Fear the Tea Cops!

Anyone who dared to question the One True Way of making tea, read this and repent:

"Tea drinking habits and oesophageal cancer in a high risk area in northern Iran: population based case-control study" by Farhad Islami et al., BMJ 2009;338:b929.

Alternative title: "Adding milk to your tea like a normal person prevents cancer". You heard it here first eventually.

(H/T Mermaid)

You say you want a revolution...

...well, you know, we all wanna change the world

Act I
A group of young(ish) female colleagues gathers in a pub on a Friday evening for a refreshing beverage or two. Grad students, postdocs, technicians, junior faculty, and grant writers are represented. Cue much character development and witty dialogue over the first drink.

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You say you got a real solution...

well, you know, we'd all love to see the plan

Act II
The conversation turns to the leaky pipeline and the lack of women at the highest levels of academic science. General outrage is expressed; even those members of the group who have never knowingly suffered from gender-based discrimination in the workplace acknowledge that society in general, and therefore science as a subset of society, is inherently biased against women.

The tension ramps up as voices are raised and one lone, clear voice breaks through the babble to declare that we must act at the grass roots level, at the earliest stages of the pipeline; we must organise, we must fight the system, we must...

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You tell me it's the institution...

...well, you know, you better free your mind instead

Act III
Another woman - a stranger to everyone in the first group - arrives at the next table, pushing a stroller containing a smiling, pudgy baby girl of unusual cuteness. The ranting revolutionaries dissolve into a chorus of "awwwwwwww!"s, and coo, smile and wave at the baby, before looking at each other and bursting into laughter.

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So much for the revolution...

Please, don't anyone say "You tell me that it's evolution...". I think it was actually the beer. And anyway, I'd much rather hear "Don't you know it's gonna be, all right, all right, all right".

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I wish that this little footnote was not necessary, but this is the internet, so here goes. I think (hope) that regular readers will recognise this post for what it is, which is to say, an amusing anecdote. I have no wish to enter into a flame war about how women should not be telling such stories because they are detrimental to the feminist cause. If your revolution precludes irony and self-deprecating humour, don't you know that you can count me out (in).

Windows on Vancouver

This is the Little Mountain public housing complex in East Vancouver.

My fellow X-Philes may recognise Little Mountain as one of the locations in last year's "I Want to Believe". It was used as the exterior set for the lodgings where Father Joe and other convicted sex offenders stayed, and was described by the character as a "hell hole". In the movie, the darkness and snow did conspire to make some of the scruffier buildings look like a less than desirable residence.

The "hell hole" description is horribly unfair to Little Mountain as a whole though. I cycle past it every day and have always thought that it looked like a really nice community.

See? By the park, mountain view, lots of trees and green spaces, places for kids to play, boarded up windows...

Wait, what?

It happened almost overnight. From lively community with children playing, parents barbequeing, and people tending their gardens and otherwise living their lives, to deserted ghost-town, the quiet disturbed only by joggers and geese.

I searched for a news story that day, telling me what had happened - but found nothing. Not that day, and not that week. About a month later I happened to pick up one of Vancouver's free papers, the Metro, and finally found an article about Little Mountain.

With a sinking feeling of inevitability, I learned that the city plans to tear the houses down and build a new condo complex. BUT - not for another two or three years. Even assuming that the development still goes ahead (the Vancouver condo market has taken a big hit recently), why move families out of what are apparently completely structurally sound homes? The former residents allege that they were pressured to move out, and understandably, they are not happy.

The city's policy is just plain crazy. Despite recent dips in the market, buying property here is still way beyond the reach of most people. On two decent salaries, Mr E Man and I could barely afford our own home, a small stucco box in a wee bit of a rough neighbourhood. And the vacancy rate for rentals is ridiculously low. Vancouver has a massive homeless population already, due to being one of the few places in Canada where people can survive a winter on the streets. Addiction and mental health problems run rampant. Why add to the problem?

I hope all the families of Little Mountain found somewhere else to live. And I hope our new mayor, Gregor Robertson, lives up to his campaign promises on tackling homelessness.

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The former residents, joined by political activists, have chosen to articulate their feelings through art. It's an amazing expression of their grief for what once was; their wish to reclaim their homes and recreate their community.

Some people have created generalised illustrations of the concept we call "home";

while others have opted for a more personal touch;

and I've noticed more political statements creeping in recently.

It's so beautiful in there, so peaceful, and so heartbreakingly sad.

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ETA: I found a website for a group called Community Advocates for Little Mountain, and signed their online petition. Just FYI.

Another beer-soaked Vancouver blogger meet-up

I met Dr. J this week!

It wasn't a planned meet-up, but in this relatively small life sciences community, not exactly random either! I shouldn't even be all that surprised that we know some of the same people...

Anyway, it was awesome. We had some beer and a nice chat about science, cycling, Vancouver, and of course blogging. We'll definitely do it again some time - after all, he owes me a pint.

Anyone else living in or visiting Vancouver, and wanting to meet up, let me know! My two experiences so far have both been great!

So, I guess I don't need to ask what you're up to right now...

I just ran into my former PI's grad student, who I supervised during his first year in the lab. His loud and hearty greeting was as follows:

"Hey, CA Dunn et al, 2003, how are you?"

Yup, the thesis writing stage has begun!

(Dunn was my maiden name, for those that didn't know)

Stephen Colbert is a freakin' genius

This is one of the funniest things I've seen on TV since Tina Fey was Sarah Palin.

Resoluquinox

A couple of years ago, on a BBC Magazine article about New Year's resolutions, one commenter opined that New Year is the absolute worst time to make resolutions. He's right - it's an arbitrary date, it's all dark and cold, and it's time better spent hibernating (or skiing). He asserted that Spring is a much more humane time to try and improve your behaviour. The increasing light and warmth, the budding leaves and flowers, put you into a much more positive and proactive frame of mind.

I couldn't have agreed more, and instantly adopted the new tradition of Spring Equinox Resolutions. Here are this year's.

A) CAREER

i) do everything I can to make sure I get to stay on in my job after my original two year contract expires in November.

My tracking system seemed to do its job at a couple of recent performance reviews, and people keep telling me that they're sure there's the will to keep me. The next step is to get an actual decision maker to say this, and then put it in writing. Clear and effective communication is in rather short supply around here sometimes.

The means to keep me is, however, a different story... the first successful grant to include a fraction of my salary (as project manager) in the budget just came in, but the budget was cut by 20% across the board, so my plan to cover as much of my salary as possible through grants is not quite on track. This salary compensation is a relatively recent innovation, suggested by my primary supervisor, and is included in another couple of pending grants, so we'll see. Success in this department will help convince the powers that be (not my primary supervisor) that the two year experiment was financially successful.

This resolution is somewhat out of my hands, but I'm doing my best to be proactive.

ii) stop procrastinating and develop my freelance writing

Ideally this would entail making some money - not including the royalties for the still-unbloggable group project I completed at the beginning of 2008. Any month now, apparently. But if that's not possible, I'd be happy with just getting something published. Admittedly I haven't actually submitted anything yet (again, any month now), although I have lots of ideas scribbled in a notebook, and a couple of half-written articles. The problem is that I haven't yet discovered the best way to integrate any serious writing into my daily schedule. At the moment I feel too burned out at the end of a work day, and tend to be very easily side-tracked into the instant gratification and feedback of blogging. I've bought a few books on this topic and will procrastinate a bit more by reading them instead of writing anything.

I have had a couple of phone interviews for a volunteer freelance writing position (one article per month) with a local charity who want to improve their coverage of research projects that they help to finance. They're going to send me a couple of their most recent articles, and I'm going to re-write them in a couple of different ways to see what works.

B) HEALTH

i) Exercise more

Very original, eh?!

The exercise log and arse-kicking posts in the right sidebar have really helped, but I need to step it up a notch. After the successful implementation of the slightly-too-small-wedding-dress in 2007, I'm using the slightly-too-small-suit as an incentive this year. I want to rock that outfit, instead of just barely fitting into it, for my Canadian citizenship ceremony. Unfortunately, I have no idea when that will be. The timeline they gave me at the test last month means that I have a decent shot of making the Canada Day (July 1st) event, but honestly, who knows.

The new plan is one weights/circuit session, one swim, and at least one other cardio session per week (all this on top of my 60 hilly kilometers per week bicycle commuting). Sessions will also hopefully be longer than the current ones.

I am also planning to try - gasp! - running. Even though I hate it. Multiple people have told me that a) it's the best way to lose weight, and b) even people who start out hating it end up loving it. Well, liking it. OK, tolerating it. Following advice from Ironman triathlete Mermaid, I've downloaded an interval running application on my iPhone. It has four Easy, two Medium, and two Heavy programmes, which play over the top of your music: "Start running now... start to walk... start to run... you are going too fast". I'm aiming to complete each one twice, and if I still hate running, I'll stop and try something else. I refuse to run in the rain though - cycling in the rain twice a day, and putting on my still-damp clothes for the ride home, is bad enough - so it might be a few weeks before I gain any momentum.

ii) stretch more

I'm a bugger for not stretching. I feel so much better when I stretch. But it's been harder with two cats trying to sit on my head.

iii) improve my diet

It's basically OK, but I need to reinstate the weekly vegetarian evening meal, and do better at making lunches at home rather than buying a sandwich. This week I made a rice, asparagus, cashew nut, red pepper, banana pepper, and pineapple concoction that was quite delicious and lasted three days.

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Those are the biggies... I'm sure I've forgotten a few of the smaller ones, but hey, I'll put "be less forgetful" into next year's resolutions. If I remember.

Happy Equinox!

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ETA: "Play my guitar more" and "don't neglect the garden as much as last year" are on the list too.

Some laws are made to be broken

Like laws that impose a statute of limitations on genocide.

They should put this guy on trial.

How is this a FAIL?

This breakfast looks full of WIN! to me.

(From the Fail blog).

Makes my tea and bagel look rather pedestrian.

Much better news today

Vancouver is getting a Major League "Soccer" team!

It ain't no English Premier League, but it's the highest standard of football available in North America!

My Dad took me to my first ever Newcastle United game when I was ten. I'm a third generation fan on one side, fourth on the other, and he felt it was time to begin my education (thanks for the twenty-odd years of pain, Dad). He even managed to talk his way into the dressing room before the game, so I got to meet my hero Peter Beardsley (and other members of the team, including a very young and hungover-looking Gazza), and we beat Southampton 2-0.

I instantly loved it - being part of a crowd, the singing and chanting and cheering and jumping up and down, the banter, all of it. I once took a friend to a Scotland-South Africa rugby game in Edinburgh - she hated sport but thought that she "should go and see what it's all about" - and while she spent most of the game shivering and sulking, she came to life as Scotland pushed for the line, recycling the ball over and over, and eventually scoring a try through sheer bloody-minded perseverance. As the whole stadium leaped to its feet and roared, she admitted that she could see the attraction. But I've always felt it - tens of thousands of people (and thousands or even millions more in front of their TVs) uniting in one wish that, if fulfilled, causes an outburst of pure joy and elation and causes strangers to hug and grown men to declare that they love each other.

My Dad and I went a few more times while I was growing up in York, about a 90 minute drive away. An evening game against Norwich (we won 4-1) and a quite terrifying cup game against Wimbledon (we lost 3-0) stand out in the memory - the latter occasion was the one and only time I ever stood, and being at about head height to the concrete barricades, with TV images of Hillsborough still fresh in my mind, I did not particularly enjoy it. The drive back up to Ashington in my Dad's cousin's van was equally harrowing.

Then, when I was eighteen, I moved back to the region of my birth to attend Newcastle University, and lived within sight and sound of the magnificent St James' Park stadium during the Keegan era of the late 1990s. I was in heaven, even though it was almost impossible to get tickets and I only got to go to a game once a year or so. (My favourite experience was when a friend of my then-boyfriend asked me, in a very patronising voice, "is the stadium bigger than you'd expected?" His expression got more and more surprised as I answered "well, it's really improved since I first came here nine years ago, the corners have filled in, they've added the extra tiers, and of course there's no standing section any more. And I hear the dressing rooms have really improved since the time I got in there to meet Peter Beardsley").

The only time I've ever got tickets since, with Mr E Man in tow for his first ever Premiership game, the fixture was cancelled 20 minutes before kick-off, due to snow. We got to see Alan Shearer throw a snowball though. Mr E Man opined that he threw like a girl, which almost caused my Dad and me to abandon him to his fate at the hands of 50,000 irate Geordies, but we chose the path of light and my Dad explained loudly "it's alright, he's Canadian".

In contrast, the Vancouver Whitecaps have never aroused the same feelings of tribal passion, despite links to Newcastle through the likes of Beardsley, Bobby Robson, and (much less impressively, although he's a decent keeper), Tony Caig. I've been to a couple of special occasion games - the Beckham spectacle, and a pre-season visit by Newcastle's bitter rivals, the Mackem Bastards Sunderland. Bolstered by body guarding support from Mr E Man and another burly friend, I wore my Newcastle shirt, and with one exception (the drunk angry guy who tried to write on my shirt in red pen), had a grand old time bantering with the opposing fans (best observation: "did you know you've got shit down your shirt, love?"). The football has always been of poor quality (although the 'Caps destroyed Sunderland - heh!) and of secondary importance to other distractions. Including the fact that you're allowed to drink beer at your seat!

But my one experience with MLS - a Columbus Crew game in 1997 - leaves me optimistic that the standard of football in Vancouver is about to improve to the extent that I will actually want to go and watch a regular season game. (Back then I found the MLS standard to be somewhere between Newcastle and York City, who I've seen once, and never again, although hopefully the MLS (and York City) standard is rising). I'll definitely give it a try, dragging friends and/or nephews along with me if necessary. No doubt the new team will be significantly cheaper and easier to see than the Canucks (who are hopefully streaking their way into a decent play-off run as we speak. Getting to the second round this year would be nice, guys...)

To be continued... in 2011...

Three people...

...who I wish would shuffle off into the obscurity of history.

The Pope, for speaking out against condom distribution in Africa (abstinence is the answer, apparently).

Canada's Science Minister, Gary Goodyear, for showing the tell-tale signs of being a creationist (H/T Ryan Gregory)

Some US Immigration agent for not letting a Canadian into the country to attend a tradeshow on the grounds that he was "stealing American jobs". Seriously, weren't they supposed to be cutting down on shit like this? I suppose he should count himself lucky he didn't get pepper sprayed*.

Bugger off, all three of you.

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*I should say that I consider anyone who "repeatedly" asks a border official to do anything to be an idiot. But still.

Agnostic about Humanism

I don't really like labels.

Why do I have to be "a Liberal" rather than "a Tory", "an atheist" rather than "a Christian?" I prefer to think in terms of my stance on individual issues - politically I usually agree with the Greens, and often with the Socialists, but I disagree with both platforms in some cases, and sometimes even (gasp!) agree with a right winger. So my vote goes to whichever party in a given election best represents my attitude towards the issues I deem most important at that time. (It's a shame, because other than effectively having to be part of a specific political party, politics sounds like a decent career option for me).

Labels can sometimes be useful though. (Even the "anti-label" label doesn't fit me all the time). They're a short-cut, a way to describe the essence of my views without spending too much time on lengthy explanations.

As I've written before, I've labelled myself in the past as an agnostic, and then later as an atheist. People (well, most people) understand what both those terms mean. If the conversation develops, then you can get into more detail, but often it's just a brief question and answer from a casual acquaintance (e.g. at a recent baby shower: "How about you? Do you go to church?" "No, I'm an atheist." "Oh...." (lengthy pause) "these mini quiches are great, aren't they?"). However, the term that fits me best is the mixed-label "agnostic atheist". What I mean by this is that in the absence of any evidence for the existence of gods, I'm fairly convinced that they don't exist; but I accept that absence of evidence is not necessarily evidence of absence, that I can't ever know for certain, and that I will change my mind if evidence arises. Try dropping that into casual conversation though.

More recently, I've started reading a little about Humanism. It's come up in conversation a couple of times recently with agnostic/atheist friends who self-identify as Humanists, so I thought I'd better investigate.

From Wikipedia:

Humanism is a broad category of ethical philosophies that affirm the dignity and worth of all people, based on the ability to determine right and wrong by appealing to universal human qualities, particularly rationality, without resorting to the supernatural or alleged divine authority from religious texts. It is a component of a variety of more specific philosophical systems. Humanism can be considered as a process by which truth and morality is sought through human investigation and as such views on morals can change when new knowledge and information is discovered. In focusing on the capacity for self-determination, humanism rejects transcendental justifications, such as a dependence on belief without reason, the supernatural, or texts of allegedly divine origin. Humanists endorse universal morality based on the commonality of the human condition, suggesting that solutions to human social and cultural problems cannot be parochial.

From the British Humanist Association:

Humanism is an approach to life based on humanity and reason – humanists recognise that moral values are properly founded on human nature and experience alone and that the aims of morality should be human welfare, happiness and fulfillment. Our decisions are based on the available evidence and our assessment of the outcomes of our actions, not on any dogma or sacred text.

Humanism is a naturalistic view, encompassing atheism and agnosticism as responses to theistic claims, but is an active and ethical philosophy far greater than these reactions to religion.
Humanists believe in individual rights and freedoms, but believe that individual responsibility, social cooperation and mutual respect are just as important.
Humanists believe that people can and will continue to find solutions to the world's problems, so that quality of life can be improved for everyone.
Humanists are positive, gaining inspiration from our lives, art and culture, and a rich natural world.

The difficulty for me is that while I agree with all of the above, it's hitting me on a purely intellectual level. It makes perfect sense to me. BUT it's not reaching out of the page and grabbing me by the throat, it's not punching me in the gut and making me shout "YES! This is what I've been looking for my whole life!"

So am I a Humanist? (And does that word require capitalisation? Usage differs...) Luckily the British Humanist Association website has a quiz, imaginatively titled "Are you a Humanist?"

I took it. I got about 60-70% Ds, the rest were Cs. For some questions, I agreed with answers C and D equally.

From the answer key:

All or mostly Cs: Your answers are fairly neutral, perhaps a bit dependent on authority or other people or pure emotion. Humanists try to think, and to think for themselves. You may be an agnostic or a humanist or vaguely religious, depending on what your other answers were.

All or mostly Ds: You are a humanist or very close to humanist thinking. Many people are, often without even knowing it! Humanists don't agree about everything, and you may have collected some other answers too, though if they include As and Bs you’re unlikely to be a humanist.

So... I guess I might be a Humanist. But then again, I might not.

Yeah, I know, it doesn't matter. It's just another label. I'm not planning to join any groups or attend any meetings anyway. But for some reason, I'd like to know.

I'm only human, after all, even if I'm not (necessarily) a Humanist.

Cushions!

Here's my addition to the baby photos meme that Professor in Training started. The only photo I could get my hands on was the one my oldest cushion* posted on Facebook last year:

From left to right: Cushion 1, Sister, Cushion 2, Me

Comments from Facebook:


C2: ah, dont we all look sweet! thought id start the ball rolling on this 1! my hairstyle in this certainally leaves a lot to be desired! x

Me: Does [C1 & C2's Mum] still have the pudding bowl she used for [C1's] hair?

C2: no, she passed it on to him as an 18th birthday present to be passed down to the next generation of [surnames!] im pleased to say that it sits in pride of place on his mantlepiece!!!!

Sis: Don't you think [C1] looks a bit like [C2's daughter] in this one? (no offence to [C2's daughter], that is!) Cath - you've hardly changed!

C2: no offence taken lol! but yes i think ur right, there is a small resemblence but luckily [my daughter] has avoided the pudding basin look!

C1: Hello everyone, and what is wrong with pudding basin haircuts!?!?!?!?! Anyway [my daughter] likes using the bowl as a crash helmet. And what about all our lovely clothes!!

C2: im glad to hear that and im sure [your daughter] is proud of her family heirloom!

C1: She most certainly is :o)

Sis: Cath and I had pretty similar haircuts at one time soon, in fact I think there's a photo of the pair of us with that beautiful hair in pride of place in mum and dad's living room!

Me: I don't know what [C2] was doing to me, but I don't look happy!

C2: I was just being a good big cushion! maybe it was just your shock at mine and [C1's] groovy haircuts!!


My family is Teh Awesome.

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*This is what my sister and I called our cousins when we were little, and the name stuck. So now we have a group of six thirty- and forty-somethings shouting "CUSHION!!!" at each other whenever we meet.

The hidden messages in birthday cards

"Remember how pretty your home town is? Isn't it lovely? When are you moving back?"

"Dude, can you believe we're in our thirties???!!!! Just remember that I will always be four months younger than you"

"Hey, I told the Vatican about your drunk dialling exploits in Glasgow, and they're sending their elite water skiing nun hit squad to come and get you"

Um.... dunno, any ideas?!

Search bots

Anyone who follows the comments and posts of the week feature in the sidebar will have spotted that ScienceGirl was one of the winners this week, with a mention of "that worm-looking thingy that tried living in your friend". She was referring, of course, to the bot fly incident.

That post has been the source of some very entertaining Google search terms recently. In increasing order of "DUDE!!! WTF???!!!":

• bot fly in hands
• bot fly up your ass
• how would you change your room to care for a bot fly

Bot fly hostess extraordinaire Kyrsten responded to my email about the last query (which came from Toronto, by the way) with "Lmao! You would give it a good healthy leg for it to snack on/in!"

I just feel really, really sorry for anyone who finds that post using some variation on "ingrown hair on bikini line" and ends up freaking out about parasites. Don't worry gals, unless you've been to Central America recently, you probably just have an ingrown hair.

I also liked:

• grantsmanship limerick
• how to pick up a ukranian accent
• how to make your accent sound intelligent
• angry european cuttlefish
• what does fancy a cuppa mean
• fuck noroviruses

And I'm not going to post the search terms that are bringing people to this post. I'd rather not encourage the worryingly large number of people who are trying to figure out a way to do naughty things in their workplace and/or in front of paying audiences in performance venues.

OK, ski minus 39 hours and counting. I'm off to the pub.

Grant deadline craziness

I just can't seem to help myself... after the dodgy limericks and Shakespeare adaptations of the last couple of big deadline weeks, I've found yet another outlet for my caffeine-fuelled craziness creativity. Here's my Facebook status from Monday:

(Please note that while I'm more than happy for you all to know my full real name, I don't want Google to bring this blog up when people search for me. Not a problem when it's embedded in an image... but please don't use my surname anywhere on this blog. Thanks!)

All five signatures have now been procured, checked, and couriered. One less thing to worry about...

Deadline is Friday afternoon. Drinks with Infinite Science are Friday at 6 pm. Escape to Sun Peaks is Saturday morning. Must. Remember. To breathe.

It's blogging, Jim, but not as we know it

Grant deadline week!!!!!!!!

To be followed by ski trip!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, I'm pretty busy. So instead of a proper post, here are a couple of snippets from the web.

Look who wants to be the next Canadian Prime Minister! This was all over the TV news yesterday, and I say, how frickin' awesome would that be??!! Too bad he doesn't appear to be serious.

An amusing headline choice from the BBC. "Liquid water" would have conveyed the same information, and not made me think of aliens turning on a tap to fill a kettle.

See you on the other side...

Bike polo

I was hangin' in my old hood yesterday, and saw these guys on the tennis courts:

Cool! I guess the solid wheels are meant to prevent someone's stick going through the spokes.

It still got pretty physical though:

And a couple of people got knocked off their bikes, although obviously the most spectacular crash happened just after I'd put my phone away.

They were having tons of fun. But, given that when setting out for the Drive, I managed to fall off my own bike before I even got on it*, I think I'd better pass.

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*I also forgot my lock and had to spend $55 on a new one. D'oh!