Archive for October, 2012
A poem
A Few Words on the Soul by Wislawa Szymborska We have a soul at times. No one’s got it non-stop, for keeps. Day after day, year after year may pass without it. Sometimes it will settle for awhile only in childhood’s fears and raptures. Sometimes only in astonishment that we are old. It rarely lends […]
Science-ese (with implications)
The AoB blog reports on a study that shows many plants that normally germinate in the spring could start germinating in the autumn as climate changes: Emergence in autumn could have major implications for species currently adapted to emerge in spring. Translation: All the baby plants are going to freeze.
Sick at conferences
This past summer I wrote a little about what it was like to attend a scientific conference as a person with a chronic illness. I’m not the only one who struggles with this aspect of an academic career. I wonder if there’s something about conferences that could be changed to make them easier for sick […]
Your documentation made me cry
I was reading through some documentation a few days ago. It’s nicely written – easy to understand AND not boring as hell. But then I came across this line: You’ll also (obviously) need a working C compiler. Ok, yes, that is obvious to me at this point in my life and probably to just about […]
While you’re waiting for the bus
The enormous cost of propping of the banks was justified by the refrain “too big to fail.” You know what’s really too big to fail? Ecosystems. Zen Faulkes wonders about the constant pressure to explain the relevance of your science: People love all sorts of things that aren’t relevant to them apart from their own […]
Commenting code
I was digging through some old code this morning when I came across this snippet from what was clearly not a good day of data analysis: I may want to check comments more carefully when I share code.
Science-ese (slight understatement edition)
From Sambaraju et al. 2011: Abundant availability of host trees due to altered disturbance regimes has facilitated an unprecedented, landscape-wide outbreak of this pest in British Columbia and Alberta, Canada, during the past decade. Translation: ALL THE TREES ARE DEAD. ALL OF THEM.