worldsfair | July 8, 2006Looks like the movie Hollow Man 2, a movie which used my lab for a scene or two is finally out.
And straight to DVD too. Check it out here. You can see it as the first locale in the "Guess Who" Watch the Trailer option (ooh, a flask breaks).
worldsfair | July 7, 2006
A few days ago, being the start of summer and all, I brought home one of my dissecting microscopes for my kids to play with. This is because they're outside a lot, picking up things, and on a bit of a bug kick right now. Anyway, this is a shot of them checking out a spider (Pholcus phalangioides), apparently dead on the window sill with a smaller bug (also dead) in mid clutch. We couldn't figure out what this other insect was, but I was all excited that my kids were being so sciency.
Still, not sure how I should feel about that. Science is one of those rewarding disciplines that come…
worldsfair | July 7, 2006Seeing how we're all about puzzles lately, and having made a token (quick) review of the book. Here's a list. Please add if you find any other good ones.
A CRUDDY WHERE'S ME. (DUDE, WHERE'S MY CAR?)
A FED MAN TAKETH JAN. (JAKE AND THE FATMAN)
INBORN GIT (BRING IT ON)
OK ELF, DRESS FAT (FROSTED FLAKES)
BLAST DEAN PAUL! (SPANDAU BALLET)
GEE, MR WO, PRIMP A HORSY THING. (MIGHTY MORPHIN' POWER RANGERS)
bcohen | July 7, 2006I'm following Dave's lead here, who was following Nick Hornby's lead, who could probably be made aware of our lead following and then wax poetic on the flourishing of his format. Except I'm sure he's busy. Lunching with Cusack. Unless Cusack is lunching with Anjelica Huston, like in The Player. Damn, Robert Altman's good. Can we talk about McCabe and Mrs. Miller?
Did I get sidetracked?
These are the books on my nightstand, and beside my desk at my office. They shift frequently, but this is where things stand today. As of now, early July, the first ten are nightstand-based, the last…
worldsfair | July 7, 2006(RE: The new "Ask a Scienceblogger") If asked whether I think cloning has developed the way I thought it would, I think I'd have have a couple comments on that.
First, I would say that yes I am surprised in the sense that with molecular biology essentially taking such enormous leaps and bounds, I might have thought that mammalian cloning techniques would have come along a lot further then they have. I mean sure, we have cats, monkeys, cows, and the such, but it's still very much an immature game (although I guess it's all relative - you can after all already get gift certificates to go…
bcohen | July 6, 2006The Worlds' Fair is thinking, pondering, mulling over, mulling under, obsessing around something, something not to be told, something requiring many prepositions. Something to be intimated, perhaps. But something not to reveal. Yet. Not yet. There are things that will lead you to it, things that are helpful. We've made some of them available. One is a fish. A picture of a fish, rather. One is a picture of the cow as a food factory. It's a cow. A third is Elvis related.
There is a puzzle being revealed, but we dare not step closer. We leave that to you. The puzzle is bigger than…
worldsfair | July 6, 2006One of the monthly columns in The Believer, is written by none other than Nick Hornby, and is called "Stuff I've Been Reading: A Monthly Column." In it, he presents a list of books bought and a list of books read, and although I am nowhere near as voracious a reader, I thought it might be nice to follow suite (also some of my friends told me that that is what blogs are kind of for). Anyway, for clarity, here are the books I managed to get through these past two months.
"A Short History of Progress" by Ronald Wright (finished, reread actually - once a book club book)
"Saturday" by Ian McEwan (…
worldsfair | July 6, 2006Usually, when I write a humour piece, it all begins with me in the car listening to the radio, waiting for those moments when a song comes on that I hate - loath even. For instance, something like "Truth" by Spandau Ballet is just the sort of thing that will (seriously) make my ears bleed and force me to turn the stereo off. At which point, I have a moment of silence to think about things that could work in a science humour context.
I find I usually start off with a silly title, and then essentially it goes from there. Because I teach, I also try to see if I can coerse the piece into…
worldsfair | July 5, 2006After Mr. Gore visited our campus a month or so ago, one of the students who is working with me on the terry.ubc.ca project wrote an interesting piece comparing his talk (of which his movie An Inconvenient Truth is based on) to a Boyz II Men concert she went to the same week. As the editor involved, I thought it was an interesting way to frame a discussion on the man of the hour, and creative to the point of definitely being worthy of highlighting. Enjoy:
POLITICIANS VERSUS POP STARS: THE END OF THE ROAD WITH AL GORE AND BOYZ II MEN
By Sarah Burch
There's recently been plenty of fodder for…
worldsfair | July 5, 2006...but I can't talk about it (yet). Bonus points if you can figure out what it is.
worldsfair | July 5, 2006So, Ben and I were discussing yesterday the depressing reality of our readership numbers, in that we think our unpaid interns are clearly not performing up to par with this blogging thing. In truth, we are so very very close to firing them all. And perhaps we would, if only we had gotten more than just one applicant from our previous advertisement (a slightly over keen individual named Paul Myers who keeps writing, like, 7, 8 or more times a day).
Anyway, whilst our interns are clearly lacking in compensation, they are nevertheless keen to learn from their mistakes, and so they ask you,…
worldsfair | July 5, 2006O.K. so this letter basically bites. Type written, and as "form letter" as a "form letter" can get. I mean, it's not even technically addressed to me, which I take is not a good sign at all. Furthermore, if I read the signature right, I'm pretty sure it says "Me Cute." Which I interpret as just another put down, a letter that basically says, "I'm sorry but I have to reject your essay and in case that doesn't make you feel bad enough, you should also know that I'm way better looking than you are..."
Rejection Letter Grade: F
(See previous rejection letter: The New Yorker)
worldsfair | July 4, 2006A big thank you for the folks who contributed to our little portion of that wonder of a wonder, the scienceblogs.com DonorsChoose challenge. The SCQ also recieved a number of stellar Haiku's which will be used in the Haiku Phylogeny project. Here is a small sampling of them (feel free to submit more to the Science Creative Quarterly at tscq@interchange.ubc.ca):
DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER DISASTER
fruit fly punnett squares
tic-tac-toeing genotypes
gives birth to Mothras
~Scheherazade
THE HAIKU CHEAT
Tyrannosaurus
Is a bitch for a haiku
Too many sybbles
~Paul Clarkson
UNTITLED
Cynics declare…
worldsfair | July 3, 2006
Last week I got this year's Believer Music Issue in the mail. For those not quite in the know, The Believer is not anything alluding to the religious right - rather, it is a marvelous magazine that succinctly describes itself in the following manner:
The Believer is a monthly magazine where length is no object. There are book reviews that are not necessarily timely, and that are very often very long. There are interviews that are also very long. We will focus on writers and books we like. We will give people and books the benefit of the doubt. The working title of this magazine was "The…
worldsfair | July 3, 20061. p21RAS
2. C-3PO
3. CD45
4. p53
5. C-SRC
6. RIC-920
7. FOS-JUN
8. R2-D2
9. 8D8
10. C-MYC
1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 10 are oncogenes: 2, 6, 8, 9 are droids from Star Wars.
worldsfair | July 1, 2006In honour of Canada Day, here are a couple things of canadian note on my iTunes list:
FireworksTragically Hip
Drink To Me, Babe, ThenA.C. Newman
house of the rising sun Begood tanyas
Crooked TeethDeath Cab for Cutie
lemon meringue pieJeremy fisher
tell me again Ron sexsmith
Both Sides NowJoni Mitchell
brother downSam roberts
Don't get your back upSarah harmer
ReunionStars
One Great City!The Weakerthans
worldsfair | June 30, 2006O.K. it looks like I'm going to use this site as a repository of my various science writings. In truth, I still consider myself a bit of a neophyte in this matter, but nevertheless, I've been lucky enough to publish the odd thing here and there.
In this vein, below is a copy of my first successful query letter written to that wonder of a wonderful magazine, Maisonneuve (sent on Jan 29th, 2004).
Dear Editors
MAISONNEUVE
It's like this...
Science geeks like myself can also be of the adventurous fold. And from this unwieldy mix, we can produce some pretty interesting dialogue on any number of…
worldsfair | June 29, 2006Since thursday is no longer must see TV, here is a round up of some interesting pieces that relate (although sometimes weakly) to the sciences.
Let's first begin with this great open letter at the venerable McSweeney's. The title says it all really: "Open Letter to Keith Richard's Immune System." (by Litsa).
Chris regularly makes me laugh out loud, and I think there's a lot of value in that sort of thing. Read his "Trash Talkin' at the Science Museum." Also, since Star Jones seems to be in the news a lot lately, read his "I'm your biggest fan" piece - bonus points if you can work in some…
worldsfair | June 29, 2006
A few days ago, Ben put up an interesting article about Natalie Jeremijenko, regarding artistry as it relates to various scientific nuances - an essay that showed one of many many cracks in the "Two Culture" ideals that sprang from C.P. Snow's head. It got me thinking a bit, in that it occurred to me that a place such as scienceblogs.com mostly represents a perhaps more subtle take of the opposite notion: of "the scientist as mad artist." I mean, blogging in itself is a kind of creative outlet, with opinions and commentary that run a wide spectrum of tone and subject matter.
Anyway, we…
worldsfair | June 28, 2006Yesterday, Ghana, the last remaining African team in contention, was eliminated from the World Cup. This was after a entertaining match against the heavy favourites Brazil, that ended predictably where Brazil powered over with a 3-0 victory. This followed the earlier elimination of Togo and Cote d'Ivoire in group standings the week before. It seems, like life in general, these teams just couldn't get a break.
Especially so, since for each of these teams, admission to the pinnacle event of the 'beautifiul game,' meant a little extra sanity into their society.
For instance, the team of…