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

Scooped

Posted on September 17, 2009 by Cath@VWXYNot?

Being scooped is every researcher’s worst nightmare. It happened to me, once; less than three days before submitting my first paper from my postdoctoral lab, I spotted a new paper in press at my target journal, with substantially overlapping conclusions. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 25 Comments

Data Ducks?

Posted on September 17, 2009 by Cath@VWXYNot?

Here’s a gem from the Microsoft Word Thesaurus: No, I didn’t accidentally insert a space there; I actually clicked a link from the entry for “data”. And this was all that popped up. I’m sure there’s a joke in there … Continue reading →

Posted in English language, silliness, technology | 3 Comments

BRING IT ON!!!!!

Posted on September 16, 2009 by Cath@VWXYNot?

The pre-season Flames tickets are part of my birthday gift to Mr E Man; he’ll probably take his BFF. But I’m going to the Blues game for sure!

Posted in photos, sport | 10 Comments

Tuesday pet peeve: the wrong kinds of ignorance

Posted on September 15, 2009 by Cath@VWXYNot?

(This post could potentially get me into trouble at work – a rarity on this blog! I therefore wrote it without using any of the keywords that might cause the people involved to find it on Google. My apologies if this … Continue reading →

Posted in career, grant wrangling, plagues, rants | 6 Comments

Fun with lasers

Posted on September 15, 2009 by Cath@VWXYNot?

This video popped up on the Best of YouTube podcast. The developers describe the system as follows: a prototype musical instrument capable of generating sound in real time from the lines of doodles as well as from the contours of … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Posted on September 12, 2009 by Cath@VWXYNot?

Remember the world’s worst courtroom sketches? I think the artist is now doing the Victoria police’s composite sketches:

Posted in silliness | 8 Comments

Friday night horror

Posted on September 12, 2009 by Cath@VWXYNot?

I saw this freak of nature on PZ Myers’ Pharyngula blog, and since I don’t want to be the only person with nightmares, I thought I’d share the photo. (beyond the jump so as to protect the squeamish)

Posted in Uncategorized | 11 Comments

Disorient express

Posted on September 11, 2009 by Cath@VWXYNot?

The Canada Line, the latest addition to Vancouver’s SkyTrain rapid transit system, has been up and running for a couple of weeks now*. It connects downtown to the airport, and my favourite bus route to a station one block from … Continue reading →

Posted in silliness, travel, Vancouver | 14 Comments

The ties that bind

Posted on September 11, 2009 by Cath@VWXYNot?

This BBC article about school tie styles brought back lots of memories! Many British schools are apparently introducing clip-on ties in order to force their students into monotonous conformity “ensure consistency” and “provide an atmosphere of discipline”. I think this … Continue reading →

Posted in education, silliness, UK | 14 Comments

Over the moon about collaboratinos

Posted on September 10, 2009 by Cath@VWXYNot?

Another day, another science typo: this time, I emailed a colleague to ask for a “letter of collaboratino”. (Well, I almost did – previous experience caused me to activate Outlook’s “always check spelling before sending” option long, long ago). I … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 20 Comments