Category Archives: current affairs

Signs of tampering

In the internet age, anyone can have their say on anything; news articles, blog posts, YouTube videos, politicians’ Facebook pages and pretty much everything else you can find online all have comment sections. Last week, however, the most striking examples … Continue reading

Posted in communication, current affairs, drunkenness, Instagram, music, photos, Vancouver | 5 Comments

A week in grant wrangling

Following Frank’s excellent example, it seemed like a good week to present a week’s worth of daily bulletins about what I actually do for a living. As I alluded to in my last post it’s the busiest time of year … Continue reading

Posted in Canada, career, current affairs, English language, furry friends, grant wrangling, personal, photos, politics, science, silliness, travel, Uncategorized, whining | 15 Comments

This.

(“Federal scientist unfairly silenced, union says” – CBC News) I wonder how long this whole social media experiment of direct communication with The People will last… (My favourite comment on the cat photo album: “Please don’t eat this one, Prime … Continue reading

Posted in bad people, Canada, communication, current affairs, environment, furry friends, politics, science | 13 Comments

Cost to benefit ratios

From today’s RSS feeds: 1) Alilain WJ, Horn KP, Hu H, Dick TE, Silver J: “Functional regeneration of respiratory pathways after spinal cord injury“. Nature 2011: 475: 196-200 (This article also showed up in my BBC science feed, with the … Continue reading

Posted in current affairs, medicine, original research, science, the media | 5 Comments

No con/census consensus

Dilemmas, dilemmas… life is full of them. However, there are two in particular that are causing me much internal debate at the moment: The census It’s census time in Canada! Every household in the country is obliged to fill in … Continue reading

Posted in activism, bad people, Canada, current affairs, personal, politics, rants | 17 Comments

Get out and VOTE, CANADA!

Later today I will vote for the first time in Canada, and for the first time anywhere since a Glasgow by-election almost 11 years ago. Anyone who knows me even a little bit knows that voting means an awful lot … Continue reading

Posted in Canada, current affairs, personal, politics, rants | 52 Comments

Are left-wingers more creative? Are multi-party systems superior to two-party systems? Do provocative titles attract more readers and comments?

Let’s see: a Canadian federal election, an electoral reform referendum in the UK, a new opposition leader and talk of an early provincial election in British Columbia, and lots of coverage of the likely US Republican party presidential candidates, all … Continue reading

Posted in blog buddies, Canada, current affairs, politics, silliness, UK | 48 Comments

Weekend fun: my next tweet

Many, many thanks to Kimli for alerting me to “That Can Be My Next Tweet!“, a tool that creates mash-ups of bits and pieces of your most recent tweets to create much hilarity. My twitter stream is kinda schizophrenic at … Continue reading

Posted in Canada, communication, current affairs, cycling, English language, politics, science, silliness, technology | 35 Comments

Next time you’re ranting about your latest grant review…

…spare a thought for your colleagues in Bulgaria. I had to read the fifth paragraph of this Nature News piece two or three times to make sure I’d fully understood the depth of the (alleged) problems at the Bulgarian National … Continue reading

Posted in bad people, current affairs, grant wrangling, science | 13 Comments

Priorities

This is a fantastic way to kick off a general election: Checking the CBC website for the latest campaign news this morning, I noticed that sport (and hockey in particular) is apparently less important than potential nuclear meltdowns, but much … Continue reading

Posted in bad people, Canada, current affairs, silliness, sport, videos | 10 Comments