Anna Wood

@annakwood.bsky.social

Physicist, education researcher, gardener, bird watcher/photographer, chronic illness/ME

@theguardian.comReposted by @annakwood.bsky.social

ā€˜Shocking and soberingā€™: UK bird populations fall to lowest level on record

theguardian.comā€˜Shocking and soberingā€™: UK bird populations fall to lowest level on recordNearly half of species are in decline, with farmland birds and seabirds the worst hit, conservation bodies have said Wild bird populations in the UK have fallen to their lowest level since records began, figures show, with nearly half of species in decline. Figures produced by leading nature conservation bodies for the government show that average populations across 132 native breeding species fell by 19% between 1970 and 2025, with farmland birds and seabirds the worst hit in recent years. Continue reading...
@yairwallach.bsky.socialReposted by @annakwood.bsky.social

There are at least two international experts I know - both fierce critics of Israel's destruction campaign of Gaza - who believe the ICJ will not find Israel guilty of genocide, due to the highly conservative approach of the court. This is a real possibility, that should be considered.

@annakwood.bsky.social

That's definitely a good point - I just don't think it was the experience of anyone I knew in my day. No-one missed lectures or has duvet days or slept through their alarm

@fionaswriting.bsky.socialReposted by @annakwood.bsky.social

Thanks to everyone who watched my performance of The Secret Of The Poets at the Edinburgh Book Festival at the @iamloudpro.bsky.social Grand Slam! I'm still reading through comments ā¤ļø

Here's the text version, which you can also find on my poetry site. I'll post a video soon about why I wrote this ā¤ļø

The Secret of the poets by Fiona Robertson I wrote my wedding vows with ChatGPT. Iā€™m no good at words. It does it better than me. I typed out some facts and asked AI to write my mother's eulogy. I know, I know, her final goodbye summed up by machine. But I'm not a poet. Words don't come easy to me, you see. My friendā€™s kid died and I didnā€™t know what to say so I asked Claude and straight away I had something to text him and he thumbs-upped the message so I think it was OK. I asked it to write a Valentine. My best man speech. My marriage counselling homework. My suicide note. Iā€™m not a poet. I donā€™t know what to say. Let me tell you the secret of the poets: Nobody ever knows what to say. There are no words to mend a shattered heart. No verse can make someone fall in love. No poem can ease the ache of loss. No-one can speak the depth of gratitude or trust or pain. Nobody ever knows what to say. Not even us. Generative AI will give you an answer but it will be a lie, because all these words have ever been are stand-ins for ā€˜I cared enough to tryā€™. https://linktr.ee/FionaRobertson
@annakwood.bsky.social

Yes, but the people in my study are (supposedly) all healthy, so it seems abnormal to me. I agree, with ME it's a different story, very impressive when people do uni with it

@annakwood.bsky.social

Thoughts please? If you went to uni was it normal to be tired so much that you missed lectures? Especially in first year? I had pre ME but never missed anything and kept up with the work. Quite a few of the students on my project are reporting tiredness and needing extra sleep

@annakwood.bsky.social

In my current project I've asked first year University maths and physics students to write a diary once and week, and I just feel so privileged that they are sharing their thoughts with me - their struggles, their neuro divergence, their worries, everything.

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