In the Dark

Here we are then, in 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 I got about 340K hits last year, just over 930 a day, with about 168K unique views. That’s down quite a bit (~19%) since last year. In fact 2019 saw the lowest visitor numbers here since 2010. I guess interest in my ramblings is waning out there. I’m just surprised it has taken so long!

Despite the sharp decrease, I still get more readers than I ever thought I would when I started way back in 2008 so I think I’ll keep going, at least for now.

Incidentally, there are 1652 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 visitor numbers.

In 2019 there were 1963 comments, also down sharply on last year. In the same period, however, posts received 1898 ‘likes’; that’s a big increase on last year’s figure. The most liked category, incidentally, was Poetry.

Altogether, since this blog started in 2008 to the end of 2019, it has been viewed about 4.1 million times by a total of 1.4 million unique visitors (though, obviously, all my visitors are unique).

Athbhliain faoi shéan is faoi mhaise daoibh go léir!

P. S. I don’t really go in for New Year’s resolutions but I really hope that this year I can sell my old house, buy a new one, and complete my relocation to Ireland.

I just received this message and thought I’d share it here as it might help some people with their New Year’s Resolutions…

–o–

CEICO welcomes applications for Postdoctoral Researcher positions in the fields of Cosmology and Gravity.

The positions are expected to start in September 2020 and are offered until 31 Oct 2022. An extension may be offered for an additional year subject to availability of funds. An earlier starting date is negotiable. The monthly gross salary is in the range 55 000 – 60 000 CZK from which tax, social and health insurance are deducted. We offer an annual 75 000 – 100 000 CZK (3000 – 4000EUR) travel budget. Candidates are expected to have completed a PhD degree in Physics, or a related field, before taking up the post.

Successful candidates will work in any of the following areas of research:

• Late Universe cosmology (e.g. dark energy and modified gravity, dark matter, cosmological simulations).
• Tests of the cosmological model, including statistical techniques, modeling of data and parameter estimation.
• Theoretical aspects of gravity (e.g. gravity in quantum field theory, model consistency, screening mechanisms).
• Strong-field gravity (e.g. tests of gravity with compact objects, physics of black holes, PPN formalism).
• Early Universe cosmology (e.g. inflationary models, origin of the Big-Bang, inflationary model testing)

As part of CEICO, the researchers will have access to the team’s 1000 core computer cluster.

Please, see here for detailed information on the positions offered and the requirements, and to apply online.

The deadline for all application material (including reference letters) is 14 January 2020.

CEICO is a new research centre, established with funds from the Czech Academy of Sciences, the Czech Science Foundation, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports and the European Commission. The CEICO team is headed by Martin Schnabl and Costas Skordis and comprises staff members Michael Prouza, Ignacy Sawicki and Alex Vikman, senior scientists Ted Erler, Sergey Karpov, Joris Raeymaekers and Federico Urban and another nineteen postdoctoral researchers and graduate students. The team’s areas of research are: cosmology, gravity, string field theory, and instrumentation for cosmological observations. CEICO values diversity and is committed to equality of opportunity.

Further information about CEICO and its research programmes may be found at here.

A National Express Coach at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff

I spent Christmas in Newcastle this year. It was very pleasant although, of course, there was an absence that was keenly felt.

I was late organising my trip and by the time I did get around to it all flights were booked. I then looked at the train only to discover that Cardiff to Newcastle was both hideously expensive and heavily disrupted by engineering work. I could have afforded the ticket but resent paying so much for a poor level of service. I’d probably have had to stand for much of the journey too.

In the end I decided instead to take the National Express Coach from Sophia Gardens. Though slower than the cost was less than a third of the train fare and as it turned out it was quite a painless experience. Modern coaches have seats which are actually more comfortable than seats on the train, which always give me a bad back.

On the way there and back I had to change at Birmingham. The first leg from Cardiff to Birmingham was non-stop and stayed on the Welsh side of the Severn as far as possible.

The bus from Birmingham to Newcastle stopped several times in the Midlands – Leeds (where there was a 45 minute break), York, Middlesbrough and Sunderland – before arriving, on time, in the North. The traffic was lighter than I expected for Christmas Eve.

Newcastle’s old Gallowgate bus station is no more. The new one is on St James’s Boulevard, a road that didn’t exist when I was living in Newcastle years ago. The current location is handy for the local gay bars though.

Returning on Friday morning after two days in Newcastle, there was a slight rearrangement of plan as there were too many passengers to Birmingham to accommodate on the one bus. Some of us therefore transferred onto a second coach going only to Birmingham while passengers going further than that stayed on the original coach, whose ultimate destination was Paignton. Standing is not permitted on these coaches.

There was much heavier traffic on the way South but we arrived in Birmingham on schedule. I had quite a long wait so I wandered off and found a place to have lunch. When I got back to Digbeth bus station there was a deal of chaos as many buses were caught in traffic and delayed. I assumed mine would be too, so settled down to read a book only to discover my bus to Cardiff was on schedule.

The last leg of the journey took a different route from the first, via Bristol and Newport, which made it an hour or so slower but again we arrived on time. It’s only a short walk to my Cardiff residence from Sophia Gardens.

Inexpensive, comfortable, efficient and reliable: the National Express Coach service is everything the UK train service is not.