Snippets (literature)

Things to use or delete. See Snippets.

Scientific research grants

I don’t know how art funding works, but if you want a scientific research grant you have to craft a specialized document that a) proposes a useful and novel idea with a real impact, b) explain why no one else has been able to do it, but tactfully because c) others in the field will be the ones reviewing your proposal and criticizing it anonymously while also d) showing enough preliminary data that you look like you can feasibly pull it off AND e) describing it in enough detail that any crotchety fart’s nit-picked questions about experimental design, statistics, and understanding of the previous literature can be adequately met but f) generally enough that someone just skimming it can grok the picture and what you’re doing to it. All this gets crammed into 6 - 12 pages, in which your figures and charts must also fit. I’ve taken to including a cartoon overview of the problem, solution, and impact on the first page to help hoist reviewers’ attention into the rest of the proposal. It gets even more fun when you need to herd collaborators for their pieces across time zones.

-- xholt

German science fiction soup ads

https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2011/09/02/terry-pratchett-and-the-maggi-soup-adverts/