Author | Lightnews

Anna Starkey @imaginaryastronaut.xyz · 8d

A big thank you to Hannah, the artist we commissioned to paint this, and did such a beautiful job - check out her insta www.instagram.com/paperwallssi...

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Anna Starkey @imaginaryastronaut.xyz · 8d

Feeling despair about all the shit going on in the world lately and particularly in response to all the flags near us, we decided to paint hope all over our house.

It’s so lovely to come home to and also to hear kids chanting ‘hope’ as they go past on the way to school.

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Anna Starkey @imaginaryastronaut.xyz · Aug 7

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….

DecodeME @decodemestudy.bsky.social · Aug 6

Our initial DNA results! DecodeME have discovered that people with an ME/CFS diagnosis have significant genetic differences compared to the general population.
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Summary of our results: shorturl.at/pgsjk
Check out our full preprint paper: shorturl.at/VwN3s

DecodeME: The Results announcement post. The graphic has a blue background with a DNA helix. In the centre of the graphic it says ‘We have released our initial DNA results! We have discovered that your genes contribute to your chances of developing ME/CFS.’ At the bottom left of the graphic is an image of a research paper.

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Reposted by Anna Starkey

Simon Clark @simonoxfphys.com · Jun 25

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...

Name our Storms

www.metoffice.gov.uk

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Anna Starkey @imaginaryastronaut.xyz · Jun 24

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

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Anna Starkey @imaginaryastronaut.xyz · Jun 24

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...

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 ...

petition.parliament.uk

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Anna Starkey @imaginaryastronaut.xyz · Jun 24

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.

Jolyon Maugham KC @goodlawproject.org · Jun 24

BREAKING: the EHRC has formally abandoned its contention that employers need to provide single sex toilets. goodlaw.social/4npg

EHRC formally abandons single-sex toilet stipulation | Good Law Project

The EHRC’s rushed guidance caused harm from the moment it was released. But now they’re u-turning.

goodlaw.social

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Anna Starkey @imaginaryastronaut.xyz · Jun 24

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)

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Anna Starkey @imaginaryastronaut.xyz · May 27

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

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Reposted by Anna Starkey

Helen Czerski @helenczerski.bsky.social · May 26

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 )

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Reposted by Anna Starkey

Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.bsky.social · Mar 1

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.

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Anna Starkey @imaginaryastronaut.xyz · May 23

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

Touretteshero @touretteshero.bsky.social · May 23

I’m profoundly sad to say that as of today, I’ll no longer be able to do my job as co-artistic director of #Touretteshero because of a recent decision by #AccessToWork to cut my support by 61%. Read & share this post, the hardest I've had to write: www.touretteshero.com/2025/05/23/a... 1/4

A photo of Jess Thom, a white, wheelchair using woman looking into the camera with a serious expression. She is wearing a blue and green hoodie, black padded gloves and is pictured in from of a brick wall

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Anna Starkey @imaginaryastronaut.xyz · May 16

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. ✨

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Anna Starkey @imaginaryastronaut.xyz · May 16

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!

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Anna Starkey @imaginaryastronaut.xyz · May 16

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!

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Reposted by Anna Starkey

ClareRed @clarered.bsky.social · May 13

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?

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Anna Starkey @imaginaryastronaut.xyz · May 9

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...

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 ...

emergencemagazine.org

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Anna Starkey @imaginaryastronaut.xyz · Apr 30

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!

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Anna Starkey @imaginaryastronaut.xyz · Apr 30

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?!

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Reposted by Anna Starkey

ClareRed @clarered.bsky.social · Apr 28

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

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Unlimited @weareunlimited.bsky.social · Apr 17

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

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.

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Nine Arches Press @ninearchespress.bsky.social · Apr 17

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...

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Anna Starkey @imaginaryastronaut.xyz · Apr 17

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👇

Good Law Project @goodlawproject.bsky.social · Apr 16

The Supreme Court ignored trans voices, harming trans people – and the fairness of its ruling.

I’m ashamed of what our law has become, says @jolyonmaugham.bsky.social 💬
goodlaw.social/83qa

The Supreme Court ignored trans voices. I’m ashamed of what our law has become | Good Law Project

The Supreme Court’s decision to exclude trans voices has harmed trans people – and harmed the fairness of their ruling.

goodlaw.social

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Deirdre Assenza @deirdreassenza.bsky.social · Apr 14

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

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

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Reposted by Anna Starkey

Alom Shaha @alomshaha.bsky.social · Apr 5

“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”

Jim Baggott @jimbaggott.bsky.social · Apr 5

Can’t argue with this. svpow.com/2025/04/04/t...

The Royal Society is dead

A few months ago, Dorothy Bishop resigned her fellowship in the Royal Society in protest at Elon Musk’s continuing fellowship. This was a highly principled stand. Eight weeks ago, Steven Curr…

svpow.com

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