Richard Littauer
PhD in CS at Te Herenga Waka, focusing on birds. Open source. Linguist and conlanger. eBird and iNat. SustainOSS and CURIOSS. He/him.
See https://burntfen.com for a list of things I did when I should have been doing other things.
- Reposted by Richard LittauerScotland has passed a law that all new buildings must install ‘swift bricks’ which are hollowed out bricks to help nesting swifts and other endangered birds! Swifts are especially endangered because so many chimneys now have chimney caps. Swifts return to the same nesting spot year after year.
- Reposted by Richard LittauerYup. This is also why I get annoyed when people start suggesting "golden age" science fiction titles to people who are new the genre and are asking for suggestions. You want to turn a modern 15-year-old off science fiction forever, recommend stories that were old when her grandparents were her age.
- Happy to have helped as the editor to bring this to publication.
- Just published in JOSS: 'Ellip: An Elliptic Integral Library for Rust' doi.org/10.21105/joss.09386
- Reposted by Richard LittauerA Black-capped Chickadee showcasing winter fashion by donning a snowflake accessory.
- Hi friends. I am having an excellent time at #FOSDEM. I am not posting on BlueSky much while being here, because I find Mastodon an easier place to reach most of my OSS audience. Hope that's OK. mastodon.social/@richlitt
- This is an excellent photo of penguins. macaulaylibrary.org/asset/648954...
- Reposted by Richard LittauerI've been a faculty member in #Linguistics at a high-profile US university for for over a decade now. Most years I've been involved in graduate admissions. As of this year I'm the Graduate Chair for my department. I thought it might be helpful to share some advice for grad applicants...
- Reposted by Richard LittauerWant to see something no one's ever seen before? (barring 160~ people who watched it live a few minutes ago)
- Reposted by Richard LittauerBeing a journalist is sick: I just contacted a pre-eminent jaguar conservationist in Argentine with a question that has been weighing on me for ages and he wrote back right away with an informed answer.
- Reposted by Richard LittauerA lot of the Male Loneliness Epidemic can be traced back to the fact that most cis dudes don’t participate in communal logistics.
- I think @sarahjeong.bsky.social said it's because they devalue women's labor and a LOT of this Scary Logistics stuff comes from people who don't understand that basically all of the civic life they enjoy is created with the help of free labor, largely by women.
- Reposted by Richard Littauertomorrow, StandWithMinnesota.com will hit a million site visits and over 650,000 unique visitors. i made it 10 days ago with $600 from you guys for hosting and cloudflare. thank you. thank you.
- Reposted by Richard LittauerIt's #BurnsNight, so here's some #paleoart of one of Triassic Scotland's most famous inhabitants: Scleromochlus taylori. Exactly what Scleromochlus represents is still debated. Most think it's an early pterosauromorph, but not all. Like this image? Get a print @ www.markwitton.co.uk/product-page...
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- Reposted by Richard LittauerClergy are being arrested in Minnesota for peacefully protesting - 1/23/2026
- Would software patents that have a shorter timeline - 5 years - make more sense?
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- Reposted by Richard LittauerPLEASE SHARE! The submission period for the photos for the Southern Reach coffee table book ends after Jan 21. Keep them coming. You're taking some amazing shots! Like this one from Ottawa submitted by Anna Parks. Rules: www.jeffvandermeer.com/lighthouseph...
- SOUTHERN REACH READERS and weirdlings in general, here's a call for lighthouse photo submissions if you want a chance to be in the forthcoming Area X: The Southern Reach Files book. Starts Nov. 1, ends Jan 21. PLEASE read thoroughly. Questions, weirdos? www.jeffvandermeer.com/lighthouseph...
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- Yesterday I was convinced I had probably found the type specimens of a bird. I hadn't. They were part of the same series taken by the same collector, but unlikely to be the syntypes I was looking for. This morning, "The God Abandons Antony" revisited me. poetryarchive.org/poem/god-aba...
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- Today I fought fascism by going to my local Wikipedia meetup and talking about obscure Japanese ornithologists I want to write Wikipedia articles about. Also bought produce at a farmer's market, and not from the state-enforced duopoly here in New Zealand.
- I am going to start a policy of unfollowing people who boost screenshots of Twitter posts. Don't be on Twitter at all. Don't give anyone there any air. It should not exist.
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- Reposted by Richard LittauerMissing from the coverage of redundancies at Edinburgh: this was done in such a haphazard, uncoordinated way, there are now core teams who have gone from 5 people to 1 with no change in workload or pressure and huge loss in knowledge of institutional process. www.heraldscotland.com/news/2576321...
- I think I have found lost syntypes for a species of bird. Today is a good day.
- Reposted by Richard LittauerThe Nobel Prize museum in Oslo subtweeting the fuck out of Trump today.
- This poem has stuck with me. poets.org/poem/america...
- Can someone help me understand why @sanders.senate.gov and @welch.senate.gov and @balint.house.gov haven't all publicly demanded impeachment and removal, at all times?
- Reposted by Richard Littauerif you'd like to get some very gorgeous dentalium earrings AND support folks in Minnesota, my friend Dusty is selling earrings to replace the income she normally makes DoorDashing, but is too afraid to do with Native folks being targeted in mpls. email her to order: Nelsondusty7@gmail.com
- I have received a request to review. I am not convinced that I am currently an expert on the topic, although I was once familiar with it. Do I politely decline, noting that I do not feel I could give a suitable review? Or review it as an average member of society?
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- Aww. It me. :)
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- I've always wanted to do one of these, so this year, let's go. 1. @annaleen.bsky.social's "Automatic Noodle". This was a darling, small, warm book that made me miss San Francisco (hard) and want more community (easy) and good food (very easy). Highly recommend. bookshop.org/p/books/auto...
- My university, @vicuniwgtn.bsky.social, covers my APC fees with @tandfresearch.bsky.social, and allows me to publish my research as open access. What I don't know is how much each paper is costing my uni, and, by extension, me through my tuition payments.
- Reposted by Richard LittauerSome PRIDE AND PREJUDICE characters, for you Austen fans
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- Reposted by Richard LittauerBIG FIGHT AT POLAND’S WROCLAW ZOO!!!
- As the wheel of time is cyclical, it's not out of the question that Gareth Bryne moved on to become both Davos Seaworth and Ron Swanson, and I am OK with this.
- Reposted by Richard LittauerHaunted tree: Buttercup Festival 3-362
- Reposted by Richard LittauerI quit my job at #iNaturalist, the product I co-founded. If you'd like me to keep working on natural history software, support me on Patreon: patreon.com/kueda. FWIW, I'm building an iNat backup tool and an app for viewing geologic maps. Or, if you think you'd like to hire me, get in touch!
- Reposted by Richard LittauerBest TikTok thing going is the two dudes trying food from every country without leaving NYC. If you haven’t seen them yet, it’s incredible. My favorite so far is last week’s. Legit got me emotional.
- Reposted by Richard LittauerMartin Peterson's creative response to being banned from teaching Plato (shared with his permission).
- Reposted by Richard LittauerThe USA can withdraw from @ipbes.net but, IPBES Chair @davidobura.bsky.social observes, “unfortunately, we cannot withdraw from the fact that more than 1 million species of plants and animals face extinction.” 😞😠
- “We cannot withdraw from the fact that over 1 million species of plants and animals face extinction.” IPBES remains committed to its mandate to provide the most credible science and evidence about biodiversity to all decision makers and actors. — @davidobura.bsky.social , @ipbes.net Chair
- Reposted by Richard LittauerFellow biologists, this is a poem that discovers the tonal beauty of the word "ribosome"
- “i want back my rocking chairs, / solipsist sunsets, / & coastal jungle sounds...” A poem by Renee Nicole Good, who was murdered by ICE earlier today. lithub.com/renee-nicole...
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- Poetry makes your life weirder. When I lived in Bushwick, a poet, now a carpenter back in the PNW, used the phrase "hard pore corn" in one of his whimsical spoken word pieces. Husking corn for dinner, it pops like corn unbidden back into my mind. Thanks Jacob. Hope you're well wherever you are.
- One of the nice things about @annaleen.bsky.social new book, Automatic Noodle, is that it's based on a shop on 24th St in the Mission of SF. I lived there for just under a year a decade ago, and when she describes water flooding down the street, I can vividly visualize which way the water flowed.
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- Reposted by Richard LittauerActions have consequences.
- Reposted by Richard LittauerHey #ornithology Bluesky! Is there an ornithologist out there who'd be up for being interviewed for a piece on how people can help birds that nest in their yards? Dos and don'ts for providing nest boxes, providing nesting material, ensuring safety from predators, etc?
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- Reposted by Richard LittauerSo this interview lasted 2 hours so this “you’re scaring me” part might seem like an overreaction or fearmongering to someone without that context. There’s a lot of evidence to support my hypothesis that a potential H5N1 pandemic would be worse than COVID.
- Went on @60minutes.bsky.social to talk to Bill Whitaker about H5N1. As Kamran Khan from Bluedot told Bill, we don’t know if or when this virus might acquire pandemic capabilities, but it can. And if it does, as I told Bill, that will be worse than COVID. Much worse. www.cbsnews.com/news/bird-fl...
- Reposted by Richard LittauerSome big diffs between citizen science observations (from iNaturalist) and specimen records (from digitised museum collections) - cit. sci records biased towards large inverts & exotic spp. Great MSc project with recommendations 🌏🧪@nzhymenoptera.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
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- I've asked eBird to make Wellington Region its own filter, because people keep posting Mynas and Little Black Cormorants in @zealandia.bsky.social. I suspect most of these observations are from tourists from Auckland who aren't familiar with Little Pied Shags and Tieke. #ebird
- Reposted by Richard LittauerIt’s hard to believe a president would time an illegal military attack to distract the public’s attention, but today is the statutory deadline for DOJ to release its report on the Epstein file production. Maybe it is just a coincidence.
- I've called my senators and rep, and told them that if the military works during the holidays, they should to. I've also said that no other priority - literally none - is more important than removal of Trump at this point. No to war. Always no to war.
- Impeachment and removal now. Not in Vermont's name. Montpelier doesn't want this war, and we've lost enough lives for unnecessary oil and fascism. Do your job and remove Trump. @welch.senate.gov @sanders.senate.gov @balint.house.gov
- Impeachment and removal now. Not in Vermont's name. Montpelier doesn't want this war, and we've lost enough lives for unnecessary oil and fascism. Do your job and remove Trump. @welch.senate.gov @sanders.senate.gov @balint.house.gov
