"Like many universities we are responding to sector-wide difficulties including declining participation rates, rising operating costs, and changes in policy relating to international students."
There’s another horrific video circulating on the timeline and this is my regular gentle and loving reminder to *turn off autoplay* on your videos so you can give consent to see these things.
"I really want to encourage more people from backgrounds like mine to get into a system that has always shut us out."
Hannah Spencer MP: plumber, plasterer, parliamentarian
Back in 2016, our scientists from @gravitycardiff.bsky.social explained the our first detection of gravitational waves youtu.be/Lcxt097G4Ps?...
(Featuring our now spokesperson Prof. Fairhurst enjoying paddling in a swimming pool)
#GW10Years
Lyrics from Joni Mitchell's song called Talk To Me: "There was a moon and a street lamp Ididn't know I drank such a lot 'Till I pissed a tequila-anaconda The full length ofthe parking lot"
Nobody writes lyrics like Joni Mitchell does.
I wish they had used a different image. I'm so sick of seeing that man's face.
Black hole art!
Looking in more detail, it's clear even ppl w/name in the database 59+ times may have had no interactions/communication w/Epstein at all. E.g. all instances of "Janna Levin" are from speaker lists at events or cc lists in Edge Foundation emails like below. I should not have posted w/o this context.
This tragic incident highlights the completely exploitative underpinnings of our dependency on digital devices, and the limits of any talk in the global north of 'digital ethics', 'tech ethics' etc.
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
I don't know what Janna Levin is doing among this lot.
Eww
AITA for not letting my son dress up as an Oompa-Loompa for the school's Roald Dahl themed World Book Day this year?
Here's my cousin, Lara Hallett, an inspiring Welsh woman, who I'm very proud of, talking about her career as a diplomat and strategic communicator.
Book titled “Mid Century Garage Doors” by James and Sarah Davenport
For the last +5yrs my wife and I have collected photos of mid century garage doors. For sheer love of the game, I have compiled more than 150 of my favorites into this coffee table book. 📖
A picture of two compact objects surrounded by gravitational waves, with the text "2025 in gravitational waves" Background picture credit: R. Hurt - Caltech / JPL
2025 was an eventful year for gravitational waves! Here is a brief round-up of some of the biggest gravitational wave news stories from last year:
This art, depicting the most massive merger detected to date, was created by our GEI PhD student, Sama Al-Shammari:
WTF
If you've made it this far, you are probably interested in gravitational waves, so here are lots of gravitational wave researchers to follow (let me know if you are one and would like to be added!) go.bsky.app/HrAJX35
GW150915/GW250114 signals: LIGO/J. Tissino (GSSI)/R. Hurt (Caltech-IPAC)
GW150914 info: Lucy Reading-Ikkanda/Simons Foundation
GW241011/GW251110: Shanika Galaudage / Northwestern University / Adler Planetarium
LISA celebration: Industriefotografie Silvia Steinbach
LISA info: ESA / ATG Medialab
The credits for the images are in the alt text for each, but here they are again in case you missed them:
header background: R. Hurt - Caltech / JPL
mergers plot: LIGO/Caltech/MIT/R. Hurt (IPAC)
GW231123 art: Sama Al-Shammari @gravitycardiff.bsky.social
GW231123 info: Simona J. Miller / Caltech
The LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA observatories are currently offline, working on improvements, but there are plans for a possible 6 month observing run, possibly beginning in the second half of 2026, so hopefully we’ll have some more exciting detections this year!
What can we expect for 2026? There are detections still to be published from the completed LVK O4 observing run, so look out for those. You can stay tuned by following @ligo.org and @ligomagazine.bsky.social . For LISA news, follow @lisacommunity.bsky.social and @esa.int .
An infographic showing how LISA will be composed of 3 spacecraft which carry lasers. Credit: ESA / ATG Medialab
Earlier in 2025, ESA sealed a deal with their industrial partner, OHB System AG, who will now build LISA. The launch is planned for 2035! @esa.int
Many scientists from the LISA collaboration, in a lecture theatre, celebrating with arms raised. A photo from the LISA pathfinder launch is projected on the screen. Image credit: Industriefotografie Silvia Steinbach
In December, LISA, the planned first space-based gravitational wave detector, celebrated 10 years since the launch of the LISA pathfinder mission which successfully tested the technology required for LISA. @lisacommunity.bsky.social
In the second event, the larger black hole was spinning rapidly in the opposite direction to the orbit - the first detection of its kind! Both events are interesting in terms of black hole binary formation, with the larger black hole in each event likely to have formed via a previous merger.
