Emeritus professor of astronomy at the University of Nottingham. All my own views. Here for interest, so anyone who doesn’t interest me gets blocked.
Nottingham
Joined June 2011
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Time to update my pinned post, just because this selfie makes me very happy.
(Monku View Point on @hermisland, 26 July 2022 at 11PM. 2s exposure on @SonyAlpha 6600 with Samyang 12mm f2 lens, pushed to ISO 10000, just reprocessed with @Lightroom’s amazing AI noise reduction.)
Tempted to apply just for the entertainment value. The good news is that they can’t possibly appoint any internal candidates, since none of the current crop of PVCs meets the requirement of “a record of… improving performance.”
Oh, who am I kidding?
timeshighereducation.com/uni…
A miserable evening, so needed a Saturday-night movie full of foolish hooey. “Mayday” from @AppleTV hit the spot perfectly, with its 007-esque stunts, its 1980s soundtrack, and, best of all, Kenneth Branagh’s Russian accent.
Today I found myself contemplating the sensitive randomness of human history, and how many people would not be here if it weren’t for local engineer, Thomas Hawksley, whose memorial I happened to walk past in Arnot Hill Park on a stroll today. 1/3
When cholera struck the UK in 1848, Nottingham was almost unaffected. The reason was that Hawksley had set up the country’s first large-scale constant pressure water supply here in 1831, using a steam engine to pump a head of water up to a reservoir, ensuring a clean supply. 2/3
Progress in scientific research draws on both conformists and iconoclasts.
astromikemerri.substack.com/…
“I don’t have a clue what I am doing, but I’m doing it anyway.”
(arxiv.org/abs/2610.28575)
So happy to find a Matt Spears video waiting for me on YouTube!
youtu.be/3pfnSu6HLB8
Any Reform supporter chanting the mantra that it is only a few bad apples has really missed the point of that proverb.
But wait… there’s more.
Inside Reform: Aspiring Reform MP calls for 'concentration camps' for migrants
itv.com/news/2026-10-17/insi…