Anna Starkey

The Decode ME study is such a big deal for people living with ME/CFS. We’ve spent decades being dismissed by docs and now there is finally a glimmer of hope for better understanding, even pathways to treatment in the long term….just need more funded research and the gov to pay attention….

Name our Storms

The Met Office is currently looking for people to suggest up to 5 names for storms...

It would be great if thousands all suggested the same 5 names (in alphabetical order as that's how storm names appear):
BigOil, BP, Equinor, Exxon, Shell.

www.metoffice.gov.uk/forms/name-o...

Oh thank you, don’t know how I managed to mess up the link!

Petition: Abandon DWP Pathways to Work Green Paper & create National Disability Strategy The DWP Green Paper Pathways to Work proposes what we think are devastating cuts to disability benefits. We think the Government must drop these proposals and instead begin a process of co-production ...

Meantime, if you don’t have the spoons to respond to the very long Green Paper with the damaging proposals for cutting disability welfare support, you can sign a very quick petition here petition.parliament.uk/petitions/72...

Some rare good news just now. The repairing of the harm their ‘guidance’ has caused will be hard however.
And a reminder that @goodlawproject.org are a great organisation to support.

I think they need smaller dedicated car parks still for disabled visitors who are not able to easily wheel and use public transport (which is pretty bad for access)

Yes, it's another request to sign and share an open letter. These are the times we live in... Disabled people are being cut out of working life, contrary to what the government say they are doing...if you're in the culture sector, please read, sign, share.

www.tinyurl.com/AtWLetter

Wow, look at this: the carbon intensity of UK electricity is currently only 32g/kWh and 86.5% of our electricity right now is coming from renewables.

Come on world, this IS possible!
And it will only get better (meaning: cleaner, healthier, less intrusive) 🎉

(graphic from grid.iamkate.com )

Open this image up fully.

Look to the top right.

That's Phobos, one of the moons of Mars.

And that bright point of light?

Earth.

Gutted to read this - I have posted here previously about the proposed cuts to PIP and meantime we’re seeing damaging and life changing cuts to Access to Work that are happening right now… particularly to those I know working in the arts

Honorable mention to Sonny Stores in Bristol who are not only super delicious but have always been open and understanding about booking outside seats. Everyone should be more like Sonny Stores. ✨

You’re losing good custom. There’s loads of us with this access need and dammit we’re hungry, we’ve been waiting all winter for the chance to eat outside! I don’t have the spare energy to chance it rolling around all the restaurants to see if your walk-up outside tables are available. Let me book!

Dear Restaurants…especially all the cool small ones in Bristol, I’m looking at you - it is time to update your approach to access and to stop telling folk who are immune compromised/vulnerable to illness, that it’s not possible to book your outside tables. Of course it’s possible!

I am planning an event @wshed.bsky.social for the culture sector around our collective role in building togetherness to combat the rise of the far right. I am talking with Hope not Hate and imagining a mix of talk and workshop covering. Is this something you would be interested to attend?

Wrinkled Time: The Persistence of Past Worlds on Earth – Marcia Bjornerud “We live in a vast, labyrinthine library of time.” In this essay, geologist Marcia Bjornerud celebrates the deep time-fulness of Earth, and orients us to read the many-volume stories kept in the rock ...

Doing some reading around Time - and am loving @emergencemagazine.bsky.social’s Volume 5 on Time. In particular this piece - the best big picture poetic writing on Earth’s geology I’ve come across emergencemagazine.org/essay/wrinkl...

Aha! I think it might be a particularly red Mint Moth! (Not far from some mint in our garden in fact) I think my initial online search threw me off because it looks like they are often more orangey brown…sorted thanks to the excellent identifier on @savebutterflies.bsky.social website!

Bug folk! Who is this lovely and very tiny winged visitor to our garden? Is it a butterfly or a moth? This is is a daisy head that’s about 1.5cm diameter….I’ve never seen a butterfly this tiny - they emerge from a chrysalis full sized right, or do you get baby butterflies?!

An open letter to the Equality and Human Rights Commission from the Culture Sector, in solidarity with Trans, Nonbinary and Intersex communities. Sign your name here: tinyurl.com/ehrcletter Please share widely, and if you are not able to sign for your organisation, please share with someone who can

An immersive art piece - a wall is illuminated with an image of a large whale coming out of the water. The skies are dark grey. A man stands in front of it looking up at the whale. Text reads: The problem isn’t disability - it’s inaccessibility.

The problem isn’t disability – it’s inaccessibility.

56% of the artists behind the 83 UK projects funded by @immersiveartsuk.bsky.social identify as disabled or having access needs.

Director Jo Verrent shares how we made this happen and why it matters!

🔗 Read the blog: bit.ly/42MB19T

Thank you @electricliterature.com and @sfmontgomery.bsky.social for including the "lyric and evocative" Ultimatum Orangutan by @mailbykite.bsky.social in your Poetry Collections About the Disabled Experience.
Read this wonderful list and explore the magazine
electricliterature.com/7-poetry-col...

Science tells us biological sex is not binary, good legal practice tells us this ruling is not fair, and trans representation would have told us the real impact- nobody is any safer from this decision and trans folk are now at even greater risk of harm. This is a great org to follow and support👇

Mae Jemison wears a bright orange NASA space suit and holds her helmet for a photo

Since we’re all talking about it I want to blow up a real female space pioneer, Mae Jemison, an actual astronaut. She’s a graduate of Stanford and Cornel Medical School, served in the peace corps, started an educational nonprofit, and worked for the CDC researching vaccines. That’s a woman in space

“The Royal Society is dead. Three hundred and sixty-five years of history, and it’s ended it as a beard for a fascist. What an utterly utterly shameful end for a once-great society”

A clear, thoughtful and open piece about the decision not to cancel a Mayoral Transport Hustings event @wshed.bsky.social Makes me think that perhaps the nature of our times is that we need truly democratic platforms to remain open AND for peaceful protest to exist alongside each other.

Oh yes I think if you’re looking right now it is almost finished unfortunately. Nice colander hole patterns tho! 🙂

Colander partial eclipse in bristol.

A Crips Against Cuts flyer including the information that ‘Scope estimates that without PIP, a further 700,000 households will be pushed into poverty.

Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer speaking holding a mic, next to a protest organiser and Disabled People Against Cuts banner

Made it along for a bit to the #cripsagainstcuts protest on College Green in Bristol - so great to see Green Party co-leader @carladenyer.bsky.social showing up to speak

Sending solidarity. If you are still in the PIP application process I don’t know if you’ve found www.benefitsandwork.co.uk. Their guides helped me a lot.

ugh, OK, thanks for heads up - but useful there is actual data I spose

Ah thank you! I will have a deep read.