Category Archives: Joke

Joke

Why blog writing is something different from writing a paper

This may be obvious, at least if you have read Daniel Gilbert

In 2002, Jane Ebert and I discovered that people are generally happier with decisions when they can’t undo them. When subjects in our experiments were able to undo their decisions they tended to consider both the positive and negative features of the decisions they had made, but when they couldn’t undo their decisions they tended to concentrate on the good features and ignore the bad.

When reading my own writings a second time, I always discover typing errors, crude sentences, and other poor habits – blogs as snapshots of less happier minds?

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 23.11.2025
Joke, Theology

Edge Question wrong

Here comes the second comment on the Annual Edge Question 2008.

When thinking changes your mind, that’s philosophy.
When God changes your mind, that’s theology.
When facts change your mind, that’s science.
What have you changed your mind about? Why?

I would have done it in a different way: Continue reading Edge Question wrong →

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 23.11.2025
Joke

thcs n phrmctcl cmpns

Thr r stll tw rmrkbl pcs frm th lst yr hr n my dsk – n s bk rvw by Dr. Jrm Kssrr (th frmr NJM dtr) nd th scnd s bt bk by Dr. Rchrd Smth (th frmr BMJ dtr – s nly Dr. Rchrd Hrtn frm th Lnct s mssng frm ths lst f th mst nflntl mdcl dtrs drng th pst dcd).
Wht mks m wndr tht bth dtrs hv rthr crtcl ccnt n phrmctcl thcs. Dr. Kssrr s wrtng n pn Mdcn Continue reading thcs n phrmctcl cmpns →

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 23.11.2025
Joke

Punch line

I have seen the first user looking here for the BMJ Christmas edition already 2 weeks ago — clearly the annual highlight in the biomedical world since 2000. But only today, the 2007 issue is being online. As a former recumbent owner, I can assure you that Professor Shuster’s observation is correct. Even with my folding bike in the Munich S-Bahn I get many responses from the public, usually technical questions by men but also price inquiries by women. Continue reading Punch line →

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 23.11.2025
Joke

First we take Manhattan

They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
For trying to change the system from within
I’m coming now, I’m coming to reward them
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin
I’m guided by a signal in the heavens
I’m guided by this birthmark on my skin
I’m guided by the beauty of our weapons
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin…
(thanks to Leonard Cohen for a true science motto

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 23.11.2025
Joke, Philosophy

Look here

From an email that I received today:

while open access has provided the scientific community with broader accessibility, little seems to have been done to make better use of the on-line content. We are trying to address this shortcoming through pubcasts. Pubcasts are 5-10 minute video clips which are integrated with the contents of the open access paper.

I agree with the observation that Open Access hasn´t been very innovative so far in technical terms. On the other hand I feel that my job is less about marketing than development. Are you climbing on this bandwagon? Continue reading Look here →

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 23.11.2025