Want to join our panel @eccb26leiden.bsky.social on "Conservation Histories and Humanities: Understanding the Present, Unearthing the Past"? We are looking for presentations exploring the histories of conservation. Email me ([email protected]) with an abstract by 9th Feb.

Friday #morningread 🦌

Thursday #morningread Two Matins by Louise Glück

Wednesday #morningread🌲

somebody at UChicago is feeding preprints to LLMs without authors' consent, in a research study they have the gall to suggest to authors they've opted-in that they volunteer to evaluate the LLMs' suggestions regarding their own work. lol, lmao even. here is the invite and my reply

Liberal England: Pedestrian deaths are increasing because of the rise of SUVs "While SUVs are 44 per cent more likely to kill an adult pedestrian or cyclist in a crash compared with an ordinary 'sedan', for children the figure is a shocking 82 per cent." liberalengland.blogspot.com/2026/01/pede...

Happy new year, all! Can anyone recommend good critical sources on redacted names/ blanks/ initialism in C18th lit? I'm looking for something about the various purposes of the practice, whether for real names or fictional, and my context is popular fiction in 1790s. TIA! #skystorians #c18th

Honestly, I now look back fondly on the days of trying to decipher handwritten exam scripts. At least you knew that you were engaging with the product of a human mind, rather than something generated by a gargantuan autocomplete designed by megalomaniacs.

Just wasted 15 minutes of my life trying to find a book that seems not to exist, in all likelihood because its title was created by Gen AI. Ironic applause for all the tech geniuses and their collaborators for imposing these bullshit engines on us -- and expecting us to be thankful!

Saw nearly 50 mandarins. One was peculiarly handsome.

Bohemian #waxwings at Beihai Park, Beijing.

Saw first Bohemian waxwings of my life & the new year. More than 200 of them greeted me at Beihai Park, Beijing. The sound was superlunary and mesmerising, like silver bell 🔔.

this is painful, but i think important, to read.

Monday #afternoonread #JohnClare

Hurrah - it's the first #wildflowerhour of 2026! Happy new year, everyone! I've enjoyed a busy few days taking part in the #NewYearPlantHunt walking on each of the 4 days I recorded 39 different species in flower. Collage below of some of the yellow flowers seen for maximum cheer. ☀️ #thewinter10

Afternoon birdwatching at the relics of Yuan Dynasty City Walls, Beijing. Spotted one little grebe diving under Tucheng River. Two lifers: white-cheeked starling and Naumann’s thrush. Also saw loads of light-vented bulbuls, long-tailed tits, bramblings, mash tits, spotted doves, black birds…

Just connected to this world… unstable e-vehicle

This is Richard Hughes’ introduction to Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, and it’s exactly how I feel about AI. ‘If I could say in three pages what takes My Faulkner nearly three hundred there would obviously be no need for the book’.

Sunday #morningread

This is, to put it mildly, a niche question -- but, does anyone know if the Victorian writer Richard Jefferies had read Kant and/or Schopenhauer? @rjaward.bsky.social @rjmuseum.bsky.social @lordbonkers.bsky.social

Not sure why this dross, dated Dec 1, seems to be circulating now (and why it didn't cross my feed a month ago), but wow what a terrible essay. A few comments, in a short 🧵>> bigthink.com/the-present/...

Saturday #morningread

Heads-up for #crossword types (and the crossword-adjacent). I'll be relaunching this in 2026, so maybe start thinking ahead: these make fantastic birthday, anniversary or new-baby gifts. Feedback on my Christmas puzzles included "awesome", "fantastic" and (my favourite) "you're so clever".

just so it's clear: this is the exact core function of genAI Fascist government and climate deniers love it because it can produce the aesthetics of knowledge without any actual tendency towards truth. It is automated denialism. Shame on every climate scientist promoting its use (there are lots)

Who needs fireworks, eh! Much better. I got this footage standing on top of the bench in the back garden in Filton a short while ago. I nearly lent back too far! @bristolbirding.bsky.social

Long-eared Owl asleep in the deep undergrowth. On the Nene Washes this afternoon #UKBirding #ukwildlife #birds

Bugger. #ClimateChange #WarmingWinters www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Friday #morningread #JohnClare

Now in Temple of the Earth, Beijing A gross of yellow-billed grosbeaks feeding themselves around some ancient trees

For millions of overtired parents, especially of small babies and/or neurodivergent ones, every fireworks night is a night of unnecessary, completely preventable, stress and psychological violence. Ban the sale of fireworks to the public, now. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/73...

Good #UKbirding start to the year at Filey Brigg before moving on to the Lower Derwent Valley. C.60 species. Dipped on the WT eagle but otherwise a good haul, including black redstart (UK lifer), corn buntings, GN divers, purple sandpipers, spotted redshank, tundra bean geese, and whooper swans.

Heartily recommend this excellent book of essays for anyone interested in conservation and/or nature writing. (On sale still in Jan.)

Thursday #morningread First day of the new year 🪶

First sunrise of 2026! Happy New Year! 🌅（元旦快乐!）

Happy new year!

Sent! Well done! And sleep is unnecessary for survival on this planet.

Is the ambiguous syntax important? To analyse a poem as a poet or a lit-critic? Word choice or theory?

Another NYE, another night of terror for millions of birds across the Netherlands (and around the world). Last year we published in @ecologicalsociety.bsky.social Frontiers 🧪 about the massive impact of fireworks on birds 🦅. Paper: doi.org/10.1002/fee.... Thread below 🧵👇

Found out the last surprise (nearly?) of 2025 in my writing...

Wednesday #morningread Bye 2025!

Went looking for a no show Drake Smew at Broadwood Loch, Cumbernauld today, but found a cracking late year tick Eurasian Bittern instead! Showed well for at least two hours. Footage at about 250m & cropped! 😎 #Birds #UKbirding 🦉🪶

Looking for someone new to follow in the New Year? Jane @clothofnature.bsky.social's feed is full to the brim with nature, art, beauty, joy, and hope. Worth a look... #art #nature #NatureArt #wildflowers #butterflies

My spiritual project in 2025: solar plexus chakra 💛. Next year? Crown 🤍.

Q: How can you keep protecting it (e.g. dream)? A: Because it protects me. (so true.)

@nature.com continues proudly acting as a propaganda outlet for GenAI.

Always a joy to hear a Dipper singing on a winter's day, the river hasn't frozen just yet... ❄️❄️❄️🪶 #highlandbirds

Finished my first cup of coffee after two decades perhaps… with Dad(am catching a ddl). No allergy symptoms till now. Another spooky/mystical story: my palm lines are inherited from Dad.

Tuesday #morningread 🌼