Latest posts

Office haiku

Posted on 28 February 2013 by Cath@VWXYNot?

It’s ten forty-five

Six iPhones buzz with one voice

Time for our meeting!

Gotta love those synchronised calendars…

Continue reading →
Posted in fun with language, Silliness, technology | Comments Off on Office haiku

Pets

Posted on 27 February 2013 by Henry Gee

I am sad to report that Yentl, my pet royal python, has escaped. There’s a little ‘ole in the back of his tank that I thought he couldn’t wriggle through. I was wrong. He’ll probably turn up somewhere, when he is hungry, as here.
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Our other pets are all accounted for. Continue reading →

Posted in Apparitions, depression, Domesticrox, mental health, yentl my missing python | Comments Off on Pets

Royal Society Meeting on Open Access in the UK: What Willetts Wants

Posted on 27 February 2013 by Stephen

After all the excitement of open access (OA) developments last Friday, there was a chance to take stock this Monday at the Royal Society’s conference on “Open access in the UK and what it means for scientific research”.

The meeting, which aimed to examine “the background to the new policy announced by David Willetts in July Continue reading →

Posted in David Sweeney, David Willetts, HEFCE, Open Access, RCUK, Royal Society, Tom Welton | Comments Off on Royal Society Meeting on Open Access in the UK: What Willetts Wants

The tartle response

Posted on 27 February 2013 by Cath@VWXYNot?

The Rock Paper Cynic comic titled “That Awkward Zombie Apocalypse Survival Moment When…” would soooo happen to me.

I really am awful; I usually need to meet a new person at least two or three times, within a short period of time, before I can guarantee that I’ll remember their name. Running into a brand new acquaintance, or Continue reading →

Posted in English language, fun with language, personal, Silliness | Comments Off on The tartle response

Facebook rant about Facebook cancer hoax

Posted on 26 February 2013 by Cath@VWXYNot?

I just posted the following on Facebook, and thought I’d share it here, too – the wider the news that this is a hoax is disseminated, the better for everyone.

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I’ve seen a Facebook post about cancer circulating among various completely separate groups of friends in the last few days. The information in the post Continue reading →

Posted in bad people, cancer research, Medicine, publishing, quacks, rants, science | Comments Off on Facebook rant about Facebook cancer hoax

Leadership Strategies for Dealing with Jerks

Posted on 25 February 2013 by Athene Donald

My last post about jerks in academia struck a chord with many but also raised questions – jerks abound, yes, but what should we do about them? What can we do to ‘out’ them and so to attempt to ameliorate their behaviour? I said that I believed strong leadership was crucial so in this post I’ll expand on what it might be possible to do.  Leadership Continue reading →

Posted in administration, Athena Swan, head of department, promotion, Research, Science Culture | Comments Off on Leadership Strategies for Dealing with Jerks

Captions invited (Please, fund me!)

Posted on 25 February 2013 by Steve Caplan

please, fund me

Posted in humor, Research, science | Comments Off on Captions invited (Please, fund me!)

Continental drift: important open access developments in the UK and US

Posted on 24 February 2013 by Stephen

Last Friday was a big day for open access — it felt like a kind of transition.

In the morning the Science and Technology Committee of the House of Lords (the unelected second chamber in the UK parliament) published the report of its inquiry to the implementation of a new open access policy by Research Councils UK (RCUK) in the wake of the Finch Rep Continue reading →

Posted in House of Lords, Open Access, RCUK, White house, willetts | Comments Off on Continental drift: important open access developments in the UK and US

Opus D

Posted on 24 February 2013 by Henry Gee

Well, there was I thinking, so I was, that this post will be the 500th entry in this blog as presently incarcerated, and, notwithstanding inasmuch as which such an artificial anniversary will be manna from heaven to fans of base 10, I wondered with what I might commemorate such an apparition. Happily Mr R. C. of Yorkshire came up with the solution Continue reading →

Posted in hobbit, Silliness, tolkien, Writing & Reading, yiddish | Comments Off on Opus D

On biological modelling

Posted on 24 February 2013 by rpg

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Lipid raft
#3 Lipid raft

Posted in lipid, Nonsense, potatoes, raft, Science-less Sunday | Comments Off on On biological modelling