Butterfly Blues
@choving.bsky.social
Wildlife ecologist, adaptation scientist, complex adaptive systems modeler, Cassandra-type prophet (apparently), avid gardener and hiker. Personal account; views are my own.
Alongside "who built Hadrian's wall?", another great example of knowledge falling foul of 'common understanding' is scurvy. The Royal Navy discovered the cure for scurvy, won the Napoleonic War, humanity then lost that knowledge without realising, then got saved by two Norwegian guinea pigs 🧵 /1
It's MAYDAY! which, among other things, means that at @globalvoices.org we're closing out last month's AI Spotlight (my editorial will be publishing soon...😬) and kicking off POSITIVE ACTION ON CLIMATE! The Spotlight will fill up over May with articles, essays, & analysis from all over the world!
Positive action on climate · Global Voices
Through this series, we will not just lay out the problems surfacing because of the climate crisis, but also explore the solutions: what is being built, grown, fought for, and imagined from the ground...
globalvoices.org
🦄 Historiae naturalis de quadrupedibus libri: . Amstelodami: Apud Ioannem Iacobi Fil. Schipper, MDCLVII [1657]. [Source]
Freedom is only a hop away. Can he make it?
Fun to read as my wife and I are literally on the road driving to Carleton to visit our kiddo. This piece really captures the quirky and caring atmosphere.
Carleton College@carleton.edu · 4mo agoThe @nytimes.com featured our very own Dacie Moses House today!! Reporter Ron Lieber visited Northfield to experience the cookie house for himself — and learned that there's no other place quite like Carleton College 💛💙 Read the story for free with our gifted link: www.nytimes.com/2026/04/17/d...
If any more awful men wish to file their resignation from Congress, for heaven’s sake, send them in. I’m quite at my leisure.
a man with long white hair and a beard wears a brown vest
Alt: a man with long white hair and a beard wears a brown vest
media.tenor.com
just to be clear, everyone, when 8 pm EDT comes and goes, regardless of what does or does not happen, the president still threatened genocide and war crimes and we should still impeach, arrest, and try him
Democracy isn't a modern luxury—it's a political strategy with deep roots. In our new study for Science Advances, we analyse 40 different societies and develop a framework for measuring human governance along a collective-autocratic axis. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
The distribution of power and inclusiveness across deep time
Democratic practice in the premodern world was not the exclusive domain of Greece and Rome.
science.org
Excellent reading to pass along to anybody who thinks violent revolution would be an improvement on our current non-violent protests -- short form is, the success rate of the former is abysmal, the latter very good (and working *very well* right now): acoup.blog/2026/02/13/c...
Collections: Against the State – A Primer on Terrorism, Insurgency and Protest
This week, continuing in the vein of some of our previous strategy and military theory primers, I wanted to off a basic 101-level survey of the strategic theory behind efforts, in a sense, directed…
acoup.blog
NASA scientists and engineers have developed low-cost lightweight #RemoteSensing instruments that anyone can build and use to bring remote sensing science to communities beyond traditional professional scientists. 🔗 Learn more in AGU's Perspectives: buff.ly/tfFIR95 #AGUPubs #STEM #Education
Passages in a tower. Marvelous (and very calm) work by Egbert van der Poel of Delft, who tended more toward catastrophe. He was born on this day in 1621..
Posting this now. #2026MMM starts soon. I am team Honey Badger, and actually I do care. I care very much.
TWO HONORARY MAMMALS ENTER ONE HONORARY MAMMAL LEAVES If you are deeply confused, tune in at 7:00 PM CDT for the strange and terrible tale of the #2026MMM That's So Metal Wild Card round. The winner gets to go up against my beloved Honey Badger.
a couple of muppets giving the horns sign with their hands
ALT: a couple of muppets giving the horns sign with their hands
media.tenor.com
Katie Hinde@mammalssuck.bsky.social · 5mo ago
Not just water governance. My bosses want science based on old, simple, well-established methods. Novelty might get you published, but it also might mean the results are less likely to impact policy or practice outside academia.
Jaishri Srinivasan@jaishrijuice.bsky.social · 7mo ago
This Upton Sinclair quote never misses “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”
John Rentoul@rentouljohn.bsky.social · 7mo agoBut can anyone tell me what this bit means? “For too long, those fluent in the good grammar of civility have deployed decorum to mask agendas of cruelty.”
We do NOT have 8 maids-a-milking but we do have a linguist who could probably tell us why it's 'a-milking' - Sean Wren from @taranhunt.bsky.social 's THE KYSTROM CHRONICLES! Open to US/CAN/UK & IE only. Like, follow, repost & drop a ☄️in the comments to enter! Ends 11th Jan 2026 23:59 GMT🪐📚💙
I feel this is probably quite important information. You wouldn't want to get it wrong.
I've waited 3 years to make this post
You probably heard the US admin is threatening to break up the National Center for Atmospheric Research: but did you know they already froze funding for the 9 regional Climate Science Adaptation Centers? From tracking invasives to helping tribes with drought, here's why the CASCs matter ⬇️
From invasive species tracking to water security – what’s lost with federal funding cuts at US Climate Adaptation Science Centers
The people who manage America’s aquifers, wetlands, shorelines and recreation areas rely on federal science as they face new and rising risks in a changing climate.
theconversation.com
AI is about as accurate as someone who sounds smart because they are good at improv that sounds like it could be true. But because truth is often stranger than fiction, that person is often wrong. Like this type of person, the system is rewarded by popularity, not accuracy.
Perhaps this dates me, but I remember listening to that show when I was a graduate student.
Alison 🇨🇦@n8rnerd.bsky.social · 8mo ago"What our panel from 25 years ago did not predict is the attack on science by those who oppose vaccinations, climate deniers, conspiracy theorists and opponents to clean energy production."
My entire existence has been summed up in a t-shirt . . .
To my office, practising arithmetique alone and making an end of last night’s book with great content, and so home to supper and to bed.
Merry Holidays and Happy #InverteFest !! Hope everyone is having a tentalicious time today ✨🐙 #inverts 🦐🐞
