https://jamesfallon.eu/ Recent content in James Fallon on James' Blog Hugo -- gohugo.io en-GB Thu, 17 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://jamesfallon.eu/mockcop26/ Fri, 27 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://jamesfallon.eu/mockcop26/ Originally published on the Social Metwork - Reading Meteorology PhD Blog This year’s Conference of the Parties (COP) should have taken place earlier in November, hosted by the UK in Glasgow and in partnership with Italy. Despite many global events successfully moving online this year, from film festivals to large conferences such as the EGU general assembly, the international climate talks were postponed until November 2021. But young people around the world are more engaged than ever before with the urgent need for international cooperation in the face of the climate emergency. https://jamesfallon.eu/future-travel/ Sat, 09 May 2020 15:49:00 +0100 https://jamesfallon.eu/future-travel/ Introduction edited December 2020 As with the response to the pandemic, the transition to a sustainable future requires us to transparently and honestly observe scientific evidence. The mood of an urban landscape ambushed by waterways is captured in this beautiful painting of a kingfisher. Mural located under a bridge in Jericho, Oxford. In the UK during the pandemic, our Government and media have repeatedly encouraged unscientific ideas. Notable mentions include Boris Johnson’s Herd Immunity strategy, the official SAGE keeping their decision making transparent (in the scientific world, all ideas must be backed up by evidence and explained to other scientists for peer review before they are taken seriously), and the growing collection of conspiracies around the developed COVID-19 vaccines. https://jamesfallon.eu/social/ Sun, 02 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://jamesfallon.eu/social/ Don’t fund surveillance capitalism - don’t use Facebook! Here are some alternatives that I use :) To be honest, I don’t really use social media a whole lot anyway, in part because of the problems outlined in my blog post, and in part because I prefer direct conversations (either over the phone, through direct messaging, or at some point in the semi-distant future… in person!. Update for pandemic times! If you are using zoom to keep in touchwith friends and family, make sure to enable these privacy settings recommended by the EFF. https://jamesfallon.eu/itmo/ Wed, 11 Dec 2019 16:37:18 +0000 https://jamesfallon.eu/itmo/ The COP Climate Action Studio (COP CAS) is a scheme which enables doctoral students to remotely participate in the annual UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) Conference of Parties in real time. — copcas.uk This blog post was originally written for COP CAS during the 2019 workshop, following the progress of COP25 being held in Madrid. The original link: https://www.copcas.uk/single-post/2019/12/11/What-the-ITMO-Can-we-rely-on-Article-6-to-reduce-global-carbon-emissions #ShowYourStripes spotted again at #COP25, https://twitter. https://jamesfallon.eu/rohingya/ Sat, 14 Sep 2019 17:56:42 +0100 https://jamesfallon.eu/rohingya/ I am writing this blog post because of terrible events currently taking place in Myanmar, and the complicity of Oxford University in refusing to revoke the honorary degree of Aung San Suu Kyi. Image depicting a military camp built over a previous muslim inhabited area, from the BBC article https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-49596113 Last week, I attended a conference in London organised by the Oxford based Justice 4 Rohingya1. https://jamesfallon.eu/plant-based/ Tue, 10 Sep 2019 16:47:32 +0100 https://jamesfallon.eu/plant-based/ What is Plant Based/Vegan? The word “vegan” was coined in the late 1940s by the founder of the vegan society; veganism in practice meant abstaining from any practices which exploit animals for food, commodities, work, hunting, and all other uses. The defintion used by the modern Vegan Society was created in 1951 by Oxford theologian Leslie J Cross. Veganism: The principle of the emancipation of animals from exploitation by man — Leslie J Cross 1951 - Oxford University theologian and tutor Who goes vegan, and why? https://jamesfallon.eu/climate-crisis-info/ Mon, 08 Jul 2019 11:33:07 +0100 https://jamesfallon.eu/climate-crisis-info/ In October 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report examining the consequences of 1.5°C to 2.0°C global warming. The report is produced to inform policy makers of the expected impacts climate change will bring, and explores how that changes under different future where we emit too much greenhouse gases compared to scenarios where we rapidly decarbonise. Human activities have caused an average 1.0°C warming so far, and at current rates of warming this is likely to reach 1. https://jamesfallon.eu/privacy/ Fri, 05 Jul 2019 09:21:00 +0100 https://jamesfallon.eu/privacy/ updated 2020-05-09, new sources and reduced article length Countless articles concerning online privacy use the hook “our lives are increasingly dominated by computers/phones/the internet”. And that’s pretty much how I want to start this blog post… Online messaging means WeChat in China, and to rest of the world mostly WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger. All three operate as sole providers for their service – if you wish to communicate with a WhatsApp user, you must install the official WhatsApp app, and must agree to WhatsApp terms of service, and must let WhatsApp handle all of your conversation. https://jamesfallon.eu/foss/ Tue, 25 Jun 2019 11:36:22 +0100 https://jamesfallon.eu/foss/ This guide is currently a work in progress, more to be added soon. Biography – What software do I use? List of software I use to be added here… And below is more software that could fit your needs. Mobile Operating Systems Lineage OS Purism Disroot & Equivalents F-droid App Store Email Client Desktop Operating Systems https://librehunt.org Word Processing & Office Software Libre Office Open Source Cloud-based software Email Client https://jamesfallon.eu/solar-blocker/ Sat, 01 Jun 2019 12:37:18 +0100 https://jamesfallon.eu/solar-blocker/ Image taken from an episode of the Simpsons where Mr Burns' scheme to profit from increased electricity consumption sees him plunging Springfield into perpetual darkness. I am writing this for a friend who shared with me an article on the possibility of using a ginormous array of solar panels parked between the Earth and the sun, in order to offset global heating. Sending solar panels to space Summarising the article published in medium. https://jamesfallon.eu/projects/ Thu, 23 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://jamesfallon.eu/projects/ MPhys Project in Aerosol-Cloud Interactions Getting to spend time focussing on different aspects of this project, receiving excellent support from my supervisors, and bringing it altogether in my report was an incredible experience, and definitely the highlight of my undergraduate (integrated masters) degree. I look forward to writing about my project at some point in the future. Analytical Modelling of Borehole Heat Exchangers (Geothermal Energy) – HUST, Wuhan The borehole heat exchanger is an important component in the ground coupled heat pump.