ume

I think I might have missed the magnolia. They don't usually flower for long around these parts, but this year they've been shot out of the branches on to the ground extra quick. Anyway, here are some more ume.

Meanwhile, I have to slightly take back part of this, as I finally found some sympathy. Mind you, it was among middle-upper rather than middle-management. Even if nothing comes of it, it was a relief to find someone who actually thinks it is wrong that of the 3 best performers in the project, two were rewarded with demotion and pay cuts, while the third merely gets to be disgruntled at having no reward. The response of everyone else supposedly in power has been to "explain the rules", which is their way of obfuscating. Still, it is little shocking to have found out who are and are not our supporters! Unfortunately our non-supporters rise in power in JAMSTEC while our supporters drift or are elbowed away, so I'm not sure we'd get another 5 years after this one. It is the end of the financial year, and many people seem to be leaving climate science at JAMSTEC. I expect JAMSTEC to continue to sideline the climate science over the next few years, and guess that remnant of RIGC will absorbed into some other larger part sooner of later. The proposed merger of the different JAMSTEC-like institutes in a few years time could be the wild card that makes or breaks RIGC.