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Dr Joanne Williams

@jowilliams.bsky.social

4K followers 880 following 7.7K posts

Sea-level and tidal scientist. Liverpool, UK. Opinions own!

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Dr Joanne Williams @jowilliams.bsky.social · Aug 30

Hooray, an @xkcd.com about tides! Although only little ones, round here we can get a tidal range of 10 *metres* .

xkcd.com/3135/

[Single frame, with Megan and Cueball standing at a coastline with grass, with water and waves visible. They are looking at the ocean and are standing together.]

Cueball: Hey, where's that big island we were looking at this morning?
Megan: Oh, it's underwater. The ocean's depth here goes up and down by like ten feet every day.
Cueball: What?
Megan: It's because the planet has a big moon orbiting near the surface. It causes weird gravity effects.
Cueball: What???

[Caption below the frame:]
People here are used to them, but tides are one of the weirdest and most sci-fi elements of life on Earth.

Transcript thanks to explainxkcd

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Dr Joanne Williams @jowilliams.bsky.social · 8m

Gorgeous, I'd never noticed. Of course, London is getting more brighter than it's been for decades, as the air is so much cleaner. Everything used to be covered in a layer of black grime.

Dr Joanne Williams @jowilliams.bsky.social · 16m

Go and stand outside the Head's office the pair of you.

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Reposted by Dr Joanne Williams

Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.bsky.social · 13h

Layoff notices at JPL are going out today.

About 11% of the Lab, or 550 people, are being let go.

I'm thinking of my friends and colleagues there, some of whom will still be employed after today and some of whom won't.

I'm sorry you're having to deal with this.

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Dr Joanne Williams @jowilliams.bsky.social · 9h

Someone here said the pile by the bed is a menu, not a to do list.

Dr Joanne Williams @jowilliams.bsky.social · 9h

I wonder how much rabies is a factor? Dog bites are much more of a hazard there.

Dr Joanne Williams @jowilliams.bsky.social · 12h

Where do the Moral Maze find their panelists? Someone has just described modern society as *less* homogenous than that of John Stuart Mill. Yet imagine a 19th century labourer travelling round the world to find people everywhere knew the same musicians, sportsmen, speakers as his friends at home.

Dr Joanne Williams @jowilliams.bsky.social · 18h

🎶Paint away lads paint away

Reposted by Dr Joanne Williams

European Geosciences Union (EGU) @egu.eu · 20h

Are you a #ScienceArtist? We're looking for you to join us at #EGU26!

Applications are now open for EGU’s #Artist in #Residence programme!

📅 Apply by 27 October 2025.
👉 Learn more about the application details & requirements: egu.eu/63Y1BV
📝 Submit your application here: egu.eu/813683

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Dr Joanne Williams @jowilliams.bsky.social · 21h

Is it possible to provide "people I'm replying to" as a default on? Fair enough to tell people when I'm replying to them, but "stalk everything by this account" is an obvious default off.

Dr Joanne Williams @jowilliams.bsky.social · 22h

Security, that is assuming the system *will* get hacked, phones *will* be stolen and accessed by abusers and scammers, and dangerous people *do* occasionally get jobs with enhanced access, must be designed in from the very start. It's possible, but needs doing.

Dr Joanne Williams @jowilliams.bsky.social · 22h

If it's done right it could improve data security and reduce inequality from current systems that get you to use a passport/driving licence, and give way too much information to your email provider. but...

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Dr Joanne Williams @jowilliams.bsky.social · 23h

It's very different watching it and being aware of that! Thanks. Interesting too to watch the celebs obviously aware of the production choices too, with arguments like "well obviously they'll choose a set of traitors to make good TV" very nearly slipping through the cut.

Dr Joanne Williams @jowilliams.bsky.social · 1d

98% under that scheme? That's astonishing. Was it set up in such a way that most good quality installers didn't touch it, only the scammers bothered? Impossible to make a fair profit without cheapskating?

Dr Joanne Williams @jowilliams.bsky.social · 1d

Sunday led calendar weeks or Monday?

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Reposted by Dr Joanne Williams

John Kennedy @micefearboggis.bsky.social · 1d

It should take weeks to get from the US to Australia, stopping at islands, becalmed for days, sea monsters. If we’re going to throw money at anything why not use it to give folks the leisure to experience the immensity of the Earth.

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Reposted by Dr Joanne Williams

Reuters @reuters.com · 1d

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to lay off about 550 workers reut.rs/4302N2L

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to lay off about 550 workers

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said on Monday it will cut nearly 550 jobs as part of a restructuring, not related to the current U.S. government shutdown.

reut.rs

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Dr Joanne Williams @jowilliams.bsky.social · 1d

Clicking randomly through @noc.ac.uk report on the Arctic and you need this beauty. From noc.ac.uk/science/arct...

Utterly absurd and delightful sea floor ... creature? Colony of tiny creatures? It branches with about 4-5 levels from a bowl shaped centre. The end of each branch has a tightly coiled tip. Coloured a coral pink.
Filename suggests it's a Basket Colony and photo by Dan Jones.

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Reposted by Dr Joanne Williams

National Oceanography Centre @noc.ac.uk · 1d

New report that outlines UK's vision for Arctic science is a UK-wide collaboration co-led by NOC.

The report which highlights knowledge gaps, ambitions and capabilities for Arctic science will be presented this week at the Arctic Circle #Assembly2025.

Read here👉 lnkd.in/gEjxhurR
#IPY5

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Dr Joanne Williams @jowilliams.bsky.social · 1d

Good luck!

Reposted by Dr Joanne Williams

Roelof Rietbroek 🌍 👀 🟥 @drstrawpants.wobbly.earth · 1d

Researcher position on GNSS remote sensing of the atmosphere www.gfz.de/en/career/jo...

Job Detailseite

www.gfz.de

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Dr Joanne Williams @jowilliams.bsky.social · 1d

Yes, but who to? Lofty & Michelle?

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Dr Joanne Williams @jowilliams.bsky.social · 2d

The one formatting tool you might want is to be able to easily type diacritics and letters tricky on English keyboards. In the absence, you copy paste the name from another place... with 50-50 chance of screwing the font.

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Reposted by Dr Joanne Williams

Hannah Booth @hannahbooth.bsky.social · 2d

Marsh, mire, fen, wash, level, sump, carr

This week's North Sea Nexus post explores the rich linguistic inheritance of words for the watery realm between land and sea

Words of the wetlands

Marsh, mire, fen, wash, level, sump, carr — the languages and dialects which skirt the Southern North Sea abound in labels for the watery realm between land and sea.

northseanexus.substack.com

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Dr Joanne Williams @jowilliams.bsky.social · 2d

Bsky tip. Labellers like @xblock.aendra.dev allow you to tag posts so they don't automatically pop up in your feed. "Possible twitter screenshot" (you can choose to click to view) is particularly helpful if your friends post stuff that you might not want to see. (Eg quoting nastiness for record)

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Dr Joanne Williams @jowilliams.bsky.social · 2d

It says something about my misspent youth that I have half a wardrobe full of the junk you'd want for this sort of project. Not sure it'd include hessian but there's a fair amount of old sofa cover still.

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