Stephen Serjeant

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230 Posts
Astronomy Prof at Open University,sometimes doing OU/BBC stuff. I play with gravitational lenses, infrared astronomy and machine learning. 26.2mi (42.2km). #RejoinEU. Views here do not necessarily blah blah. He/him
Pronounshe/him
Twitterhttps://twitter.com/StephenSerjeant
Websitehttps://stephenserjeant.github.io/
Work websitehttps://www.open.ac.uk/people/ss8464
Interesting @[email protected] blog by @[email protected] on physicists who ran their @[email protected] submissions. Small sample size but enough to show pervasiveness of REF myths https://wonkhe.com/blogs/do-marginal-gains-approaches-in-universities-fuel-ref-myths/
Do marginal gains approaches in universities fuel REF myths? | Wonkhe

So much about what academics dislike about the REF is due to skewed interpretations and attempts by providers to game the system. Órla Meadhbh Murray's research pulls back the curtain on how damaging myths start.

Wonkhe
People say I overthink things but whenever I listen to Slayer I wonder if you could recreate the distorted guitar sound with 18th century tech by jury rigging cellos and what would they have thought of God Hates Us All and that’s what everyone wonders right?
About time… RW media have been compliant & uncritical of @[email protected] while govt has been rudderless for years. I’d only add that the Tories have stripped out the talent in HoC in favour of loyalty. A spell in opposition can’t come fast enough IMO https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-crisis-at-the-heart-of-the-modern-conservative-party
The crisis at the heart of the Conservative party

The Tories struggle to decide what they want to do and are unable to implement the few ideas they have

I quite like this footnote in Heino Falcke's personal reflections on today's arXiv https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.00695
The road towards imaging a black hole -- a personal perspective

The images of the supermassive black holes Sgr A* and M87* by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration mark a special milestone in the history of the subject. For the first time we are able to see the shadow of black holes, testing basic predictions of the theory of general relativity. We are also now learning more about the fundamental astrophysical processes close to the event horizon that help to shape entire galaxies and even parts of our cosmos. The ultimate result was only possible due to a large collaborative effort of scientists and institutions around the world. The road towards these images was the result of a long sociological and scientific process. It started with early pathfinder experiments and a few simple ideas that were remarkably successful in predicting the basic observational signatures to look for. This was based on the premise that black holes are inherently simple objects. Here I describe this journey and some lessons learned from a personal perspective.

arXiv.org
Apart from the fact that Dorries ignores that 2 MPs were stabbed to death in recent years, hasn’t our esteemed secretary of state for culture also forgotten that Julius Caesar wanted to declare himself king, overthrow the senate & rule as dictator, making Brutus/Sunak…. the hero
Picture from inside Robotazia from Google
Just discovered Milton Keynes has a robot-themed restaurant, @[email protected] https://t.co/v0ehYpK2mR
Stephen Serjeant 🇪🇺 on Twitter

“Just discovered Milton Keynes has a robot-themed restaurant, @robotazia”

Twitter
This article on the intellectual decline of the ⁦@[email protected]⁩ ought to be republished in the ⁦@[email protected]⁩ or ⁦@[email protected]⁩, but I guess zero chance of that https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/30/spoilt-unruly-children-tories?CMP=share_btn_tw
Spoilt and unruly children playing dress-up: how the Tories stopped being serious

Rebelliousness against any rule they don’t like has replaced political philosophy, says Alan Finlayson, professor of political and social theory

The Guardian
The @[email protected] Astronomy Advisory Panel are asking for community input for the coming @[email protected] infrastructure funding call
Just getting back to work after a few days off, checking arXiv. Nothing much has happened, right?