Category Archives: Fun

Science Foo Camp – Saturday morning

Breakfast time! Professor Steve Steve decided to look around for Googleplex for scifoo celebrities….(under the fold):

Continue reading

Science Foo Camp – Friday

OK, it’s 2:45am here, and I have a session at 9:30 in the morning, so, below the fold, just a quick scifoo photo dump….

Continue reading

This is one of the geekiest tings I have ever seen , or, how to wear a red shirt and still manage to survive

Statistical analysis of crew-members’ deaths on Starship Enterprise, including various risk factors.
(Via)

Last day in San Francisco

A month has passed.
It was a steep learning curve, but I think I have climbed high enough on it to be confident that I’ll be fine on my own back in Chapel Hill. Being a part of the PLoS team is such an exhillarating experience – there is so much energy and optimism around the office, everybody from CEO to the newest intern living, breathing and dreaming Open Access 24/7.
Not to bore you about the job any more – you will be hearing about PLoS over and over again here – let me, for now, just show you some pictures (under the fold) from the farewell party last night at Jupiter in downtown Berkeley, where some of us spent about six hours drinking last night…
Who was there?
Four of us Sciencebloggers: Alex Palazzo and his lovely wife, Josh Rosenau (and his parents) who has just arrived, after driving all the way from Kansas, to take on his new job at NCSE, Chris Hoofnagle and myself.
There were several of my new PLoS colleagues: Russell Uman, Barbara Cohen, Hemai Parthasarathy, Liza Gross, Gavin Yamay and, briefly, Peter Jerram with whom I had a great lunch conversation earlier in the day.
Then, some other local bloggers, scientists, friends, fans and scifoo campers: Chris Patil who is very funny, especially after a few beers (and his command of the Croatian language is getting good!!), old blog friend of mine Alvaro Fernandez and his summer intern Andreas Engvig (an MD/ PhD in Cog Neuroscience from Norway), Josh Staiger who is an old blogging friend from his days in Chapel Hill (before Google stole him from IBM), Meg Stalcup, currently in her fourth graduate program (which makes her so interdisciplinary, one’s head hurts, so of course she is invited to Science Foo Camp), Attila Csordas who is editing his Dissertation on his blog, Curtis Pickering of JeffsBench, Bosco Ho, a postdoc in Dave Agard’s lab at UCSF, and…heck, after all the beer, I am not sure I got all the names so add yourself in the comments if you were there and I omitted you from the list.
It was so much fun to see all these people get to know each other and make friends…

Continue reading

Cool science of cooling

How do air-conditioners and refrigerators work? Scientific explanations for this can be cranky or patient. You choose.

Steve Steve, the Pinball Wizard

Last night I went all the way to Alameda to meet my SciBling Chris Hoofnagle at a place called Lucky Juju. That was great fun!
Chris%20Hoofnagle.jpg
Lucky Juju is a warehouse full of pinball machines. In addition to Chris’ interns at Berkeley, there were also interns from Stanford’s Center for Internets and Society there, ACLU of Northern California, EFF, Internet Archive, Creative Commons, and the First Amendment Project. And a couple of us from PLoS. And, of course, Professor Steve Steve, who displayed some real pinball wizardry while singing “See me, Feel me, Touch me, Heal me”….
Pinball%20SteveSteve%201.jpg
Pinball%20SteveSteve%202.jpg

Dinner with Genie

Last night, Professor Steve Steve took off work a little earlier and went to Oakland to see the offices of the National Center for Science Education, then went to Berkeley for dinner with the NCSE staff and fans at Eugenie Scott’s house. Lots of pictures under the fold:

Continue reading

The Cartoon Winner!

The Science Idol: The Scientific Integrity Editorial Cartoon Contest by the Union of Concerned Scientists is over and the winner has been announced. Read the interview with the winner, Jesse Springer.

Science in The Simpsons

Michael Hopkin interviewed Al Jean, the executive producer of The Simpsons show, about math and science, sometimes central, sometimes hidden, in the episodes of everyone’s favourite show…

Are you physically addicted to Harry Potter?

It is certainly possible. Compared to some people I know, I am definitely not. I have read each of the books once (more than halfway through the 7th – so do not give me spoilers yet!) and I have seen each of the movies once. I enjoy them, but do nothing on top of it: no speculations, no obsessions, no additional activity.

Framing San Francisco

Just came back home from a very pleasant dinner with Matt Nisbet. What luck that our trips to San Francisco coincided so well! Oh, and of course, Profesor Steve Steve was there as well…
Nisbet%20and%20Steve%20Steve.jpg

Hi, Michelle!

Yesterday, I extricated myself from PLoS for lunch, because I really wanted to go and meet one of my most regular readers and commenters, who goes around here as Michelle. We had a most delightful conversation over lunch at Jack Falstaff and pictures (which, of course, include Professor Steve Steve) are under the fold:

Continue reading

Gosh – I am so cheap!

I guess I am the cheapest of all my sciblings – better get me while I am still alive, as I appear to be pretty worthless as a corpse:
$3540.00The Cadaver Calculator – Find out how much your body is worth. From Mingle2 – Free Online Dating

Professor Steve Steve meets Harry Potter

Then, after all this walking, I finally went to Borders and got myself the seventh book of Harry Potter. But, lo and behold, when I got home, Steve Steve decided he was going to read it first, so all I could do is post pictures on the blog instead:
Steve%20Steve%20meets%20Harry%20Potter.jpg

A tourist in San Francisco – sea lions

Sea lions are a big draw at Pier 39. I have seen them in zoos many times, but this is the first time I see them in their normal geographical setting, as ‘un-natural’ it may seem. Unfortunately, only a dozen or so young, non-breeders are here right now. The mature adults are at their breeding grounds, further south, and will be back in August, just after I leave. Still, these were interesting to observe for a while:

Continue reading

A tourist in San Francisco – old arcade games 2

Some more pictures. At the time many of those were made, there was no telephone, no movies, no radio, no TV, no computer games, no Second Life. This was the most high-tech entertainment. I wish I could bring back some of those inventors and show them what evolved out of their inventions. Also, how society changed, i.e., what is deemed ‘acceptable’:

Continue reading

A tourist in San Francisco – old arcade games

There is a museum at the Pier with many, many old toys and games found at arcades. All are perfectly functional. Some are more than 100 years old. Here is a sample:

Continue reading

A tourist in San Francisco – the Prison

I am obsessed with Alcatraz. I plan to go next week to visit the Rock and hear the CLANG sound of cell doors closing behind me in the dark. Pier 69/Fisherman’s Warf is the closest point to it in the entire Bay, so if you wanted to escape and swim in this freezing cold water, this was the best destination – except that this was also the most likely place to be greeted by a uniformed and armed welcome committee…

Continue reading

A tourist in San Francisco – birds

I also saw some seagull chicks, learning to fly, but only took a picture of this cormorant at the Pier 39:

Continue reading

A tourist in San Francisco – the Bridge

Of course I saw the Golden Gate Bridge (I see the Bay Bridge every day from where I live). I am too scared of heights to actually walk over the bridge, though…

Continue reading

A tourist in San Francisco – landmarks

Best beer and best books – where I also bumped into a few Plossians/Plossers/Plosinians:

Continue reading

A tourist in San Francisco – modes of transportation

A horse and carriage at the Pier 39 (a very touristy spot) and, of course, the famous streetcars. I believe that my father, when he came to San Francisco back in 1966 1961 [thanks, Mom] on his choir tour (they even cut a record then), rode on the streetcar, of course.

Continue reading

A tourist in San Francisco – buildings

It was a tough, long and gruelling week at work, so i decided, after sleeping late, to do what I have not done yet – play tourist and go see famous sites in San Francisco. I took a cab to Pier 39, then spent a few hours slowly walking back home. In this and next few posts, you can see what I saw, but, for the benefit of people with modems, I will put most of the pictures under the fold, so keep clicking on the “Read More” button underneath each post:

Continue reading

Culinary Harry Potter

Get yourself some Harry Potter recipes so you have something to eat while reading The Book over the weekend.

ScienceBlogs: The Movie?

Blake Stacey has some casting ideas…

Circus! Science Under the Big Top

Yesterday, I met Janet and her charming and brilliant sprogs at the Lawrence Hall of Science, where they have a cool exhibit called CIRCUS! Science Under the Big Top (which reminded me that I wanted to join the circus back when I was 18). One thing I did not know was that to get to the museum from Berkeley campus, it is a couple of miles of steep uphill, which I climbed on foot. Should have hitchiked!
Wifi is iffy right now, so I’ll post as many pictures per post as the system will let me. First, just to show how high up the place is, the entire Bay Area is clearly visible – though, of course, covered in fog:

Continue reading

Iron Science Teacher

Yesterday, a few of my friends from PLoS and I went to the Exploratiorium to see the Iron Science Teacher show. Lots of pictures (and a little bit of running commentary) under the fold:

Continue reading

San Francisco – a running commentary #2

Wow – this was (and still is) a very busy week. On most days, I just crashed early, without having the energy to blog very much (at least very much for me).
In the last dispatch, I forgot to mention I met Jimmy Wales who came to visit PLoS and we talked about Wikipedia and building online communities.
Under the fold are a bunch of new pictures…

Continue reading

San Francisco – a running commentary

OK, so I’ve been here for about a week now. It’s been so far an exciting and overwhelming experience – there is so much to learn! And I am impatient with myself and want to get in the groove right now. I need to learn to slow down a little…
Anyway, I did manage to drop in here at the blog a couple of times and report on meetups with some local bloggers, but here is a little bit more about the week so far…

Continue reading

Professor Steve Steve at PLoS

Professor Steve Steve (see more of his pictures) is now over his jet lag and decided to go to work with me today. Here he is meeting with Liz Allen, the PLoS Director of Marketing and Business Development:
Liz%20Allen%20and%20Prof.Steve%20Steve.jpg

Professor Steve Steve is helping me work

Steve%20Steve%20at%20home.jpg
Steve Steve is traveling again. He is a big fan of PLoS…

Living Vicariously

LOLafrica:
lolcat4555501.jpg
Sheril is in South Africa taking pictures of poopin’ elfants.

Because they do not have the X-rating…

What's My Blog Rated? From Mingle2 - Online Dating
This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:
* sex (18x)
* death (13x)
* suicide (6x)
* hell (3x)
* dangerous (2x)
* penis (1x)
Thanks, Jennifer

The Eight Random Facts Meme

I got tagged by Steve Poceta -(if you are more interested in sleep disorders than circadian clocks in funny animals, his blog is more interesting to you than mine) to participate in the Eight Random Facts Meme. Here are the rules:

1. Players start with 8 random facts about themselves.
2. Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts.
3. Players should tag 8 other people and notify them they have been
tagged.

So, here are the eight random, late-night-after-a-busy-day-and-a-strong-beer facts about me:
1. I used to wear a goatee. When I arrived in the USA, I was told a few times I looked like Jesus Christ, so I shaved it off before getting all the new documents.
2. I just traded in a clunky old Ford Winstar for a nice Toyota Corolla earlier today.
3. I used to translate Disney comic strips (yup, Mickey, Donald etc.) from English into Serbo-Croatian. Not a well-paying job, but certainly fun!
4. I have no tattoos, never wanted one, and probably will never get one.
5. My favourite city in the world is Stockholm – I wish it was more South….I was there during the record-breaking heat of summer 1990. My best friend from middle school lives there.
6. Once I played guitar for 12 hours straight (4pm – 4am) without a break and without repeating a single song. It was on a camping trip with a bunch of aikido folks who knew how to massage my wrists to keep them working through the night. They also helped with some of the lyrics.
7. The name of my second horse was the Hebrew translation of the Serbian name of my first horse (the first was Meraklija, the second was Kefli – both mean something like “a person who really knows how to enjoy life”). The two were half-brothers and I bought the second horse one day after he was born (and paid when he was six months old and ready to be weaned and shipped away).
8. The first and only pet I had as a child was a little turtle named Eschillus. Now my mother realizes I finally achieved my biggest goal in life: a house full of animals.
People I tag:
Jenna
Archy
Zuska
Sheril
Laelaps
Jennifer
Karen
Orli
Update: Laelaps, Zuska and Orli have responded so far. And Jenna. And Archy. And Karen.

This is what my wife gave to me today…

…and made me very, very happy:
Darwin%20puppet.jpg
(From here)

If the quizzmakers could only spell…

I could not resist this one, first seen here:


What Science are You?

You are Entymology. You are a conneseiur of the crawly. Bugs fascinate you. Let’s face it, they are cool. Most people will think you’re weird icky, but those of sophisticated taste will realize just how exquisit a roach can truly be.
Take this quiz!




Quizilla |
Join
| Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

My Serbian readers will die laughing when they read this….

A guy ‘jebo jeza’, ahem, literally fucked a hedgehog in Serbia and ended up in the ER. Do kids there these days don’t even know their slang? ‘Jebo jeza’ means something along the lines of ‘being in big trouble’ or ‘having everything go wrong for you’. This guy accomplished that for himself, I guess….unless this is, as is likely, an urban legend.

Circadian Skyline

The word ‘circadian’ has a certain mystique about it for people not in the know, thus it is not surprising that there are several bands around with that word incorporate in their names. I know I blogged about it before but I am too lazy right now to search my archives for it. Anyway, here is the newest addition to the lineup, an Ohio band called the Circadian Skyline.

Tomorrow

Are you going to blog dressed or in the nude?

Are business cards on their way out?

In the age of Google, perhaps they are:

I saw a pattern of responses to the question, “Do you have a business card?” Many of the responses were the same, “just Google my name and you will find me.”

So, go now and do your ego-tickling exercise: search for your first name only, then search for first and last name, then for first and last name in quotation marks. Will people find you if they Google your name?
When I search just “Bora”, the top hits are about the island in Tahiti, the next tier is for Volkswagen Bora (and Google helpfully asks if that is the search you want to expand). I am the first human to show up right underneath the car: ‘Science And Politics’ is #2 and “A Blog Around The Clock” is #5.
When I search for “Bora Zivkovic”(with or without quotes), you need to go a long way down the page to find anyone but me (there is apparently a Danish soccer player of that name).
With a name like this, it was not hard to get so high. But a John or Mary Smith may have more difficulty. How did you do?

Rube-Goldberg Cascades of Molecular Reactions

RPM found this on The Disgruntled Chemist’s blog: the most awesome Rube-Goldberg machine I have ever seen. Much better than the one built by the Mythbusters guys. Just follow this link and watch the movie!
RPM complains that it does not appear to actually do anything, but, who cares? The thing is so intricate! Think of it this way – this is a metaphor for a cell: the (circadian) clock sounds an alarm and as a result a large number of molecular interactions occur resulting, in the end, in the opening of the curtain an ion channel.
I have already mentioned here, here and here that a Rube-Goldberg machine is a better metaphor for the circadian mechanism than the Clock, but it is also a better metaphor for all things intracellular as well: one biochemical reaction leading to another, to another, to another….

Elements

My son has memorized them all. Once you start singing along, you will, too.

Evolution Visualized and Explained


I think I will show this in class in May when I teach the evolution lecture again.
Reed adds some caveats I am sure to point out in the classroom.
Update: Watched it again. I think I’ll stop the movie a moment before the first chimp appears. Until that moment the animation, though not 100% accurate, and quite oversimplified, is GREAT for a visceral understanding of evolution. We can debate neutral selection and population sizes, but that is what we do. For a regular citizen uninterested in science, this brief movie is sufficient to “grok” evolution. This is a great example of “visual framing” (as opposed to language-based framing). You don’t have to tell all the science. You dont’ have to have your science 100% accurate. But you hit a nerve, and you end up with a convert. Nothing more is needed, though if anyone gets interested, there is plenty of information out there.

Squid Drawing

Jenna drew a squid. Perhaps if I post it here, PZ will see it and post it as well, and send Jenna a Pharyngulanche of visitors to her blog.
jenna%27s%20squid.JPG

Homer Evolving….

How to use a Squat Toilet

squat-toilet.jpg
It’s been decades ago, but yes, I have done it myself. Detailed instructions. Do not read around meal-time.

In Memoriam, Cava 1920-2007

Osvaldo_Cavandoli aka Cava, the author of the amazing and hillarious cartoon La Linea, one of my childhood favourites, has died about two weeks ago. Here is the very first episode:

There are several more available on YouTube (I just watched about a dozen and laughed out loud).
Unlike most of the episodes seen on TV this one below is definitely NSFW (i.e., if your work does not find this safe, you should find a saner employer):

Continue reading

Happy Pie Day

pie.gif
Oooops! It is actually Pi Day!

Seed and Threadless

You’ll have to work fast – there are only five days left – but you can win some nice big prizes if you make the winning design for the Threadless T-shirts with the theme “Science Is Culture”.

Science Spring Showdown 2007 starts today!

If, like me, you don’t give a rat’s behind for the basketball tournaments and brackets but are interested in science, then go ahead and make your predictions in the Science Spring Showdown 2007 tournament over on World’s Fair. Various Sciencebloggers will write “Basics”-style posts in defense of one concept or another, you will vote for winners and if you correctly guess all the winners – well, I don’t know what will happen, but you will certainly become immensely famous around these parts, at least.
So, donwload the brackets, fill out your choices and follow the tournament at the Press Center over the next several days.