worldsfair | April 9, 2009Just a quick note.
I would appreciate any efforts and good words you have to pass on to your colleagues about our upcoming molecular techniques workshop (see below). As well, I've included a pdf of the workshops poster, perfect for posting up on your friendly neighborhood bulletin board. Also note that the revenues generated by this workshop go directly into our outreach programs at bioteach.ubc.ca so this help would be greatly appreciated.
Downloadposter
And the details....
*THE MICHAEL SMITH LABS AND ADVANCED MOLECULAR BIOLOGY LAB PRESENTS OUR MOLECULAR BIOLOGY *
*WORKSHOPS 2009 Summer…
bcohen | April 9, 2009A commentary, I think, on the public understanding of basic human decency. Or lack thereof.
Stewart on tyranny, poor memory, and potato day:
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
M - Th 11p / 10c
Baracknophobia - Obey
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes
Economic Crisis
Political Humor
Or try here.
bcohen | April 9, 2009"Do you feel protons decaying? Grand Unification may be occurring near your vital organs."
Michael Rottman at The Morning News brings an important public service announcement to the web. By all means, please be encouraged to read it.
If pressed for time, note some of the highlights of the ten steps of concrete advice:
1. Do not panic. Resist the urge to induce vomiting. If the Higgs boson gets stuck in your teeth, they could turn into pure light.
2. If space and time have inverted within your body, skip to step 10.
...
9. If all else fails, the only foolproof way to remove the Higgs boson…
worldsfair | April 8, 2009This is nicely done.
Andre was one of our Terry talk speakers last November and he did a great job.
In essence, he described current practices in the classroom setting, and tried to make a case that education could be greatly enhanced when certain technologies are brought into the learning process (particularly as social networking and gadgets continue to progress).
Anyway, he describes his talk as:
I would like to talk about the potential for technology to change the way that education works, specifically at the University level. This will take off where Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk…
worldsfair | April 8, 2009
Science scout twitter feed
The reason why there were two ways of saying the element aluminum/aluminium has always been one of the those things that made me go "hmmm" But by the same token, it's also always been one of those things that never stuck around in my consciousness long enough for me to look it up.
Well, lucky for all us, Michael Quinion over at World Wide Words does an awesome job of going into the lexicon of these words, paying particular attention to why two forms exist - specifically, why the Brits say "Alumininium" and why Americans say "Aluminum."
It's actually quite…
worldsfair | April 7, 2009
Check out this short film on Reuben Margolin's wave sculptures (hat tip to Boingboing). They are really quite remarkable, and I'm thankful I don't have one in my office (this is a complement, since I'd just be staring at it all day).
Best of all, this amazing work is created with salvaged wood demonstrating yet another artistic endeavor that uses recycling as a central tenant.
It's funny, but when I watched the video I was immediately reminded of the "dipping bird."
There must be something about moving entities that draw our eyes in (hmmm - will have to look that up).
worldsfair | April 6, 2009So I'm getting ready for a talk on science literacy and careers, etc, and was looking for material for some new slides. Anyway, I've always been a fan of delicious sounding science jargon, and have been on the hunt for an appropriate word I can use, possibly, as a thematic device in my talk.
So of course, I begin by googling the keywords, "word most syllables" and from that came across the following:
Pnuemonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcano
Which, depending on the source you read is either some wierd lung disease, or, as it turns out, a completely fabricated word propogated by the internet to…
worldsfair | April 4, 2009
Sciencescout twitter feed
One of my past attempts at humour writing, entitled "An Intelligent Designer on the Cow" and reprinted here for your enjoyment.
- - -
AN INTELLIGENT DESIGNER ON THE COW
Today, I feel like doing a plant - no, an animal. Yes, today, I am going to make an animal. And it will be a masterpiece. I shall call it the.... No wait! Maybe I should think of the name later. Yes, you should always name your pieces after you have completed them. Better that way.
OK then. An animal it is. More specifically, a vertebrate. Large body, four legs, one tail, one head, usual stuff on…
worldsfair | April 4, 2009So close! But not close enough.
Only 20 readers away from making the 1000 mark yesterday.
worldsfair | April 3, 2009
Attributed to iTop Edition
This post brought to you because of two reasons.
1. I've been thinking about potential banner ideas, and pixelated art came to mind.
2. I'm a little fearful of this blog blowing up (explanation here). Just need something to add a few more readers. Related to this, I'm a little worried about the weekend - I'm just barely making the traffic cut off on weekdays. The weekend will be presumably tougher...
worldsfair | April 3, 2009With its Jack Kirby stylings, I thought this video was worth highlighting.
I've been seeing some of these aforementioned attributes a lot lately, when I've been to a number of public events on evolution and genetic manipulation in particular. Still, it's good to see something that tries to lay it out rationally - just in case, I may be guilty myself of being close minded.
worldsfair | April 3, 2009As the semester winds down, I'm getting that same urge to muck about with my guitars again and maybe record a song or two (it might sound impressive, but really, it's as amateur as it gets).
Last time I did this, I ended up writing a song on science jargon (Jargon Fueled Ways - mp3), which kind of tried to use as many words as possible that were suggested by readers in the comment section. These included the words:
Epiglottis
Flagella
Dictyostelium
Homo erectus
Anyway, I'm in the song writing mood again, and, like last time, I'm going to follow suggestions on what scientific concept to focus…
worldsfair | April 3, 2009
Science scout twitter feed
Since we're in the thick of NCAA action, remember this?
Anyway, I'm reminded of one of favourite battles in the science showdown. That is the battle between "acids" and "d orbitals." Here's how it went...
- - -
Welcome folks, to this here what we'll call the beautiful game (at least we'll say that for the molecular level). This game really had it all, it was dynamic, it had equilibrium, it had fluid transition, and it was catalytic. It involved freakishly large chemical sounding words, and also a wierd scoreboard that looked something like this:
But hey,…
worldsfair | April 2, 2009
So it's not often that someone can "guarantee" anything, but when I was first informed of helping out with an invited speaker, I had two individuals take the effort to tell me that his talk may quite possibly "be the best talk you'll ever hear" or "will change your life."
Strong words indeed, if not for the fact that the sources happen to be opinions I trust. Anyway, who are we talking about? Well, we're talking about a Sheldon Solomon.
His academic credentials essentially revolve around something called Terror Management Theory which wiki succinctly describes:
It looks at what researchers…
worldsfair | April 2, 2009
What you see here is a sample of artificially produced feces. More specifically, it's material produced from an artistic feat of engineering. The creation of a machine that can step for step mimic the digestive process.
In other words: you put food in one end... and well, you get sh*t coming out the other.
Anyway, called the "Cloaca," this is probably Wim Delvoye's most famous art installation. Created in 2000, it has since gone through at least five different incarnations, each an improvement (in terms of time and efficiency) over the previous. In truth, he's trying to one day get to a…
worldsfair | April 2, 2009
Sciencescout twitter feed
I put this Wilco vs Radiohead query up a while back on the blog, and essentially got a fair amount of commentary stating musical tastes, preferences, why the comparison is invalid, etc.
Anyway, imagine my surprise when I heard about a CD coming out this summer, which can add a bit of weight to the discussion.
I'm talking specifically about the new Neil Finn "Seven Worlds Collide" CD. Here's a YouTube channel devoted solely to the collaborative project, and here's part of a review of one of the live concerts held to back up the upcoming CD.
That included four…
worldsfair | April 1, 2009Taking reduce, reuse, recycle to the pinnacle, a great piece from McSweeney's, reprinted below for your enjoyment:
THE STICK, RECENTLY INDUCTED INTO THE TOY HALL OF FAME, IS NOW AVAILABLE AT AMAZON.COM.
By Ralph Gamelli
**** Nice toy, but not for all children
By JJ (PA)
We gave our son The Stick for his fifth birthday this past summer, and at first he loved to jump around the yard, slaying dragons and evil knights with his magic sword. Then the girl across the street got her hands on it and started to prance around, pretending it was an umbrella handle. Our son was devastated. We tried to…
worldsfair | April 1, 2009Or something like that. This is a little unbelievable, but there you have it - politics is nothing if not diverse...
Choice quote:
"The earth will end only when God declares its time to be over. Man will not destroy this earth. This earth will not be destroyed by a flood."
Anyway, so here's the choice question: is this really a big deal? "Yes, because ohmygoodness this joker is an elected government representative," or "No, because "who's gonna take him seriously anyway?"
Maybe the woman in the background can best answer this, and we can all hope that it is the latter. Afterall, after…
bcohen | April 1, 2009Add this to the list from my prior post: a Locavore app from Enjoymentland, available at the iTunes store. Local agricultural advocates are already using social networking and building virtual marketplaces and identifying market and farm sites nationwide. This feature extends the connection between on-line consumer practices and local food advocacy. Two of my students bought it and are giving it a test run. I'll try to get an update a few weeks into this Spring season.
According to the guy at Enjoymentland who made the app, the iPhone feature does this:
* Automatically detects which…
worldsfair | April 1, 2009
At my school, I happen to be involved in a project with a writing contest that has a general public category. Basically, we don't have many entries in this category and there's, like, three bookstore giftcards at stake here ($50, $100, and $350 - all usable online)! This is Canadian dollars, I'll admit, but if you've got a post you've written in the last year or so, that you think fits, then do send it on (basically critieria is very broad - something globally relevant, any genre of writing works - previously published ok).
If it makes it easier, you can even leave your URL in this thread…