Hurrah! Today, I introduce the first of a number of new bloggers starting over the next few months. The Southern Genes blog, to be contributed to by a number of people from Genetics Otago, aims not only to talk about genetic science, but also to examine its effects on our society and to showcase some […]
Posts for August 2010
The best recommendation letter ever
A gift, courtesy of Fake Science :)
Why the Caster Semenya sillyness makes me so angry
I am, I would be the first to admit, generally pretty flippant and light-hearted in my blogging. Not for me the heavy-handed nor overly serious style adopted by many others. No, I prefer that my readers have a bit of a giggle, maybe pick up some new knowledge, and go skipping off into the rest […]
Adrian Shaughnessy and the 15 Paradoxes of graphic design
Adrian Shaughnessy spoke last weekend at this year’s Semi-Permanent, and had some pretty brilliant, and practical, advice for graphic designers. Why are they called paradoxes? Well, because they address statements/beliefs which many in the field take to be true, but which, on closer inspection, turn out to be less true (not necessarily wrong, though). So […]
Filthy foreigner Pt I: Letter
There will be a few of these. Yes, I am teh filthy foreigner (S’African in New Zealand). A stranger in a slightly odd land (sometimes). Filled with sheep, and grass, and, um, cows. And the very occasional person. Oh yeah, and awesome geeks and food and wine and views etc. Anyhoo, I have been trying […]
Friedrich Nietzsche on Originality
What is originality? To see something that does not yet bear a name, that cannot yet be named, although it is before everybody’s eyes. As people are usually constituted, it is the name that first makes a thing generally visible to them. Original persons have also for the most part been the namers of things.
Cooking: where science and art already meet
I come from an extremely foody family. I’ve always explained it to people as follows: “you know that place in their hearts where fundamentalist religious people keep their god? That’s where my parents keep food’. So yes. And I now find myself living in a particularly foody city (Wellington has, apparently, the highest number of […]
elsif
During an email conversation with friend, the following happened. Related as it ocurred. Friend shall be referred to as ‘x’ x: /winks aimee: depending on wink: /looks scared ; /yet more deadpan ; /eye twitches ; /runs screaming x: Sorry I will have to resort to coding, either that or I have to deal with with parallel universes.Which […]
Reprise #3: the value of memory
Last reprise for the moment! According to this marvellous post, a British (yes, the Brits feature again) brain has actually worked out a formula able to place a precise, sterling value on one’s memories. It factors in elements such as how vividly you recall it, its perceived importance, and a host of other interesting factoids. […]
Reprise #2: Sixty Symbols
Something fun to explore over the weekend! (And my first ever post) The link is to Sixty Symbols (click on the logo above), kindly brought to us by the University of Nottingham (nice one, chaps). Sixty Symbols is brilliant: it’s perfect for those of us with an interest in physics, but not, perhaps, the ability […]