personal
pharyngula | June 14, 2007(click for larger image)
Uh-oh. My actual identity has been exposed, and one of my true forms has actually been published in a publication of the American popular press. Now people are going to understand why I am so pro-choice: "I AM PHARYNGULA, THE HARVESTER OF STILLBORN SOULS!"
About the English thing—I've been working on it, 'k? And I have no idea who the cheerleader chick is.
Otherwise, though, sure, that's exactly what I look like. Horns, red glowing eyes, muscles like boulders stuck under my skin, armful of squirming babi…hey, wait a minute. What's with the babies? "I'm a fierce demon…
pharyngula | June 13, 2007If you've ever wondered exactly what the weather is like where I'm at ("why, no, PZ, I never have, but you're going to tell me anyway, right?"), I've just learned that there is a little weather station directly above my head, accessible via the internet. This is good news, since it means I don't have to look out my office window before I go outside.
clock | June 12, 2007The other day, Anton Zuiker and I met at Weaver Street Market in Southern Village to do some planning for the Science Blogging Conference and Anton took this picture of me holding the brand new promotional postcards (want one? e-mail me) that he has designed and printed:
drorzel | June 10, 2007You know those guys you see getting on planes with big shoulder bags that couldn't possibly be made to fit in those little test boxes they put by the gates that everybody ignores? I'm one of them, for good reason: whenever I check luggage, something goes wrong.
Take yesterday, for example. I was out late Friday night, and we were scheduled for a two and a half hour layover in O'Hare airport in Chicago, and I just couldn't cope with the idea of lugging my big bag all over that deeply unpleasant airport (about which more later). The larger of my two bags was just full of dirty laundry and…
jstemwedel | June 8, 2007One year ago, ScienceBlogs experienced a major expansion. In that year, I've been lucky enough to meet some of my fellow ScienceBloggers, though given the size of this operation, I've only met the proprietors of about a fifth of the blogs here.
So far.
Happy blogiversary! Cupcakes for everyone, and pictures (with links to the blogs of the pictured bloggers) below the fold.
clock | June 8, 2007On this day a year ago, A Blog Around The Clock was born. Twenty-something other bloggers moved to the Scienceblogs.com empire on that same day. My old blogs are still up there, gathering cyberdust, slowly losing Google traffic and rankings, because all of the action is right here. During this year, I posted 2941 posts (that is about 8.12 posts per day) and received 5233 legitimate comments. While my new job is likely to somewhat change the tone of the blog (more science, less politics, most likely), I have no intention of slowing down. I hope you are all still here for the second…
jstemwedel | June 7, 2007Because I know some of you are better acquainted with late 20th century science fiction movies than I am, I'm asking for your input on this.
Today, I find myself possessed of a serious hankering to track down and watch Flash Gordon -- not the Buster Crabbe version from 1936 (which I watched on public television when I was a kid), but the 1980 motion picture.
Netflix doesn't have it. Possibly this means it hasn't made it to DVD yet. In the back of my mind, I'm wondering if there could be a good reason for that.
And yet, the cast is so promising. Max von Sydow as Ming the Merciless. Brian…
oracknows | June 6, 2007I'm back from the ASCO Meeting in Chicago. As promised, I'll try to post some photos tomorrow to give you a sense of just how monumentally huge this meeting is. I probably won't have time to blog about the clinical science presented until Friday or next week, but we'll see. In the meantime, let me share with you the serious gasoline sticker shock I suffered coming from the East Coast to the Midwest. Below is a "discount" gas station at W. North Avenue and N. Ashland:
Remember, this is a discount gas station, much like....much like Citgo:
This is nearly a dollar more expensive than in my…
pharyngula | June 4, 2007My family of five has precisely four cell phones between them. Guess who's the odd man out? I think Apple knows this, and have specifically targeted one of the ads for their new iPhone at me. This is horribly cruel. Not only is the ad focused on calamari, but wow, that gadget is sweet and elegant and had me thinking that I must own one, now. Hitting me with techno- and cephalo-lust at the same is no fair.
Fortunately, I have also seen the price, and I have seen my bank account, and I have seen my income, and that particular work of artfully hewn technology is squarely in the domain of…
clock | June 4, 2007Graduate of the University of Belgrade (Serbia), City University (UK) and UNC-Chapel Hill (USA), with a Masters from University of Belgrade, Danica Radovanovic is currently in Belgrade without a job and she is looking for one either in Serbia, in Western/Northern Europe or in the USA.
Danica is the tireless Serbian pioneer in all things online: blogging, open source, Linux, science blogging, open science, social networking software, online publishing, eZine editing, etc. She is the force behind putting Serbian science online and making it open. She has done research on Internet use in…
drorzel | June 4, 2007So, as previously mentioned in this space, Kate and I will be spending a few weeks in Japan in August/ September. Out of a combination of politeness and self-interest, it would be good if we knew at least a smattering of Japanese before going there. Back in '98, I did the book-and-tape thing, and learned at least phrasebook Japanese ("Eigo ga hanashimasu ka?"), but I remember very little of that, and Kate doesn't know any.
We've heard good things about the Rosetta Stone software packages, but those are really expensive. The goal here isn't to be able to watch anime without subtitles, it's…
oracknows | June 3, 2007I haven't yet mentioned it, but since Friday evening I've been in Chicago for the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting. (If anyone happens to be attending the meeting and is interested in a meetup, let me know. My time's pretty well booked until I leave on Tuesday afternoon, but we might be able to squeeze something in.)
Since my sisters live in Chicago, Friday night I met up with them and we decided to go out to a bar to get some beer and burgers. The bar, on West Division Street in Wicker Park, was Smallbar. I'd never been there before, mainly because the bar didn't exist when I…
jstemwedel | June 2, 2007Today the soccer team I coach (on which the younger Free-Ride offspring is a player) had its last game of the spring season.
"Yay! Trophies!!" screamed the players at the end of the game. So, off we all went to the traditional end-of-season pizza party and trophy distribution event.
At the pizza parlor, as the players were running around and shaking down their parents for quarters, it hit me: All the pizza parlors in our area have quarter-gobbling arcade games. The one with the fewest has no fewer than four. The one where we were today had at least a dozen.
Now, we eat pizza at home…
clock | June 1, 2007I have posted pictures of my cats before, but I believe never on Fridays. I'll have to succumb to fashion today though, because I cannot wait any longer to show you the pics of the newest member of the family. Introducing (under the fold) - Orange Julius:
drorzel | June 1, 2007Five years ago today:
It's working out ok so far. I think we'll stick with it a while longer.
jstemwedel | May 29, 2007Having finished grading (yea, having submitted the final grades themselves), I attempt to resurface from my cave.
It's really rather bright out here!
Anyway, as you will have deduced from my last post, there was a commencement-sized break in my grading activities on Saturday. The commencement speaker, Google senior vice president of global sales and business development Omid Kordestani, gave a nice address to the grads and their guests, so I'm reporting on his big points here.
Kordestani couched his remarks in terms of a set of "Aha!" moments he has had in his own life, and the lessons he…
terrasig | May 28, 2007It doesn't take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of those men [and women] who goes into battle.
- Norman Schwarzkopf
Superb Memorial Day posts today from Orac at Respectful Insolence and Mark Chu-Carroll at Good Math, Bad Math.
pharyngula | May 27, 2007This is an ugly story, and it's ugly on both sides. First, rude students make a nasty, mocking video of one of their teachers and post it to YouTube, which is bad enough; these are kids who definitely need some discipline. But then the school district suspends the students for 40 days in punishment. Forty days is almost a quarter of the school year. They deserved a harsh response, but kicking them out of school just deprives them of the education they need, and they're probably going to regard it as a vacation.
I must confess, though, that what first caught my eye about the story is that it's…
jstemwedel | May 26, 2007
Ahem.
Beach ball here! Kids, I'm not going to march myself into the stadium!
That's better. Thanks dude!
The pomp! The circumstance!
How long is this supposed to take?
Well, the people on the podium giving the speeches won't mind if we entertain ourselves.
Whee!
Just keep it under control or else --
Uh, you're kind of young to be a graduate, aren't you?
Can I go home with you?
jstemwedel | May 24, 2007This post brought to you by my intense desire to avoid grading any more papers.
More than a dozen years ago, when I earned my Ph.D. in chemistry, I made what many at the time viewed as a financially reckless decision and purchased academic regalia rather than just renting it.
At the time, there was apparently just one company who even made the regalia for the university from which I earned my degree. Given their monopoly, they could charge a bundle -- almost $600 -- for the gown, hood, and mortarboard. (Despite the price, I would also argue that the uniform still needed modifications to be…