inkycircus

Fresh off the press - so to speak

People. The new line up for Inkling is up again. And it's kind of rocking. Here's what's going down for your reading pleasure:

• Megan Mansell Williams, more-than-chic cooler-than-geek Discover writer tugs at our heart strings with "80s Science TV: Shows like 3-2-1 Contact taught us to love science with stories. Does today's frenzied, Internet-fueled TV have the same magic?" You know, Square One? Mathnet? All those nerdling shows of yore. What's happened to kids science TV since that golden era? It's as simple as reading to find out.
• You can read about a post-modern hunk of chocoloate shaped like a theobromine molecule, one of chocolate's magic ingredients, that only sets you back $80.
• And remember the Woomba skit? Well it might just be a matter of time before it's possible, seeing as the techies are coming up with all sorts of Roomba hacks already.
• M@ Brown, king of Londonist, and hero at large, pens his space column on how we're doing at colonizing it all.
• And check out Camille's reviews of the Children of Men (could we really all go infertile that fast?) and PBS's new science TV series, it's up to us plebs to vote!

Yo! Fresh goods over at Inkling..

Dearest readers. As promised, Inkling got a spate of new original content this past Tues.

Here's what's new.

• Anna tells us about this wild unappetizing process that turns dark turkey meat white. Mmmm, yummy.





• Kaisa met up with Ursula Franklin, Canada's very first female professor for an Inkling Q&A. Best quote: "What has changed is nobody will ask, 'Why does a nice girl like you want to be a metallurgist?' No one is surprised anymore." Nowadays no one bats an eyelash at nice girls going into metallurgy. Amen sister.


• Our new pal Stephanie Gower outs Canada's stance on asbestos - namely that we're a bunch of overly polite hypocrites preoccupied with unhealthy politics.
• Eva Amsen, who we know and love from Easternblot, gives us a one stop shop for all those coffee pros and cons.




• And finally I share some of my tales from visiting those tree canopy  researchers down in Washington state this summer. Reading between the lines you'll see that the entire experience was a total (and delightfully random) blast.


• We introduce our reviews go-to femme, Camille Rey, with her thoughts on Ben Stiller's "A Night at the Museum".   

A shameless cry for...

Create Free Polls

Simmering beneath the surface of this blog run the currents of start-up mag zeal. In that vein we have a couple of announcements. FIRST off, we need to know what y'all are made of. So please take the time to take the poll at left. It's the first step to getting to know you circus-goers. Even if this is your first trip out here.

SECOND, save the date. For what, we can't tell you. But let us just say that November 14th will be a special day. Nearly as special as the bags that promise to grow under our eyes - like shadows under the northern sun.

THIRD, and this is the really crucial bit, if any of you know anybody, anybody at all at the Sloan Foundation or say the David and Lucile Packard, Gates, Amazon, or National Science Foundation - or the Association for Women in Science - or recent bored lottery winners, whatever we don't care so long as they're peeps who might chuck a pop-sci mag more for women some dollars. The time is now. Speak now or forever hold your peace. Sloan Foundation people. That's s-l-o-a-n. Drop us a line. Please. Pretty please with a cherry on top.

Check it out y'all.

It's all so poetic. The same year the student science mag that Anna and I started at the University of Toronto kind of limped to a standstill (Jargon R.I.P.), another one began. It's called Hypothesis. While our stab at pop sci was, surprise surprise, all about being pretty and fun, Hypothesis is pretty straight up. Articles about the Discussion of Science are peer-reviewed by grad students and pertain mostly to "basic, clinical and translational science." This means that it's brainy and high brow and well researched - with proper references. Take for example the recent review by Editor Eva Amsen, "Who benefits from science blogging?" where big luminaries like Carl Zimmer are interviewed. As are we. Get it? There's some just-short-of-full circle action going on here.

P.S. Just to give you an idea of the mag's wide and commendable scope, take a look at Rami Bishay's article "Lent, Lust and the Libido: What Patristic Theology Taught us About Testosterone Biosynthesis," also in this issue. Who knew alliteration could surprise like that.

Gone fishin'

AFTER THESE MESSAGES, WE'LL BE RIIIIIIIIGHT BACK

This certainly is an unusual happening here at the circus...we are all going away! Anne is in Alaska, making friends with the grizzlies. Katie is off to France, where she will inevitably eat too much cheese. And I am going to some mystery desintation for my anniversary (all I know: bring your passport and it's gonna be hot).

So we are going to be out of commission until Wednesday. Which is a long time. Hopefully you won't forget about us. The internet culture DOES move very quickly, you know.

Deep thoughts: Feminist science

THREE GIRLS WITH A BALL AND CHAIN

A while ago a male friend of mine who reads this blog said he was surprised at how feminist it was. I was taken a back. Yes I fervently believe in equality of the sexes, that the continued existence of the wage gap is a crime against humanity, that careers and motherhood need not be so mutually goddamn exclusive, that the Christian Right is trying its damnedest to control women's sexuality. Again. But I never thought that would come out in our blog. We write about science. About planets and virus and trans-fat and panda bears.

In the past couple of days I have been reading some feminist blogs. Specifically Feministing and The Happy Feminist. And it has made me wonder about what we're doing here. A science magazine/blog aimed at women readers? Is that a feminist thing to do or not. Is suggesting that women, in general, find some science subject more interesting/easier to identify with/entertaining, a sexist sentiment? (as has been said about inkycircus at a feminist forum). Or are we FemSci activists, striking a blow for equality and claiming the fascinating of world science and tech as our own? Or lastly, are we just some girls having fun, assuming that people who like our work are girls like us? And heck, if everyone else climbs on board for a slice of the fun then BONUS.

Sorry for this little blip. Your regularly scheduled programming will continue shortly.

Inky circus in print

The inky circus got an email way back from a lovely lady called Sara (AKA "aussie sara" to those who read the comments) from Cosmos Magazine, a popular science publication from down under.

Anyway, the email gave us a heads up because our blog would be featured in the fun pages at the back of the magazine. Naturally, we were delighted. Even more so when a copy of the magazine plopped onto my doormat and I found that they'd printed a couple of our favourite posts from the past few months - the effect boozing has on your bones, allergic reactions & sex drive, and supersponges and MRSA. They also said we were a "doozy"!

I've since consumed the rest of the magazine, and can confidently say that the inky circus is a fan of cosmos (and not just cause they called us a doozy. You can't buy our love that easy). Cosmos is apparently available in the UK too, and if they've shown such superb taste in their selection of blogs it's clearly a magazine worth reading. I shall be going on a hunt to purchase Issue 9 as soon as it's on offer.

Thanks Sara! We may be staunch ladies of the web right now, but it's absolutely delicious to see our very first print review - sandwiched between such great pages no less.

So Long, Farewell

Children: SO LONG, FAREWELL, AUF WIEDERSEHEN, GOOD NIGHT.
Marta: I HATE TO GO AND LEAVE THIS PRETTY SIGHT.

VANCOUVER - I could just let the inspired lyrics of The Sound of Music and the curtain-clad von Trapp kids speak for me. But that would be too cheesy and abstract. So. I moved to Vancouver three weeks ago and here's why.

Where to begin. At last count we were trying to start a women's science magazine in Londontown. And we were doing pretty well. We took some knocks, but life was good to us and we collected hilarious stories like toddlers do germs. That was until we hit the wide red tape of the British Home Office. See, Anna and I are Canadian/American citizens. And right now we can't get the visas that let us stay in the UK, own a business, and work for it. The best options were to marry a native or win the lottery so we could afford the £200,000 business visas.

Next up was the Highly Skilled Migrant Visa. And while we're both skilled and very much migrant, we weren't very "highly" so. Yes, we could have bided our time for a year or so, taken high paying jobs that would score us those extra points but the only point that mattered to us is that we're ready to do this now. And there are two perfectly fine countries where we have citizenship that will let us do what the UK will not.

Children: SO LONG, FAREWELL, AUF WIEDERSEHEN, ADIEU
Friedrich: ADIEU, ADIEU, TO YIEU AND YIEU AND YIEU

So we're booting ourselves out of the country. And it's sad. Very sad. And it's been hard. Very very hard. Everyone has been so very generous to us that it kills us to kiss them goodbye. Whether it's Terry, the amazo market research guru, our stellar TV pals, Alex, the plush publisher, Piers, a prince of a man, Bernard, of the Coaches-and-Horses priceless advice, and last but the very opposite of least the phenomenal potential investors who were ready to put stock in our insane venture. Not to mention all the marvellous kids in London who made life there lovable and colorful and warm and cozy.

Children: SO LONG, FAREWELL, AUF WIEDERSEHEN, GOODBYE
Kurt: I LEAVE AND HEAVE A SIGH AND SAY GOODBYE -- GOODBYE!
Brigitta: I'M GLAD TO GO, I CANNOT TELL A LIE
Louisa: I FLIT, I FLOAT, I FLEETLY FLEE, I FLY
Gretl: THE SUN HAS GONE TO BED AND SO MUST I

So I've parked my rejected dejected ass in Vancouver until Anna comes to join me in mid-July at which point we'll descend into further mania by deciding where to set up our magazine shop - New York? SF? Our basement? The web? The inky circus will keep on performing though. We're just slowly but surely spanning the globe and more time zones doing so. That's all.

Children:
SO LONG, FAREWELL, AUF WIEDERSEHEN, GOODBYE
GOODBYE, GOODBYE, GOODBYE

A misty and belated bye bye to Britain's fair shores and hullo land of wide lanes, purple furry mountains, and driftwood.

Guests:
GOODBYE!

Explaining ourselves

(PHOTO: WILDKITTEN)

You regular circus-goers will have noticed the slower pace of our posting as of late. To keep you in the loop: we haven't been run over by rabid London cabbies and the dog hasn't eaten our posts. We are in the midst of slapping together a sample issue of our mag and our attention is somewhat diverted. Sorry guys. Bear with us for a bit longer and we'll be back to normal (well not really. Technically speaking we'll return to you cabin feverish, manic, mad, and AA candidates) next week. Promise.

The Inkettes over Christmas

Hello circus-goers. As we've said before, our trio now spans eight time zones. So this is just to say, we'll do our best to post and keep you up to date, but who knows how that trytophan will lull us into a slumber. We are very very very prone to that fowl drowsiness.

(XMAS ORNAMENTS PHOTO BY REMIND)
But lucky for you, none of us are celebrating Christmas on the same day. Anne is driving her parents to the airport on Christmas day. Hence turkey dinner today. As for Anna, she's under ski chalet arrest up in Whistler, waiting for her brother and soon-to-be-sister-in-law to arrive. Ergo her Christmas is pushed back to the 27th. Katie is the only one of us who isn't veering off the x of mas.

We aren't alone in our holiday fickleness. There are those who have gone one step further exchanging the Christ for Ex and Newton. Hence Ex-mass, which celebrates the sun's conversion of mass into energy at the solstice nearest perihelion. And Newtonmas, honouring his birthday 363 years ago to the day tomorrow. That should keep you atheists happy.

(as flagged by Amara on Cosmic Variance. Thanks for sharing!)

P.S. Those of you for whom things like cookies and giving and receiving are just getting too damn sickly sweet can visit Ugly Christmas Lights to restore your mean streak. 

UPDATE (from Katie) - You think those ugly christmas lights are funny? Go look at this from milkandcookies.com. So funny. But wouldn't you just die if you lived opposite this house??