sequestering carbon, several books at a time CLXIII
The latest batch, comprising his'n'hers reciprocal birthday presents.
a memory less ephemeral
random stuff that caught my fancy that I would otherwise forget
Latest posts
heatwave number 4
There are so many things wrong with this picture (phone screenshot): It is a quarter to 9 at night, and yet it's still 30°C It's going to be max 26°C tomorrow (so still heatwave temperatures) It was max 33°C today (deduced, because 26+7 = 33; it got to 35°C not far away) The idea that it is going to be colder tomorrow (rather than maybe "cooler" or "less ridiculously hot")
a turkey isn't just for Christmas
Christmas 2025 is finally over. We had the last portion of turkey in the freezer for dinner tonight.
heart totally eclipsed
Bonnie Tyler, 1951–2026. The song Total Eclipse of the Heart has enriched my life in so many ways. the original song video diagrammatic syntax of the lyrics the Lego video two alternative total eclipses : the Marsh family with Totally fixed where we are , contrasted with Total Eclispe of the Spirk Dr Who crossovers the literal video: Random use of candles then going meta: Dr Who literal crossover…
three months later
Late March, we decided to experiment with a new solar PV usage strategy due to the relative rates of chear rate grid power overnight (costing us 6.4p/kWh) and the amount we are paid for exporting during the day (15p/kWh). Rather than use the battery to power the house during the cheap rate, we would used grid power and charge the battery overnight, then export more during the day. We assumed, from…
banana bumpy
While I was away in Trieste, some bananas back home went too black to eat. Usually when this happens, my other half makes banana buns . Given the current heat, however, this time he decided to try making banana ice cream. It came out a bit lumpy (despite having been blended for quite a while), and rock hard once frozen (we're so used to soft scoop nowadays we don't even have a name for it any…
Trieste sunset
After a long day of great talks and discussions, a small group of us went out to dinner. It was still hot, but not as hot as it has been. We found a nice fish restaurant, and I had a marvellous herb salmon and green bean dish. Walking back to the hotel via a gellato shop, we stopped to admire the sunset.
view from a Trieste hotel window
I've just flown in to Trieste, for the Unconventional Computation and Natural Computation conference. It is HOT (low 30s, plausible for Italy). But it is just as hot at home (low 30s, totally implausible for the UK). While waiting in the heat for the train from the airport, there was a sudden cloudburst and high winds. It's hard to photograph rain. Fortunately we were under cover. But by the time…
sequestering carbon, several books at a time CLXII
The latest batch. (I'm trying to do these posts before the batches get too big, which means they are more frequent.)
stacking up
I thought yesterday's SeeStar shot of the moon was good. But my other half also took a SeeStar video of it. Why would you take a video of a static scene? To enhance the view. He spent today fiddling around with AutoStakkert! , software to stack multiple frames to get a better image. The result is great, much crisper: Why not just use the SeeStar to integrate over a longer time, like with other…
further and further
Another day, and the moon and Venus are even further apart. Venus just visible on the far right. Photo taken with a Pixel 10 camera; 22:14 BST This time we were ready with the SeeStar telescope, although, of course, it couldn't get both in the same frame! The moon looks better with the right focus and exposure: SeeStar S50 photo, 250mm, f/5, 1/100s exposure; 21:50 BST
what a difference a day makes
Yesterday, the moon and Venus were close in the sky . Today, less so. It really emphasises how fast the moon moves realtive to the rest of the sky. Venus moves too, relative to the "fixed" stars, but much more slowly. Venus is on the far right, just above the stalks. Photo taken with a Pixel 10 camera; 22:15 BST The phone camera makes the sky look a lot pinker than it appeared to the naked eye. We…
moon and Venus cosying up
The moon and Venus were close in the sky this evening. Given the time of year, even though it was past 10pm BST, the sky was still quite bright. Canon EOS R7 with 400mm lens, f/5.6, 1/60s exposure; 22:19 BST Squnting at that pic, it looks like the whole disc of the moon is (just) visible; it seemed plausibly so to the naked eye, too. We can test that. Ramping up the contrast to a ridiculous level…
This is what GenAI is for
I'm an AI skeptic, gleefully saving stories of AI deleting a company's entire database , or diagnosing faked diseases , or just frankly turning evil . Although it is more than happy to apologise for its poor behaviour, like after that time it set dinosaurs loose in Central Park . I'm waiting for the day it does something so extreme, the problem can no longer be ignored, the lack of any…
sequestering carbon, several books at a time CLXI
The latest batch: The photography book is in response to the recent attempts to capture images of insects in the garden . My other half wants to learn how to do it better. Which will probably include a new fancy lens or two.
today is the first day of the rest of my life
Six weeks ago I discovered I was vitamin D deficient . I have been taking my prescribed "loading dose" of 50,000 IU a week since then. The effect has been nothing short of remarkable. The fatigue evaporated almost immediately, by the end of the first week the bone pain was much reduced, and was completely gone by the end of the third week. I can definitely recommend this! So now my booster course…
If you ever wanted to know how potentially lucrative it would be to be an unethical journal editor, read on
I've blogged before about offers journal editors get to be unethical . The offers continue: Dear [editor in chief], I hope you are doing well. My name is Ivy Yang, and I work as a publishing development editor focusing on academic journal collaborations and manuscript resources. I am reaching out to explore the possibility of private cooperation with you regarding submissions to your journal. We…
and yet it rotates
Two pictures of a spotty sun, taken roughly 24 hours apart. 2026-05-29 16:48 GMT 2026-05-30 15:10 GMT Look closely, and you can see that the spots have the same pattern, but have moved. The sun rotates! No matter how much we improve our ability to take photographs through our telescopes, we will never achieve anything to rival this amazing video , taken in October 2014 from NASA's orbiting Solar…
bugs in bloom
Photos from the garden. Some tiny bugs in tiny flowers: A red damselfly perched on a bamboo cane: A blue damselfly perched on the same bamboo cane:
This is what the internet is for
This popped up in my feed today. Darth Vader's theme as a fugue. A wonderful fugue. And played on a guitar , no less!! How does he have enough fingers? At the end, there was a lovely bonus. The next video up was Stayin' Alive as a Madrigal. Sheer joy.
It was 30 years ago today...
… that my first fully dated item appeared on my website: a review of Clannad’s 1996 tour at the Cambridge Corn Exchange , attended a week earlier. I blogged about this piece of history 10 years ago . What's changed since then? Back in 2016 I was working at the University of York. I have since retired , although I still have Emerita status there. To date, on my website I have 623 non-fiction book…
sequestering carbon, several books at a time CLX
The latest batch: A friend was having a clearout, so we got a few old classic computer books. And the ZWO SeeStar User Guide should help us make better use of that telescope.
reMarkable review
I've had my reMarkable Paper Pro Move for just over 6 weeks now, so how's it going? It's had a good tryout: taking notes at a science fiction convention, on a couple of plane trips, and on a train journey. My first serious use was at the science fiction convention. The note taking went well, but I was surprised at the short battery life (about half a day of full on writing), given it is advertised…
view of the Rhine
The weather has been glorious here at the workshop in Bad Honnef, so I went for a short walk this lunchtime, down to the Rhine. close to the Rhine As you can see in the above photo on the right, there is a spit poking out into nearly the middle of the river. Walking out on the spit gave me this beautiful view down river: On my way back to the venue, I passed several other workshop attendees with…
view from workshop accommodation window
I arrived in Bad Honnef, near Bonn in Germany, yesterday evening, after a flight to Cologne airport followed by a 30 minute local train ride. I'm attending the New Opportunities in Physics‐based Computing workshop at the Physikzentrum there. The view from my window in the Physikzentrum is down to the Rhine: The venue itself is very impressive, both outside: and inside: from the top of the stairs…