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The Care and Feeding of Faeries

Sat, 17 Jun 2006 23:46:55 -0700

Thanx to Terry for cheering my up with faery-folly ;)

Peer Review : Web Focus : Nature

Sun, 11 Jun 2006 04:00:06 -0700

Nature Peer Review Trial and Debate

Nature is undertaking a trial of a particular type of open peer review. In this trial, authors whose submissions to Nature are sent for peer review will also be offered the opportunity to participate in an open peer review process (see below for explanation). The trial is optional for authors; it will continue in parallel with Nature's usual procedures, and does not affect the likelihood of eventual publication of the submitted work. At the same time as the trial, Nature is running a web debate on peer review, to which we welcome comments from readers.

Well, this is interesting! I haven't fully dug in yet, but the fact that they are offering room to challenge the current peer-review system, sounds tantalising (since a while ago I was getting a bit worked up about it). Let's hope something good comes out of it.

MSG - Monosodium Glutamate Information

Sat, 10 Jun 2006 01:41:59 -0700

From the page: "MSG does not cause headache"

I'm sure there are several people that know me who will disagree with that... ;)

A Step Too Far

Fri, 09 Jun 2006 14:31:14 -0700

Excellent spoof of a softer world. Bizarre and sometimes pretty harsh.

BBC - Liverpool - Features - Number 59

Fri, 09 Jun 2006 01:15:39 -0700

This statue is part of the exhibition "Another Place" by sculptor Anthony Gormley, on display on Crosby beach in Merseyside, England since last summer. The exhibition comprises 100 cast-iron, life-size figures made from casts of the artists' own body and ranged along three kilometres of the coastline, up to a kilometre out to sea. The figures are positioned rising out of the sand and sea at different heights, but each is looking out to sea. Gormley, who often uses the human form in his sculpture, says of the work: "It is no hero, no ideal, just the industry reproduced body of a middle-aged man trying to remain standing and trying to breathe, facing the horizon busy with ships moving materials and manufacturing things around the planet"

The wonderful picture on the left was made by deltadreamer, who lives nearby and can tell you more about it.

Text abstracted from here

First Place | Community Awareness Award

Thu, 08 Jun 2006 15:36:39 -0700

Photoseries "Upstate girls" by freelance photographer Brenda Ann Kenneally who won a Picture of the Year Award in the category "Community Awareness" for it. It tells the stories of a group of women and girls. They got the short end of the stick from the moment they were born, having babies way too young, living on the verge of poverty, spending half their adolescent years in confinement and so on.
The saddest thing is, they will pass their lifestyles to their children, who will mostlikely also grow up devoid of chances for a better life.

The Girls Outside the Courthouse
Three days after Jessica was released from jail she accompanied her friends to see their boyfriends, who were being brought from the jail to the courtroom for an audience with the judge. Visiting jail and 'showing up for court' when a boyfriend or girlfriend is locked up is a bigger part of the social life of a teenager in Troy than going to the movies. Jessica once told me that she wished that she could be locked up again so she would not be bored as she often is since her release. Jessica said that if you could decide when to get out that 'jail would not be that bad.'

Billie Jean Before A Fight
Kayla offers Billie Jean her knife for protection. There is word around Troy that her sister's boyfriend wants her beat up and is 'hiring' another girl to do it. Billie Jean's sister won't intervene as her boyfriend has a job. The fathers of her other two children is in jail and can offer no child support.

The award winning Spider Catcher

Thu, 08 Jun 2006 10:54:37 -0700

Very simple, yet so effective. Perfect tool for arachnaphobics with a heart for animals.

News in Science - Swans like a bit on the side - 08/06/2006

Thu, 08 Jun 2006 01:27:30 -0700

Swans like a bit on the side

Swans have long been viewed as a symbol of fidelity and everlasting love. But they are in fact cheating philanderers that regularly flee the nest for extramarital sex, Australian researchers reveal.
DNA testing has shown that one in six cygnets is the product of an illicit encounter, smashing the birds' monogamous image.
"Swans have long been renowned as symbols of lifelong fidelity and devotion, but our recent work has shown that infidelity is rife among black swans," says Dr Raoul Mulder, whose team is busy fitting tracking devices to scores of swans.

article continues

What can I say, never trust a black bird! ;)
Thanks to nutmeg for sending me the page.

Female black swans slip away from their
protective partners for illicit encounters,
new research shows (Image: iStockphoto)

A Puzzle by Lewis Carroll - Mycoted

Wed, 07 Jun 2006 12:23:10 -0700

Lewis Carroll's mysterious box

John gave his brother James a box:
About it there were many locks.
James woke and said it gave him pain;
So gave it back to John again.
The box was not with lid supplied
Yet caused two lids to open wide:
And all these locks had never a key
What kind of box, then, could it be?

Solution

Go Fug Yourself

Wed, 07 Jun 2006 11:50:17 -0700

Diabolical pair of uberbitches slagging off fugly celebs for their sense of fashion (or rather lack thereof). Bloody hilarious!!