I keep noticing, or remembering bits in films, in which domestic radiators or large boilers / heaters in utility rooms are a bit menacing.
There doesn't appear to be a category for this on TV Tropes though, so I thought I'd collect some myself. Maybe it's just too obvious in that everyone remembers being a bit scared of something that seemed alive or capable of switching itself on and off when it feels like it.
Elf
Buddy telephones his dad at work complaining that something is making a terrible noise - it turns out to be a normal wall-mounted radiator.
Eraserhead
That whole thing with the lady in the radiator is a bit odd...
and she sings a song...
Home Alone
Zathura
In the basement there's a very large scary radiator thing, 20sec in, in the trailer below.
Monday, 31 December 2012
Sunday, 30 December 2012
NCBI PubMed and share buttons - easy way to share abstracts?
Update 15 July 2014
This has (sort of) been implemented. You can now share directly from NBCI PubMed to Google+, Facebook and Twitter with one click (if you're also logged in to the services you want to share to) although there's no information given about how many times a particular abstract's been shared. Useful nonetheless and seems to be quite popular.
------- Original post below --------
The other day, while reading the answers to a question on Quora: "What is the funniest research paper you have ever read?" I checked on PubMed to see what the URL was for my all-time favourite "Development of a technique for the in vivo assessment of flatulence in dogs" so that I could include it in an answer myself.
While on PubMed I wondered if folk at NCBI knew that I've shared that paper a few times, on Twitter and my blog, in a collection of abstracts or titles that make me giggle, (and now on Quora). I also wondered if the authors knew that their paper had been shared in this way... and that made me wonder about share buttons on PubMed, so that everyone knows how often an abstract's been shared.
After a brief exchange on Twitter with Graham Steel (@McDawg) in response to my tweet above he's investigating how useful it might be, with chums at NCBI, and asking other people what they think - there's a poll which he's shared with people via Twitter and email.
I can't really think of any cons other than jealousy if your paper gets shared more than my paper, so to speak, although there may be the risk that people misuse the numbers to imply that their paper's been shared and used more than the 'data' can really say - I think the benefit is mostly for sharers by making it easy to find the right bloomin' link.
Correct URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11453473
Incorrect URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=assessment%20of%20flatulence%20dogs
More on share buttons and what they can't do
Article authors will also have copies of their abstracts or even whole papers on their own university site or an academic listing so people might share that link rather than the PubMed one. Also PubMed deals only in biomedical stuff.
But I thought it might be fun for anyone to see that something's been shared. I've noticed that the Advertising Standards Authority has very recently begun doing exactly this so that any adjudication shared from the share buttons on the page will show up. It doesn't show up though if you just copy and paste the URL (so if you want to share a page 'covertly' then that's the way to do it).
I provide a similarly pointless-but-kinda-fun metric for my pals on the CHI+MED project. Because all of our published papers (really pre-prints) are available on our document management system (Knowledge Tree) and it lets you know how often a paper's been downloaded I can provide this info for any paper.
It's fraught with irrelevancy and wrong-ness though because (a) papers that are published early are around longer and have had more opportunity to be downloaded (b) later-published papers are more likely to be promoted on Twitter or elsewhere as we started the Twitter feed a while after the project began. Exactly as above, authors have copies of papers on their own academic pages and they're also findable in university repositories and some journals make copies available too.
It also tells you nothing about the citations, or even if people read them... and if they did read them if they thought they were useful!
This has (sort of) been implemented. You can now share directly from NBCI PubMed to Google+, Facebook and Twitter with one click (if you're also logged in to the services you want to share to) although there's no information given about how many times a particular abstract's been shared. Useful nonetheless and seems to be quite popular.
You can now share PubMed content via Twitter, Facebook and Google+ You have @JoBrodie & @McDawg to thank for that. pic.twitter.com/4I8vf48uAM
— Graham Steel (@McDawg) July 15, 2014
------- Original post below --------
The other day, while reading the answers to a question on Quora: "What is the funniest research paper you have ever read?" I checked on PubMed to see what the URL was for my all-time favourite "Development of a technique for the in vivo assessment of flatulence in dogs" so that I could include it in an answer myself.
While on PubMed I wondered if folk at NCBI knew that I've shared that paper a few times, on Twitter and my blog, in a collection of abstracts or titles that make me giggle, (and now on Quora). I also wondered if the authors knew that their paper had been shared in this way... and that made me wonder about share buttons on PubMed, so that everyone knows how often an abstract's been shared.
NCBI PubMed - wonder why it doesn't have social share buttons so we can all see how often an abstract's been shared. Might be fun.Just for fun really as it's not a particularly stable metric to start weighing one abstract against another (see 'More on share buttons and what they can't do' below). Authors whose names are also the names of rude words will be highly 'cited' as I'm sure will any paper making reference to dogs farting, as my favourite one does. I've also shared abstracts that talk about rats flying in space and kittens being startled by a sort of jack-in-the-box device. So the strangeness or amusingness of the paper is definitely a factor.
— Jo Brodie (@JoBrodie) December 27, 2012
After a brief exchange on Twitter with Graham Steel (@McDawg) in response to my tweet above he's investigating how useful it might be, with chums at NCBI, and asking other people what they think - there's a poll which he's shared with people via Twitter and email.
I can't really think of any cons other than jealousy if your paper gets shared more than my paper, so to speak, although there may be the risk that people misuse the numbers to imply that their paper's been shared and used more than the 'data' can really say - I think the benefit is mostly for sharers by making it easy to find the right bloomin' link.
Correct URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11453473
Incorrect URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=assessment%20of%20flatulence%20dogs
More on share buttons and what they can't do
Article authors will also have copies of their abstracts or even whole papers on their own university site or an academic listing so people might share that link rather than the PubMed one. Also PubMed deals only in biomedical stuff.
But I thought it might be fun for anyone to see that something's been shared. I've noticed that the Advertising Standards Authority has very recently begun doing exactly this so that any adjudication shared from the share buttons on the page will show up. It doesn't show up though if you just copy and paste the URL (so if you want to share a page 'covertly' then that's the way to do it).
I provide a similarly pointless-but-kinda-fun metric for my pals on the CHI+MED project. Because all of our published papers (really pre-prints) are available on our document management system (Knowledge Tree) and it lets you know how often a paper's been downloaded I can provide this info for any paper.
It's fraught with irrelevancy and wrong-ness though because (a) papers that are published early are around longer and have had more opportunity to be downloaded (b) later-published papers are more likely to be promoted on Twitter or elsewhere as we started the Twitter feed a while after the project began. Exactly as above, authors have copies of papers on their own academic pages and they're also findable in university repositories and some journals make copies available too.
It also tells you nothing about the citations, or even if people read them... and if they did read them if they thought they were useful!
Sunday, 23 December 2012
Gandalf at the Genesis cinema - The Hobbit, Ian McKellen and a Q&A in aid of Step Forward
Another lovely film-related event I spotted on Twitter by just happening to see the right tweet at the right time.
On Friday night the Genesis Cinema in Whitechapel / Stepney Green hosted Ian McKellen (@IanMcKellen, formerly @IanMcKellen118- his web people need to update the link to his Twitter profile on his website!) as patron of Step Forward (a charity in Tower Hamlets for young people in need of support) for a charity showing of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. He was there to do a Q&A which was lots of fun and he also brought with him Gandalf's hat, staff and sword for people to get themselves photographed with after the film. In fact he did two Q&As half an hour apart - first in one screen (the one I was in, with the 3D version of the film) and then a second screen which had the film in 2D.
I made some notes while Ian was talking but I was laughing too much for the notes to be particularly coherent. It was all very good humoured and there seemed to be a running gag with the interviewer's microphone which steadfastly refused to work despite being replaced with spares three times. It was difficult to be sure exactly what the interviewer was asking but easy enough to infer from Ian's responses - fortunately he had the good microphone.
If you were there and think I've missed a bit, do let me know - email address above, comments below
First someone from Step Forward thanked us for coming along, we saw a short video explaining the work the charity does helping young people in Tower Hamlets then Ian was introduced to much enthusiastic applause, learning forwards in seats, waving and smartphone photographing. We were pretty pleased to see him.
The first line of my notes reads "3D, pyjamas, landscape, helicopter, Limehouse, Step Forward, Gandalf Grey / White" so let's see what sense I can make of that then.
Involvement with the charity, Step Forward
He was initially asked about his involvement with Step Forward (@Step_Forward) and mentioned that he'd lived in Limehouse for 32 years and the charity had come knocking on his door and it seemed like a natural fit for him. The charity helps young people who are having trouble at home, or difficulty getting into further education and it also provides sexual health advice and counselling.
12 years between films - how was it different
In response to a question about what was different 12 years on he made the point that this time the cast all knew that there were millions of people waiting to see the film(s). The first time round they didn't know if they'd be well received as plenty of people were against any attempts to tamper with Tolkien. The cast was obviously different, one or two the same, but the people behind the cameras were the same. They had new specially designed sets built by Peter Jackson (they were also used in Avatar I think?) and more recently by Spielberg. In response to a later audience question he said that the atmosphere on set was the same, and that this is something that comes 'from the top', ie the director. Apparently it was a bit like the world's most expensive home movie in that Peter Jackson's kids are in it, his partner/wife co-wrote the screenplay and everyone feels like a big family.
He also talked a little about how lovely New Zealand is and how there are bits that are pretty much inaccessible other than by helicopter. Where they were there seems to have been an absence of pylons (as a fan of pylons I can't get quite as excited by that but I get the point). It reminds me of the small child who said, on seeing the countryside for the first time 'look at all the garden without fences!'.
He said before he'd taken on the role initially he'd listened to some tapes of Tolkien reading from The Hobbit and did an impression of him, speaking in a BBCish Oxford sort of voice which I think he said he'd used a little in Gandalf. He said he preferred Gandalf the Grey to Gandalf the White (a bit more of a 'great commander' type).
He's asked Peter Jackson if there can be a scene in one of the later films where we see Gandalf waking up in the morning - he wants to see what Gandalf's pyjamas might be like although he suspects he just sleeps in his robes ('no-one ever seems to wash').
The tattoo
I think I missed a lot of this cos of giggling but he confirmed that he and most of the Fellowship had indeed had tattoos done after the first trilogy (I think Ian's is on his upper right arm) in Cuba Mall in Wellington. For the latest crop of films the dwarves apparently designed a ring for him with Gandalf insignia inside it. He also mentioned that he had a 'b ring' (I think that's what he called it) from the original films, but he'd elected not to bring it otherwise we'd not be able to see him ;)
This time around the cast was a little bit more middle-aged than the first time and he painted a picture of carousing hobbits off boozing after a day's filming.
What would Tolkien think?
The older members of Tolkien's estate are generally less enamoured of attempts to put the story on film although the younger ones are enthusiastic - one of his grandchildren told Ian that he'd have loved the films (Tolkien was also an amateur actor).
Who would win in a fight? Gandalf or Dumbledore? (Audience question)
This question from a kid got a big laugh :) Ian gave a very thoughtful answer - that Gandalf's powers work most just when he really needs them, and that his spirit informs his innate magic. Also that Gandalf could defeat anyone in the Potter movies ;)
High frame-rate technology
From a bit of background reading it seems that this film is in six versions, 7 if you count the Atmos sound system in some theatres (no idea if we have this in the UK) with 3D/2D, Imax 3D/2D and 2 different frame rates.
Ian said he'd seen the movie twice but that with his older eyes he wasn't sure he could get the full benefit from the frame rate difference, although he thought the use of 3D was wonderful - 'subtle and dramatic' (I saw the film in 3D and it was indeed fantastic - I wonder what Roger Ebert and Walter Murch think as they're apparently not fans of 3D).
Apparently the human eye operates around the 60 frames per second and the high frame rate (HFR) used is 48 whereas we're more used to 24 frame rates.
I've no idea if the Genesis cinema was showing it high frame rate or not - it all looked fine to me though.
Then Ian asked the charity and cinema staff to bring on-stage Gandalf's hat, staff and sword (Glamdring) - he waved the staff at a few people in the front rows, and said that we could have our photos taken with the items after the filming, and then he left our screen and went and talked to the people in the later showing.
As the film began I wondered if my 3D glasses weren't working or if I needed to switch them on as the film was definitely quite blurred. There seemed to be a few people taking off their glasses and putting them on again and there was a bit of movement with people going off and trying a different pair of glasses. Eventually the projectionist realised there was a problem and did something technical that brought everything back into focus - hooray! We only missed the first few minutes so no harm done. It was lovely to step back into the magical world :) I need to go and see it on IMAX now!
This is actually the second time I've seen Ian McKellen 'live' this year - back in September he and 'colleagues' from the Clapham Academy of the Creative Arts ('CACA') packed out the Prince Charles Cinema for a screening of The Academy, a 'documentary' outlining the troubling financial situation that CACA finds itself in. All good fun. Ian plays his less successful brother Murray :)
Further reading
Ian McKellen's Hobbit blog
McKellen.com: Twitter interviews: #askGandalf transcript (it includes the best way to poach an egg, haha)
Wired: The Hobbit could send movie fans on unexpected journeys - or start a nerd war (on the different film formats).
Quora: What are some of the most mind-blowing facts about The Hobbit (movie)?
Quora: What are some of the most mind-blowing facts about The Lord of the Rings movie
Related reading
Stuff that Occurs to me (this blog): Actor Brendan Fraser introduces Gods and Monsters, in Belfast - obviously Ian McKellen (who is in the film) features a fair bit in this post too though he wasn't there himself. He sent an email to Brendan for him to read out to us :)
On Friday night the Genesis Cinema in Whitechapel / Stepney Green hosted Ian McKellen (@IanMcKellen, formerly @IanMcKellen118
I made some notes while Ian was talking but I was laughing too much for the notes to be particularly coherent. It was all very good humoured and there seemed to be a running gag with the interviewer's microphone which steadfastly refused to work despite being replaced with spares three times. It was difficult to be sure exactly what the interviewer was asking but easy enough to infer from Ian's responses - fortunately he had the good microphone.
If you were there and think I've missed a bit, do let me know - email address above, comments below
First someone from Step Forward thanked us for coming along, we saw a short video explaining the work the charity does helping young people in Tower Hamlets then Ian was introduced to much enthusiastic applause, learning forwards in seats, waving and smartphone photographing. We were pretty pleased to see him.
The first line of my notes reads "3D, pyjamas, landscape, helicopter, Limehouse, Step Forward, Gandalf Grey / White" so let's see what sense I can make of that then.
Involvement with the charity, Step Forward
He was initially asked about his involvement with Step Forward (@Step_Forward) and mentioned that he'd lived in Limehouse for 32 years and the charity had come knocking on his door and it seemed like a natural fit for him. The charity helps young people who are having trouble at home, or difficulty getting into further education and it also provides sexual health advice and counselling.
12 years between films - how was it different
In response to a question about what was different 12 years on he made the point that this time the cast all knew that there were millions of people waiting to see the film(s). The first time round they didn't know if they'd be well received as plenty of people were against any attempts to tamper with Tolkien. The cast was obviously different, one or two the same, but the people behind the cameras were the same. They had new specially designed sets built by Peter Jackson (they were also used in Avatar I think?) and more recently by Spielberg. In response to a later audience question he said that the atmosphere on set was the same, and that this is something that comes 'from the top', ie the director. Apparently it was a bit like the world's most expensive home movie in that Peter Jackson's kids are in it, his partner/wife co-wrote the screenplay and everyone feels like a big family.
He also talked a little about how lovely New Zealand is and how there are bits that are pretty much inaccessible other than by helicopter. Where they were there seems to have been an absence of pylons (as a fan of pylons I can't get quite as excited by that but I get the point). It reminds me of the small child who said, on seeing the countryside for the first time 'look at all the garden without fences!'.
He said before he'd taken on the role initially he'd listened to some tapes of Tolkien reading from The Hobbit and did an impression of him, speaking in a BBCish Oxford sort of voice which I think he said he'd used a little in Gandalf. He said he preferred Gandalf the Grey to Gandalf the White (a bit more of a 'great commander' type).
He's asked Peter Jackson if there can be a scene in one of the later films where we see Gandalf waking up in the morning - he wants to see what Gandalf's pyjamas might be like although he suspects he just sleeps in his robes ('no-one ever seems to wash').
The tattoo
I think I missed a lot of this cos of giggling but he confirmed that he and most of the Fellowship had indeed had tattoos done after the first trilogy (I think Ian's is on his upper right arm) in Cuba Mall in Wellington. For the latest crop of films the dwarves apparently designed a ring for him with Gandalf insignia inside it. He also mentioned that he had a 'b ring' (I think that's what he called it) from the original films, but he'd elected not to bring it otherwise we'd not be able to see him ;)
This time around the cast was a little bit more middle-aged than the first time and he painted a picture of carousing hobbits off boozing after a day's filming.
What would Tolkien think?
The older members of Tolkien's estate are generally less enamoured of attempts to put the story on film although the younger ones are enthusiastic - one of his grandchildren told Ian that he'd have loved the films (Tolkien was also an amateur actor).
Who would win in a fight? Gandalf or Dumbledore? (Audience question)
This question from a kid got a big laugh :) Ian gave a very thoughtful answer - that Gandalf's powers work most just when he really needs them, and that his spirit informs his innate magic. Also that Gandalf could defeat anyone in the Potter movies ;)
High frame-rate technology
From a bit of background reading it seems that this film is in six versions, 7 if you count the Atmos sound system in some theatres (no idea if we have this in the UK) with 3D/2D, Imax 3D/2D and 2 different frame rates.
Ian said he'd seen the movie twice but that with his older eyes he wasn't sure he could get the full benefit from the frame rate difference, although he thought the use of 3D was wonderful - 'subtle and dramatic' (I saw the film in 3D and it was indeed fantastic - I wonder what Roger Ebert and Walter Murch think as they're apparently not fans of 3D).
Apparently the human eye operates around the 60 frames per second and the high frame rate (HFR) used is 48 whereas we're more used to 24 frame rates.
I've no idea if the Genesis cinema was showing it high frame rate or not - it all looked fine to me though.
Then Ian asked the charity and cinema staff to bring on-stage Gandalf's hat, staff and sword (Glamdring) - he waved the staff at a few people in the front rows, and said that we could have our photos taken with the items after the filming, and then he left our screen and went and talked to the people in the later showing.
As the film began I wondered if my 3D glasses weren't working or if I needed to switch them on as the film was definitely quite blurred. There seemed to be a few people taking off their glasses and putting them on again and there was a bit of movement with people going off and trying a different pair of glasses. Eventually the projectionist realised there was a problem and did something technical that brought everything back into focus - hooray! We only missed the first few minutes so no harm done. It was lovely to step back into the magical world :) I need to go and see it on IMAX now!
This is actually the second time I've seen Ian McKellen 'live' this year - back in September he and 'colleagues' from the Clapham Academy of the Creative Arts ('CACA') packed out the Prince Charles Cinema for a screening of The Academy, a 'documentary' outlining the troubling financial situation that CACA finds itself in. All good fun. Ian plays his less successful brother Murray :)
Further reading
Ian McKellen's Hobbit blog
McKellen.com: Twitter interviews: #askGandalf transcript (it includes the best way to poach an egg, haha)
Wired: The Hobbit could send movie fans on unexpected journeys - or start a nerd war (on the different film formats).
Quora: What are some of the most mind-blowing facts about The Hobbit (movie)?
Quora: What are some of the most mind-blowing facts about The Lord of the Rings movie
Related reading
Stuff that Occurs to me (this blog): Actor Brendan Fraser introduces Gods and Monsters, in Belfast - obviously Ian McKellen (who is in the film) features a fair bit in this post too though he wasn't there himself. He sent an email to Brendan for him to read out to us :)
Saturday, 22 December 2012
What chemical reaction, if any, is going on here?
Leaf leaves leafprint in wet pavement
Originally uploaded by Jodiepedia
Here's a 'ghost leaf' on a pavement in London. I presume that the leaf landed on the pavement when it was wet and more rain landed on the leaf. When the leaf blew away, or was kicked away by a pedestrian, this was the pattern that was left.
Is it just dirt and oils on the leaf's surface that's making contact with the water on the pavement resulting in this image, or is something 'eluting' from the leaf under rainfall. I'm guessing there's not much in a leaf that's water soluble though so am going with the leaf's waxy outer coating as being the answer. Whatever it is it doesn't come off the pavement very easily with a boot dragging across it.
Anyway it always pleases me to see this sort of 'foliography' for want of a better word.
Here's what I said about it originally, on Flickr, but I know think I'm wrong and that it's just the wax layer being transferred.
Via Flickr:
This looks like the leaf of a London plane which has presumably had something leached out of it and onto the pavement below during the rain. Scraping my boot over the leaf print didn't make a big difference to it, wonder what chemical is creating the pattern, or chemical reaction.
Friday, 21 December 2012
People can now send you tweets by email, even if you're not on Twitter
I've been emailing myself, and others, the links to various tweets using Echofon on my phone for a while now but I've just noticed that Twitter.com has brought in the ...More option for anyone (logged in) to be able to send a tweet to anyone else via their email address (whether or not they're on Twitter themselves).
This means the email will come from Twitter with " shared a tweet with you", rather than an email coming from your friend with the link to a tweet they've spotted.
You can see it in the link below in the screenshot version (next to Favorite) - not sure if it will show up in the embedded version though.
Screenshot version
Embedded version
I can imagine this either being really great, or being really annoying and quite puzzling to people who aren't currently using Twitter and who might therefore be a bit surprised to get messages from Twitter. The subject will look like this "Jo Brodie (@JoBrodie) shared a Tweet with you!" - so it will come from whatever account is logged in, so if you don't know their Twitter handle then it might be confusing.
If you're not interested in receiving these tweetly emails you can pre-emptively block them by setting a filter (for all of your email accounts) that deletes any email coming from @postmaster.twitter.com or where the subject contains the phrase "shared a tweet with you". People who try and send you tweets will get a message saying "".
If you don't want set up filters but emails start to come in (OK I'm not really imagining a deluge) you can still unsubscribe from future messages by clicking on the link in the text at the bottom of the email.
I've got several Twitter accounts and several email addresses (one for each) and when Twitter started emailing everyone to tell us what was happening on Twitter (I mean... seriously?) that was pretty irritating having to manually unsubscribe from each one to stop receiving the spam emails.
On the plus side it's another way to 'trap' a tweet, but it only works for individual tweets. If you want to grab someone else's (or your own) timeline I'd recommend Twilert which sends an email every day. Mind you, Twitter's also rolling out the opportunity to download your entire Twitter archive too, but only your own I think.
Further posts in the Twitter tips series...
This means the email will come from Twitter with "
You can see it in the link below in the screenshot version (next to Favorite) - not sure if it will show up in the embedded version though.
Screenshot version
Embedded version
The Queen does the washing up once a year, after the summer barbeque at Balmoral. She retires to a special hut to do it. (@walkthelinesldn)
— The QI Elves (@qikipedia) December 21, 2012
I can imagine this either being really great, or being really annoying and quite puzzling to people who aren't currently using Twitter and who might therefore be a bit surprised to get messages from Twitter. The subject will look like this "Jo Brodie (@JoBrodie) shared a Tweet with you!" - so it will come from whatever account is logged in, so if you don't know their Twitter handle then it might be confusing.
If you're not interested in receiving these tweetly emails you can pre-emptively block them by setting a filter (for all of your email accounts) that deletes any email coming from @postmaster.twitter.com or where the subject contains the phrase "shared a tweet with you". People who try and send you tweets will get a message saying "".
If you don't want set up filters but emails start to come in (OK I'm not really imagining a deluge) you can still unsubscribe from future messages by clicking on the link in the text at the bottom of the email.
I've got several Twitter accounts and several email addresses (one for each) and when Twitter started emailing everyone to tell us what was happening on Twitter (I mean... seriously?) that was pretty irritating having to manually unsubscribe from each one to stop receiving the spam emails.
On the plus side it's another way to 'trap' a tweet, but it only works for individual tweets. If you want to grab someone else's (or your own) timeline I'd recommend Twilert which sends an email every day. Mind you, Twitter's also rolling out the opportunity to download your entire Twitter archive too, but only your own I think.
Further posts in the Twitter tips series...
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