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Paul Tullis @tullis.bsky.social · 3h

with @axellepb.bsky.social and @wildjourno.bsky.social

Paul Tullis @tullis.bsky.social · 3h

Genetic selection for chickens' fast growth-3x faster than 75 years ago-led to painful lameness, disease & deformity. EU scientists say slower=better & NGOs are pushing for abandoning fast-growth breeds, but industry resists. My latest for @bloomberglp.bsky.social www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

How Generations of Selective Breeding Created Miserable Chickens

Genetic selection has made “probably the biggest animal welfare problem we have in all animal husbandry.”

www.bloomberg.com

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Paul Tullis @tullis.bsky.social · 3h

with @axellepb.bsky.social

Paul Tullis @tullis.bsky.social · 20h

Great day training training scientists @maxplanck.de Institute for Animal Behaviour with thought leadership writing trainer Rhea Wessel.
As I once heard Branford Marsalis say when he was opening for Sonny Rollins @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social, I love it and I get a gig and a lesson on the same day

Paul Tullis @tullis.bsky.social · 7d

The best assignment I ever had was 10 days following #JaneGoodall around Gombe, Burundi, and her 80th birthday party in San Francisco. She was a one of a kind scientist, teacher, leader, and activist. RIP

www.nytimes.com/2015/03/15/m...

Jane Goodall Is Still Wild at Heart (Published 2015)

www.nytimes.com

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Paul Tullis @tullis.bsky.social · 25d

So it seems the path to riches as a journalist is to get fired for plagiarism, write an article with a bunch of made-up bullshit in it, then sue the magazine when they issue a correction
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/12/b...

Atlantic Settles Writer’s Suit Over Article It Retracted

www.nytimes.com

Paul Tullis @tullis.bsky.social · Sep 4

Heidelberg is a cool little city with lots of cultural offerings and close to nature, the charming French city Strasbourg, and the natural hot springs in Baden-Baden

Paul Tullis @tullis.bsky.social · Sep 4

Are you a science journalist who'd like to get the hell out of the US for 3-6 months and get paid €18000-36000 not to publish a single story? The journalist in residence program might be for you. www.h-its.org/media/journa...

HITS Journalist in Residence Program - HITS

About the Program Our institute offers a paid stay for experienced journalists who focus on natural science, mathematics, or computer science. ...

www.h-its.org

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Paul Tullis @tullis.bsky.social · Jul 24

It's been said before but bears repeating that the purpose of DEI is to ensure that people _are_ selected based on merit and not steamrolled by white males (who are so often also doing the selecting). But this is a typical Orwellian reversal by him

Paul Tullis @tullis.bsky.social · Jul 17

Which is exactly the point of pulling their funding. The less local news they're getting the more reliant they are on Fox News and Twitter.

Matthew Keys @matthewkeys.net · Jul 17

Most of these small and rural-area PBS and NPR stations are the sole provider of news focused on community issues, agriculture, high school sports and local government in their regions. And many are in places that voted for Trump in 2024.

TheDesk.net @thedesk.net · Jul 17

The U.S. Senate has approved a measure to pull $1.1 billion in funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which will primarily impact NPR and PBS member stations in small and rural areas of the country, including districts that voted for President Trump in 2024.

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Paul Tullis @tullis.bsky.social · Jul 15

yeah I don’t think denying corporate media $0.0001 in revenue in order to remain uninformed is going to end capitalism - but you do you

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Paul Tullis @tullis.bsky.social · Jul 4

Apparently it's made reading pointless, because that is not the gist of the article

High Priestess, Low Patience @cheriepriest.com · Jul 4

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck you

A headline from the New Yorker: Has AI made learning to write pointless?

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Paul Tullis @tullis.bsky.social · Jul 2

My 2016 article "offers both a thrilling glimpse into the future of microbiome research and an invitation to reflect on the vast complexities and ethical dimensions of studying life at its most fundamental levels," according to an LLM.

Why do I not feel flattered? www.nature.com/articles/534...

The man who can map the chemicals all over your body - Nature

Pieter Dorrestein uses mass spectrometry to eavesdrop on the molecular conversations between microbes and their world.

www.nature.com

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Paul Tullis @tullis.bsky.social · Jun 28

All AI-generated images should be labeled as such, no matter how innocuous-seeming

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Paul Tullis @tullis.bsky.social · Jun 26

I was saying this - publishing this - literally 20 years ago. And still, nothing

davidobura.bsky.social @davidobura.bsky.social · Jun 25

‘It’s death by a thousand cuts’: marine ecologist on the collapse of coral reefs.

More than anything #climate and #biodiversity crises make me angry. As few people are largely responsible, while all pay the price, mostly those least responsible.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

‘It’s death by a thousand cuts’: marine ecologist on the collapse of coral reefs

David Obura believes humans have been using nature for free, and tipping points at some reefs have already passed

www.theguardian.com

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Paul Tullis @tullis.bsky.social · Jun 26

When I was working downstairs from
@WIRED 's original offices in 1995, this the kind of thing we imagined when we thought about the future of the internet. Somehow nobody could conceive of deepfakes, decapitation videos, or Elon Musk www.instagram.com/creek_crawle...

Paul Tullis @tullis.bsky.social · Jun 21

Til the Trump-Musk cuts, US foreign aid was about $69 per citizen, according to Oxfam. I'm donating $280 for my family of four to these programs - vetted by USAID staff - to do our part to make up for the dumb, cruel cuts, which are literally killing innocent people proimpact.tools/rapid-response

Rapid Response — Project Resource Optimization

proimpact.tools

Paul Tullis @tullis.bsky.social · Jun 4

Recycling old clothes is hard-- especially separating different types of fibers. So much of what we send for recycling ends up as trash in poor countries.

But this Amsterdam company thinks it's cracked the nut of making new textiles from old. My latest, for Bloomberg News

lnkd.in/eWyiEJsZ

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Paul Tullis @tullis.bsky.social · May 14

The precautionary principle would say, rather, ban AI for 10 years until we can figure out how it can be appropriately regulated
www.404media.co/republicans-...

Paul Tullis @tullis.bsky.social · May 8

This is especially weird since the UK edition pays me much more, even though UK journo salaries are usually way lower.

Paul Tullis @tullis.bsky.social · May 8

Great to see @us.theguardian.com making money & hiring rather than axing journalists!

Last I checked though they were paying freelancers $0.50/word--which is what LA Weekly was paying in 1993. Maybe time to up the rates over there?
www.axios.com/2025/05/06/t...

The Guardian plots U.S. expansion following record revenue year

U.K. publications are scrambling to tap into America's lucrative subscription and advertising markets, but The Guardian has found unprecedented success from reader revenue, or donations.

www.axios.com

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Paul Tullis @tullis.bsky.social · May 5

America: Poverty. Fentanyl crisis. Homelessness. Healthcare bankruptcies.

Netherlands: Yeah we don't have any of that, let's invent a doorbell for fish

visdeurbel.nl/en/

The Fish Doorbell — The Fish Doorbell

Did you spot a fish? Press the Fish Doorbell! This alerts our lock operator to let the fish through. The Fish Doorbell is in Utrecht, NL.

visdeurbel.nl

Paul Tullis @tullis.bsky.social · Apr 30

Since freelancing full-time starting in 2017, I've managed to maintain an hourly rate of around $70 with this method.
Here's the spreadsheet template I use to track all this. Make a copy
Questions? DM'S open
docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

The Patented Paul Tullis Freelance Journalist's Spreadsheet of World Domination

docs.google.com

Paul Tullis @tullis.bsky.social · Apr 30

If I'm nearing the limit for any stage, it's time to move on or re-allocate. Sometimes I go over the hours allocated for a stage or the whole thing, but this typically gets balanced out by stories where I don't hit the limit...

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Paul Tullis @tullis.bsky.social · Apr 30

...based on an hourly rate I need to hit to meet my budget. Then I divide those hours across pitching, logistics (booking travel, dealing with contract etc), reporting, writing, revising, & closing (responding to fact & copy queries)...

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