Author Archives: spikekalashnikov

After a weekend of science communication stuff, brilliantly directed by Val Jamieson and Rowan Hooper from New Scientist, we have a evening at the house. We eat food prepared by Ishigaki san and Koda san who are my best friends. … Continue reading →

So,  this blog rarely bothers with the inconsequentials of my professional life but from time to time, Big Business bellows, groans and kicks his stall so hard that he is difficult to ignore. Today research at the university was featured on the … Continue reading →

So, for the last 50 years I have had a skin irritation. It is a fungal thing that I caught in a school swimming pool and have been trying to eradicate ever since. It appears and then scurries off to hide … Continue reading →

After all the razamatazz of last week, things had to change. It is written. “After the morning there comes an evening And after the evening another day. Being much more like a commanding officer Than a man to die upon … Continue reading →

Our interns, which is a totally unsuitable name for world-class science writers, Joykrit and Laura have come to the end of their  stay. We have a party. This a good day to have a party. There is a full moon, there … Continue reading →

For several months we have been building up to a major external review of the university. They like us = happiness and joy, they do not like us = misery and pain. It finished yesterday. Happiness and joy. So despite … Continue reading →

When in England I was able to take photos of English birds – mainly Tits. That’s all folks.

London- Amsterdam-Taipei- Naha. Home again.

Rosy and I go to see Mummy. We drive through film-set English villages with wooded tudor houses, ancient coaching inns, saxon churches where Edward Gibbon is buried. The Giant Hog Weed  surges from every hedgerow. Mummy at 92 is in … Continue reading →

Auntie Margie has gone to it. May flights of angels sing her to her rest. My sister Rosy organized the ceremony with great delicacy and skill such that Margie was remembered with respect and love but without undue  maudlin. Alan … Continue reading →