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Cell phone

Cell phone
Cell phone

Posted in cell phone, wibbling | Comments Off on Cell phone

Europe

I love Europe. A rash of recent trips in the cause of Your Favourite Etcetera has taken me, in recent months, to Amsterdam, Leipzig, Dresden and Switzerland, and I’ll be doing much the same in Helsinki before the year is out. Whenever I am in Europe I am struck by how civilized it is compared with my own country. Walking around a German city Continue reading

Posted in Boris Johnson, Europe, Politicrox | Comments Off on Europe

The Royal Society and Diversity

It is very easy to pillory long-established organisations for being insufficiently diverse. As a member of Cambridge University and a Fellow of the Royal Society, I see it all the time. It is assumed these venerable institutions are ‘bad’. It is true that in both cases only the last 60 years or so have seen these entities fully admit women out of t Continue reading

Posted in Equality, felllowship, FRS, minorities, Royal Society, statistics, University Research Fellowships, Women in science | Comments Off on The Royal Society and Diversity

Peer review and the “ole boys network”

A lot has been said about peer review, recently by Frank here, here and here, by Richard here, here and here, by Sylvia and by others. So what more can I add?

Like democracy, it’s not ideal, but compared the the alternatives–well it’s the best we can do. So I’m not out to undermine peer review. Continue reading

Posted in direct contribution, National Academy of Sciences, ole boys network, peer review, PNAS, pre-arranged editor, Research, science, Soviet era style | Comments Off on Peer review and the “ole boys network”

By The Sea – Now On Kindle

With thanks to the good offices of Dr S. C. of Omaha, who pointed me in the right direction, my novel By The Sea is now available for you to buy on Amazon’s Kindle. You can get the ebook from Amazon in the U. of K. Continue reading

Posted in Apparitions, Blog Norfolk!, by the sea, Cromer, Domesticrox, ebooks, gothic, iBooks, kindle, Lulu, police procedural, Science Is Vital, Science-fiction, Writing & Reading | Comments Off on By The Sea – Now On Kindle

Always wait for the (2/2)

Mr E Man and I were lucky enough to get hold of a pair of tickets for last night’s Canucks-Predators game*, and had a great time watching the good guys cruise to a 5-1 victory over a team that frustrated us horribly in the playoffs earlier this year. But nothing could possibly please the two guys sitting behind us: “we need to trade Luo Continue reading

Posted in Silliness, sport, technology | Comments Off on Always wait for the (2/2)

Trashy journals [3]

A Chinese couple published a couple of dozen academic journals, collecting a reported $1.5 million in publication fees from thousands of contributors. But, provincial authorities allege, the journals were fake. Only a few copies of each issue were printed, and sent to the authors. The couple have been detained but charges not yet pressed. Continue reading

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Dangling conversations

“So, is this your first time in Omaha?”

I recently blogged about feeling isolated as a scientist in my field here in the windy plains of Nebraska. One way to try and mitigate this feeling is to invite guest speakers in my field to come out to Omaha for a seminar. Fortunately, I have the opportunity to invite a couple of speakers every y Continue reading

Posted in airport, alcohol, dinner, humor, Is this your first time in Omaha?, Research, restaurant, science, seminar, separate bill, speaker, sushi | Comments Off on Dangling conversations

Leadership from the Top

What will it take for true equality to occur, not just in academic science but in employment anywhere? One key aspect is that people at the top not just ‘talk the talk’ but ‘walk the walk’. So, when talking about family friendly policies it is important that leaders show they mean it. Some years ago I attended an event at the House of Lords where v Continue reading

Posted in ASSET, Athena Swan, career breaks, Equality, REF, Science Culture, Women in science | Comments Off on Leadership from the Top

Yorkshire

I’ve just returned from a most interesting trip to Yorkshire. First I had to visit the Yorkshire consulate in London where a nice man called Willie Eckerslike renewed my visa and made sure my jabs were up to date, notwithstanding inasmuch as which I set third fifth forth.

My first port of call was York itself, where I attended the inaugural m Continue reading

Posted in antarctica, hull york medical school, human evolution, Nostalgia, PALAEO, Science Is Vital, university of leeds, Writing & Reading | Comments Off on Yorkshire