New bits for bread machine

Over three years ago, I bought my current bread machine. And since then, it has baked a loaf for me almost every second day. That is over 500 loaves. That must show. And it does.

One thing that happened is that the anti-stick layer of the bread pan deteriorates over time. It gets harder to get the bread out. Another thing is that the bread pan is made of fairly thin aluminium, and when the machine is kneading dough, the dough is pushed strongly in one direction, which inevitably means that something is applying force the other direction. And by the looks of it, this slowly distorts the pan. Mine started out rectangular, but is now more a parallelogram. And I am sure this contributes to that it is getting increasingly difficult to get the bread out.

I didn't automatically assume you could buy them separate; I didn't even expect it. But it was worth having a little google to check. Lo and behold; you can! So I ordered a new bread pan and it soon arrived. It is a bit higher than the other one, but it does fit my machine. And it works! It is lovely and easy to get the bread out. I'll just have to adjust the settings; with identical settings, you get lighter bread with new pan.

The old and the new

Another issue is that the shaft that drives the kneading paddle is more or less the shape of a half circle. The pedal has a similarly shaped cut-out. Initially. But the shaft is clearly made of harder metal, and it is on a mission to erode the material of the paddle away until in the end, the half circle has turned into a circle. And then the whole machine doesn't work anymore.

The paddle with the hole for the shaft; the red line indicates the approximate initial bottom of said hole

I should have ordered them at the same time, but I wasn't quite switched on enough to do that. I ordered a new paddle separately. And a message it had been delivered arrived soon. But there was no sign of it! A bit like my initial cabinet door handles. What a nuisance. 

I don't know how this will pan out; I hope they will send me a replacement. But I think the paddle will last long enough to allow me to keep baking while this situation is being resolved; let's hope at least that will be the outcome. At least I have my pan!

I also hope is that the actual machine keeps functioning for a while. It would be sad if I had a new pan and a new paddle, and then the actual bread machine gives up the ghost! Let's hope not…

Surface sampling

Low tide was at 7:17. I need low tide for my sampling, This would be an early start! And I would have to pick the students up from Bangor. That meant: getting up at 5:00, leaving the house at 5:30, load up the hired vehicle at 5:45, picking up the students at 6:15. We could then be at HQ at 6:45, and in the field by 7:15. Perfect timing! Jaco would pick up his students (basically, all those not coming with me) at the same time. And because of the student members, we needed a third vehicle, with some of his students, and some of mine.

It didn't quite work that way. One student had overslept and was only there at 6:30. I had picked up my gear, not Jaco’s; I figured he would do that himself. That was a misinterpretation. Our technician, driving the third vehicle, didn't pick it up either so someone had to get back for it. We didn't have the key for HQ, so we got there for no reason. It was a bit complicated!

In the end we all got to where we need to be, and the tide was still fine. I had discussed with the students where we would take a transact of sediment samples. And that had been conveniently close to parking.

It was a bit misty, but it was dry, and the temperature was pleasant. Perfectly fine fieldwork weather. On the way into the estuary we looked at the environment we came through, and chose which ones we wanted to sample. And when we decided we had been as far as we wanted to be, we tried to survey in the location I took the first sample. I couldn't make the GPS reach its normal accuracy, but it would have to do. At least the sampling went well. We made sure that only take as many samples as we have sieve stacks. That is novel; normally, I make every student take a sample. But this is quite a big class, and that seemed excessive. Fewer samples means less work for everyone.

The estuary 

When we were done, I was quite keen to get to HQ. We could; Martin was there by now. And a few students were keen on a coffee. I would take my student to the lab afterwards, and of course, in the lab, you can't eat or drink. So this was our chance. I also wanted to ask Martin a few things. Jaco and his students were done for the day, so they were more keen to go back to campus. So two vehicles went straight back to campus and mine went past HQ. 

It was about ten o'clock when we reached HQ, and I had had breakfast at five. I was quite desperate to consume something. One of the students handed me a coffee and I was very grateful. And I had half my lunch. I also go to ask Martin everything I needed to ask, so after that we could go.

In the lab, all went well (except one mishap with the handle of an oven.) With only seven samples to sieve, and the students really being quite executive about it, we were done quite soon. And then Stef, our technician for the day, offered to bring all the students back to main campus. That was great! That saved me driving there and back. Why use two vehicles when you can use one.

In the office I could do all these other things need doing, and when I was done, I could take the rental vehicle home. Nobody else needed it the rest of the day. And that meant I could drive straight from home to where the students are picked up the next day. That would save me at least half an hour!

The day after had the same schedule. And mostly similar weather, although this time we caught a little shower. The students were quite responsive again. And this time, I got the GPS to work well. 

The work in the lab was quick, like the day before. And again, Gareth took all the students back to Bangor so I didn't have to do that. And I processed the samples of the day before. Well before lunchtime I was done! So that was pretty much it for the surface sampling. Popping back into the lab process the second batch of samples will not take long. Onwards to the coring! 

Field trip starts

We the geosciences-oriented people always start term two weeks before everybody else, with the Newborough filed trip. And this year, the weather forecast for the start of the field trip was absolutely rubbish. In the morning before I left it was bucketing down. I also drove in through rain. The students, who had been asked to gather on the Ocean Sciences campus, had sought refuge in one of the buildings.

Martin took attendance and then we could all get into vehicles, to get to Newborough. We have fieldwork HQ there. And by the time we got there, it had stopped raining!

Martin said some introductory things, and suggested that we might as well have lunch before we go into the field. We left at noon.

As usual, we went to Malltraeth first, to have a look at the landward end of the estuary. But it was high water spring tight, so there was less to see than normal. Then we went into the saltmarsh. I did my thing there. I told him about why these environment are important, and why foraminifera are important too. 

I thought we would then go to where we take our sediment cores, but we didn't; we went all the way to the other side of the estuary. Martin pretended it was on purpose. Dei knew he had just missed a junction. Never mind! We had a good look at the beach and the dunes and how the beach is different on either side of Llanddwyn island and where the waves break.

On the beach

Martin explaining stuff

View on Llanddwyn

 

By then it was time to go back to HQ. We skipped the coring location altogether. Fine with me. 

Back at HQ, Dei reminded all the students of how to survey. It turns out that they had almost all learned this already, more than once. He did it anyway. And then we could go back to SOS. 

The atmosphere in my vehicle was good. I had the impression the whole group was quite engaging. Great! Sometimes you get quite a number of very unresponsive students, and I find that rather disheartening. 

In Brynsiencyn we saw two hitchhikers. We had two spare seats. I asked the students if we should pick them up, and they said yes, so we did. They turned out to be German tourists, housesitting for someone in Tregarth.

We got back to SOS. That was the end of the first field day! The next one will be a lot more hard work. But so far so good. And in my own car I brought the hitchhikers to the recommendation and then I could go home. Time to eat pizza with Neil! And the day after, I wasn't needed. I could use this Sunday to get mentally ready for the Monday, which was going to be a day with a very early start… 

Phone problems

I like phoning my mum on a regular basis. I have an international phoning app, which is cheaper than just normal phoning. But it started playing up. First it wouldn't let me phone my dad, but at least there is a workaround as I can FaceTime his wife. Then it wouldn't let me phone my mum anymore either. I have no idea why.

One night I decided to just phone my mum anyway, but the direct way. Yes it is more expensive, but it is important that I manage! It worked once. But then just phoning her resulted in the same refusal from the phone. And she doesn’t do WhatsApp or FaceTime or email or any of that, so if I can’t phone her, I can’t let her know I can’t phone her, except by snail mail. 

I was wondering if it was my phone. By phone standards, it is old. It does more quirky things. Neil didn't believe it. He thought it might be something with the SIM card or with the provider. 

When I couldn't phone my mum at all, I did some more fanatical googling. Why couldn't I do this? I got nowhere with the international phone app. I tried some phone settings and rattled the SIM card. I googled if maybe there are alternative apps I could use. When I couldn't phone my dad anymore I had already googled that, with little result, but maybe I hadn't looked hard enough. I got nowhere.

The next day I did log into my account on the website of my provider, and I noticed that it seems to have merged. It used to be O2, and now it is Virgin Media O2. Might that have something to do with it? Did something change with the conditions?

To be on the safe side, I sorted an international calling bolt-on, and raised my spending limit. Even though I think that if this was a money problem my provider is an idiot. If someone is trying to make a phone call and they ran out of budget, surely the thing to do is disconnect the call and then display a message that says “you ran out of budget; go here to top up or change your allowance”. I mean, I want to make a call and they want to earn money; why not enable both? 

Either way; I hope I have sorted it. But if not; I asked my future killer AI for advice regarding useful apps. It found things I hadn’t, and they looked useful. I still have my old phone but I may be in business again! 

Threat of AI

When it is on the news that AI insiders are warning that there is more than 10% chance that AI will kill us all within 10 years, that is a reason to worry. Have I heard some people claim that this is a publicity stunt? Yes. Is that thinkable? Also yes. Unfortunately, it is also quite thinkable that they mean it, and that they know what they're talking about.

Some months ago I had a discussion with Neil about this. He wanted to know what could go so wrong. I didn't know the details. But what I had done was read a review of a book that goes into detail about these things: If Anybody Builds It, Everyone Dies. I bought the book, and gave it to him. I told him to read that rather than ask me questions. He's not finished it yet, but when he has, I'd like to read it myself. Not in order to feel reassured! Maybe more to know what to get mentally ready for.

I remember that many years ago, I read in the newspaper that some scientist in the know said that the next big disaster to happen to humanity would be a pandemic. They said it was pretty much inevitable. They just didn't quite know when it would happen. And I must say that when COVID-19 broke out, I did appreciate it I had had advanced warning. This could be the same thing.

Will we be killed by AI? I don't know! One way to find out. I really wouldn't put it past humanity to let it get this far. And that would, obviously, be sad. But if it happens, at least I think I will have lived longer than most people, ever. So I could consider myself lucky…

Cwm Idwal with the Challenger conference

The Challenger Society describes itself as the foremost learned society representing the UK academic marine research community. Once every two years they have a conference. This year, it would be in Bangor. Tom was involved in the organisation, and he had sent an email around saying he wanted to include a few field trips in the program; would the usual suspect who lead trips into the field, like Dei and me, be willing to do the same for the conference? I said yes. And we agreed I would do the trip to Cwm Idwal.

I have done that trip many times; I don’t need to prepare for delivering the information. But close to the time I wanted to know what the logistics were. What time would the coach leave where, and what time did it need to be back? How many people would attend? The answer to the last question was: quite a few. I had just spoken with James, our new PhD student, and he offered to come along. I gratefully accepted that offer. 

On the day, I biked to the visitor centre. It’s about as far as to the office. It was great weather for it! When I got there I checked if the bloke we had given the mystery bag to was in, but he wasn’t. Then I just waited for the coach with conference people to turn up. It was quite early!

We were 29 in total. A big group! I was glad I had James. And we also had Sijing, one of our PhD students; she was also happy to help. Great! 

We did the trip counterclockwise as then you get to some good bits quicker. The audience had a few geologists in it, a few biologists, a bucket-load of physicists, and some undeclared people. And they had all chosen to be there. It was a lovely group! 

View on Tryfan

View on Llyn Idwal

We looked at the mountains, the syncline, the roches mouttonnées, the grass that gives away the presence of mafic rock, the lake, and the moraines. And I talked about the earliest British geologist who has been mapping here. And that Darwin had been one of them.

I had a great time, and I think the people in general did. We did have some people who walked rather slowly, though. And once you are at the far end of the lake you are committed to a fair walk back to the coach. I decided to do my last spiel everyone except the tail walkers. They need all the time to get back to the road. We were a little bit late, but the coach driver was relaxed about it. Fortunately!

When we had loaded everybody up I could accept my bike ride home. That practically downhill all the way. Very comfortable! I figured it had been a success. 

Group pic. Notice Sijing far left and James far right

Talk about lakes

One day I came into the office and saw that the name on the office next to mine had changed from Dr Iestyn Woolway to Prof Iestyn Woolway. Normally, you know that that is happening. There tends to be a promotion round announced, and at the end of it the Head of School sends a congratulatory email to everyone about all the people that have been successful. None of that had happened.

Soon after I saw a public lecture by Iestyn advertised. His inaugural lecture! Or so I thought. I like these. But it turned out it was something else; it was the Jack Darbyshire Memorial lecture. Jack Darbyshire was the first Professor of physical oceanography in Bangor, and Iestyn can trace his academic lineage straight to him. They also by coincidence both come from Blaenau. But whatever lecture it was; it was public, I wanted to go, I wondered if Neil did too. He had listened to a public lecture by Tom, be it online, and he had really enjoyed that. He might like this too.

I saw Iestyn on the day of the talk and he was complaining that talking for one hour is actually quite difficult. I was confident he would be fine. 

When I made my way to Main Arts, where it would all take place, I was a bit nervous because it was so quiet there. How many people would show up? But I was just early, and more people did appear. One of these was (obviously) Neil. 

He was also a little bit early, so after tidying my stuff up and helping Tom with some introductory sentences in Welsh he wanted to say (he would introduce Iestyn), I took Neil on a brief tourist walk through the building. It is quite beautiful! He agreed with that. Then we went into the lecture room. 

It started with the recently retired head of the National Oceanographic Centre, who had been a student of Jack Darbyshire, who did an introduction on the man. He spoke for almost half an hour. Iestyn wouldn't have had to worry about having to talk for too long! And then Tom introduced Iestyn himself. He is an unusual man given that he is in the school of ocean sciences, working on freshwater. Somehow he manages to be more successful than anybody else. 

Ed Hill talks about Darbyshire

Iestyn starts his own talk

He started with climate change. And with what’s so special about lakes. And what sort of ways there are of gathering data about them. And then he went into detail of the work he and his research group had been doing. On lakes in the Amazon basin. Lakes in the Arctic. Lakes in the Himalayas. Lakes getting warmer. Lakes getting bigger or smaller. Lakes providing varying levels of connectivity to communities that rely on boats for transport. 

The results were always: there is a problem, and it is getting bigger, fast. And then the talk was over. There was time for questions. 

Neither Neil nor I asked one. Soon we were outside again. And we left soon after. 

Neil was a bit depressed after this relentless doom. I am used to it. But at least he had found it interesting. So had I; I know Iestyn works with lakes, but now I know a lot more about what he does with them. And it was nice to put some faces to names. I talk a lot about colleagues, and now Neil has seen quite a few! 

Important folk: fltr Yueng, an alumnus, Ed Hill, Jack Darbyshire’s son, Iestyn, Tom, Stuart, and John