Sign in

Mark Kennedy

@mcantwell.bsky.social
199 followers 95 following 54 posts

A sprinkling of astrophysics, a dash of personal thoughts, and a lot of dog photos. Lecturer at University College Cork.

PostsRepliesMedia
Mark Kennedy @mcantwell.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
Every year, my brothers and I do a run along the beach in our home town in memory of my grandad. The beach and the ocean were a big part of his life, and his stories from a time as a sailor taught me a lot about life. Would appreciate if anyone who can could support: www.idonate.ie/fundraiser/t...
idonate.ie
Support The 3K-5K Race 2025 for the Irish Can on iDonate.ie
The 3K-5K Race 2025 for the Irish Cancer Society for Irish Cancer Society, created by The 3K-5K | iDonate.ie
010
Mark Kennedy @mcantwell.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
Movie you’ve watched more than six times with a gif. Hard mode: no Stars (Wars nor Trek), LOTR, or Marvel, Disney Animated or Pixar.
media.tenor.com
a man is saying never give up never surrender !
ALT: a man is saying never give up never surrender !
030
Mark Kennedy @mcantwell.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
I think I say this during every observing run, but a great benefit to remote observing is the excellent company.
A photo of a cavachon dog sleeping on a blanket.
020
Mark Kennedy @mcantwell.bsky.social · 22/06/2025
Stage is set. Here we go! #EAS2025Cork
The letters E A S on the floor of the Aula Maxima in UCC
0142
Mark Kennedy @mcantwell.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
@michaeltremmel.bsky.social and I have put together a guide on spots to get food/coffee/drinks in Cork next week during #EAS2025 #EAS2025Cork . Feel free to reach out to either of us for more information (or further recommendations!) @eas-meeting.bsky.social
docs.google.com
An astrophysicsts guide to Cork
University College Cork’s Astrophysics Research Group presents AN ASTROPHYSICIST’S GUIDE TO CORK Our members, and their preferences Coffee/Bakeries/Snacks Restaurants (Dinner) Restaurants (Lunch) Pub...
162
Reposted by Mark Kennedy
Tony Padilla #JFT97 Don’t buy the S*n @proftonypadilla.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
More good news. The random number generator that is the university world rankings has Nottingham back in the top 100. Probably a good time to share this old piece by @astromikemerri.bsky.social blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/physics/2018...
blogs.nottingham.ac.uk
Why University League Tables are bad for you… and What’s Better - Physics
Guest post by Prof Michael Merrifield, Head of School The School of Physics & Astronomy at the University of Nottingham has just done very well in the Guardian University League Tables 2019. For reasons that will become apparent, I am not going to say how well (if you really must know, go and look it ...
063
Mark Kennedy @mcantwell.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
I'll make a separate thread about one of these events later. For now, details of public talks at #EAS2025Cork can be found here: eas.unige.ch/EAS_meeting/...
eas.unige.ch
EAS 2025
European Astronomical Society Annual Meeting 2024
011
Reposted by Mark Kennedy
Contingent Magazine @contingent-mag.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
"But let’s be clear: this 'burnout' that secure scholars are feeling is phantom pain where their colleagues should be . . . You are suffering from the effects of intentional systemic understaffing."
contingentmagazine.org
A Profession, If You Can Keep It
Imagined meritocracies mean little to extractive institutions.
010541
Reposted by Mark Kennedy
Marco Almada @marcoalmada.com · 08/05/2025
It's sad to see that the idea of academic posters is spreading to law conferences So, it's time to share again @ivacheung.com on this topic ivacheung.com/2017/10/acad...
ivacheung.com
Why academic conference posters suck - Iva Cheung
I’ve been to dozens of conference poster sessions, but I struggle to think of a single thing I’ve learned from them. I don’t think I’m alone, considering the antipathy toward academic posters I’ve not...
1174
Reposted by Mark Kennedy
David Webb @djphysicswebb.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
Re-posting and including picture showing no gender gap on low stakes in-term exams and significant negative gender gap on medium stakes in-term exams. Gender gap on the high stakes final exam is 50% larger than on the medium stakes exams. #iTeachPhysics 🎢 #Physics ⚛️ #EduSky 🍎 #academia #HigherEd
As explained in the text, each in-term exam was z-scored on a class-by-class basis and the gender gap for each group of classes was determined with HLM while controlling for each student's incoming GPA. This in-term exam score gender gap is plotted as a function of time through the 10-week term at the times the exams and retakes were taken. On the right, after the end of the term, are the overall averages for those first-attempt exams and for the recorded scores after retakes were completed. One sees that the female students generally had higher exam scores (i.e. a positive gender gap) after the first attempt and that, overall, retakes favored the male students. For reference the (clearly negative) gender gaps for 179 non-retake classes are also shown on a week-by-week basis through their terms.
0129
Mark Kennedy @mcantwell.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
Anyone who is attending #EAS2025 in Cork this June, you should look at booking your accommodation within the next week the student accommodation available through the EAS website is only on hold until then, after which it will be released to the public (and subject to price increases)!
153
Mark Kennedy @mcantwell.bsky.social · 24/12/2024
Cooking Christmas dinner using the wonderful apron my first years got me.
An apron saying "Physics Teacher. Just like a normal teacher except much cooler"
010
Reposted by Mark Kennedy
Johanna Vos @johannavos.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
🚨🚨 I'm hiring!!! 🚨🚨 Postdoc and PhD positions available to join my ERC project Exo-PEA at @tcddublin.bsky.social. The project aims to understand weather in giant extrasolar worlds ☁️⚡🪐 📆 Deadline: Jan 6th Postdoc ad: tinyurl.com/2ufcwvxf PhD ad: tinyurl.com/5amcea6p Please share widely! 🔭🪐
tinyurl.com
79747
Reposted by Mark Kennedy
Peter Coles 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ 🇮🇪 @telescoper.bsky.social · 17/10/2024
telescoper.blog/2024/10/17/t...
telescoper.blog
The trouble with arXiv
The loading errors at arXiv are caused by people doing many simultaneous downloads in attempts to scrape all the content from arXiv as soon as it is announced. This is almost certainly to provide m…
143
Reposted by Mark Kennedy
Michael Tremmel @michaeltremmel.bsky.social · 23/08/2024
Just got the email that it’s time to submit proposals for sessions at EAS 2025 in Cork! We can’t wait to welcome many of you into the best city in Ireland (and of course the true capital). Im sure it’ll a great meeting and lots of interesting sessions! mail.eventsairmail.com/ls/click?upn...
mail.eventsairmail.com
EAS2025 Call for sessions
We hereby invite proposals from colleagues who are interested in organising a Symposium, a Special Session, or a Lunch Session at the EAS Annual Meeting 2025. For full details: https://eas.unige.ch/E...
121
Reposted by Mark Kennedy
Peter Coles 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ 🇮🇪 @telescoper.bsky.social · 31/07/2024
telescoper.blog/2024/07/31/t...
telescoper.blog
Taighde Éireann
On 1st August 2024, i.e. tomorrow, a new funding organization comes into existence in Ireland, formed by the merger of SFI with the Irish Research Council. The new outfit is called Taighde Éireann …
002
Mark Kennedy @mcantwell.bsky.social · 30/07/2024
I'd thought about the cost of training, but I'd never thought about the cost of inference when using GPT. Just one of the many, many things I've now started thinking about because of this newsletter. Fascinating read, recommend taking 15 mins of your day to look at it.
000
Mark Kennedy @mcantwell.bsky.social · 28/07/2024
S-tier walk for the dog and baby this morning along the old rail way in Cork. Flat smooth surface for the buggy, smells for the dog, and a coffee shop/pastry for dad. Smooth surface! The things I care about on a walk have changed over the last two months 😅
A sail boat leaving Cork harbour, framed between trees.A long stretch of smooth paved surface with a dog and a pram in the foreground.
000
Reposted by Mark Kennedy
Molly White @molly.wiki · 24/07/2024
An extra long newsletter today, because things have been about as wacky in crypto as everywhere else. Featured: Coinbase’s Stand With Crypto Alliance fudges the numbers, a (former) industry CEO has a meltdown, and an exchange suffers a nine-figure hack. www.citationneeded.news/issue-62/
citationneeded.news
Issue 62 – Grassroots
Coinbase’s Stand With Crypto Alliance fudges the numbers, a (former) crypto industry CEO has a meltdown, and another exchange suffers a nine-figure hack.
89612
Mark Kennedy @mcantwell.bsky.social · 17/07/2024
Most days I forget how beautiful the campus I work on can be. Today is not one of those days.
The Aula Maxima of UCC, which is a stone, castle-like building, stands on a hill behind trees and a field of wildflowers.
000
Mark Kennedy @mcantwell.bsky.social · 16/07/2024
Wonderful paper by PhD student Bidisha Sen at NTNU. She led the analysis of optical data of a "spider" pulsar system: arxiv.org/abs/2407.10800. These are binary systems with a neutron star that's ablating a nearby companion star - this behaviour gives them their "spider" name. 🔭🧵
arxiv.org
The Orbit and Companion of PSR J1622-0315: Variable Asymmetry and...
The companion to PSR J1622-0315, one of the most compact known redback millisecond pulsars, shows extremely low irradiation despite its short orbital period. We model this system to determine the...
140
Mark Kennedy @mcantwell.bsky.social · 09/07/2024
Feel like it would be wrong to not comment on how bad the weather's been this Summer regularly. Not saying anything would be like waking up every day for a month to find your body is 5 degrees colder than it should be and just pretending it's fine.
000
Mark Kennedy @mcantwell.bsky.social · 07/07/2024
Evidence that there has been one morning this summer where it's actually felt like summer in Ireland.
A tree in front of a nearly cloudless sky on a July morning. I'm sure there'll be a follow up photo later of it being a nearly cloudfull sky
110
Mark Kennedy @mcantwell.bsky.social · 05/07/2024
Really looking forward to hosting the European Astronomical Society's annual meeting in Cork next year - the craic will be mighty! #EAS2024 #EAS2025
Mark holding a sign up advertising EAS 2025 In front of the main Quad building in University College Cork.
000
Mark Kennedy @mcantwell.bsky.social · 02/05/2024
The 2024 edition of the Irish National Astronomy Meeting will take place in Galway on August 29-30. If you've never been before, it's a great opportunity to meet the wider astronomy community working on the island of Ireland. astro.universityofgalway.ie/astro/inam-2...
astro.universityofgalway.ie
INAM 2024 - University of Galway
000
Mark Kennedy @mcantwell.bsky.social · 06/04/2024
All of the talk of the upcoming eclipse is making me think back to the 2019 one from La Silla in Chile. Totality is really something special.
A total solar eclipse as viewed above La Silla Observatory in Chile in 2019.
011
Mark Kennedy @mcantwell.bsky.social · 03/04/2024
Interesting article about worries over the water supply for greater Dublin. Not a fair image (as it's necessary for people to live), but the first word that comes to mind when I think of pumping water from opposite side of the country to the capital is "parasitic".
rte.ie
Water supply in Dublin is on a knife edge
The fact that people in the greater Dublin region were asked to conserve water during January just gone, in the middle of the winter, at the height of the rainy season, highlights the extent to which ...
000
Mark Kennedy @mcantwell.bsky.social · 09/02/2024
Friday night essentials - a functioning telescope, a cup of coffee, and homework for our next project.
A monitor showing the interface for a telescope, a cup of coffee, and a book on baby sleep.
000
Mark Kennedy @mcantwell.bsky.social · 25/12/2023
Even though he had me up at 7am for his breakfast and walk, Hiccup still gets his Christmas present. Merry Christmas!
A dog on a lead in the pre-dawn morning.A dog standing triumphantly over his Christmas present of a stuffed reindeer toy.
020
Mark Kennedy @mcantwell.bsky.social · 29/10/2023
The emotional see-saw of academia: on the same day where my University was helping me publicise some cool research and congratulating me for the same, I also got an email from HR reminding me my contract is temporary and can be terminated without notice.
000
Mark Kennedy @mcantwell.bsky.social · 25/09/2023
On November 20th at 6:30pm, The Royal Irish Academy and the Astronomical Society of Ireland will welcome Professor Gregg Hallinan (Caltech) to give the 2023 McCrea Lecture on "The Era of Multi-Messenger Astronomy". To book, visit www.ria.ie/2023-mccrea-...
ria.ie
2023 McCrea Lecture: 'The Era of Multi-Messenger Astronomy'
Astronomer Gregg W. Hallinan in association with the Astronomical Society of Ireland will deliver this year's McCrea lecture, which is in honour of Sir William McCrea MRIA (1904-1999), an eminent and ...
121
Mark Kennedy @mcantwell.bsky.social · 12/09/2023
Newest ULTRACAM team member getting trained on how to use the telescope. Keeps muttering about the hunt for a K IX star.
000
Mark Kennedy @mcantwell.bsky.social · 01/09/2023
Hiccups internal monologue: "I'm doing what they do to get food. Now to just sit patiently and wait for it to appear".
170