misc.ience

Introducing a new blog: kidney punch

aimee whitcroft — Fri, 04 May 2012 03:31:59 +0000

Sciblogs has a new blog, huzzah! We’re very luck indeed to be syndicating the blog ($100 Dialysis) of University of Otago’s Dr John Pickering (aka kiwiski, for those of you who know him as that), under the blog title kidney punch. As John says in his ‘About’ section: Of the writing of blogs there is no end. So [...]

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A toolkit for organisations and social media

aimee whitcroft — Tue, 01 May 2012 04:11:53 +0000

…Well, a little bit. Certainly, this post is for those of you who know organisations which are looking at social media and considering whether to get involved or not. Now, before a number of you cough and splutter, dear readers, it’s worth noting that many organisations are, really, honestly, I absolutely promise, still pondering this [...]

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Herd thinking, meet herd immunity

aimee whitcroft — Tue, 01 May 2012 03:34:59 +0000

A fantastic cartoon, courtesy of Scientific American and by Dwayne Godwin and Jorge Cham, explains herd immunity (and highlights the problem with herd thinking). Cheers to Explore, where I found this!

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DeSForM – The most inspiring thing I’ve seen in years

aimee whitcroft — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 01:39:46 +0000

I am a very lucky girl. Last week, I managed to drag myself from my Lair of Sickness to attend the now-annual 2012 DeSForM (Design Semantics of Form and Meaning) conference. And what a treat it was, if nothing else remining me of how much I’d like to retrain in this space some day(a dream [...]

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nerd nite 10: Of the Strange, the Alien and the Device

aimee whitcroft — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 02:36:26 +0000

Well, I know have a full linup and details for nerd nite Wellington #10, which is happening this Monday, 23rd April, from 6pm at Hotel Bristol. Details are already available on the nerd nite Wellington website, Facebook page etc, but I figured I’d share them here, too :) I’ve changed the format a little and [...]

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So you think science is hogwash?

aimee whitcroft — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 03:07:13 +0000

I think this piece almost perfectly sums up why I struggle not to become Quiet and Sarcastic* with anti-science people. You stare into your high definition plasma screen monitor, type into your cordless keyboard then hit enter which causes your computer to convert all that visual data into a binary signal that’s processed by [...]

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nerd nite Wellington 10, featuring Mars, quantum mechanics and Mad Makers

aimee whitcroft — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 22:06:57 +0000

This month’s edition of nerd nite Wellington looks to be a cracker. Or, possibly, a corker. To celebrate the 10th edition,we’ve got people talking about making mad gadgets (and noises with them), KiwiMars and quantum mechanics. April 23rd, from 6pm. And two of them are Scibloggers! Elf Eldridge and Roger Hanson, to be [...]

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Competition(ish): it’s not computer magic, it’s computer science

aimee whitcroft — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 03:34:46 +0000

A phrase oft-uttered, in anything from a restrained growl to an infuriated scream, by my partner. Who works with those strange computery things, and the networks connecting them, every day. A phrase he uttered once again today, while we were chatting through another of our favourite phrases ‘science, bitches!’* Which led us to a wonderful [...]

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Earth Now – near real-time, map-based climate data from JPL

aimee whitcroft — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 00:34:30 +0000

Gosh, but this is gorgeous. Admittedly, I have a jones for data. And for maps, too*. And NASA/JPL** and their work. All of which means that Earth Now, a recently-released iPhone/iPod/iPad app from JPL, is my idea of phonepr0n. It shows, on an interactive model of earth, various overlays for various types of near-real [...]

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Petridish – the new kid on the science crowdfunding block

aimee whitcroft — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 22:34:30 +0000

Welcome, dear readers, to the most recent foray into the new, and very exciting*, world of crowdfunded science/research: Petridish. Launched in early March, the platform’s still pretty new. Currently, though, there are 9 projects up, primarily covering critter-related projects, but not exclusively. Examples include looking into preserving the culture(s) of climate refugees, helping to find [...]

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The sound of pi – delicious, delicious pi

aimee whitcroft — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 02:14:36 +0000

Yesterday was Pi Day. It’s celebrated each year on March 14th – or 3/14, of course – with Pi Approximation Day then being held on July 22nd. And on these days, we get to appreciate this most marvellous of numbers. While many (rather funny, I’ll admit) pie/pi-related jokes, puns and slices of humour were thrown [...]

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Quiet! I was talking!

aimee whitcroft — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 03:15:58 +0000

Because there simply aren’t enough real problems which science could tackle, Japanese scientists have unleashed the newest weapon in the war for airspace in a conversation. Yes, ladies and gentlemen: allow me to introduce the SpeechJammer. In essence, a directional mic takes a recording of what the sinning conversationalist is saying, and the plays it [...]

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Science animation evolves another step

aimee whitcroft — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 22:15:18 +0000

Well, it branches further out, at the very least. My feeds threw up a wonderful post by Carin Bondar (PsiVid) today. Animation student Tyler Rhodes wanted to produce an animation of evolution which was true to the spirit of the process itself – judging by the final product, he succeeded! Rhodes’ starting point for all [...]

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Protecting your Web

aimee whitcroft — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 02:56:37 +0000

What a mad day. I’ve been happily tweeting/Facebooking/Google Plussing these links today, and figured I should just get it over and point to them in a brief blog post. This post will cover protecting your web browsing habits, tracking who’s tracking you, and how to better encrypt your traffic. So, yes. First things first. Your [...]

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TOSP Episode 22: February 27th 2012

aimee whitcroft — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 01:15:37 +0000

Hello, and welcome to a very watery TOSP :) [Original post on the Sciblogs The Official Sciblogs Podcast site] This week, Elf and aimee talk of things watery – watery planets, flying squid and plankton blooms – as well as new FTL neutrino info (what may have gone wrong), genius computer software, bioscience’s contribution to [...]

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