H M Wakeling

FYI void, I am anti age verification and ID checks. You can be sure I will stop using a service/tech/etc.

Announcing the Sustainable HEP Conference 2026!

When: July 8th - 10th 2026
Where: Online only
Cost: Free!

Registration and abstracts are open now!

indico.global/e/susthep26

#SustainableHEP #SustainableResearch #AcademicSky

Cern project cut ‘weakens’ UK global standing, says STFC leader - Research Professional News Michele Dougherty grilled by MPs on “catastrophic” impact of cuts on early career physicists

Cern project cut ‘weakens’ UK global standing, says STFC leader

Scintillating performance from both physicists and MPs earlier today at the SITC hearing. Glad I was there in person.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

Rows of people wearing orange lanyards in a House of Commons committee hearing. At the front is Catherine sporting her "I'm about to perform an appendectomy" mask and looking particularly snazzy.

Here is my run-down of today's Science, Information & Technology Committee hearing (House of Commons) where @jonbutterworth.bsky.social @si-wills.bsky.social & I argued for no funding cuts, & Prof. Michele Doughtery explained why they were needed. The public gallery again packed with physicists 🔭👩‍🔬⚛️

Scientific American has updated the figure, now grouped into swimmers, fliers, walkers/runners, and vehicles. A person on a bicycle remains the most efficient way to travel, compared to all forms of biological locomotion and mechanical transport.

www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-hu...

Wordle 1,717 1/6

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Guess I've got to start thinking about a new starter word!

Over 1,000 early-career researchers have now signed our open letter to UKRI on the proposed STFC funding changes

Planned cuts will fall directly on postdoctoral and early-career recruitment, hollowing out the pipeline of young scientists and damaging long-term UK scientific capability

#saveSTFC

4 March 2026 - Science, Innovation and Technology Committee - Oral evidence session - Committees - UK Parliament 09:00 - The Wilson Room, Portcullis House

📢 @astroroyalscot.bsky.social, Prof. Jon Butterworth, & our rep for Early-Career Researchers, Simon Williams @si-wills.bsky.social will meet the SITC Committee next week to talk about the STFC funding!

Let's all attend the hearing in person and online!🙎💻

committees.parliament.uk/event/26683/...

"In the second panel, MPs will question Professor Michele Dougherty, Executive Chair of STFC about the council’s financial position and its plans to deliver savings."

"In the first panel, the cross-party committee will hear from researchers about STFC financial pressures, the withdrawal of funding from CERN’s Large Hadron Collider upgrade and the impact of funding changes on early career researchers. "

"The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Medical Research Council have also paused some funding programmes as they transition to new grant-award processes."

"In January, it was reported that STFC planned to reduce its spending by £162 million by 2029-30, with cuts expected to both current and future funding programmes. "

"Following reports that the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) is facing significant cost pressures, the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee will hold a one-off evidence session exploring scientific research funding."

"Committee explores impact of scientific research cost pressures"

4 March 2026 - Science, Innovation and Technology Committee - Oral evidence session - Committees - UK Parliament 09:00 - The Wilson Room, Portcullis House

Science, Innovation and Technology Committee (SITC) - Oral evidence session | Wednesday 4th March 2026

committees.parliament.uk/event/26683/...

UK colleagues: Please do try to follow the session, both in person and online, to demonstrate the strength of feeling across the community.

Devastating find: my Pokemon Ruby save corrupted!(?)

OG save file from lil pre-teen me too!

Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen for $20 on Switch? No ta, I already paid too much for this gadget

Not an ad, but thanks EyeBreak for being free and open source!

I downloaded an app that blurs my screen to remind me every 20 mins and it's actually great.

After starting to suffer quite significantly from eye strain (computer vision syndrome), I'm taking the 20-20-20 rule seriously for the first time in my life. I saw results in 1 day. This is no joke people.

Every 20 minutes, focus 20 feet away, for 20 seconds.

It's Pokemon's 30th anniversary of the first ever released games today. I look back fondly at the many, many hours I spent playing those games. My personal faves being Pokemon Crystal - which I got at a boot sale - and Pokemon Ruby and Leaf Green - which I still own!

Happy Pokemon Day!

It's one of those days where I am raging at the knee wiggler next to me in the library

Read the Room Read the Room, know the world. An anonymous sentiment mapping platform.

Open sourced my first project! Read the Room: know the world 🦎

AGPLv3. Flutter + Supabase. Responses stay local, only aggregates hit server.

Now with generation filters: Do Gen Z and Millennials actually see the world differently? 🤔

App: readtheroom.site

Code: github.com/readtheroom-...

Abstract deadline for the Sustainability Conference for Responsible Research Computing (SC4RC) is this week!

Submit a talk, poster or interactive session abstract by the 27th February

#AcademicSky

A person would have to donate plasma 700 times to supply enough to create one plasma television.

No wonder they don't make them anymore.

Gogol Bordello tonight!
Start wearing purple 😈

This (lunar) new year, as I have now told many friends, I shall learn a new skill each week. Something small, something achievable, but a new skill nonetheless.

Internet, hold me accountable.

"Big ugly windmills"? Have you ever seen an oil field?

Worst case if climate change is a hoax is that we spend time and money to better care for the earth and humanity. If it's not a hoax, we screwed.

I believe the scientific reports that climate change is getting worse.