A particularly tricky wrestling move. The long anticipated installment of a popular Japanese police TV serial. An unfortunate typo for an especially niched Japanese pop music chart. An ointment used to treat especially aggressive forms of Nagoya. The first line of a haiku that was awarded the distinction of being “most boring.” Next year’s popular International CATS ON PROZAC seminar. A droid that is seen for only 2 seconds during the Return of the Jedi. Worst ever celebrity child name. * * * (Curious folks can read this if they’d like to find out more. Folks on twitter may add…
The Science Creative Quarterly
By David Ng
David (@ng_dave) is Faculty at the Michael Smith Labs. His writing has appeared in places such as McSweeney's, The Walrus, and also as an occasional blogger at boingboing.net. If you're looking for a graphic for your next science talk, he encourages you to check out his blog, popperfont.net.
AFTER COPENHAGEN: I FEAR CORRESPONDENCE OF THIS SORT WAS SENT.
“In stark contrast to its cuddly international image, Canada is the dirty old man of the climate world – missing its Kyoto emissions reduction target by a country mile (by 2007, it was 34% above its target) and showing no signs of reigning in its profligacy.” The Guardian, November 30, 2009 – – – >Jimbo, What the hell is going on? Copenhagen was a freaking fiasco! What happened? And how is Mr. Environment Minister going to do to fix it? Stevie (The PM). – – – >Steve buddy! O.K. We have a plan. A couple of things actually. Most of…
INTERESTING AND SOMEWHAT RANDOM ASSORTMENT OF ORGANISMS OR INAPPROPRIATE ANIMAL NAME FOR BROWNIE GIRL GUIDE LEADERS
Barricuda Fox Tit Minx Cougar – – – Greetings everyone! Please join us in ushering the International Year of Biodiversity! For those with science and badge affections, this includes a special New Year’s resolution whereby an amendment to the Science Scout drinking game rules is hereby now effective. For the year 2010, any mention of the word “biodiversity” during drinks, merits an upstanding hoisting your glass and cheer of recognition.
WHAT IS TWITTER GOOD FOR?
Well, it’s been about three weeks since I signed up for a personal account on twitter (you can follow me here if you’re interested – my handle is @dnghub), and threw out my first “tweet.” Since then, I’ve found myself fully immersed in the web tool, and feel like I can say a few intelligent things about it, especially if you’re reading this as someone who is resisting signing on, or someone who just wants to know a little more about it. It might help if I first start off with a bit of context. For instance, my lab sort…
DOES THE NAME DR. KRISANA KRAISINTU RING A BELL?
A review of Cocktail: A Play about the Life and HIV Drug Development Work of Dr. Krisana Kraisintu by Vince LiCata and Ping Chong Truth be told, I don’t read plays very often, if at all. In fact, I’m ashamed to admit that I think the last one I read was back in high school long ago, and if I remember correctly had something to do with vampires – ironic in that vampires at the time were not so popular. But this play was about something I am interested in – medicine and social responsibility – and it was referred…
MOTHER GOOSE AND THE SCIENTIFIC PEER REVIEW PROCESS.
Jack and Jill went up the hill. To fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown. And Jill came tumbling after. First of all, we are not sure there’s enough clarity in this text. Scientific literature, in particular, should leave little room for confusion. Where exactly did Jack fall down? Into the well? A little ways down the hill? All the way down the hill? It’s just too vague. Worst still, we’re not convinced that the science conducted is of high enough caliber. I mean really, who would be stupid enough to put a well on…
DARWIN: BEWARE OF JUMPING THE SHARK
In case, you weren’t yet aware, you’re currently caught in a year for scientific giddiness. A year where a collective hurrah can be heard from those who make it their business to hypothesize, analyze, and formulize. 2009 is the year of Darwin. It’s a double whammy – his 200th birthday, and also the 150th anniversary of the publishing of the “On the Origin of Species.” Both celebratory events because, if you remember, Darwin is the dude that said we were descended from apes, themselves descended from this and that creature, and so on, and so on – all in a…
THE BESTEST, MOST KICK ASS, HUMAN GENOME PROJECT
Mondo-Genetic-Services is proud to announce its latest venture, “The Bestest, Most Kick Ass, Human Genome Project.” Hot on the tails of the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium and Celera Genomics, we present to you a novel approach in the elucidation of mankind’s blueprint of life. Rather than using the frequently studied yet boring human cell lines, or samples from a small group of ethnically diverse, anonymous, and likely dull individuals, we propose a completely different strategy – that is, we plan to use the genomes of individuals handpicked by the editorial staff of People magazine, a move we feel will…
IT’S A LUCKY THING FOR EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY THAT THE FOLLOWING PASSAGES AREN’T IN THE BIBLE
Jesus then entered the farm, and saw creatures of every shape and size, and so said to his followers, “Hey, my Dad made that creature, and that creature, and also that creature… Actually, now that I think about it, he made them all.” And at the early dawn of the seventh day, just before He rested, God did a lot of pretty complicated things at super duper God speed. This was so that people would think the whole Creation thing probably took a lot longer than seven days. The heavens opened and the angels proclaimed, “Fear any literate man, capable…