Alice Sheppard

you are going to have SERIOUS FUN reading this list of what science students are doing literature reviews of

That suits me. Stroke the moggies for me please!

That's horrific for the author. If I have the strength, I'll check it out more thoroughly next time I see it.

Sorry - didn't mean to send you or anyone else on a hunt for info about something potentially worrying. She may genuinely be doing an online course. I haven't had energy to find out. It was the way the adverts made it sound like something easy that made your post resonate with me ...

Julia Donaldson

I keep getting adverts that claim that a rather well known children's author is giving an online course in how to write and sell children's books, with feedback along the lines of "course was fantastic, I got my first book deal in 9 weeks!" and it just seems a little bit too perfect/shady to me.

Crying toddler and cat sick to deal with at 5am, and now there isn't really any more time for sleep ... I got toddler back to sleep though and I am basking in triumph 🎺

Also has anyone said Rachel Carson yet, of Silent Spring? She was so early on in the field - and doing so much intricate devastating work, to so much well-funded disagreement (to say the least) - all while she had cancer.

that really is something. I want to experience a climate like that! My skin would hate it, but I still want to know what it feels like, after growing up in mild damp UK.

Wow! Like sublimation on Mars!

Her work on the Green Belt Movement was groundbreaking - not just for environmentalism but for showing how local community action can create systemic change. The interconnected thinking you mention feels more relevant than ever.

Yes!

One of these headlines that suggests there's a One Simple Answer That Everybody Is Missing, but it's actually lots of things that vary from one group to another - and is pretty interesting. I like that she says it's actually not a problem if birthrates are declining - enough with those panics!

I highlight her, an everyday citizen, because she's an example of what everyday citizens can do - if they aren't blessed with huge platforms, influential jobs or positions, or loads of money, or whatever.

Also my friend Helen, who isn't on BlueSky. She does everything with a mind for the environment: eating, travel, what she buys or makes - and she's absolutely never preachy or anything less than lovely and fun about it. She's taught me lots of vegan recipes and did a 3 day train journey to visit me.

Wangari Maathai. Her books are AMAZING. She was so clear-sighted: she spotted wide-ranging but interconnected problems (environment, education, feminism, farming methods ...) and she got things going that tackled them all at once. And she was so fearless.

This week in my ocean conservation science and policy course, we're discussing environmental heroes and the role of individual inspirational figures in conservation change.

Who are your environmental heroes? What about them makes them a hero to you?

The niceness of heading to bed and finding a stripy cat already there waiting for you 🥰

Heh, thanks!

Aawww no, I'm so sorry for your losses 😢

FWIW, you can't possibly be as much of a bummer as hundreds of people here talking world events 😖 but hope you'll feel better in time.

Everyone is on about the clock change and I have absolutely no idea when it is happening in Sweden. It'll be embarrassing if I take sprogling to her preschool an hour late or early, though.

The world is such a great mood inducer these days! Want some jokes or cat pictures or anything?

1910 Women could wear pants 1920 White women could vote 1963 Women gained equal paid rights (sort of) 1965 Black women could vote 19 69 Women were allowed to initiate divorce 1972 Women could get birth control, without a man 1973 Women could choose to get an abortion, legally 1974 Women could buy a home, without a man 1988 Women could own their own business, without Nomesticial protection agains 2022 Women lost the constitutional right to abortion

Strong reminder: women have not been independent for as long as some folks would like you to believe. We’ve lost rights that we never should have lost.

AWESOME. My devops husband says he will show me how to generate a PR :)

(did you hear about the devops engineer who went to a disco and found someone he fancied? He managed to generate a pull request)

Aaaahhhhh ... Husband went out food shopping and took toddler with him, bless him. AND I HAVE BEEN ABLE TO HAVE A SHOWER and it feels immense.

everything crossed for you!

that's how good things get started :) I'd love to hear how it goes!

oooffffffff 🤯

Wish I could pass you all some cake. I do hope they decide to go ahead with it. Public transport is the awesome.

Ooooohhhh! That sounds FANTASTIC! How do you start a bus pilot project? If I was anywhere near you I'd be screaming "how can I help" :)