Lá Saoire i mí Mheitheamh

Posted in Biographical, Irish Language on June 5, 2023 by telescoper

Today has been (and indeed continues to be) the June Bank Holiday (Lá Saoire i mí Mheitheamh) in Ireland. It is the equivalent of the usual May Bank Holiday in the UK in that both have their origin in the old festival of Whitsuntide (or Pentecost) which falls on the 7th Sunday after Easter. Because the date of Easter moves around in the calendar so does Whit Sunday, but it is usually in late May or early June. Here in Ireland the Bank Holiday is always on the first Monday in June whereas on the other side of the Irish Sea it is on the last Monday in May.

Anyway, in a break with tradition, we have had and still are having lovely weather over the holiday long weekend. It’s not exactlly a heatwave, but as I write the temperature is a pleasant 20° C. It being warm last night, I thought it would be nice to light a big candle and sit out in the garden for a bit with a glass of wine, but I was beset by moths and had to come back inside. My concern is that the garden is bone dry, especially considering it is early June. The lawn is looking parched. Some of the plants in my garden are also struggling a bit because of the lack of rain but some others seem to be thriving so much they’re crowding out the ones that prefer the more normal damper conditions.

Alumroot, Silver Ragwort, Alpine Rose, and Oxeye Daisies
Bush Vetch (and more Alpine Roses)
Scarlet Firethorn

The Scarlet Firethorn – so called because it produces bright red berries – is growing like wildfire as well as flowering profusely. The flowers are nice, but I think past their peak so when they’re done I’ll take some remedial action. The other plants are basically wild flowers, which I like having in the garden as they tend to be rather robust. The long green leaves in the first two pictures are Montbretia, which produced bright red flowers later in the summer, and which is grown from bulbs.

My rear garden is enclosed by high walls but gets the sun in the morning, so I’ve been having breakfast and lunch out there for the last several days.

Anyway, it’s back to work tomorrow for our Departmental Examination Board so I’ll take it easy for the rest of the day off. After all, I’m an old man now…

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Officially Ancient

Posted in Biographical with tags on June 4, 2023 by telescoper

So here I am, now officially ancient, although I’ll have to wait another 6 years until I qualify for a free bus pass.

I’ve always assumed I’ll feel a bit depressed when I reached 60 years old, but as it turns out it doesn’t bother me at all. I feel more grateful that I made it this far! I suppose it helps that I’m in pretty good health, we’re having lovely weather, most of the stress of the academic year is over, it’s a Bank Holiday weekend, and I have a sabbatical to look forward to.

Anyway, I’m not going to spend my birthday sitting at the computer – it’s far too nice outside – so I’ll leave it there, except to say thank you to everyone who sent birthday greetings and to ask you all if you haven’t done so already please to consider giving to my birthday fundraiser.

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Birthday Fundraiser…

Posted in Biographical, Mental Health with tags , , on June 2, 2023 by telescoper

My birthday is coming up and for my birthday this year I’m asking for donations to Pieta, which is a charity working to prevent suicide and self-harm. I’ve chosen this cause because their mission means a lot to me. I hope you’ll consider contributing; every little bit will help.

You can donate here by my Facebook Fundraiser. Facebook takes care of the donation processing with no fees. If you decide to give, you can choose who can see that you donated, or donate privately. The Fundraiser will stay open for a couple of weeks or so.

If you prefer you can also donate directly to Pieta here and you can do that at any time.

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Abolishing an “Industry”?

Posted in Open Access with tags , , on June 2, 2023 by telescoper

A week or so ago I mentioned that the European Council had adopted a text that calls for the EU Commission and Member States to support policies towards a scholarly publishing model that is not-for-profit, open access and multi-format, with no costs for authors or readers.

The journal Nature has responded to the news with a piece entitled EU council’s ‘no pay’ publishing model draws mixed response and the lede:

Some academics have welcomed the proposed open access plans. But publishing industry representatives warn they are unrealistic and lack detail.

It’s not really accurate to describe the response as mixed as it is completely separated: the vested interests in the academic publishing industry are against it and everyone else is for it! It’s hardly surprising to see Nature (owned by academic publishing company Springer Nature). I found this in the text of the Nature piece:

The conclusions are concerning because they support a move that would abolish an industry

Caroline Sutton, the chief executive of the STM (a membership organization of academic publishers)

Indeed, though I would argue that what the proposals would abolish is not so much an industry as a racket. I’ve been blogging here about the Academic Journal Racket since 2009. It’s nice at last to see some real movement towards its abolition. Further on, I find:

The STM is also concerned that the move would eliminate independent European publishing companies and usher in a state-defined system that could stymie academic freedom. It warns that the amount of public funds used to build repositories of academic research papers by member states or institutions is hard to quantify.

How would free open access publishing stymie academic freedom? If anything does that it’s the extortionate publishing fees levied by publishers. And it’s a very bad argument to say that the costs of repositories is hard to quantify when everyone can see your enormous profit margins!

I was thinking about the financial strife currently afflicting many UK universities. If the UK university sector has to choose over the next few years between sacking hundreds of academic staff and ditching its voluntary subsidy to the publishing industry, I know what I would pick. In this respect I’m definitely an abolitionist.

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Pride Month 2023

Posted in Biographical, LGBTQ+ on June 1, 2023 by telescoper

It’s 1st June 2023, which means that it’s the first day of Pride Month 2023. I’m looking forward to the Pride Festival with a March and Parade in Dublin later this month, of which I’m planning to attend at least part, even if I am obviously far too old for that sort of thing. Another thing that happens this month is that I turn 60!

Incidentally, this will be the 40th anniversary of the first official Dublin Pride.

With its origins as a commemoration of the Stonewall Riots of 1969, Pride remains both a celebration and protest. It’s more necessary than ever now because of the sustained abuse being aimed at trans people from all quarters, including those in political power and those sad losers who have nothing better to do that spend all day tweeting their bigotry on social media. Bigots will always be bigots, but the lowest of the low are those that masquerade as some sort of progressive while spouting their hate and prejudice. As well as a celebration and a protest, Pride is an opportunity for us all to show solidarity against those who seek to divide us.

Though many LGBTQIA+ people in many countries – even those that claim to be more liberal – still face discrimination, hostility and violence, Pride Month always reminds me of how far we’ve come in the past 50 years. Recently my own celebration of Pride is very subdued as it tends to makes me feel old and irrelevant as well as worried that we might be headed back to the bigotry and intolerance of the past; the rights we have won could so easily be taken away. But as I get older, I find I have become more and more protective towards younger LGBT+ people. I don’t want them to have to put up with the crap that I did when I was their age.

I would like to wish all LGBTQIA+ people around the world, but especially staff and students at Maynooth University, a very enjoyable and inspiring Pride 2023!

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Book Review: “Quantum Supremacy” by Michio Kaku (tl;dr DO NOT BUY)

Posted in Literature, The Universe and Stuff on May 30, 2023 by telescoper

I couldn’t resist sharing this book review. I recommend you read all of it, but if you can’t be bothered, here is a taster:

“So I can now state with confidence: beating out a crowded field, this is the worst book about quantum computing, for some definition of the word “about,” that I’ve ever encountered.”

Ouch!

Read the rest here:

When I was a teenager, I enjoyed reading Hyperspace, an early popularization of string theory by the theoretical physicist Michio Kaku. I’m sure I’d have plenty of criticisms if I reread it today, but at the time, I liked it a lot. In the decades since, Kaku has widened his ambit to, well, pretty much […]

Book Review: “Quantum Supremacy” by Michio Kaku (tl;dr DO NOT BUY)

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The Hubble Constant: A Historical Review

Posted in The Universe and Stuff with tags , , , , , on May 29, 2023 by telescoper

I bookmarked this paper on arXiv a week or so ago with the intention of sharing it here, but evidently forgot about it. Anyway, as its name suggests, it’s a review by Brent Tully from a historical perspective of measurements of the Hubble Constant. I’m not sure whether it is intended for publication in a book – as it opens with the heading “Chapter 1” – but it’s well worth reading whatever its purpose. Here is the abstract:

For 100 years since galaxies were found to be flying apart from each other, astronomers have been trying to determine how fast. The expansion, characterized by the Hubble constant, H0, is confused locally by peculiar velocities caused by gravitational interactions, so observers must obtain accurate distances at significant redshifts. Very nearby in our Galaxy, accurate distances can be determined through stellar parallaxes. There is no good method for obtaining galaxy distances that is applicable from the near domain of stellar parallaxes to the far domain free from velocity anomalies. The recourse is the distance ladder involving multiple methods with overlapping domains. Good progress is being made on this project, with satisfactory procedures and linkages identified and tested across the necessary distance range. Best values of H0 from the distance ladder lie in the range 73 – 75 km/s/Mpc. On the other hand, from detailed information available from the power spectrum of fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background, coupled with constraints favoring the existence of dark energy from distant supernova measurements, there is the precise prediction that H0 = 67.4 to 1%. If it is conclusively determined that the Hubble constant is well above 70 km/s/Mpc as indicated by distance ladder results then the current preferred LambdaCDM cosmological model based on the Standard Model of particle physics may be incomplete. There is reason for optimism that the value of the Hubble constant from distance ladder observations will be rigorously defined with 1% accuracy in the near future.

Brent Tully, arXiv:2305.11950

Here is the concluding paragraph:

As the 20th century came to an end, ladder measurements of the Hubble constant were at odds with the favored cosmological model of the time of cold dark matter with Λ =0. The new favorite became the ΛCDM model with dark energy giving rise
to acceleration of space in a topologically flat universe. Yet ladder measurements, continuously improving, create doubts that this currently favorite model is complete. Yes, there is a Hubble tension.

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Premier League – Classification of Honours

Posted in Football with tags , on May 28, 2023 by telescoper

Now all the final results are in and validated the Board can now proceed to the classification of Honours for the 2022/23 Premier League.

As Chair, I will remind you of the regulations as we go through. Fortunately, this time matters are relatively straightforward.

Four candidates (Manchester City, Arsenal, Manchester United and Newcastle United) have a final score greater than or equal to 70 will therefore be awarded First Class Honours. All four can look forward to further study next year; Manchester City win this year’s Prize for getting the top mark.

The next four candidates all have scores in the range 60-69 so they are all in the Upper Second Class, i.e. II.1, category – though in the case of Tottenham Hotspur, only just. Liverpool will be disappointed to have missed out on a First, but Aston Villa and Brighton & Hove Actually will probably be satisfied.

Only two candidates are in the Lower Second Class (II.2) this year (Brentford and Fulham) while Crystal Palace, Chelsea, Wolverhanpton Wanderers and West Ham United all get clear Thirds, having marks in the range 40-49.

AFC Bournemouth, Nottingham Forest and Everton have all technically failed, but with marks in the range 35-39 they are “soft fails” and are allowed to pass by compensation. There being no extenuating circumstances, however, they do not qualify for Honours and must be content with being classified as “Ordinary”.

That leaves the three candidates at the bottom of the table – Leicester City, Leeds United and Southampton – who are all “hard fails” so will have to terminate the course and consider their options while taking some time out.

I hope this clarifies the situation.

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On Whit The Marking Boycott

Posted in Biographical, Education with tags , , , , on May 28, 2023 by telescoper

This is a bank holiday weekend in the United Kingdom, but not here in Ireland. Over here the old Whit Monday bank holiday is marked on the first Monday in June (i.e. a week tomorrow) rather than the last Monday in May as it is in the UK. Whit Sunday is another name for Pentecost, a moveable feast, which occurs on the 7th Sunday after Easter Sunday and therefore moves around in the calendar. Last year, Whit Sunday was actually June 5th; this year it is May 28th (today); and next year it will be on 19th May. So sometimes Ireland has a holiday on Whit Monday, sometimes the UK does, and sometimes neither.

Anyway, tomorrow may not be a holiday here on the Emerald Isle but I’ve finished marking my examinations so one major source of stress has been removed and I can get on with other things next week. Best wishes to colleagues still ploughing through their scripts.

All of this reminded me that universities on the other side of the Irish Sea are currently gripped by a marking and assessment boycott called by the University and College Union (UCU) as part of ongoing industrial action over pay and conditions. This has already been going on for over a month.

I haven’t kept up very well with what’s been going on in UK universities but it looks like a deal has been struck over pensions which will result in benefits being restored to members of the USS scheme. Drastic and unjustifiable cuts imposed on the pension scheme were just one part of the UCU industrial dispute, however, and action continues with respect to the others. Accordingly, UCU has asked its members in higher education institutions which are part of the pay and working conditions dispute to cease undertaking all summative marking and associated assessment activities/duties. The boycott also covers assessment-related work such as exam invigilation and the processing of marks. 

The managers of some universities have reacted to this boycott with 100% salary cuts to staff participating in it. The gloves seem to be off and it doesn’t seem likely that a resolution will be reached any time soon. I support the industrial action, by the way, as I hope do colleagues in Ireland who are employed as External Examiners in UK universities and who should to carry out their duties which would be tantamount to crossing a picket line.

It remains to be seen what will happen to students who hope to graduate from UK universities this summer, especially those who need a specific grade to take their next step. These students have had a difficult time with both the pandemic and the industrial action, but something must be done to arrest the downward spiral of pay and working conditions for university teachers, otherwise there will no long be a higher education system worthy of the name.

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R.I.P. Jim Hartle (1939-2023)

Posted in R.I.P., The Universe and Stuff with tags , , , , on May 27, 2023 by telescoper

It’s another one of the occasions on which I have to use this blog to pass on some sad news. Renowned physicist James B. Hartle has passed away.

Jim Hartle’s scientific work was concerned with the application of Einstein’s theory of general relativity to astrophysics, especially gravitational waves, relativistic stars, black holes, and cosmology, specifically the theory of the wave function of the universe. For much of his career he was interested in the earliest moments of the big bang where the subjects of quantum mechanics, gravity theory and cosmology overlap, leading among other things to the Hartle-Hawking conjecture.

Jim Hartle was one of the speakers at the very first scientific conference I attended in Cargèse, Corsica way back in 1986. I remember his lectures very well after all these years, not least because he was so witty. I remember his response when someone asked him about the existence of large dimensionless numbers in cosmology: “…it’s a property that numbers have that some of them are larger than others.”

Condolences to his family, friends and colleagues. Rest in peace, Jim Hartle (1939-2023).

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