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Desert Scientist's Profile
Retired biologist at state university interested in all science, but especially invertebrates. B.S., M.S. University of Arizona, Ph.D. University of Florida. Former museum curator and currently involved in way too many activities.
Real Name: David Richman
Gender: Male
Location: Washington
Occupation: Retired Biologist
Groups: History for Kossacks, SciTech, Backyard Science
Diaries published: 125 (40 days since last diary on Wed Dec 14, 2016 at 01:20 PM PST)
Comments posted: 4946 (1 day since last comment on Sun Jan 22, 2017 at 09:16 AM PST)
Diary frequency: often
Comment frequency: frequent
Total Recommends: 6109
Total Comment Ratings: 4313
Most Recommended Diary: Pestilence , 106 comments, 202 recommends
People Following Desert Scientist: 167
Desert Scientist's Most Frequent Tags:
Desert Scientist's Most Recent Diaries:
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As a former small museum curator I have certainly some biases, but these were developed over many years and are based on fairly solid experiences and data. In addition, over my career as a taxonomist (describing new species and relating these to known...
by Desert Scientist
 79 comments
on Wed Dec 14, 2016 at 01:20 PM PST
with 70 Recommends
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When I was fairly young — probably about ten years old — I decided that I was on the side of the natural world. Actually I’m not sure it was a conscious decision, so much as an emotional alliance, but in any case I was strongly drawn to nature as a...
by Desert Scientist
 29 comments
on Tue Nov 15, 2016 at 02:36 PM PST
with 46 Recommends
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Dragonflies and damselflies (Order Odonata) are among my favorite insects, perhaps after ants, bees and wasps. They are beautiful, especially when alive (even with acetone treatment, the colors are never as vibrant in dead specimens as in the live...
by Desert Scientist
80 comments
on Tue Oct 04, 2016 at 05:45 PM PDT
with 107 Recommends
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I had said in an earlier diary that I had written enough about my background and so would not do so again. However recent racist rants and the association of white males to Trumpian ideas made me rethink this. A few years ago I decided to take part...
by Desert Scientist
51 comments
on Sun Sep 04, 2016 at 07:38 PM PDT
with 43 Recommends
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One of my lesser side interests has always been roses and members of the rose family, but I could not raise any of the horticultural forms until my wife and I bought a house in Mesilla Park in New Mexico, over 26 years ago. There we planted...
by Desert Scientist
13 comments
on Thu Aug 25, 2016 at 11:45 AM PDT
with 25 Recommends
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Ants are one of the commonest of insects. They can be found everywhere except for the Arctic and Antarctic. They are in many ways the dominant animals on earth, far outnumbering our mere 7 billion individuals. The number of ant individuals on earth...
by Desert Scientist
48 comments
on Sun Aug 14, 2016 at 06:12 PM PDT
with 78 Recommends
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Recommended by Desert Scientist
- During a Q&A with Oprah Winfrey, Van Jones, and Ava DuVernay, director of the new Netflix documentary 13th which documents the links between the clear flaws in the abolition of slavery and the ongoing criminalization of African-American men, Jones...73 comments 117 Recs
- This is actually rather awesome. Awesome in the “huge and terrifying” sense. Despite the fact the entire nation watched Donald Trump speak in front of an audience a fraction of those we’ve seen come out for Barack Obama. Despite every network watching...291 comments 161 Recs
- There have been large protest events in the past, such as a 1982 anti nuclear protest in Central Park that drew a crowd of a million. There have also been protests spread across multiple cities, for example, protests over the War in Iraq that put 10...562 comments 446 Recs
- There are voices we all need to hear. At a time when the United States is once again faced with our chilling legacy of racism and other ills including sexism, homophobia, and economic inequality, ...187 comments 180 Recs
- Donald Trump appeared at the CIA on Saturday, supposedly to reassure the intelligence community that he supported their work. But instead, Trump had other issues to discuss. Standing in front of the CIA’s memorial wall of agents who died in the line of...408 comments 253 Recs
- If you were watching the White House website at the moment of the inauguration, the changes were swift, and in some cases, brutal. Within minutes of Trump’s ascension, the contents of the page on climate change were replaced with these highly...203 comments 109 Recs
- 331 comments 306 Recs
FLOTUS saved the shadiest, most appropriate sideeye for last.
Mrs. Obama, enjoy your vacation and get some of that GOOD rest!
Eight years well done!
- This from Slate at 11:40 this morning: www.slate.com/… “One of these is a presidential inauguration in 2017 for a man named Donald Trump and the other is from 2009 for a man named Barack Obama. Can you tell which?”635 comments 433 Recs
- 300,000 in New York City. 125,000 in Boston. 50,000 in Austin, Texas. 15,000 in St. Louis. 10,000 in Portland, ME. Across the country, the numbers for the Women’s March have turned out to be not just high, but higher than anyone would have...555 comments 273 Recs
- It was a really rough week for Republicans, notwithstanding the inauguration of popular vote loser Donald Trump. The vote they took the week before to repeal Obamacare, even though they don't have a ...53 comments 102 Recs
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