iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Simon Mudd @simonmariusmudd.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

On a different document in the consultation package they are proposing a path that is 3m wide across Roseburn Terrace Bridge. www.edinburgh.gov.uk/downloads/fi...

Design drawings for a new bridge at Roseburn Terrace with two tram tracks and an active travel path that is 4000 mm wide

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Simon Mudd @simonmariusmudd.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

It is fun when your code spits out something psychedelic

A red and blue bit of abstract art. You can vaguely make out something that looks like a channel network in the blues.

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Simon Mudd @simonmariusmudd.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

We know this will be upsetting to many colleagues, if you are struggling please see our Staff Wellbeing Sharepoint

A screengrab of Kier Starmer with the closed caption "there's a famous slogan in the United Kingdom"

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Simon Mudd @simonmariusmudd.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

Hey British academics! While we await the latest job cut email, lets look at our pension (or those of us in USS). The Financial Times had a nice plot about Local Government Pension Schemes. The worst one (by far) lost 18.3% for a yr to March 2023. Awful!! Lets have a look at the performance of USS 😱

Plot from the Financial Times (https://www.ft.com/content/87c321ab-e5ac-4a1d-a637-c1f7befcc1cb) showing performance of Local Government Pension schemes for the 12 months to March 2023. The worst performing scheme was a closed Environment Agency scheme that lost 18.3% The next worst lost 10%.

Image from the USS 2023 annual report (https://www.uss.co.uk/-/media/project/ussmainsite/files/about-us/report-and-accounts/uss-report-and-accounts-2023.pdf?rev=ad96ac2875264986bc7386ce1f82f108&hash=5A67B41B27A7B876F0BF0CF7A853FC0D). In the 12 months to March 31 2023, USS income builder (the defined benefit part of the scheme) lost 18%.

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Simon Mudd @simonmariusmudd.bsky.social · 01/01/2025

I'm quite pleased with this effort.

Image from the book Grove Karl Gilbert, A Great Engine of Research
By Stephen J. Pyne. Image shows an engraving of Gilbert working at Lake Bonneville in Utah. One can see the old lake bed as well as hills in the distance.

An oil painting of Lake Bonneville with hills in the background. Painting by Simon M Mudd. Hills and lake bed are in various yellow, red and brown hues, with a blue sky.

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Simon Mudd @simonmariusmudd.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

Enjoy some photos of Joshua Tree.

Split rock (a granite rock formation that has a large, uh, split rock) at Joshua Tree national Park.

Sunrise over rock formations at Joshua Tree

The face of the photographer in front of rock formations at Joshua tree

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Simon Mudd @simonmariusmudd.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

5 points to whomever can identify my current position.

A stunning bronze sculpture of a man holding a microphone and bagpipes. I cannot reveal the name of this person or it would make the quiz too easy

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Simon Mudd @simonmariusmudd.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

My river network template is working to my satisfaction. All you need is an @opentopography.bsky.social account and a web browser. You can scroll through the notebook to see how to update location, your name, comment, sizes, etc. Have fun! github.com/LSDtopotools...

Image of a river network surrounding the Dadu River, China. Image includes two basemaps. Image generated using a template written by Simon Mudd using lsdtopotools and lsdviztools.

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Simon Mudd @simonmariusmudd.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

I'm experimenting with an (almost) fully automated notebook for making channel network images.

A channel network map of mountains to the east of Taskhent. Includes a regional map and a globe to see where the site is.

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Simon Mudd @simonmariusmudd.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

If you are in the UK, you might have heard UK universities are in trouble, and are particularly sensitive to swings in international student numbers. How sensitive? Here is University of Edinburgh's numbers up to 31 July 2023 (the most recent numbers). Tuition fees make up ~40% of its income.

Table showing student figures for the University of Edinburgh based on domicile. There are 12905 Scottish students, 11245 English students, 9080 Chinese students, 3035 students from the USA, 990 from India, 755 from Canada, and between 545 and 200 for many other countries.

Tuition fee income from the University of Edinburgh for the year ending 31 July 2023. "home domicile" students (this means students from Scotland) brought in £27.5M. These students make up the largest number of students at the university. International students brought in £355M.

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Simon Mudd @simonmariusmudd.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

Can I highly recommend the Earth View extension if you use Chrome. You get a new satellite image every time you open a tab. Coastal geomorphologists: I challenge you to construct an environmental history from this (@61.784147,-80.118452, Nunavut, Canada).

Coastline in Nunavut, Canada. Multiple instances of sand spits and beach traces.

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Simon Mudd @simonmariusmudd.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

As of July 31st 2023 there was £456M in cash, and EBITDA of 10.7% (this was the headline in the 2023 annual statement). Looks like 2024 annual statement will also report a big surplus. www.docs.sasg.ed.ac.uk/GaSP/Governa... But a big drop in international students in 24/25 would be bad

Text from university court minutes: Lee Hamill, Director of Finance summarised key points from his report. In broad
terms, the financial position at Quarter 3 reflected that at Quarter 2. The University’s
reported surplus was expected to be substantial, due in large part to the
consequences for the University of the recent shift in the USS pension from deficit to
surplus, as a result of wider economic conditions. It was recognised that this created
a communications challenge, with publicly-reported headline figures expected to be
misaligned with the underlying financial position.
The size of the forecast shortfall against targeted EBITDA was discussed. It was
noted that, given the nature of University activity, the scope for in-year adjustments
to either income or expenditure was limited and that the planning and budgeting
process (as covered in Paper D2), along with longer-term structural changes, offered
much greater potential for re-balancing.

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Simon Mudd @simonmariusmudd.bsky.social · 13/11/2024

He looks like this (the image is a drawing, not a photo. I was not able to get a photograph of him).

A stunning photorealistic image, drawn in microsoft paint, of a man on a fast electric scooter, wearing a kilt over a cookie monster onesie. Based on a real-life person seen in Edinburgh this morning.

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Simon Mudd @simonmariusmudd.bsky.social · 11/11/2024

Light over Edinburgh is amazing right now. Everyone on the street is stopping to take photos.

Sunset in Edinburgh. Photo looking West to Edinburgh Castle. Clouds are a mixture of orange, pink and yellow. The scene would be stunning I the hands of a competent photographer, which I am not.

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Simon Mudd @simonmariusmudd.bsky.social · 02/11/2024

Hiking up hills in the highlands can be hard work but views like this make it all worthwhile.

A metal shed with grafitti in thick fog at the top of a Scottish hill.

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Simon Mudd @simonmariusmudd.bsky.social · 24/10/2024

Northwest Slovenia, what a place. What a place to have wall-to-wall lidar

A hillshade image of Northwest Slovenia, derived from lidar data made available by the Slovenian government

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Simon Mudd @simonmariusmudd.bsky.social · 19/09/2024

Please enjoy some photos of the Lairig Ghru

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Simon Mudd @simonmariusmudd.bsky.social · 25/04/2024

Update on the state of academia in the UK, courtesy of Linkedin

Linkedin thinks people who are currently professors should switch careers to be a meeting and events porter

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Simon Mudd @simonmariusmudd.bsky.social · 19/03/2024

This stuff is called pepper dulse. Also known as "the truffle of the sea". Friends, it tastes **strongly** of truffle.

Pepper dulse (a purple seaweed). Very tasty if you like truffle

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Simon Mudd @simonmariusmudd.bsky.social · 19/03/2024

Please enjoy some Scottish hillwalking content. Goatfell, Arran

View from top of Goatfell. Other summits in clouds.

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Simon Mudd @simonmariusmudd.bsky.social · 11/12/2023

Right, I am doing my homework. This paper pubs.geoscienceworld.org/sepm/palaios... dated a bunch of shells on a beach in Uruguay and found a median age of >1500 years!

Pictures of loads of shells on a beach from the paper SERGIO MARTÍNEZ, ALEJANDRA ROJAS; MILLENIAL-SCALE TIME AVERAGING INFERRED BY DISCOLORED SHELLS IN BEACH DEATH ASSEMBLAGES. PALAIOS 2023;; 38 (7): 315–330. doi: https://doi.org/10.2110/palo.2022.043

Ages of the shells on a beach from SERGIO MARTÍNEZ, ALEJANDRA ROJAS; MILLENIAL-SCALE TIME AVERAGING INFERRED BY DISCOLORED SHELLS IN BEACH DEATH ASSEMBLAGES. PALAIOS 2023;; 38 (7): 315–330. doi: https://doi.org/10.2110/palo.2022.043 The median age on the active beach is 1500 years.

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Simon Mudd @simonmariusmudd.bsky.social · 11/12/2023

Hey marine biologists! When you go to the beach and see a bunch of shells, are those from last year, the last 10 years, the last 100 years? One frequently finds oyster shells near Edinburgh, yet living oysters are meant to be extremely rare here. (Yes I know there are no oyster shells in the photo).

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Simon Mudd @simonmariusmudd.bsky.social · 06/11/2023

Views from the tops of the Scottish hills significantly improved compared to last weekend. My camera is a bit crap so you can't really tell, but the views of a shimmering Loch Lomond in low-angle autumn light were exceptional.

View from the approach to Ben Lomond, looking north.

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Simon Mudd @simonmariusmudd.bsky.social · 30/10/2023

It was actually very nice last weekend but I was running a field course...I nearly managed a nap in the heather while our students diligently took measurements.

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Simon Mudd @simonmariusmudd.bsky.social · 30/10/2023

The summit of Schiehallion is reputed to have some of the finest views in Scotland, but I will never know as I am unwilling to navigate the 1 km blockfield again. It was *extremely* windy. I might be getting soft since there was a punter at the top in shorts, who didn't seem that bothered.

My wet face and clouds from the top of Schiehallion

Summit of Schiehallion. All you can see is fog.

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Simon Mudd @simonmariusmudd.bsky.social · 26/10/2023

The results are in this discussion paper. We are quite pleased with this approach (reviewers' opinions TBA) egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/20...

Granite and quartzite rounding as a function of distance in two rivers in Nepal. Granite rounds much faster!

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Simon Mudd @simonmariusmudd.bsky.social · 26/10/2023

Hello people interested in pebbles. Prakash Pokhrel identified some outcrops of granite and quartzite that only appeared in headwaters of two catchments in Nepal. He then went far downstream looking for pebbles of these rocks, to see how much they rounded.

Map of two catchments in Nepal where a certain rock unit (one Quartzite, one Granite) only appear in the headwaters.

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Simon Mudd @simonmariusmudd.bsky.social · 24/10/2023

Some highlights from my recent trip to China. There is still some way to go before the Honda Jazz dominates the car market. Mikael "I do not want to join another social media site" Attal for scale.

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Simon Mudd @simonmariusmudd.bsky.social · 19/10/2023

I love a dog scale. From esurf.copernicus.org/articles/11/...

A dog on a rock from a figure in a scientific paper.

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Simon Mudd @simonmariusmudd.bsky.social · 20/09/2023

Want to make a river network map like the ones you sometimes see on social media? Here is how to do it in google colab using lsdtopotools: github.com/LSDtopotools...

A river network image of Gran Canaria. Made with lsdtopotools in a web browser.

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Simon Mudd @simonmariusmudd.bsky.social · 14/09/2023

As a test of how well I can crowdsource information here: is this a cowberry or a cranberry, or something poisonous? Found in the Scottish Highlands at ~600m elevation.

Some red berries that I want to identify

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Simon Mudd @simonmariusmudd.bsky.social · 14/09/2023

I have decided my first contribution to this website will be a picture of a frog.

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