Beware of "Echolocating Insectivorous Hats"

Seriously.

And this is why we still need editors in the age of text-scanning software. pic.twitter.com/EiDeW4FiGZ

— Markus Eichhorn (@markus_eichhorn) February 8, 2018

(Tip of the cap to Jennifer Ouelette.)

Highlighting Responses to Reviewers

D'oh!

I think the "Highlights" and the "Response to Reviewers" got mixed up here https://t.co/Tx7kb7uSbc @fMRI_today pic.twitter.com/pZqiIexOXI

— Neuroskeptic (@Neuro_Skeptic) July 23, 2017

Not "Atomic Blondie"

I saw a billboard for the movie Atomic Blonde from my apartment building, and I was really excited that there was going to be a biopic about the band Blondie. So I looked up the IMDB entry, and the movie is in fact rather different.

This, by the way, was a very natural mistake to make. I hope that the song "Atomic" is in the film, at least.

Peer Review Fail

Well, this incident sure is a beauty.

To quote a line the supplementary information of this paper, Emma, please insert NMR data here! where are they? and for this compound, just make up an elemental analysis.... (And also an ethics fail.) Way to proofread! This is an instant classic. (By the way, there is already an update.)

(Tip of cap to Katie Siek.)

Update (8/10/13): Petter Holme has pointed me to this link, which updates the story further. The Editor in Chief is handling the aftermath very well, in my opinion. Of course, things shouldn't ever have gotten to this point, but the situation is what it is.

Math Lab Bust!

Recently, five people were arrested in a math lab bust. I guess I better be very careful from now on! (I am guilty as charged.)

(Tip of the cap to I Fucking Love Science. This might actually be my favorite IFLS post ever, and that's saying a lot.)

Update: As Puck Rombach pointed out, maybe the news program actually misspelled "MATLAB BUST".

D'oh!

I bet this dude now wishes that his wife had voted. D'oh! (That said, the reasoning behind not voting is rather sensible. The "D'oh!" still applies, though.)

(Tip of the cap to Travis Hime.)

Statistics? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Statistics!

The paper described in this blog entry is "awesome". Indeed, it has the best 'Results' section ever.

The 'Results' section in the original published version of the paper started out with the following sentence: In this study, we have used (insert statistical method here) to compile unique DNA methylation signatures from normal human heart, lung, and kidney using the Illumina Infinium 27 K methylations arraysand [sic] compared those to gene expression by RNA sequencing.

D'oh!

(Tip of the cap to Krešo Josić.)

Don't Try This at Home

About 30 minutes ago, I managed to slam myself in the eye with the edge of the door was opening.

I'm the only one who does these kinds of things, aren't I?

Update: The Facebook conversation related to this post has been pretty amusing. One person asked whether or not I remembered to apologize to the door. I gave the following answer: I didn't apologize to the door, but my loud gut-reaction yelling of "Goddamnit" startled the other don in the room, who (in typical British fashion) immediately apologized to me.

Ill-Conceived Idea of the Day

I think somebody's head is going to roll at Microsoft because this is quite an epic screw-up. Seriously, shouldn't one anticipate the kind of fallout that would occur when something like this becomes public? D'oh!

(Tip of the cap to Christopher Voyce.)

Foot-in-Mouth Disease

I need to keep my mouth shut.

This morning, something that I intended only as a marginally snarky comment came across as a bitter hatred (that I don't feel, by the way). The reason I suspect this was because of the shocked reaction of the others in the room, when the worst I thought I'd get was people disagreeing and thinking the joke was stupid. (Well, I'm sure they think that as well.) Then I spent some more time during the day going back over how the phrasing actually came out, and I can see what the unintended interpretation was. Clearly, I critically failed my perform check. I decided that attempting a real-time explanation would only dig a deeper hole, so I at least had enough thought processes going to quit while I was "ahead". So that's why I'm writing this. The one consolation I have is that many people who are still close friends of mine have had visibly similar reactions to my comments on occasion. (Still, I feel like this was a bit of a kender saying 'Oops!' moment.)

Let's see if I do better on my charisma check next week.