Michael Merrifield

Mission accomplished!

Time for some slightly delicate Wattbike surgery…

Ringing the changes with nocturnal visitors.

My garden camera once again showing how effective it is at catching the local wildlife eating.

I was slightly in two minds, but that cleared things up.

Those of us who protested in London in February 2003 remember that if Mr Blair thinks a war in the Middle East is justified, then it really isn’t.

With the Sun filters in, it really isn’t an issue — auto exposure tends to overexpose a little, but not to any serious extent.

Definitely one for his party’s Chief Whip…

Last night’s update: finally sorted that itch.

Quantisation does not define whether something is a count noun in English.

If you really say things like “how many data do you have?” Then your grasp of the language is… limited.

Yesterday’s first for the garden camera.

Anyone would think he owned the place.

Honestly, it should make very little difference, so just be down to personal preference. If you are applying for a job, you’ll likely provide a publication list. If someone is checking out your record, they’ll likely use Orcid or Google Scholar, which you can populate yourself with both names.

And the English language.

Well, me.

I would usually say “data point.”

One more time:

“Data” represents a plural concept, but it is a non-count noun (which is why it is “how much data do you have?”, not “how many data do you have?”)

Non-count nouns take singular verbs (“the water is in the cup.”)

So “the data was analysed”, not “the data were analysed.”

🧪

Pseudo-science — a drama in four acts. #GrandSolarMinimum 🧪🔭

I think I may have been the only person who ever published data from the Faint Object Grism Spectrograph.

I was observing on the MMT with the unfortunately-named FOGS spectrograph, which could obtain six whole spectra simultaneously!

Time for a little solar astronomy with the #Dwarf2. So much for that Grand Solar Minimum, eh?

🔭

Any positive stories to share about PhD supervisors?

Mine is the restraint he showed when he woke me at 3AM on my first observing trip to tell me the clouds had cleared so we could get back to work, and I told him exactly where he could stick the telescope.

🧪🔭

My digital doppelgänger needs to work on his standup routine.

I can recommend the Helarctos camera by @naturespy.bsky.social that I was given for Christmas, from which I’ve been posting shots from our yard. All solar powered, so no issue with charging, though you do have to be reasonably close to it to download content using its WiFi.

Inspired by @tronicsfix.bsky.social’s latest video, I went nosing through a dusty drawer and found this. Happily, apart from needing a new charging cable, it didn’t require any work at all.

Doing my best!

A friend has had a recent provisional cancer diagnosis overturned, when further imaging showed the lung lesions were due to Covid.

Yay!

But also, fucking Covid!

Very pleased with this final edit of the video of the tawny owl who posed so nicely for my back yard trail camera. 🪶

One other very positive thing to pick up on is the disquiet expressed by the Committee on the volume of concern that it had received in correspondence from the Learned Societies, echoed and conceded by the Minister.

One suspects they wouldn’t be scrabbling so hard to fix things without it!

Someone should tell UKRI…