I think I say this during every observing run, but a great benefit to remote observing is the excellent company.

Stage is set. Here we go! #EAS2025Cork

@michaeltremmel.bsky.social and I have put together a guide on spots to get food/coffee/drinks in Cork next week during #EAS2025 #EAS2025Cork . Feel free to reach out to either of us for more information (or further recommendations!) @eas-meeting.bsky.social

More good news. The random number generator that is the university world rankings has Nottingham back in the top 100. Probably a good time to share this old piece by @astromikemerri.bsky.social blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/physics/2018...

I'll make a separate thread about one of these events later. For now, details of public talks at #EAS2025Cork can be found here: eas.unige.ch/EAS_meeting/...

"But let’s be clear: this 'burnout' that secure scholars are feeling is phantom pain where their colleagues should be . . . You are suffering from the effects of intentional systemic understaffing."

It's sad to see that the idea of academic posters is spreading to law conferences So, it's time to share again @ivacheung.com on this topic ivacheung.com/2017/10/acad...

Re-posting and including picture showing no gender gap on low stakes in-term exams and significant negative gender gap on medium stakes in-term exams. Gender gap on the high stakes final exam is 50% larger than on the medium stakes exams. #iTeachPhysics 🎢 #Physics ⚛️ #EduSky 🍎 #academia #HigherEd

Anyone who is attending #EAS2025 in Cork this June, you should look at booking your accommodation within the next week the student accommodation available through the EAS website is only on hold until then, after which it will be released to the public (and subject to price increases)!

Cooking Christmas dinner using the wonderful apron my first years got me.

🚨🚨 I'm hiring!!! 🚨🚨 Postdoc and PhD positions available to join my ERC project Exo-PEA at @tcddublin.bsky.social. The project aims to understand weather in giant extrasolar worlds ☁️⚡🪐 📆 Deadline: Jan 6th Postdoc ad: tinyurl.com/2ufcwvxf PhD ad: tinyurl.com/5amcea6p Please share widely! 🔭🪐

Just got the email that it’s time to submit proposals for sessions at EAS 2025 in Cork! We can’t wait to welcome many of you into the best city in Ireland (and of course the true capital). Im sure it’ll a great meeting and lots of interesting sessions! mail.eventsairmail.com/ls/click?upn...

I'd thought about the cost of training, but I'd never thought about the cost of inference when using GPT. Just one of the many, many things I've now started thinking about because of this newsletter. Fascinating read, recommend taking 15 mins of your day to look at it.

S-tier walk for the dog and baby this morning along the old rail way in Cork. Flat smooth surface for the buggy, smells for the dog, and a coffee shop/pastry for dad. Smooth surface! The things I care about on a walk have changed over the last two months 😅

An extra long newsletter today, because things have been about as wacky in crypto as everywhere else. Featured: Coinbase’s Stand With Crypto Alliance fudges the numbers, a (former) industry CEO has a meltdown, and an exchange suffers a nine-figure hack. www.citationneeded.news/issue-62/

Most days I forget how beautiful the campus I work on can be. Today is not one of those days.

Wonderful paper by PhD student Bidisha Sen at NTNU. She led the analysis of optical data of a "spider" pulsar system: arxiv.org/abs/2407.10800. These are binary systems with a neutron star that's ablating a nearby companion star - this behaviour gives them their "spider" name. 🔭🧵

Feel like it would be wrong to not comment on how bad the weather's been this Summer regularly. Not saying anything would be like waking up every day for a month to find your body is 5 degrees colder than it should be and just pretending it's fine.

Evidence that there has been one morning this summer where it's actually felt like summer in Ireland.

Really looking forward to hosting the European Astronomical Society's annual meeting in Cork next year - the craic will be mighty! #EAS2024 #EAS2025

The 2024 edition of the Irish National Astronomy Meeting will take place in Galway on August 29-30. If you've never been before, it's a great opportunity to meet the wider astronomy community working on the island of Ireland. astro.universityofgalway.ie/astro/inam-2...

All of the talk of the upcoming eclipse is making me think back to the 2019 one from La Silla in Chile. Totality is really something special.

Interesting article about worries over the water supply for greater Dublin. Not a fair image (as it's necessary for people to live), but the first word that comes to mind when I think of pumping water from opposite side of the country to the capital is "parasitic".

Friday night essentials - a functioning telescope, a cup of coffee, and homework for our next project.

Even though he had me up at 7am for his breakfast and walk, Hiccup still gets his Christmas present. Merry Christmas!

The emotional see-saw of academia: on the same day where my University was helping me publicise some cool research and congratulating me for the same, I also got an email from HR reminding me my contract is temporary and can be terminated without notice.

On November 20th at 6:30pm, The Royal Irish Academy and the Astronomical Society of Ireland will welcome Professor Gregg Hallinan (Caltech) to give the 2023 McCrea Lecture on "The Era of Multi-Messenger Astronomy". To book, visit www.ria.ie/2023-mccrea-...

Newest ULTRACAM team member getting trained on how to use the telescope. Keeps muttering about the hunt for a K IX star.

Hiccups internal monologue: "I'm doing what they do to get food. Now to just sit patiently and wait for it to appear".