Danielle Clode

#writing Was asked to contribute 100 words for an opinion piece. Noticed that most contributors stuck to the word count but several went way over. So is that just arrogant, lazy or plain rude?

Seven emails this morning and five of them are from AI scammers. Don't even need to open them anymore - yet the spam filter can't tell. Gee this tech is just so brlliant isn't it? What would we do without it? #AIscam

Measles causes scarring, blindness, brain damage and death and is on the rise in Australia. If you were born here before 1994 you need a second booster unless you have already had #measles. Go talk to your GP about whether you need to be tested for immunity or need a second #vax.

Unexpected start to the day when we found this little #joey tangled by her foot in a fence. Popped her in a pouch made out of an old jumper. The #wildlifecarer took her to the vet and there was no major damage. Fingers crossed. 🫰 Happy she's in good hands. #Australianwildlife #kangaroos

What plans/processes does your local council/land authorities have in place to collect dead birds quickly to slow the spread of H5 bird flu? And if they can't or don't, what should we do? Avoid, Record, Report only works if it's follwed up by a quick RESPONSE. #birdflu #lga

Wildlife, wildlife carers, wildlife rescuers, wildlife researchers, wildlife disease experts, veterinarians...all need far greater support than governments are currently providing during this difficult, dangerous and devastating time. au.news.yahoo.com/grim-beachsi... @michaeldahlstrom.bsky.social

So looking forward to this! If you're attending I'll have books available to purchase AND you can come ask me all your academic/popular science writing questions! See you there! #AMSABS #auswildlife

Join me on July 9 for a conversation with KI echidna expert Peggy Rismiller, chaired by monotreme biologist Frank Grutzner. In person and online! Book here for details. #nonfiction #auswildlife #naturewriting. Signed books available to purchase events.humanitix.com/rssa-july-20...

Yet MORE evidence that dingoes ARE dingoes, NOT 'wild dogs'. Time to stop the disinformation? "Our tests of over 300 free-roaming canines around Australia shows most carry overwhelmingly dingo ancestry. On average...88.3% dingo and just 11.7% domestic dog." theconversation.com/new-dna-evid...

I don't often charge my car away from home but it was getting low when I went into town so I plugged in. Came back a few hours later to a fully charged car that cost $8.32 to fill. Not bad! #ev #electric #lovemycar

#nonfiction book review

Electric trucks, buses, cars, trains. C'mon what more encouragement do you need? Diversified renewable energy supply makes sense environmentally and economically.

The future is electric - by train, truck, bus or car. www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/economy... via @thesaturdaypaper.com.au

Echidna of the day (6) - Echidnas are surprisingly long lived for their size and adults tend to remain in the same fairly large area so this could well be the same one. They have really good memories too - maybe this one remembers seeing @katara27 before too?

Day 4 book countdown: Let's make this a book plus echidna post then. Because echidnas are great for any occasion! (Except maybe landscaping your garden). #TheEngmaticEchidnq out May 5.

Book countdown Day 3: Echidnas have an amazing capacity to survive fires, both by burying themselves underground and undergoing torpor for several days afterwards. They are often seen with burnt spines afterwards but these soon grow back. Resilient animals! #TheEnigmaticEchidna May 5

Book countdown Day 2- #Echidnas have such incredibly long and quick tongues but they are usually quite hard to see. Have to be quick - takes a lot of ants or termites to fill up an echidna! #thenigmaticechidna out May5 Thanks to @kk-maker.bsky.social for this post from Perth Zoo.

Book countdown day 1: Reposting #echidnas everyday the next month in the lead up to publication day on May 5. This one from the Dandenongs in Victoria under the towering Mountain Ash forests. Thanks for sharing @yungenchee.bsky.social #TheEnigmaticEchidna

Danielle Clode reviews ‘The Man Who Planted Canberra: Charles Weston and his three million trees’ by Robert Macklin with John Gray www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/c...

Fascinating discovery about the origins of the #pineal gland or "third eye" which all vertebrates have except hagfish. Central for regulating #sleep and circadian rhythms (jetlag anyone?) this fossil suggests it was once a pair of fully functioning #eyes, not just light sensitive tissue.

Missed US cultural references are probably more common than we think. I can't shake my image of a "sloppy joe" as a very daggy unwashed sweatshirt. #language #idioms

Something quite distressing about a new resident flying a huge Australian flag off their gatepost. Feels deeply divisive and disprespectful. But the big Q is - are they English or bogans?

Another #AI email this morning full of effusive praise for one of my books. What kind of sick criminal industry steals my work and income and uses it to try and scam me out of the money I don't earn using fake praise? #writingcommunity

Day off today. Converted the former TV nook into more shelving for the (now) craft room. Toss up between fabric storage and book stock - books won. Plus stuffed toys for school visits.

Reading Ruth Starke's thesis on the history of Adelaide Writers Week. #AWW What a cracker. Can we get this published by March?

Hsppy to see The Enigmatic Echidna featured in the Australian's Big Books of 2026. Out in May. #newbook #comingsoon #enigmaticechidna

So a Wikipedia entry (written by someone else who thinks you warrant one) is pretty cool. Not so sure about a Grokopedia entry. Even I wouldn't write that much about myself (although I guess I did at some point). Needs a good edit for repetion and hallucination.

Happy place! Was gifted a kayak/paddleboard by a friend. Just perfect for tootling around on the dam.

No surprises here.

More countries should criminalise colonisation - historic and current - including Australia. This is not just a historic issue. Failure to accept that #colonisation was a crime, enables the same crimes to be justified today - as the invasions in western Europe and the middle east demonstrate.

Haven't been able to set the old google sites as default on the phone but happily this is a great #AI-free #browser version works well. udm14.com: An easy-to-use shortcut for an AI-free Google search. udm14.com

Fantastic news.

This is a rapidly escalating nightmare. We don't need this and don't want it.

What we really need to be focussing in.

30 day books-by-women challenge! Choose 30 books, one per day, no particular order, that you’ve read that were written by women. #BookSky #BookChallenge #ReadingWomen 💙📚 14/30

The berries are on! (And it's starting to heat up) #vegiegarden #australiansummer #australianxmas

30 day books-by-women challenge! Choose 30 books, one per day, no particular order, that you’ve read that were written by women. #BookSky #BookChallenge #ReadingWomen 💙📚 12/30