iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Once again, deaf ears welcome the proposal from Earth Sciences to end term with subduction week.

Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

The myth of Thatcher nursing the "sick man of Europe" back to fiscal health is an illusion based on North Sea tax receipts. Austerity coincided with the loss of that income.

Plot of UK tax receipts from oil and gas production 1970 to 2020.

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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

If only we included geology and archaeology in the UK school curriculum. 🧪⚒️ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doggerl...

en.wikipedia.org

Doggerland - Wikipedia

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Reposted by Prof Col Macpherson

Steve Brusatte @stevebrusatte.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

🚨Postdoc job alert: Come work with my paleontology & evolution group in Edinburgh! Researcher in Cognitive Evolution Over Deep Time. You'll study how brains & neurons have evolved over time, and predict neuron count in extinct species! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DTC355/p...

jobs.ac.uk

Postdoctoral Research Associate in Cognitive Evolution over Deep Time at The University of Edinburgh

Apply for the Postdoctoral Research Associate in Cognitive Evolution over Deep Time role on jobs.ac.uk, the top job board for academic positions in higher education. View details and apply now.

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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I mean ... that's pretty much what it looks like!

Google Earth image of Nebraska Sandhills

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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Hitchcock remake ... The Birrrrr-Birrrrrds

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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Still remember standing in that exact spot a few weeks into my degree. Utterly transformed my way of thinking about time and the rock record. Genuinely awe inspiring place.

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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

10 points off Everton is the only sane course of acton.

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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Repost with an image of your favourite James Bond (wrong answers only)

Rab C. Nesbit - a dishevelled, unshaven, white man wearing a torn black jacket over a string vest with a dirty headband in greasy hair, pointing at the observer.

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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

No, but it is pretty conventional is most racket sports.

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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

This is the equivalent of the orchestra tuning up before your knees embark on a full performance of the 1812 Overture.

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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

The Rolling Stones were not sufficiently reticent about the availability of things I want.

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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

No question it's a great shot but 21-18, 21-15 is the end of the match. Hence the handshake, no?

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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

... where the wind comes sweeping off the sea, and the waves do beat on the sandy streets, when the brine blows right across the plain.

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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Better still - use the fact that it gives them access to the Hugoton gas field, one of the world's major helium sources, thus allowing them to keep their party balloons aloft.

Map of western Oklahoma showing the states surrounding the panhandle, plus the extent of the Hugoton Gas Field.

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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Geochemical prospecting for beskar. This was actually the topic of the class paper I set last year for @durhamearthsci.bsky.social second year igneous geochemistry students. ⚒️🌋🧪

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Reposted by Prof Col Macpherson

Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Geologist here. What a lot of nonsense. Everyone knows Edinburgh is built of Muesleith.

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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Geologist here. What a lot of nonsense. Everyone knows Edinburgh is built of Muesleith.

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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I’ve seen this view in person. It is probably the most incredible spot to which I have been. 🌋

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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Hell pigs gathered in their masses, They were bona fide bad asses, Omnivorous mass destruction, And Oligocene predation, Oh lord yeah! 🤘

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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Lucky enough earlier this week to get excellent view of the 2023-25 lava flows around the town of Grindavík (middle on coast), Blue Lagoon Resort and neighbouring geothermal plant (inland, middle-left) on the Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland. 🌋⚒️🧪

View of Reykjanes Peninsula from aircraft showing the town of Grindavík surrounded by tongues of black lava flows

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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Medical version of "The Gas Man Cometh"

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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

That's just a furby with a modem stuffed up its jacksie

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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Setting the following as homework for this thread: www.moonflowerbooks.co.uk/pagans

moonflowerbooks.co.uk

Pagans — Moonflower Books

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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Damn! Have only just clocked that it is Wardie playing fields. As a Broughton pupil (many years ago) I played countless rugby matches on the exact strip of land in the photo. Feeling dirty now! 😬

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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Looks like the set for a new Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton series.

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Reposted by Prof Col Macpherson

Alice Roberts @profaliceroberts.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I’ve reached the point - well actually, I reached it a while ago - where I’m militantly anti-AI. Fine - use it in bioscience labs and radiology where it might help analyse data more effectively. Use it sparingly for systems engineering. Everywhere else, it can fuck off.

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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

He'd be a bloody bore about one lithology though

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Reposted by Prof Col Macpherson

Brandon Bishop @brandontbishop.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Our answer is the same as it's ever been in times of methodological crisis: EXPLAIN ROCK, LOOK AT ROCK, LOOK AT MORE ROCKS. Beware of those who claim you've seen enough rocks....

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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

"Maisie McAlpine, what I have told you is the first rule of hockey?!" "Keep my eye off the ball miss?" "Exactly!"

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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Without the horse and yacht you could squeeze another bedroom into that.

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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

To be fair you don't even have to enter a room in Whitby for that.

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