friday fun
jdupuis | June 16, 2015I'm just back from an extended sabbatical work/vacation trip to Paris, Amsterdam and Berlin -- yes, I did meet with some science publishers while I was in Europe! -- and while in Europe a couple of the true icons of my childhood died: BB King and Christopher Lee. As well, jazz icon Ornette Coleman also died while I was in Europe and while he wasn't an icon from my childhood years I do respect and understand the impact he had on the world of jazz. Quebec science fiction writer also passed away Joël Champetier.
I thought I'd use this post to remember a thing or two about each of these greats…
jdupuis | May 21, 2015I consider myself a fairly technically adept person, even at the advanced age of 52. But yesterday I was listening to an album on my laptop using iTunes -- something I actually fairly rarely do, as I mostly only use iTunes on shuffle on my phone -- and after I tried to figure out how to get to the shuffle play setting back for my whole music library.
Well, there must have been a way, but the five or six things I tried just didn't work; I seemed only to be able to shuffle the album. In disgust, I shut down iTunes and then restarted it. Once restarted it was trivial to get back to library-…
jdupuis | May 1, 2015Being a librarian and not really being eligible for any Nobel Prizes, this probably isn't the most practical advice I've ever highlighted here on the blog. But some of you readers out there are scientists, though, right? Right?
On the other hand, I see no reason why librarians can't be eligible for the Ig Nobel Prizes, a prize I aspire to winning one day for the team. In that case, this fine article, Ten Simple Rules to Win a Nobel Prize by Nobel laureate Richard J. Roberts probably does contain a few valuable lessons towards that particular goal.
Here's a taste, but please do read the…
jdupuis | April 24, 2015This one's pretty funny, if only in the so-funny-it-hurts category. I'm one of those dinosaurs that tends to actually want to own a good part of the culture I consume, books and music mainly more than TV or movies.
Enjoy the squirmy discomfort of this one.
Local artist paid with, dies from, exposure
TORONTO - In the early hours of yesterday morning, local artist Sue Jolley was found dead of exposure mere days after being paid with the same.
“We’re all shocked by this, but contrary to popular belief we were paying her quite well,” said H&M Canada representative Lawrence Pike, who had hired…
jdupuis | April 1, 2015I really appreciate how all my Internet friends have followed me from major career announcement to major career announcement over the last few years. From my job at Elsevier all the way to last year's temporary detour as Chief Advisor on Science Libraries for the Government of Canada! The last few years sure have been exciting but it's time for a new challenge.
And yes, I'm taking a leap back into the scholarly publishing world. This time I'm starting up my own open access scholarly publishing company to publish in all the STEMM fields with a special focus on computer science, which is, of…
jdupuis | September 26, 2014The Ig Nobel prizes were awarded last week and as usual they are hilarious. And this time around a Canadian was included! Yay Canada!
What are the Ig Nobel prizes? For the uninitiated they are a mock set of awards given out at a lavish ceremony at Harvard every year for interesting and bizarre real research and other actual "accomplishments." But with a humourous twist, of course.
Here's what they have to say:
The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then makes them think. The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative — and spur people…
jdupuis | September 19, 2014Is jazz satire possible? Can it possibly be funny or even relevant?
This question is more immediate and pressing that you would normally imagine in the wake of serial controversies in the jazz world.
It all began at the end of July when The New Yorker posted a article in their humour column by Django Gold purporting to be the thoughts of jazz legend Sonny Rollins where he basically says jazz is a waste of time and they his whole life has been in vein. The jazz world exploded as it was not immediately obvious that it was satire. If it had been in The Onion people might have realized it…
jdupuis | September 19, 2014Yes, I cook. Yes, I use recipe blogs. Yes, I might alter the recipes I see based on what I have on hand or what various personal and familial preferences come into play.
In fact, I love recipe blogs, I really really do. Simply Recipes is probably my favourite.
The reality, of course, is that a lot of what you see in the comment sections of those recipe posts is just plain crazy. Sometimes it seems like people want to take a chocolate cake recipe and twist it into meatloaf via making a pina colada. Now there's nothing wrong with chocolate cake, meatloaf (in fact, I'd love to find a good…
jdupuis | September 12, 2014Music critics. Got to love them. Just the right mixture of disdain, hipster arrogance and snobbery to set the teeth on edge. Ooooh, love that band no one has ever heard of. Hate that band that "sold out" and became famous. They were so much more authentic when they were poor and no one heard and enjoyed their music. Ask U2.
Vice's music critics have a new list out, The 123 Worst Musicians of All Time, which hits the hipster music critic disdain nail right on the head. Amongst them they come up with a list of the 123 worst musicians of all time, which amongst them leaves them with basically…
jdupuis | August 15, 2014From the "So Funny it Hurts" file...
This one combines the recent spying cases between Canada and China with the equally "humourous" ongoing Canadian War on Science.
Chinese cyber spies disappointed by Canada’s complete lack of scientific research
BEIJING - Chinese state-sponsored hackers were disappointed after hacking into Canadian government and business research archives and discovering they contained little to no valuable information.
“Wow, how on Earth is this country more developed than we are?” said Chinese Ministry of State Security intelligence analyst Lao Xi Ming from the smoke…
jdupuis | August 8, 2014Ah, News Biscuit. You've nailed this one. What's next? Homeopathic dishwasher detergent?
In any case, enjoy a taste but make sure you read the whole thing. It's very funny!
McAfee unveils first homeopathic antivirus software
“Our customers are increasingly demanding Anti-Virus software that has no discernible effect on the performance of their laptops and other devices” commented McAfee spokesman Mike Townes. “By providing downloads or media containing only the “memory” of the most aggressive malware, we are able to satisfy that need at a cost marginally below that of traditional methods”.…
jdupuis | April 11, 2014Oh, Cracked, you are so funny. So funny it just really hurts sometimes. And these so definitely apply to the pickle that libraries and other cultural/content institutions and industries find themselves in as we try and find our place in a future that is very different from the past.
5 Reasons The Future Will Be Ruled By B.S.
A Star Trek-Style Utopia is Already Here ... Sort Of
To Stay Afloat, Businesses Have to Pretend Unlimited Goods are LimitedTo keep all that stuff up and running, the publisher is resorting to what experts call FARTS--Forced ARTificial Scarcity. Or they would call it that…
jdupuis | April 2, 2014Yesterday was April Fools' Day, a day I enjoy immensely. I even contribute to the fun every now and then. This year the crop among the science/scholcomm/library community seemed especially strong so I thought I'd share.
Science, Nature Team Up on New Journal / Science
PeerJ now requires authors to deposit ‘selfies’ in a data repository prior to publication / PeerJ
Publish or Perish: Is Publishing the Career it Once Was? / The Scholarly Kitchen
Oxford Commas to Perform at ALA Meeting / The Scholarly Kitchen
Announcing a better way to measure your value: the Total Impact Score / Impactstory…
jdupuis | February 14, 2014I love science, I love science fiction. The common misconception about science fiction in particular is that it is somehow about the future, about predicting and describing it. Same with science, in a slightly different way. Science (and technology...) should be about inventing the best gizmos to make life the easiest and most pleasant.
In both cases, not so much.
But somehow the temptation has always been with us to extrapolate and predict and usually we get it wrong. Things we think are going to be huge don't materialize and the biggest things seem to come out of nowhere.
Cracked has done…
jdupuis | December 20, 2013Happy holidays everyone!
This will probably be the last Friday Fun of the year (and yes, I promise to try and get closer to my old weekly schedule next year...) so I thought I'd feature something with a year end theme.
And really, haven't we all thought at times that the tech industry is really just making all this stuff up as they go along, with really no more aim in mind than taking our money and wasting our time?
5 Signs the Tech Industry Finally Ran Out of Ideas in 2013
Apple Appears to Have Stopped Innovating3D TV Failed, and Television Makers Are Lost as to What's NextWearable Gadgets…
jdupuis | November 8, 2013It's been a really bizarre and surreal week (and month and three years) to be a resident of Toronto. Each day brings a series of more outrageous revelations about our beloved and not-so-beloved mayor, Rob Ford.
But if there's anything that warms a Canadian's heart more than attention in the American press, well, I don't know what that is. And The Onion?! The Onion loves us, it really loves us!
Oh, the mixed feelings, how they wound.
Nation Not About To Start Giving A Shit About Canadian Politics
WASHINGTON—Despite Toronto mayor Rob Ford’s recent controversial admission to having smoked crack…
jdupuis | September 13, 2013Yes, it's Ig Nobel award time.
For those that haven't discovered them yet, the Ig Nobel's are:
The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think. The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative — and spur people's interest in science, medicine, and technology.
Here are some of the highlights. Enjoy!
MEDICINE PRIZE: Masateru Uchiyama [JAPAN], Xiangyuan Jin [CHINA, JAPAN], Qi Zhang [JAPAN], Toshihito Hirai [JAPAN], Atsushi Amano [JAPAN], Hisashi Bashuda [JAPAN] and Masanori Niimi [JAPAN, UK], for assessing the effect of…
jdupuis | August 23, 2013Newsbiscuit is my favourite humour site and has been for a while. The dry British humour combined with OTT story ideas is irresistible.
And speaking of irresistible, I just love this one:
Disappointment for scientists as new super-computer fails to go mad
Scientists at Mal-Tech University, Wisconsin have expressed their immense disappointment at the failure of their new super-computer Off White to show any signs of megalomania.
The technological titan went online six months ago has since performed flawlessly, displaying nary a hint of sentience, lunacy or vague curiosity. Project leader…
jdupuis | August 16, 2013Sometimes The Onion just nails it. I don't have to say how funny/happy/sad/conflicted/overjoyed/suicidal/smug/ your average librarian is going to find this one.Print Dead At 1,803
Reaction to print’s tragic demise was overwhelming, with countless individuals within the publishing sector left reeling at its death.
“I’m in absolute shock right now,” said Charles Townsend, CEO of Condé Nast Publications, who reportedly worked closely with the beloved medium throughout his career. “I knew that it had been struggling recently, but, still, I thought it had many more happy, healthy years in it. I…
jdupuis | July 26, 2013A fun little apocalyptic post from everybody's favourite humour site, Cracked. Skynet, anyone?
5 Machines That Are Already Learning Humanity's Weaknesses
5. Slot Machines
Slot machines are a diagnostic of everything we still need to fix in the human brain. It's normal to throw a couple of dollars in to try them out, because paying attention to new, loud, and shiny objects used to be good survival instincts before television.
Slot machines are reverse swear jars -- you put money into them and then curse -- and have the same effect on a functional mind: teaching you not to do that again.…