Bagpipe Music

A few lines from the poem by Louis MacNeice.

It's no go the Government grants, it's no go the elections,

Sit on your arse for fifty years and hang your hat on a pension.

It's no go my honey love, it's no go my poppet;
Work your hands from day to day, the winds will blow the profit.
The glass is falling hour by hour, the glass will fall forever,
But if you break the bloody glass you won't hold up the weather.

More like this

As the length of the day in the northern hemisphere wanes, so, it seems, does the prolificacy of blogging. I haven't posted anything in about a week, after an already reduced rate. Some of my SciBlings, other bloggers here at ScienceBlogs, have reported taking a similar rest. What's going on? Is…
Fly Away Home (detail) Jessica Palmer On my old blog, I posted poems regularly (among my favorites were Dan Chiasson's "Mosaic of a Hare" and David Barber's "Pilgrim's Progress.") But I haven't encountered a particularly inspirational poem recently, so I let the habit lapse here on the new blog.…
At the Society for Neuroscience meeting last month, there was a special symposium regarding the current NIH funding situation that was supposed to be given by the current director of the NIH, Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni. Due to his plane being delayed, he was a no-show, although the talk was instead…
Well today is my thesis defense day. For those who are unfamiliar with the process, this is how it works at least at my university. When you start out in a lab you do the experiments your boss tells you to do, with the goal of picking up a project. This usually involves taking up where another…