El Espectro 👻

To Belfast The last time I attempted to travel to Belfast to give a seminar, in 2019, it didn't go very well. This time it went better, in the sense that I've actually arrived in Belfast. The Enterprise service between Dublin and Belfast has doubled in frequency since 2019 and the price is still…

Belfast! I am in you!

A Critique of University Marketing I know I have, in the past been critical of many aspects of this University's governance, but in this respect I give credit where it is due. Maynooth does not indulge in pointless marketing. In fact, as far as I can tell, it does not indulge in any marketing…

I'm on board the Enterprise, although we're not travelling anywhere near warp speed.

It's deeply unfair that there are Starter Grants for researchers near the beginning of their careers, but no Finisher Grants for those near the end.

A Critique of University Marketing I know I have, in the past been critical of many aspects of this University's governance, but in this respect I give credit where it is due. Maynooth does not indulge in pointless marketing. In fact, as far as I can tell, it does not indulge in any marketing…

The French for "Imaginary Friend" is "Ami Imaginaire" or "Amie Imaginaire". #AI

This is our 250th publication of 2026 (i.e. in Volume 9)

The question arises: should men be allowed to vote?

The heavens speed thee in thine enterprise!

It's just a phase some people go through.

I don't like the way he reminds me of Noel Edmonds...

Hey! I know that guy!

A Cork man who went missing 34 years ago was located deceased in the UK this month - and LGBTQ+ campaigners say he was just one of a whole generation who fled Ireland’s anti-gay laws and repressive society in the late 20th century. www.thejournal.ie/patsy-osulli...

Lá Saoire i mí Dheireadh Fómhair Today being the last Monday of October, it's a Bank Holiday here in Ireland - Lá Saoire i Mí Dheireadh Fómhair (literally, the Holiday at the End of the Month of October) so ( had the morning off: I have a telecon this afternoon. This week is Study Week too so…

If he's looking for sympathy he'll find it in a dictionary...

after many years of being a refusenik Lula got access to a mobile phone recently & a social media team. It wasn't the reason he beat the far right in Brazil but it helped to drive a counter narrative to fascism wp.me/p15p2Q-hVr

Oh no! R.I.P. Walter Koenig (aka Pavel Chekov). You were my favourite Star Trek actor, after Nichelle Nichols (Lieutenant Uhura) www.rte.ie/entertainmen...

Yissss

You can't expect a fascist to be a gracious loser. www.rte.ie/news/world/2...

Lá Saoire i mí Dheireadh Fómhair Today being the last Monday of October, it's a Bank Holiday here in Ireland - Lá Saoire i Mí Dheireadh Fómhair (literally, the Holiday at the End of the Month of October) so ( had the morning off: I have a telecon this afternoon. This week is Study Week too so…

I just glanced at NASA/ADS and found that our papers have now garnered over 10,000 citations. Remarkably, the average per paper is 14.9 which is the level it has been at since we started publishing. ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/search/p_=0&...

Whatever the election result, the genocide will continue.

First Orban, now Vučić. Both fundamentally undone by rank corruption of their regimes. Which is so often the reality of the authoritarian right in power. Really worth paying heed to in Western Europe right now

Perfect. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

The Moon Woman by Jackson Pollock, 1942 https://botfrens.com/collections/212/contents/137504

Pathetic drivel.

The achievement of Serbian students overthrowing Aleksandar Vučić can't be overstated. In 2024, they began protesting. In 2025, they transformed a protest movement into civil dissidence. In 2026, they became a political party — and two months later, crushed a corrupt state-entrenched authoritarian.

Me and the regular group who like my posts.

It seems quite easy to acquire a typewriter but I'm not sure about how to secure steady supply of ribbon...

Is she going to arrest herself again? www.rte.ie/news/world/2...

It may be a forlorn dream but it would be great to see a worldwide movement of young people against those who have so obviously tried to rob them of their future.

Notts in the Eye My former colleague at Nottingham University, Philip Moriarty, alerted me to a piece in the latest Private Eye (No. 1686) about the parlous state of affairs there. The teaser on the left shows a bit more than Philip did in his post, but if you want to read the rest you should buy…

From Fermi to Dirac I was just reminded that exactly 100 years ago today, Enrico Fermi wrote this famous letter to Paul Dirac: That's why we call them Fermi-Dirac Statistics!

I see that the bottom three clubs in the English Premiership table are all from the Midlands:

Much as I'd like to see FFG go down the drain, the sample size is only 1010 so the margin of error is about 3% and none of these changes is statistically significant.

Despondency in Maynooth as the Senior Hurling Team (including the son of one of my neighbours) lost in the Kildare Club Championship Final. www.rte.ie/sport/hurlin...

I see that we have reached the part of the year in which the clock on my cooker shows the correct time.

You must be a gullible fool with money to burn.

Notts in the Eye My former colleague at Nottingham University, Philip Moriarty, alerted me to a piece in the latest Private Eye (No. 1686) about the parlous state of affairs there. The teaser on the left shows a bit more than Philip did in his post, but if you want to read the rest you should buy…

He gets on my wick.

Wonderful song by Cole Porter, wonderful vocal by KD Lang. From Red Hot and Blue. Can that really have been 1990? youtu.be/ePKhLQBiP0c?...

"I think that the European Union, both as it is and into the future, has been severely damaged by the absence of any moral position. "How can these people be aware of all of this and not call it a genocide?" - Michael D. Higgins