VWXYNot? Comment(s) of the week:
Nina and Grant for the following exchange: Nina: "Life should be a conference, everyone wearing nametags all the time, with their first name, last name, nickname, country of origin and country of residence. Birthdate optional."
Grant: Nina, I’m sure tech types will suggest we’ll all be bumping cell phones to exchange names in a few years. (Eurgh.)
One more: you know that thing where the person can’t quite read your name tag and leans in close over your chest to read it…
Nina: "ok, how about tattooing your name onto your forehead?"
Grant: "How about a sub-dermal name implant invisible when not active that glows when triggered by trained neural signals beaming your name to the people opposite you?
Failing that we could all wear electrode scalp caps that carry a flip up sign… (Taking as my cue the brain-computer interfaces emotiv and others are marketing.)"
[NB as a chronic tartler, I approve of all the above methods]
Alyssa for "It’s cloudy again
We see it’s cold and dreary
But – we have windows!!!"
Ricardipus for "Bugger me, the grant’s
Finally done. Thank goodness.
Now back to fun stuff."
Bean-mom for "I just clicked on the article on circular RNAs–I’d seen the headline earlier but hadn’t yet read it–and just as I expected, I’m all WTF?! MicroRNAs, long non-coding RNAs, now we’ve got circular RNAs. . . I feel like someone should just write a review titled, “RNA: WTF?”"
Nina again for "edit: my advisor has improved his standing desk further by standing on a wooden board that balances on a small (but sturdy) plastic tube, to make him wobble while standing, so to keep working those balancing muscles, or something like that. The tube comes from one of my experiments. I will miss that “wtf I’ll create my own standing desk – pilates work-out” attitude, I must admit."
Bob O'H for "Reminds me of my youth playing boardgames. There was one called Civilisation, which a friend described as “almost as long as the real thing”."
Chall "it surely looks like the Leafs MIGHT go to play offs for the first time in 7 years…. if I didn’t jinx it by saying it here of course. That said, I find myself wondering how bad it will be to end 5th place if Boston stays 4th. It sort of feels better to play the 3rd (Capitals right now) than Bruins but right now I’ll settle for PLAYOFFS and miracle :)"
[the Leafs making the playoffs is a miracle indeed]
KJHaxton for "Good question! I’d put:
– occasional baker of cakes for meetings
– fair to moderate tolerance for bullshit
– low tolerance for unfairness and willing to get very cross about it (folds arms and glowers at the screen)
– best selection of tea bags in desk drawer (8 kinds at last count)
– prone to wearing scarves and shirts that don’t match
Ah well, I’m not sure I’d find a new job on the basis of those :)"
Ricardipus again for "Pros:
- rarely swears in public
- has few friends, so unlikely to have loud, belly-laughing conversations on phone or in person
- capable of speaking at length about (a) race cars, (b) cameras, or (c) bad science
Cons:
- occasionally swears in public
- has few friends, so likely to have poor social interactions with co-workers
- capable of speaking at length about (a) race cars, (b) cameras, or (c) bad science
I’d also probably include “easily suckered into serving on irrelevant committees” into each category, too."
Bean-mom again for "–Friendly.
–Doesn’t bake, but if you have a potluck I’ll bring killer spring rolls (both crispy fried pork ones, and the vegetarian fresh rice-paper ones).
–Doesn’t bake, but husband bakes. Occasionally, you may be a recipient of his talent.
–Will cheerfully listen to other people’s dramas, but won’t cause any of my own. Not at work, anyway."
and Nina yet again for "As I may have mentioned before, I’m pretty sure my cv point “Love baking (chocolate) cakes” earned me my PhD position, and it definitely often raised questions in interviews (“so, how often do you bake cake? What kind of chocolate do you use?”)"
Post(s) of the Week: Beth Snow for "Modern conveniences" (how on earth did we survive, let alone study and write theses, before Skype and cloud computing?!)
Steve Caplan for "Science education: the generalist vs the specialist" (are 3 year or 4 year degrees better for students?)
Bean-mom for "Leaving scientific research... again" (science SUCKS sometimes)
Eva Amsen, writing at the Occam's Typewriter Irregulars for "The two ideas to fix the gender balance that do not make me cringe" (the panel pledge and the Finkbeiner test)
Bob O'Hara for "Making reviewing boring stuff less boring" (would a stripped-down manuscript format work better for the, um, less exciting papers out there?)
Alyssa for "Just the pants, thanks" (absolutely hilarious take on the modern clothes shopping experience)
Eva Amsen again for "My self-updating address book" (how LinkedIn can be useful)
CromerCrox for "Plagues" (how's God been cursing you lately?)
Prof-like Substance for "If you don't talk to your kids about it someone else will" (anticipating school-yard talk about religion and other big issues)
and CromerCrox again for "Conferences" (the problem of sexism at conferences)
Archives:
October 2008 - March 2009; April 2009 - September 2009; October 2009 - March 2010; April 2010 - September 2010; October 2010 - February 2011; March 2011 - September 2011; October 2011 - March 2012; April 2012 - September 2012; October 2012 - March 2013; April 2013 - September 2013
I stink.
Thomas – speaking as one who quite obviously knows what it means to stink at hockey pools – yes, you do.
Cath – you are DOOMED I say. My l33t h0ck3y p1xx1n6 sk1llz will leave you behind, LOLZ etc. etc. etc. *cough hack splutter*
Also – my week was likely a fluke, and as late as Sunday morning I was pretty sure Chall had smoked me. Go… um, er… whoever I picked this week!
Thomas, I almost feel bad for prodding you into bragging that time you were in the lead.
However, I have identified your problems:
1) No Crosby?! The man’s on one of the longest points streaks the league has ever seen! I know he broke your heart in the Olympics, but c’mon!
2) You’ve picked the same goalie as me. Don’t do that. I am the kiss of death to goalies. Turco let in 7 last night – mwa ha ha ha!
Ricardipus, if you can repeat your performance for two more weeks, I’d agree
Part of the problem is I got engaged over the weekend,which means I haven’t been paying any attention to any of my fantasy sports picks. Something had to give, right?
WOOOOOO!!!!!
Congratulations! That’s awesome!
(I hope your fiancee doesn’t notice that you called this a problem, though. Oh, and there’s still no excuse not to have Crosby).
Cath – I don’t think I picked Crosby, electing to spread his cap value around a bit. This might not be the best strategy though.
Thomas – what the heck kind of excuse is that?
Oh, and congratulations!
*ahem* I meant -reason- not -problem-.
woho
Congrats Ricardipus!!
I’m still not sure this will stick… did change all my players this week since most of mine were only going to play 2 games. I’m starting to think that I shouldn’t go for quantity of games but it’s hard to break the habit…. ^^
As I look back though, all is not lost. I did earn 30 points this week, which means I have a bit steeper slope than a few other people. That means while I’m still DFL, I did gain some.
Chall – that’s my strategy (# of games played). I have no loyalty to specific players or teams any more.
Well done Thomas, nice save! (And yes, you did close the gap a wee bit last week).
Chall, number of games can be a big factor! Especially with the top scoring players like Crosby. I kept Danny Sedin this week, even though the Canucks only have two games, but ditched all my other Canucks. Four games next week, so I’ll restock!
Rciardipus, glad to hear that. Your prior strategy of stocking your team with Leafs was definitely more of a problem than a reason
Cath> yeah, I think I ditched both the brothers but not sure…. it might have been hard to find swedes/leafs/redwings/someoneifancy to fit the pool
I did remember to take a screen shot of my former picks though so “normal order” can be restored… or something…
Riocardipus> I still try with my selection (only way I can not have Crosby or the other cool one). It’s mainly Swedes/Leafs/Canucks/Redwings/(and some Czech ppl whom I lfancy)… ^^
I wonder if Bob kept the Sedins / Ruutus? He does seem to have a thing for pairs of Scandinavian brothers…
BTW, talking of Swedes I fancy, did you see that Naslund’s jersey was retired on Saturday? They did a nice ceremony before the game. In his speech he said he remembered skating at the town rink as a kid, and seeing the Sedin twins crawling on the ice on their knees, trying to play hockey before they could even walk (I guess they’re all from the same town in Sweden!) And he looked all proud as he looked over at them on the bench, Henrik with the Captain’s C on his jersey and Daniel with his Assistant’s A, and said “look at you guys now! Wow!”
It was very cute.
Yes, I did see it. Choked up a little even (sappy me).
Funny enough (?) Näslund, Sedins and Forsberg (and Victor Hedman – newcomer to Tampa Bay if I remember….) come from the same team back home… it’s a small town… and they have a hockey team… Modo. They are indeed not the same age though
But I guess it was one of those moments when Sedins can look at someone they saw play on “their” ice as youngsters and then play in the same team! wow.
I wondered when I saw that ceremony if Sundin will ever get that… I mean, he did mess up last year and they never won (the Leafs I mean)… ahhh… the pain of being a supporter to a lost cause. You just take pounding after pounding… ^^
oh and the tid bit would be that Forsberg’s father (Kent Forsberg) was the head coach for the team when Forsberg played in Modo…. and he was later the head coach for the national team for a few years. They are both very involved with the “bringing back to the town” and have invested a lot of money in a new ice rink etc… a golf course I think? But they are, as most people would say about Näslund specifically, extremely down to earth and kind people in that part of the country….
(and no, no family ties there for me… )