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Richard Summerbell

@acremonium.bsky.social

1.9K followers 2.2K following 2.6K posts

Medical and environmental mycologist, mushroom identifier, bird watcher, philosopher of opportunity and choice, LGBT essayist, novelist and songwriter.

I don’t respond to DMs from new follows unless I already know you: no insta-DMers plz.

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Richard Summerbell @acremonium.bsky.social · Mar 5

Trump's threats to annex democratic countries even though their citizens do not vote for this move show that he has mentally abandoned democracy and thus severed his government from the Constitution. No American owes his government loyalty if he invades.
medium.com/@summerbelr/...

Reposted by Richard Summerbell

Clay Nobles

@claynobles.bsky.social

When I was younger, my mom would tell me not to use the R word to describe people who were mentally deficient or mentally challenged. I carefully monitored my language to not offend them.
But today, I catch myself using a new R
word to describe that condition. The word is Republican. Sorry Mom.

November 30, 2025 at 3:45 PM

Reposted by Richard Summerbell

@Swede1952

@swede1952.bsky.social

Tidal Ghost

I was out early on the beach in Gulfport, Mississippi, wrestling with the shifting light—sun and shade playing tug-of-war. ...

1/2

#photo #photography #photographer #photographylovers #wildlife #nature #bird #birds #birding #birdwatching #birdphotography #heron #egret #snowyegret

"A solitary snowy egret stands poised in a shallow tidal pool, its slender frame reflected with near-perfect clarity on the still surface below. The egret’s plumage is a luminous white, soft and layered like freshly combed silk, catching the light in delicate ripples across its body. Its neck curves in a gentle S-shape, leading to a sharp black beak that points downward with quiet intent.

The egret’s legs are long and black, ending in bright yellow feet that seem almost painted—like ceremonial slippers dipped in gold. These feet rest lightly on the water’s surface, barely disturbing the calm, as if the bird itself were a whisper in the landscape.

The background is softly blurred, a wash of muted tones—grays, browns, and hints of green—that make the egret’s whiteness even more striking. The water is glassy and still, mirroring the bird so precisely that the reflection feels like a twin, a ghostly echo beneath the real.

There is no movement, no splash—just the egret and its reflection, suspended in a moment of serene stillness. The image is signed “© Swede’s Photographs” in the bottom right corner, a quiet mark of authorship on this visual poem." - Microsoft Copilot

November 30, 2025 at 4:02 PM

Reposted by Richard Summerbell

klia 🌻

@klia.bsky.social

Introduce yourself with 5 concerts you've seen:

🇬🇧 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇮🇪 bands (okay, so I went over):
Queen (with Freddie)
ELP
U2
Big Country
Tears for Fears
Depeche Mode
Hothouse Flowers

🇦🇺🇳🇿 bands::
INXS
Midnight Oil
The Church
Crowded House/Finn Bros.
Icehouse

Richard Summerbell @acremonium.bsky.social · 12h

Introduce yourself with 5 concerts you've seen:
- April Wine
- George Harrison, Ravi Shankar & Billy Preston ("Dark Horse Tour")
- Led Zeppelin
- Gordon Lightfoot
- Biffy Clyro

Rachel Martin @racheljo.bsky.social · 1d

Introduce yourself with 5 concerts you've seen:
-KISS
-Bob Marley and the Wailers
-Parliament Funkadelic
-Indigo Girls
-Ozomatli

November 30, 2025 at 4:37 AM

Richard Summerbell

@acremonium.bsky.social

Introduce yourself with 5 concerts you've seen:
- April Wine
- George Harrison, Ravi Shankar & Billy Preston ("Dark Horse Tour")
- Led Zeppelin
- Gordon Lightfoot
- Biffy Clyro

Rachel Martin @racheljo.bsky.social · 1d

Introduce yourself with 5 concerts you've seen:
-KISS
-Bob Marley and the Wailers
-Parliament Funkadelic
-Indigo Girls
-Ozomatli

gwen howerton @kissphoria.bsky.social · 1d

Introduce yourself with 5 concerts you've seen:
-My Chemical Romance
-Beach House
-Vampire Weekend
-Turnstile
-Paul McCartney

November 30, 2025 at 3:29 AM

Reposted by Richard Summerbell

Tom Kindlon

@tomkindlon.bsky.social

From NCNED in Australia:

Altered brain tissue microstructure and neurochemical profiles in long COVID and recovered COVID-19 individuals: A multimodal MRI study

Free fulltext:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

#LongCovid #COVIDBrain #NeuroPASC

Abstract
Background
Diverse neurological symptoms are experienced by long COVID and COVID-19 recovered individuals. However, the long-term effects of SARS-CoV-2 in the brain of both groups are underexplored. This study aimed to investigate changes in tissue microstructural and brain neurochemical levels in long COVID and recovered COVID-19 patients compared to healthy controls.
Methods
We recruited 47 participants (long COVID = 19, COVID-recovered healthy controls = 12, and healthy controls without COVID-19 infection = 16) who underwent 3T MRI scans. We acquired T1 and T2 weighted images to assess myelin signal, diffusion weighted images to assess tissue microstructure, and magnetic resonance spectroscopy data to estimate brain neurochemical levels.
Findings
Our multimodal MRI study showed altered T1w/T2w signal between long COVID vs COVID-recovered-healthy controls, long COVID vs healthy controls, and COVID-recovered-healthy controls vs healthy controls. Furthermore, T1w/T2w signal intensity was significantly correlated with physical and cognitive function. Diffusion weighted imaging also showed altered tissue microstructure in these three group comparisons. However, brain neurochemicals were only significantly different between long COVID vs COVID-recovered-healthy controls.
Interpretation
This is one of the first studies to report different myelin signal and brain neurochemical changes between long COVID, COVID-recovered-healthy controls, and healthy controls without SARS-CoV-2 infection. These brain changes provide compelling evidence for the long-term effects of SARS-CoV-2 on brain function.

November 30, 2025 at 1:59 AM

Reposted by Richard Summerbell

Alison Stevens

@anstevens.bsky.social

Ooh I can do gannets! From RSPB Bempton Cliffs in May this year. Such gorgeous birds!! 🪶

A gannet with wings fully extended flying to the left over ocean

A gannet in flight against blue sky, wings crooked in wide v-shapes.

A gannet on a grassy cliff edge with a clump of grass in its beak

November 29, 2025 at 8:15 PM

Reposted by Richard Summerbell

Gabby

@scifigab.bsky.social

Dark-eyed Junco - "tiny flying penguin"

#birds #snow #wildlife #nature

November 29, 2025 at 8:14 PM

Richard Summerbell

@acremonium.bsky.social

#StillDoinCDs Anyone wanting a record that sounds snowy Christmassy with triangle tings & lofty high vocals but with zero Xmas content (many show tunes) should try this one, “I Am from Austria,” 2006, by the Wiener Sänger Knaben (Vienna Boys Choir), which I got after hearing them live in Vienna.

Five Austrian boys in the 10-12 age range, dressed in faux sailor uniforms with “Wiener Sängerknaben” (literally, “Vienna Singerboys”) in gold letters on the hatband of the sailor cap, pose in dramatic but friendly poses in front of a ferris wheel in a park.

Now the five boys look upward at this song list:

1. A Wonderful Day, Aus: The Roar Of The Greasepaint - The Smell Of The Crowd (1964) 2:45
2 Singin' In The Rain (1929) 2:56
3 Over The Rainbow, Aus Dem Film The Wizard Of Oz (1939) 3:24
4 Chim Chim Cher-Ee, Aus Dem Film Mary Poppins (1964) 1:59
5 Prepare Ye The Way Of The Lord, Aus Dem Musical Godspell (1971) 2:21
6 If I Were A Rich Man, Aus Dem Musical Fiddler On The Roof (1964) 4:25
7 Loreley (1837) 3:52
8 Heidenröslein (1829) 2:38
9 Wir Wollen Gemeinsam Singen (2003) 2:22
10 Sandmännchen (Die Blümelein, Sie Schlafen) WOO 31 Nr. 4 (1857/8) 3:47
11 Danny Boy (1910) 3:13
12 Morning Has Broken (1931) 3:16
13 I Am From Austria (1990).

November 30, 2025 at 2:28 AM

Richard Summerbell

@acremonium.bsky.social

#StillDoinCDs Şivan Perwer from Viranşehir, Türkiye, is a powerful singer of trad Kurdish songs & his own compositions. On 2003’s “Min bêriya te kiriye” (I Miss You), he sings about the Kurdish national situation & also does love songs. Long in exile, he returned in 2013.

Beside a busy street with cars & pedestrians, men gather to chat along a sidewalk in front of a 4-storey brick hotel that has an immense mural on one wall showing a man in traditional Kurdish dress posed in front of a mountain valley.

November 29, 2025 at 1:34 AM

Reposted by Richard Summerbell

Marga

@margasib.bsky.social

Eastern bluebird in the #morninglight

#birdphotography #wildlifephotography #BirdOfTheDay

November 28, 2025 at 11:57 AM

Reposted by Richard Summerbell

Tim White

@twmcltd.bsky.social

This is a 'new' story in the Telegraph - but it's not news.

For the 1st time the U.S. will formally recognise allied territory, illegally seized by force.
Actually Russia is now the ally of the US.

(estate) Agent Vitkov & nepo-baby Kushynumber are taking the good news to Putin

November 28, 2025 at 2:08 PM

Reposted by Richard Summerbell

Chris MacQuarrie

@cmacquar.bsky.social

What's the over-under on the reviews also being AI generated?

Erik Angner @erikangner.com · 2d

UPDATE: The publisher intends to retract the paper, but insists it went through two rounds of review from two independent peer reviewers: nobreakthroughs.substack.com/p/riding-the... by @jacksonwryan.com. No word on how they will make sure this sort of thing never happens again.

Riding the Autism Bicycle to Retraction Town

Does anyone *really* know their Factor Fexcectorn?

nobreakthroughs.substack.com

November 28, 2025 at 3:37 PM

Reposted by Richard Summerbell

Dr Robert Bohan

@robertbohan.bsky.social

Artists! So I’m going to repost people’s art & hopefully we can see what’s new & exciting in the artworld.

Put artist in your bio, have a pinned post with your art & how to buy it! See mine for an example*!

Reply under here >yes< so I can check out your work! The stuff I like, I will share!^

November 28, 2025 at 3:33 PM

Reposted by Richard Summerbell

Conrad Hackett

@conradhackett.bsky.social

There's a big divide in how Americans are thinking about vaccines:
♦️83% of Republicans don't want an updated COVID-19 vaccine.
🔷64% of Democrats want to get or have already received an updated vaccine.
www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/... 🧪

Chart showing A majority of U.S. adults (59%) say they don’t want to get an updated COVID-19 vaccine. This is roughly identical to the share who said in October 2024 that they probably wouldn’t get the updated vaccine.

In the new survey, 26% of Americans say they do want an updated vaccine. Another 13% say they already got one as of late October 2025.

An overwhelming majority of Republicans and Republican leaners (83%) say they don’t want an updated vaccine. In contrast, 44% of Democrats and Democratic leaners say they want an updated vaccine, and 20% say they already got one.

A quarter of Americans ages 65 and older say they already got an updated vaccine – larger than the shares in younger age groups. Older Americans are among the groups most at risk for severe illness from COVID-19.

Yet older Republicans and older Democrats have sharply different views on the vaccine. About four-in-ten Democrats ages 65 and older say they already got one, and 43% say they want to get one. But 76% of Republicans ages 65 and older say they don’t want an updated vaccine.

November 25, 2025 at 11:19 PM

Reposted by Richard Summerbell

Karl Morant 🇨🇦🍁

@kamorant.bsky.social

Keeping buying Canadian!

It's working, and here is the demonstable proof!

globalnews.ca/news/1154869...

Canada avoids recession as GDP climbs in the 3rd quarter - National | Globalnews.ca

The Canadian economy avoided a recession in the third quarter, according to Statistics Canada, which reported GDP for September was higher than the Bank of Canada expected.

globalnews.ca

November 28, 2025 at 3:12 PM

Reposted by Richard Summerbell

ᑕᕼᗴᖇYᒪ

@cheryl2877.bsky.social

#Pinks #ProudBlue

Thank you to our essential healthcare workers!

It’s crazy to watch healthcare workers go from “essential” in 2020 to “unprofessional” in 2025! And the professions are largely female!!

A list of degrees the Department of Education will classify and no longer consider professional degrees:

Nursing, Social Work,!Education, PA’s, Therapists, Public Health, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Audiology.

These are ALL largely female.

November 28, 2025 at 3:30 PM

Reposted by Richard Summerbell

Spudislander45 🇨🇦❤️🌎💪🫡

@spudislander45.bsky.social

Making an exception in the tenacity act to reflect the new model of housing development to address charities and supports for unhoused is distinctly what government is for.

When charities HOUSE CITIZENS, government should support it~ not make it harder.

GET TO IT! #NB #Liberals #12Neighbours

Tiny homes developer asks court for exemption from rules governing most N.B. landlords | CBC News

A charity that operates 96 tiny homes in Fredericton is asking a court to exempt it from the usual rules governing landlords in New Brunswick when it comes to issues such as evicting tenants.

www.cbc.ca

November 28, 2025 at 3:41 PM

Reposted by Richard Summerbell

Anna Gvarishvili

@annagvarish.bsky.social

The protest march is about to kick off from Tbilisi State University.

A year of uninterrupted #GeorgiaProtests!

November 28, 2025 at 3:28 PM

Richard Summerbell

@acremonium.bsky.social

"National data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that those with advanced degrees earn more and have lower unemployment rates than those with lower levels of education. That’s been true for years."

But what has shifted is the price of college ... doubled since 1995."

Eloise Powers @elnopower.bsky.social · 2d

Poll: In a dramatic shift, Americans no longer see four-year college degrees as worth the cost share.google/i7UX1pXbNwm0...

Poll: In a dramatic shift, Americans no longer see four-year college degrees as worth the cost

The latest NBC News poll shows two-thirds of registered voters down on the value proposition of a degree. A majority said degrees were worth the cost a dozen years ago.

share.google

November 28, 2025 at 3:53 PM

Reposted by Richard Summerbell

Tim White

@twmcltd.bsky.social

Good morning on Day 1374 of Ukraine's brave resistance against its bullying neighbour, although it's almost 12 years since Russia's initial invasion and breaking international law.

This is THE daily thread with all the news, all the time, in a handy thread, updated all day long.

November 28, 2025 at 5:53 AM

Reposted by Richard Summerbell

Dave Meredith

@davemeredith.bsky.social

Tree trunk shadows on snow for the #SensoryArt theme #lines

#PhotographersOfBluesky #EastCoastKin #PhotoHour #photography

November 28, 2025 at 11:44 AM

Richard Summerbell

@acremonium.bsky.social

#StillDoinCDs Sam Fender, from North Shields in NE England, has had a major hand in re-energizing rock music for the newer generations in the UK & Ireland. “Seventeen Going Under,” his platinum 2021 2nd album, features a hit title track about growing up through his mom’s financial problems at 17.