In the year 2022
11 February 2022
Fusion at JET
Culham Centre for Fusion Energy.
Earlier this week, the Joint European Torus experiment at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, Oxfordshire announced its latest record breaking achievement in generating fusion energy. This has resulted in world-wide interest including in South Africa where tw was invited to discuss the experiment on Cape Town's '
Cape Talk' radio station with presenter John Matham .
You can listen to the interview here.
More background information can be found in these links:
The Guardian
The Guardian
Culham Centre for Fusion Energy
Wikipedia
EUROfusion
ITER "The Way" in Latin
Some time ago I went to a private view at a gallery that was exhibiting work by my sister Alex. When I got there, she took with me with much glee to see her work hanging next to a painting by David Hockney, she really thought she had arrived.
I got the same sort of feeling when I heard tw's name mentioned in the same breath as that of Stephen Hawkins!
Just to finish off, a few interesting images to entertain you while you listen to the podcast.
University of Cape Town
Dr Tom Leadbeater University of Cape Town John Matham CapeTalk 567AM
An amphora by Alex, probably exhibited next to a David Hockney.
tw in his office at the University of Cape Town
tw in his laboratory at the University of Cape Town
07 February 2022
Ulysses
James_Joyce_Ulysses_1st_Edition_1922.
This post is unashamedly ripped off from
Shakespeare and Company , Friends of Shakespeare and Company read Ulysses podcast, Wikipedia entry Ulysses and
Hay Festival
From my point of view, Ulysses is a book that has been with me since I [tried] to read it as a VIth former at Sir John Deane's Grammar School aged 17 [in 1960]. I have to say that it gets easier to read as I get older but this may be, to quote my father: 'As I get older I find that just one book is quite enough for me to read because by the time I get to the end of it I have forgotten the start so each time I read it is a new book' and so it is with Ulysses for me.
I am really enjoying the podcast episodes of the entire novel and the purpose of this post is to alert others so that they may also enjoy them as well. Content below is taken from Shakespeare and Company
Friends of Shakespeare and Company read Ulysses podcast.
From the Friends of Shakespeare and Company read Ulysses podcast :
To celebrate a hundred years since Sylvia Beach published James Joyce’s ULYSSES, and to encourage readers to engage (or re-engage) with this spirited, funny, life-changing book, Shakespeare and Company, Paris—in partnership with Penguin Classics and Hay Festival—has created an ensemble recording of the unabridged text, to be released as a free podcast between the centenary of the publication on 2nd February 2022 and Bloomsday on June 16 2022. The celebration will culminate with a series of live discussions and performances on site at Hay Festival 2022 (26 May-5 June) and a celebration of Bloomsday at Shakespeare and Company on Thursday June 16. Read by more than a hundred writers, artists, comedians and musicians from all over the world, Friends of Shakespeare and Company read Ulysses is a polyphonic and diverse celebration of this Modernist masterwork.
Discover more about Shakespeare and Company here: Shakespeare and Company [https://shakespeareandcompany.com]
Buy the Penguin Classics official partner edition of Ulysses here: Shakespeare and Company [https://shakespeareandcompany.com/d/9780241552636/ulysses]
Find out more about Hay Festival here: Hay Festival [https://www.hayfestival.com/home]
Listen to the podcast here: Friends of Shakespeare and Company read Ulysses podcast [https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/friends-of-shakespeare-and-company-read-ulysses-by/id1605756869]
28 January 2022
Kington
The garden.
I moved to Kington on the 18 August 2021, yes i know that is last year but it has taken me this long to get round to doing a webpost. I have not been idle meanwhile, just not in the mood to do one and somewhat busy with house alterations.
I like the house and the town very much and I'm enjoying living here.
What follows are a few pics I took as I was moving in, looking at them now make me think it looked rather better then than it does now, despite my hard work.
25 Duke Street is a three bedroom end of terrace house at the edge of the town of Kington in Herefordshire, just 2 miles from the Welsh border. The house has a nice little garden and a stone built barn/workshop and backs onto the Kington stock market which regails me with the sight, sounds and smells of the local sheep sales every Thursday.
I am still at a bit of a loss as to what to call the various rooms in the house! [suggestions gratefully received] ... as you enter from the front door, on your right is the room where I have a comfy sofa and my dining table ... to your left is the room with my 'mainframe' computer and sort of office stuff ... it also has an inglenook fireplace, with no fire at the moment, but with a woodburning stove waiting to be installed ... through this room you get to the kitchen which also has a sort of breakfast area and out from that the scullery and the downstairs toilet. Outside there is the garden and at least I am sure what that is.
You would expect the upstairs to be fairly straight forward but this is not the case, you climb the stairs and enter the 'stupid corridor' this rather resembles the entrance to a fairground crazy house as the floor slopes in several directions and precipitates you into ... the bathroom and/or the back bedroom where I sleep ... Bob marley like in my single bed ... further round the stupid corridor takes you to either 'the stupid room' or the front bedroom ... which also overlooks the back! ... I do so hope you are confused!
You can see the estate agent's blurb here: 
25 Duke Street
and what it was like as I moved in below:
Kitchen.
Dining room.
Sitting room.
and so the boxes came.
err dining room
err sitting room
stupid corridor
Tutankhamun's tomb ... aka workshop
Fish and chips to end a busy day. From the 
Angel fishbar on Bridge Street.
Some Kington and environs links:
Kington Tourist centre 
Owl centre Angel fish bar 
Tajmahal Indian restaurant 
Kington Pubs Need some more visitors to help me sort these out!
McCartney's livestock market My neighbour on Love Lane.
Boing Boing
Last word on nothing
Wise words
Questionable content
Unicode Map