Things I've done in the past year that my tenure committee may find objectionable.
Category: Knoxville '82: Where Miscellany Thrive
Since we were on the topic of tenure: here is a list......
Posted by David Ng at 4:38 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The World's Fair
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David Ng is Director of the Advanced Molecular Biology Laboratory at the University of British Columbia - this is a just a fancier way of calling himself a science teacher.
Benjamin Cohen is an Asst. Professor of Science, Tech., and Society at the University of Virginia. He studies the place of S & T in environmental history, policy, and ethics. He also writes other stuff.
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December 31, 2006
Year in Review: Music Mix for 2006 (so High Fidelity)
Category: Knoxville '82: Where Miscellany Thrive
Normally, these are either songs that recieved a lot of airplay in our household, or sometimes are even songs with a certain amount of biographical significance. As well, each year end mix will usually be coupled with a few...
Posted by David Ng at 4:34 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 29, 2006
Best Sciences of the Year!
Category: Knoxville '82: Where Miscellany Thrive
Year's end brings with it the inevitable "bests of" lists. The World's Fair is no exception in this pointless exercise, but for our lapsed calendar -- unfortunately leaving us in the High Middle Ages. Here then, forthwith, are the "Best...
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 3:43 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 28, 2006
MIT professor denied tenure will start a hunger strike
Category: Links to Other Conversations and Articles
Race, science, an elite instutution, power structures, stem cell research, ethics everywhere...
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 12:23 PM • 18 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 23, 2006
Happy Holidays (Two of my favourite seasonal poems)
Category: About writing generally
I don't suspect there will be much going on here for the remainder of the year, so here are two poems I find lovely and notable. CHRISTMAS 1924 By Thomas Hardy 'Peace upon earth!' was said. We sing it And...
Posted by David Ng at 7:06 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 22, 2006
Is there a Santa? (this one has Popper, Pediatrics, and Psychotropic compounds)
Category: Humor stuff, and in the best of worlds, science humor stuff
(By Paul Clarkson and reprinted from the Science Creative Quarterly)...
Posted by David Ng at 11:32 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 21, 2006
That's right people - we've got peer reviewed research on Santa Claus here (with abstracts!)
Category: The Art/Science (Non?)Divide Building
Check out this picture, and the blurb below: A 79-year-old man with mitral valve prolapse of both leaflets and consecutive severe symptomatic mitral regurgitation underwent central double-orifice repair, the so-called "Alfieri stitch" operation. With this technique, a double-orifice mitral valve...
Posted by David Ng at 11:43 AM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 20, 2006
Inkling - way cool.
Category: About writing generally
Happy to announce and promote a new science web-magazine - the ever so funky INKLING. Courtesy of fellow Vancouver-based dudettes, Anne and Anna (of Inkycircus fame). It's got a really great tone to it, much needed really, different from the...
Posted by David Ng at 3:29 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Ocean Acidification and the bleaching of Spongebob Squarepants
Category: NatureLand: What They Used to Call the Environment
So basically things aren't looking too good for Spongebob Squarepants and his buddies. The reason being that, all of this carbon dioxide we're pumping into the air is doing some serious shit to the oceans. However in this case,...
Posted by David Ng at 3:01 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Solar Bikinis: The Classic Male Designing Mind?
Category: NatureLand: What They Used to Call the Environment
Cool your beer, charge your iPod, and wear your bikini
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 1:51 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 19, 2006
"You wish you were Indiana Jones"
Category: Knoxville '82: Where Miscellany Thrive
Another competitor for best job ad/title, to go along with the Technology Evangelist (which we found out was not such a new thing, but still funny). (With thanks again to astute observer Janey L. for sending this.) "Natural History New...
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 2:29 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Besides Nuclear Energy, Other Quick Fixes that Didn't Pan Out So Good
Category: Nuclear Energy
A list:...
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 10:06 AM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Ecological Design/The ecoMOD Project
Category: NatureLand: What They Used to Call the Environment
Another way to seek solutions to carbon emissions and over-consumption without going nuclear. Prior posts on the same subject: tidal power, DG, campus sustainability, solar investments, ecological footprints, and consumption more generally. Around Grounds here (they call it "Grounds," not...
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 9:59 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 18, 2006
"Richard Dawkins Speaks at Fair Hills Kindergarten Regarding Santa Claus"
Category: Humor stuff, and in the best of worlds, science humor stuff
This is a link to a Short Imagined Monologue over at McSweeneys. Full title: "Professor Richard Dawkins Speaks at Fair Hills Kindergarten Regarding Santa Claus, December 2, 2006." By Mike Jones...
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 9:10 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Un-American, anti-capitalist, eco-freak poseurs
Category: NatureLand: What They Used to Call the Environment
Opposing the cultural premise that individual happiness derives from consumer options.
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 7:57 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Finally, Something We Can't Accuse Mel Gibson Of (a post about Mesoamerican astronomy)
Category: Knoxville '82: Where Miscellany Thrive
Props to Mel Gibson, a note on Mayan and Aztec culture, and the city as observatory...
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 6:00 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 16, 2006
Waste and Abundance
Category: NatureLand: What They Used to Call the Environment
"Faint light on stage littered with miscellaneous rubbish": Samuel Beckett on the human condition, 1969
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 10:11 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Can it be? Three chemistry tables? Will he do it?
Category: The Art/Science (Non?)Divide Building
Here's another table. At one level, this is clearly of a different sort than the other ones I put up (like Geoffroy 1718, and Bergman 1775). This one is linguistic, not symbolic. It has words, not alchemical symbols. But on...
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 9:00 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 15, 2006
What A Mean Game of Bingo: Chemistry "In the Moist Way"
Category: The Art/Science (Non?)Divide Building
I have more, you know. More chemistry tables. Here's another. It's by the not-so-famous, younger-peer-to-Linnaeus, Swedish Chemist Torbern Bergman. It was published in 1775. He actually made a two-fold one. One represented the results of identify "elective attractions" betwen the...
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 4:14 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
A Few Christmas Science Pieces of Note.
Category: Humor stuff, and in the best of worlds, science humor stuff
Image from "Scared of Santa Gallery" One of the surreal joys of editing a thing such as the Science Creative Quarterly, is all the good stuff that comes our way. Even though the stats for the SCQ are actually...
Posted by David Ng at 1:21 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 12, 2006
My Christmas Card Letter (or: Again with the Busy)
Category: Knoxville '82: Where Miscellany Thrive
Man, right now, I'm squelched under the chaos of the "end of the year," which includes the two fold attacks from academia (research, courses, marking, etc) and life in general (Hey, it's Xmas time folks). Anyway, the only readable writing...
Posted by David Ng at 3:24 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 11, 2006
The Most Obscure Post I Could Come Up With
Category: Knoxville '82: Where Miscellany Thrive
Are you one of the so few who will find any value in this Donald Crews-to-Phish collision?
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 10:59 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 7, 2006
All Popper All The Time
Category: Links to Other Conversations and Articles
Katherine and Sarah have posted a conversation Janet and I had about Sir Karl Popper. It's "inside the Seed mothership" over at Page 3.14. Run, don't walk, to check it out. But then walk, and be careful, it's getting icy,...
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 10:29 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
We love Bill Hick, the Science Prick
Category: Humor stuff, and in the best of worlds, science humor stuff
Today the SCQ has a great humour piece, entitled "Bill Hick, the Science Prick, Houses on Fools" which of course is a direct play on words with the truly great science communicator, Bill Nye, the Science Guy. When I recieved...
Posted by David Ng at 5:12 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
What different parts of the world possess.
Category: Nature as in Earth, as in Global, as in Global Issues Generally
Since there was a lot of interest in Faith's and Peter's "Hungry Planet" book, it's only fitting to share the beauty of their first bestseller, "Material World" which is a book that focused on visually representing the total possessions of...
Posted by David Ng at 10:20 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
53% of People Prefer Pie Charts
Category: Knoxville '82: Where Miscellany Thrive
The ubiquitous pie chart v. bar graph debate continues...a philosophical matter, really
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 9:26 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 6, 2006
Science Procastination Reading (Haven't done this in a while- but got some good ones here)
Category: About writing generally
O.K. Here goes: First up. Most likely the easiest to read piece on LOC technology (Lab on a Chip). Who knew that microfluidics and lithography techniques were so cool? After reading this, you will too. ("Living la Vida Loc(A): A...
Posted by David Ng at 8:56 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Science and the Law
Category: Ethics Palace: Where ethical questions go to live or die
"Troposphere, whatever," Justice Scalia said. "I told you before I'm not a scientist."
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 8:39 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 5, 2006
Old Timey Chemistry Tables, Alchemical and All
Category: Links to Other Conversations and Articles
That's right, a 17th century chemistry table and a snippet of alchemy talk
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 7:53 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Like 'Omic God! (some 'omes' I'd like to see introduced)
Category: Humor stuff, and in the best of worlds, science humor stuff
I see that Sandra, RPM, Joan and Coturnix have weighed in on the overuse of "ome" in today's system's favoured biology, so I thought it was a good time to represent a piece that was previously published at the SCQ....
Posted by David Ng at 4:23 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Oh yeah... and apparently it's Ninja Day today (important because of physics and stuff)
Category: Ethics Palace: Where ethical questions go to live or die
The folks from the Skeleton Project reminded me that it's Ninja Day today. And since I feel guilty that currently, there are no Ninjas nominated for our advisory board, then I thought it pertinent to present their one and only...
Posted by David Ng at 2:39 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
About them snowflakes (or now you too can practically barf out snowflake trivia)
Category: Nature, as in parts, bits, molecular and stuff
So like Vancouver had a major dump of snow last week, which is just not west coast at all. Predictably, all hell broke loose, and UBC even experienced a campus wide power outage at one point. Anyway, whilst looking for...
Posted by David Ng at 2:33 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Puzzle Fantastica #2 On Its Way
Category: Knoxville '82: Where Miscellany Thrive
If you really need to get a hold of Paul, he's here now, and can be emailed at gotmybootysacked@hotmail.com We have recovered from a long phase of [insert prior reference here] PF#1 debriefing, having [insert pithy topical subject here]...
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 11:59 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 1, 2006
Richard Powers: World's Fair Advisory Board Nominee #3
Category: Advisory Board Room
"When we don't know what we are after, we risk passing it over in the dark." -- Three Farmers on their Way to a Dance
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 10:26 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
