Category Archives: Rant/Rave

Jenkintown Drama, 100 years ago

Posted on Wednesday, June 30, 2010 by Greg

There are many reasons we like living in Jenkintown — good schools, easy train ride into town, strange people — so here’s a little glimpse into the sort of drama that always seems to be percolating everywhere. This time, Jenkintown, … Continue reading →

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Handwriting recognition on the iPad

Posted on Monday, June 21, 2010 by Greg

A new app claims to answer the one major objection I had to buying an iPad: where’s handwriting recognition? So this means I’m buying an iPad, right? No, are you kidding? They’re expensive. I’ll manage without…for now… …and when I … Continue reading →

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Polynesian delight

Posted on Wednesday, June 16, 2010 by Greg

I have a secret jones for tiki culture. My iPod’s full of Les Baxter‘s exotica, and my bookcase holds copies of Trader Vic’s Tiki Party! and Sven Kirsten’s indispensable Book of Tiki. Something about the misappropriation creative remixing of other … Continue reading →

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Things that won’t kill you in Australian waters: plesiosaurs

Posted on Friday, June 11, 2010 by Greg

This week we’ve introduced the kids to Walking with Dinosaurs, which takes you to a place and time were reptiles were huge and CGI budgets were relatively small. We were two episodes into the the six-part series when the five … Continue reading →

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Why I don’t go into the water…bone-eating worms at whale fall

Posted on Monday, October 5, 2009 by Greg

That’s whale fall — what happens when an enormous cetacean corpse hits the ocean floor — not whale fail — what happens when Twitter breaks. You see, when the carcass lands on the bottom of the sea, a whole host … Continue reading →

Posted in Don't Go In the Water, Dumb thoughts, Rant/Rave, Science Fandom, Science/Geek | Tagged | Leave a comment

Flacks exaggerate importance of medical research

Posted on Wednesday, July 15, 2009 by Greg

I missed this earlier and, at the risk of getting myself into trouble, I’d like to say a few words. Ben Goldacre in The Guardian turned his eye toward a recent study about the quality of press releases from major … Continue reading →

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Why I don’t go into the water…Reason #1,768

Posted on Tuesday, June 9, 2009 by Greg

I could not be in the same ocean as this creature and not be gripped by paralyzing fear (not to mention paralyzing tentacles!). Behold, a great big jelly, the likes of which are not meant to be seen. As the … Continue reading →

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Massive Bat Die-off in NJ? Maybe…and another fungus to blame!

Posted on Friday, June 5, 2009 by Greg

The Star-Ledger reports that 95% of NJ bats died off this winter from a fungal infection known as “white-nose syndrome.” That sounds pretty damned scary, until you read the article and find that the headline was taken from a single … Continue reading →

Posted in Dumb thoughts, Rant/Rave, Science Fandom, Science/Geek, Uninformed Critic | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Keep Libel Laws out of Science

Posted on Thursday, June 4, 2009 by Greg

There’s a petition online in support of Simon Singh, the UK science writer being sued by the British Chiropractic Association for, essentially, using the word “bogus” in the same article as “chiropractic.” You can get the full scoop at Jack … Continue reading →

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Man, these viral movie promotions are going too far…

Posted on Tuesday, April 28, 2009 by Greg

Robot attacked Swedish factory worker – The Local. The incident took place in June 2007 at a factory in Bålsta, north of Stockholm, when the industrial worker was trying to carry out maintenance on a defective machine generally used to … Continue reading →

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