Todd Butler

this is, hands down, the best video I've seen on men's influencer content and it's not close either

Feels like a 7am frat party for the 20+ finches all gathering at our feeder this morning.

The watch I designed for @swatch is out today! “One California” is part of a series of Destination Watches meant to evoke places around the world. The drawing travels from North (SF) to South (LA) with a California Poppy rising over the Bixby Bridge in the middle.

Our kids still burn through boxes of raspberries, blackberries, etc. crazy expensive

This is really nicely done.

I would watch this movie.

I’m really only just getting into it but I genuinely love birding as a hobby. The entire goal is to look at the bird. Is there a bird? There is a bird! Look at the bird! If you are very keen you can learn what to call the bird so that you can properly thank it for the joy you feel when you see it. 🪶

This is an excellent thread.

This is perfect.

Portrait-oriented photo featuring a wooden post with a rusted hanger hook jutting out of it, and standing atop the post, triumphant and at least slightly indignant, is a plump little bluebird. The bluebird is a male, and we see the electric blue of his head, but the predominant part facing us is the coppery-orange and pale white front. He is standing amidst little pink-and-red tree blossoms, but I like to imagine these are instead the extracted organs of his enemies. So let's just pretend this bluebird stands vengefully astride a scattering of viscera -- gobbets of gore taken as a prize from his unnatural and invasive foes. I'm sorry I've really made this a gross photo. It's actually quite nice. Kind of a dreamy vibe to it, what with the wall of yellow forsythia blurring in the background, and here I am adding drippy bits and internal organs. I'm sorry. I'll do better next time. Probably. Photo by me, Chuck Wendig

Everything is bad but birds are good so time to reinstitute BIRD PROTOCOL where a bird is deployed to offset endless evil vibes, please enjoy, birds are good, okay bye

(photo by me)

I loved doing this program as a kid. And to cut it off in the middle is simply cruel.

Can only imagine. Handling multiple cancellations and cascading effects on this side of the country as well.

The base poem is made for things like this. Well done.

A few tips for NEH grantees:
1) if you've spent money on an awarded grant but have not yet drawn down the funds, make sure to submit the paperwork to drawn down funds ASAP.

2) the NYTimes article suggests that "DOGE" might cancel awards. If you receive an email from DOGE cancelling your NEH award,

This by itself earned you a follow. 100% truth.

Oliver Darcy on a cowed mainstream press "It’s highly alarming how news institutions and Big Tech are behaving in response to an autocratic wannabe."

"One thing I would recommend is if you’re going to cancel your subscription to the Washington Post, don’t entirely remove those dollars from the news space. Take that money and at least invest it in an organization or a publication that you think is aligned with your values."

Yes. Scientists (and others) need to be *regular* communicators, especially where regularity builds relationships.

Indeed. Being a communicator begins with knowing your audiences and what moves them. Presuming they think or care about the same things in the same way as you do means you’re not a good communicator.

Interesting—does the Bluesky algorithm have a bio-temporal element? Because at 6a my “discover” feed is suddenly full of posts about coffee, even if they were originally posted 19+ hours ago.

The newspapers definitely won’t help the healing.

Also think this means there’s a real place for academics at non-elite institutions, who because of their local investment may actually in some contexts be better spokespeople for ideas.

Agree. And the building of relationships is where many academics should start—not with the more status laden placement piece.

What happens when the status of the author—for example, an academic (much less an Ivy League one)—becomes itself an impediment?

This whole thread is super. Especially about training experts to talk with people with less expertise, and to do so without being condescending (however inadvertently)

This point is so important that it’s worth my first Bluesky post. Ignoring local outlets in favor of national ones like NYT and Atlantic means you’re only connecting with a particular public, and you’re working on a level where by definition it’s very hard to have impact. Prestige maybe, impact no.