Lili's friendly thought for the day

Do you have a friend like Gregor? Everyone should have a friend like Gregor. 

Lili's candid thought for the day

Neanderthals are extinct? I swear I spoke with one today. What a nose. What a face. 

Lili's thought for the day

The Horses by Daryl Braithwaite is the national anthem of the Australian coastline. 

Lili's brown thought for the day

I like to lead a healthy and virtuous life; eating brown bread, baking with brown sugar, boiling brown eggs, drinking brown milk, liking brown people. 

Australia's most famous impostor?

Helen Darville, one of the more interesting and enigmatic Australians I've written about, will be on the Insight discussion television show tomorrow night on SBS. I believe it is a repeat. The theme of the episode is lying.
http://www.sbs.com.au/insight/episode/overview/608/Liar-Liar

Lili's unimpressed thought for the day

No philosophy is too banal to be inked between some fool's shoulder-blades. 

Lili's observation for the day

Freebie Easter eggs always taste like a gob of greasy goo. 

Lili's tip of the day

Fight letterbox mail theft - with a cheap mousetrap. 

Lili's gruntled thought of the day

Pleased to see The Checkout tipping the bucket on gendered marketing otherwise known as market segmentation otherwise known as sex segregation, an issue which I've written about at this blog:
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/thecheckout/episodes/s02ep09.htm

Lili's thought for the day

Another naughty scientist,
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22229652.000-stem-cells-debacle-obokata-admits-enhancing-images.html#.U09E9_mSx8E
And another:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-17/research-investigations-mounting-for-embattled-professor/5397516

Lili's thought of the day

Can serious memory sport training impair some memory abilities?
http://razlab.mcgill.ca/docs/Neurocase_Pi.pdf

Never thought I'd feel nostalgic about Gillard

Lili's thought for the day

See how animated Daniel Tammet's facial expressions can be when he's caught a bit off-guard? 
http://www.br.de/mediathek/video/sendungen/lesezeichen/lesezeichen-buchtipp-212.html

Not wondering any more

I had been wondering how a study of the quality of this one could have made it through the peer-review process to publication: 
Is synaesthesia more common in autism? by Simon Baron-Cohen, Donielle Johnson, Julian Asher, Sally Wheelwright, Simon E Fisher, Peter K Gregersen and Carrie Allison. Molecular Autism. published November 20th 2013, 4:40  doi:10.1186/2040-2392-4-40

But I've had a look at the homepage of that journal and now I'm not wondering any more. Prof. Simon Baron-Cohen is one of the two editors-in-chief of the autism research journal. 

Lili's approving thought of the day

"...we think that civil disobedience means refusing to wax our pubic hair."

Love this opinion piece by Corinne Grant:
http://thehoopla.com.au/take-piss-australia/

Lili's disgusted thought for the day

50% of Australian mothers report experiencing discrimination in the workplace:
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/half-of-all-mothers-experience-workplace-discrimination-report-finds-20140407-367uy.html

Lili's realistic thought of the day

The idea that you should do what you love and are good at as a career only seems to apply in Australia to men and women who aspire to careers that suit the gender stereotypes. There's little support out there for people who wish to achieve goals that are seen as unrealistic or unnatural. 

Lili's thought for the day

I'm very pleased to see the websites of Let Toys be Toys - For Girls and Boys and Play Unlimited but I definitely don't think the sex segregation problem is limited to toys and children's books, or limited to children. I would like to spread awareness that gendered marketing is also used in Australia to promote job vacancies, pens, chocolate bars, publicly-funded parenting courses and health services, politicians, television channels, cordial, cook-books, public awareness campaigns about psychiatry, vitamins, magazines in at least one public library and countless supermarkets and newsagents, and any number of other things. It's not only a problem that we have to contend with another insidious tool in the hands of advertising and marketing companies, we also have a marketing tool that is thrust upon Australians of all ages from all directions that reinforces and encourages gender stereotypes. I've had it up to here. How about you?
http://incorrectpleasures.blogspot.com.au/2011/11/new-wave-and-old-fashioned-sex.html

Murdoch and Barwood's research attracts more well-deserved attention

Retraction Watch recently reported that another medical research journal paper by former University of Queensland researchers by Bruce Murdoch and Caroline Barwood has been retracted, reportedly because control group data was "re-used" to make the group bigger. In September 2013 another paper of theirs was retracted due to fabricated data. But what about the statistical discrepancies in the control group in a third study discussed in the comments of this blog post? I think I see a pattern here, and I'm wondering how much more fabricated or re-used data there is out there. 
http://incorrectpleasures.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/you-cant-believe-everything-that-you.html

Lili's thought for the day

I will miss Dave's tasteless jokes. 

Lili's unsurprised thought of the day

Did you notice that one of the studies refuted by Dr Cordelia Fine's article was a product of the team at Prof. Simon Baron-Cohen's Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge. "Sex differences in human neonatal social perception" is the title of that study, which has apparently been contradicted by recent studies. My brain being marked with immaturity cannot help but imagine the professor reading out the title of the study as I read it silently, with terriers, hounds and spaniels pricking up their ears for miles around. 

Lili's concerned thought of the day

I'm concerned about the "correction" to Dr Cordelia Fine's recent article in New Scientist. The "correction" goes against the main argument of the article, and isn't any better a reflection of the conclusions of the journal paper linked to in the "correction". 

Lili's fun idea for the day

Let's go down to the shopping centre food court and get a death stare from a toddler in a stroller. 

Lili's thought for the day

Is Norrie a man or a woman, both or neither? One thing is certain; Norrie is no introvert. 

Lili's recommendation for the day

Love this article by Cordelia Fine in New Scientist about gender segregation in toys:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn25306-biology-doesnt-justify-gender-divide-for-toys.html#.UzqNMPmSx8E