Nano, by Saad

If you have seen the Dos Equis “Most Interesting Man in the World” ads, like the one above, you might have thought at some point, “It would be pretty cool if this guy actually existed.” Well, stay thirsty, my friends: thanks to random Wikipedia-ing, I have found one such man existed in real life.

His biography…

Porfirio Rubirosa Ariza , (January 22, 1909 – July 5, 1965) was a Dominican diplomat, polo player and race car driver who competed in the 1950 and 1954 24 Hours of Le Mans, but was best known as an international playboy for his jet setting lifestyle and legendary prowess with women.

Replete with an outlandish “Chuck Norris” style fact… Read the rest of this entry »

This piece is brilliant but evokes sadness for a future that may yet come to pass.

Fabian Brunsing’s public art installation “Pay & Sit: The Private Bench” imagines a dystopian tomorrow in which even the most quotidian of conveniences — resting a moment on a park bench — have become soulless objects of enterprise.  (from The Daily What via Andrew Sullivan)

Here in Sweden, such conveniences have already been monetized: at the Stockholm and Göteborg train stations, access to individual restrooms requires depositing 10 kr into the coin slot.

Previously, I pointed you to what Steve Jobs does in making awesome presentations.  As I’ve read more on presentations using visual aids, I’ve come across a couple blogs on how to get the most out of Powerpoint for your talks.  I point you to a couple example posts on each blog.

“Takahashi method” – on Presentation Zen

“What’s wrong with templates?” – Presentation Advisors (impressively, only one guy)

There are countless ways to incorporate PPT in a presentation, and the optimal way will vary with the nature of the presentation.  These blogs have so many ideas, I will definitely have fun trying to work different elements into my talks, which will be a challenge since science talks are usually so data/visual-heavy.

On “How I Met Your Mother” the character Robin, anchor of an early-morning talk show, thinks her show is doing really well because a lot of people watch it, including students of her friend Ted.  In actuality…

College kids: “We watch it for the drinking game.  You have to drink every time she says But, um…“

I never thought verbal tics and filler words could be the subject of sitcom tv, but they do a pretty good job with it.  Link to episode; start watching around the 9-minute mark. [Update: the link might no longer work.]

(My filler word is like but I’ve gotten better at using it less, thanks to the Ah-Counter at our toastmasters meetings pointing out how often I’m using it.)

Go here to see a slideshow on “The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience.”  Then try to incorporate some of those tips the next time you give a presentation, especially if its a powerpoint.

(H/T Harman.)

I went to Borders tonight because I had $15 in Borders Bucks that needed to be spent this month before they expired.

Retail price of book: $25.95

-Apply 40% off coupon-

Subtotal: $15.57

-Apply Borders Bucks-

Subtotal: $0.57

TN 9.25% Sales Tax: $0.05

Total: $0.62

Saving money is one of my interests, but what does it have to do with nanotechnology research? Read the rest of this entry »

Grad student scientists want to become their advisor’s go-to investigator.  This position makes you privy to the advisor’s more closely held thoughts and often spares you from working on trivial/crappy projects.  (Within reason: you don’t want to be so trusted that they end up overburdening you with every task they deem important—since we know profs believe everything they work on is of the utmost importance.)  A post on Keith Ferrazzi’s blog lists ten tips for becoming indispensable at work.  Some of his ideas strongly resonated with me, in the context of doing research.

1. Get out in front and analyze cutting-edge trends and opportunities.

I want to get better at this practice.  As grad students we become occupied with our particular project and how to get it done.  But the big-time scientists out there seemingly predict what next year’s Nature-level hyped topic will be, and get to work on it this year.  I don’t have a ready idea for what to try on this topic, because the “cutting edge” of science that you read is something that was submitted up to 12 months prior to publication. Read the rest of this entry »