Archive for the Uncategorized Category

Serious Brain Power

Posted in Uncategorized with tags on October 28, 2011 by telescoper

I can’t resist doing a bit of advertising on behalf of Cardiff University’s new recruitment campaign which has the slogan Serious Brain Power.  A major initiative is under way to attract high quality researchers to Cardff (either at Chair level for established academics or at the level of a Fellowship for those earlier in their careers)  across a range of academic disciplines, including STEM subjects.

In the School of Physics & Astronomy we’ve already appointed four new lecturers in Physics over the last year, and will also be joined by a new Professor of Experimental Physics next year, all independently of this scheme, but it would be great if we could attract even more excellent new people into the School via the new initiative; for an advert see here.

At fellowship level the positions  provide a greater degree of independence than a normal postdoctoral research assistantship, including the possibility to direct one’s own research programme. The number of  similar positions funded by research councils  is  dwindling owing to cutbacks in the research council budgets, making such a post a particularly valuable and attractive proposition.

Although this is a personal blog, and therefore not officially part of the recruitment campaign, it occurred to me that readers of this blog might well be interested in these opportunities, hence the reason for posting this message. Applicants for astronomy and cosmology would be welcomed,  by me at any rate! It’s a rare opportunity to join a Physics department that’s actually growing in size…

To find out more about the Fellowships and Chairs, see here. Feel free to contact me informally if you have any questions, and  please also feel free to pass this on to anyone you think might be interested!

Late Arrivals at the Statistician’s Ball

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , on October 16, 2011 by telescoper

I’m in a frivolous mood this Sunday morning so I thought I’d have a go at stirring up a bit of audience participation. Taking my cue from I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue, please let me announce some of the late arrivals at the Statistician’s Ball. Your contributions are also welcomed…

Ladies and Gentlemen may I introduce:

Mr and Mrs Ear-Regresssion and their daughter Lynne Ear-Regression

Mr and Mrs Thmetick-Mean and their son, Harry Thmetick-Mean

Mr and Mrs D’arderra and their son, Stan.

Mr and Mrs Layshun and their daughter, Cora

Here’s Mark Offchain and his friend Monty Carlo

Incidentally, the food this evening will be served at your table free of charge; there’s a “Buy no meal” distribution…

Mr and Mrs Rating-Function and their daughter, Jenna.

Mr and Mrs Mentz and their daughter, Mo.

Mr and Mrs Al-Distribution and their son Norm.

Mr and Mrs Variate and their daughter Una; she’s still single, by the way…

Mr and Mrs Otis and their son, Curt

Mr and Mrs Pling-Bias  and their son, Sam

Mr and Mrs Inal-Probability and their daughter, Marge.

Mr and Mrs Over and their daughter, Anne Over.

Mr and Mrs Mogorov and their son, Carl. I’m sure he’ll want to try out the vodka. Hey Carl Mogorov! Smirnov test?

Mr and Mrs Fordslaw and their son, Ben.

Mr and Mrs Knife and their son, Jack.

Mr and Mrs Motion and their son Ian (who’s just back from a holiday during which he got a very deep tan), yes it’s Brown Ian Motion.

Mr and Mrs Rage and their daughter, Ava.

Mr and Mrs Sprier and their son, Jeffrey Sprier.

And now we’re joined by royalty. From the distinguished house of Ippal-Components, here’s Prince Ippal-Components.

Mr and Mrs D’alscoefficient and their son, Ken.

Here’s the Hood family with their particularly amiable son, Lee. I’m sure you will like Lee Hood!

Mr and Mrs Gale and their son, Martin.

Mr and Mrs Imum-Entropy and their son, Max.

Mr and Mrs Spectra and their daughter, Polly.

That’s all I’ve got time for at the moment, but please feel free to offer your own suggestions through the box below…

My Blackberry (still) is not Working!

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , on October 13, 2011 by telescoper

When is a Professor not a Professor?

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , on September 29, 2011 by telescoper

Now that I’m back from panel duty, I notice that Amazon have finally corrected the misleading information on the page advertising a book by Mark Brake. Until a couple of days ago this page stated that the “author” was a Professor at the University of Glamorgan, despite the fact that it’s over a year since he was dismissed from that position. I’m not sure why they have suddenly removed their misrepresentation but now it merely says that Brake is an “academic”. I think that’s misleading too, as to my knowledge he doesn’t have a job at any university; the OED’s definition of the noun academic is

A member of a college or university; a collegian. Now spec. a senior member of a university; a member of the academic staff of a university or college; also loosely, an academically-gifted person.

Does the loose definition apply?

Meanwhile, this is taken from the front page of Mark Brake’s personal website.

Which seems to demonstrate that although Amazon have corrected their error, Brake himself is content to continue passing himself off as a Professor. I wonder how long it will be until this turns into the version that’s advertised on Amazon?

Also, does anyone know what the “L” stands for in “Mark L Brake”?

Wind turbines aren’t noisy!

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , on September 27, 2011 by telescoper

I read this morning that a petition to the Welsh Assembly Government has been raised demanding that wind farms be switched off from time to time to give local residents “some respite from the noise they make”.

In fact wind turbines, even big ones, make far less noise than people seem to think, and certainly less than motor vehicles. So if you’ve got an objection to wind farms, please make it an honest one.

Postcard from Swindon

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , on September 21, 2011 by telescoper

Surprisingly I have got time for a quick post this morning after all. I got here to Polaris House before most of the rest of the Astronomy Grants Panel so I’ve got 5 minutes on the wireless to put something up. It turns out that my decision to come on an early morning train yesterday rather than come on Monday evening was the right one. The hotel we had been booked into, The Jury’s Inn, Swindon, was full up on Monday night so several of the panel people (who had been booked in for months) didn’t have the rooms they thought they had and had to go elsewhere for the night. When I checked in yesterday the coachloads of alleged Germans responsible for this debacle had left and I had no trouble. When I got to my room I discovered a bottle of wine which had been left there to apologize for the problems with my reservation on Monday night. Which I never had. I guess incompetence cuts both ways and I’m now a bottle of wine up out of the deal!

Anyway, we got through yesterday’s business reasonably well, although it was a long day and we were all flagging by the end. I guess that’s why they call it Swindon Wilts. We’re just about to commence Day Two so I’ve just got time to put up the following picture. For those of you who’ve never been to Swindon before, I believe this photograph conveys an accurate impression of what it’s like. This is the view through the rain from my hotel window yesterday evening.

Intermission

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , on September 20, 2011 by telescoper

Well, dear readers, I  am up at the crack of dawn in order to journey forth to Swindon, for  three days of hard labour on the STFC Astronomy Grants Panel for the duration of which I will be confined to a dark dungeon in Polaris House. Given the severity of the sentence  I very much doubt that I’ll have the time or the energy to blog while I’m there so, unless it all gets too much for me and I have to seek solace in a blog post,  there will now follow a short intermission.

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.


In the Dark’s Third Anniversary

Posted in Uncategorized on September 18, 2011 by telescoper

Just a quick post to mention that this blog has now been running for over 3 years. In fact the anniversary was on Friday but amid all the cricketing excitement  it seemed to pass me by!

Since this blog started, on 16th September 2008, I have made 1,178 posts which have in total received 9,891 comments. As of this evening, according to the WordPress software, I’ve received 700,697 views, so  must have gone past the 700,000 mark at some point over the weekend. Over the last few months I’ve been getting between 1,000 and 3,000 (unique) hits per day, in case you’re interested in such things. I don’t know whether that’s a lot, but it’s a lot more than I expected ever to get when I started!

This occasion gives me the chance to thank you all  for your continuing interest in this blog. Let’s see how long it takes to reach a million hits!

Commodification, the Academic Journal Racket and the Digital Commons (via The Disorder Of Things)

Posted in Open Access, Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 15, 2011 by telescoper

Here’s another reasoned rant regarding the rapacity of the research racketeers. I think it makes some really good points.

The video clip is worth watching too, it being very funny.

Commodification, the Academic Journal Racket and the Digital Commons David, my erstwhile ‘parasitic overlord’ from when I was co-editing Millennium, points me to some posts by Kent Anderson of the Society for Scholarly Publishing, who defends the industry on a number of grounds from Monbiot’s polemic against the journal racket. The comments threads on both pieces are populated by academics who agree with Monbiot and by publishing industry colleagues who agree with Anderson (and who alternate between dismissing and … Read More

via The Disorder Of Things

Concerning Torments

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , on September 2, 2011 by telescoper

On a lighter note, I couldn’t resist posting this completely wonderful anagrammatical map of the London Underground. You’ll have to view the image at higher resolution (which you can do by clicking on it) to see it in its full glory, but it’s worth it…

 

Now, who fancies a game of Mornington Crescent Concerning Torments?