Dr. Dust Mite

People Are Paying Millions to Dine With Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago Business leaders are paying as much as $5 million to meet one-on-one with the president at his Florida compound, sources tell WIRED, while others are paying $1 million apiece to dine with him in a gro...

Trying to wrap your mind around what's happened this week (it's Wednesday)? Same...

So for our clarity (and possibly yours) we're resharing some WIRED scoops in this refresher thread, starting with business leaders paying millions of dollars to dine with President Donald Trump.

Notably they already failed this test on immigration and it has gotten them nothing

We threw out a hundred years of anti-corruption reforms overnight and so far barely anyone has even noticed.

DOGE Staffers at HUD Are From an AI Real Estate Firm and a Mobile Home Operator Elon Musk's men at HUD come from the real estate sector. They have access to vast stores of personal and financial data—and control over who can access which HUD systems.

SCOOP: Elon Musk's men at HUD are from an AI real estate firm and a mobile home operator. They have access to vast stores of personal and financial data—and control over who can access which HUD systems. www.wired.com/story/doge-h...

Trump Seizes the Press Pool The Trump administration is flexing its control over the White House press pool and testing the boundaries of the First Amendment

my latest newsletter is about trump's takeover of the white house press pool, free speech discourse, and what the first amendment has to say about it

White megaphone icon on an orange background, with accompanying text "AFFECTED BY CUTS TO GOVERNMENT RESEARCH? SHARE YOUR STORIES!

Entomologists: Is your work affected by recent actions of the federal government? ESA is collecting stories about how insect science is hindered by layoffs, funding and communication freezes, website data removals, travel bans, and more. 1/3

DOGE Puts $1 Spending Limit on Government Employee Credit Cards The restrictions are already in place at the General Services Administration along with several other agencies. Soon they'll roll out to most of the federal government, sources say.

NEW: DOGE put a $1 spending limit on government employee credit cards. Employees say overspending and fraud in the program was exceedingly rare. www.wired.com/story/doge-g...

The Trump administration’s attacks on scientific funding, restrictions on Federal scientist activities, and indiscriminate firing have caused chaos, panic, and harm. We need *specific* examples of harms caused by these policies to include in an open letter. Grants cut, projects cancelled, jobs lost. Feel free to send news stories, blog posts, or social media posts that mention these, as well as original contributions. Please send to WhySharksMatter @ gmail or DM me

Science (and science policy, and conservation) friends, I need your help!

We are collecting *specific, clear* examples of harms caused by the Trump administration's attacks on science, to be included in an open letter.

Can be links to news stories/social media posts. 🧪🦑🌎 #SciComm #SciPol

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife Office of Cannabis is hiring two full time Limited Term Senior Environmental Scientist Specialists to join the Cannabis Restoration Grant Program (CRGP). The positions are advertised as JC-462246 and JC-463110 (Sacramento County); JC-462256 and JC-463116 (Humboldt County); JC-462261 and JC-463118 (Mendocino County); and JC-462267 and JC-463100 (Sonoma County). Applicants need only to apply to one county. The Position Number for both positions is 565-026-0765-905. CRGP funded projects serve to clean up, remediate, and restore environmental damage in watersheds and areas affected by illegal cannabis cultivation and related activities. CRGP funded projects assist licensed cultivators develop sustainable water storage, implement ecological agriculture practices, upgrade watercourse crossings, and restore areas impacted by cannabis cultivation practices. CRGP research funded projects evaluate and address environmental conditions and impacts relative to cannabis cultivation in California.

ob Posting: Cannabis Restoration Grant Program Senior Environmental Scientist Specialist Department of Fish and Wildlife JC-462246 - Cannabis Restoration Grant Program Senior Environmental Scientist Specialist SENIOR ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENTIST (SPECIALIST) $7,556.00 - $10,221.00 per Month Final Filing Date: 2/27/2025

CA Dep Fish and Wildlife is hiring! I can't vouch for the team or the quality of the job, but thought I'd spread the word since so many folks just got fired.
There are 2 Cannabis Restoration Grant Program Senior Environmental Scientist Specialist positions.
calcareers.ca.gov/CalHrPublic/...

Today, the USDA lost experts in Psylloidea, Thysanoptera, Cerambycidae, Hymenoptera, Pseudococcidae, and Malacology. This is a devastating loss of expertise, occuring without warning. Their union's official statement on the issue can be found here: aginspectors.org/2-14-2025-a-... #entomology 🧪

History buffs will know that every authoritarian leader eventually converges on some version of: "I *am* the state. I can not break the law, I am the law, the law is instantiated in me."

Our march to authoritarianism so far has been excruciatingly by-the-book. Hitting every beat. No surprises.

See inside DOGE’s playbook for eliminating DEI Documents detail step-by-step plans by the U.S. DOGE Service to purge federal agencies of diversity, equity, and inclusion workers and offices. Here’s what comes next.

Washington Post got their hands on internal documents from DOGE showing the entire plan to implement resegregation. They're going to purge minorities from government by calling them DEI.

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/int...

Most people in the US have no idea about the attacks on federally funded science or our government institutions. Many (or most!) of your family, coworkers, neighbors, and friends have no idea. My own MAGA dad thinks DOGE is just identifying waste, and that nothing has been cut. We have to tell them.

Whenever you hear someone sneer about scientific research that seems useless to them — “they’re studying the spit of lizards?!” — remind them that’s exactly how we got Ozempic.

globalnews.ca/news/9793403...

In case folks are interested in contacting their congresspeople about the NIH indirect cuts with some estimates of what they would mean for institutions in their state, here are some estimates based on published F&A rates and funding ... let me know if you want a particular state

That's how you know you made it. So, no

A lungless salamander (Bolitoglossa) crawling on a leaf in the forest floor in Honduras. As the name suggests, these amphibians lack lungs and rely on their skin for respiration. Many species also have webbed feet to assist movement in flooded or muddy areas... and for cuteness.

a woman wearing a yellow shirt with pictures of bee faces on it

closeup of the bee faces

My friend Danya has a new shirt made from my drawings of Hawaiian native bees! If you like Hawaii flora and fauna she also has lots of other great stuff. laulima.store/collections/...

Ever wonder what snow in the swamp would look like? This is 5 miles into the Louisiana swamps in the Atchafalaya basin... it's unreal... having lived down there for the first 28 years of my life, we never saw anything like this.

Smashed records.

Curtesy of Garrett Roberts.

A finger points to one of two large pellets of caterpillar poo resting on the ground. They look like little blackberries and are almost the width of the finger.

Check out these huge caterpillar turds! 🐛💩

Thank you for attending my TED talk.

You want to talk about what’s ’natural?’ As a marine ecologist, gender fluidity is so common in the natural world it’d be weird to me if trans people didn’t exist. 😡

Hello! I’m a visible mending enthusiast, trying to find some platforms not controlled by meta or musk… It feels like now is the perfect time for mending- from clothing upwards

#visiblemending #darning #repair

Friendly reminder that these are the only type of boots you should be licking.

Choose femdom, not fascism.

Championing queer scientists of colour: ‘I don’t think we’ve scratched the surface on systemic exclusion’ Arachnologist Lauren Esposito develops community platforms to share LGBTQ+ voices and wants to shed light on the overlooked intersectional barriers affecting queer people of colour.

Seems timely….

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

We've opened registration for our annual BugShot insect photography workshop! This summer we'll be in Portal, Arizona for the start of the monsoon.

And for the first time, slo-motion video guy @dradriansmith.bsky.social is on board as an instructor.

www.bugshot.net/bugshot-port...

#bluemonday

The Blake Lively story just takes me back to this tumblr screenshot whose author I was never able to find

Reindeer Bot Flies Are Not Particularly Festive Adult reindeer bot flies look like harmless fluffy bees, but they're not really that cuddly.

Here is the article I wrote a while back that was described as "ruining Christmas for nearly everyone." My work here is done. 🪰🎄 www.wired.com/2015/12/rein...

Respectfully, the monarch butterfly is the state insect of chumps who couldn’t find a single endemic lycaenid

Find Out Why Health Insurance Denied Your Claim You likely have the right to access records that explain why your insurer denied your claim or prior authorization request. Use ProPublica’s free tool to generate a letter requesting your claim file f...

I don't know who needs to know this, but Pro Publica has an online thing that will format a letter to your US health insurance company to demand the records behind a claim denial. (which the insurance is then legally required to provide in most cases)

projects.propublica.org/claimfile/