Harry and Paul, Dragons Den IN FULL Scientia Pro Publica 41: the IgNobel Edition - Deep Thoughts and Silliness Blog | Nature Publishing Group. Over at the Scholarly Kitchen, everyone’s favourite source material for winding up OA advocates, Phil Davis asked about something only tangentially related: Do Uninteresting Papers Really Need Peer Review? In it he lays out a view that is perhaps selfish, but understandably so. He outlines why he only agrees to review few papers, and what sort he will review: For me to accept an invitation to review, a paper has to report novel and interesting results. If it has been circulated as a preprint on arXiv, then I don’t benefit from seeing it a second time as a reviewer.
Similarly, the paper must also pique my interest in some way. Reviewing a paper that is reporting well-known facts (like documenting the growth of open access journals, for instance) is just plain boring. Which; I guess, means he’s only interested in reviewing a small percentage of papers that come his way. Davis’ solution to the problem is to suggest that a boring paper doesn’t need to be reviewed fully: Would this help? Kлоуна" - Coulrophobia. Lurgi Strikes Britain. ‘Instant Elements’ using Google Instant Search (video) Videos Posted by Funny Pics: Baby discussing some very serious topics. Hungover Owls. There it is, the picture that started it all—Old Brown from Squirrel Nutkin. Look how little shit he’s willing to put up with right now! None. None of the shit. I started this blog as an excuse to lie in bed hungover rather than stand outside hungover, and it’s only appropriate that it ends the same way.
And that’s all on you. If any one of these guys helped you deal with the physical and emotional fallout from that last theme party in any way, please consider dropping five bucks into the owl charity of your choice. If any of y’all are in Boston, I heartily encourage you to check out DigBoston.com, the alt-weekly/counter-cultural nexus I’m at. Well folks, this is it.
OUTRAGE OVER PLANS TO BUILD LIBRARY NEXT TO SARAH PALIN. Almost 40% of Americans still support the idea of books Campaigners have described the project as insensitive and a deliberate act of provocation by people with brains. The issue is forming a dividing line in advance of November’s mid-term congressional elections with candidates being forced to declare whether they have ever been to a library or spoken to someone who has books in their home.
Meanwhile President Obama has caused unease within his own Democratic party by endorsing the library and claiming that not everyone who reads books is responsible for calling Mrs Palin a fuckwit nutjob nightmare of a human being. But Bill McKay, a leading member of the right-wing Teapot movement, said: “Sarah Palin is a hallowed place for Americans who can’t read. “How is she going to feel knowing that every day there are people going inside a building to find things out for themselves and have thoughts, right in the very shadow of her amazing nipples.” “Oh they would? The New Adventures of Stephen Fry. Oddities. Salvador Dali on “What’s My Line?” | This Scientific Life. Blog. ImprobableResearch's Channel. The Brick Testament.
Evolution of Dance - By Judson Laipply. Australia contributes beer to international space culture. Australia doesn't even have a space program but a partnership between space engineers and a Sydney brewery aims to make damn sure we won't be beaten to the first space-certified beer (Moses 2010). Now it's not quite true that we don't have a space programme - we had a ripper one some time ago, and with the new Space Policy Unit, and funding for space research in Australia, we might be able to do something in this line again.
Still, point taken. Now for the beer. I have heard, and I believe there are some studies which show this, that altitude affects the sense of taste. This is why airline food is always so uniformly awful. A problem, you might imagine, exacerbated a thousandfold in space. Fine for astronauts who are trained for space conditions, but not so much for your affluent space tourist expecting a bit of luxury. So Saber Astronautics Australia and the Manly-based 4 Pines Brewing Company have formed a joint venture, Vostok, to develop a microgravity beer.
T-shirt Of The Fortnight #003: BEER. October 1st, 2010 | Work This is basically a joke that Ariana and I pull regularly in our joint guise as the International Electrophonic Unit. Basically, we take some of the stupider things I’ve said on Twitter and elsewhere, often in a state of extreme alcoholic refreshment or severe sleep deprivation, and put them on a t-shirt. Previously, this was a weekly gag. Summer was a bugger, and made us shift to monthly, and autumn is only looking slightly better. So we’re shifting to fortnightly. Until I either run out of dumb ideas or Ariana’s brain explodes. So, at the top and the middle of the month, I’ll post the new shirt here, and you can peer at it more at Anyway. We also now offer, at the same link, a great many perennial "legacy" items, which will be added to on a largely random basis.
Thank you for your kind attention. Tommorris.org. Tom Morris (tommorris) - The United Kingdom (267 books) Hanny & the Mystery of the Voorwerp | One great green gob of science.