Category: Items of Interest

This post inspired by the AKC

Her: He was supernice, though, so there’s that.

Me: The same can be said of many varieties of severely inbred dog.

The Pipettes

Why did no one tell me there was a group called “The Pipettes”? Scientist need to know stuff like this. We find it funny. Because we don’t get out enough.

*I know what you are going to say about the pronunciation. My reply is “poTAto, potaTO, you’re wrong”.

Pardon Alan Turing

There is a formal petition to the UK government to pardon war hero and computing innovator Alan Turing. Turing as convicted for “gross indecency”, aka being and acting homosexual. He was subjected to chemical castration, which led to his suicide at age 41. One of humanity’s brightest candles was snuffed out because of intolerance.

We ask the HM Government to grant a pardon to Alan Turing for the conviction of ‘gross indecency’. In 1952, he was convicted of ‘gross indecency’ with another man and was forced to undergo so-called ‘organo-therapy’ – chemical castration. Two years later, he killed himself with cyanide, aged just 41. Alan Turing was driven to a terrible despair and early death by the nation he’d done so much to save. This remains a shame on the UK government and UK history. A pardon can go to some way to healing this damage. It may act as an apology to many of the other gay men, not as well known as Alan Turing, who were subjected to these laws.

If the petition gains 100,000 signatures, it will be eligible to be debated in the House of Commons.

*Hat tip to Cory Doctorow at boingboing.

Fire action

Next to our elevator is a sign telling you what to do in the case of a “fire”. My favorite step (after Step 1: Read this sign) is Step 3:

3. Attack the fire if possible using appliance provided (DO NOT TAKE RISK). Continue reading “Fire action”

Object permanence

I was chatting with the boss over lunch about my fabulous lunch box, when I realized that this lunch box is one of the physical objects that I have owned the longest and still use* – over 25 years. What struck me is that the objects that are so defining of us all, like my laptop, my iPad, my smart phone, or my clothes go past and are replaced in a blink of an eye compared to that lunch box. If we are defined by our things, then you can define me by a worn copy of The Rainbow Goblins and a battered Return of the Jedi lunch box.

I think I’m pretty happy with how I turned out.

*There is a teddy bear named Bosco that I have owned since at least a month before my birth, but I no longer cuddle him at night since I found Mrs. Rugbyologist.