Knoxville '82: Where Miscellany Thrive
bcohen | July 26, 2007This post was authored by new World's Fair intern Laura Arneson.*
Ben asked in a recent post: "What would happen if we all just ignored [creationism and intelligent design], didn't mention them, and thus didn't allow them to interfere with the science discussed in the other thousands of posts at these blogs?"
I think the same question could be asked of those who oppose stem cell research or even global warming. If the scientific consensus is different from public opinion, why do scientists keep addressing the topics?
(kids lovin' science, from the Times article linked below)
The Telegraph…
bcohen | July 23, 2007This post was written by guest blogger Wyatt Galusky.*
A Mouse, a Bird, a Cat and a Girl Hold Forth. A Provocation, with Digressions.
"An object never goes into its concept without leaving a remainder."Theodor Adorno, Negative Dialectics
So, this quote by Adorno, ever since I encountered it several years ago, has almost ceaselessly rattled around in my brain. The meaning of the quote itself can be parsed quite finely. But I am more interested here in the implications. What of the remainder? That is, if we assume that scientific knowledge seeks to articulate a clear understanding of the…
worldsfair | July 21, 2007I'm heading out today - so just in case I won't be able to blog in my absence, this is just to say I'll be back in about two weeks.
(Snapshot of my luggage)
bcohen | July 20, 2007I've long thought it odd that so many of us spend so much time elevating the public presence of creationism and intelligent design (as I am doing at this exact moment) by discussing them ad nauseum. Generally for the purpose of denouncing it, mocking it, or denigrating it and its adherents in some way, we go on and on. Here's the search return for "creationism" at scienceblogs: page 1 of 76 pages, the first 15 of 1136 posts. Search return for "intelligent design": p. 1 of 93, 1-15 of 1387 entries.
What would happen if we all just ignored them, didn't mention them, and thus didn't allow…
worldsfair | July 19, 2007Well, we're finally pleased to announce that we have, indeed, acquired the services of three excellent interns (see our original call here).
This, after our somewhat disappointing Ultraman experience, and some studio pressure to go with George Lucas (in the end, our people ran into scheduling problems with his people, and though we still really want to work on a project together, it'll have to wait till early '09, maybe '10), but we were suitably pleased with the response we got from the ad.
In the end, we have selected our three best applicants - they are Jacqui, Laura, and Kate. We'll…
worldsfair | July 16, 2007In some ways, we can construe this as a classic "Technology" vs "Nature" battle. Where high tech takes on no tech. It's the ultimate philosophical slash pop-culture analogy for, well, I'm sure, something...
So, basically, I'm just saying I'm curious what others think. Who exactly would win?
Earlier I wrote down this - and was even pretty confident about it. But now, I'm not so sure. Especially when I think back to that chess-like game in episode IV and the whole "Let the Wookie win" incident.
bcohen | July 8, 2007Here's one from the vault. But not our vault. It's an all-time favorite of mine, from McSweeney's a few years ago, written by Joshua Tyree: "On the Implausibility of the Death Star's Trash Compactor." Lets file it under physics. For example:
2. Why do both walls of the trash compactor move towards each other, rather than employing a one-movable-wall system that would thus rely on the anchored stability, to say nothing of the strength, of the other, non-moving wall, to crush trash more effectively?
It's available here, in the original. But I deem it worthy of a full reprint below the…
bcohen | July 5, 2007Social Studies of Science is a premier peer-reviewed journal in the field of STS. Here is the table of contents + abstracts for its latest issue, Volume 37, Issue 3, 2007. Perhaps something will catch your eye:
1. Wendy Faulkner: "`Nuts and Bolts and People': Gender-Troubled Engineering Identities," 331-356
Engineers have two types of stories about what constitutes `real' engineering. In sociological terms, one is technicist, the other heterogeneous. How and where boundaries are drawn between `the technical' and `the social' in engineering identities and practices is a central concern for…
bcohen | July 3, 2007
The World's Fair began last year with the goal of contributing to the on-line, public conversation about science. Scienceblogs.com is dedicated to that mission generally, so Dave and I figured we'd add in by talking about a few areas of common interest to us. Things like: visual art-science connections, science and the humanities (literary, visual, cinematic, theatrical, etc), satire and humor, writing on/about/for science (this dous double duty: as the subject of discussion while also doing it) - this, they say, is called science communication, and Dave seems to be particularly adept at…
worldsfair | June 19, 2007Holding a high-school teacher workshop today. Here's some music that I've been liking of late. The john Prine duet in particular is classic.- - -Don't Stop Now, Crowded HouseIn Spite of Ourselves, John Prine (and Iris DeMent)Mr. Tough, Yo La Tengo
worldsfair | June 18, 2007Just a quick note to let folks know I'll be giving a short talk tomorrow in Vancouver on the challenge of science literacy, and also hoping to generate some interesting and unconventional ideas for tackling this challenge.
Details are as follows:
"A dialogue on the here and now: Scientific and environmental literacy (or lack thereof)"
Some say that "science is culture." But maybe it's better to say that "science needs culture" or perhaps even more fitting would be to further tweak it into "culture needs more science." Whatever the opinion, this talk will look at the challenge of engaging…
worldsfair | June 15, 2007My apologies for being more or less absent in the last three weeks or so, but I promise to get back to form on Monday. In particular, it's kind of cool that The World's Fair has been around for a whole year, which has led me to think about a readership drive (maybe another intern?)
As well, I just returned from San Francisco, and am loaded with enthusiasm to start my next science education project (the visit involved a Pirate store). Anyway, more on this later...
A picture of some street art in San Francisco. Image by Mr. Waldo
Actually, an intern sounds like a good idea, so lets put…
bcohen | June 14, 2007It's all here at Fullyramblomatic.com, by Ben Croshaw. I take it he likes Yahtzee.
Some ways down the flowchart, we encounter this:
Then lots more portending...
Early on we find that "Antichrist is Bert from Sesame Street." There's also a Giant Meteor involved. Halfway down the flowchart "Bruce Willis Spontaneously Combusts." A bit later, "Famine calls Pestilence a 'pasty little queen' in newspaper interview." Then there's Yahtzee, and Tony Blair, and the Black Guy from Dawn of the Dead, but after that it starts to get somewhat ridiculous.
*Muffin Pan Man does it again, providing ye olde…
bcohen | June 14, 2007Holy cow, what a fascinating site! It maps the availability of Sweet Tea at the McDonalds' of Virginia, and shades and bounds and draws the surely-soon-to-be-infamous "Sweet Tea Line."
Yellow dots have Sweet Tea, black dots don't.
Said Sweet Tea Line is south of the Mason Dixon line, south of Virginia's border, but north of Richmond, the old confederate capital. I was especially intrigued to read that "Sweet Tea grew in popularity with it's public introduction at the 1904 World's Fair." It is now a staple of the Southern beverage diet.
You gotta follow the lead from the site, and click…
bcohen | June 14, 2007Beats me. But definitely worth looking in to.
(Seriously though, is this the best way to find out what RSS feeds really do?)
bcohen | June 10, 2007Rorty, the American pragmatist philosopher, has died at the age of 75. I saw news of this via Arts and Letters Daily, which linked to a brief notice in Telos (a journal of political and social thought).
Rorty's most referenced work was 1979's Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. His most recent was Philosophy as Cultural Politics: Philosophical Papers IV (2007). For those not familiar with Rorty and (knowing scienceblogs readers) who may seek to reduce him either to leftist, po-mo, irrelevant, or an aid to the right, fear not that I'm sure all such critiques had been leveled against him…
worldsfair | June 7, 2007Continuing on. I also have a lot of doodles which are more about metaphor. A lot of these are kind of cool - here's a couple as examples.
bcohen | June 6, 2007You know, it's the rat race, and you're going a million miles an hour, and with all that domestic strife and international strife and strife in the domestic-foreign middle, and you know, strife, you don't even have time to remember it's your blog's birthday.
Now I have to deal with the fallout. I didn't get the blog anything. And since I'm posting this *at* the self-same blog, I can't go on and make up some hackneyed story about how that was intentional, and I was gonna wait for the weekend, or I thought we weren't doing the acknowledge-your-birthday thing anymore, or whatever. Blog will…
bcohen | June 3, 2007
By the cartoonist Mr. Fish, which I saw at the Harper's website, appreciated, and am now posting here to show you.