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David K Butler

@davidkbutler.bsky.social

1.7K followers 650 following 5.4K posts

Lecturer at Maths Learning Centre, Uni Adelaide (my views here). Grad Dip Ed & PhD Finite Geom. Love maths and helping people learn. he/him

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David K Butler @davidkbutler.bsky.social · Oct 20

Hello those drifing through BlueSky.
I mostly post about these:
* My experiences with students in the Maths Learning Centre
* Maths and maths teaching thoughts I have, including live problem-solving
* Books I read (mainly childrens fiction)
* Observations and photos of things I see in the world

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Reposted by David K Butler

Ian Boudreau @ianboudreau.com · 9h

I think the idea of "cancel culture" persists mainly because it conveniently is some outside force acting on someone rather than them torching their reputation all on their own

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David K Butler @davidkbutler.bsky.social · 2h

See THIS is what I want to see. Too many people market puzzles by saying, “Are you smart enough?” but I am 100% here for marketing puzzles by saying, “You ARE smart enough!”

Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 3h

We KNOW you can beat this.
www.merriam-webster.com/games/quordl...

Four Quordle grids showing green, yellow, and gray tiles indicating correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters in Daily Quordle 1360 with 5, 6, 4, and 8 guesses respectively.

David K Butler @davidkbutler.bsky.social · 4h

Wordle 1,580 4/6.

1: b b b b b …
2: b b Y b b …
3: Y G b b G …
4: G G G G G …

I did not expect to win at Guess 4. I just thought I would know where the yellow letter from Guess 3 was.

David K Butler @davidkbutler.bsky.social · 18h

Everything sucks, both out there and in here.
Governments both local and worldwide make policies that literally rape and kill immigrants and trans people and women.
Billionaires ask for handouts to run their energy-hungry plagiarism and exploitation machines.
And my cat died.

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Reposted by David K Butler

David K Butler @davidkbutler.bsky.social · 6d

One year ago, I started posting observations on BlueSky, and I have thoroughly enjoyed the journey. I've put all 196 observations from the last year into a little book called "What I noticed along the way". I hope you enjoy it. drive.google.com/file/d/1w0zL...

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David K Butler @davidkbutler.bsky.social · 22h

A spider floats by with the breeze. I can’t see the spider, but I know it’s there because I can see the sunlight sparkling on a billowing strand of fresh silk.

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David K Butler @davidkbutler.bsky.social · 22h

A spider floats by with the breeze. I can’t see the spider, but I know it’s there because I can see the sunlight sparkling on a billowing strand of fresh silk.

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Reposted by David K Butler

David K Butler @davidkbutler.bsky.social · 1d

GNU Tabitha Brown 2014 - 2025

Tabitha Brown’s face. She is a tabby cat with one green eye and one brown eye and a pink nose. She has slightly orange fur on her nose and white fur on her chin. She is being cradled in my arm wearing a blue and white striped jumper. She looks up and to the right with sparkling eyes.

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David K Butler @davidkbutler.bsky.social · 1d

Wordle 1,579 3/6.

1: Y Y b b b …
2: G b G b G …
3: G G G G G …

Very proud of figuring out what the target had to be all by myself. Took me ages.

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David K Butler @davidkbutler.bsky.social · 1d

GNU is a reference from Terry Pratchett, a code that telegraph operators in Discworld send down the line to remember someone who they lost.

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Lizzie Kodpuak née Acid Lich (Gröbnerpilled era) @acidlich.bsky.social · 1d

Marilyn Monroe, the book enjoyer

Marilyn Monroe in color on a bed reading leaves of grass with her head resting in her hand. Hair style makes me guess this is early 50s.

Marilyn Monroe in bw in stripey pants and a dark mock turtle neck tank reading something called to the actor. She is perched on the couch in a delightful way and there is wonderful amount of pattern here, from her pants, the couch and the wall paper. Image is from Getty, by Michael ochs

Photo of Marilyn Monroe again in black and white reading, she is resting her face on her hand and looking towards the viewers/photographers and appears to be in a robe

Marilyn Monroe in 1955 in a very cute stripey outfit sitting on a children’s play set in the park reading James Joyce’s Ulysses

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David K Butler @davidkbutler.bsky.social · 1d

GNU Tabitha Brown 2014 - 2025

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David K Butler @davidkbutler.bsky.social · 1d

Wordle 1,578 4/6.

1: b b b Y b …
2: b b G G b …
3: b b G G G …
4: G G G G G …

Those two green letters in Guess 2 are an unusual combination, and I was very proud of figuring out what to do with them.

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David K Butler @davidkbutler.bsky.social · 1d

Again, is this unhinged? I don’t think so. But I still wanted to say it.

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David K Butler @davidkbutler.bsky.social · 2d

There is absolutely no book ever published that you must read or must finish even if you start it.

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 2d

Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat

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David K Butler @davidkbutler.bsky.social · 2d

Is this unhinged? Probably not. But I want people to know anyway.

David K Butler @davidkbutler.bsky.social · 2d

Most childrens novels are much better, and certainly much more fun, than the majority of adult novels.

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 2d

Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat

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Micah @rincewind.run · 2d

and since he really does have a quote for everything, in the wise words of Sir Terry Pratchett: “Susan hated Literature. She’d much prefer to read a good book.”

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Mostly Harmless @whalepetunias.bsky.social · 2d

The truth of the matter is that it would have been a great deal simpler and more practical to build the cabin as an ordinary three-dimensional oblong room, but then the designers would have got miserable.

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David K Butler @davidkbutler.bsky.social · 3d

Wordle 1,577 4/6.

1: b b b b G …
2: b b Y Y G …
3: G b b b G …
4: G G G G G …

Anagram!

David K Butler @davidkbutler.bsky.social · 3d

And cool words have unordinary letters.

David K Butler @davidkbutler.bsky.social · 3d

Not too surprising considering I tend to choose early words based on coolness.

David K Butler @davidkbutler.bsky.social · 3d

The other day we played Digit Disguises with the integers -4, …, 4 and the strategies were QUITE different!

Reposted by David K Butler

David K Butler @davidkbutler.bsky.social · 3d

I had a go using only subtractions. These ten results were enough to figure which digit 0 to 9 had which emoji disguise.

Fruit and Vegetables Emoji calculations

Avocado minus watermelon = cross
Watermelon minus carrot = watermelon
Watermelon minus orange = mushroom
Avocado minus eggplant = cross
Eggplant minus corn = cross
Corn minus grapes = watermelon
Corn minus banana = orange
Corn minus apple = mushroom
Banana minus orange = cross
Watermelon minus grapes = grapes

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David K Butler @davidkbutler.bsky.social · 3d

I had a go using only subtractions. These ten results were enough to figure which digit 0 to 9 had which emoji disguise.

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