Well New Year's Eve has officially started for us: have just watched "Dinner for One"

Have just learned that John Varley died a few weeks ago. Sad news. One of the greatest #sf writers of all time.

Breakthrough Listen Observations of 3I/ATLAS with the Green Bank Telescope at 1-12 GHz https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.19763 The authors rule out isotropic continuous-wave transmitters above 0.1W at the location of 3I/Atlas. A mobile phone is roughly an isotropic continuous-wave transmitter at a […]

Have switched from Firefox to Vivaldi - so far, I'm very happy with that decision

Just submitted the manuscript of "1956: A Year of Wonder" to the publishers. It's a good feeling to have it finished and out of the way. #amWriting

CN Yang has died aged 103. He was one of the great physicists https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202510/18/WS68f3170ea310f735438b5bf2.html

Spent yesterday at Cliveden. Some beautiful autumn colours on display

Just got bitten on the forehead by some insect. I now have a unicorn-sized swelling...

Chen Ning Yang is 103 years old today! https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1957/yang/biographical/

Spent yesterday at Greenway, Agatha Christie's summer residence - an interesting place

And so another football season begins. Come on #boro

Oh no. Have just learned that Tom Lehrer has died. I loved his songs and his humour. He was a true genius. He was 97, so his death is not a surprise. But it is sad news. #rip

In my line of work I get more than my fair share of crank emails, usually involving the whereabouts of ET. In recent months, though, the frequency of these emails has increased. It's all thanks to ChatGPT and its relatives. LLMs are able to spit out nonsense at a rate I just can't keep up with […]

Gorgeous evening at the 17th century village, and the Villagers are about to play "Much Ado About Nothing". Perfect!

The astrodon server is closing and I have to relocate. Time then, I guess, for another introduction. #boro supporting Northerner exiled on the South Coast of England. Interested in the #fermiparadox, the cosmological #distanceladder, the relation between #science and #sciencefiction - and have […]