Blogging Mathilda
28 June 2006
Lab Rats
21:45 Apparently the University of Sydney is encouraging its staff to keep weblogs. Which means the Black Knight's wibblings are sanctioned by the Head of Biochemistry. What a larf, eh?
20 June 2006
Aw, piss
21:03 This server died horribly over the weekend. The team at Portland, despite claiming to not keep backups (it's a cheap plan, what can I say?) have managed to retrieve files back to 6th June (this year!). So if I wrote anything erudite or otherwise in the last two weeks it's gone for ever. Sorry. How ephemeral is our life.
06 June 2006
Gelly fich
10:17 Why (and I apologize for being on-topic) in the name of all that's molecular do they not make gel combs with odd numbers of teeth? You do an experiment, you plan the controls, you have the plus and negative PCR controls and you end up with an even number of samples but you can't run them all on the gel because the bloody comb only has 20 teeth and I need markers as well, damnit!
30 May 2006
Devil, Blue, deep sea
10:22 And yet. . . if some poor sap in a wheelchair were to die because they couldn't get off the 'plane in an emergency, Virgin Blue would get their arse sued off. It's not cost-cutting gone mad, it's political correctness at the expense of safety.
19 May 2006
Philip Bladon is a spammer
21:11 There's an organization I've been involved with for a few years now, that runs a discussion forum online. And if there's one thing that really ticks me off it's 'people' creating disposable sock puppets and pissing all over the fora with their spam. All right, so it's only 3 new topics, which is quite mild, but the username has never appeared before and the guy obviously has no interest in the community that has been built up. In this case, Philip Bladon (or his agent, but it still looks like Philip Bladon spam) is advertising a book - that is about thirty years behind the times, but never mind. Goggling for 'Philip Bladon' tells you all you need to know, but I'll have a quiet snigger about this 'alumnus of Swansea University' who is a life member of the 'Federation of Asian Chemical Societies' and also a member of Australian Mensa. I shall bite my tongue before I let my elitism get the better of me.
18 May 2006
Fun for all the google
13:56 I learned far more than I ever wanted to about handgnu culture while searching for information on Apple's power connectors.
12 May 2006
Smut and nonsense
13:53 I can't believe I've never seen this little gem before. The link therein to Paul May's much more extensive site is known to me of course and should be required reading for all (bio)chemistry undergrads.
In other news, it's not a popular thing to say but Spigelman is perfectly correct; if he weren't we may as well return to mob rule. And would someone please explain to me why the life of a police officer is considered more valuable than anyone else's? Murder is murder, no matter who is killed, and should - allowing mitigations - attract a flat-rate sentence. In today's final 'grumpy old man' slot, see how many half-truths, inconsistencies, omissions and blatant errors you can find here. For example, our driving pattern is not an option (minimal use during the week, long weekend journeys) and results in an overall fuel economy at least 15% better than the site would suggest.
11 May 2006
Bugsplat
13:28 I'm ashamed to admit this one was under my radar for a while. Anyone know of a PCR-based mycoplasma detection kit that . . . is available in Australia? Email to rpg at usyd . edu .au would be appreciated. Ta.
09 May 2006
How do you like them Apples?
09:53 At the risk of sounding vulgar, swivel! ya money-grabbing scouse git.
08 May 2006
How to reduce waiting lists
12:30 I pretend to remember a time when newspaper headlines were short, informative and witty. These days, they're confusing, misinformative and sometimes downright alarming. But you knew that. What's really frightening is that this illiteracy is spreading into the article summaries, as in today's story that claims around 2,000 people [. . .] in Canterbury will be culled.
_