Alun Salt

"The Perception of trees matters more than the reality"
(in UK) 🌳🤔🌍
>PR: findingnature.org.uk/2025/10/24/g...
>​Paper: ​Green pathways to mental health: Relationships between treescapes and well-being and distress
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

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Nov 6, 2025 @ 1700 in London / Midday EST

botany.fyi/diq8zn

Best time to join the growing ranks of #BSBImembers?
In October to get 15 months of benefits for price of 12: that's when 100s of people inc @markavery.bsky.social & @alunsalt.bsky.social joined!
2nd best time? In November, to enjoy 14 months of benefits: bsbipublicity.blogspot.com/2025/10/bsbi...

Horrifying Writing Prompts You inadvertently send your My Little Pony/The West Wing fan fiction to the New Yorker. If your reaction was a New Yorker cartoon, what would it lo...

"At a writing conference, you attend an 'Empowering Women Writers' discussion panel, but when you arrive, it is composed entirely of men. Describe, in detail, how you would burn this motherfucker down."

My first rainbow diffraction shot of the season can’t wait to see what happens next. Taken with the fab OM System 50-200 - f2.8 gives great background! @omsystem.bsky.social @rspb.bsky.social @bto-gbw.bsky.social @shropshirewildlife.bsky.social @bbcspringwatch.bsky.social

Great Tit coming into land

Great Tit arriving in style! 😍
Taken at the weekend at RSPB Greylake in Somerset. 😊🐦
#birds 🪶

You can buy my 2026 Birds calendars here;
www.carlbovis.com/2026-birds-c...

I'm trying to use Bluesky to sell tickets to my comedy special taping. Don't make me promote on Twitter. I'd rather have an empty house. But it'd be so much nicer if it were full.

Have you ever seen a wren have a bath? No? Nor had I till just now. Filmed through a rain-spotted window & on my phone, so not perfect, but hope it brings you a spot of delight nonetheless 🪶

Some excellent analysis from my colleague David Deans. If you want a hot take from me and other delirious colleagues this am, listen to #Walescast. And hopefully, for a slightly more considered take after the dust has settled, join me on Sunday for BBC #PoliticsWales 10am BBC One Wales + iPlayer

It’s a blow for Labour though. In the past people would acknowledge the Labour candidate was the worst, but vote for them anyway because they were Labour. This shows that that grip is being lost.

Not convinced the Caerffili result is as big a blow to Reform as people claiming. Next year the Senedd will vote for sixteen 6-seat constituencies using the D’Hondt method. If they can hold onto a good chunk of their current vote, they’re the leading opposition party.

The great thing about Muppet Christmas Carol is Caine plays it dead straight. There’s no wink, no tongue in cheek, he is the best Scrooge and that’s what makes the film so very, very good.

A fungus in striking red with yellow gills curling up at the fringe of the cap.

Visited the National Botanic Garden of Wales for a meeting tomorrow. Today had a behind the scenes tour, and a walk to see some fungi.

Sorry to hear this. I hope everything goes smoothly. It’s frustrating when you do so much to shield them from danger, that some things still get through.

Necessary work though. It’s well known Trump doesn’t have balls.

Could be a cunning way of reviving Trumpsteaks?

The full phrase being “One bad apple spoils the whole barrel.” so a comment on the rotten state of Reform as a whole?

I did. I’m a member now.

Note to self, get my BSBI membership sorted out.

What an admirably clear statement from the Jewish Leadership Council, especially when all of those involved must surely have been dealing with so many other urgent challenges in safety, security and grief + shock today before having this further divisive and distracting intervention to address too.

There is the belief that Jenrick / Badenoch happened last time because Jim Dim’s supporters miscalculated the support for the candidates and voted tactically. It’s a possibility that a Jenrick-led coup could cleverly put someone else in charge.

Though that might accelerate defections to Reform.

a cartoon in which a scientist explains that Trump's brain is a dense vortex of narcissism, creating a black hole, and we are all trapped in the event horizon

Eight years ago, I published my grand unified theory as to why time itself is dilated and distorted under Trump's rule.

It's the best time to join! We have so much in the pipeline, and the plants are as incredible as always. Join annually and get 15 months for the price of 12!

California police stumped after trying to ticket driverless car for illegal U-turn San Bruno officers pull over Waymo but say a ticket wasn’t issued, as ‘citation books don’t have a box for “robot”’

I don't see what the problem is here. The police found a car out of control on the road without a driver. Why can't they impound it, and charge the company for relevant crimes?

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

From a poster called “just shower thoughts“ reading: when people talk about traveling to the past, they worry about radically, changing the present by doing something small, barely anyone in the present to really thinks that they can radically change the future by doing something small.

I may have found my defining quote.

Pair this with my pinned post and you will see what I mean!

This really needs to be vastly bigger news across they media, but it'll be ignored because "just Wales" of course.

Panel 1 The shallow end of a swimming pool. A swimmer says "I got tired of hearing About so-called 'Infinity pools', so I created a genuine one. This is my first length". "Good luck!" replies an onlooker standing by the steps. Panels 2-4 The onlooker waits for the swimmer to come back. Time passes. The sun sets and rises. the onlooker ages. Panel 5 "Impressive." says the onlooker, now old and walking with a stick.

A recent cartoon for @newscientist.com

p.s. my new book of science cartoons 'Physics for Cats' is out now. Visit www.tomgauld.com for details

Former Reform leader in Wales admits bribery charges over pro-Russian statements The former leader of Reform UK in Wales has pleaded guilty to bribery charges relating to statements in favour of Russia in the European Parliament. On Friday, Nathan Gill, 52, of Anglesey, North Wale...

The former leader of Reform UK in Wales has pleaded guilty to bribery charges relating to statements in favour of Russia in the European Parliament

It’s important to realize how many men grow up thinking that having ‘the pleading eyes of a girl looking up for protection’ makes them more of a man, without questioning why the bolstering of their self-esteem demands someone else’s distress.

Thousands of students report sexual violence at university Women and LGBT students were more likely to report incidents than their male and heterosexual counterparts.

Over 25 years ago I started lobbying, with colleagues, to get unis to take sexual violence seriously. Repeatedly institutions and research councils ignored, downplayed, or argued it 'wasn't a priority'. It always has been. The latest data shows action is STILL needed www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...