McBlawg

OMG !!! - Ticket master at my local train station had a heart attack today when I was buying my ticket

2009-12-09T10:41:00.000-08:00

Well, a slight embellishment but I might have grabbed your attention !! He almost had a heart attack.

He (he has a name and that is Dennis) has been urging me for a wee while (read on) to purchase a monthly rail pass rather than daily tickets.

I was speaking with Dennis yesterday to ask about what appeared to be a new change of policy on purchasing daily return tickets onboard the train on my daily commute to work. During the discussion he brought up a "history lesson". Dennis said that 15 years ago, he first suggested going for the monthly travel pass thingy. I stated that it was actually 12 years and that I had a note of this in my diary. I was of course just kidding. Anyways, he said that all he needed from me was a passport photo.

Hhmm. So I gave this some reflictive thought over the next 24 hours.

Cutting a boring story short, on the way home from work tonight, I purchased these:-

Now the last time (circa 5 years ago) I calculated the cost of daily tickets v's travel pass, it was still cheaper to pay daily. I wondered if this had changed.

Armed with my hidden passport photos, I leapt into Queens Park Stattion and to my delight, Dennis was on the shift. This was gonna be fun. "Hey Dennis. How much is a monthly travel pass?" It was £9 a month cheaper than buying daily tickets. I promptly ripped up my daily return and played my next card. El photos.

And that is where, he must have thought to himself, OMFG.......

Thankfully, rather than Dennis having a heart attack, he actually took a photo of me. Photo not shown as he doesn't yet know how to upload stuff to teh interwebz :-(

Anyways, the upshot to all this "utter pish" is that I now can haz one of these:-

(As I told Dennis tonight, the reason that I didn't opt for the travel pass initially was that it was very easy to dodge paying for a ticket on the train back in the old days until they erected a human ticket barrier system to Glasgow Central Station a few years ago).

Scotrail 2.0

So, now that I haz my new pass thingy, will this mean having less banter with Scotrail staff ??? Only time will tell.

Cue this classic Glasgae sketch from Chewin' The Fat featuring "Gary & James" et al .....

"Wake Up Now"

2009-11-28T10:14:00.000-08:00

Since my last post (c/o a robot) mangled the layout of McBlawg, here is an air-freshener.

You can read how this song was re-mastered here.

(The re-mastered version of this track got lost in cyberspace, so I self-archived it into another repository)

It was great to get "the whole band" to sing on the Choruses and a recording I'm quite proud of.

An attempt to fathom out why Hamsters love PLoS...

2009-11-26T12:16:00.000-08:00

My package from Razzle, sorry Zazzle arrived at work this morning.

This post by Bora aka Coturnix on 17th Nov essentially set the scene.

Closely followed by this FriendFeed thread:-

And without any further ado, here is my cool PLoS hoodie:-

FAB !!!

Excellent quality material and online print on demand/shipping time from CA, USA to Scotland took only 7 working days. Nice one, Zazzle (plus they threw in a freebie white Zazzle t-shirt too).

--

Whilst I've wanted a "Hamsters love PLoS" garment for a while, I remain at a loss as to what the logo might actually mean. And even before wearing it, some peeps have been asking. I expect more to do so when I wear it to work tomorrow and down the pub afterwards.

So I searched teh interbebz and here's what I found.

1) The connection of the logo to PLoS.org Not surprisingly, the best resource was from PLoS via this blog post by Liz Allen, July 2007:- "We hope that you like our picture entitled "Hamsters love PLoS.org". It was drawn by one of our founders' kids and has even appeared on a tee-shirt."

OK, so there is the connection to PLoS.

2) But what about the hamster in the spherical object. Hhmm. During my search, I happened upon (again) the blog post, Impact Fauna January 2009 by a certain Dr Henry Gee, Senior Editor at Nature.com

"Gee Minor models ScienceOnline09 swag, earlier today"

On the "X" loves "Y" front, I created a few images of my own. And here they are again....

A) Chickens love Nature.com

B) Centaurs love Improbable Research

and C) Dolphins love Science

--

So, bearing mind the above and also, this

and that,

I've come to the conclusion that for whatever reason, Hamsters love PLoS. End of story. They just do.

If you support the likes of PLoS and Open Access, please do drop by the official PLoS store, have a good look around and happy shopping !!

Symptoms of being over 25

2009-11-25T11:51:00.000-08:00

Image c/o Moomettesgram, here on Flickr.

From a friend via email today....

1. You leave clubs before the end to "beat the rush".

2. You get more excited about having a roast on a Sunday than going clubbing.

3. You stop dreaming of becoming a professional footballer and start dreaming of having a son who might instead.

4. Before throwing the local paper away, you look through the property section.

5. You prefer Later with Jools Holland to Top of the Pops.

6. All of a sudden, Tony Blair is not 46, he's only 46.

7. Before going out anywhere, you ask what the parking is like.

8. Rather than throw a knackered pair of trainers out, you keep them because they'll be all right for the garden.

9. You buy your first ever T-shirt without anything written on it.

10. Instead of laughing at the innovations catalogue that falls out of the newspaper, you suddenly see both the benefit and money saving properties of a plastic winter cover for your garden bench and an electronic mole repellent for the lawn. Not to mention the plastic man for the car to deter would-be thieves.

11. You start to worry about your parents' health.

12. You complain that ecstasy's "not as pure as it used to be coz you know that if you have some it will take about 48 hours to recover and anyway,you might look a bit of an idiot.

13. Sure, you have more disposable income, but everything you want to buy costs between 200 and 500 quid.

14. You don't get funny looks when you buy a Disney video or a Wallace and Gromit bubble bath, as the sales assistant assumes they are for your child.

15. Pop music all starts to sound crap.

16. You opt for Pizza Express over Pizza Hut because they don't have any pictures on the menus and anyway, they do a really nice half-bottle of house white.

17. You become powerless to resist the lure of self-assembly furniture.

18. You always have enough milk in.

19. To compensate for the fact that you have little desire to go clubbing,you instead frequent really loud tapas restaurants and franchise pubs with wacky names in the mistaken belief that you have not turned into your parents.

20. While flicking through the TV channels, you happen upon C4's Time Team with Tony Robinson. You get drawn in.

21. The benefits of a pension scheme become clear.

22. You go out of your way to pick up a colour chart from B&Q.

23. You wish you had a shed.

24. You have a shed.

25. You actually find yourself saying "They don't make 'em like that anymore" and "I remember when there were only 3 TV channels" and "Of course, in my day...."

26. Radio 2 play more songs you know than Radio 1 - and Jimmy Young had some really interesting guests on.

27. Instead of tutting at old people who take ages to get off the bus, you tut at school children whose diction is poor.

28. When sitting outside a pub you become envious of their hanging baskets.

29. You make an effort to be in and out of the curry house by 11.

30. You come face to face with your own mortality for the first time

31. You find yourself saying "is it cold in here or is it just me?"

'The Seduction of Claude Debussy'

2009-11-07T11:30:00.000-08:00

As a close follower of the workings of Producer, Trevor Horn, I was most attracted to this CD back in 1999. It inspired several tracks that I produced myself over the following years.

--

Cue this wiki page about Claude Debussy.

--

With the web 'n all that, in this case thanks largely to last.fm.com, you can now listen to this album in it's entirety for free, or purchase the CD.

Track listing

1. "Il Pleure (At the Turn of the Century)"
2. "Born on a Sunday"
3. "Dreaming in Colour"
4. "On Being Blue"
5. "Continued in Colour"
6. "Rapt: In the Evening Air"
7. "Metaforce"
8. "Holy Egoism of Genius"
9. "La Flûte de Pan"
10. "Metaphor on the Floor"
11. "Approximate Mood Swing No. 2"
12. "Pause"
13. "Out of This World [Version 138]"

"GOLD" - 1994 by Symbol aka Prince

2009-11-02T14:40:00.000-08:00

This one has been on my mind all day and eventually found a version previously posted online.

Welcome to Open Access Week 2009, from SPARC

2009-10-18T12:12:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Open Access Week 2009, from SPARC from Jennifer McLennan on Vimeo.

SPARC is a proud co-organizer of Open Access Week 2009 and is pleased to offer this welcome to the global celebrations, to be held October 19 - 23, 2009. See openaccessweek.org for details. In addition to a welcome and thanks to organizers, partners, and participants, SPARC principals cast the Week in the context of the international movement toward free, open, online, and immediate access to the results of scholarly research. Ideal way to open your week or your session, or to spread the word by email.

(c) Subject to a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License

--

A short, but informative introduction by Heather Joseph and Jennifer McLennan from SPARC.

Ways to keep up with Open Access Week 2009

1) Follow events via the Official Open Access Week website
2) Page, Events celebrating Open Access Week wiki on the Open Access Directory
3) Open Access News Website and also OATP via Twitter
4) Twitter, via the official hashtag #oaw09
5) Friendfeed, via the Open Access Week Room

---

Spinning back, some previous related McBlawg posts:-

1) Open Access Day on FriendFeed Oct 4th '08

2) 'Open Access Week': Some Posts from the Blogosphere April 13th '08

The Isle of Lewis and The Birth & Death of an Oil Industry

2009-10-10T11:55:00.000-07:00

As a follow on from "It's All About Steam", this one is about Oil.

Just there on BBC2, was a fascinating 10 min "time-filler" as the previous programme (snooker) finished earlier than scheduled. They chose a segment from the 2007 series of Coast on the Outer Hebrides.

"This rugged remote coast is a wonderland of stacks, secret inlets and wind swept secluded beaches. The dramatic coastline is rich with culture and traditions which are deeply rooted across the 120 islands that make up the Outer Hebrides".

The main focus of this segment was specifically in terms of the Isle of Lewis.

Plain sailing so far, but what's the historical connection between the Isle of Lewis and oil??? Follows a semantically enhanced version of a link above.

Isle of Lewis - Birth of an Oil Industry

Stornoway is the largest town on Lewis and the commercial hub for the islands. Over 150 years ago it saw the surprising birth of an oil industry.

In 1844 the island was bought (£190,000) by James Matheson who helped build the area for the community.

Ed- He also had a wee Castle built for him. Lews Castle to be precise.

"Lews Castle is a Victorian era castle located west of the town of Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, Scotland. It was built in the years 1847-57 as a country house for Sir James Matheson who had bought the whole island a few years previously with his fortune from the Chinese Opium trade". Hhmm.

Although Matheson had retired he was forever the entrepreneur, and it was more than the natural beauty of the island that caught his eye - it was the islands vast resource of peat.

For years peat had been used as a domestic fuel. Matheson wanted to take it one step further and use the peat to make hydrocarbon oil. At the time paraffin oil was used for lighting and it came from fish and whales. But how did Matheson make oil from peat?

Armed with a bag of peat and a metal drum, Mike Bullivant from the Open University illustrates the magical properties of peat. By burning the peat, tar is extracted and distilled further, extracting paraffin oil.

Originally, Matheson set up his works at his castle, but the process poisoned the fish in his pond so he moved the process outside. But when all the fish were poisoned in the nearby river, Matheson called in chemist Dr Benjamin Paul (Ed - can't find anything abot him on teh webz) to take charge of the distillation.

The process also gave of a flammable gas - which the night watchman discovered when doing his rounds with a candle, resulting in the chimney catching fire. Forever efficient, Dr Paul used the excess gas to burn the peat, which was used to make paraffin lamp oil, candles, and the excess tar was sold as lubricant and sheep dip.

Alice Roberts joins Ali Whiteford and discovers how this area of peat land was transformed into a full blown chemical works.

The Lewis Chemical Works was the first company to be a commercial success of converting peat into oil. But Dr Paul left and his successor cooked the books, lining his own pockets.

Twenty two years later the site closed and all that's visible today is the track of the Works.

SOURCE

Model sues Mexican plastic surgeon for not making her nipples "even" after a breast implant !!!

2009-10-05T10:32:00.000-07:00

'Would You Believe It' (WYBI) - Part two

As a follow on from 'Would You Believe It' (WYBI)- Part one, here is, err, part two.

Fresh in email box is the following.

Being a public domain blog, McDawg has placed what appears to look like a plaster (strategically angled) over part of the following image (nipples not shown). Other than that, you'll get the picture/story.

Saturday night is.......Balti Night

2009-09-27T05:56:00.000-07:00

Suggested listening material.

Inspired in part by @cromercrox who recently livetweeted a cookery sketch about chutney making, I post herewith the following.

When McDawg gets home from a hard days work, the last thing they want to do is to slave over a hot stove preparing dinner for the night. As such, usually once a month now, I spend a Saturday afternoon/evening preparing and cooking a large batch of meals for future enjoyment. Here's what happened last night.

Ingredients

8 chicken breasts
3 beef fillets

4 large onions
1 bunch of spring onions
one bunch of fresh coriander
2 bulbs of garlic
2 medium sized stems of fresh ginger
3/4 carton of passata
vegetable ghee
vegetable oil
sesame oil
12-14 chillis
2 limes
5 - 6 mixed peppers
roasted cashew nuts
1.5 packets of chinese curry sauce mix
3 pints of water
balti curry paste
yogurt
balti cooking sauce
2 other chinese cooking sauces
light & dark soya sauce
2 egg whites
cornflour
salt and freshly ground pepper

In rough order.

Dice and slice the meat. Marinate and chill according to dishes being prepared.

Whisk together the water and chinese curry mix, bring to boil and set aside for later.

Slice and dice all vegetables other than garlic and ginger.

During the above process, take some of these:

and roast them in sesame oil and a pinch of salt for about 20 mins, turning from time to time.

Finally, finely chop the garlic and ginger. Personally, I tend to go for a 40% ginger/60% garlic mix:

Right. That's all the prep done so time for a break and a beer.

For Indian dishes, a Karahi works miles better than a wok.

For the Balti dishes, after you've sealed the marinated chicken and added all of the (required) ingredients, you want to seal and simmer for about 30 mins. At the very end, add the juice of 1 - 2 limes and garnish with freshly chopped coriander:

That's 4 dishes prepared, 10 still to go !!

Time for another beer break.

With the chinese curry sauce already prepared, it doesn't take long to make half a dozen or so chicken and beef dishes. The methodology in the following video is slightly different from what I do but produces the same end result:

You've guessed it, another beer break.

Almost all done. There should be sufficient ingredients left to make a further 3 - 4 dishes. With variety being the spice of life, time to whip up a few different dishes using the yet to be used sauces.

Since I cook at a leisurely pace, after about 5 hours, one reaches the finishing line:

Allow to cool completely (I usually leave overnight) before freezing:

Oh, I guess these will come in handy laters....

Freedom of Information: what's in it for researchers? (and Daleks). Workshop, Glasgow, UK, 14th September 2009

2009-09-15T05:47:00.001-07:00

BACKGROUND

A few months ago, either through reading the Research Information Network’s (RIN) website here or this post on Nature Network I was alerted to a free Workshop here in Glasgow which seemed of interest, and it was. I signed up right away as an attendee.

Two weekends ago however, I was alerted to this post on the BBC in that the venue in question for the event had been placed into administration. Utter bummer. I set about contacting the event organisers by email for clarification on the event and hat’s off to Event Logistics Ltd for their prompt responses. This resulted in this tweet I posted on Sept 1st. Yay, the gig was still going ahead as planned. Additional tweet the next day.

McDawg only became aware of the RIN about 4-5 months ago but very much likes what they do/are involved in. About RIN Since I also have an interest in the Freedom of Information Act (FoI) and the fact that this workshop was right on my doorstep (well, six minutes by train), McDawg simply had to attend.

The night before, I pulled together some of my Open Access (OA) swag which I have been known before to stick in my rucky when attending events of interest. The RIN are certainly fully supportive of OA Indeed, one of the sessions (Session 3: Open access, empty archives? A word of warning) of this event mentioned OA although alas, it was not directly related to OA (as I know OA) in the end, per se.

That said, as I was about to find out when I rummaged through my Delegates Pack, it did indeed contain several OA related RIN Brochures:-

THE WORKSHOP

Yesterday morning, I arrived at The LightHouse at around 10:00 as planned. The programme for the Workshop can be found here.

First to speak was Stéphane Goldstein, Head of Programmes, RIN. Stéphane provided some background about the RIN during his opening remarks. From my notes, the RIN “chanced upon” FoI about two years ago. Mention was made of the prelude to this workshop which was the first one in London, Sept 2008. Full details here. ++UPDATE++ As pointed out in the comment thread, there's also a podcast with highlights of the Sept 08 workshop here. I've just created a streaming version of the podcast to save folks having to download the MP3.

Observation. From the Summary Report, "One interesting issue raised at the meeting was the potential impact of blogging on the scale of FoI requests. At the moment in the UK, there are 1000,000 FoI requests a year. Might this not increase hugely if bloggers start to become aware of the potential represented by FoI". Food for thought !!

Next to speak was David Goldberg, former Co-Convener Campaign for Freedom of Information in Scotland who Chaired the Workshop. David discussed the “complex mosaic of FOI Law” in the UK and the differences between the Scottish and UK FOI Acts. He also touched upon one of the main reasons that I attended. See the blog post entitled “Open Access redacted” by Heather Etchevers on Nature Network. As I explained to David during the morning coffee break, there is concern amongst the scientific community about usage of the FoI. He mentioned during his talk that under Section 27/2 of the FoI (Scotland) Act (FOISA), that researchers can refuse access for information (under an FoI request) for example if their work is “part of an ongoing piece of research”. The actual wording is:-

S.27(2) Where the information is “obtained in the course of, or derived from, a programme of research”.

Source

The next speaker was Prof Duncan Tanner, Director, Welsh Institute for Social and Cultural Affairs, Bangor University. David mentioned that “FoI is not an easy thing to use” and that “you need to work closely with records managers”. He then gave a broad discussion about FoI in terms of Devolution issues. He also mentioned “a researchers guide to using FoI” and there was a link to this on the RIN website. I haven’t managed to find it yet though. ++UPDDATE++ I think this is it Innovative Uses of the Freedom of Information Act (2000) for Research

Duncan's presentation can be found here.

Next to take the podium was Sarah Hutchison, Head of Policy and Information, Scottish Information Commissioner. Sarah mentioned that over 80 countries now have FoI in place and the UK is still catching up on the likes of the USA, Canada and Australia that have had FoI in place since around 1980. Scotland however was the first country in the world to release data (under FoI) on surgical mortality rates in hospitals for example. Mention was made of website whatdotheyknow.com Her “slides will be online” so will post a link when I find it. The link is here.

COFFEE BREAK

A fine duo of speakers next in terms of Bruno Longmore and Hugh Hagan from the National Archives of Scotland (NAS). Their positions, respectively, Head of Government Records and Senior Inspecting Officer Government Records Branch, NAS. Hugh informed those present that the Thirty Year Rule did not and does not apply in Scotland. The FOISA was started in 2002 and came into force on 01/01/2005. One of the key concepts of the FoI is to balance “individual privacy and public need”. Hugh then took to the floor to talk about records management at the NAS.

Bruno and Hugh's presentation can be found here.

Prior to a most meaty/wholesome luncheon, there were three short case study presentations from Amy Gibbons, Dr Sarah Glynn and Martin Jones. Amy's presentation can be found here and the one from Martin, here.

LUNCHTIME

A most excellent spread I have to say – 10/10 !!!! Nom nom nom

Time to set up a wee Open Access stall and quite a few folks took away some of the swag. NICE.

---

Very brief Dr Who Segment appears if you are still reading, a hint follows, in a bit.

---

Freelance Historian, Harriet Jones (not be confused with this Harriet Jones) was the next speaker. Limited notes but she mentioned that Sweden adopted FOI as early as 1766 but that these days, the Swedish Government no longer record notes of their meetings !!

Parallel workshops time next before we reconvened for a Plenary Session led by David Goldberg. Nice wrap up and planning ahead for future RIN workshops. David thanked the three RIN staff for having this one “outwith London” and suggested the likes of Newcastle or Liverpool for the next one.

Final words by Stéphane who mentioned that all the PPT’s will be posted up on the RIN website shortly. During end of day refreshments, I mentioned to Stéphane that I was the only person who had taken photographs of the event and that I would get them uploaded to Flickr and provide a link. Thanks to Twitter though, RIN’s Branwen Hide despite the fact that she’s currently in Sweden at the 1st Conference on Open Access Scholarly Publishing has already placed a link to the photos here.

What the F**K is Social Media: One Year Later - Remix

2009-09-12T11:38:00.000-07:00

Still catching up with teh webz, but getting there.

Earlier today, I stumbled upon an excellent slideshow all about Social Media. A cracker, but IMO, it lacked something.

I've only uploaded 2 slideshows to SlideShare, both were PPT format.

I love remix.

What the F**K is Social Media: One Year Later was uploaded a month ago, has had >145,000 views and 130 comments, so far. COOL =)

Apparently, you're not allowed to add MP3 music files to SlideShare, related audio speaking files only. That's not strictly true, though. Coughs

So, here is the same Slideshow with an embedded MP3 file I created 2 weekends ago. I have no idea yet as to how this will work as I've only just created this, with robot assistance.

What the F**K is Social Media: One Year Later - music mash-up

View more documents from Graham Steel.

8tracks

2009-09-06T15:04:00.000-07:00

Online music experiment 12.5

8tracks is a simple way for people to create or listen to a mix, a short
playlist containing at least 30 minutes — roughly 8 tracks — of music.

What is 8tracks?

PLoS & Mendeley live on the Web! Science Hour with Leo Laporte & Dr. Kiki

2009-08-29T07:20:00.000-07:00

Thanks (again) to FriendFeed,

I was pointed in the general direction of something right up my street. In this case, a blog post from Mendeley alerting readers about Science Hour with Leo Laporte & Dr. Kiki featuring Jason Hoyt from Mendeley and Pete Binfield from PLoS ONE.

As the show went out at 11:00PM UK time on August 27, 2009, Sadly, I missed it in real time, but thanks to the benefits of self archiving, they made the entire show, warts and all, freely available.

This is an excellent free flowing discussion about Open Access, the future of academic publishing, science on the Web, the list goes on. The actual show starts at 05:30 so skip to there if you want to jump straight in....

PLoS & Mendeley live on the Web! Science Hour with Leo Laporte & Dr. Kiki from Graham Steel on Vimeo.

FHM - #fail c/o Robert Downey JR

2009-08-28T10:52:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, McDawg purchased two packets of sandwiches, a Grande tea, a copy of New Scientist and FHM before alighting the Virgin Express train from Glasgow to Euston, London ahead of Science Online London 2009 and also indeed, the World Gala Premiere of Darwin's Lost Weekend, the latter marking my entry after 20 years of wanting to do so into the land of film-scoring.

Having only bought one previous copy of the "lad's mag" FHM before, I thought I had correctly picked up and purchased the latest edition of the mag. Terrific

Oops. Wrong mag, but a darn fine one actually which was quite appropriate under the circumstances and came into discussion several times during my travels.

PLoS's HQ in the UK is a house?? Surely some mistake.

2009-08-25T08:53:00.000-07:00

McDawg had three scheduled meetings yesterday whilst still in London after attending Science Online London 2009.

For my final meeting, as planned, I took the express train from King's Cross Station to Cambridge and then took a cab to the offices of the Public Library of Science (PLoS).

I was rather perplexed however at what I saw:-

View Larger Map

In the centre of the above street view photo, you will see two blue doors. The one on the left is number 7. PLoS are based at number 7 Portugal Place. According to the Google map of that area that I printed off a week ago, I was indeed standing in Portugal Place:-

View Larger Map

So, I was left thinking that PLoS HQ (UK) is not an office, but instead, a small terraced residential house ???? Confused? I sure as hell was. For a nano-second, I was tempted to ring the bell of number 7 but my brain told me, "there's something not right here".

Placed a short call to PLoS. Essentially, I was extremely close to where I was meant to be, "stay where you are and I'll come out and get you". "I'm wearing a PLoS ONE t-shirt", I said. The above map is slightly misleading in that I was standing in Portugal STREET not Portugal Place.

--

Whilst sitting in a meeting room (within PLoS), I couldn't help but notice a stack of colourful, in-print copies of PLoS Journals. I had no idea that PLoS used to publish in paper format several years ago. Interesting.

Very much enjoyed the discussions I had with Ginny Barbour and Theo Bloom. Thank you both kindly for taking the time out to speak with The International Man Of Mystery and Patient Advocate

Before I left, I asked if it would be OK to take a couple of photos inside PLoS HQ (UK). Since there were no objections from PLoS staff......

----------

Making the Web Work for Science

2009-08-15T06:17:00.000-07:00

'Making the Web Work for Science July 28th 2009. A panel discussion on bringing digital tools to the world of science with panelists Stephen Friend, Jimmy Wales and John Wilbanks moderated by Tim O'Reilly'.

Making the Web Work for Science - Full from Jordan Mendelson on Vimeo.

Click here to the original source to view individual Chapters.

Major H/T to Lisa Green for putting this one together.

Summary

Digital technologies have greatly enhanced our ability to communicate and share information, but the scientific community remains largely untouched by these advances.

Why doesn't the web work for science the way it works for culture and for commerce? What will it take to make science digital?

Join the Commonwealth Club of California for a fascinating discussion on the movement to bring digital methods to the world of science.

BIO

Stephen Friend - Dr. Friend is currently a Senior Vice President at Merck & Co., Inc. where he has had scientific leadership of Merck's Basic Cancer Research efforts since September 2002. In 2005, he led the Advanced Technologies and Oncology groups to firmly establish molecular profiling activities throughout Merck's laboratories around the world, as well as to coordinate oncology programs from Basic Research through phase IIA clinical trials. Prior to joining Merck, Dr. Friend was recruited by Dr. Leland Hartwell to join the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center's Seattle Project, an advanced institute for drug discovery. While there Drs. Friend and Hartwell developed a method for examining large patterns of genes that led them to co-found Rosetta Inpharmatics in 2001. Dr. Friend has also held faculty positions at Harvard Medical School from 1987 to 1995 and at Massachusetts General Hospital from 1990 to 1995. He received his B.A. in philosophy, his Ph.D. in biochemistry and his M.D. from Indiana University.

Tim O'Reilly - Tim O'Reilly is the founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, Inc., thought by many to be the best computer book publisher in the world. O'Reilly Media also publishes online through the O'Reilly Network and hosts conferences on technology topics, including the O'Reilly Open Source Convention, the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, and the Web 2.0 Conference. O'Reilly's blog, the O'Reilly Radar "watches the alpha geeks" to determine emerging technology trends, and serves as a platform for advocacy about issues of importance to the technical community. O'Reilly is on the boards of MySQL, CollabNet, Safari Books Online, Wesabe, and ValuesOfN, and is a partner in O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures.

Jimmy Wales - Jimmy Donal "Jimbo" Wales (born August 7, 1966 in Huntsville, Alabama) is the founder, board member and Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit corporation that operates the Wikipedia project, and several other wiki projects, including Wiktionary and Wikinews. He is also the co-founder, along with Angela Beesley, of the for-profit company Wikia, Inc.

John Wilbanks - As VP of Science, John Wilbanks runs the Science Commons project at Creative Commons. He came to Creative Commons from a Fellowship at the World Wide Web Consortium in Semantic Web for Life Sciences. Previously, he founded and led to acquisition Incellico, a bioinformatics company that built semantic graph networks for use in pharmaceutical research & development. Previously, John was the first Assistant Director at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School and also worked in US politics as a legislative aide to U.S. Representative Fortney (Pete) Stark. John holds a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Tulane University and studied modern letters at the Universite de Paris IV (La Sorbonne). He is a research affiliate at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in the project on Mathematics and Computation. John also serves on the Advisory Boards of the U.S. National Library of Medicine's PubMed Central, the Open Knowledge Foundation, the Open Knowledge Definition, and the International Advisory Board of the Prix Ars Electronica's Digital Communities awards. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Fedora Commons digital repository organization.

JISC - "Libraries of the Future"

2009-08-06T12:00:00.000-07:00

Original Source here.

Don't know about JISC?

JISC Homepage

JISC = (the) Joint Information Systems Committee

McDawg says - "go look around the JISC website, it's brilliant".

H/T Tony Hirst via YouTube via FriendFeed

The Crew of STS 125 visits NASA Headuarters for a Tweetup

2009-07-25T10:07:00.000-07:00

What goes up must come down.

Image (from) above: From the left are astronauts Michael J. Massimino, Michael T. Good, both mission specialists; Gregory C. Johnson, pilot; Scott D. Altman, commander; K. Megan McArthur, John M. Grunsfeld and Andrew J. Feustel, all mission specialists. Image credit: NASA

Follows an excellent video on YouTube in which the crew of STS 125 discuss the mission in detail and take loads of questions from the floor and teh interwebz. Being one of the gazillions of folks who followed this mission online in real-time, it was a most interesting watch.

The vid is 1:23:35 in length. If you don't have the time to watch it in full, McDawg recommends watching the section featuring the video of the mission from the team, section 0:22:00 to 0:43:00.

H/T Karen James on FriendFeed

Walkman 'v' i-Player - A Case Report

2009-07-20T10:50:00.000-07:00

Since McDawg's daily commute to work only takes ~ 10 minutes, unlike ~ 46.7% of fellow rail users, McDawg has not been that interested in succumbing to owning an i-pod, etc.

During 2001 - 2005 whilst flying and training it around the UK, for musical entertainment, having ditched ye olde Sony Walkman Cassette Player by then, one had moved onto a Portable CD Player and for the latter two years, had access to a Sony Vaio Laptop (albeit with an utterly shite battery life) thanks to my work in the voluntary sector.
--

Two new gadgets I bought myself over the duration were my first ever digital camera and latterly, a portable mini-disc recorder/stereo mic. The former namely used when a fellow Trustee and I travelled across the pond for the first time in 2002 for a Conference and the latter for recording digital audio of various meetings.

I've since replaced the former with a much better model (with 2-Gig memory) in 2008. I thought I had left the latter in Wash. DC in 2004 but to my surprise, I found out a few weeks ago that it had been refound by my Dad in a travel case that I borrowed from him for that trip. I'll collect it shortly (he's currently on vacation, so arrangements in place for a pick-up from friends) as I intend to record some funky stuff next month in London.

--

What I found most attractive about this gadget was that it apparently allowed rapid transfer of data from gadget to computing device (my case, a PC) via firewire. What was extremely irritating however was that due to DRM (Digital Rights Management) issues, there was no connectivity between devices. This was more than frustrating bearing in mind the fact that I was a) harvesting original (not Copyrighted) material and b) was doing so for a Registered UK Charity. In the end, I sussed out how to slow-transfer data via an analogue connection, but this defeated the purpose of purchasing such technology.

--

As of late last year, one has on occassion borrowed (for long journeys) another mate at works' i-pod and since they have yet to learn how to add music to it, have done so for them, more than once and have a meaty/healthy i-tunes collection on my PC.

Two weeks ago, I purchased a 6 month old 8Gig Walkman for just £35 from a mate at work. They deleted their personal stuff (photos and rightly so) but left on their MP3 collection.

What was interesting to me was that the Walkman ONLY (emph on only) synchronises with Windows Media Player (WMP). Hell, I do use WMP for watching stuff, but my WMP Library only contains a small fraction of my files.

--

I learned yesterday that i-tunes, apparently does not connect with other platforms such as Sony Walkman. I was going to ask about this via teh Interbewz, but did some digging, and after downloading a duff patch, found this one that did what I wanted it to do.

--

Whilst in theory, the i-tunes and Walkman platforms are not compatible, they do talk to each other (anymore) if you know how.

--

"There's Evian, then there's tap water"

"It's All About Steam"

2009-07-05T09:35:00.000-07:00

What do you mean, it's all about steam ? was what I thought to myself when considering how to write this post. So let's STEAM on to the post itself.

But before we do, here's a cracking live version of a related song by Peter Gabriel et al to set the scene (sorry, I'm a Muso by trade):-

Yesterday, about 35 invited guests spent a most enjoyable afternoon on the Maid Of The Loch, Loch Lomond’s Paddle Steamer. Many of us (McDawg included) incorrectly assumed that we would be setting sail on her, but alas, whilst she's in the water, she ain't sailing at the moment. But there are plans well underway to change that. Read on.

(Photo c/o The Maid's website)

The Maid Of The Loch website can be found here. This page on Wikipedia is also quite informative.

Before alighting The Maid, guests were welcomed by a very special guest "Wedgie" who was parked up just next to The Maid:-

This event was a triple birthday celebration. "Wedgie" has just turned 50 and it's owners, both 70. See this related previous McBlawg post.

As per the invitation, all attendees were aware that aside from all the celebtrations, there was a fundraising for a good cause aspect to the days proceedings, and they gave generously, I am reliably informed.

After a rather superb lunch, McDawg nipped off to explore all three decks of The Maid, taking photos suitable for both private and public viewing. My favourite for public viewing is this shot of The Queen's Restaurant on the lower deck:-

Prior to everyone leaving The Maid, I caught up and introduced myself to Marie, who was our tip-top catering assistant for the afternoon. I explained that I was a blogger and would blogging about The Maid and tagging the post to highlight her (The Maid, not Marie - LOL) in the blogosphere. "Every little helps", as we discussed. The Maid whilst aquired by Dumbarton District Council in 1992, is very much in the hands of "a charitable organisation, the Loch Lomond Steamship Company (LLSC), to take over ownership and carry on restoration".

From this page, "Directors and volunteers are unpaid and LLSC has no staff. Yet this dedicated group have turned the Maid from a hulk in danger of sinking at the pier in 1992, into a successful business by 2001. Fortunately the Maid is in fresh water, so her hull is sound. Her steam machinery is also in good condition, and with further work can be made to operate for another 50 years. The original boiler was in a very poor condition, and had to be removed. Her wooden promenade and upper decks were so badly rotten they were replaced in 1996/7 with steel and aluminium respectively".

Oh yeah, the STEAM bit.

Just prior to departure from the car park, McDawg's Uncle Robbie (let's call him McRobbie) spotted something McDawg hadn't seen the last time he was here. (A drum-roll please - this is usually appropriate) The Balloch Steam Slipway Winchhouse !!

From here:- "Come and see us! You will be amazed at the engineering. The Winchhouse has not ever been opened to the public before, and our display panels will tell you everything you need to know. Parking is just 100 metres away and is also free".

McDawg & McRobbie entered the building JUST after it was due to close for the day. Whilst the machinery had just been powered down for the day, man it was rather hot in there.

"The rebuilding of the Balloch Steam Slipway is a major success for LLSC. Firstly, the project was completed to budget (at £620,000, and LLSC has no staff – we are all volunteers). Secondly, we were honoured to have a Royal visit; and thirdly it means that we can now seriously plan for the Maid to be overhauled ready for being brought back into sailing condition again. Without the slipway, this would not have been possible as any survey must include inspection to the hull, paddles, etc".

Whilst I didn't realise it at the time, the following shot (taken from the upper deck of The Maid) captures the steamhouse and slipway rather nicely even though I had zoomed in on the foreground activities.

All in all, a smashing day out and I think it's rather fitting to end on this note (from here):-

Maid To Sail Again!

"2008 was our best year so far: We secured MCA approval for the maid to sail again. An independent economic study demonstrated that an operational Maid would be viable; and we put two new aluminium masts on the ship. We also completed the renovation of the engine room with new lighting, and the complete refurbishment of the lower bar. Photos of both achievments are on the ‘Restoration’ page.

This year’s targets include concluding our plans for a public appeal for funds to get the Maid sailing again, adaptation of the Balloch Steam Slipway to take private boats out of the water for overhaul, renovation of the ship’s old crew accomodation, and painting the hull from bow to stern".

++Just spotted++. This is a superb piece of computer generated animation/graphics uploaded by Maxmodeller in Jan 2008

"The Maid of the Loch is currently undergoing a complete renovation and this sequence was produced as an educational aid whilst the engine is rebuilt". Maxmodeller, Jan. 2008.

"There's Something About Sarah"

2009-07-05T03:02:00.000-07:00

"The advert was deemed to distressed to be broadcast"

There's Something About Sarah - Chapter One

So there I was. Stepped off the train from my daily commute to and from Queens Park and Glasgow Central Station, albeit at the weekend, working overtime.

Since the train was lengthier than normal (due to a certain Take That gig at Hampden Park that evening), one alighted the train at a part of the platform I rarely have navigated before.

And that’s where and when it struck me and prompted this post. 15.27 pm, Saturday 20th June 2009 to be precise.

Hang on a minute. I actually know the person featured on this poster. Blimey. How did that happen – what’s the story?

A billboard that normally is posted with adverts for fizzy drinks and all sorts of various advertising shite-ola.

My journey home (2 min walk) continued as usual, but I was understandably most perplexed. So I did what I would normally do, and logged onto the web for informationz.

The person in question was none other than Ms. Sarah Ezekiel, an individual I have had contact with via PatientsLikeMe, Facebook, and now, email.

But just who is Ms. Sarah Ezekiel readers of this post may ask. Previous post on McBlawg here.

Sarah is an extremely active individual who other than looking after her two children (Eric now 9 and Aviva, 12 years old) campaigns tirelessly in terms of raising awareness about Motor Neuron Disease (MND).

Chapter Two

When I got into my flat and logged onto the web, and specifially, PatientsLikeMe - ALS, a theme was clearly already well under construction.

"Have to post this photo taken by my carer in Tottenham Court Road tube station! The irony is that I may never see it because London Transport isn't very accessible for wheelchair users..." Sarah Ezekiel - Jun 13, 2009 04:26PM

Chapter Three

"Our Sarah's Story awareness campaign is being promoted on national billboard space for two weeks, thanks to the generous support of CBS Outdoor media.

The poster campaign aims to raise awareness of MND and encourage visitors to www.sarahsstory.org.uk

The campaign will run for two weeks from 15 June. This means that the second week coincides with our MND Awareness Week (20 – 28 June).

There will be 48 sheet posters on 18 London Underground poster sites in zone one and over 80 mainline railway station sites right across England, Wales and Scotland.

This is the first time that the MND Association and MND Scotland have developed a joint awareness campaign".

LATEST: Some posters will remain at stations. View the Sarah's Story mainline poster sites beyond 28 June (13 kb) London Underground poster sites beyond 28 June (9 kb)

Chapter Four

In January, I placed a link to the video, Sarah's Story on FriendFeed. On 23rd June, I updated that entry to alert people to the fact that I was writing another blog post about it and asked people to consider leaving a comment. Follows the interesting discussion that took place.

Here is the poster in question (click to enlarge):-

As displayed in the above FriendFeed thread, the poster, the media and over the internet, the video has evoked wide ranging reactions.

Sarah has now created her own website and blog (coming soon).

Finally, I would like to publicly thank Sarah for her assitance in composing this post and for her continued role as an active patient advocate in the field of MND.

MEAK UK - Three Peak Challenge

2009-06-28T13:26:00.000-07:00

Raising money for
Medical And Educational Aid To Kenya
Charity Registration No. 1093115

"MEAK provide medical and educational supplies to Kenya as well as carrying out open heart surgery in Nairobi on sick children using a team of medics recruited from Guys and St Thomas' Hospital, who all provide their services free of charge. It also runs eye camps in remote areas of Kenya".

Welcome to the MEAK Three Peak Challenge 2009.

MEAK made history, on the 19th of May by carrying out a rare and complicated open heart procedure on a 6-month old boy, the first operation of its kind to take place in all of East Africa. Some of the money raised from this page went towards that Heart Mission.

"We are now home and safe after our successful attempt at the Three Peaks. It was a fantastic experience with many challenges, one of which was the travelling for hours in a mini bus with a sat nav directing us the long way around the country. the lack of sleep for over 24 hours but the hardest and most scary part was hiking up Scarfell Pike in the driving rain, high winds and in the dark. We only had head torches to see where we were going. We must have been crazy"!

Thank you from the challenge team, MEAK and of course the children.

Please keep giving - we need more money.

We are attempting the National (UK) Three Peak Challenge on June 11th-13th 2009 in aid of MEAK. ++UPDATE - THEY'VE DONE IT++

Medical and Educational Aid to Kenya was founded 14 years ago by a dynamic British couple, Mike and Dee Belliere, after they fell in love with Kenya and its people. Their mission and passion is to establish and execute medical and educational based programs across Kenya and bring a positive awareness about this extraordinary country. New Yorker Jess Atkins discovered MEAK on the web and after one Mission found that she had to help MEAK and joined the team. Their renowned international medical teams lend their time and expertise, without charge, to save Kenyan lives, and provide a better quality of life for thousands, with an additional focus on sharing knowledge and training with the local staffs. MEAK donates large quantities of medical consumables to our many afﬁliate partners in Kenya.

MEAK HEART MISSION SEEKS to work in tandem with the local medics, share knowledge and training, and execute free screening clinics for children with pediatric heart conditions. They then operate on those patients that are in a critical condition.
It is said that MEAK is now responsible for about 25% of all of East Africa’s annual pediatric heart operations. To date, MEAK has completed 10 heart missions, screened 1,741 patients, and performed 196 operations. The charity also carries out eye missions to remote parts of Kenya.

The MEAK Three Peak Challenge team as been organised by Graham Sewell, Trevor Harrison-Phipps and Serge Janssens.

The people involved and who are looking for sponsorship as a joint event are as follows:

1

Alistair Sinclair

Hiker

2

Andy Woodard

Hiker

3

Bill Tebbitts

Team Leader

4

Carl Dalton

Hiker

5

Chris Christopher

Hiker

6

Christopher Nichols

Hiker

7

Damien Sainte-Cluque

Hiker

8

Darren Smith

Hiker

9

Gary Roberts

Hiker

10

Graham Sewell

Organiser / Driver

11

Ian Rhodes

Hiker

12

John Rogers

Hiker

13

Joyce Sewell

Catering

14

Lee McCready

Hiker

15

Michael Dunbar

Hiker

16

Michael Sewell

Backup Driver

17

Mike Fels

Charity Ambassador / Driver

18

Neil Newing

Driver

19

Richard Knight

Hiker

20

Ryan Duane

Hiker

21

Sam Young

Hiker

22

Serge Janssens

Project Manager / Hiker

23

Tony Blyth

Team Leader

24

Trevor Harrison-Phipps

Filmmaker / Hiker

25

Yogi Foottit

Hiker

We are aiming to walk up Ben Nevis and Scafell Pike in one day to then rest over night before attempting Snowdon on the second day. We are not attempting this challenge over 24 hours because of safety issues, the money we raise is for MEAK not for Mountain helicopter rescue. This challenge will be of endurance, hardship and probably quite a bit of pain but if we can fund a heart mission then it will be well worth it.

Thanks for visiting our fundraising page.

Donating through Justgiving is quick, easy and totally secure. It’s also the most efficient way to sponsor us: Medical And Educational Aid To Kenya gets your money faster and, if you’re a UK taxpayer, Justgiving makes sure 25% in Gift Aid, plus a 3% supplement, are added to your donation.

Please be as generous as you can because for 20,000 pounds sterling we could fund a heart mission to Kenya and save childrens lives, please sponsor us now!

Trevor Harrison-Phipps will be filming the challenge as he is currently making a documentary about MEAK. For more information about MEAK please visit : www.meak.org

Thank you in advance.

The MEAK Three Peak Challenge.

"I am a Librarian"

2009-06-18T13:16:00.000-07:00

And thank you muchly to @pfanderon for sharing this gem, spotted here on FriendFeed.

"There's Evian, then there's tap water"

2009-06-14T04:55:00.000-07:00

"I've always felt that personal use (ie among you, your family and friends) should be totally unrestricted". Thomas Dolby 2007

--

Some interesting recent discussions about "Fair Use" in the blogosphere.

Also see Paper Chase by Craig Powell over at Nature Network.

These and other similar discussions will continue. The stark reality however with regards to p2p file sharing in terms of PDF's is that this has been happening for years and in my own experience, 90% of Authors that I contact seeking a copy of a PDF results in the file being shared. IMHO, services such as Mendeley provide a means to an end to do this (as in sharing PDF's) in a much more structed manner.

--

One of McDawg's musical hero's, Thomas Dolby thoughts about "Fair Use" in terms of music can be found here on his blog:-

Posted 2/15/2007
Q: Thomas,
The ubiquitous mix tape (well, the mix CD now.) It's a staple of fledgling romances all over the planet. People mix up music from their collections, make a compilation, and send it off as a token of love, affection, or misguided passion... I know you, like many musicians, have strong feelings about the illegal reproduction of your music. But what do you say to those folks who want to zap off their emotions in a happy jumble of songs? Is the mix CD evil? Or should it be seen as a way to expand an artist's audience (while helping some hapless romantic express himself?)
-Nancy

A: I've always felt that personal use (ie among you, your family and friends) should be totally unrestricted. That's the best way to share music, and to discover it. But there's clearly a huge moral difference between personal use, and wholesale mass pirating, duplication and distribution, to anonymous millions of Internet users. The challenge is, how to fairly use technology or legislation to allow the one and prevent the other? It's almost impossible to draw the line. And historically, the lobbyists, litigators, and politicians have been way behind the curve.

It takes decades for copyright law to catch up with technology, by which time technology has moved on. This struggle has been going on since the printing press--not to mention audio recording, broadcasting, piano rolls, jukeboxes, cable TV and cassette tapes. While I have always fought against people who disregard the copyright notice on my records and go ahead and rip my music for the purpose of sharing it via illegal P2P networks, I am the first to admit that a certain proportion of music should be and always has been free.

As musicians we need to give out free samples, to get the audience hooked so they will come back for more. It's the drug dealer model! To that end, we produce music at our own expense and give it to radio stations who make money of the advertising revenue; we produce videos that we give to MTV so they can sell ads to Nike and American Express; we do this to get wide exposure so new fans can discover our music. Without that there will be no demand for any kind of for-sale product. And the Internet is the most effective method yet of getting that exposure. So clearly we need to embrace it. This is a tough time because we're still at a cusp.

In the end I believe it will all settle down--music will be cheap and easy enough to buy, that the convenience of obtaining music legally will outweigh the few cents you save by pirating it. There's Evian, then there's tap water :)