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Marianne Bellotti (www.bellotti.tech) & Greg Wilson (third-bit.com) join host Richard (@richlitt.bsky.social) to dive into their new paper, “10 Quick Tips for Making Your Software Outlive Your Job” (arxiv.org/abs/2505.06484). Listen at 🎙️ podcast.sustainoss.org/269

submitted 8 hours ago • 0 comments

I published a paper today in @wilsonornithsoc.bsky.social, renaming a racist term I found in the literature, used for describing bills of Tundra Swans. Not the biggest work in the world, but important. Here's a short post on why I published it: www.burntfen.com/2025-05-16/r.... #birds #research

submitted 20 hours ago • 0 comments

Just ran a successful LaTeX workshop with @richlitt.bsky.social :D No photos, but here is evidence of a good time had.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Hey world, remember when you thought this was awesome? (Which, by the way, it was). Yeah well she's been suspended for a week now because of it; it's coloniser rules and forms of expression allowed only, indigenous people must only be angry in white ways. www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

submitted 2 days ago • 40 comments

📢 BOU COUNCIL NOMINATIONS We are seeking one Ordinary member of Council, for appointment at the 2026 AGM A great opportunity to be involved with the governance of the BOU Know someone suitable? Nominate now! bou.org.uk/about-the... #ornithology 🪶

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

This is the worst punishment handed down EVER in our history. The worst on record was 3 days! When Tangata whenua resist, colonial powers reach for maximum penalty. This is a warning shot to all of us to fall in line. E kore rawa matau e tuohu! #toitūtetiriti #toitūtemanamāori #NZPol

submitted 2 days ago • 42 comments

Overleaf is down. My paper is locked in a 502 prison. Oh no, he cried, as he went to bed early.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

🧪 The head of NSF's computer science directorate, Greg Hager, just resigned. "My ability to carry out my vision, to provide a voice for computing research, and to provide authentic leadership to the community are diminished to the point that I can have more impact outside NSF than within it."

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

10 quick tips for making your software outlive your job! The preprint for our paper is now up at arXiv: arxiv.org/abs/2505.06484 Hopefully it'll help people who are forced to leave. Still good advice for researchers, in general. Share widely? #academia #research #stopthecuts

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

I'm delighted to be able to share my latest artwork for the @songbirding.com podcast and audiobook series! Singing female American Redstart, because female birds definitely do sing and we're finally starting to pay attention. 🎨🪶 #SciArt #BirdArt 🧪

submitted 27 days ago • 5 comments

Four lifers last night! Silver Gull and Kelp Gull – surprising, as I've lived here for almost a year now. But the Sooty Albatross and Southern Fulmar flying over the streets of Edinburgh were lovely. First record of a Southern Fulmar north of the equator, as far as I can tell. #dreambirds #ebird

submitted 4 days ago • 2 comments

"we are really really close again to the embarrassing point where you will be paid more as an 18-year-old apprentice on the training wage, than as a full-time postgraduate researcher (a Marsden PhD stipend funds PhD students to work full-time on a specific research project)."

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

I've edited my automatic incidental eBird Logger using @alfredapp.bsky.social on my computer to say "Bird logged, well done!" when I log it. Somehow, she says it in a Geordie accent, which I am very OK with. #ebird

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

I heard the rarest bird in the world last night, the Nechisar Nightjar. On the other hand, that was right before I walked out of my hotel room to look for it, and walked into a fascist hazing ritual that involved death. My dreams in 2025 are intense.

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

applying for jobs again

submitted 11 days ago • 132 comments

I made an Alfred Workflow that automatically captures the title of a webpage for me. I keep needing this when I edit @wikipedia.org or when I am referencing a webpage using BibTeX. www.burntfen.com/2025-05-11/a... #academia #productivity

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

🧵 Martin Diaz came to the U.S. as a toddler, fleeing cartel violence with his family. They had proof of the danger—a letter from a Michoacán official. He married a U.S. citizen & was advancing his visa. Then ICE showed up at his home in Spokane: no warrant, no ID #OnYourSide VC pslspokane

submitted 6 days ago • 237 comments

Awesome that @cahoots.nz has made their minimum goal, they've still got a bit extra to go to meet their ideal $ target. I think donations are being matched this weekend, so if you have capacity to, donate &/or share

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Hi everyone. Today in “One day, one paper”, this research found that biodiversity increases with tectonic uplift and increasing topographic relief, not only on erosional mountain range highlands but also in adjacent depositional basins 🌎 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Enjoyed this conversation with @richlitt.bsky.social about how I do OSS maintenance in the Rust ecosystem!

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

A Chicago pope implies the existence of an underlying BibTeX pope.

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

Kicking off our 2025 Maintainer Month series, Dirkjan Ochtman (dirkjan.ochtman.nl) joins Richard (@richlitt.bsky.social) to talk Rust (github.com/rustls/rustls) maintenance, open source funding, and sustaining projects without burning out. Listen at 🎙️ podcast.sustainoss.org/268

submitted 7 days ago • 1 comment

Disappearing an elected official.

submitted 7 days ago • 101 comments

There are a bunch of things that delay trains here in the UK. This isn’t the first delay due to a stubborn swan on the tracks that I’ve heard. In related news, we also take our swans very seriously! 🤣🦢

submitted 7 days ago • 1 comment

I want to point out that Pope Francis was also an American pope. America is not just the US.

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

World Central Kitchen has run out of food to serve in Gaza. Its bakery ("recently the last working bakery in Gaza") is out of flour. There are 100,000+ tons of food in staging areas within driving distance of Gaza, and Israel refuses to let them in wck.org/news/gaza-up...

submitted 9 days ago • 145 comments

It's officially #MaintainerMonth! To celebrate, I just published psas.dev which has README badges maintainers can use to communicate boundaries for their #opensource projects.

submitted 15 days ago • 1 comment

With NIH director Jayanta Bhattacharya dismissing my reporting as "false" and "spreading rumors" hours before releasing a policy that confirmed said "rumors," I feel compelled to respond. Here's an inside look into how this story was reported. It was a weird one. 🧵 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

submitted 10 days ago • 27 comments

Hi this is your gentle reminder that I have a cooking channel, Francis Bacon & Eggs. Request for episodes are always welcome. Sponsorship is bonkers, but I would be happy to take donations for the cost of eggs. www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AW0...

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

I am live-tooting my current work on my avian bird flu modeling of bird populations for the southern oceans. You can follow along, here: cloudisland.nz/@richardlitt

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submitted 11 days ago • 35 comments

May is Maintainer Month! If you’ve ever relied on open source (spoiler: you have), now’s the time to show some love to the folks who keep it running. @feynudibranch.bsky.social & I shared what’s coming—events, perks, and a security challenge: github.blog/open-source/... 💜 #MaintainerMonth

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

I get the image, but, no, I have never, ever, ever seen a Canada Goose look that calm. That's not how Canada Geese work.

submitted 12 days ago • 1 comment

An alternate version of this graph sorted by total funding changes rather than percentages is revealing

submitted 13 days ago • 14 comments

So long, and thanks for all the fish. After ten months, I am stepping down as Interim Executive Director for GNOME. blogs.gnome.org/richardlitt/... #gnome

submitted 14 days ago • 1 comment

"A report by economists at American University in Washington DC estimates that a 50% reduction in federal science funding would reduce the US gross domestic product by approximately 7.6%." Science is an amazing engine of economic activity and progress for the US ... or at least it was.

submitted 14 days ago • 1 comment

In case you're worried that you don't know where your story is leading you...

submitted 65 days ago • 14 comments