Xylotheca
@xylotheca.bsky.social
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Childless cat and pony lady. Plantaholic. Works in TB/HIV research. AnkSpond spoonie. 🇿🇦
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Xylotheca
Estaleto
about 13 hours ago
It's a good read.
www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026...
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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.
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-05-10-how-an-sa-team-of-scientists-hunted-a-rare-hantavirus-strain/
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Xylotheca
Estaleto
about 13 hours ago
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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Well this was a good time to take a strong painkiller 🫤
about 1 month ago
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Xylotheca
Merrymac Farm Sanctuary
about 1 month ago
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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"Easter eggs are not for cats!"
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about 1 month ago
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Pleased to report that Fat Pony and her friends are regularly served special cake on their birthdays and other occasions
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about 1 month ago
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Words to live by
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about 1 month ago
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Xylotheca
Cats with Jobs ⚒️
about 2 months ago
He got a job as a mousepad.
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Just had to explain to two professors how to *checks notes*... scroll through a PDF
#FML
about 2 months ago
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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
about 2 months ago
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Xylotheca
The Daily Tism
about 2 months ago
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...
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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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2 months ago
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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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2 months ago
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Xylotheca
tomate 🍅
2 months ago
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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So bad, even the introverts are here
#EndUCTUnfairness
Do you value my labour now?
3 months ago
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On the plus side, chloroquine has halved my CRP concentration. On the minus side, I feel like death warmed over 🤷🏻♂️
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3 months ago
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"our grant number is [XYZ]; please acknowledge the grant in the funding section of your paper"
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3 months ago
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Xylotheca
Miss Havishambles
3 months ago
My extreme sport is typing without glasses
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Xylotheca
Nicole Chung
4 months ago
this is basically who you are asking to make a slide deck
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Xylotheca
Sean T. Collins
4 months ago
"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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Xylotheca
Brian Bilston
4 months ago
Here’s a short poem about the power of poetry to change the world.
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Xylotheca
Alt USAID/ USAID Forever
4 months ago
"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."
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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.
https://www.npr.org/2026/01/17/g-s1-106007/hiv-vaccine-trial-south-africa
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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)
4 months ago
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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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4 months ago
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Steers BBQ sauce FTW
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5 months ago
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Xylotheca
𝒥𝒶𝓋𝒶𝒥𝒶𝓃𝑒
5 months ago
Highland pony at dusk for
#scape
Friday.
#photography
#EastCoastkin
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Xylotheca
Chronic Illness Humor
5 months ago
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Them: So I'm taking ivermectin... Me: well you won't have scabies, I guess (Biologist working in infectious disease area)
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5 months ago
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Bat-eared fox Cape cobra Secretary bird Blue crane Rhino
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6 months ago
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👀... Except that the cat has dealt with all carelessly placed bits of ceramic
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6 months ago
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High School biology teacher brought a pig's head in for us to dissect
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6 months ago
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Xylotheca
Alex de Campi
6 months ago
this, all day right now (unmute, it’s a bop)
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Being bullied at work so I'm eating pizza about it 🍕
6 months ago
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Bully your comms person into creating a LinkedIn page, sending them off to a place that *checks notes* advertises jobs...
#Genius
6 months ago
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Xylotheca
GroundUp News
6 months ago
Without fair regulation, most Cape Town residents will edge ever further away from a home in the city, argue the authors. Read
groundup.org.za/article/cape...
by Gabbi le Roux, Adam Narain and Jonty Cogger
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Cape Town needs rent control. Here are six ways we could do it
Renting a home close to the city has become unaffordable even for many middle-class households
https://groundup.org.za/article/cape-town-needs-rent-control-here-six-ways-we-could-do-it/
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Xylotheca
Nosferatu Joseph 🧛🏻♀️
6 months ago
Think I'm gonna have samoosas for lunch with a delicious side order of "the worst people you know are enraged and scared". Yum.
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Currently sporting a black eye courtesy of a hock to my temple this weekend, and pleased to report that this post came via my Following feed
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7 months ago
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Xylotheca
Tom Cox
7 months ago
So often you see some dingy, overpriced, dirty-looking house advertised to rent, with "SORRY NO PETS" firmly stipulated in the details. Get a grip. My pets have got a lot of self-respect and wouldn't want to live in your shit house.
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Xylotheca
Chronic Illness Humor
7 months ago
I don't get up to investigate strange noises. They're all coming from my body.
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Xylotheca
KOJAMF🤘🖤🤘
7 months ago
Dr. Jane Goodall filmed an interview with Netflix in March 2025 that she understood would only be released after her death.
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Xylotheca
Nereide
7 months ago
🧵 Question: "If chimps are so much like us, why are they endangered while humans dominate the globe?" Goodall: "Well, in some ways we're not successful at all. We're destroying our home. That's not a bit successful." —
#JaneGoodall
, 3 Apr. 1934 - 1 Oct. 2025
#ForeverInspiring
#LegacyOfHope
🧪
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[Context: South Africa] I live near Groote Schuur hospital (major tertiary centre) and I've never before or since seen so many life flight helicopters land there.
add a skeleton here at some point
8 months ago
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Xylotheca
Tiffany⸆⸉
8 months ago
I lost it at “FUCKING KYLE!”
#caturday
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Xylotheca
Brick's House 🍁
8 months ago
Me: Hey I got you a new scratching post so you can stop destroying the couch (My cat chuckling with one paw on my shoulder): "oh heavens no. nonononono, haha. nooo."
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Xylotheca
Xavier Horatio Xinicit 🎉
8 months ago
The main difference between extroverts and introverts has yet to be determined because the extroverts won't shut the fuck up
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Spring flowers in the Swartland Granitic Renosterveld remnant on the farm. Would've taken more pics but Fat Pony was having hysterics and belying her age (34!) again 🐎
8 months ago
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Xylotheca
Hope Jahren
8 months ago
i know things look bad right now but parafilm exists.
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Xylotheca
Alt CDC (they/them)
8 months ago
“I meant," said Ipslore bitterly, "what is there in this world that truly makes living worthwhile?" Death thought about it. “CATS,” he said eventually. “CATS ARE NICE.” -Terry Pratchett, Sourcery
#caturday
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Xylotheca
Jeremy Berg
8 months ago
Yes, it was carefully hidden in the New England Journal of Medicine. Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine (
www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1...
) 1/2
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