Author Archives: Cath@VWXYNot?

About Cath@VWXYNot?

"one of the sillier science bloggers [...] I thought I should give a warning to the more staid members of the community." - Bob O'Hara, December 2010

Hockey pool, week 25

First of all, many thanks to everyone who’s shared the update posting burden! I’m happy to take it from here as we enter the final couple of weeks, but your help is greatly appreciated – the pool became a bit … Continue reading

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Typo-chondria

I received an interesting request last week from one of my colleagues: “Please provide an update on the [gene name] ozone OCD”. The email in question was sent to me, several other colleagues, and some of our external collaborators. The tell-tale … Continue reading

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It’s Friday, Friday!

Yesterday was Thursday! Tomorrow is Saturday! And Sunday comes afterwards!

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Lunchtime Linkfest

A quick round-up of what I’ve been reading and listening to! There’s a great article in Current Biology (my all-time favourite journal) this week, titled “Why should biomedical scientists care about biodiversity?”. The authors argue that working on the standard … Continue reading

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Crashing through the block

I’ve had a bad case of blogger’s block lately, brought on by a double whammy of: 1) the worst cold I’ve had in years (which is also my third cold in 2011, ugh), and 2) News Paralysis – the state … Continue reading

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Bragging Rights Central: new archive post

Keep ‘em coming, folks! VWXYNot? Comment(s) of the Week: Mar 04 2011: Mike for “Mrs F.

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THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS SAINT PATTY’S DAY!

(this is a re-hash of last year’s post. I’m gonna keep doing this until people stop calling it St Patty’s Day) It’s Paddy. The diminutive form of the name Patrick (or Pádraig in the original Irish form) is Paddy. Therefore it’s Saint Paddy’s day.

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Gonna go where the bright lights and the big city meet

No red guitar (on fire*) in sight, though, just this: Pretty soon everybody got one Two questions: 1) Why does anything need to be taken beyond anyone’s desires? Let alone a toilet, of all things?

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Spring forward

Woohoo, daylight saving time! Now, if only the rain would stop, it might feel like this winter will end at some point… The following conversation occurred last week, during a regular conference call with some US collaborators: Collaborator: “We were … Continue reading

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Germ warfare and sibling rivalry

A few years ago, I witnessed an interaction between two of my nephews that resulted in a moment of pure blinding insight into my own childhood. We were staying at Mr E Man’s sister’s place over Christmas, as were his … Continue reading

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