October 30, 2017
As of November 1st, 2017, ScienceBlogs is shutting down, necessitating relocation of this blog.
It's been over eight years and 1279 posts. It's been predatory open access publishers, April Fool's posts and multiple wars on science. A long and wonderful trip, career-transforming, network building…
September 26, 2017
Deja vu all over again. Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.
Canadian science under the Harper government from 2006 to 2015 was a horrific era of cuts and closures and muzzling and a whole lot of other attack on science.
One of the most egregious was the threat to close the PEARL…
September 11, 2017
The last one of these was in mid-June, so we're picking up all the summer stories of scientific mayhem in the Trump era. The last couple of months have seemed especially apocalyptic, with Nazis marching in the streets and nuclear war suddenly not so distant a possibility. But along with those…
August 18, 2017
After a bit of an unexpected summer hiatus, I'm back to regular blogging, at least as regular as it's been the last year or two.
Of course, I'm a committed Game of Thrones fan. I read the first book in paperback soon after it was reprinted, some twenty years ago. And I've also been a fan of the HBO…
June 16, 2017
Another couple of weeks' worth of stories about how science is faring under the Donald Trump regime. If I'm missing anything important, please let me know either in the comments or at my email jdupuis at yorku dot ca. If you want to use a non-work email for me, it's dupuisj at gmail dot com.
The…
June 13, 2017
As a kind of quick follow up to my long ago post on Some perspective on “predatory” open access journals (presentation version, more or less, here and very short video version here) and in partial response to the recent What I learned from predatory publishers, I thought I would gather a bunch of…
May 31, 2017
For people who are wondering why I'm not doing more of my patented chronologies or collections of posts, the answer is pretty simple. There's so damn much going on it's hard for me to find the time and mental energy to bring it all together. I'm currently working on posts covering the Trump budget…
May 2, 2017
Come work with me! Be my department head!
Here's the full posting:
Position Rank: Full Time Tenure Stream - Assistant/Associate/Senior Librarian
Discipline/Field: Head of Steacie Science and Engineering Library
Home Faculty: Libraries
Home Department/Area/Division: Steacie Science and Engineering…
April 28, 2017
Like with La La Land a few months back, here we have a jazz-themed documentary that I haven't seen yet but have read an awful lot about.
Unlike La La Land, I actually intend to see Chasing Trane and actually have tickets to see an upcoming showing at a Toronto theatre.
The reviews seem fantastic,…
April 23, 2017
Many thanks to the organizers of this past weekend's March on Science here in Toronto. They invited me to be part of the amazing roster of speakers for the event. I was honoured to take part and offer some of the lessons I've learned in the course of my various listing projects over the last number…
April 1, 2017
You know, I'm the best librarian. Just the best. My collection is huge. The very very best collection. Such a great collection. I love collecting. I'm very good at bibliographic instruction. Nobody does bibliographic instruction like me. Students love it. I can talk for hours. I have long,…
March 27, 2017
For your reading and collection development pleasure...
It's been a while since I've done one of these posts, kind of seeing what's on my mind a little in the science-y and tech-y book world and kind of a way to help me remember what I want to pick up. It's also been a while since I've actually…
March 24, 2017
The world is going to hell in a hand basket. But at least we can laugh as we're sucked relentlessly into the Hellmouth.
Maybe if we all collectively understood science and evidence better, the path to Hell wouldn't be quite so straight and narrow. So maybe that's what's making me think of these…
March 14, 2017
OK, I admit, Friday Fun a few days late...
In any case, last Friday marked the 20th anniversary of the premiere of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Yes, March 10, 1997 marked the very first episode of one of the greatest TV shows of all time, and certainly my personal favourite. Although I didn't start…
February 24, 2017
My library's Hackfest was yesterday so I'm feeling kind of burnt out today. Today's linked post cheers me immensely, in a side-eye, gallows humour kind of way.
This recent Retraction Watch post is funny and you should read the whole thing: Got “significosis?” Here are the five diseases of academic…
February 21, 2017
US president Donald Trump's Executive Order 13769, Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States, is a terrible idea for many different reasons and has been widely condemned. Banning people due to their refugee status, religion or national origin has no place in a…
February 17, 2017
Why music ownership matters
Forgetting What I’ve Heard: Why I Miss Buying Music
Henry Rollins: Will I Be Able to Finish Listening to All My Records Before I Die?
Beyond Jazz’s Boys Club
The Forgotten Architects of Jazz — And the New York Women Bringing Them Back
Beyond the boys club: Striving for…
February 12, 2017
Is the March for Science (and all it's satellite marches) too political or not political enough?
The text on their website gives a sense of where the organizers are coming from:
SCIENCE, NOT SILENCE
The March for Science is a celebration of our passion for science and a call to support and…
February 5, 2017
I've been thinking a lot about this the last week or so, with media appearances already out there and more to come. The list of links I've amassed is quite impressive, a significant number to add to the post highlighting Sarah Boon's advice. But that was a week or so ago, which seems like an…
January 30, 2017
How bad could it be? On so may fronts, the first week or so of the Donald Trump administration was the shit show to end all shit shows.
But we're only going to talk about the science stuff here.
As the more astute observers among my readership will observe, I still haven't updated the Pre-…
January 27, 2017
It's been a very bizarre week for those of us interested in science policy and the interface between government research and the public interest.
To say the least: Trump bans agencies from 'providing updates on social media or to reporters'. Which is, of course, very reminiscent of the Canadian…
January 26, 2017
This one from Samantha Bee is so funny, I don't know whether to laugh to cry.
On second thought, mostly cry. Lots and lots of crying. The only thing that will save me is singing a rousing chorus of Bruce Springsteen's Badlands in honour of the crazy wonderful park rangers at Badlands National Park…
January 25, 2017
Sarah Boon's post yesterday, The War on Science: Can the US Learn From Canada?, is an excellent answer to a very popular topic on Twitter yesterday. With the Trump government seemingly determined to roll back decades of environmental protections and at the same time make sure no body in government…
January 21, 2017
While I'm working on a major update to my Documenting the Donald Trump War on Science: Pre-Inauguration Edition and preparing for the first of the post-inauguration posts, I thought I'd whet everyone's appetite with a post celebrating all the various efforts to save environmental, climate and…
January 19, 2017
As you all have no doubt noticed over the years, I love highlighting the best science books every year via the various end of year lists that newspapers, web sites, etc. publish. I've done it so far in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013,2014 and 2015.
And here we are in 2016!
As in previous years,…
January 18, 2017
As you all have no doubt noticed over the years, I love highlighting the best science books every year via the various end of year lists that newspapers, web sites, etc. publish. I've done it so far in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013,2014 and 2015.
And here we are in 2016!
As in previous years,…
January 17, 2017
The STM Publishing News Group is a professional news site for the publishing industry which bring together a range of science, technology and medicine publishing stakeholders with the idea that they'll be able to share news amongst themselves as well as beyond the publishing world to the broader…
January 16, 2017
The newish hit movie La La Land is creating quite the tempest in a teapot in the jazz world these days, and even a few ripples of jazz-related commentary out side of it. The prospects for an awards bonanza are quite strong, starting with the recent Golden Globes and perhaps continuing to the Oscars…
January 13, 2017
Or "LOve!" Or "Scooped!"
One word peer review! A game you can play at home!
Sad!
Love!
Changes!
Scooped!
Redo!
Copied!
Not!
Even!
Wrong!
Cite!
Me!
One word peer review is going to be Huuuuugggggggeeeeee!
Trump To Require Reviewers To End All Reviews With the Word “Sad!”
Washington DC – President…
January 11, 2017
As you all have no doubt noticed over the years, I love highlighting the best science books every year via the various end of year lists that newspapers, web sites, etc. publish. I've done it so far in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013,2014 and 2015.
And here we are in 2016!
As in previous years,…
