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True North

Posted in Uncategorized with tags England, Geography on April 25, 2011 by telescoper

Following on from an earlier post in which, amongst other things, I tried to educate the residents of internetshire about the facts of English geography, let me put an end to the argument about what is the North and what isn’t.

For reference please consult the following map, kindly supplied by an angry commenter calling himself Chris from Yorkshire (The North)…

..I’m sure this proves beyond all reasonable doubt that “The North” actually means Northumberland – the clue’s in the name, really. The nameless County between Northumberland and Durham is Tyne and Wear – a relatively recent invention which confuses the issue slightly, but which I include in my definition of “The North” for historical reasons.

Anyway, my point is that Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool etc are all much further South than The North. Even North Yorkshire isn’t really in the North, as any objective reading of the map proves. Sorry, Chris from Yorkshire (The Midlands). I rest my case.

P.S. Looking at the peculiarities of the border between England and Wales has helped me understand why the train crossed in and out of England so many times between Cardiff and Llandudno last week!

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R.S. Thomas, a Short Biography

Posted in Poetry with tags Aberdaron, R. S. Thomas, St Hywyn's Church, The Other on April 25, 2011 by telescoper

I came across this short documentary about the poet R.S. Thomas on Youtube and thought I’d share it.

The documentary was made in anticipation of Thomas winning the 1996 Nobel Prize for Literature, for which he had been nominated. Sadly he didn’t win it, and the honour went to Seamus Heaney.

The film is only a few minutes long, but it says a lot about the man and his life as well as featuring two of his greatest poems. One, Children’s Song, I’ve posted before; the other is The Other, which is reproduced here:

There are nights that are so still
that I can hear the small owl calling
far off and a fox barking
miles away. It is then that I lie
in the lean hours awake listening
to the swell born somewhere in the Atlantic
rising and falling, rising and falling
wave on wave on the long shore
by the village, that is without light
and companionless. And the thought comes
of that other being who is awake, too,
letting our prayers break on him,
not like this for a few hours,
but for days, years, for eternity.

Apparently, at St Hywyn’s Church in Aberdaron, where Thomas was vicar for many years, you can see a large slate with this poem carved upon it; it is shown at the end of the short film. I don’t know why, but I have developed a curious longing to visit that place …

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The Sunset Poem

Posted in Poetry with tags Dunvant Male Voice Choir, Dylan Thomas, Eli Jenkins' Prayer, Under Milk Wood on April 24, 2011 by telescoper

I hope you’ve had as relaxing and peaceful an Easter as I have…I’ve done very little apart from sitting in the garden doing the crosswords. I thought I’d bid you good evening with this lovely piece of music. In fact it was one of the numbers we heard performed in fine style after the NAM conference dinner at Llandudno last week. It’s Rev. Eli Jenkins’ Prayer from Under Milk Wood, by Dylan Thomas which is also sometimes known as The Sunset Poem. It’s a different choir, though. This is the Dunvant Male Voice Choir and they’re filmed on the breezy clifftops overlooking the beautiful Rhossili Bay on the Gower Peninsula.

Every morning when I wake,
Dear Lord, a little prayer I make,
O please do keep Thy lovely eye
On all poor creatures born to die

And every evening at sun-down
I ask a blessing on the town,
For whether we last the night or no
I’m sure is always touch-and-go.

We are not wholly bad or good
Who live our lives under Milk Wood,
And Thou, I know, wilt be the first
To see our best side, not our worst.

O let us see another day!
Bless us all this night, I pray,
And to the sun we all will bow
And say, good-bye – but just for now!

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Bach for Easter

Posted in Music with tags Easter Oratorio, Johann Sebastian Bach on April 24, 2011 by telescoper

Well, it’s Easter Sunday and it seems entirely appropriate to post this to mark the occasion. It’s the Sinfonia from the wonderful Easter Oratio BWV 249 by Johann Sebastian Bach, first performed on Easter Day in 1725.

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When to believe new physics results (via Occasional Musings of a Particle Physicist)

Posted in Science Politics, The Universe and Stuff with tags Particle Physics, Science on April 23, 2011 by telescoper

This seems like a good day for reblogging, so try this for size. It gives instructions on when to believe stories about discoveries of exciting new physics by large consortia…

It’s an interesting piece, however it does seem to me that it gives necessary conditions for believing a result, but not sufficient ones. It’s not unknown for refereed articles to be wrong…

Here's a brief summary giving my understanding of how physics results are determined in collaborations of hundreds or thousands of physicists such as the experiments at the LHC and when to believe a new physics effect has been seen. Someone within the collaboration from an institute (university, lab, etc.) has an idea for an analysis. A few people within the institute do some preliminary studies on existing experimental and/or simulated data to … Read More

via Occasional Musings of a Particle Physicist

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Is AV better than FPTP? (via Gowers’s Weblog)

Posted in Politics on April 23, 2011 by telescoper

Here’s an interesting discussion of the Alternative Vote versus First Past The Post voting systems. This is the issue to be decided at the Referendum on 5th May in case you didn’t know…

On May 5th the UK will vote in a referendum for only the second time ever. (The first time was in 1975, when we voted on whether to remain in the EU, or the Common Market as it was then called.) Now we have a chance to decide whether to retain our current voting system, misleadingly known as First Past The Post, or whether to switch to the Alternative Vote. Let me come clean straight away. Although in this post I shall try to write dispassionatel … Read More

via Gowers's Weblog

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I was vicar of large things

Posted in Poetry with tags Poetry, R. S. Thomas on April 22, 2011 by telescoper

It seems appropriate to post something today – Good Friday – from the great Welsh poet R.S. Thomas. An Anglican clergyman, Thomas was vicar at St Hywyn’s Church (which was built 1137) in Aberdaron at the western tip of the Llŷn Peninsula. In this, one of his most famous poems, he speaks eloquently and movingly of the frustrations of his calling. I also managed to find a recording of the poet himself reading it.

and here is the text

I was vicar of large things

in a small parish. Small-minded

I will not say, there were depths

in some of them I shrank back

from, wells that the word “God”

fell into and died away,

and for all I know is still

falling. Who goes for water

to such must prepare for a long

wait. Their eyes looked at me

and were the remains of flowers

on an old grave. I was there,

I felt, to blow on ashes

that were too long cold. Often,

when I thought they were about

to unbar to me, the draught

out of their empty places

came whistling so that I wrapped

myself in the heavier clothing

of my calling, speaking of light and love

in the thickening shadows of their kitchens

2 Comments »

Astronomy Look-alikes, No. 56

Posted in Uncategorized with tags Inspector Morse, Iwan Williams on April 21, 2011 by telescoper

It’s been mentioned by quite a few people that Professor Iwan Williams (formerly of Queen Mary, University of London, now retired) bears something of a resemblance to Chief Inspector Morse (formerly of Thames Valley C.I.D.)…

Inspector Morse

Iwan Williams

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Community Matters

Posted in Education, Science Politics with tags Llandudno, National Astronomy Meeting, STFC on April 21, 2011 by telescoper

Well, here I am back in sunny Cardiff after a pleasant journey back from Llandudno and a very enjoyable and productive National Astronomy Meeting. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all those involved at the Royal Astronomical Society in putting the programme together and doing a huge amount of work behind the scenes. The staff at the Venue Cymru in Llandudno were very friendly as well as highly professional and well organised, and everything seems to run exceptionally smoothly.

Oh, and I shouldn’t forget the conference dinner on Tuesday night, which ended with a serenade from the magnificent Maelgwyn Male Voice Choir. It was fitting to have the chance to experience a fine Welsh tradition, and I thought they were wonderful to listen to.

Anyway, I might get a bit of time over the Easter break to comment on some things that struck me over the course of the past week but for today – because I’m quite tired after the journey (and several late nights at NAM) – I thought I’d just comment a bit further on the first session I attended, on Monday evening, attended by various representatives of STFC, at which John Womersley gave a presentation about the status of various projects in the existing astronomy programme and prospects for the future. It was clear from that presentation that there are many challenges ahead, but I was relieved that the atmosphere of the meeting wasn’t anything like as confrontational as on many previous occasions. This process of reconciliation will no doubt take futher steps forward when the new Chief Executive takes over next year.

Drinking in the bar much later in the evening with a number of senior figures from diverse branches of astronomy the issue arose of the now notorious petition that George Efstathiou blogged about in a guest post some time ago. Two things are now clear about this initiative. One is that it caused deep ructions within the astronomical community, with a number of senior figures vociferously both for and against it – even within the same department. When I revealed that I had signed it myself, a few of the assembled company expressed their views in forthright language about why I had been wrong, but I have to say without much coherence in the actual logic.

The other thing that emerged during the STFC session was an explicit acknowledgment that the petition had, in one particular respect, made a very big difference, namely that the criteria for the appointment of the next Chief Executive of STFC specifically took into account some of the comments made in it.

Anyway, the point of raising the dreaded petition is not to rake over this whole business but simply to try to put it to rest. We need to move on, and should be trying to heal any wounds that it may inadvertantly have caused. There are definitive signs that the STFC Executive is now really starting to listen, so now there’s a chance to really engage with them through the channels they are opening up rather than having to resort to extreme measures such as George’s petition.

Oh, and I’ll just remind anyone who is interested in the vacancy at the top of STFC that the deadline for applications is April 28th….

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Astronomy Look-alikes, No. 55

Posted in Astronomy Lookalikes with tags EISCAT, Esa Turunen, Llandudo, National Astronomy Meeting on April 20, 2011 by telescoper

One of the bonuses of being at the National Astronomy Meeting here in Llandudo – aside from being at the seaside at a time of gloriously sunny weather – is the chance to attend plenary lectures from other fields and learn a bit about what’s going on in the wider world of astronomy, space science and geophysics. More importantly, it also gives me new ideas for my look-alikes series. Take today, for example. I attended a nice plenary talk about the EISCAT facility by a speaker, Dr Esa Turunen, who may well be related to Norman Tebbit…

Norman Tebbit

Esa Turunen

In the Dark