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Sari C. Cunningham

@saricunningham.bsky.social

530 followers 260 following 640 posts

Ecologist | Writer | Poet | Caregiver (Not in that order) | Conservation & narrative 🇺🇸 🇧🇪 🇸🇯 in 🇸🇯 Fondness for birds & islands. Words: The Island Review, The Curlew, Kyoto Journal, The Ginkgo Prize Anthology, Magma

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Sari C. Cunningham @saricunningham.bsky.social · Jul 13

I'm grateful that my poem, Japanese Knotweed, found the best possible of homes imaginable. It is now published in issue 92 of @magmapoetry.bsky.social, 'Ownership'. Thanks to the editors for selecting it. Your belief in it means a lot to me.

Magma Poetry @magmapoetry.bsky.social · Jun 30

Delighted to announce Magma 92 'Ownership' is now published and available to buy on our website.
Edited by @pimlottkathy.bsky.social Danne Jobin and Paul Stephenson.

#magma #poetry
#ownership #magma92
#poetrymagazine
#magmapoetry

Get your hands on a copy here: magmapoetry.com/archive/magm...

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Sari C. Cunningham @saricunningham.bsky.social · 18h

Well, this blew up. 😆

And also ... what? I was not aware that there was a difference in pronunciation.

I also used to pronounce "disembowel" weirdly, but that's a digression best saved for another day.

Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 1d

Here’s a primer on ‘primer.’

It’s pronounced ‘PRIMM-er’ if you mean “a small book” or “a short informative piece of writing.”

It’s pronounced ‘PRY-mer’ if you mean “an initial coat of paint.”

Sari C. Cunningham @saricunningham.bsky.social · 20h

Interesting. It is majuscule/minuscule in French.

Sari C. Cunningham @saricunningham.bsky.social · 21h

Soundscapes of extinction. Notes dissolving into nothingness.

Dr Alex Bond @thelabandfield.bsky.social · 1d

It's also not "just another" extinction, it's the first from mainland Europe in centuries. CENTURIES.

And there will be others within our lifetime.

That's biodiversity loss.

We'll never hear this sound, ever again xeno-canto.org/398794

XC398794 Slender-billed Curlew (Numenius tenuirostris)

Awful wind noise in the original! See sonogram and notes of the recording circumstances on p12 of Gretton A. (1991) The ecology and conservation of the Slender-billed Curlew (Numenius tenuirostris). ...

xeno-canto.org

Sari C. Cunningham @saricunningham.bsky.social · 21h

Well deserved.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Venezuelan politician María Corina Machado wins Nobel peace prize

Opponent of Maduro regime receives award and praise for keeping ‘flame of democracy burning’

www.theguardian.com

Sari C. Cunningham @saricunningham.bsky.social · 22h

Pap Finn in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Sari C. Cunningham @saricunningham.bsky.social · 23h

"While Europe has not been immune to the wave of bird extinctions that have swept the world since the 1500s, those such as the great auk and Canary Island oystercatcher were largely island species."

Reposted by Sari C. Cunningham

Dr Alex Bond @thelabandfield.bsky.social · 1d

Well, it's official. After our paper last year (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....), the Slender-billed Curlew is officially declared Extinct today.

Scientists dream of describing new species, not writing their obituary and epitaph, knowing that they are gone forever #ornithology

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Sari C. Cunningham @saricunningham.bsky.social · 1d

I'm sorry to hear it.

Sari C. Cunningham @saricunningham.bsky.social · 1d

"And?"

"Do we already know if he will receive the Nobel Peace Prize?"

De Standaard @standaard.be · 1d

#lectrr

Sari C. Cunningham @saricunningham.bsky.social · 1d

Intriguing research suggests that dopamine deficiency actually enhances memory retention and learning.

Brought to you by the elegance of C. elegans.

Prof Sam Illingworth @samillingworth.com · 1d

🧠 Dopamine and forgetting

A new study shows dopamine helps the brain forget old memories. Worms lacking dopamine held onto memories longer, suggesting forgetting is an active, dopamine-driven process.

🔗 doi.org/10.1111/jnc.70200

#SciComm 🧪 #Neuroscience #Memory

Dopaminergic Modulation of Short‐Term Associative Memory in Caenorhabditis elegans

Forgetting is a vital, active process that clears irrelevant memories and supports new learning. Using the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans, we investigated how dopamine, a key neurotransmitter,....

doi.org

Sari C. Cunningham @saricunningham.bsky.social · 1d

"The eyes have it," said the Speaker. Order! Order!

Reposted by Sari C. Cunningham

Dr Sjúrður Hammer @sjurdur.bsky.social · 1d

#Glasgow #streetart

A wall painting of a young guy taking a selfie while the world burns in his background

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Sari C. Cunningham @saricunningham.bsky.social · 1d

Oh, what times we live in. Are you in Glasgow now?

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Sari C. Cunningham @saricunningham.bsky.social · 1d

Great, now I have The Troggs grooving through my head. I only just managed to dislodge Glaswegian band TRIP (Blessed are the Meek).

Sari C. Cunningham @saricunningham.bsky.social · 1d

My mother wanted us to join the school band. So, when asked, I said tuba. Perhaps on a whim. The thought of a tuba at home was too much for her, I guess, as that was not the instrument I ended up with. What might have been!

What wild thing are you playing? (Please say 🛁🐑.) 😉

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Reposted by Sari C. Cunningham

Juno Rylee Schultz @junoryleejournalism.com · 2d

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems...
SIMON: What?
SHAPIRO: ...Or saying...
SIMON: You imagine that?
SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over.
SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level.
SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this.
SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.

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Sari C. Cunningham @saricunningham.bsky.social · 1d

I had not realized until today that the Kavringen Lighthouse in Oslo harbor contains a time capsule, from the citizens of Oslo in 2000 to the year 3000.

Interesting. I prefer the more manageable time scale of the Future Library, I think, but it's a nice idea nonetheless.

Sari C. Cunningham @saricunningham.bsky.social · 1d

I've come across some interesting caterpillars this week.

Ruby tiger / rustvingespinner / Phragmatobia fuliginosa

Pale tussock / bøkebørstespinner / Calliteara pudibunda

Pale tussock / bøkebørstespinner / Calliteara pudibunda

Reposted by Sari C. Cunningham

David Steel @steelyseabirder.bsky.social · 2d

Morning :) another glorious start to the day :)

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Reposted by Sari C. Cunningham

Sari C. Cunningham @saricunningham.bsky.social · 5d

My short nature piece, Kingfisher, will air on Argyll FM this Wed., Oct. 8, as part of the Kintyre Writers' Circle program (13:00 to 14:00, UK time). I am grateful that Elizabeth McTaggart asked me to contribute a piece, and that my friend @retractus.bsky.social recorded me. Tune in.

argyllfm.com