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Dr Joanna McKenzie

@jobob.bsky.social

160 followers 110 following 1.3K posts

Data nerd with a PhD in particle physics from before they discovered the Higgs. Loves Fantasy books and TV, drawing and painting, and sometimes I do running and cycling. Glasgow based. Tha mi ag ionnsachadh Gàidhlig.

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Dr Joanna McKenzie @jobob.bsky.social · 15h

More of a doodle than anything else today - day 11. #inktober2025

The page is covered in loosely drawn cherry blossom designs, with branches behind it. It's more like a black and white wallpaper design than an actual drawing of cherry blossom, the flowers aren't clustered and they're mostly facing the viewer.

Dr Joanna McKenzie @jobob.bsky.social · 19h

Tapadh leibh!

Dr Joanna McKenzie @jobob.bsky.social · 20h

This has been going on for like two weeks now. /sigh/

Dr Joanna McKenzie @jobob.bsky.social · 20h

My brain: yeah the one with the helpful school that doesn't seem helpful and all the dark creatures?
Me: yes! What's it called?
My brain: The Golden Enclaves.
Me: thanks brain.

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Dr Joanna McKenzie @jobob.bsky.social · 20h

Me: quite enjoying this book, I should tell people. It's got vibes like that trilogy, you know, with the school and the teebager who's a secret dark lord?
My brain: The Golden Enclaves
Me: yes, that's the third book, what's the trilogy called?
My brain:...
Me: you remember though?

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Reposted by Dr Joanna McKenzie

Matt Green @mattgreencomedy.com · 22h

There’s a comment piece in The Times about sickness benefits mysteriously going up and no mention of Covid, long Covid, the effects of lockdown etc. Boosters help people stay healthy, but now they are only available to the very old or people who can afford them.

Jason Hazeley @jasonhazeley.bsky.social · 23h

It’s dispiriting that this is what getting a COVID vaccination now looks like to this chronic asthmatic.

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Dr Joanna McKenzie @jobob.bsky.social · 1d

🎵Who will buy my bare-footed baby? 🎶
🎵Who will wash his dirt-encased toes? 🎶

Friz(ombie!) @frizfrizzle.bsky.social · 1d

For sale: Baby. Shoes never worn. Somebody buy my shoeless baby. His feet are fucking disgusting.

Dr Joanna McKenzie @jobob.bsky.social · 1d

This is a pretty fair argument for all sorts of fundamental research. GNU PTerry.

Micah @rincewind.run · 1d

Discworld QOTD, from Small Gods

That's why it's always worth having a few philosophers around the place. One minute it's all is truth beauty and is beauty truth, and does a falling tree in the forest make a sound if there's no one there to hear it, and then just when you think they're going to start dribbling one of 'em says, incidentally, putting a thirty-foot parabolic reflector on a high place to shoot the rays of the sun at an enemy's ships would be a very interesting demonstration of optical principles.

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Dr Joanna McKenzie @jobob.bsky.social · 1d

It's so good how much investment Ireland has made into the language over the last few decades. Wales too. We're still behind supporting Gaelic properly here in Scotland though imo.

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Dr Joanna McKenzie @jobob.bsky.social · 1d

I wasn't sure, there were a couple of references to "local residents" but nothing definitive.

Dr Joanna McKenzie @jobob.bsky.social · 1d

Do you know if you have to be a resident to participate?

Reposted by Dr Joanna McKenzie

Raj @lordofthemoon.com · 1d

Glasgow City Council have launched an investment drive to raise money from local residents to invest in new renewables and other ways to green the city. I think this is a great idea and have already invested (interest rate is comparable to banks): www.abundanceinvestment.com/invest/glasg...

Glasgow's Green Investment 1 | Abundance

www.abundanceinvestment.com

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Reposted by Dr Joanna McKenzie

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 1d

"We document the participation of women in European academia [from the year 1000 to 1800]. A total of 108 women taught at universities or were members of academies of arts and sciences. Comparing them with 58,995 male scholars, we find that they were on average better."

doi.org/10.1093/ereh...

table 1 from David de la Croix, Mara Vitale, Women in European academia before 1800—religion, marriage, and human capital, European Review of Economic History, Volume 27, Issue 4, November 2023, Pages 506–532, https://doi.org/10.1093/ereh/heac023

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Dr Joanna McKenzie @jobob.bsky.social · 1d

Day 10: goat? Probably a goat. Sheep are usually floofier, right? #inktober2025

A drawing in black brush pen of a goat (probably) with dramatic curled horns. Angle is slightly below and the drawing only has the head and shoulders, with the head looking top the right, which gives the whole thing a certain amount of drama even if it's lacking finish and detail.

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Dr Joanna McKenzie @jobob.bsky.social · 2d

In my experience hormones act as an intensifier maybe but they don't usually come entirely out of nowhere.
Also have had that delayed reaction myself too 😂

Dr Joanna McKenzie @jobob.bsky.social · 2d

I mean sometimes the actually sad news can also play a part in the cold tea reaction? Emotions are not logical but do tend to run into one another...

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Dr Joanna McKenzie @jobob.bsky.social · 2d

Day 9, horse. I love ink brushwork when it's loose and evocative, but I rarely succeed in catching it. Still, this is effective for what it is. #inktober2025

An ink drawing of a horse, mostly in dark brush strokes but with some fineliner shading. It's running to the right, tail flying behind it and one hoof raised.

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Dr Joanna McKenzie @jobob.bsky.social · 3d

Maybe we should get campaigning now for soysauges and beangers?

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Dr Joanna McKenzie @jobob.bsky.social · 3d

Yes, I thought the same. A weird thing to regulate.
I guess it'll need to be bean patties and, what, pea-protein-tubes?

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Dr Joanna McKenzie @jobob.bsky.social · 3d

I do not know why I keep coming across the phrase "bad bunny" but it makes me think of this. Day 8. #inktober2025

An ink drawing of Bugs Bunny based on a still from a scene where he's drunk some Jekyll and Hyde potion and transformed. He's bulkier and shaggier than usual and his hands trail on the ground. He's done in black and white but Ive coloured in the eyes in red pencil for emphasis.

Dr Joanna McKenzie @jobob.bsky.social · 3d

Anyway, just exploring one mechanism by which wealthy and influential people who are nonetheless not actually evil might end up being part of the problem.

Dr Joanna McKenzie @jobob.bsky.social · 3d

I suspect that if your colleagues are generally choosing b, it becomes much harder either to choose a (because you're also fighting your allies and friends) or to believe that action could actually help (because no one else seems to believe in action).

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Dr Joanna McKenzie @jobob.bsky.social · 3d

Given this, do you a) fight the richest to try and achieve the best outcome for everyone or b) suck up to the richest so that if there's a climate disaster they might look out for you, and incidentally giving you personally the best chance of a good outcome?

Dr Joanna McKenzie @jobob.bsky.social · 3d

If you, as our hypothetical politician, do not believe that you personally can change our actions or outcome on climate, then you're faced with two outcomes. Either someone else will fix it (and you'll be okay) or no-one will and only the people with the most resources will be okay.

Dr Joanna McKenzie @jobob.bsky.social · 3d

In this thought experiment, you are a fairly influential and fairly well off politician, and let's say you believe that climate change is real, is predominantly caused by humans, is, to some extent, fixable, and that if it is not fixed a lot of people will be in a bad place. Or dead.