Mike Prior-Jones

@drmikepj

Glaciologist and electronic engineer at Cardiff University. Current designer of #cryoegg and #cryowurst. UKRI Future Leaders Fellow. 🏳️‍🌈(he,him)

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Mike Prior-Jones@drmikepj· May 26

Do you have a social life? No, I have a social cupboard!

Interior shot of a corridor. A narrow door faces the camera, labelled “Social Cupboard “

Mike Prior-Jones@drmikepj· May 3

“Fool’s chocolate “

Old meme. There is a picture of a girl clutching her throat in disgust.
A plate of cookies is labelled “STOP!! LOOK CLOSE!
WAIT!
LOOK AGAIN!
FOOLS CHOCOLATE!!
DON'T BE FOOLED!!!
Raisins can be anywhere! Vigilance is your only protection against the dreaded fool's chocolate.”

Mike Prior-Jones@drmikepj· Apr 4

I have also used a children’s plastic climbing frame toy (Quadro) as a nonmetallic support for antennas, and the company kindly gave it me for free in return for some pictures of it in Greenland!

A green plastic frame half buried in snow, on a flat snowy landscape.

Two green plastic frames half buried in snow, on a flat snowy landscape

Mike Prior-Jones@drmikepj· Apr 2

Look, it’s BART!

Double spread featuring BART and the Bertin Aerotrain

Mike Prior-Jones@drmikepj· Apr 2

Look, it’s hyperloop, but travelling through the centre of the earth somehow!

Grand Terminus:
Earthport Central, 2081 AD
Passengers board train through here
Outer airlock
bly
Robot cargo
Retractable pads
Mini-jet service vehicles
You are looking at a possible intercontinental tube station of the next century
At the top an
airport-style loading finger swings over to the tube train's cabin door. The 600 passengers board their train here, while robot machines stack 100 cargo containers on the lower deck. In the background are the train sheds'. In the foreground technicians make last minute adjustments to the tube's airlock.
When all is ready, the train's doors are sealed and it glides slowly into the airlock on retractable air cushion pads. The outer airlock closes and the train begins its high speed journey through the centre of the Earth.
Journey through the centre of the Earth
laner airlock
The train glides doenhill past the ister airlock. All a is pumped out sl the tube, so there I biching to slow the train down.
The train plunges down and is soon travelling at over
1,200 km/h. It is held in the centre of the tube by magnetic levitation.
The first part of the
The train picks up
journey from A to
so much speed
C is downhill. After downhill that it
a level stretch
coasts most of the
around B the train
rest of the way.
climbs up to its
Motors are used for
destination, C.
the last few minutes.
Driverless trains were first used in 1910 on an underground line carrying mail in Munich.
Automatic control systems open the airlock as the train glides into the station at the end of its journey through the Earth.
29

Mike Prior-Jones@drmikepj· Apr 2

“By the year 2000, oil may be in short supply and extremely expensive. One solution is to return to coal…”

FUTURE TRAINS?
Speeds have risen a great deal since the Rocket's 46.7 km/h, and the present record is 380 km/h. One far off possibility is a train powered by a linear induction motor. A LIM train is powered by a type of electric motor, which, instcad of rotating on a shaft (like the one in a model train), is swept along a metal track. The track would be very expensive to build however.
Adventurous innovations like this are unlikely to be
developed commercially in the near future.
By the year 2000, oil may well be in short supply and extremely expensive. One solution could be a return to coal, of which there are immense reserves.
The train
shown below is a coal powered
Coal powered trains of the future
This train is, believe it or not, designed to be powered by coal. The streamlined version shown on the right is a
proposed passenger train locomotive; the cutaway below shows a similarly powered freight hauler.
alternative to diesel trains.
Looking far into the 21st century, clectricity will probably be generated by a combination of nuclear fusion, wind, solar and tidal power systems. The incredible train shown on the right could only be built and run using the torrents of cheap power that such systems could provide.
Crusher
28
Steam pipe goes to turbine unit
Using 'fluid bed' fireboxes,
which supports the coal. This
steam turbine trains could
makes it burn more efliciently to
become a practical reality.
heat the boiler (4). The steam
Crushed coal (1) is fed into a
generated travels in pipes through
sand-filled firebox (2). Jets of hot
the smokebox (5) to be heated
air (3) blow through the sand
more, before going on to drive the turbines (6). Used steam is condensed (7) back into water, so there is no need for water storage. The turbines power electric motors (8), just as they would in a diesel locomotive.
Onc luxury train in the USA has colour tv, two cinemas and one member of staff to every 13 passengers.

Mike Prior-Jones@drmikepj· Apr 2

A few more bits of material for you from my Usborne Book of Supertrains:

Cover of the Usborne book of Supertrains, featuring an orange TGV.

Mike Prior-Jones@drmikepj· Mar 8

@grindrod.bsky.social got your book sir! Looking forward to it!

Mike Prior-Jones@drmikepj· Mar 6

“Comment vas-tu, Mike?”

I am standing outside in front of a lorry, making a sour face and shrugging. On the van it says “bof”. (This is a French slang word that’s a bit like “meh” in English)

Mike Prior-Jones@drmikepj· Mar 3

Here’s one I’ve been to. That dome is on skis, can be pulled by tracked vehicles.

Mike Prior-Jones@drmikepj· Mar 3

An old friend of mine will say “look, the Pope!” and point over his shoulder before stealing a chip off my plate. Today I walked along Park Place in Cardiff: look, the Pope!

View of a terrace of Edwardian houses. In the bay window of the one nearest to camera is a lifesize cardboard cutout of Pope Leo. (It’s in the window of the university Catholic chaplaincy)

Closeup cropped from previous image. The Pope, in white robes, looks out from a window over a privet hedge.

Mike Prior-Jones@drmikepj· Feb 23

static.wikia.nocookie.net/ttte/images/...

Oliver ripping Scruffy in half, as a rather shocked pannier tank (Duck?) looks on

Mike Prior-Jones@drmikepj· Feb 21

My colleague Tommy was given the job of briefing Anne and her husband on how to drive the snowmobiles. Once they had got the hang of it, he and their protection officer let them go off on their own on a safe bit of glacier. The officer said it was a rare opportunity for them to be alone together.

Mike Prior-Jones@drmikepj· Feb 2

See also the logo of the governing party of Singapore: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co... In both cases the lightning bolt suggests power and action and hurt directed at the party’s enemies, so not a great logo for a nationalised train company!

Mike Prior-Jones@drmikepj· Jan 19

Yes they are! Water on glaciers often appears blue too - I don’t entirely understand the physics but it’s to do with how the crystal structure of the ice absorbs red and green light

White glacier, with blue-coloured water flowing into a moulin and making a rainbow

Mike Prior-Jones@drmikepj· Jan 17

Found this photo of Eurostar’s Emergency Chocolate Cart. The chocolate has now expired, presumably it was destroyed in a controlled fashion… #emergencychocolate #chocolate

Airline style aluminium cart. On the top is a paper label that says “EMERGENCY CHOCOLATE CART EXPIRE DATE IS 30/09/2025”

Mike Prior-Jones@drmikepj· Dec 13

Ah, the three genders....

Mike Prior-Jones@drmikepj· Dec 13

I'm not a huge fan of Substack but I tolerate it. However, a recent innovation seems to be a "this post is too big for email" banner designed to increase click-through conversions and app interaction stats. Dishonest and unncessary. (and yes, I'm aware that Substack has many worse issues).

A screengrab from a substack page. Underneath the text, a yellow box appears with an exclamation-sign roadsign symbol saying "This post is too long for email" and a button saying "Continue in the Substack app")

Mike Prior-Jones@drmikepj· Oct 22

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.

Mike Prior-Jones@drmikepj· Oct 10

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)

Microsoft 365 login box. It says "Selected user account does not exist in tenant 'University of Sussex' in red text. Below you can see that I'm signed in with a Cardiff University email address.

Mike Prior-Jones@drmikepj· Oct 8

I see I’ve acquired a team of web developers!

Spider’s webs, glossy with dew, stretched across an area of succulent plants (actually the green roof of my bike shed)

Mike Prior-Jones@drmikepj· Sep 14

Late Western Railway are living up to their reputation.

A departure board at Cardiff Central. The London train is delayed half an hour.

Mike Prior-Jones@drmikepj· Jul 27

Don’t buy a Mous phone case. I’m on my second one (a warranty replacement) and it’s already failed the same way as the first one - the rubber has come away from the hard plastic.

Phone case - the outer rubber ring that grips the sides of the phone has separated from the hard plastic backplate

Mike Prior-Jones@drmikepj· May 23

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?!" @timhortonsofficial.bsky.social

Big grey warship, very slab-sided, moored in a rippling dock, and with blue sky and cirrus clouds behind. A Canadian white ensign flies at the flagstaff.

Mike Prior-Jones@drmikepj· May 3

I got a ride to Düsseldorf on this Pride-livery ( #trainbow) ICE train

White high-speed train at a station platform. A rainbow stripe runs along the side.

Mike Prior-Jones@drmikepj· Apr 28

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

Selfie: balding white guy in blue shirt smiling, in front of a poster display with lots of glaciology fieldwork photos

Mike Prior-Jones@drmikepj· Apr 26

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

An airline-style aluminium cart, as used to serve drinks or food on a plane. A white label says EMERGENCY CHOCOLATE CART

Mike Prior-Jones@drmikepj· Apr 19

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!

A close-up on the white plastic sink plug, showing how the thin white nylon cord goes through the metal ring on the plug. It's tied with a bowline knot.

Mike Prior-Jones@drmikepj· Apr 19

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! #fieldwork #logistics #glaciology

A black carabiner, with a white cord dangling from it. Around the cord is a small roll of white gaffer tape, and a white stopper beneath it.

Mike Prior-Jones@drmikepj· Feb 24

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! www.findaphd.com/phds/project... #glacier #glaciology #phd