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Tales of the unexpected
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I’ve spent the last couple of days at a meeting of the STFC Projects Peer Review Panel (PPRP). We evaluate all of the large project proposals (big telescopes, satellites, detectors for particle and nuclear physics) that are submitted to the funding council. Despite the still-unresolved crisis in STFC funding, projects are still being proposed, and…
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“How did you know I was a new yorker?”
I spent the weekend in Oxford celebrating a friend’s landmark birthday, running around the town’s lovely Port Meadow and talking about the topology of the Universe. I planned to take the Oxford Tube bus service back to London. “excuse me, did you know we weren’t stopping when we all got on the bus? Why didn’t…
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Curb her Enthusiasm
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Larry David (!) on Hillary Clinton: “Does anyone want this nut answering the phone?” How is it that she became the one who’s perceived as more equipped to answer that 3 a.m. call?
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Space Kimchi
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Fermented cabbage makes the leap from earth to space, in a watershed moment for spicy foodstuffs the world over. Certainly tastes better than Tang — this is possibly the only interesting news ever to be associated with the International Space Station.
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Gemini telescope: back for the UK
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In an unexpectedly rational decision, STFC (UK astronomy’s funding council, if you haven’t been paying attention) and the board of the Gemini telescope, have come to some sort of agreement to reinstate UK observing time for the time being, with the further statement from Gemini that “The Board asks that the Chair and Designated Members,…
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Congratulations and be prosperous
新年快樂 Happy New Year of the Rat to all of the visitors landing here from Google, searching for “Gung hei fat choi“!
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Super Tuesday Night and Wednesday Morning
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I only managed to make it to halftime of the Superbowl, but I’m going to try to last through at least a few Super-Tuesday results. (So if you follow this blog to read my opinions on subjects about which I actually know anything, you’ll just have to wait until a future post. And/or you can…
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UK Gemini telescope bid rejected
Many others have been doing their best to disseminate information on the UK Physics funding crisis (especially Sheffield Prof Paul Crowther) but it’s probably worth pointing out the latest repercussion (which has already been picked up by the BBC): despite a bid to remain involved at a reduced level, it looks like the UK will…
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Do you see the flaw in this argument?
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“It won’t be hypothetical if and when it occurs.” —UK Home Secretary Jaqui Smith, arguing on the BBC Today show for legislation to be able to hold suspects for up to 42 days.
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My Critical Faculties Vindicated
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Glad to read that I wasn’t the only one to notice the Magnetic Fields homage in Bruce Springsteen’s “Girls in their Summer Clothes”: Enter wry New Yorker Stephin Merritt, Mr Magnetic Field. Merritt is a pop auteur of great distinction, if not wide renown; he probably earns more comparisons to Cole Porter than royalties. He…
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