-
The Blair Decade
·
Today’s New York Times gives the best — and shortest — summary of the Blair years, which have ended today with Gordon Brown taking over (and immediately restructuring education and science, about which more once I’ve digested it), and Blair signing on to apply his talents to the Middle East. The editorial correctly digests Blair’s…
-
Lights Out London
In honor of the Summer solstice (and Gaia herself) we Londoners are being encouraged to shut off our lights for an hour at 9pm tonight. Even Picadilly Circus will be dark, for the first time since World War II. Even if it’s just a PR campaign, take advantage: go outside and look at the stars.
-
All the News That’s Fit to Pay, and Pay, and Pay For
I was travelling through Schiphol airport in Amsterdam today (more later on the various reasons why) when I was delighted to see the Sunday New York Times on sale at the airport news-stand… until they tried to charge me €14.50 (about $20 or £10). It’s still the best paper in the world (especially on Sunday),…
-
Whole Foods
I spent over an hour this afternoon in full green consumerist frenzy, celebrating the opening (i.e., shopping at) the new London branch of the Whole Foods supermarket chain. Three floors of good food, eco-friendly (more or less; see below), tasty, not at all cheap, luckily located en route from work to home. And noticeably more…
-
Brown Dwarf located in London
·
Congratulations to my Imperial College Astrophysics colleagues Steve Warren and Dan Mortlock who have been in the news lately for their discovery of the coldest brown dwarf yet found. A brown dwarf is not quite a star, but a ball of gas just too light to force its hydrogen gas into nuclear fusion reactions. Instead…
-
Useless boycotts
Once again, my Union, the University and College Union, has sort-of voted to boycott Israeli academics. It’s only “sort of”, because, like last time, the decision comes about from a vote of activists present at the UCU annual conference, not of the membership at large. Indeed, the vote has been opposed by the General Secretary…
-
We’re the young generation and we’ve got something to say
·
Coming down from a weekend of marking a couple of hundred exam problems, I spent a highbrow night in watching documentaries about Britain’s Coast, its buildings and, by no means least, the Monkees. The Monkees — the 60s manufactured TV band — have always held a fascination for me: not just because of their more…
-
Kelvin’s Desk
·
I spent a few days this week up in Glasgow (I am beginning to realize I prefer Scottish cities to English ones, except for London itself), helping evaluate the work being done up there as well as in Cardiff and Strathclyde to search for gravitational radiation using experiments like LIGO (in the US) and GEO…
-
Technology: help or harm?
·
My mobile rang this afternoon, but as usual at work, I missed the call. I didn’t recognize the number (02920368701 in the UK), but on a whim I googled it. Lo and behold, it’s a cold-call mobile spam number. Good thing I didn’t answer it, after all…
-
Chicago cosmology ’casts
·
I haven’t had a chance to listen yet, but “Slacker Astronomy” is featuring a series of podcast interviews with cosmologists from the Kavli Center at the University of Chicago, where I got my PhD. There are interviews with my de facto PhD supervisor, Josh Frieman, my de jure supervisor (long story) Mike Turner, and even…
Search
Recent Posts
Categories
- Academia (64)
- Art (57)
- Blog (1)
- Miscellanea (103)
- Music (71)
- Net (63)
- News (28)
- Politics (110)
- Science (333)
- Uncategorized (4)