Ever since the Keystone XL Pipeline (originally slated to transport Tar Sand bitumen from Alberta to Nebraska) was stalled, the attention on finding a new delivery route for this tar… Read the rest of the article: How to turn a PR nightmare into a dream

David Ng is a geneticist, writer, and creator of The Candy Hierarchy. Read more by him at McSweeneys and right here. Lately, I've been writing about the philosophy of science… Read the rest of the article: The Six Degrees of Bacon

Once again with Halloween upon us, it's time to revisit candy culture, or more specifically, a system that aims to rank it. Like before, the mechanism to do this would… Read the rest of the article: The Candy Hierarchy (2011)

Photo: Feisal Omar / Reuters NORTH AMERICAN: Is it an animal, mineral or vegetable? SOMALIAN: Yes sir, I believe it is all three, sir. NORTH AMERICAN: Hmm… Can I get… Read the rest of the article: A game of 20 Questions between a hungry Somalian child and an affluent North American, where it's clear the North American isn't very good at the game and, frankly, clueless.

Just noticed this powerful advertisement from the Topsy Foundation. It was one of the winners at TED's "Ad's Worth Spreading" contest, which is generally worth checking out. This particular video… Read the rest of the article: Time lapse video of woman with HIV/AIDS

For the interest of discussion, I've made the above visual aid for members of Canada's Senate, since this is the week that they have a chance to pass a Bill… Read the rest of the article: Killing Bill C-393 equals killing period. A visual aid for Canadian politicians.

One of the principle claims for allowing pharmaceutical companies to continue their hold on current patent practices, is that research and development (or R&D) is very expensive. It just keeps… Read the rest of the article: Does the pharmaceutical industry exaggerate their R&D costs?

(FOR BILL C-393 STALLING UPDATES SEE BOTTOM OF POST: LAST UPDATE ON FRI, MARCH 25th) A few weeks ago, I was lecturing during a global issues course (ASIC200), when it… Read the rest of the article: Will the Harper government receive a #MEGAFACEPALM for C-393?

Killing Bill C-393, a law that would help provide generic drugs to developing countries that need them, would be a facepalm of the highest possible order.

Just wanted to showcase this marvelous comic by Stuart McMillen (the cover of which you see above and is a nice nod to Hergé). It's called "St. Matthew Island" and… Read the rest of the article: Pitch perfect comic parable about sustainability

(Image: Shutterstock) Now that we're half way through the university semester, I'm finding myself inundated with a lot of marking. Sometimes, I try to tackle this work at home, but… Read the rest of the article: Dear Oprah: Some thoughts on your credibility.

Deadly Knitshade has put up some amazing photos of "Plarchie," a freakishly awesome 8 metre giant knitted squid, made out of orange (Sainsbury) plastic grocery bags. The squid is cool… Read the rest of the article: Giant knitted squid made from plastic grocery bags.

Just a quick note to say that I've taken the suggestions from this previous Boingboing post and from twitter, and have put up some new science scout badges. Now, you… Read the rest of the article: New science scout badges!

Neil Finn, whom you may know better as the lead singer of Crowded House, is hands down one of my favourite song writers. He's also very good live, and is… Read the rest of the article: Neil Finn takes song request from fan holding up an iPad

In case you didn't know, February 12th is Darwin's 202nd birthday, and that means you've got a perfect opportunity to practice your culinary baking skills. That's right: it's time for… Read the rest of the article: Bake a cake for Darwin

Last Friday night I attended a Jamboree, and yes it was a "jamboree." We weren't all dressed in the same uniform, but there was talk about badges and the occasional… Read the rest of the article: More geeky science badges please!

My friend Anne recently passed on the above Volkswagen video, created by Craig Melchiano and David Povill, which involves a kid dressed up as Darth Vader trying to use the… Read the rest of the article: Using the Force. Messing with kids' heads can be fun!

Last fall, whilst I was in London at the Natural History Museum, I was lucky enough to spend some time with a group of high school students who had travel… Read the rest of the article: The classroom blog: This is how you do it, science style!

RealClimate.org has a great piece by Michael Tobis and Scott Mandia which is going to be incredibly useful for one of the classes I teach (Global Issues in the Arts… Read the rest of the article: Scientists pick apart list of nonsense

Now that classes have started, and I'm in the "teaching" zone again, it's always cool to check out folks who have come up with unconventional, and dare I say, innovative… Read the rest of the article: The Rap Guide to Evolution: Helping out with the music videos.