A geeky christmas wishlist

This blog should be more accurately titled 'A thinkgeek Trekmas wishlist' since it's almost exclusively made up of Think Geek products.  But what can I say?  They cater to my tastes extraordinarily well!  And now to the wish list:

PJ's!

Star Trek: The Original Series PJ's to be specific.

Bath Towel.  Cos I'm practical.  (Bonus points for the model wearing Vulcan ears in this pic!)

Bling.  Because every self respecting geek gal wants a Rutherford-Bohr model atom necklace.  True story...

More bling.  And come on, a starfleet necklace is totally awesome!

I honestly don't think I would ever take this bathrobe off.  Like ever.

Because every girl secretly wants to be Uhura.

Self explanatory.  KHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAANNN!!!!!!

Exterminatttttteeee!  Dalek dress is the second coolest thing I've ever seen in my life!

R2D2 dress.  Yippee!








And then there's the Lady Vader dress, Star Trek Enterprise pizza cutter, Tribbles!!  Because they're tribbles, and if I'm being honest, pretty much every single other thing in the Star Trek category on Think Geek.

Pretty awesome, hey?

SETI Live

I'm honestly a bit surprised I haven't done this before, but today I joined SETI Live.

It's a program which is run through SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) where you can help the SETI team look for radio signals and analyse Earth based interference.  

I'm pretty excited to be a part of it.  Especially because this means I can now have my head in the stars during daylight hours ;)

Sassy Scientists: giving women in science, engineering and innovation a voice

Women are underrepresented in science, engineering and innovation. It's time to change that, and give them a voice.

"We cannot wait another 15 years to capitalise on the expertise, skills and innovation that women can bring to science and technology, particularly women at mid-career level and above" - Anna-Maria Arabia

My dream is to give women in science, engineering and innovation a stronger voice and representation. 

·         Only 7% of the fellows in the (Australian) Academy of Science are women

·         In the U.S, 6000 women are employed as physicists/astronomers, compared with 28,000 men

·         Women only make up 11% of engineers, worldwide.

·         At Australia's leading science organisation a mere 12% of senior scientists are women.

These statistics are similarly globally represented.

So how can we enable women to change these figures, and make up a more equal portion of these industries?  How can we give them more of a voice, and showcase the unique skills, expertise they can bring to science, engineering and innovation?

By providing them with a platform which showcases their talent, allows them to connect with other women in these industries, and by encouraging young women to consider these industries as potential future careers.

We can make a difference, we just need a chance.

Project Sassy Scientists aims to give women that chance, by developing a platform for women in science, engineering and innovation to network, promote their research, and report the latest science, engineering and innovation news featuring achievements made by women in these areas.

But, I can’t do it alone.  A project this size needs funding.

So I’ve launched a funding campaign to help turn this dream into a reality, and help empower women globally. You can view it here:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1441925549/sassy-scientists-representing-women-in-science

Every dollar helps, so if you do have a spare dollar, or you are a company looking to invest in something new, which offers incentives in the form of free advertising for your generosity, then please have a look at the above link and share it around.

Together we can make a difference.

Together we can show the world what women can do in science, engineering and innovation.

Thank you for taking the time to read this!

Geek related injuries

I'm seriously the most accident prone person in the world.  I'm also incredibly vague when it comes to life, to the point where I've had people say to me on multiple occasions "how can you study science? you seem so off with the fairies most of the time?" (read as: you seem way too stupid to ever be able to do anything scientific).

Last night was the perfect example of how my geek related vagueness causes me to injure myself.

I went to the shops, and when I was returning to the car I started looking at the moon and an exceptionally bright star.  The problem with this is that I was looking at the sky rather than where I was walking.  I managed to make it to my car just fine.  But then went to open the door, still while looking at the moon and stars, and BAM!

Yep.  I managed to smash the car door into my shoulder so hard it threw me backwards and I tripped over my own feet.

Unfortunately, stuff like this happens far more often than I care to admit...

How to read a book about dinosaurs to your toddler...

My two year old daughter is currently obsessed with dinosaurs, despite my constant affirmation that neither geology nor paleontology are real sciences. But who am I to deny her what her heart apparently so desperately desires?

So I got her some dinosaur books.  I think I need to backtrack for a minute though...

I'm obsessed with xkcd.com (a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math and language to use their own words).  I spend hours reading and giggling at it, and as such I also really enjoy the whole velociraptor injokes - probably because I do similar.  Here's just one example of an xkcd comic relating to velociraptors:

As you've probably gathered from some of my other posts, I also tend to have a flair for the melodramatic.  And if you've seen Jurassic Park you'll know that it's filled with shrieking dinosaur sounds.

Enter my daughter's dinosaur books.

Why read a dinosaur book if you're not going to do awesome sound effects along with it?  The first page in one of her books has a picture of a velociraptor.  The text is "Running.  Follow me little dino. I can run so fast!".

Unless you live in this house...

Then it becomes "VELOCIRAPTOR! *aaaccccckkkkk-eeeeee-sssshhrrrrrriiieeeekkk* OH MY SPOCK, IT'S JURASSIC PARK! *more sound effects* RUN!!! RUN AWAY!!! *more sound effects* Quick! Into the kitchen! OH NO!  THEY CAN OPEN DOORS! *more sound effects* *dramatic fall to the floor* HIDE!!!!! *commando roll under the coffee table and more sound effects*"

*ahem*

In my defense, she loves it.  I do sometimes wonder if I should tone it down a bit, and whether I'm paving the way to be financing her future therapists trips to exotic Asian locations every other week.

This pretty much says it all...

I totally want a sign like this on my front door...

Exterminating arachnids, Wrath of Khan style

I think my whole quoting Wrath of Khan thing this week is getting a tad out of control.

The second worst kept secret in the universe is that I absolutely loathe arachnids.  To the point that my hatred of them extends to loathing crabs because they have similar leg joints and move in a similar fashion.

This is an issue, given that I live in Australia where arachnids are plentiful and seriously effing scary.  They also refuse to die.  No joke, these things are like Superman - faster than speeding bullets, and immune to everything bar Kryptonite.

Last night I discovered a huge whitetail on my bathroom door.  After some mild hysteria, I managed to get my crap together long enough to grab the bug spray.  And when I say bug spray, I mean industrial strength, fast kill bug spray which is marketed as rendering any form of insect or arachnid dead with one small spray.  Clearly this was not developed in Australia, because it was utterly useless in killing the filthy arachnid.

So I stood there spraying it, and shrieking "DIE ARACHNID, DIE! HE TASKS ME! HE TASKS ME! FROM HELL'S HEART I STAB AT THEE!"

Yes.  I decided that quoting Wrath of Khan while attempting to exterminate it would be more effective.

It was not.

I used the remaining spray in the can on it, and it was still moving.  Specifically, it was still moving towards me.

Eventually it met its demise, thanks to the aid of a thong (flip flop for non-Aussie readers).  And the lesson in all of this?  Don't waste time quoting Star Trek at arachnids.  It doesn't kill them quicker, and it actually seems to piss them off more than anything else.

The best thing about being a geeky parent

Without a doubt, the best thing about being a geeky parent is the fact that I can indulge my love of all things geeky and not deal with any buyers remorse, because I can buy things for my daughter.

Some of my favourites:

My addiction to buying Star Trek related onesies is still going strong!  The science officer outfit was from ThinkGeek, and the other two I ordered off cafepress.

These were part of the "Trekmas" presents last year.  In the top left are TOS cloth nappies.  Even my child's butt has to be geeked out!

More ThinkGeek purchases.  The green thing is a plush microbe - Malaria to be specific.  We named her "Mary Malaria"

Why one should not 'play' Star Trek when one lives on a main road

So I just got busted doing one of my many Spock impressions.

I live on a main road, so there are always people driving and walking past.  I went to put something in the bin, and my daughter who remained inside was standing at the door with her hand on it.  So of course I couldn't resist the opportunity to put my hand up to hers through the door and be all "I have been...and always shall be...your friend...live long...and prosper" *die*

But in my overly enthusiastic portrayal of dying Spock, I neglected to check whether anybody else was around.  Yep.  I had an audience.  A very amused audience.

I'd like to say I'm embarrassed about this, but really I think it's just awesome ;)

You can watch the scene I was re-enacting here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekBOxnyzszo

Mission: Quote Wrath of Khan at every available opportunity

My sister got a new phone/phone number and I absolutely couldn't resist doing this to her.  She wasn't impressed, despite how funny I thought it was:

How to solve an OCD related coconut water nightmare

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Half of my brain is currently sitting here thinking “I cannot believe I just did that...” while the other half is smugly congratulating itself on its effective problem solving of what (in my world) is a total freaking nightmare.

If I haven’t mentioned it before, I’m really obsessive about certain things.  Think Sheldon Cooper from Big Bang Theory kind of obsessive, and like him I also don’t compromise well (I also have my “spot” and if anybody sits in it, my brain almost implodes, but that’s another story).

Enter coconut water.

I love it, almost as much as I love caffeine.  But I’m incredibly picky about what coconut water I drink.  It either has to be fresh from a coconut, or in a can. And it has to be coconut water, not coconut juice. 

I used to happily drink it out of a carton, until I saw a post somewhere about a juice box that was filled with mould. The inside was covered with green slime and just looking at the photo, I wanted to go scrub myself in the shower.  The post went on to say that even the tiniest pinprick hole in the carton, would allow air in and provide a perfect place for bacteria to grow. Bye bye ever being able to look at a cardboard carton the same way again!

Last night I was desperate for some coconut water.  But alas, all the cans were gone!  All I had left was 2 little cartons which have been sitting in the fridge since I read about the green slime. After three hours (I kid you not, I wasted three hours of my life on this) of raging internal debate, I came up with a solution of how to potentially drink the coconut water without wanting to vomit at the thought of green slime.

So I poured the coconut water from the carton into a glass, spent half an hour inspecting the damn thing, then dumped in a bunch of ice cubes and took the temperature of the coconut water and maintained it for more than 20 minutes in an effort to destroy any microbes in it.

But that didn’t satisfy me, did it?  I then took the carton and dissected it. And when I say dissected, I mean that I spent a large amount of time carefully cutting and pulling it apart so I could minutely inspect every single millimetre of the inside to ensure there was nothing in the way of slime or other grossness in there.

All in all, it took me about an hour and a half to pour out, and be satisfied with, one single glass of coconut water.

Some days even I shake my head at myself...

Scientific Inaccuracy Turns Me Into a 2 Year Old...

If there is one thing that annoys the crap out of me, it's inaccurate science.  I can't even begin to describe how much it gets under my skin.  And, unfortunately for me, today the stupidity is strong in these ones (yes, I did just make an obscure Star Wars reference).

Last year I had a right little tantrum after discovering my daughters dinosaur sticker book contained dodo birds.  And when I say tantrum, I mean tantrum.  I griped on it for literally weeks.  I'm not proud to admit that my dodo tantrum exceeded my usual bitching via social media.  I actually put in a complaint to the company that made the stickers and have since boycotted them.  Why?  Because I don't want my daughter exposed to "blatant scientific inaccuracy". 

Today takes the cake though.  Too much stupidity on facebook from people, and then I came across a newspaper article talking about "Commet Ison".  I lost the plot. The combination of aforementioned stupidity plus the newspaper mistake was just too much for my poor little obsessive compulsive brain to take.

My facebook status currently looks like this:

Some peoples inability to differentiate between FACT and UNRESEARCHED OPINION infuriates me. Like makes me want to stab myself through the frontal lobe with an icepick type rage.

So, for the love of god, actually research before voicing your opinion and trying to pass it off as fact, before I rip my own face off out of sheer frustration.

And, in a first for me, I also became one of those people who leave annoying comments on articles about their grammatical errors.  I even came up with a stupid anonymous name:

I know people won't "get" it unless they're as OCD about science as I am (think Sheldon Cooper).  But right now, I do honestly want to rip my face off out of frustration.

Ugh.

Dolls vs Engineering

I came across this yesterday, and I am completely in love with it!

http://www.upworthy.com/if-3-little-girls-did-this-to-my-house-id-do-everything-i-could-to-get-them-full-rides-to-stanford

The idea is to get more girls into engineering, and you bet that I want to buy these toys for my daughter.  As the link states there are less than 3 out of 10 graduates in science, mathematics, engineering and technology.  Of those ten, you'll be lucky to find one who is an engineer. Globally women make up 11 percent of engineers, compared with the 89 percent of males in the field.

GoldieBlox hopes to change that. How?  By selling construction toys marketed to a female audience.  They aim to

 "disrupt the pink aisle and inspire the future generation of female engineers"

Power to them, and their creator Ms. Debbie Sterling, who graduated Stanford with a degree in engineering.

There are so few women in these fields.  In my first science course I was one of only two females who finished the year out, the rest were all male.  As I progressed through my studies, the male:female ratio remained similar.  My career has been similar as well, I'm surrounded by males and I'm sure the only reason why I managed to land a job as a science/medical writer was because the person who hired me was female.

While I won't push my daughter into science/engineering/mathematics/technology, I will ensure that she is exposed to it so she can make her own decision.  There are an equal number of dolls and trucks here.  As there are an equal number of Disney books and books on science topics.

I can't wait to buy her some GoldieBlox toys though, they look amazing!  (You can check them out here: http://www.goldieblox.com/collections/products)

Best. Bathrobe. Ever.

Photo Credit: Think Geek

Set phasers to AWESOME!!

Found this bathrobe on Think Geek and I've totally found my own Christmas present!

Best. Bathrobe. EVER.

View the product here:

Think Geek: Star Trek Next Generation Robes

Random Things I Think About

I wrote this way back at the start of 2011 so thought I would share it now:
---


In my spare time, usually when I'm supposed to be writing or studying, I often spend hours thinking about things which in all likelihood will never happen.  But still it's good to be organised, no matter how implausible the scenario may be.  Here are the top ten things I think about when I'm supposed to be doing something productive:

10.  If I were on death row, what would be my last meal choice?

I can spend hours debating this one with myself, despite the fact that Australia has no death penalty and probably never will.  Usually I manage to eliminate all choices down to two: the pasta I had at this delightful little cafe just down from the Colosseum in Rome and a really good curry.  Of course the two are vastly different and don't go together, so I'd need to pick just one... and I never can.  What if I make the wrong choice? (This too can lead to several more hours of internal debate).

9.  What would I do if an unfriendly extraterrestrial civilisation decided to colonise Earth?

This is not as ridiculous as it seems.  A professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics actually formulated an equation to estimate the number of extraterrestrial civilisations in the Milky Way for the SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) project whereby the number of civillisations in our galaxy in which communication may be possible equals the average rate of star formation per year in our galaxy by the fraction of those stars which have planets by the average number of planets that can potentially support life per star that has planets by the fraction of those stars which have planets by the average number of planets that can potentially support life per star that has planets which actually go on to develop life at some point by the fraction of those stars which have planets by the average number of planets that can potentially support life per star that has planets which actually go on to develop life at some point and that then go on to develop intelligent life by the fraction of civillisations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space by the length of time for which such civillisations release detectable signals into space.

Does your brain hurt yet?  If so, this can be simplified mathematically by the Drake Equation which expresses the above so much more eloquently:

My point is, that they're out there (because if it can be proven mathematically, in my mind it becomes fact).  So who is to say they won't one day decide to go all Independence Day on our asses?  And if they do, then I firmly believe I should have a contingency plan.

Of course I usually get distracted by something else (more often than not by watching Independence Day), so I'm yet to actually formulate the aforementioned contingency plan.  But still, I feel I should have one...

8.  What are the chances of surviving a plane crash?  And is there anyway I can improve those chances?

Ok, so I watch too much Air Crash Investigation (and I'm starting to think that I also have a bit of a flair for the melodramatic).  Thus far I've deduced that I stand a better chance over water (at least until I get eaten by sharks).  Of course if my plane was to plummet in a firey ball and nose first into the ocean then I'm fucked.  But then again, I'm probably fucked either way.  Still, it's nice to be able to pretend I'd be able to survive.  And it's morbidly comforting to also know the percentage of burns I'd be able to theoretically survive too (73%, this goes down to 72% on May 31).

7.  If a cyclone/tornado/hurricane was to come racing down my street, what are my chances of surviving it?

Slim to none.  My house would crumble around me like matchsticks and the only windowless room in the house is my walk in robe.  But luckily it's meteologically improbable that I would be subject to this occuring.

6. If velociraptors were to come racing down my street, what are my chances of keeping them out of my house?

Oddly enough, I'm apparently not the only one to think this.  I was thrilled to discover the xkcd guys also contemplate it.  And if you type "surviving a velociraptor attack" into google (if you use the toolbar you only need to type in "surviving a vel" and it automatically comes up), you get 289000 results.  Unfortunately my house has 14 potential velociraptor entry points...

5.  Why does sugarfree V taste so good?

The answer to this one is simple.  It's because it's bad for you.

4.  If an asteroid was to hit Earth and cause an ELE (Extinction Level Event) what would I do?

I've worked out that it depends on the impact the asteroid initially creates.  If it causes massive tsumani's then chances of survival are slim to none.  If it falls on my head then my chances drop to nil.  But!  If the impact site is far enough away from me and the only thing I need to worry about is a new ice age, I think I stand a chance.  And yes, I have forumlated an ice age contingency plan.  The scary thing is that I think it would actually work!

3.  What would I do if the 2012 theorist lunatics are actually right?

Pretty much screwed on this one owning to me NOT owning a bunker deep in the Australian desert, and the travel time and physical requirements needed to summit Everest if I need to move to somewhere of higher elevation.

2.  Reasons to why I should be chosen to be part of the selected population of people saved in an armageddon...

I'm not going to list them, but if I ever had to put in an application I think I'd be in with a fighting chance, especially if I was creative in listing my attributes.

And the number one random thing I think about is...

How would I transport the cat in the event of a tsunami/asteroid hitting the Earth/the next ice age/armageddon? 

This is a difficult one, and I'm still working on it.  A cat carrier wouldn't work, it would be too akward and he hates them anyway.  Thus far the only thing I can think of is strapping him to my chest and running like hell.  But I'm open to suggestions on this one.

And on that note, I'm going to see if goggle has any suggestions for transporting kitten-son.  And read up on those velociraptor websites.  And possibly start hoarding food and looking at an investment bunker in the middle of the Australian desert.  And maybe make myself some breakfast while fresh food is still available to me.  And volunteer myself to colonise Mars...

And the geek of the year award goes to...

Photo Credit: F. Lewecke via Wikimedia Commons

Why that would be me!

I've kept my inner geek hidden for years, but recently it came to my attention that:

a) suddenly it is cool to be a geek and
b) I'm 30.  I can't be bothered hiding it these days.

When I was 7 years old everybody else was declaring they would grow up to be doctors, nurses, teachers or firefighters.  I, on the other hand, was dead set on becoming an astronomer.

When I was 11 years old everybody else was watching Friends.  I was watching The X-Files and pretending to be Scully.


So now I'm 30.  I've studied science, I'm still studying science and planning on completing my phd in astronomy and I make my living as a freelance science/medical writer.  I'm batcrap crazy about Star Trek, I spend too much money buying my daughter 'bazinga' t-shirts, pyjamas with 'future starship captain' or 'mummy's little Klingon' splashed across the front of them, and I'm also oddly obsessed with buying her plush microbes (Mary the Malaria is her favourite).

I spend my days writing about 3D bioprinting, stem cell research, abdominal surgery procedures and the latest innovative healthcare trends.  I spend my nights either gazing at the stars through my telescope or watching Star Trek or The X-Files, and my weekends are spent going to trivia nights dressed up as Spock/Uhura or dragging my niece along to Comic Con with me.

I'm socially awkward.

I have a not-so-healthy level of contempt for stupidity.

I'm obsessive compulsive about a lot of things.

I get ridiculously angry over really random stuff (stupid kids "dinosaur" stickers which contain Dodo birds led to a rather impressive tantrum on my part).

I prefer my own company, and that of my daughter.

I hate crowds and I'm not a fan of people in general.

Put simply, I'm as geeky as they come.  The thing is though, I love my life.  Like really, really, really love my life.  For the most part, it's a hard concept for people to grasp because it's generally so different to how they live their lives.  But still, I'm lucky to have a wonderful group of very understanding friends who indulge my "quirks" *cough*craziness*cough*.

On that note, I think I'm going to go curl up in bed with some Original Series Star Trek, because that's how I roll ;)