating pink stigmas.
November 10, 2025 at 10:33 PM
theobrominated.bsky.social
Newly fledged welcome swallow not sure how to cope with the rain today at Ōkiwi Bay, Marlborough, New Zealand.
A little dark grey bird on a branch it’s paler underneath and has an orange patch under its sharp little beak.
November 10, 2025 at 9:28 AM
Reposted by Phil Garnock-Jones
franciscoblaha.bsky.social
The mental gymnastics necessary to suggests that an imported (and invasive) species can be good for “maintaining and improving natural biodiversity and forest health” must be astonishing and not achievable to most mortals
November 10, 2025 at 6:04 AM
Reposted by Phil Garnock-Jones
korimakoecology.bsky.social
It is impossible for deer at any level to maintain and enhance natural biodiversity.

"Herd management plans aimed to keep deer numbers at a level which enhanced the recreational hunting experience while maintaining and improving natural biodiversity and forest health." www.odt.co.nz/southland/ca...
Call for opponents to support wapiti plan
The group which instigated the move to get wapiti in Fiordland classed as a herd of special interest says opponents should get right in behind it...
www.odt.co.nz
November 10, 2025 at 5:55 AM
Reposted by Phil Garnock-Jones
kiwichar.bsky.social
Surely they wouldn’t invite American fascism to take root on our independent sovereign shores? Right? SURELY?! 👀💭 #nzpol #OneTermGovernment #Fascism #Fuck
November 9, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Reposted by Phil Garnock-Jones
alastairjnz.bsky.social
Bioluminescence at Mawhitipana/ Palm Beach, Waiheke Island last night
Predominantly black photograph with swirls of vivid blues outlining the silhouettes of rocks. The almost neon blue light emanates from masses of the bioluminescent marine plankton Noctiluca scintillans getting excited in the waves.
November 9, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Reposted by Phil Garnock-Jones
ydavila.bsky.social
It's Australian Pollinator Week!
8-16 November

Our native pollinators provide key ecosystem services, which contributes to maintaining our unique biodiversity.

I photographed this little pollinator, a male 𝘏𝘺𝘭𝘢𝘦𝘶𝘴 𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘴, this week on Wangal Land.

#australianpollinatorweek
#ozpollinators
November 8, 2025 at 4:27 AM
Reposted by Phil Garnock-Jones
matthewcobb.bsky.social
If you believe either that Franklin discovered the double helix, and / or Watson and Crick stole her data, ask yourself how you know this. Then take a read of this article.
November 8, 2025 at 7:32 AM
theobrominated.bsky.social
✅
christinalattimer.bsky.social Christina Lattimer @christinalattimer.bsky.social · 4d
Only 80 short now! Amazing!
November 7, 2025 at 7:47 AM
Reposted by Phil Garnock-Jones
christinalattimer.bsky.social
Sharing this again. Amazing response - this petition is now only 116 signatures short. If you’ve already signed it would be lovely if you could share with your network.

Many thanks for those who have signed and shared already,
November 6, 2025 at 8:00 PM
theobrominated.bsky.social
Smells great too
lostarcnz.bsky.social LostArcNZ @lostarcnz.bsky.social · 4d
My fireworks display, during the day.
Cabbage Tree in full flower.
November 7, 2025 at 5:30 AM
Reposted by Phil Garnock-Jones
jennifilm.nz
Boy if you think our health system is stretched now, just wait til Serco “known for abusing prisoners” get their hands on it
Prisons operator Serco eyes NZ's public health infrastructure needs
The outsourcing firm tells the Government it is uniquely positioned, and its services could be of great value
newsroom.us14.list-manage.com
November 6, 2025 at 6:41 PM
theobrominated.bsky.social
Yes it’s bearable.
November 6, 2025 at 2:23 AM
theobrominated.bsky.social
We’re in Blenheim and the car reckons it’s 34. It feels like it too.
bauhausandmies.bsky.social Bauhausandmies 🏳️‍🌈🇳🇿 @bauhausandmies.bsky.social · 5d
It’s 28° right now in Brisbane and I am melting but the good news is the locals are also feeling it (not some weirdos with jeans on!) People are quick to offer a paper towel or something else to mop my sweating brow.
November 6, 2025 at 2:06 AM
Reposted by Phil Garnock-Jones
jennifilm.nz
Okay now nz labour stop looking at uk labour and look at Mamdani instead of
November 5, 2025 at 2:58 AM