Mike Prior-Jones
drmikepj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Mike Prior-Jones
@drmikepj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Glaciologist and electronic engineer at Cardiff University.
Current designer of #cryoegg. UKRI Future Leaders Fellow.

🏳️‍🌈(he,him)

[bridged from https://mastodon.social/@drmikepj on the fediverse by https://fed.brid.gy/ ]
I have made a tear-off Darkness Calendar for the winter. Every week I can tear off a page and get the sunset times. It starts next week and runs for 14 weeks, by which time we’ll be back to sunset at 1700 here in Cardiff.
October 22, 2025 at 9:07 PM
Thanks a heap, Microsoft. You were supposed to make collaboration easier.

(Yes, I know Microsoft are bad, but it's what the institution provides so we're stuck with it)
October 10, 2025 at 9:07 AM
I see I’ve acquired a team of web developers!
October 8, 2025 at 7:52 AM
Hey Admiral insurance - my name is not that special! @yournameisinvalid
October 5, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Late Western Railway are living up to their reputation.
September 14, 2025 at 3:39 PM
This is my Mous phone case, which has given up (the two different materials have split apart). This one was a warranty replacement for a previous one that failed the same way. They’re expensive and not worth it.
July 27, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Fedex: "Your name contains invalid characters".

Me: No, it doesn't.

@yournameisinvalid
July 23, 2025 at 8:04 AM
Today’s unexpected discovery: if you put condensed milk in the freezer it doesn’t actually freeze solid, so then you can take a dollop of -20C milky sweet deliciousness and stir it into your coffee for iced coffee!
July 12, 2025 at 10:02 AM
Had a lovely (but expensive - £70 return) day out on the beautiful Welsh Highland Railway from Porthmadog to Caernarfon and back. Beautiful scenery, amazing sight and sound of a steam engine working very hard. (Also, the train was driven and fired by two […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
July 3, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Off on #fieldwork today - my first time on an undergraduate residential field trip. We’re going to Switzerland to study glaciers, hydroelectric schemes and natural hazards. (No, we’re not going to Blatten…)
June 2, 2025 at 7:29 AM
The new platform at #cardiffbay has opened. It’s huge! #tfw #southwalesmetro #cardiff
May 27, 2025 at 7:44 AM
On my ride into work this morning I saw that HMCS Montréal, a Canadian frigate, was visiting Cardiff. I stopped by to speak to the sentries:

Me: "Good morning, welcome to Cardiff! Did you find the Tim Hortons yet?"

Sentries: "There's a Tim Hortons?!"

I think I might have made their day!
May 23, 2025 at 8:12 AM
Particularly egregious case of Betteridge's Law here:

Spoilers for the French Revolution?
May 10, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Want to come and see Cryoegg, Cryowurst and some of our other work on instruments for glaciology and hydrology? I’m in the MacGyver session in Hall A after lunch. #egu25 @egu-cr.bsky.social
April 28, 2025 at 11:17 AM
Lovely evening in Köln, we stayed in the Ibis hotel in the railway station which lets you watch trains from the corridor!
April 27, 2025 at 7:00 AM
We are being held up by a technical problem in the Channel Tunnel - probably an hour’s delay. Fortunately I spotted that there is EMERGENCY CHOCOLATE in the cafe car! #train2egu #emergencychocolate
April 26, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Went out today - ate dim sum, climbed a small mountain with a lovely view over South Wales and across to England, and met a very friendly horse.
April 21, 2025 at 5:06 PM
My local hardware store only had 2mm nylon cord - I think for a proper version I'd go up to 3mm or 4mm climbers' accessory cord (aka cordelette) - but I'd need to check that it'll go through the loop on the bath plug!
April 19, 2025 at 3:30 PM
In my job I do a lot of logistics - packing and unpacking, shipping and labelling. Last year, whilst doing fieldwork in Canada, I thought "wouldn't it be great to have a gaffer tape dispenser on my belt?".

Behold, the prototype!
April 19, 2025 at 3:11 PM
The bike shed is by the wonderful people at https://atlanticbike.co.uk/
March 18, 2025 at 9:28 AM
Last summer we installed a new bike shed in our front garden. It has a green roof covered in sedum plants. A few weeks ago, my partner said to me “what this needs is… miniature dinosaurs”, so last weekend we found these two stegosaurs and they’re happily browsing on the sedum.
March 18, 2025 at 9:05 AM
Sunny day out: cycling from Penarth to St Fagans along the Ely Trail. Part way along I found this commemorative stone which celebrates the opening of a picnic area by the trail in 2009. There are no picnic tables now, just a clearing with access to the water for anglers.
March 9, 2025 at 4:44 PM
I was in WH Smith today and they had a whole stand of Filofaxes. Have they come back into fashion or have WHS not updated their stock since the 80s?
March 8, 2025 at 8:02 PM
I have a PhD studentship available for a UK-resident mechanical engineer, physicist or engineering-minded geoscientist - developing a free-floating probe that'll travel through water channels inside glaciers in Greenland! […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
February 24, 2025 at 2:09 PM