Hugh Pumphrey
@hughpumphrey.bsky.social
2.7K followers 400 following 2.4K posts
Reader in Atmospheric Sci, Sch. of GeoSciences, Uni. of Edinburgh, UK. Works on https://mls.jpl.nasa.gov/ . Walking, singing, Linux, bellringing, astronomy, geology, geophysics and meteorology. Dislikes extreme right or leftwing politics and nationalism.
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hughpumphrey.bsky.social
Indeed: three easily-detectable ones in a day: bsky.app/profile/hugh...
hughpumphrey.bsky.social
Busy day for earthquakes yesterday according to the gravity meter at Univ of #Edinburgh: two in the Philippines and one in the Drake Passage. The Drake Passage quake was also picked up by the @raspishake.bsky.social . #geophysics #seismology
Gravity meter output for 2025-10-10 and the first part of 2025-10-11. Three earthquakes are visible during 2025-10-10. Share image from the shakenet app showing waves from an earthquake in the Drake Passage arriving in Edinburgh
hughpumphrey.bsky.social
It's a shame that @labouruk.bsky.social and Lothian East MP Douglas Alexander in particular don't really engage with @bsky.app I think they should know about "Douglas Alexander's Genocidal Nipples". Maybe @secret-labour-mp.bsky.social could tell them.
hughpumphrey.bsky.social
I don't think that they read that account. If they had the tiniest clue about how @bsky.app works they would realise that they own a domain and call themselves ed.ac.uk or edinburgh-uni.ed.ac.uk to make it clear that it is a genuine account.
hughpumphrey.bsky.social
That was really informative --- thanks. The extra complication, I suspect, is when a web site uses your email address as your user name, probably treating any changes in capitalisation less gracefully than the whole system for delivering email does.
hughpumphrey.bsky.social
Busy day for earthquakes yesterday according to the gravity meter at Univ of #Edinburgh: two in the Philippines and one in the Drake Passage. The Drake Passage quake was also picked up by the @raspishake.bsky.social . #geophysics #seismology
Gravity meter output for 2025-10-10 and the first part of 2025-10-11. Three earthquakes are visible during 2025-10-10. Share image from the shakenet app showing waves from an earthquake in the Drake Passage arriving in Edinburgh
hughpumphrey.bsky.social
Euh --- plouf. <fx: waves gauloise in a dismissive sort of way>
hughpumphrey.bsky.social
I am using the dataset because I had the .qml files lying around from earlier. But that is hardly satisfactory. I have raised a support call with Edina Digimap. (I note if you download some data from Edina you get a .csv file BGS_colours.csv but QGIS doesn't know what to do with it.)
hughpumphrey.bsky.social
I have a copy of those files --- they came in a zip file called 50k_qml.zip . I got them from Edina Digimap, but they are no longer on that web site either. Please @bgs.ac.uk , make them available again. @qgis.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy users will be very grateful.
hughpumphrey.bsky.social
I often live to regret it as well; it's nice to that there are more than one of us. (Do be sure to follow @kevverage.bsky.social and @staylorish.bsky.social BTW.)
hughpumphrey.bsky.social
Hey, @zackpolanski.bsky.social , who are we supposed to vote for in Scotland if we like you but think independence is a bad idea?

(Pro-indy people: please don't fill this thread by telling me that my opinion on independence is wrong. I know that other opinions are availabe; I am allowed mine.)
hughpumphrey.bsky.social
My practical gripe about the name "R" is that single-letter names are really hard to google for. (2/2)
hughpumphrey.bsky.social
. . . when it ought to be the predecessor, as with B-->C, right? I had not thought of that before, but it will now annoy me well into the future.

Wikipedia says that one driver for the name choice is that the two original authors given names are Ross and Robert. (1/2)
hughpumphrey.bsky.social
I think I did know. But I have been using R for a VERY long time, going back to when the community using it was far smaller, and it was less obvious that it was going to eat the lunch of many non-free competitors.
hughpumphrey.bsky.social
And I am not interested in being told I am wrong about Scottish independence. I am very aware that other opinions are available. For now, at least, I am entitled to mine. (2/2)
hughpumphrey.bsky.social
Could @greenparty.org.uk , @zackpolanski.bsky.social, @greenjennyjones.bsky.social explain who residents of Scotland should vote for if they like green policies but not Scottish independence? @scottishgreens.org won't do because they are an independence party 1st, a green party a distant 2nd. (1/2)
hughpumphrey.bsky.social
No, you numpty. It is parliamentary green, used by MPs of all parties in their roles as constituency MPs.
hughpumphrey.bsky.social
And, of course that of @drbeccycoopermp.bsky.social . I have no hesitation at all about snitch-tagging her here.
hughpumphrey.bsky.social
Ah, yes. Parliamentary green, as used on the parliament page describing every MP, Including this one: members.parliament.uk/member/4597/... and (ugh!) this one. members.parliament.uk/member/5091/...
hughpumphrey.bsky.social
Now I (old, expensive, no research income, an annoying outspoken git) am clearly the sort of person likely to be made redundant. But I cannot see how striking will change this. Quoting assets of £3bn which is mostly buildings does't help. (3/3)
hughpumphrey.bsky.social
" [...] and since it costs £120million per month to run the University, even if that cash could be used it would only last 3 or 4 months. Prudent responsible leadership requires longer-term planning than 3 or 4 months." (2/3)
hughpumphrey.bsky.social
I asked @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social and the Principal about this recently. The principal's reply was :

"Of the much-quoted £3Billion, about 15% is cash, some of it restricted ie cannot be used for anything other than the original purpose for which it was given [...]" (1/3),
hughpumphrey.bsky.social
I suggest that if we are going to post content from @privateeyenews.bsky.social then we should tag them as they do have an active account here. Also: go and subscribe. You might not agree with everything they write, but they are one of the few news outlets not owned by a rightwing billionaire.
hughpumphrey.bsky.social
If people cannot assemble all their thoughts into a coherent message (preferably an email) before sending them, I would call them a <rude name redacted>. It is bad enough monitoring email without having to monitor Teams as well.
hughpumphrey.bsky.social
I just remembered a student writing "hot pot" instead of "hot spot" or "hotspot". I pointed out that you might have to go to Hawai'i to find a hotspot, but you could find a hot pot in Lancashire.

(You can find an unrelated hot pot in 四川of course.)
hughpumphrey.bsky.social
Any of my colleagues who teach Earth Sciences in its widest sense will enjoy this thread and may have something to contribute to it.

(Also, if you are not following @edithrojas.bsky.social you probably want to.)
edithrojas.bsky.social
Students calling a rock VASCULAR instead of VESICULAR will always be funny!