I just realized I never did a books post for 2014! Ah well, better late than never. Goodreads did this nice summary for me (click through the graphic for a full-size version which links to all the books), which shows that apparently I gave lots of books 4 stars and didn’t give any books only […]
Author: Robyn
Presto is a pain in the [insert body part here]
Presto has been in the news quite a bit lately. I had a cranky-making experience with being unexpectedly out of tokens on a cold night and having the fancy Spadina streetcar-platform machine refuse to sell me one unless I had exact change (the machines CAN take Interac or Visa, but don’t — the option is […]
Neat Stuff from Elsewhere Wed Jan 21, 2015
PLOS ONE: Quantification and Qualification of Bacteria Trapped in Chewed Gum PLOS ONE: Quantification and Qualification of Bacteria Trapped in Chewed Gum: Yeccch. Although there are worse things one can do as a grad student than chew some gum for 10 minutes. Digest powered by RSS Digest
Neat Stuff from Elsewhere Wed Jan 07, 2015
"Motivated by the search for Genghis Khan’s tomb, participants were tasked with finding an…" “Motivated by the search for Genghis Khan’s tomb, participants were tasked with finding an archaeological enigma that lacks any historical description of its potential visual appearance. Without a pre-existing reference for validation we turn towards consensus, defined by kernel density estimation, […]
Neat Stuff from Elsewhere Wed Dec 24, 2014
"So, what about Christmas? On Dec.25, 2013, the percentage of all orders that were for Chinese food…" “So, what about Christmas? On Dec.25, 2013, the percentage of all orders that were for Chinese food increased by 152 percent. By comparison, the fraction of orders from restaurants listed on the site as American, pizza, or Mexican […]
Neat Stuff from Elsewhere Tue Dec 23, 2014
PLOS ONE: Drinking Songs: Alcohol Effects on Learned Song of Zebra Finches PLOS ONE: Drinking Songs: Alcohol Effects on Learned Song of Zebra Finches: “Shall we get another pitcher?” pondered the scientist. “Also, I wonder if zebra finches would drink if you put booze in front of them? And do they forget the words and […]
On touring high schools
Because my child is rather unbelievably already in grade 8, in the past couple of months we’ve seen, I think, twelve high schools, both public and private. The tours (and the schools) have varied from appalling to excellent. During the appalling ones I spent my time thinking about what makes a tour (and a school) […]
Neat Stuff from Elsewhere Wed Aug 06, 2014
"A 2013 study suggests that if one is going to be shot with a bullet, one might be better off naked…." “A 2013 study suggests that if one is going to be shot with a bullet, one might be better off naked. On the other hand, different study suggests that if one is going to […]
Neat Stuff from Elsewhere Tue Jul 29, 2014
"To ascertain the extent to which people are insensitive to patches of serious conversational…" “To ascertain the extent to which people are insensitive to patches of serious conversational incoherence, we generated such patches in the laboratory by repeatedly crossing two unrelated conversations. Across two studies, involving both narrowly and broadly focused conversations, between 27% and […]
PTSD
Quotation of the Day for July 2, 2014 “I think the deepest sacrifice of those that we ask to go to war is not the possibility that they may die or their colleagues may die, but the sacrifice of their normal unwillingness to kill – and in particular that when they come back we don’t […]
The cheese stands alone
Quotation of the Day for June 21, 2014 “A cheese may disappoint. It may be dull, it may be naive, it may be oversophisticated. Yet it remains cheese, milk’s leap toward immortality.” – Clifton Fadiman
Cross-stitch patterns are the plushies of the 2010s
You can buy them on Etsy. 67 options!
Yep, that’s an accomplishment
I just got back home after being on the road for three weeks. I was in Jordan in the Syrian refugee camps, the United Nations, I was signing books in Norway and in Sweden and in Spain. And I got home, and waiting for me was the board copy of “Chu’s Day,†which they’d just […]
Why else?
Child: HEAR ME ROOOOAAARR! Me: What? Why are you roaring? Child: FOR FUUUUUUUN!
On the folly of not clearing the leaves in the street
This past autumn, my city decided they weren’t going to pick up the leaves that fall into the street in my neighbourhood. Normally they come by once each year after most of the leaves have fallen and enormous street-sweeping-leaf-picking-upping machines haul away the detritus. But not this year. Instead, as a cost-cutting measure the leaves […]
The ten most useful things I have learned from the Internet
…and from people with whom I converse there. The arrows on the Toronto PATH signs refer to the directions: north is blue, south is red, east is yellow and west is orange. Wouldn’t it be nice if they actually told people this? My mnemonic is silly but in case it helps: blue is a cold […]
Apropos of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s death
Me: I wouldn’t be able to pick Philip Seymour Hoffman out of a lineup. Well, maybe today I could. He’d be the slumpy one with the flies. Husband: (spits wine)
Books! 2013
Books! According to Goodreads, on which I track the majority of what I read, I read 114 books (give or take) in 2013. This year I diverted more time into reading magazines, since the TPL started carrying e-versions of such, and I also spent a chunk of time doing time-consuming things with my hands such […]
Neat Stuff from Elsewhere Wed Dec 18, 2013
"Anecdotal evidence suggests sharks generally take swimmers from behind. This would make sense from…" “Anecdotal evidence suggests sharks generally take swimmers from behind. This would make sense from the shark’s point of view, since its approach would not be detected. But it does depend on its knowing what “behind†means when applied to such an […]
Neat Stuff from Elsewhere Wed Dec 11, 2013
PLOS ONE: Who Needs Cream and Sugar When There Is Eco-Labeling? Taste and Willingness to Pay for “Eco-Friendly†Coffee PLOS ONE: Who Needs Cream and Sugar When There Is Eco-Labeling? Taste and Willingness to Pay for “Eco-Friendly†Coffee: Carrying the “people enjoy expensive wine more than cheap wine even if it’s actually the same wine,†[…]