Cool Links

The best office resignation letter you'll read ... ummm ... today

The best office resignation letter you'll read ... ummm ... today

Aug 10 2010 | comment(s)

So supposedly this girl quits her job using a dry erase board instead of keeping it simple with an email to the boss and emails her entire office 33 Photos explaining it all ...  here's one:

HPOA girl quits

Funny stuff, but given the credibility of the site, this hit 8.5 on my B.S. Richter scale.
Flight attendant uses inflatable emergency slide to escape annoying passenger

Flight attendant uses inflatable emergency slide to escape annoying passenger

Aug 09 2010 | comment(s)

Among the great disappointments of modern life is the fact that something as fun as a giant inflatable slide springing from the side of a massive flying machine exists—but may only be used in near-death situations, when one is least inclined to enjoy it.
Microfinancing to solve academic poverty?

Microfinancing to solve academic poverty?

Aug 09 2010 | comment(s)

Microfinancing is a term most commonly used to describe the financial services provided to help people out of poverty. Now the term is being applied to research projects funded by numerous small contributions of money. Over the last 3 years, a number of microfinancing initiatives for science research have emerged in the US.  

One example is the Open Source Science Project.

Pop science?  Sure, people will donate to cool stuff or pet beliefs, but it also will increase science literacy, says the article in Chemistry World.
You knew this - coffeehouse Internet freeloaders don't make it a better place

You knew this - coffeehouse Internet freeloaders don't make it a better place

Aug 09 2010 | comment(s)

I can't speak for any of you but the only thing worse than going to a coffee shop and not being able to find a seat because the mid-1990s fad of 'free Wi-Fi' in there made slackers hang out all day has been, in 2010, having them talk on their cell phones while we order the coffee to go.

Have you been to Spain?   You will get shot doing using a laptop and talking on a cell phone in a coffeeshop there.   Sitting in a Spanish cafe for two hours and drinking a tiny espresso while girl watching is a time-honored ritual and one of the only things we should emulate about Spain.  
Science journalism - a freelancer's dilemma

Science journalism - a freelancer's dilemma

Aug 09 2010 | comment(s)

What do you do when you get stuck with no pay by a crappy publisher?  Not much, except never work without a contract again.   

Freelancer DeLene Beeland dispels the notion that it's always balloons and ponies out there - though the 4 years I have done this have been a total blast.
1960's ads for modern websites

1960's ads for modern websites

Aug 07 2010 | comment(s)

Click image to see full size

1960s ads for modern websites
Friendster patents end up being sold for more than Friendster was

Friendster patents end up being sold for more than Friendster was

Aug 06 2010 | comment(s)

You remember Friendster, right?  No?  It is a social media cautionary tale about hubris and taking the money while it's good.    Friendster was one of the original social media networks, long before Facebook, and in 2003 they were offered $30 million in pre-IPO Google stock and in 2008, a year before it sold for under $30 million, Friendster turned down a $150 million buyout.   The Google stock would have been worth $200-800 million.  Basically, it was run stupidly.   When you get acquired by Kuala Lumpur-based MOL, a payment systems seller heard of nowhere outside Asia, you have fallen far.
Scientific blogging as a model for professional networking online

Scientific blogging as a model for professional networking online

Aug 06 2010 | comment(s)

Alexey Bersenev does not mean Scientific Blogging as in, you know, us, but rather scientific blogging in general, when he writes on his perspectives in Scientific blogging as a model for professional networking online.
Penis can only take so much electricity, surgeons warn

Penis can only take so much electricity, surgeons warn

Aug 01 2010 | comment(s)

I don't think this needs a lot of introduction - but if it does, they are talking about electro-surgery instead of old-fashioned scalpels.  Electro-surgery, which uses concentrated electric currents, has been around since 1914 but this is a new ... area of experimentation.

Who are the test subjects for this?  And why not use a laser?   You'll have to read to find out, but Dr. Tsai said no penises were harmed during the course of the experiment.
Foldit wants YOU... to be on the cover of Nature

Foldit wants YOU... to be on the cover of Nature

Aug 01 2010 | comment(s)

Foldit, the company that has made protein folding mastery into a game used by more than 75,000 people, has had an article accepted in Nature and they want all of their participants to be with them on the cover.  Yes, all 75,000.   Sounds like Science 2.0 to me.   It will look something like this:



Why is this cool?   Foldit is a company that is squarely in the heart of the participation aspects of Science 2.0.   Making protein structure prediction and protein design into a fun game means the whole world can help, and still have a good time doing it.

"Angelina" and the Washington Post's Hilarious Discussion Guide for Idiots

Aug 01 2010 | comment(s)

In case you are one of those people running out to buy a copy of Andrew Morton's new unauthorized (whatever that means) biography of Angelina Jolie and are unsure of the many subtexts that just have to exist in each event of her life because she is famous, Jen Chaney and Liz Kelly of the Washington Post are here to help guide you with meaningful questions to ask at the next Book Club meeting.   Take that, Oprah!

You can probably even relate the events to your own life to make it more interesting.  To wit:

Did you let your 14 year old daughter take over your bedroom and have her boyfriend move in with you?  
Make healthy behavior - by making it fun

Make healthy behavior - by making it fun

Jul 31 2010 | comment(s)

Sometimes eeeevil corporations (aren't they all eeeevil?) give a green light to cool ideas, so let's give it up to Volkswagen for their The Fun Theory award - the idea being that if you make something more fun, they will be more inclined to do it.  Even if it's good for them.

The link above has lots of fun theories on the environment, healthy, behavior, etc. but in the meantime check out this clever way they get sloths in Stockholm to take the stairs!
If only I had a whole brain to look at ...

If only I had a whole brain to look at ...

Jul 31 2010 | comment(s)

... no, better, if only we had an open source, downloadable, multi-scale, virtual catalog of the mouse brain and its cellular constituents.

Wait, now we do!

Accidents go up during Summer months - short skirts implicated

Accidents go up during Summer months - short skirts implicated

Jul 31 2010 | comment(s)

In 2009, British men made 16.4% more auto accident claims during the Summer than other seasons - and 25% % of men have had a crash or near miss in Summer compared to only 17% of women.

The reason?  Well, women are less easily distracted and apparently men will look at anything in a skirt.


Did you lose your place in this article because of this pic?  Behavioral psychologists claim 25% of you did.
The 6 stages of Mitosis - Krispy Kreme style

The 6 stages of Mitosis - Krispy Kreme style

Jul 31 2010 | comment(s)

Well, now there are 7 stages of Mitosis;  Interphase, Prophase, Metaphase, Anaphase, Telophase, Cytokinasis and ...

... Delicious!


Kevin Van Aelst art - see more here.
Scott Rosenberg on the NY Times’ Virginia Heffernan on Scienceblogs scandal

Scott Rosenberg on the NY Times’ Virginia Heffernan on Scienceblogs scandal

Jul 30 2010 | comment(s)

Scott Rosenberg delivers a message many in media knew but Scienceblogs bloggers were not thrilled to hear - they were a community to themselves but a commodity to the guy running SEED.  
This loss of innocence is, I think, a nearly universal experience online. It occurs when one’s initial surge of idealistic delight at the freedom and opportunities of boundless self-expression slams into the realities of the media business online.
And then ...
The mathematics of marriage, or, less happily ever after

The mathematics of marriage, or, less happily ever after

Jul 27 2010 | comment(s)

via It Takes 30, from the Department of Systems Biology @ Harvard Medical School

As so often with mathematical treatments of complex problems, one of the key benefits of creating the model is that it forces you to make explicit your assumptions.
San Diego Comic Convention - When Did It Get So Science-y?

San Diego Comic Convention - When Did It Get So Science-y?

Jul 23 2010 | comment(s)

Can't be at the San Diego Comic Con because your dog's Boba Fett costume is at the cleaners? Great news ... ScriptPhD is on the scene.

It's just like being there, without having to stare at some guy wearing a t-shirt with barbecue sauce on it from dinner three nights ago telling you you're not really a "Farscape" fan because you pronounced Gigi Edgley's name wrong.

 
Men’s Personality and Preferences in Female Body Shape - PsyPost

Men’s Personality and Preferences in Female Body Shape - PsyPost

Jul 23 2010 | comment(s)

The 1960s were a great decade - the 1960s that the '60s would become famous for (drugs, riots, protests) didn't really happen until the end and, as David Crosby replied when asked to disclose one thing people did not know about the '60s stated, "They happened in the '70s" - and its mystique has become even greater with the gentle misogyny and rampant chain smoking of "Mad Men".

But there was cool science too.  At Psypost, they write of a Journal of Personality and Social Psychology study that set out to find what we could learn about men from what they preferred in women - like the size of butts or boobs.