Elizabeth Tasker

Rocket bottoms in the swamp summer of Tokyo.

Ready to take a deep dive into the science from humanity's three asteroid sample return missions: Hayabusa, Hayabusa2, and OSIRIS-REx? 🪨🛰️

Written for non-geophysicists (like me!), and those new to the field who don't yet ask to "pass the halite" at the dinner table, this review takes you on a whirlwind tour of the three missions and what was found when the samples crashed back to Earth:

My review paper for the journal of Contemporary Physics:
https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.22182

It’s Showa Day (a national holiday) in Japan, and I ran into a dance festival. I think these are normally performed in summer, but nowadays April is close enough! Performers played drums and flutes and the half-moon straw hats are called “amigasa” (編笠).

Is it absolutely ridiculous to buy frozen baked potatoes?

Yes.

Are they delicious and perfectly cooked after five minutes in the microwave?

Also yes.

Anyone have a good (and cheap) conference platform for online/hybrid meetings?

I really want the talks streamed into the platform, rather than using a separate app like Zoom, to keep everyone together for talks, questions, and discussion.

Budget is uncertain, so we were considering "Discord", but the new age verification (needed for "stage access") could be a barrier.

This telephone box still actually has a working telephone, but has also been invaded by a little library 📚

Received an email inviting me to submit a “virtual feature” for a writers’ convention.

After MANY messages, I realised that I’d be paying to be the content which seems… bold… and opposite to most events.

I guess this is a paid advert but DUDE! Next time lead with “surprise, you’re the sponsor.”

Visit to Biddulph Grange Garden, a @National Trust property with beautiful Victorian gardens populated by plant specimens from around the world originally collected by James Bateman in the 1800s 🪴

Here I am, trying to avoid falling into a pond in the Chinese garden as my aunt takes a photo 😂

Bottoms up! 🦆

An egg. Oh yes.

This is the “forgotten fairyland” VR @walkaboutminigolf course. The wind is howling, the rides are broken, stalls are overturned, and the coconut stall is called “dump a humpty”. Finding this fairyland was a terrible mistake. We naturally played minigolf.

There’s a lot of people at the medical clinic this morning and they all seem to know each other 🧐

Was there a giant party last week in which everyone got Covid?

… might stand outside 😅

Received a package via Evri with the requisite email showing a photo of the parcel at delivery.

…that photo showed the parcel in the delivery person’s car chilling next to their kid like it was on a day out.

And I gained a new appreciation for people who follow orders without ever asking… why.