After yesterday’s terrible news, it seems apt to remember happier times.
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Clearing Advice for Physics and Astronomy Applicants!
Posted in Education with tags Cardiff University, Clearing, education, Russell Group, School of Physics & Astronomy on August 17, 2017 by telescoperToday’s the day! This year’s A-level results are out today, Thursday 17th August, with the consequent scramble as students across the country to confirm places at university. Good luck to all students everywhere waiting for your results. I hope they are what you expected!
For those of you who didn’t get the grades they needed, I have one piece of very clear advice:
The clearing system is very efficient and effective, as well as being quite straightforward to use, and there’s still every chance that you will find a place somewhere good. So keep a cool head and follow the instructions. You won’t have to make a decision straight away, and there’s plenty of time to explore all the options.
As a matter of fact there are a few places still left for various courses in the School of Physics & Astronomy at Cardiff University. Why should you choose Cardiff? Well, obviously I have a vested interest since I work here, but here’s a video of some students talking about the School.
For further information check here!
Follow @telescoperThe Anomaly of Research England
Posted in Politics, Science Politics with tags QR funding, Research England, Research Excellence Framework, Science and Technology Facilities Council, UK Research & Innovation on August 16, 2017 by telescoperThe other day I was surprised to see this tweet announcing the impending formation of a new council under the umbrella of the new organisation UK Research & Innovation (UKRI):
Welcome to the official Twitter account of Research England – a new council within @UKRI_news. Launching in April 2018!
— Research England (@ResEngland) August 7, 2017
These changes are consequences of the Higher Education and Research Act (2017) which was passed at the end of the last Parliament before the Prime Minister decided to reduce the Government’s majority by calling a General Election.
It seems to me that it’s very strange indeed to have a new council called Research England sitting inside an organisation that purports to be a UK-wide outfit without having a corresponding Research Wales, Research Scotland and Research Northern Ireland. The seven existing research councils which will henceforth sit alongside Research England within UKRI are all UK-wide.
This anomaly stems from the fact that Higher Education policy is ostensibly a devolved matter, meaning that England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland each have separate bodies to oversee their universities. Included in the functions of these bodies is the so-called QR funding which is allocated on the basis of the Research Excellence Framework. This used to be administered by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), but each devolved council distributed its own funds in its own way. The new Higher Education and Research Act however abolishes HEFCE and replaces some of its functions into an organisation called the Office for Students, but not those connected with research. Hence the creation of the new `Research England’. This will not only distribute QR funding among English universities but also administer a number of interdisciplinary research programmes.
The dual support system of government funding consists of block grants of QR funding allocated as above alongside targeted at specific projects by the Research Councils (such as the Science and Technology Facilities Council, which is responsible for astronomy, particle physics and nuclear physics research). There is nervousness in England that the new structure will put both elements of the dual support system inside the same organisation, but my greatest concern is that by exlcuding Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, English universities will be given an unfair advantage when it comes to interdisciplinary research. Surely there should be representation within UKRI for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland too?
Incidentally, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) has started the process of recruiting a new Executive Chair. If you’re interested in this position you can find the advertisement here. Ominously, the only thing mentioned under `Skills Required’ is `Change Management’.
Follow @telescoperReturn to Cardiff
Posted in Biographical with tags British Airways, Cardiff, Copenhagen, Heathrow Terminal 5 on August 15, 2017 by telescoperWell, I made it back to Cardiff on schedule last night, although that did involve getting home at 2am. I was pretty much exhausted by then so had a bit of a lie-in this morning. I think I’m getting too old for all this gallivanting about. I crashed out soon after getting home and had to spend an hour or so this morning sorting through the stack of mail that arrived while I was away (including some book tokens courtesy of another crossword prize).
I usually try to get to the airport plenty of time in advance when I’m flying somewhere, so got to Copenhagen airport yesterday a good three hours before my scheduled departure. I had checked in online before setting out so I could have left it later, but I’m obviously a creature of habit. As it happened I was able to leave my luggage at the bag drop immediately and it took no longer than 5 minutes to clear the security checks, which meant that I was left with time to kill but I had my iPod and plenty to read so it was all fine.
I was a little disturbed when I got to the departure gate to hear the announcement that `Tonight’s British Airways flight to London Heathrow is operated by Qatar Airways’, but at least it explained why it wasn’t a BA plane standing outside on the tarmac. As it happened the flight went smoothly and Qatar Airways do free food and drink for economy class passengers (unlike BA who nowadays sell expensive snacks and beverages supplied by Marks and Spencer). The only downside when we arrived at Heathrow was that we parked at a remote stand and had to wait 20 minutes or so for a bus to take us to Terminal 5. I could hear the ground crew unloading luggage while we waited, however, so that meant less time waiting at the carousels…
On previous occasions I’ve been greeted at Heathrow by a packed passport control area, but this time it was virtually deserted. In fact I’ve never seen it so empty. My bag was waiting for me when I got to the reclaim area so I got to the Heathrow Express terminal and thence to Paddington in time for the 10.45pm train to Cardiff.
When I got back to the Data Innovation Research Institute office around lunchtime I discovered that our big screen TV has been installed.
This will of course be used exclusively for skype calls and video conferences and in no way for watching cricket or football or any other inappropriate activity.
Well, I’d better get on. Marking resit exams is the order of the day.
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Farvel til NBI
Posted in Biographical with tags Niels Bohr Institute on August 14, 2017 by telescoper
I just had my last lunch in the canteen in the Niels Bohr Institute and will shortly be heading off to the airport to begin the journey back to Blighty. It’s been a pretty intense couple of weeks but I’ve enjoyed it enormously and have learnt a lot, even though I’ve done hardly any of the things I originally planned to do!
I haven’t been staying in the building shown in the picture, but in one of the adjacent buildings not shown. In fact my office is directly above the canteen. I took this picture on the way home on Sunday, as I noticed that the main entrance has the date `1920′ written on it. I do hope they’re planning a 100th anniversary!
Anyway, farewell to everyone at the Niels Bohr Institute and elsewhere. I hope to return before too long.
Follow @telescoperA Picture of Peter Cvitanovic
Posted in Politics with tags Nazi, Peter Cvetanovic on August 14, 2017 by telescoper
The angry chap on the right (appropriately enough) on this image taken at the violent demonstration at Charlottesville Va at the weekend is a white nationalist member of the alt-right white supremacist Nazi by the name of Peter Cvjetanovic.
Apparently Peter is unhappy that his picture is being shared so widely on the internet. Life is tough sometimes.
And, yes, I mean Nazi.
Grave Thoughts Again
Posted in Biographical, History, Literature with tags Assistens Kirkegard, Copenhagen, Hans Christian Ørsted, Lauritz Melchior, Niels Bohr on August 13, 2017 by telescoperThis is my last full day in Copenhagen before flying back tomorrow evening, so I decided to take care of some unfinished business by visiting the famous Assistens Kirkegård in the Nørrebro district of the city. I went there five years ago (almost to the day) but on that occasion I didn’t find the memorial I was looking for, that of the great Heldentenor Lauritz Melchior.
I was surprised to find at the time that his name was absent from the main index, and still doesn’t appear on the maps displayed at the cemetery. Its location is however now on a guide you can find online so I had little difficulty locating it this time round. In case anyone is interested it is in section F, near the western end of the park. Lauritz Melchior was cremated, and his remains interred in a small family plot:
The small slab to the left marks the burial of Lauritz Melchior:
In fact this memorial is not far from that of another famous Dane I missed last time, pioneering physicist Hans Christian Ørsted:
The Hans Christian Ørsted Institute, part of the University of Copenhagen, is a short walk from the main buildings of the Niels Bpohr Institute. It houses Chemistry and Mathematical Sciences and some physicists of the Niels Bohr Institute.
You might think that a cemetery was a rather morbid choice of place to go for a stroll in the sunshine, but actually it’s not that way at all. It’s actually a rather beautiful place, a very large green space criss-crossed by pleasant tree-lined paths. These are poplars:
We British have a much more reserved attitude to cemeteries than the Danes seem to have, at least judging by their behaviour in this place; joggers and cyclists pass through Assistens Cemetery at regular intervals, and many people were having picnics or just sitting and reading between the gravestones. I find this matter-of-fact attitude to the dead rather refreshing, actually.
Part of the attraction of Assistens Kirkegård – the name derives from the fact that it was originally an auxiliary burial place, outside the main city, designed to take some of the pressure off the smaller cemeteries in the inner areas – is the large number of famous people buried there, many of whose graves I found last time. I didn’t however notice the large area devoted to common graves nor did I realise that there was a memorial to French and Belgian soldiers of World War 1. Most of these died in 1919, which puzzled me. It turns out that they had been prisoners of war and many of them were ill or injured and had been sent to Copenhagen to recuperate only to be struck down by the Spanish ‘flu epidemic of 1919.
It’s noticeable that some of the smaller graves are extremely well-tended whereas many of the more opulent memorials are in a state of considerable disrepair. I think there’s a moral in there somewhere. My ambition is to be forgotten as quickly as possible after my death so the idea of anyone erecting some grandiose marble monument on my behalf fills me with horror, but I have to say I do find graveyards are strangely comforting places. Rich and poor, clever and stupid, ugly and beautiful; death comes to us all in the end. At least it’s very democratic.
Follow @telescoperCat and Beard
Posted in Beards, History on August 12, 2017 by telescoperNo time for a proper post today so here’s a picture of a Victorian lighthouse keeper and his cat.
Boycott’s Hundredth Hundred
Posted in Cricket, History with tags cricket, Fourth Ashes Test 1977, Geoffrey Boycott, Headingley, Hundredth Hundred on August 11, 2017 by telescoperAnd now for something completely different.
Forty years ago today, on 11th August 1977, during the first day of Fourth Test against Australia at Headingley Geoffrey Boycott drove a delivery from Greg Chappell to the onside boundary to reach his century. He thus became the first player to reach one hundred first class hundreds in a Test Match at his home territory at Leeds (in the Midlands).
I wasn’t at the match but I did watch it on TV and I remember seeing that shot, which almost hit the non-striking batsman (Graham Roope), as it happened. It was an interesting experience looking back because few people were in doubt that Boycott would get a hundred that day. It seemed to be an historical inevitably.
Boycott went on to make 191 out of an England total of 436. As always for a Boycott innings, it was based around a solid defence and immense concentration, and he didn’t score quickly by modern standards, but he did hit 14 boundaries on the way to his century (and 22 in the innings overall) and I remember him playing some lovely shots.
The frustration of the Australians of having to bowl at Boycott for so long was almost palpable and when they came out to bat it was as if they had lost the will to live. They were all out for 103 in the first innings and, following on, could manage only 248. England won by an innings and 85 runs.
There’s been a lot of media coverage of Geoffrey Boycott’s hundredth hundred but for myself I’ll just say that it’s nice that the occasion reminded me of that wonderful summer of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, during which Virginia Wade had won Wimbledon, and England regained the Ashes.
Follow @telescoperClimate-change denier Lord Lawson is an expert – he once wrote a book about dieting
Posted in Uncategorized on August 10, 2017 by telescoperThis kind of crap is the reason I don’t listen to Radio 4 anymore. It’s bad for my blood pressure.
(not satire – it’s the Tories!)
I see climate-change deniers have brought out their big guns to deny the recent flooding and storms are anything to do with climate change.
Former Thatcher chancellor Nigel Lawson went head-to-head with Met’ Office Chief Scientist Professor Julia Slingo – destroying her scientific assessments that the recent extreme weather conditions were almost certainly the result of climate change with the devastating scientific argument that she is just : “this Julia Slingo woman“.
Personally, I don’t know much about the science behind climate change. So let’s take a look at who is most likely to be right on the scientific arguments around climate in general:
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You had me at “it’s just this woman” Nigel.
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Please feel free to comment.
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Related articles by Tom Pride:
Climate change sceptic Andrew Neil also once thought heterosexual AIDS was a myth
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In the Dark 