From telescoper.blog
Two New Publications at the Open Journal of Astrophysics
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Since the last update we have published two more papers, taking the count in Volume 7 (2024) up to 104 and the total published by OJAp up to 219.
#meta #bluesky #threads #Mastodon #facebook #linkedin #SocialMedia
10h ago
From telescoper.blog
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You may or may not know that these blog posts appear automatically on various social media platforms. I have been posting content automatically on Meta platforms, Facebook and Threads. Recently, ho…
8h ago
From telescoper.blog
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A week or so ago I posted an item about the Edgeworth family that included a reference to Kenneth Edgeworth, an amateur astronomer of some note who first posited the existence of what is now known …
#meta #bluesky #threads #Mastodon #facebook #linkedin #SocialMedia
on Nov 3
From telescoper.blog
Letter in November – Sylvia Plath
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Love, the worldSuddenly turns, turns color. The streetlightSplits through the rat’s tailPods of the laburnum at nine in the morning.It is the Arctic,This little blackCircle, with its tawn sil…
on Fri, 8PM
From telescoper.blog
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by Edvard Munch (1911, 455 x 780 cm, oil on canvas, University of Oslo)
on Thu, 7PM
From telescoper.blog
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Rest in peace, Roy Haynes (1925-2024), one of the greatest of all jazz drummers.
on Wed, 9PM
From telescoper.blog
Why you and your institution should leave X/Twitter
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Some time ago I wrote a post asking why universities are still using X, the social media platform that used to be called Twitter. In the same vein I thought I would repost the article below, which …
on Wed, 1PM
From telescoper.blog
Why you should leave Twitter/X
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I find it deeply shaming to be working for an institution that is still happy to tout for trade in a neo-Nazi chatroom.
on Wed, 1PM
From telescoper.blog
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Image: The New European I’ve seen quite a few articles (such as this one on LinkedIn) by academics lamenting the terminal decline of the website formerly known as Twitter, so I thought I̵…
on Wed, 12PM
From telescoper.blog
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You may recall that I recently posted about the terrible decision by the Management of Maynooth University to scrap the John and Pat Hume Doctoral Scholarships and followed this up with another pos…
on Tue, 9PM
From telescoper.blog
A Problems Class in Complex Analysis
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My theoretical physics examination is coming up on Monday and the students are hard at working revising for it (or at least they should be) so I thought I’d lend a hand by deploying some digi…
on Mon, 9PM
From telescoper.blog
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Amid all the excitement last week I forgot that it was the sixth teaching week of the Semester. That means that we’re now past the halfway point. Among other things that meant that examinatio…
on Mon, 8PM
From telescoper.blog
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On Friday 8th November Taoiseach Simon Harris (left) inspired Ireland’s rugby team to a very disappointing home defeat by New Zealand. Earlier on that day he had visited the President to requ…
on Sun, 11AM
From telescoper.blog
Four New Publications at the Open Journal of Astrophysics
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Since the last update a week ago we have published four papers, which takes the count in Volume 7 (2024) up to 102 and the total published altogether by OJAp up to 217. This means not only that w…
on Nov 9
From telescoper.blog
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Today I attended a (mandatory) training workshop relating to the Developmental Review, a process which is aims to “help to align the objectives of the Reviewee with the goals of the Unit* and…
on Nov 8
From telescoper.blog
Saving Money via Diamond Open Access
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This morning I published a paper at the Open Journal of Astrophysics that brought the total number of publications there to 217. That may not seem a very significant number but I’ve had it in…
on Nov 7
From telescoper.blog
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This little cartoon has been doing the rounds on social media recently. It appears to have caused some controversy, so naturally I decided to share it here. I’m posting it without further com…
on Nov 6
From telescoper.blog
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Before anyone asks, no I didn’t stay up all night to see the US electoral disaster unfold. I was fairly sure what would happen and was not pleased to be proven right. I will never understand …
on Nov 6
From telescoper.blog
Maynooth University Library Cat Update
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Maynooth University Library Cat was on post again today, staring at empty dishes to indicate that it was feeding time.
on Nov 5
From telescoper.blog
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I couldn’t resist sharing this piece I found on YouTube a while ago and have listened to many times. It’s amazing how many of my favourite jazz performances date from 1958, and hereR…
on Nov 4
From telescoper.blog
Tara Erraught at the National Concert Hall
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Last night’s concert at the National Concert Hall featured star mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught (who is from Mullingar, in County Westmeath, and is artist-in-residence at the National Concert Hal…
on Nov 2
From telescoper.blog
Three New Publications at the Open Journal of Astrophysics
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This week I have three papers to announce, which brings the total we have published so far this year (Vol. 7) to 98 and the total published by OJAp to 213.
on Nov 2
From telescoper.blog
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Today I gave the inaugural EDI Seminar at the Department of Physics of Trinity College, Dublin. It was nice to see a large and attentive audience. At the end I was given the above book and whisked …
on Nov 1
From telescoper.blog
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I’m out all day giving a talk at the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth, near Dublin, so in lieu of a proper post here’s another Management Meme.
on Nov 1
From telescoper.blog
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The death toll resulting from the terrible floods in the Valencia region of Spain has now risen to 158 and seems set to get higher as bodies are recovered from mud and collapsed buildings. Condolen…
on Oct 31
From telescoper.blog
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Today being Hallowe’en, it seems an appropriate time to tell you a horror story. A few weeks ago I posted about the inaccuracy of the Scopus bibliographic database. I’ve contacted Scopu…
on Oct 31
From telescoper.blog
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Some time ago, back in July, I posted about the sad demise of one of the beautiful swans that had been nesting at the canal harbour in Maynooth. I used to walk along the towpath to work sometimes, …
on Oct 30
From telescoper.blog
New Image Casts Doubt on Standard Cosmological Theory
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Scarcely a day goes by without some news outlet or other claiming that recent observations have ruled out the standard cosmological model. This remarkable new image does however seem to cast doubt …
on Oct 29
From telescoper.blog
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I’m too old to be making memes, but it’s a Bank Holiday so,in the light of recent developments at Maynooth University, I thought I’d give it a go. If this one proves popular there…
on Oct 28
From telescoper.blog
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I don’t think I’ve ever written a blog post about the League of Ireland (soccer) before, but since it’s a holiday weekend and I’ve just watched Dundalk versus Shamrock Rover…
on Oct 27
From telescoper.blog
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It’s Sunday 27th October 2024 and in the early hours of this morning the clocks went back, bidding goodbye to Summer Time. You can tell I’m an oldie because I have quite a lot of time-k…
on Oct 27
From telescoper.blog
Puccini 100 at the National Concert Hall
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Last night’s Concert at the National Concert Hall in Dublin was billed as Puccini 100 as it was primarily intended to mark the centenary of the death of Giacomo Puccini. Guest conductor Carlo…
on Oct 26
From telescoper.blog
Two New Publications at the Open Journal of Astrophysics
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Since the last update we have published two more papers, taking the count in Volume 7 (2024) up to 95 and the total published by OJAp up to 210.
on Oct 26
From telescoper.blog
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It’s a small world. This year I am supervising an undergraduate project student who is looking at approximations to probability distribution functions. This project was inspired by a nice&nbs…
on Oct 25
From telescoper.blog
Pastamarkers: astronomy meets gastronomy
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It’s time to share a paper on arXiv at the interface between astronomy and gastronomy. Here is the abstract: We aim at facilitating the visualization of astrophysical data for several tasks, …
on Oct 24
From telescoper.blog
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Unusually for me on a school night, this evening I travelled into Dublin not to the National Concert Hall but to the Gaiety Theatre for a performance of Samuel Beckett’s one-act play Krapp…
on Oct 23
From telescoper.blog
Open Access Week 2024: Community over Commercialization
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This week is Open Access Week 2024, the theme of which is Community over Commercialization. In light of this, among with some other journal editors I was contacted by Scholastica to provide some co…
on Oct 22
From telescoper.blog
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I couldn’t resist sharing a piece of fundamental research I found in an article on the arXiv withthe abstract: This paper addresses the problem of determining the optimum shape for a beer gla…
on Oct 21
From telescoper.blog
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Storm season has arrived in Ireland! Storm Ashley has been battering the West of the country today. It’s not been as bad here in the sheltered environs of Maynooth, though we have had gusts u…
on Oct 20
From telescoper.blog
The Mark Brake Scandal, 15 years on…
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This story was responsible for me being threatened with a libel action. My response was to pass on the name and address of my solicitor with the message “Go ahead. Make my day.” I never…
on Oct 20
From telescoper.blog
Six New Publications at the Open Journal of Astrophysics
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As last week there are six papers to announce, bringing the count in Volume 7 (2024) up to 93 and the total altogether up to 208.
on Oct 19
From telescoper.blog
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Along with all academic staff at Maynooth University I received an email this afternoon from the Vice-President for Research and Innovation, which contained the following request: Well, I certainly…
on Oct 18
From telescoper.blog
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Back in 2023 I posted an item marking the first appearance of Louis Armstrong on record with King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band back in 1923. Now it’s time to mark another jazz centenary wh…
on Oct 18
From telescoper.blog
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Well, it has certainly been an eventful last day in India! Over a hundred people gathered at IUCAA to see this evening’s press conference, which basically confirmed most of the rumours that h…
on Oct 18
From telescoper.blog
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Today (15th October 2024) saw the release of a sneak preview of the main survey of the European Space Agency’s Euclid survey at the International Astronautical Congress in Milan. Here’s…
on Oct 17
From telescoper.blog
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The loading errors at arXiv are caused by people doing many simultaneous downloads in attempts to scrape all the content from arXiv as soon as it is announced. This is almost certainly to provide m…
on Oct 17
From telescoper.blog
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Yesterday afternoon I had my eyes examined, it being two years since my last test. I went with some trepidation because for the past several visits to the optometrist have resulted in a new prescri…
on Oct 17
From telescoper.blog
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I think it’s time to provide an update on the continuing (lack of) progress getting The Open Journal of Astrophysics properly indexed in Scopus (which markets itself as a purveyor of “m…
on Oct 17
From telescoper.blog
Space Week 2024: The Universe according to Euclid
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I had a very busy day yesterday culminating in the Space Week event I blogged about a few weeks ago. There was a good attendance – lots of young kids as well as adults – and the lecture…
on Oct 10
From telescoper.blog
The 200th Publication at the Open Journal of Astrophysics
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It was on September 11th last year that we published the 100th paper at the Open Journal of Astrophysics. Today, on 8th October 2024, just over a year later we have reached the 200 mark with this p…
on Oct 8