Momentous things always happen when I’m not looking. While I was off gliding through waist-high powder and suffering death by fondue in Les Menuires last week,
Above the clouds
Wendy Richard died of cancer,
The end of an Eastenders era
Richard packed up to leave Australia,
A big country just got a bit smaller
and Bora midwifed the final production of The Open Laboratory 2008, which is now up for sale.
A book of blogs, buffed and polished to a high gloss
Please support the cause and buy a copy of this book: a number of your lovely colleagues are featured in it, Richard and I lost several weeks of our lives editing it, and all proceeds go to two excellent causes: bigging up the concept of science blogs in general, and giving a wee financial boost to next year’s ScienceOnline blogging conference.
You know you want to.
My email tells me this morning that my copy has been dispatched. Howzat for narcissistic self-interest!
Your entry was a thing of beauty, Stephen. And being American, I do love a big cannon.
I’m sure there’s a fnar there but I’m Irwined if I can see it.
I can beat that. In the two weeks I’d retreated to a shack in the country to (re)write my PhD thesis, Nelson Mandela was released from jail and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union voted to abolish itself.
That’s what I call a result.
Amazing what those pesky mice get up to when the cat’s away, isn’t it?
Richard, you have a dirty mind. There is nothing salacious about heavy artillery.
Mind the gap, indeed.
oh joy, i’ve now realized I’m caught somewhere between Danni Minogue and Giant Spiders. But maneating koalas and sharks with frickin’ lasers sound like pretty frickin’ great alternatives. wonder why i wasn’t handed this map in the first place…hmm…
Maxine, that is so charming. One of the things I love about LU staff is their occasional spates of humor — especially the drivers over the tannoy. Just when you’re feeling your most grumpy, along comes an absurd announcement that makes the entire carriage giggle.
Between Giant Spiders and Danni, I know which way I’d run…
My sister just moved to the Danni Minogue area. Terrifying! (She started at USyd the week after Richard’s last week there. In a totally different lab, on a different campus, but still – it’s a fun coincidence.)
There is nothing salacious about heavy artillery.
That’s where you’re wrong, Dr Rohn. Ask the French, for whom ‘un canon’ is slang for a good looking female. I don’t think I need describe to someone of your perspicacity the biological origins of the metaphor…
Isn’t a “canon” a musical piece that goes round and round and round…
Oh.
Quiet in the back, Wintle.
Doesn’t anyone want to talk about Eastenders?
P.S. OpenLab 2008 – $15 roughly for the print edition.
Shipping: Economy – $10.18 or something like that.
Default Shipping: Express – $70ish.
I think not. Sorry folks, download just doesn’t do it for me either.
Yegods. $70???
$70 is silly. Economy shipping at ten bucks is also silly. It doesn’t cost $10 to mail a smallish book from the USA to Canada.
We just have this thing about Canadians.
We can probably arrange to buy you a book and ship it first class for a couple of bucks — email me if you’re interested.
Everyone has a thing about Canadians.
See jenny, that map over Australia is one of the main reasons i am hesitant to go there… parasites and poisonous things… ^^
Richard> I can alsway order two when I order mine and ship one to you. US to Canada isn’t that bad. Mind you though, it needs to wait until after lent* – if that is ok!?
*long story
Are you giving up first class post for Lent?
It was my understanding that Australia was safe enough if you wore shoes.
Re. Wendy Richard. There was a nice tribute program to her on BBC1. I never knew she filmed a scene in the Beatles’ film, Help!. Unfortunately it was cut so she just missed out on the big time then. I really only remember her from Are you being served? and Eastenders, but the program showed clips from many other shows she was in. It’s not on iPlayer any more but hopefully they will repeat it sometime.
The program also suggested that she wanted Pauline Fowler, her Enders character, to be less miserable but the script writers would have none of it. Her last years as Pauline did seem unremittingly grim.
Bingo!
Looks v. nice – I do like the cover.
I liked Pauline Fowler. Eastenders was supposed to be miserable — I thought that was the point.
Stephen, that’s one sexy book. It matches your cuppa perfectly.
Jenny: sure, first class post and other “non essentials” as in so called recreational shopping. Might seem silly but it is harder than I thought (oh shallow want, thy name is åsa) but still easier than meat/alcohol/otherthingsthathavehappened…..
I am not sure shoes will be enough though. Spiders like to hide in them…. and other scary things too….
Not too sure that sharks care about shoes either. Good luck with your sacrifices!
We just have this thing about Canadians.
When we remember they exist.
Jenny> you mean sharks don’t get frightened away when you swim with shoes?!!? 😉
thanks! only a few more days to go….
Amy> I remember a conversation between my [then] roommate (Canadian) and an older [american] man who tried to be polite when he asked her about all “the Canadian states” and stuff like it. The girl really tried to keep her composure but it was hard the um:teish time the man staid “so, you live in the State of British Columbia” and clearly didn’t understand the distinction between provinces and states 😉
Then of course, there are these Canadiens … but we don’t want to remember them 😉
My next door neighbour dated Dani Minogue.
Get out! And lived to tell the tale?
Everyone has a thing about Canadians.
I’m very fond of some of them myself.
Jenny, Åsa: thanks for the offers. I’m just being a cheapskate. A morally outraged one, to be sure, but a cheapskate nonetheless. I’d take one or other of you up on the offer, but then it occurs to me I’d have to pay you in US dollars, which would necessitate having a bank draft or postal order prepared, which would cost me…
…about ten bucks.
Sigh.
Maybe I should just find a bunch of other books to order from Lulu at the same time, to make the shipping more economical… hm, OpenLab ’07 and ’06 are available…
Yeah. But he’s gay, so it didn’t last. Dunno if dating her “turned” him gay, or was the final release he needed. He came out no long after…
“Maybe I should just find a bunch of other books to order from Lulu at the same time”
Cue Henry in 5…4..
Richard> see I see an opportunity to do a bit of “exchanging here”*. You are, as far as I understand it in Canada [ the sweet land ]. In Canada(Vancouver) is a wonderful store called MEC. MEC has a duffel bag I love and miss…. see, MEC doesn’t really like shipping across the border either(insert something about countries who like to keep within their own borders and shipping).
Anyway, in the case of wanting the book, I am sure that we could work some type of exchange out! And I am ok:ed to buy books during lent, I asked 😉
*has been done with American goodies vs Swedish chocholate (Mmmmm, Marabou)
Richard: have you not heard of PayPal? Even I’ve heard of PayPal (shakes head in wonder).
You have a PayPal account then I presume? Can I buy your book from you?
/making things even more complicated mode
You want Jenny to run you off a personalized copy? Eh?
I thought you already bought it. Were you telling fibs?
I never said that…
You did say this: “I shall read the Rohn Magnum Opus (assuming that html markup actually works) and form no opinion whatsoever.”
Hm. So I did. It’s true, I shall read it. 😀
I did read RPG’s chapter on EMBOSS. I think I deserve some credit for that, surely?
Heh. Experimental Heart, $13.99 from CSH Press. Shipping: 11 bucks.
I give up.
Wait until OpenLab is on Amazon, then get BOTH from there and save on shipping.
We like the rest of the world to maintain the illusion that Australia is populated by nothing more than the occasional lost and sunburnt Brit, deadly animals waiting to pounce on unsuspecting foreigners, and descendants of convicts. Keeps out the riff-raff, so to speak 😉
BUT, I have to defend my turf, Danni Minogue is not from Sydney (or Summer bay as you in the UK may know it)… try Melbourne (aka Ramsay St)
bq. Keeps out the riff-raff, so to speak
That’s right. You have plenty of riff-raff already.
Eva – that is a good plan. Is OpenLab going to be on Amazon, ever?
“Waist-deep powder”
JEALOUS! We got some good snow this week, but the -30C (before windchill) temperature on the third day prevented us from taking full advantage.
I was quite possibly one of the last people in the Western world to hear about the 9-11 attacks… I was buried deep in thesis writing at the time, and only heard at about midnight that night.
It should be on Amazon. Sorry the shipping is so crap, but maybe I could send you a copy instead?
The book just arrived. THANKS for all your hard work. It is a pleasure to read.
A belated welcome!
Is a good read, nice job. Enjoy the snow whilst it lasts, not long til climate change melts it all… joke 🙂 hopefully
Nice picture of Australia