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Xylotheca

@xylotheca.bsky.social
92 followers 251 following 113 posts

Childless cat and pony lady. Plantaholic. Works in TB/HIV research. AnkSpond spoonie. 🇿🇦

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Xylotheca @xylotheca.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Another PhD here, and one stress dream theme is "whoops, your Bachelor's degree is somehow incomplete, go back and do it again!" 😬
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Xylotheca @xylotheca.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I took up a postdoctoral fellowship with a Prof. I'd never met on the basis that his profile pic was him holding a giant cat and he must therefore be a good dude. I was right 🐱
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🕸️ @holojester.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
oh behave
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Xylotheca @xylotheca.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
I have the panda one! 😁
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Anthony's Spinning Circles here too! @circlesspinning.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Hope you’re enjoying your #Caturday
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Chronic Illness Humor @chronicillness.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
panulyx on tumblr

Jan 4

Too much movement makes your joints hurt and too little movement also makes your joints hurt. This would imply that there's an optimal amount of movement that allows your joints to not hurt. This is a lie.
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Xylotheca @xylotheca.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
I discovered that a particular seed was still capable of germinating after being dried for 48h at 80°C. Theoretically, there shouldn't have been enough water left in it to germinate, but I reckoned they displayed weird enough behaviour to try 🌱
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Xylotheca @xylotheca.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Sorry, can't - there's a cat on me #Caturday
A ginger and white cat snuggling on a green and white striped blanket over a person's legs
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Xylotheca @xylotheca.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
This was my PhD advisor. Only flew on the same plane as her once but it landed into the face of a "Cape of Storms" storm. Water was running under the cockpit door and down the aisle. I was white-knuckling it 😬
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Xylotheca @xylotheca.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
My dining chairs were made some time between 1921 and 1940 in my home town (though I bought them in a city ~3000km away)
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Xylotheca @xylotheca.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
Pillory?!
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The Daily Tism @thedailytism.com · 08/06/2026
Megan Aldrich, 30, works full time in an attempt to avoid starving to death, but is forced to choose between showing up to work and being the sort of person who doesn’t cry in the shower.
thedailytism.com
Autistic woman can have work or dignity but not both
An autistic woman whose government is desperate for her to experience the "dignity of work" cannot experience "dignity" and "work" at the same time, it has been claimed. Megan Aldrich, 30, works full…
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Xylotheca @xylotheca.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Complaining about the university's latest M&E data gathering? Submitting a grant 5 minutes before deadline? Has permanently "professorial" hair?
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Mike Boylan-Kolchin @mbkplus.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
"AI is operating at a PhD level" oh, so it's replying 'sorry for the late response' to every email and complaining about its labor conditions?
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Xylotheca @xylotheca.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Submitted a grant application 9 minutes before deadline. Let's never do that again. Narrator: they would definitely do it again
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Xylotheca @xylotheca.bsky.social · 24/05/2026
*raises hand* fynbos is a dead giveaway. I've also just seen an old episode of ER where Highveld is standing in for Darfur. There's also a Welwitschia in a scene in Minority Report!
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Xylotheca @xylotheca.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
My dinner time has become "any time after 5pm" because that's when the cat starts staring me down for his, and I might as well join him 🤷🏼‍♀️🐱
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Xylotheca @xylotheca.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
May I present: www.news.uct.ac.za/article/-201...
news.uct.ac.za
World-first: Bio-bricks from urine
A UCT master’s student in civil engineering has unveiled the world’s first bio-brick grown from human urine, signalling an innovative paradigm shift in waste recovery.
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Xylotheca @xylotheca.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
Boo #caturday
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Estaleto @estaleto.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
It's a good read. www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026...
dailymaverick.co.za
How an SA team of scientists hunted a rare hantavirus strain
South African medical scientists have once again done the country proud by working fast to discover the cause of death and illness on a stricken cruise ship.
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Estaleto @estaleto.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Meanwhile South Africa not only identified the virus and strain, the NICD lab in Johannesburg has already sequenced it. And the hantavirus isn't even endemic to SA. Shithole country 1 - 0 Fascist clown state 🤡
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Xylotheca @xylotheca.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Gait analysis dude: "well, it's...not the worst I've ever seen." Guess that means a B though 😆
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Xylotheca @xylotheca.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
Purulent Discharge
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Xylotheca @xylotheca.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
Well this was a good time to take a strong painkiller 🫤
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Merrymac Farm Sanctuary @merrymacsanctuary.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
Do horses want cake? We conducted an investigation into statements published by @bencollins.bsky.social in the print edition of @theonion.com.
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Xylotheca @xylotheca.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
"Easter eggs are not for cats!"
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Xylotheca @xylotheca.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
Pleased to report that Fat Pony and her friends are regularly served special cake on their birthdays and other occasions
A platter of "cake" made of oats and agar, with small carrot "candles" stick in it. This was apparently very palatable and the horses enthusiastically devoured it
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Xylotheca @xylotheca.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Words to live by
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Xylotheca @xylotheca.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
Worked my entire life in academia of one sort or another and "dress code" was mentioned twice, maybe? The most memorable occasion was when (male) field ecologists were reminded to "please wear shoes when in the building" 😂
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Cats with Jobs ⚒️ @catworkers.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
He got a job as a mousepad.
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Xylotheca @xylotheca.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
Just had to explain to two professors how to *checks notes*... scroll through a PDF #FML
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Xylotheca @xylotheca.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
Had a particularly niche nightmare last night in which I was somehow involved in accidentally breaking embargo on a (real) paper to be published this Tuesday
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The Daily Tism @thedailytism.com · 19/03/2026
Navya Randhawa, 48, told reporters that she hadn’t intended on wasting the session, and was less interested in making a political statement than she was getting that thing on her arm looked at. Read this and other exclusive articles on Patreon: www.patreon.com/posts/chroni...
A news headline reads: "Chronically ill autistic woman asked to list medical history accidentally filibusters entire GP appointment". Underneath there is a stock image of a female doctor wearing a white coat and a stethoscope, writing notes and smiling as her patient tells her about her symptoms.
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Xylotheca @xylotheca.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
I'm on the research management side, but I *will* give a short talk on the importance of a new TB vaccine to anyone.... Even my cat's vet's receptionist 😬
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Xylotheca @xylotheca.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
I'm on the research management side, but I *will* give a short talk on the importance of a new TB vaccine to anyone.... Even my cat's vet's receptionist 😬
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tomate 🍅 @jascha.ohai.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/03/2026
When someone says „Scientists do not want you to know“ you can dismiss everything from there on. Scientists want you to know. They are desperate that you know. They can’t shut up about what they found out and want you to know.
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Xylotheca @xylotheca.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
So bad, even the introverts are here #EndUCTUnfairness Do you value my labour now?
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Xylotheca @xylotheca.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
On the plus side, chloroquine has halved my CRP concentration. On the minus side, I feel like death warmed over 🤷🏻‍♂️
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Xylotheca @xylotheca.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
"Bunny Chow"
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Xylotheca @xylotheca.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
"our grant number is [XYZ]; please acknowledge the grant in the funding section of your paper"
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Miss Havishambles @misshavishambles.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
My extreme sport is typing without glasses
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Nicole Chung @nicolechung.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
this is basically who you are asking to make a slide deck
sleepy golden retriever bundled up in a grey blanket with only her head visible
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Sean T. Collins @seantcollins.com · 25/01/2026
"I am a children's entertainer who specializes in face painting," writes a woman now in hiding from the federal government for witnessing a state-sanctioned street execution
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Brian Bilston @brianbilston.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
Here’s a short poem about the power of poetry to change the world.
The Power of Poetry
 
with things falling apart
and anarchy let loose,
 
it was only poetry, he found,
which had any use,
 
so he reached for his copy  
of The Complete Works of Yeats
 
and bludgeoned the President
of the United States


Brian Bilston
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Alt USAID/ USAID Forever @altusaid.altgov.info · 18/01/2026
"Ultimately, the project secured funding from the South African Medical Research Council and the Gates Foundation. It's about a twentieth of the original USAID grant and none of it is from the U.S. government."
npr.org
The near death -- and last-minute reprieve -- of a trial for an HIV vaccine
A trial was about to launch for a vaccine that would ward off the HIV virus. It would be an incredible breakthrough. Then it looked as if it would be over before it started.
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Xylotheca @xylotheca.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
My assimilation into Cape Town society is nearly complete: my car now has a CAA reg and today I bought a wearable duvet (knee length K-Way puffer jacket)
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Xylotheca @xylotheca.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
Can confirm this effect holds even for this 1/8th Irish person, 2 generations distant from the last ancestor born in Ireland ✊🏻
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Xylotheca @xylotheca.bsky.social · 01/01/2026
This applies specifically to Quarter horses and Thoroughbreds. If the horse was born at, say, 23:50 on 31st Dec 2025, they are categorised as "1 year old" ten minutes later 😬🐎
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Xylotheca @xylotheca.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
Starting the New Year in my traditional manner: with an URTI and a flare
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Xylotheca @xylotheca.bsky.social · 29/12/2025
Steers BBQ sauce FTW
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