To their credit, Shepherd, Zharkov & Zharkova (2014) made very definite predictions about the evolution of sunspots toward a much-hyped #GrandSolarMinimum. Turns out, the predictions are hopelessly wrong. There’s a lot more to the non-linear solar dynamo than a couple of principal components. 🧪🔭

Garden camera update: just the usual suspect.

Ooo… just there! 🪶

Making the most of a brief break in the miserable weather to get out for a stroll. St John’s Church, Carrington, has a promise of Spring — in a week or so, its carpet of crocuses will be glorious. Even an early daffodil putting in an appearance.

Post trees you photographed. Tāne Mahuta

Just tested the new finetuned LLM on the digital doppelgänger project I built, with rather scary results: Me: [basic biographical query] DD: [irrelevant response about a paper it wrote] Me: that was a bit of a non sequitur. DD: I know; I was just testing to see if I could control the conversation.

My digital doppelgänger is scarily up to-date on my life.

Age verification? I remember this. Just.

Good to escape the distortions of The Algorithm long enough to note that, outside this ridiculous echo chamber, the population has a high and increasing level of trust in academics and scientists, and no time for social media influencers. 🧪 (www.ipsos.com/en-uk/ipsos-...)

I had forgotten how truly brilliant The Truman Show was. And how scarily prescient.

Our garden has remained a hive of activity in our absence. 🦊

My 3D printed memento looks almost as foolish as the real thing (though a bit easier to photograph), 🪶

🔊 Calling UK early career researches in astro, particle & nuclear physics. Please sign this open response to the proposed cuts at STFC ⚛️🧪🔭 "Protecting the UK's reputation as a science superpower requires not only investment, but continuity, confidence, and people" ✍️ ecr-openletter-stfc.github.io

You can just imagine the wind tunnel testing… www.bbc.co.uk/sport/articl...

I think we are going to have to come back to give South Island a go!

Up close and personal with a famous nocturnal bird. 🪶

Up close and personal with a famous nocturnal bird. 🪶

Last night in New Zealand, going out in style with a night tour of Wellington’s #Zealandia nature reserve, complete with upside-down constellations, dinosaurs, very rare frogs and New Zealand’s most famous residents.

Not all birds have to be rare or spectacular. 🪶

Making the most of an outdoor cappuccino in early February.

I was excited for a moment… #EpsteinFiles

The latest tranche of Epstein files contains a whole load of emails from Lawrence Krauss, seeking Epstein’s advice on the various harassment accusations against him. journaliststudio.google.com/pinpoint/sea...

It would seem that @ukri.org has a very short memory. Since other research councils need the facilities that STFC is expected to deliver, such cost increases have previously been shared across research councils. 🔭🧪 (www.ukri.org/news/open-le...)

The lovely town of Napier, which had the misfortune to be levelled by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake in 1931, and the good fortune to be entirely rebuilt in the next few years then left alone, leaving it full of art deco buildings.

A few more random gannet shots 🪶

This time we set out to see the birds, who did not disappoint. 🪶

More of coming for the geology, but staying for the birds. 🪶

The Moon is a funny way up around here.🔭

Evening birds: Black Swan, New Zealand Scaup, Pied-billed Grebe, and a Little Pied Cormorant putting up with the noisy upstairs neighbours. 🪶

The UK is set to cut its budget for astronomy research by a third. Since the few high-profile projects they are likely to continue to support, like ELT, tend to be the most expensive, it means even more drastic cuts to the rest of the field. It is effectively the end. 🧪🔭 ras.ac.uk/news-and-pre...

I am all for retracting papers for dishonest conduct, but retracting because the paper’s conclusions turn out to be wrong is… wrong! If the result is wrong, someone should write a paper explaining why, and showing how they reach a different conclusion if they do a better job. 🧪 youtu.be/g4BH4rIBqsc

The very spot for my afternoon nap.

Sound on.

Came for the geothermal activity; stayed for the birds. 🪶

I totally disagree with this article. Universities *should* be elitist. They should reflect the highest standards that the very best can attain. We have to get better at identifying who those people are, but that shouldn’t make elitism a dirty word. thepoliticalquarterly.substack.com/p/attacking-...

Wow!

If anyone wants me, I’ll be stopping here. (Sound on for full effect).

Looks as if the NFL needs VAR. how on earth was that not a holding call?

I was, in a minor way, the victim of academic harassment almost 40 years ago. The fact that this fairly insignificant incident so long ago still plays on my mind underlines how devastating this issue is for those who face it systematically and long-term.

Garden camera latest: just our regular visitor.

Garden camera update. No, no, make yourself at home…

While coastal erosion can be a big problem, it is currently offering a fascinating cross-sectional view of a (thankfully unused) cold-war nuclear monitoring post. (www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...)

As usual, very late to the party, I’ve just finished watching Season 1 of The Night Manager. It’s excellent. Think I’ll wait a few weeks before starting Season 2, so I can have a proper binge.

Garden camera update. A lovely bit of squirrel.

I know this analysis is a few years old now, but good to be reminded that the Royal Society is an entirely self-appointed organisation that gets to decide who gets to join. Not for nothing is it said that FRS stands for “Friends of the Right Sort.” 🧪

Seasons? Who needs seasons?

Garden camera update: just the usual suspect.

Randomly reminded of this nice pair of boobies that I was fortunate enough to see a few years back. 🪶

Pushing the Huskylens by getting it to keep switching between object recognition, face recognition and emotion recognition, to generate a single visual experience for Doppelvision. No wonder the poor camera is getting a tad warm.

I was wondering why that shrub was looking a little sorry for itself…