HOUSTON, WE HAVE GONE FOR LUNCH!!!

Or rather:

HOUSTON, WE ARE GO FOR LAUNCH!!!

(I've always wanted to say that).

---------------------------------

Dear friends,

This will be my last post on this blog.

BUT!

DON'T PANIC!

I'm not quitting, I'm just relocating!

My new blog is here (RSS feed here), and it's part of a brand spanking new blog network called Occam's Typewriter. The network has been set up (with much blood, sweat and tears) by the awesome Richard P Grant, and features some wonderful writers who have also come to be good friends over the last few years. I am extremely proud to be part of it all.

So, for the change-averse among you, what should you expect to find over there?

Well, pretty much the same old rubbish I've been coming up with here for the last three and a half years. I didn't want to split my blogging efforts between science and non-science posts again, that being one of the main reasons I left Nature Network earlier this year, and probably wouldn't have joined if that had been the price of admission. But I've been assured that all the other crap I write is just as welcome on Occam's Typewriter as my science-based posts, so, really, YNot?

You'll also find all the old posts and comments, which I've imported into WordPress, and Bragging Rights Central is in the right sidebar as usual. The blogroll is a work in progress, but hey, Rome wasn't built in a day.

So, really, all that's changed is the URL and the banner image.

I'll keep this site up, for old times' sake (although I might close comments if the spam gets out of hand), but all new posts from now on will be hosted at Occam's Typewriter. Why not head over there and read my first post? There's even some science in it! And the next post will be the much-anticipated Second Annual VWXYNot? Readers' Choice Comment of the Year Award!

I'm very excited about moving to Occam's Typewriter. And, as Billy Connolly likes to say at the end of each episode of his travel documentaries:

"Why don't you come with me? We'll have a laugh"

Twelve Months of VWXYNot?

As seen everywhere, here are the first sentences of my first post of each month in 2010. Bragging Rights Central, hockey pools, grants, visitors, quizzes, and bears - sounds about right! (But no Winter Olympics posts? That's hardly representative of the year as a whole!)

January

Congratulations to Massimo for winning the First Annual VWXYNot? Readers' Choice Comment of the Year Award!

February

Did anyone else see the Canucks-Leafs game on Saturday?!

March

I'm currently (intermittently, half-heartedly) tidying my inbox and desk after the latest round of grant applications. 

April

One of my best friends from the UK should be landing in Vancouver in a couple of minutes, with her lovely hubby and adorable two year old son! 

May

My parents are here!

June

As you may remember from an old post, since I moved to Canada in 2002 I've spent much, much more time worrying about bears than actually encountering them.

July

My boss is a very busy man whose trainees sometimes have a hard time getting his attention.

August

I'm back from my trip with more photos than I can reasonably fit into a blog post, so please bear with me while I attempt to cull the collection! 

September

Yes folks, it's time for another fun quiz from my puzzle-a-day desk calendar!

October

New archive post! 

November

First of all, many thanks to Chall and ScientistMother for hosting the last two updates!

December

Spotted on a whiteboard in a PI's office, written in massive letters (colours as in original):

Book chapters and reviews are for people with no data - NEVER SAY YES

(actually, this was the entire post). 

Right, now let's see your versions!

Bragging Rights Central: stats and a reminder about the annual vote!

It's that time of year again!

The shortlist of my favourite blog comments for the year is down to 33 entries, and as soon as I've managed to whittle it down to 12, we will be ready for a vote!

I had a blast reading through all the archives. I really do have amazing commenters, and I'm very proud of this community of clever, insightful, and very very funny people. Many, many thanks to everyone who's read and commented - you are the reason I love blogging so much! Making the final cut is going to be very difficult indeed - not to mention the fact that any comments made this week will also count, so there could be a late flurry of even more contenders...

Anyway, before announcing the final 12 contenders for the readers' vote, I've introduced a couple of extra prizes this year! I've tallied up the comments and posts of the week, to see who was the most prolific in each category, and the results are below.

The winner of each category gets a $20 (Canadian) Amazon gift certificate, as well as 2010 Bragging Rights (Quantitative)!

Drumroll please...

Most "Comment of the Week" wins:

Yay, Chall! Many congratulations!

Most "Post of the Week" wins:

And it's an extra Chanukah present for Cromercrox! Woohoo!

Chall and Cromercrox, please email me at vwxynot at gmail and we'll sort out your prizes!

And, to make sure I honour everyone who won bragging rights this year, the other winners (who I couldn't include above without making the charts look ridiculous) were as follows:

Comments of the week: Cromercrox, DuWayne, EcoGeoFemme, Lisbeth, Pika, Professor in Training, RPS77 and Ruchi featured twice each;
Amanda@LadyScientist, Ambivalent Academic, Bean-Mom, Biocheme Belle, DrugMonkey, Elizabeth, GrrlScientist, HGG, MadHatter, Mel, Nat Blair, Natalie, Pawl Bearing, Prof-like Substance, ScienceGirl, Silver Fox, Sonja and Unbalanced Reaction featured once each.

(I can reveal that three people from this list have made the shortlist of the top 33 comments!)


Posts of the week: Alyssa, Anthony Fejes, Austin Elliott, Eva Amsen, Jeanne Sather, Masks of Eris, Microbiologist XX, Pika, ScientistMother, Steffi Suhr, Stephen Curry, StyleyGeek, Thomas Joseph and Toaster Sunshine each had two posts make the cut;
Amanda@LadyScientist, Ambivalent Academic, Bean-Mom, Carlyn Zwarenstein, Caroline Sober, Digital Cuttlefish, DrugMonkey, EcoGeoFemme, Elizabeth Moritz, Frank Norman, GrrlScientist, Jim Caryl, Joseph Lewis, Linda Lin, MadHatter, Makita, MissPrism, PZ Myers, Raf Aerts, Richard Grant, Ruchi, Sara Fletcher, Scicurious, Uphill Down Dale, Viktor Poor and Vishal Kalel had one post in BRC this year.




Again, many thanks to everyone who's read, commented, and/or posted this year. You're all winners!

The people have spoken!

Poll results

The next quiz will be posted at 7am PST on Friday, November 5th. Comments will be closed for the first 24 hours (well, probably more like 26 or 27, because I'm not getting up early on a Saturday just for this!) You will be able to submit answers for as many questions as you wish during that time, in either one comment or multiple comments. After the 26(ish) hours are up I'll open the comments, and you must can all trash-talk each other.

AND NO MOANING!!!

In other news, it's official: the most Canadian thing I've ever done is play drunken hockey outside on New Years Eve.

So now you know.

Quiz format changes - another reader poll!

I've looked through the remaining pages of my now-famous desk calendar, and there is one more sciency quiz left!

In the quizzes I've done so far, I've kept the comments completely open but asked that people submit only one answer per commenter per hour. There's always lots of very entertaining banter and trash-talk when we do it that way, BUT:

1) someone always fails to read the rules and posts multiple answers in one comment;
2) people in other time zones always moan at me that all the answers were gone by the time they got there.


So, for the remaining quiz (and any others that I may come across or invent myself in the future), I'll leave it up to my readers to decide on the format. I see two basic alternatives to the status quo:

a) increasing the shut-out time, or
b) switching on comment moderation for that post only, letting people answer as many questions as they can while the comments are hidden, and approving all comments after a 24 hour period so everyone can see all the answers at once.

The drawback to the former approach is that quizzes could drag on for days...

The drawback to the latter approach is that we'll lose the real-time trash talk and banter...

but I'll let you guys decide if it's worth it.

The results of the following poll will be binding, unless someone suggests another alternative in the comments that I think is better than all the listed options, at which point I will shout "screw democracy!" and use that format. You have one week to submit your answer, and will not be allowed to moan once the decision is made :) 

What format should we use for all future quizzes?

Bragging Rights Central V

New archive post!

Remember that there's an annual vote and prize for the best comment of the year - coming in mid-December to a very silly blog near you!

Dates represent date of archiving - it's just easier that way.

VWXYNot? Comment(s) of the week: 
 
Oct 1 2010: Ricardipus for "What I like best about the pelicans I've seen (Brown Pelicans, in Florida) is how they wheel and glide overhead, obviously delighting in the wind, and then

WHUMP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! they fold their wings and absolutely PLUMMET into the ocean after a fish.

Graceful aerobats and psychotic daredevil bombardiers all at once. Love 'em."

Nina for "google translator solely exists for the purpose of a good laugh every now and then. A friend of mine translated a persian abstract into french, but since no one spoke enough french to see hilarious mistakes, it was a wasted effort. So he put the translation into his thesis."

and Microbiologist XX for "For a second I thought maybe you found this guys Dungeons and Dragons CV."

Oct 8 2010: sooo many this week! It's the hockey pool trash talk that does it.

Thomas Joseph for "my agency recognizes papers by letting you keep your job!"

Professor in Training for "How does my dept recognize my achievements? They don't. Most of my colleagues avoid me because the more I do, the worse they look."

Pika for "we have a "mandatory"* departamental social event about once a month - just for fun. [...]

*Mandatory, according to my boss: "fun is not optional""

Bob for "And of course the imaginary answers are

1: martini,
2: University (it's in Oz)
3: computer (the computer fish is a more evolved electric eel)
4: IO (yes, that moon does have life on it)
5: DOD,
6: Stupidity (political science),
7: trousers,
8: money (as in "a fuel and his money are easily divided"),
9: jazz,
10 is rover"

Alyssa for "Damn - I was kind of hoping you'd forget about the NHL pool this year so I wouldn't feel obligated to kick ass again ;)

Seriously though, I'll have to think about it because of the whole baby-coming-in-November-thing, but will let you know!"

then ScientistMother for "Alyssa - what can't watch hockey AND give birth, talk about lack of multitasking :))) "

then Chall for "if Alyssa can be more "like all the rest of us" we'll have a chance this year (slaughter might be too big a word for what happened last year - or not ;) ) "

Oct 15 2010: soooo many good ones again! You guys are outdoing yourselves lately!

Cromercrox for "I have a theory about fuckwits, though. I don't think they are as stupid as they seem. It's all a front. I think they are all members of a secret worldwide conspiracy called S. T. O. P., the Society for Tiresome and Obstructive Pedestrians, whose members might include (but are not limited to)

1. Little old ladies who, while they seem small, walk in such a way as to monopolize the whole sidewalk;

2. Italian teenagers who are ostensibly in UK studying in English, who hang around in shop doorways;

3. Ladies with prams who suddenly stop and gossip with each other.

And so on and so forth in like fashion. I hypothesize that S. T. O. P. is obscurely allied with S. C. U. M., the Society for Curmudgeonly and Uncooperative Motorists, whose members include men driving white vans, people towing caravans, boy racers and so on."

(very meta, this one) Ricardipus for "I believe I deserve a special award for Most Reasonable Usage of the Term "WHUMP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" in a Blog Comment About Seabirds During September of 2010.

Also, that comment was possibly the most useful thing I wrote all month."

following on from last week's hockey pool-related trash talk between Alyssa, ScientistMother, Chall and me, here's what happened when Alyssa and Pika won the quiz last week:

ScientistMother for "No fair, some of us actually have to do IMPORTANT things like drive to work, dress, drink coffee, oh and feed small child before we can get onto our blogs. Those damn EST folks have a head start."

then Alyssa for "Tsk, tsk, tsk - so many excuses. It's all about priorities, people! I mean, how is research, feeding your kid, or sleeping more important than THIS? I figure either shit or get off the pot!"

then Chall for "Alyssa> that goes for the hockey too, right? "feeding your kid" vs hockey picks. That's a clear priority ;)

(sorry, couldn't resist.)"

then ScientistMother for "Ayssa - Chall beat me to this. But note, I had to drive, drink coffee AND feed the small child. You were complaining about just giving birth and a hockey pool. C'mon now, how hard is giving birth anyway?"

and finally Alyssa for "Oh, crap, I didn't realize you had to do all those things! My most sincere apologies. Giving birth and then learning to take care of a newborn obviously does not compare to that!"


Oct 22 2010: Chall for "Sounds like a fun thing to do, keeping the notes I mean. You do know it's the power.... to write what you want them to have decided ;)"

and Mermaid for "Maybe the solution is having one really horrible bus commuting experience to switch you back to the joys of cycling. Perhaps sitting beside someone with personal space and body odour issues....along with a cold, sneezing fits and a lack of tissue?

That would make your bike seem like a luxury!"

Oct 29 2010: Mel for "i voted for hockey shootout/curling... drunk new years hockey only lost because you admitted already that you took your skates off (very UNcanadian) and also you did not say that it was below -20 degrees (which is critical to the Canadianness)!!!"

Mermaid for "Oh, there was curling, but we never really paid attention. As kids, it was far too tame and the good looking boys played hockey :)"

Professor in Training for "I only recently saw a picture of poutine - it looks like it could very well be my favourite food of all time as it contains all of my favourite ingredients that aren't Doritos."

and Bob O'H for "I like the status quo - I hoover up the easy answers, then retire to bed and leave the hard ones for you people in the Colonies."

Nov 5 2010: Microbiologist XX for "We have a weekly group meeting that four PIs attend. Sometimes I get the feeling that if one person weren't standing in front with a laser pointer, that we would never get the hell out of there."

and Bob O'H for "I liked Clippy. Primarily because I could swear at him.
"It looks like you're writing a letter."
"No, fuck off and tell me the full reference for [redacted] et al. 1967, wanker"
"I don't understand what you're asking"
"Of course not. You're a useless tosser who should go back to Seattle with all the other idiots who live there"
etc etc"


Nov 12 2010: Hermitage for "I'm such a wimp, I got the spooks just from reading about a frequency that resonates my eyeballs. Aiiiiii, abomination! Not of the lord! Squee, squee."

Ricardipus for "You know, I think I will go through the whole pool without changing any picks at all. Think of it as a negative control."

Chall for "of course, we all know the saying - up like a sun, down as a pancake - right?!"

and Antipodean for "Ooooh. I'm as excited as a kitten in it's very own paper bag..."

Nov 26 2010:  Massimo for "I think it's true, you may be becoming more and more Canadian every day but... you're still a Brit at taste buds :-)"

and Massimo again for "I think they are looking for a high-level administrator at my institution... I am sure they can make him a competitive offer. We only want the best, when it comes to bs."

Dec 3 2010: Bumper two week edition!

EcoGeoFemme for "My friend's husband went along with her to a meeting once. He went to the poster session and pretended he was an ecologist. I guess he had picked up enough from my friend that he was pretty convincing, even though he said he was in a somewhat different subfield from her. For some reason, this irritated me more than it made me laugh."

Hermitage for "You love melancholy air? You are SUCH a Brit!" (hey, a little melancholy now and then is good for the soul!)

Nina for "I am delighted to see grey misty gloomy November weather in other places when I can finally go to work on flipflops and colleagues throw spontaneous wine tastings around afternoon teatime."

Bob O'Hara for "I think that's Chinese for "flower horribly infested with smut"."




Post(s) of the Week:
 
Oct 1 2010: CromerCrox for "Ancestral furniture" (in CC's family, "when the elder male of the clan reaches his mid-forties, he is seized by an implacable urge to make pine dressers". There are some impressive furniture making genes in this family!)

and Scicurious for "The lab your lab could BE LIKE!" and "The Old Spice lab: Does YOUR lab smell like an Old Spice lab?" (fantasizing about Isaiah Mustafa turning reagents into data. I’m on a stool. HYAH!)

Oct 8 2010: KJHaxton for "Lady Lab Coat Ga Ga" (the frustration of trying to find a practical lab coat for a woman that doesn't leave you looking like "a rectangular polycotton yeti")

Masks of Eris for "The teaching-assistantial mind at work" (messing with students' minds through the medium of URLs)

and Eva Amsen for "No-one cares about your blog (part 2)" (a very funny tale of a t-shirt, and an excellent reminder to those of us prone to MEta-blogging that really, no-one cares). 

Oct 15 2010: travel and reading hilarious comments cut into my blog-reading time this week!

Prof-like Substance for "Job vacancy: journal club killa" (there's one in every department!)

and Alyssa for Misery wars (Four kinds of oneupmanship. Can you think of any more?) 

Oct 22 2010: Thomas Joseph for "#UnK3rn3d: Life Outside the Lab?" (excellent rebuttal to Scott Kern)
Anthony Fejes for "Science blogs and Caveat Emptor. A comment on an Analytical Chemistry editorial" (excellent rebuttal to Royce Murray)

Eva Amsen for "Technical paper: home-made mocha optimization" (Abstract: "I made instant mocha at work and am now writing a silly blog post about it.")

Kimli for "False advertising" (Kimli's experience with the iPhone Facetime video calling feature does not quite match the one promised in those commercials)

and Alyssa for "My eyes! My eyes!" (I don't have a formal award for "most hideous furniture of the week", but maybe I should start one?) 

Oct 29 2010: Jenny Rohn for "In which I defend a bit of honest ignorance" (does it matter that most people don't understand technical scientific terms?)

Chall for "...not in Kansas any more..." (an encounter in the "wrong" neighbourhood opens up a new career option that could be so, so right...)

and Information is Beautiful for "The true size of Africa" (some stunning maps that put country & continent sizes into perspective) 

Nov 5 2010: Nina for "In the fume hood" (Nina continues to crack me up, this time with an explanation for why she got to experience a large aftershock from inside the hood)

and The Digital Cuttlefish for "My place in the dance of the universe" (I have to admit that I've been neglecting ol' Cuttle lately, but this post made me realise what an eejit I'd been not to keep up with his blog) 

Nov 12 2010: It's all Hermitage all the time! Check out this awesome series on "How Gaming Makes me a Better Graduate Student": Glossary, Intro, PvE vs PvP, and Gear (with more to come next week, I think). I know next to nothing about gaming, and thought the whole series was fantastic!

Oh, and Beth gets a shout-out too, for the awesome Vegetarian Lady Gaga costume she wore to my Hallowe'en party last week. 

Nov 26 2010: Bob O'Hara for "Why Libel Needs to be Reformed" (funny post (hee hee! Just noticed the URL as I added the link) about a serious subject. Please sign the petition, wherever you may live, because English libel law affects YOU).

and StyleyGeek for "Remind me why we are using a wiki again?" (almost too familiar to be funny. Almost). 

Dec 3 2010: Bumper two week edition!

The Bean-Mom for "What's important" (very sad but beautifully written tale of loss)

Prof-like Substance for "But those grant reviews are unreasonable!" (how even ridiculous reviews can improve your proposal)

Chall for "Tale of two languages" (fantastic post and comments thread about living, working, thinking, and dreaming in more than one language)

Jennifer Rohn for "In which I correspond" (the story behind getting permission to use the poetry quoted in her new book. Canadian authors FTW!)

Cromercrox for "Guinea pigs for a guinea pig?" (the story behind the next global publishing phenomenon: Defiant the guineapig: Firefighter!)

Richard P. Grant for "Onlooker" (geeky googly goodness)

and Ugliest Tattoos for "Tomorrow, on Springer" (excellent visual pun) 

FEAR ME

FOR I AM ALL-POWERFUL

Until this week, I would have said that my super-powers are limited to the following:

• Locating any spider's web within a 5 metre radius, using only my face
• Locating submerged rocks in the ocean, using only my bare feet
• Turning wine into water

However, over the last few days I have not only caused a peer-reviewed paper to be retracted, but also influenced the outcome of the upcoming US House of Representatives elections.

Inadvertent, but still impressive.

The paper retraction came about as a result of a tweet I posted after spotting something unusual in my journal table of contents RSS feeds:

The tweet inspired Bob O'Hara to write a post about the paper, and the story then got picked up by Tara C. Smith (as a direct result of Bob's post) and PZ Myers (I'm not sure where he first heard about the paper, but he linked to Tara's post).

The editor of the journal left comments on all the posts the next day, saying that the paper was being retracted, and apologising for the mistake! See Bob's comment thread for one example.

Blimey, I wasn't expecting THAT when I rattled off that quick tweet! I almost feel guilty*, except that the paper really was very bizarre and unscientific. I'm all in favour of the occasional silly entry in the peer reviewed literature (e.g. here), but feel that it should be marked as such, or made obvious by the date of publication. April 1st springs to mind... Also, it appears that at least one of the authors had intended the paper as a serious attempt at thought provocation.

I think the comments around the internet about "humourless atheists" are off-base, though - most of the comments I've read are full of humourous piss-taking!

My influence over the US elections came about as a result of this book review. Apparently the author is currently running for office as a US Representative, and someone who lives in that district found my book review when Googling all the candidates. This voter then emailed me yesterday, to thank me - he explained that he has a rule against voting for creationists, and based on my review he's decided not to vote for the book's author!

(For the record, I'm not sure that the author's an out-and-out old-skool religious creationist. From what I've read in the book and then in his comments on my review post, I'd classify him more as a proponent of some weird modified form of intelligent design).

I'm thinking that this might be a good week to buy a lottery ticket.

--------------

*I'd like to direct your attention to this egregious little bit of buck-passing:

Blogging motivation, philosophy and experience meme

Alyssa tagged me for a meme!

This is the first one I've seen for a while; I thought they were an endangered species!

The aim of this one is:

1. Sum up your blogging motivation, philosophy and experience in exactly 10 words.

2. Tag 10 other blogs to perpetuate the meme.

I'll do the first part - as you may remember, I prefer not to tag individuals.

"Share the smiles: mostly silly, with a chance of science".

I like words 4-10 best. In fact, I might modify the text on my banner to include them!

If this made you smile, and you haven't been tagged by someone else yet - consider yourself tagged!

Sound as a pound

Right, we've got charts, a compass, tide tables, two Swiss Army knives, bear spray, and an air horn*, and we're off on an adventure! (Well, we're actually off to my mother-in-law's today, which isn't all that adventurous, even when our nephews are there, which they are. The adventure starts tomorrow morning).

If anyone needs me I'll be on a horse in a kayak, somewhere in Desolation Sound (so called because Captain Vancouver saw it on a bad day. Apparently it's beautiful and not at all desolate - at least not in summer).

Oh, and our tenant's still going to be around, so don't even think about breaking into our house while we're away! He's a seriously big dude (6 foot 7 and built like a brick shithouse) who's bodyguarded for Jean Claude van Damme and Vin Diesel, among others. He's loaned us his bear spray; he often comes across bears in the course of his (non bodyguarding) work duties, but they run away from him. Seriously. He has an example of this kind of interaction caught on a tape from a work security camera, but I'm not allowed to post it.

He's the big one in this photo - and bear (hah!) in mind that none of the other three guys is exactly petite.

Left to right: Mr E Man, my Dad, our massive tenant, baby Lilah's Dad

He's also a fantastic cat sitter, and the kitties love him.

BTW, expect (slightly) more science blogging than you've been used to when I get back! (Don't worry, you can skip the science posts if you're not interested. Same goes for any other kind of post, obviously, although I assume that every single reader is riveted by the ongoing dental floss conversation).

------------------
*Conversation while reserving kayaks:

Me: "is there much bear activity up there at the moment?"
Woman in kayak shop: "there's one on the lawn right now! It's looking at me through the window!"
Me: "..."

Hence the bear spray and air horn.

Defeating perfect enemies

Here is the single most useful piece of writing advice I’ve ever heard, and I apologise for not thinking of posting it sooner. It came from my PhD supervisor, lo these many years ago, and it really helped me to get started in earnest on writing my thesis.

----------------------

If you’re procrastinating, blocked, or otherwise having serious difficulties starting a piece of writing, it may well be because you’re a perfectionist.  You’re possibly unsure of what exactly is required of the piece - the scope, the tone, the structure, the length - and your perfectionist little brain won’t let you start working on something that it knows won’t meet your high standards.

If this happens to you: just start writing. Dive straight into that first draft. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Perfect is the enemy of the good*, but it doesn’t even have to be good. Not at this stage, anyway.

The trick is to make your perfectionism work for you, rather than against you, by shifting it to a different stage of the writing process. Trust yourself: trust that if you put your perfectionist tendencies aside during the drafting process, they’ll still be there later, waiting for you, and will kick in during the editing phase. You will, inevitably, re-read your dodgy imperfect first draft, recognize the flaws, and start to restructure, reword, fill in gaps, cut unnecessary sections, lather, rinse, repeat. C’mon – you’re a perfectionist! You just know you won’t put up with an imperfect draft for long! You'll whip it's arse into shape in no time!

----------------------

Of course, you then have to turn your perfectionism back off again after a final thorough editing and proofreading, because otherwise you’ll never submit the damn thing.

Blog posts are excellent training in this regard. I’ll publish a blog post at a waaaaay earlier stage than when sending a document to my boss or another colleague. I might notice the occasional typo or clumsy wording, and go back and tweak once it’s posted… but then again, I might get lucky and have comments to respond to instead. Which is much more fun, obviously.

--------------------------------------------

*supplementary advice: as I learned just last year, during a writing course I took at work, procrastinating until just before a deadline is another way to defeat this enemy. If you wait long enough, the deadline will become so urgent that you’ll accept that the piece doesn’t need to be perfect, it just needs to be on time (and good enough), and you'll be able to start writing. Some people will never be able to eliminate this deadline crutch, but the main thread of the advice above may help you to take the first wobbly unaided steps.

Bragging Rights Central IV

Dates represent date of archiving - it's just easier that way.

VWXYNot? Comment(s) of the week: 

Apr 01 2010: Massimo for "I would have so much to say about that, but my snowmobile buddies are waiting for me -- being a guy, I have to alternate between that and blogging, they are just two aspects of the same thing, you see ?"

Bob O'H for"Damn, I seem to have an imaginary wife.

I'm rather proud of my imagination."

and Antipodean for "What's up with all these ignorant woman bloggers telling other woman bloggers that they are in fact men?

In other news: the sun didn't come up this morning and no I don't have any data to back that up and it's blatantly stupid."

Apr 15 2010: Alyssa for "the wonderful thing about this pool is that I was so focused on finding the best individual players throughout the league, I stopped looking at the team stats! I only realized last week that the Flames are probably out of the playoffs!"

Kyrsten for "Other than sinking (I've seen many a float home sink), the #1 reason not to live in a small space is that you CAN'T GET AWAY. Ask the girl who grew up on a boat where the washroom was 5 feet from my head. Seriously. And we didn't have doors- we had a curtain.

SO yeah. It's not so romantic when there is more than one of you."

Bob O'H for "The Finns all have summer cottages in the countryside that they retire to for a month at midsummer. Perhaps you could do something similar - buy a floating home and some marina space. You could even make it yourself.

Of course, it would be embarrassing if it sank over the winter, but at least you'd get a blog post out of that."

and Nina (go and check out her new digs!) for "I would definitely recommend a gel saddle plus a lot of padding in the attractive shorts (yes, they are horrible). My first long 2 day cycle tour ended after the first day due to soreness like I'd never experienced before... And not in the muscles!"

Apr 23 2010: ScientistMother for "I'm sorry I thought you were British? No upstanding British person would claim that food which contained no meat was awesome. It's like saying non alcoholic beer is the bomb. Who are you and what have you done with our Cath?!"

and RPS77 for "Just think - until the development of the internet, bathroom graffiti was almost the only way for strangers who never saw each other to exchange random insults."

Apr 30 2010:  Beth for "I once caused a Canuck playoff loss because of a cursed chocolate bar. I got it during one game and we lost. Then we were losing the next game and it hit me that clearly it was the unfinished chocolate bar's fault and so I forced myself to devour the remainder of the bar and the Canucks then won the game. Which is scientific proof of my theory of the cursed chocolate bar."

Silver Fox for "I don't like walking under ladders, and *prefer* not to step on cracks (OMG am I OCD?). Friends who jinx your team like that, though... are they still your friends?"

GrrlScientist for "actually, you are well on your way to recovery because an untherapized over-thinker would write and write and write until their font has become progressively smaller and smaller and SMALLER and then runs off the side of the page and continues on the back of the poster."

Microbiologist XX for "I totally belong in that group. I can't say it's the fault of science completely, but I can say that science turned what could have been a manageable little personality quirk into an engrained personality trait."

and Alyssa for "Put the sock on the cat!! Put the sock on the cat!!"

May 7 2010: Tideliar for "I caused a local hockey team to lose a playoff game once...

I was dating this girl who I found out was cheating on me with one of their star forwards (?). So seeing as I had the flu I made sure we did the friends with benefits thing one last time. Then she saw him (nice euphemism), gave him the flu and he spread it round their team. By the time they reached the quarter finals the entire first team was out sick

:) "

and ScientistMother for summing up my entire wordy post with the words "puke on a page!"

May 14 2010: Chall for "5 weeks?!?!!?!!? FIVE?!?! In your house? By golly, I need a bigger house for that to happen (and an extra TV and some other stuff) :)"

and RPS77 for "A term like "Famous Scottish tree hybridiser" is a good reminder that fame can be relative to a particular field."

May 21 2010: Tideliar for "I was playing in punk/rockabilly band and we dragged my parents along. It was f'ing hilarious seeing my mum pretend to enjoy herself, and even watching my very conservative father squirm for a couple of hours >:) "

and Ricardipus for "I was thinking to myself, "HA! That sounds like Yoda! I will make a clever reversed-verb-and-noun kind of joke in the comments!"

Then I saw the filename of your screen capture.

Then I read the comments.

Then I actually read the title of your post.

I'll get my coat now."

Jun 04 2010: EcoGeoFemme for "I had to be in a carseat much longer than most kids because I was so small for my age. I used to like it though because it meant nobody could crowd my space in the car. Important in a family of 7! Maybe Saba just needed her space. :) "

Beth for "I just can't stop staring at the crotch of the one on the [right]. Why the $%^ did they highlight its crotch in blue?? Maybe it was to distract us from the cellulite of the one on the left. "

Mermaid for "Ack! The logo comes straight from those spatial intelligence questions on IQ tests! If I can make a complete shape out of them, am I smart enough for MENSA? Or maybe it is a Make-Your-Own Logo game?

I don't even know what to say about the mascots. They look a bit like really poorly designed hand-held showers. Or something :). "

Prof-like Substance for "The photos with the kids hugging those things is bullshit. If I saw one of those coming at me as a grade schooler I would have either run or thrown rocks at it, or both. Who thought the giant one-eye-head thing was a good idea? I think it's time to scrap the whole committee and start over."

and Ricardipus for "WTF is that logo?

It's, um... er... well it's got legs. I think. And a square bit. And sort of an "L" - I guess that's for "London".

And... a CROTCH! It's got a crotch too. That little square-ish dingus in the middle.

As for Weirdblock and Mental - forget it, everybody else said it already.

I am thinking this: there is a marketing firm, likely in the UK, that needs to be fired. Immediately."

Jun 11 2010: (bumper two week edition!)

Lisbeth for "Ahh, how nice to know that regarding ironing I'm just young and not lazy :)"

Antipodean for "Ah! I see. You're shitty at me, again, because of something dream-me did in your fucking head last night? And you just can't quite let go of the righteous indignation you're feeling, right?"

and then "MrsAntipodeans dream me is a right bastard. Some days I wanna give him an uppercut"

In a somewhat spooky duplication of Antipodean's comment, Alyssa then said, "Dream DH is a much bigger jerk than in real life - with the cheating and leaving and what-have-you. Real DH wants to kick Dream DH's ass."

and Bob O'H for "For the first one "No Mr. President. The puppet is meant to go outside the hand"."

June 25 2010:  Chall for "oh, I'm happy to sort of share (tasting part is a big thing in my family) but ask ask ask before... not just stick a fork in my food and grab the best part without warning ;)

Oh, and this does not go with taking chips/popcorn from my bowl that are mine. you grab your own bowl thank you!

Clearly an important discussion to have before you decide to date :) "

Hermitage for "I expect this from Fox News, not the BBC. Shame! Shame and dishonor!"

Pika for "Re: England/UK, etc. something you should never ever ever EVER say is something I once overheard from an Italian student who was trying to chat up some Irish girls:

"But you are the same as the English: you watch the same TV channels, listen to the same music and watch the same football."

Don't ever try this in Ireland, if you want to live. ;-) "

and Ricardipus for "MUAAA HA HA HA HA I am in.

Loading up on African teams, and those from obscure South American countries.

I will win! I will win!

[certain aspects of the above statement may not be entirely accurate]"

Jul 02 2010: (Another supersized edition! Now that the ride's over with, I'll hopefully be back to weekly updates).

Thomas for "Lookie who is the only one who picked Group C correctly. ;)

U-S-A! "

Bob for "Argentina almost didn't qualify, and TBH I don't rate their coach.

If it was handball, it would be a different matter entirely: I'd predict them to reach the final against France."

hgg for "I'm sure we easily can find someone who is happy to mansplain to us what this means! Because my ladybrain is too occupied with the stress of waiting for the dude to pop the question to be able to deal with difficult stuff like bying property."

Alyssa for "(in sing-song voice): I certainly could have never, ever, ever figured out how to buy a house without my big, strapping husband! Teehee! Thank goodness I was able to trap him into marrying me, or else I just don't know what I would do! Sigh!"

Bob (again) for "Congratulations. I always find that shooting at people makes them pedal harder. As long as you miss, of course."

Chall for "sounds like Sunday was a bit grueling and I'm happy you bit into the stubborness and rode through it. I'm sure the hot bath was a good plan since you discribe the shivering etc... if you've been cold and work out that hard for a long time, it's hard to get the body back into gear. (no pun intended... or wait, maybe a little).

It sounds like quite an adventure and yeah, I wish I could say I'd be surprised about the guns but since my time here in the South... well, let's just go with that 'it sure is different with some people' ;)"

and Mermaid for "I am so proud of you! I love that you pushed through even though you were so sick of the hills. I totally understand what you were feeling and it is just much harder than can possibly be explained properly.

Really, I am thrilled that you finished (well, I knew you would) and that you got to experience that amazing feeling that comes with the mixture of pure exhaustion, pride in accomplishment, having people chant your name OUT LOUD in PUBLIC like a rock star or something and then just plain relief to get off the d*&m bike."

Jul 09 2010: ScientistMother for "I am so so frustrated. Its this bad cycle of idiots (the black bloc) making the police hyper-viligent, getting vilified for over reacting (or on saturday not reacting enough). What gets lost is the voices and the issues of people working for social change.

I get the black bloc want to destroy the companies that they feel are perpetrating injustice, but scary the crap out of a bunch of innocent works isn't helping anyone's cause."

Ricardipus for "*This* is why YouTube was invented... :D

I am impressed you were coherent enough to record this video at all. After all that riding, one sip of beer would probably knock most mere mortals flat on their MoFo-hurting a$$. ;)"

Eva for "NOTICE how I got ONE ENTIRE GROUP correct!! I am so awesome."

Chall for "well you know, this is all bringing back those memories from the stupid hockey pool ;) I'm closer to the end that the beginning....

I am still in shock that I had 5 groups with NO points and then 2 groups perfect. Clearly missing something important... like thinking that France, Italy and Nigeria would have good teams. Pah.

well, let's see the US be beaten today. Just because I put in Ghana... but I'm not ure on that either. Surely they will have extra time until the US scores or somthing like that? (bitter? me? nahhh) ;)"

and Ricardipus (again) for "chall - the last time I was in a hockey pool, I finished pretty much dead last - long behind the "average" pick (i.e. most frequent player picked in each category in the pool) and, embarrassingly, beaten even by "Maggie Monkey" who picked at random."

Jul 16 2010:  Thomas Joseph for "If I win, it'll be monumental. If I don't ... as an American who doesn't follow football/soccer except for once every four years ... the rest of you should be ashamed that I led for as long as I did. ;)"

(he won...)

Chall for "so let me get this straight, after reading this and ponder, I'm either going to end up 2nd or 3rd? And I will get beaten by 1 or 17 points?

ahh... I knew I shouldn't have done the thinking since now it is all gone... all the excitment is exchanged for "drats, only one lousy point now WHY did I think that France was gonna pull through". blä. ;)"

(looks like 3rd, Chall...)

Antipodean for "Quebecois don't speak French wrong. The French speak French wrong, at least according to the Quebecois."

Nina for "It is one of the Dutch tricks to get foreigners prononounce the "ui' sound. Everybody fails miserably. I think it was even used in the war to check whether someone was really Dutch. That's my patriotic post for today ;)"

and Bob O'H for "I've taken to claiming that the 4th of July is called Thanksgiving in the UK. Celebrating the time when we finally got rid of that waste of space to our west."

Jul 23 2010: The Bean-Mom for "Ha ha! It seems everyone I know who assists PIs in grant applications has some variant on this complaint. Like the grant that the group of PIs suddenly decided to apply for 3 WEEKS before the deadline!!! Or the PIs who have known about a grant deadline for months, but don't let the administrators/official science writer/editor/coordinator know anything about it until the last minute. I had to listen to a rant on this topic during happy hour at out institute the other day... and all I could think was, "I'm sooo glad I'm not in that boat right now!""

Antipodean for "No fair!

There's a quadruple L in that one. When I tried to say it I gagged on one of my tonsils with the first 'LL' and then switched tonsils for the second 'LL'.

Fucking Welsh!"

and Bob O'H for "Oh poo. I thought this was going to be about another sort of rut."

Aug 06 2010: Dr A for "Clearly this meeting is very interesting."

and Antipodean for "New Zealand on the other hand will bend over backwards and forwards simultaneously to make anything as long as we get to play with computers. We only got these in the past ten years and boy are they shiny!

The next big movie project in Vancouver will be Watership Down. Sir Ian McKellan is already signed on to be the voice of the rabbit grim reaper. Brad Pitt will voice Fiver and Ellen Page is the main protagonist, Hazel.

Needless to say Sir Peter Jackson will direct and all the actual work will be done in New Zealand after they take a polaroid picture of a nice meadow with mountains in the background somewhere in British Columbia."

Aug 13 2010:  soooo many to choose from! Some excellent comments over the last two weeks...

Dr A (this was the comment that started all the dental floss madness...) for "Speaking of dental floss, the other day I saw a container of TRAVEL-SIZED dental floss. Why? Because if I have to take my FULL sized dental floss, I will not have room for my watermelon cooler!" and then "Maybe it's just that I use the free dental floss I get from the dentist? Are spools of floss really that giant? Or is it the packaging? I guess some people DO need some room to include instructions for use ;)"

ScientistMother for "Dr.A - Do you keep dental floss in your purse, along with your glasses, your childs' glasses, wallet, keys, manicure set (for fixing broken finger/toe nails, pulling out tweezers), phone, 4 toy cars/trucks because OMG the child will DIE if he does not have all FOUR monster vehicles with him at all times, until he decided want to hold them, emergency snacks for child who is always hungry?

Yes I keep dental floss in my purse, because I floss after lunch. The little tiny travel size fits nicely into my very small makeup bag. so pHHTTT"

DuWayne Brayton for "WHAT!??!?! Everybody doesn't have a fucking travel sized chapstick? Has the world gone insane!?!?!?

I suppose it's the purses. Y'all are lucky - you have purses. Unless I happen to be going to class, or the coffee shop, all I have are pockets. It's a lot easier to just keep the necessities in the pockets. Full size chapstick is out of the question.

Without small sized everything, my shorts start trying to work there way down. I am not keen on showing off my unders."

Chall for "Commercial! I mean, where is this blog going? shamelessly promoting big boxes of flossing with visible name and company." and then "joke aside. I died reading the rest of your comment. "size... satin feel... oh yeah baby... it'll never feel the same ;P ""

DrugMonkey for "When is a Canadian cooler ever *empty* of ice and beer? Pointless device, eh?"

Microbiologist XX for "I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry when I noticed the warning on my car sun visor (that giant cardboard thing that covers your entire front windshield). It read: WARNING, do not drive with visor covering windshield. Really? Really!! People actually don't have enough sense to know that you shouldn't drive your car when the entire windshield is covered up with an object that is not transparent in any way shape or form.!?!"

Pawl Bearing for "Canadian Tire once carried a plastic tire-replica swing. Yes, the world's hardest to dispose of commodity and there's plastic replicas of it."

Elizabeth for "I came across fresh bear scat while once hiking in Yellowstone and almost did the same in my pants. Have fun and be safe!"

Bob O'Hara for "The air horn is a bit excessive if you want to drive the mother in law away."

Alyssa for "That is an amazingly coherent dream! Mine seem to jump all over the place and make no sense when I go to retell them." and then "I have to update with my dream from last night: Someone was trying to sell me these wonky "connectors" that would allow me to connect my dreams in a coherent way! Ha!"

Aug 20 2010:  Antipodean for "The Scotsman in me is appalled that I'd have to waste at least one perfectly good outer layer on those onions."

Hermitage for "Hmm, that's one way to indulge your inner serial killer..."

and Kyrsten for "Right. I forgot you were all blaming it on me, because I introduced you to the wonders of Twitter. What would you have done if I had introduced you to Google Wave? Wait, I did. Look what happened to that! Cath, did you kill it?"

Aug 27 2010:  Mermaid for "Wow, you are indeed all powerful. Do you have this influence on situations in closer proximity? If so, I would like to introduce you to a few people :)"

and CromerCrox for "My superpowers are limited to turning up in the kitchen when someone else has just completed the washing up."

Sep 03 2010:  Bob O'H for "You're suffering from pareidolia. Next you'll be seeing the face of Alan Shearer in your toast."

Ruchi for "My eyes! My virgin eyes!!"

and Sonja for "I own the same style of Keens. And I think you are totally within your right to wear them with socks. =)"

Sep 10 2010:  Beth for "I remember being in undergraduate labs and the safety rules always said "Do not pipette by mouth" and we'd be all "Who the HELL would do that?" But in grad school I met people who were like "Oh yeah, I've done that." Gross!!!"

Nat Blair (Ologyologist In Chief!) for "Somebody needs to brush up on their readingcomprehensology."

Ruchi (LOLogist In Chief!) for

"Agrology- Study of Agro-inducing people
Campanology - Study of Campy Teen Movies
Geomorphology- Study of things that turn into other things
Metrology- Study of terrible metro systems
Myology- Study of Ruchi's Ology
Pomology- Study of People Who Think That Hideous Pom Drink is Delicious
Rhinology- Study of Rhinos (duh)
Semiology- Study of Semi trucks
Speleology- Study of Spelunkers
Vexillology- Study of Vexing People
Vulcanology - Study of Vulcans"

Chall for "am I the only one thinking "dinosaurs" when it comes to 'dactylology'?? I can't stop visualising big clawy like dino hands ;)"

and Nina for "If Google tells you differently, I do not agree. I could argue the whole night if you wish

Sorry if this is not according to the rules, but this way I have my fun too hahahahaha!"


Sep 17 2010:  Ricardipus for "Genetics? Nice and neat? Well, for a single trait I suppose. Throw some recombination out there and it all goes Gregor-Mendel-faked-his-data on you."

Antipodean for "I can confirm that the phrase is "I couldn't care less". But then again we're a bunch of inbred sheep farmers on one side of the Tasman Sea and the refuse of her majesty's prison system on the other. So what would we know?"

and Biochem Belle for "I'm a non-careless North American! The phrase "I could care less" just never made any sense to me, as the excellent argument by John Cleese illustrates. It's ridiculous. Perhaps some in the States do it just to be less British. Poppycock, I say. Then again at times, I've been convinced I'm a Brit trapped in an Americans body because really-what self-respecting Southern belle would prefer a nice hot cup of Earl Grey over sickeningly sweet ice cold tea? That would be me. Cold tea disgusts me... as does "I could careless". Now excuse me while I go shore up the defenses."

Sep 24 2010:  Nina for "42 stickers eh? That must be the answer to the problem I'm sure." (Earthquakes make you sarcastic, apparently! :D )

and Ricardipus for "I always preferred the proposed term "doubloon" for the two-dollar coin, but it just didn't catch on. More's the pity.

Finally - the Queen is not a Common Loon. She is an Exceptional Loon."

Post(s) of the Week:

Apr 01 2010: Cromercrox for "Bo-bo-bonobo" (Henry gives the most complicated answer yet to the question "Do you know what a bonobo is?")

Steffi Suhr for "If women are in science, and science is in the Antarctic, then women belong there" (Steffi's contribution to Ada Lovelace day profiles Dr. Mary Alice McWhinnie, a true pioneer)

and Microbiologist XX for "Lab coat fail" (things that make you go "LOL")

Apr 15 2010: Masks of Eris for "Oh, Okay. Now calm down." (CERN's Twitter feed inspires thoughts of how Oppenheimer and Archimedes might have reported their own discoveries in the social media age)

and Toaster Sunshine for "Post Ignite Talk" (his hand painted slides depicting transcription, translation and other molecular processes are simply amazing).

Apr 23 2010: KJHaxton for "Election questions" (Science-related questions for all political candidates in her constituency. I am so going to do this before the next Canadian election).

Pika for "On being different" (Life as a global person)

and Ambivalent Academic for "Family Planning" (an, um, creative response to questions about the current and planned future status of one's uterus. There are more excellent suggestions in the comments).

Apr 30 2010: Massimo for "She's at it again" (a response to an article by Margaret Wente, detailing why we should not respond to people like Margaret Wente)

Ian Brooks for "Fair funding for fellows, redux" (an excellent summary of the blogosphere's coverage of the National Postdoc Association's campaign to increase postdoc salaries)

and Prof-like Substance for "Open position, to be filled ASAP" (seminar napper wanted!)

May 7 2010: Chall for "Halfsie time" (one of a series of three excellent posts about an expat returning "home" for a visit)

and Beth for "Ice cream superstition" (very meta, this one. If she blogs this mention in Bragging Rights Central, the internet may very well implode) 

May 14 2010: Makita for "There's a lot more going on in there than we know" (the challenges and surprises of communicating with her son, who has special needs)

KJ Haxton for "Election thoughts" (the discrepancy between the election campaign as seen from interaction with an online community, and the reality of the results. Also, getting science questions onto the agenda)

and Uphilldowndale for "Can I have my ball back please?" (horses playing football!!! 

May 21 2010: Sara Fletcher for "So long Dr. Harris, for now" (lamenting the loss of a strong advocate for science and secularism in last week's UK election)

and Kimli for "In Soviet Russia, social anxiety overcomes you" (Kimli shares the slides and notes from what looks like an excellent blogging conference presentation about social anxiety and social media. Her post about people bringing children into the sessions is also well worth reading).

Jun 04 2010: Jenny Rohn for "In which I salute anti-authors everywhere" (oh how much fun it would be if we could "disacknowledge" the people who hindered the publication of every paper)

Tideliar for "Where did all the nice idiots go?" and Professor in Training for "Translation issues" (two posts about the trials, tribulations, and LOLs of adapting to a new country)

Jun 11 2010: Tideliar for for "Busted!" (how Tideliar got maneuvered into giving a careers talk called "How to network and blag your way to a new position by the seat of your pants")

Massimo for "Three paper rule" (excellent discussion of whether there should be a minimum number of publications required before a graduate student can be awarded a PhD, or whether other aspects of the training are more important)

Cromercrox for "First use of iPad in field conditions" (great review, which is primarily being included in BRC today because it included the phrase "it's fast. Blazingly fast. [...] Not quite as fast, admittedly, as a hot buttered ferret with chili powder up its bottom hurling itself headlong down a Teflon^TM drainpipe, but as near as might require a Steward's Inquiry.")

Kimli for "Not so bad" (a wonderful reminder that Vancouver's current unseasonably rainy weather is infinitely preferable to breathing dust, smoke, or fire. Maybe Nina should read this post :) ) 

June 25 2010: Massimo Boninsegni for "The beautiful game" (I knew this post would make it as soon as I read the first couple of paragraphs. Magnificent football rant).

Nina for "To-do list" (There are some comic gems in this post that truly made me LOL)

and Cromercrox for "Cromercrox in China: the figured stones of Chaoyang" (Fantastic account of a visit to an amazing palaeontology museum in China) 

Jul 02 2010: (I am sooooo behind in my blog reading. But luckily there is no statute of limitations for bragging rights!)

Beth for "Fun with advertising" (High fructose corn syrup is just as good for you as other things that are really bad for you!)

ScientistMother for "Dear Src Kinase" (the SM makes Src signalling her bitch)

and Professor in Training for "The overlooked demographic" (life as a single academic far from home)

Jul 09 2010: (still sooooo behind in my blog reading)

Nina for "7 days of fieldwork" (as I commented on this post: "You're so good at writing about horrible physical hardship in a very funny way!")

and Carlyn Zwarenstein for "O O O Canada" (splendid Harper rant. I couldn't have said it better myself!)

Jul 16 2010: (yup, still behind. I fear this may now be a permanent state of affairs)

Austin Elliott for "Watching football can damage your health" (be careful during the world cup final if you're at risk of a heart attack...)

and again for "It's a conspiracy - and you're ALL in on it" (bizarre accusations against the entire Nature Network by anti-vaccine loons)

Amanda@LadyScientist for "A rant that I cannot post on Facebook" (a plea to stop making personal attacks based on political preferences that I think she should TOTALLY post on Facebook!)

and I Can Haz Cheezburger? for "Wut? There were LOLcats in teh 1800s?" (you don't need me to explain what this post is about, do you?) 

Jul 23 2010: Hmm, I seem to have been far too engrossed in the World Cup and PepsiBlogate this last week to have starred anything in Google Reader - my usual way of remembering good posts for this feature. Sorry. I did star this though:

Rugby Fans by Demotivational Posters

Aug 06 2010: I think I might be catching up!

Nina for "The twisted mind of a confused expatriate" (I can identify with much of this long but excellent post)

Kristi Vogel for "Altered books: altered Gulf, altered lives"(Kristi's ongoing art project takes a depressing but beautiful turn)

Thomas Joseph for "The hotties of science" (everyone likes hotties, right?!)

Bob O'Hara for "My application to join ScienceBlogs (the blog will be about such things as "context-dependent dispersal strategies in maritime rodents")

 
Massimo for "World Cup round-up" (LOL! Right, now when does the English premiership season start?)

 
Steffi Suhr for "Do not touch" ("There is clearly a scientist in every child (or a child in every scientist?)" - I say both!)

 
Silver Fox for "Where it all began" (I love people's "how I became a scientist" posts, and I continue to be fascinated by the North Arrow in Silver Fox's head)

and Beth (who I'm meeting for coffee tomorrow!!! \0/) for "Why you should care about the government scrapping the mandatory long-form census" (SRSLY, how is Harper still my PM? What's it gonna take?)

Aug 13 2010: I'm behind again!

The Oatmeal for "Why Captain Higgins is my favorite parasitic flatworm" (hilarious parasitology comic. Yes, those words can so go together!)

StyleyGeek (she's back!) for "Harmless and misguided advice" (the dangers of suggesting positive thinking techniques to a room full of academics)

Frank Norman for "Looking at an old funding decision" (an argument for preserving bad grant reviews for posterity, rather than throwing them straight in the bin)

CromerCrox for "Apple store, Apple store" (a song composed by his daughter, who's currently saving up for an iPod Touch)

Nina for "Otira" (yet another hilarious field work report from our New Zealand correspondent)

and Beth for "My sista from another Prime Minista" (meeting me and then writing about it is a sure-fire way to make it into Bragging Rights Central!)

Aug 20 2010: Nina for "Who wants to be a professor?" (excellent take on the (apparently) astonishing concept that some people who do PhDs and postdocs don't want to be professors)
Vishal Kalel for "Kitchen Philosophy for Science" (there are many similarities between cooking and science. "Garbage in, garbage out" is just one - illustrated with photos in this case!)

Chall for "What is human... or right?" (tackling the difficult issues of suicide and euthanasia)

Kimli for "Needs more flaming Ks" (not too keen to see "Eat, Pray, Love"? Try "Drink, Fuck, Fight" instead!)

and Massimo for "Popularize this!" (the difficulties of getting people excited about an unfashionable field of physics. Hilarious comments about string theory included).

Aug 27 2010: ScientistMother for"Why I'm wishing I never went into science" (very sad post about being the only person in the family who understands what the doctors are saying in the last few hours of a loved one's life).

Jim Caryl for "Future-proofing antibiotics" (a new blog that looks extremely promising. This post addresses some of the recent media panic about the supposed end of antibiotics).

Hermitage for "Unrealistic expectations" (my comment on this post was "this should be pinned to every door in every university in the world!")

Anthony Fejes for "Genomics haiku" (lots of great examples already - why not add your own?!)

and CBC News for "Bears guarded BC grow-op: RCMP" (this is the first time I've ever included a news article in this section of the blog. Given my desire to showcase the best this awesome province has to offer, it seems only fitting to include this news article, featuring as it does a photo of a mountie posing with some bears that an enterprising lady trained to protect her weed. I love BC).

Sep 03 2010: Hermitage for "Work/Life balance" (the frustrations implicit in the assumption that all working women are, or will soon be, mothers)

and The Oatmeal for "Why working from home is both awesome and horrible" (this is exactly why I'd ideally like to work from home 3 days a week and be in an office for the other 2) 


Sep 10 2010: Professor in Training for "Why manuscript reviews take forever" (FINALLY, a proper explanation of the BS, ASS, RASH, and PRAT stages of review)

Prof-like Substance for "How your proposal gets reviewed"(inspired by the above, an excellent reminder of why you need to make your grant proposals easy to read)

CromerCrox for "Ecce Cromo" (Help CromerCrox choose his passport photo!)

and Beth Snow for "Transcription FAIL" (Marian is dead?! Was it the men for rent? Guess what Beth was actually saying before Google Voice made it hilarious)


Sep 17 2010: Tideliar for "What I know now? You're not that special" (invaluable career advice for grad students and postdocs)

and Massimo for "Quiz: what university administrator are you?" (Fun multiple choice quiz! But do you have what it takes to administer Massimo?)

Sep 24 2010:  Pika for "Where is home?" (another excellent post about the ex-pat experience)

and Microbiologist XX for "Some times you feel like you have the force. Other times, not so much" (elevators know how your experiments are going, and taunt you about it)