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The New Year’s Old Year Blog Statistics

Posted in Biographical on January 1, 2021 by telescoper

Here we are then, in 2021. Good riddance to 2020. I thought I’d see in the New Year by following the tradition of doing a quick blog about this blog.

Once upon a time, in the good old days, in the dim and distant past, WordPress used to publish an annual statistical summary page for its bloggers, but it has discontinued that practice so now I’ll just write my own brief summary based on the data available via the usual dashboard.

For those interested this blog got 350,765 hits last year, an average of just under a 960 a day. That’s up by 10,732 (or about 3.2%) on last year. Interest in this blog is way down from the dizzy heights of 2012 when I got 464,221 page views. Interestingly, 2020 was the first year ever in which there were more hits on this blog from the USA (113,596) than the UK (101,981). Germany and Ireland take third and fourth place in the blog hits table.

Incidentally, there are 1659 current followers of In The Dark on WordPress itself. These are fellow bloggers who use the built-in reader to access posts. I don’t know whether or not these are counted in the above web traffic statistics.

In 2020 there were 2487 comments, also up on last year and in the same era posts received 1898 ‘likes’; that’s a big increase on last year’s figure. The most liked category, incidentally, was Poetry. In case you’re interested the most popular post published in 2020 was this one, on Clifford’s Space-Theory of Matter.

Altogether, since this blog started in 2008 to the end of 2020, it has been viewed about 4,486,045 times by about 1.65 million unique visitors (though, obviously, all my visitors are unique).

P. S. As of today, January 1st 2021, readers in the United Kingdom wishing to view this blog are required to use Netscape.

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End of Year Thoughts

Posted in Biographical, Covid-19, Maynooth, Poetry on December 31, 2020 by telescoper

The Royal Canal, Maynooth, looking towards the Railway Station; the harbour is on the right.

The last morning of 2020 found Maynooth covered in a light dusting of snow. Since then the snow has turned to sleet and rain and the town looks a bit less picturesque as a consequence, not least because we haven’t really seen any proper daylight. My trip out this morning was a rare excursion from my house, but I’m glad I was able to get a bit of fresh (though freezing) air without there being lots of people around. I’ll be sitting cosily at home for the rest of the day (and, probability, tomorrow).

It’s extraordinary to think that this time last year there wasn’t an inkling of what was to come in terms of the Coronavirus pandemic. The first cases had been detected in China in December 2019 but I don’t think anyone seriously thought it would go global in the way it did. A year on and we’re still not out of it. Not by a long way. I think this are going to get a lot worse before they get better, but at least there are vaccines on the way.

Looking back over some of my posts from early in the year I’m reminded of two  events in particular- the 200th Anniversary Dinner of the RAS Club in January and the Irish General Election in February, both of which seem now to have happened at least a decade ago. I went to London again in mid-February, but had to cancel my planned trip back to the UK in March because FlyBe went bust. After that I made a couple of trips to Dublin (including a performance of Fidelio)  but since then I haven’t left Maynooth. It’s extremely likely that by March 2021 I will have spent an entire year without leaving the boundaries of Maynooth.

It’s almost a whole year since I posted a list of things I wanted to do in 2020. The first three were:

    1. Go to more live concerts.
    2. See more of Ireland.
    3. No more working weekends…

That went well then! I don’t think I’ll bother making a list for next year, or perhaps I’ll just carry over this year’s. Obviously the Covid-19 restrictions and vastly increased workload involved in switching teaching to online put paid to most of my plans for 2020. Although I did manage to buy a house in Maynooth, I will have to wait until the Third Wave is over before I can retrieve the rest of my belongings from Wales and relocate fully.

Although I didn’t make an impact in this year’s Beard of the Year (finishing in last place in the final poll), at least I have the honour of being St Patrick’s Day Beard of Ireland for 2020.

You have to take what positives you can but I’m sure I’m not the only person to think, on balance, this has been a spectacularly awful year. I haven’t myself had Covid-19 but I know people who have and some of them are still struggling with the after-effects. I know many have also lost loved ones to the Coronavirus; condolences to everyone so affected. Although nothing to do with Covid-19, I still feel a very deep sadness that my former thesis supervisor John Barrow is no more. I hope after the pandemic there can be some form of proper tribute to him.

Anyway, to end with, here are a few verses from In Memoriam, by Alfred Lord Tennyson:

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

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Level 5 New Year

Posted in Biographical, Covid-19, Maynooth with tags , on December 30, 2020 by telescoper

To nobody’s surprise the Taioseach this evening announced that the whole of Ireland would go immediately into full Level 5 Covid-19 restrictions. Officially these will apply until January 31st, but nobody thinks they will end then. Nor should they. The past few days have seen the number of cases and hospitalizations skyrocket and the current positivity rate of tests is 10.5% (7-day average) with a figure of 18% recorded yesterday.

Here are the latest plots of 7-day averages. First, logarithmic:

Second, linear:

I’m not alone in thinking that it was a very big mistake to relax the restrictions in early December, but that’s done now and we have to deal with the situation as it is now. Unfortunately the Christmas wave hasn’t really hit these figures yet so I think thinks are going to get a lot worse before they get better. The current exponential phase with a R number of around 1.6-1.8 means the cases will probably double by this time next week.

Anyway, looks like a quiet night in for New Year’s Eve (not that I mind that) and my horizon for January is back down to a 5km radius, although its centre has shifted a little as I have moved house since last time!

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Nollaig Shona Daoibh

Posted in Biographical, History, Literature on December 25, 2020 by telescoper

Well here we are, Christmas Day. I got up late this morning and opened the present I bought for myself:

It’s not exactly light reading, but grimly fascinating. I ordered it through the splendid local bookshop, by the way.

As I had my coffee I had a visit from the local Robin, who seemed to be carrying out a pitch inspection.

A crowd of very noisy seagulls have arrived in the neighbourhood today, which seems to have scared the other birds off.

Now I’m going to have a late breakfast (a fry-up) before preparing this evening’s dinner. I’m not sure it’s worth seeing if there’s anything worth watching on the telly, but there is a complete performance of Handel’s Messiah on the radio this afternoon so I might listen to that.

Update: first course. Smoked salmon seasoned with fennel and lemon with pan-fried asparagus.

Update: main course. Confit of duck, roast potatoes, red cabbage spiced with cinnamon & apple, chestnut and orange ciabatta stuffing and port sauce.

I don’t mind telling you the duck was delicious!

Update 3: Dessert. Plum Pudding with Brandy Cream.

Anyway, let me wish you all a Merry Christmas, Nadolig Llawen, Nollaig Shona, Fröhliche Weihnachten, Joyeux Noël, Buon Natale, Feliz Navidad, Glædelig Jul, etc. And in the words of a traditional Irish toast:

Go mbeirimid beo ar an am seo arís!

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Yule Blog

Posted in Biographical, Maynooth on December 24, 2020 by telescoper

It’s Christmas Eve at last. This morning I ventured out briefly to buy a newspaper. That was more problematic than I’d anticipated as most newsagents in Maynooth had sold out of the Irish Times. There won’t be an edition until next Monday so people had got theirs early. I did eventually manage to find a copy however and did the Christmas Crosaire crossword when I got back home.

With that errand out of the way it is now my plane to stay at home alone until Sunday 27th at the earliest. The reason for that is the very dangerous Covid-19 situation, with another 922 cases reported today. Cases in Ireland aren’t as high as in many other European countries but are going quicker than any at this time. The official advice is to minimize social interactions over the Christmas period, so I’m doing that. Zero is the minimum in my case.

In case you think I’ll be miserable here on my own, I assure you that I won’t. I’ve got plenty of things to do, and plenty to eat and drink. I’m quite proud of the fact that I bought six bottles of wine last weekend and managed not to drink any until today!

I’m not myself of that faith (or indeed any) but I understand it is a Catholic tradition to eat fish the day before a Feast Day. This evening I’ll be cooking Sea Bass with a lemon and dill sauce and Mediterranean roast vegetables. That’s not because I’m becoming a Catholic but because of balance for the next two days. To go with the fish I’ll be drinking a nice Pouilly-Fumé. I’ll bore you with the menu for the next two days when I get to them (assuming no culinary disasters).

Update:

I know it doesn’t look great – the fish didn’t want to come out in one piece – but it tasted delicious!

Incidentally, it is interesting that almost nobody here uses “Boxing Day” to refer to the day after Christmas Day. It’s “St Stephen’s Day” or just “Stephens Day”.

I realized this morning that this will be the very first Christmas I’ve ever spent outside the United Kingdom. The vast majority of Christmases Past I’ve been in Newcastle, but I have also over the years been in Brighton, London, Nottingham and Cardiff at this time of year.

I’ll end with the official Christmas greetings from Maynooth University!

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Second ‘Beard-Off’ vote for Beard of the Year features Michael Rosen & Bill Bailey

Posted in Beards, Biographical on December 22, 2020 by telescoper

I assumed I had been eliminated from Beard of the Year 2020 as a result of finishing second to Michael Sheen in the first “Beard-Off” last week but it seems I hadn’t read the rules properly. The first two go through to the final vote! Anyway, here is the second “Beard-Off” to determine the other two who will go into the final round of voting.

kmflett's avatarKmflett's Blog

Beard Liberation Front

19th December

Contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett 07803 167266

Second ‘Beard-Off’ vote for Beard of the Year 2020 features Michael Rosen & Bill Bailey

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers has said the second ‘Beard-Off’ vote for the Beard of the Year 2020 is open.

The final list consists of eight names after two earlier voting rounds shaved the longlist of twelve names

There are two ‘Beard-Off’ votes for Beard of the Year 2020 which open on 14th December and close on 22nd December. The winners of each vote will face each other for a final Beard of the Year vote on 23rd and 24th December.

Michael Sheen and Peter Coles won the first vote and go forward to the final on 23/24th December.

Beard of the Year will be announced on 28th December.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, we’ve made…

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End of Term Blue Screen

Posted in Biographical, Covid-19 on December 18, 2020 by telescoper

So here we are. We have arrived at last at the final day of term. I don’t actually have any teaching today so I’ve just been pottering about at home trying to tidy up a few loose ends.

My (work laptop) has for some time been hassling me to restart it to do an update but I’ve been too busy. This morning I consented. The screen stayed as shown above for 7 minutes. As I write this, an hour later, it is on 17%. Sigh.

UPDATE: two hours later I can at last log in to find this:

It seems to be working again but it has removed my desktop background and has replaced it with solid black. I wonder what other settings it has deleted?

The problem with this device (apart from it being a Windows machine) is that it is encrypted with Bitlocker so whenever it restarts I have to type in my PIN. That means scheduling an “out of hours” uodate is pointless as it will just grind to a halt at every restart. Anyway if and when it finishes doing its business I am going to set an “out of office” email and that will be that for work until after Christmas.

I have to confess that I’m completely exhausted and my own systems need a full refresh.

I’m also very much afraid that the Covid-19 situation is going to be very grim next year as infections increase over the holiday period. Cases are already starting to rise.

I won’t be at much risk myself, however, as I intend to stay at home on my own for the entire break (unless I run out of wine and am forced to venture out to replenish stocks).

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Beard of the Year 2020: Last Chance to Vote for Me!

Posted in Beards, Biographical with tags , on December 17, 2020 by telescoper

Too busy with end of term things to do a proper post today, I’ve just realised that the first round vote for Beard of the Year 2020 closes tonight. I’m currently trailing in second place with Michael Sheen way ahead in the lead.

You never know, though, a late burst might make a difference!

You can vote here:

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Lecture Summary

Posted in Biographical, Education, Maynooth with tags on December 16, 2020 by telescoper

Yesterday I gave my last full lectures of the term. The picture shows a summary of my final lecture on Mechanics & Special Relativity for first-year students. It may look a bit thin on content but I’m very tired. How I managed to pad it out to 50 minutes I have no idea.

Today we have presentations by project students via Microsoft Teams which I can watch from home while I await the delivery of a blackboard which I’m going to put in my study at home. (UPDATE: Predictably, the Courier didn’t show up.)

Later today I have my last lecture slot which I will use to pass on some information about the examination online timed assessment in January.

And that will be the end of my teaching for the (calendar) year, which seems to have lasted at least a decade. Let’s hope next year is better.

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R.I.P. John le Carré (1931-2020)

Posted in Biographical, Literature with tags , , , , on December 14, 2020 by telescoper

I was very sad to hear the news last night of the death at the age of 89 of author John le Carré. I’m sure I’m not the only person who discovered his novels as a result of watching the 1979 TV series Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, which I watched while still a schoolboy. I loved so many things about that series, including the Circus jargon (tradecraft, lamplighters, honey-traps, etc) and the code-names (Gerald the Mole, Source Merlin, Operation Testify). When I got around to reading the novel I realized that there was much greater depth to le Carré’s writing than I’d imagined. I was particularly impressed with the sympathetic way he handled the character of the traitor Bill Haydon who, after he is revealed as the mole says to George Smiley:

Do you know what’s killing Western democracy, George? Greed. And constipation. Moral, political, aesthetic.

I’m with him on that one. “Half-Devils against Half-Angels” is another phrase I remember as a description of the “wretched Cold War” the protagonists found themselves fighting.

I also remember this, from Smiley’s People:

In my time, Peter Guillam, I’ve seen Whitehall skirts go up and come down again. I’ve listened to all the excellent argument for doing nothing, and reaped the consequent frightful harvest. I’ve watched people hop up and down and call it progress. I’ve seen good men go to the wall and the idiots get promoted with a dazzling regularity. All I’m left with is me and thirty-odd years of Cold War without the option.

That’s true in fields other than espionage.

Anyway, having read Tinker Tailor I bought everything I could by John le Carré and devoured all the books avidly. Not all his early books were great, but The Spy who came in from the Cold is excellent as are Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley’s People – the so-called Karla trilogy.

Most obituaries circulating today describe John le Carré as a “spy novelist” but I see him as a writer whose excellence as a writer transcended that genre. I think the same way of many great crime novelists, such as Dashiell Hammett, who wrote great novels that happened to be about crime.

The last John le Carré book I bought was A Legacy of Spies (2017), which I haven’t yet got around to reading. I’ll put that on the list of Christmas reading, and drink a toast to an author who has given me so much to enjoy and to think about over so many years.

Rest in peace John le Carré (David Cornwell, 1931-2020).

 

 

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