So I’m ready for a power outage

… thanks to my kids and their thoughtfulness this Christmas.

One of those Daddy’s stories things.  I forget the details, but it had something to do with the history of computation – before the iPhone calculator was the TI83 and trusty HP calculators, preceded by the ca. $200 four-function calculators, preceded by the slide rule, preceded by the abacus, etc., etc.  (Lots of gaps to fill in, I’m sure. But that’s not the point.) Well, the concept of the slide rule caught someone’s fancy, which led to this gift.

So bring on the ice storms.  I’m prepared.

Now that’s a streamlined NIH grant proposal

Rocket Boys.  Enjoy.

Maybe they are listening (The Boss’ Stories)

Sometime ago (I’ll admit I don’t remember) I was telling stories to my lab about the olden days, and how a beer that they had never heard of was once the most (or second-most) popular brand in the USA.  It had something to do with being careful about changing things (like a standard lab protocol, or a brewing recipe …).

So what does the lab do to celebrate my 25th anniversary of moving to the University of Kentucky?  What else – search through the dusty back corners of Liquor Barn and find a twelve pack.

Just goes to show – the lab maybe does listen to the boss (at least some of the time.)

Daddy’s stories – the Berlin Wall

The hoopla (much deserved – it’s one of the most interesting and singular moments of our time, the fall of the Berlin Wall) over the anniversary of the fall of the Wall brings to my mind one of those stories that I have told my kids (over and over, I am afraid).

When my girls were in school, they did the time-honored show and tell bit.  One of the things they took was some crumbling remains of the Berlin Wall.  Not the Wall that fell in 1989 but rather pieces of the first “wall” that was hastily put up in 1961 and was re-built by the East Germans in the mid-1960’s.

Science stumbles on!

The AP press release regarding the 2008 Ig Nobel Prizes is here.

A snippet:

CHEMISTRY: Sheree Umpierre, Joseph Hill and Deborah Anderson for discovering that Coca-Cola is an effective spermicide, and C.Y. Hong, C.C. Shieh, P. Wu and B.N. Chiang for proving it is not.

Teach the controversy, I say!

UPDATE – Oct 13

A link to the Ig Nobel web site that has the listing of the prizes.