Knoxville '82: Where Miscellany Thrive
bcohen | May 21, 2007A call out to the blogosphere: how come the pictures fade?
Let's take the Back to the Future version: if you go back in time, then come to the present, but mess something up in the meantime, then you'll know this because the images of those from the past will start to fade away from photographs in the present. Like, oh no, Mom's fading out of this picture, and little Suzy too, and oh I wish I wish I hadn't sat on that fish when I travelled back in time! Why oh why did I ever...
Admittedly, I was flipping channels last night and caught a few minutes of Family Guy, where they did a Back-to-…
worldsfair | May 19, 2007May 19, 2007We Will Become Silhouettes, Postal Service, covered by the Shins (note, not the actual video)I Will Follow You into the Dark, Death Cab for CutiePalo Alto, Radiohead
bcohen | May 17, 2007This week's sponsor is none other than the Hungarian Cookery, whose world famous motto is a one word "Yum!!" Cuz let me ask you readers something: are you Hungarian? Know what? Doesn't matter. Know why? Cuz you don't have to be Hungarian to love homemade goulash and dumplings and whatnot.
One of the reasons we took on the Hungarian Cookbook as a sponsor this week (and late at that, eep!) was that they accept *both* Mastercard and Visa. A class act, all the way. Here's the kicker too: you're not sure what you want to eat or if you want to plunk down the just-shy-o'-ten bucks? Well go…
worldsfair | May 16, 2007(These look like the "that's o.k. but I'll judge from way back here" type of science fair participants)
In honour of the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, which is being blogged about at http://scienceblogs.com/intelisef, I was thinking about my own experiences as a science fair contestant and occasional judge.
I wasn't too creative or elaborate myself when it came to my own projects, so most of my fondest memories are from judging or as a mentor. Anyway, from this, it's clear that there are certain types of participants, some of which I will list out below:
1. The "makings…
bcohen | May 15, 2007PRESS CENTER | PRINTABLE BRACKETSd-orbitals start off with the ball, hauling it down from the top off, and run the court to drop in the first 2. Fossil Fuels respond, carrying the ball up easily, temperately. They get into a 3-2 formation and then charge right up the gulley, working the flim-flam all the way around until the wizzle blocks around through the spot, right over, into it, oh yes dropping in a lay up with nary a wink. d-orbital comes back quick, dribbles down, passes, passes,
dribbles, passes, dribbles, passes, shoots, misses, gets the rebound, kicks it out, passes, shoots,…
bcohen | May 11, 2007The June issue Harper's features Seed's (our) own Chris Mooney. In a series of short commentaries about "Undoing Bush," Chris contributes some thoughts on science. The 11 contributors all ponder "How to repair eight years of sabotage, bungling, and neglect."
Although the Harper's website has vastly improved (and subscribers have access to the entire 156 run of the magazine, which should elicit a big ole, Holy Shit! I had no idea Henry Smith Williams wrote that article on the century's progress in chemistry in the October 1897 issue), it doesn't yet have the June issue's contents up. And…
worldsfair | May 9, 2007
Title: Pushing the Right Buttons
Art Director/Designer: Erika Rothenberg
Country/Year: USA/1992
The political choice between feeding the hungry or military aggression is dramatized in this poster. (from The Design of Dissent, Milton Glaser & Mirko Ilic)
worldsfair | May 8, 2007Currently, I teach a graduate course in molecular techniques, but also have the privilege to generally interact with a lot of grad students from many different disciplines. Anyway, if I haven't seen anyone in a while, I usually (jokingly and probably annoyingly) query with a "Are you done yet?"
(Assuming everything in your thesis worked right off the bat,
how long would it have taken to get it all done?)I guess the length of time it takes to do a Ph.D. or a Masters (especially in the sciences where you are bound by your ability to generate meaningful results from experiments) can be a bit of…
bcohen | May 7, 2007With the ease of post-industrial quotation, he notes:
- That is God.
Hooray! Ay! Whrrwhee!
- What? Mr Deasy asked.
- A shout in the street, Stephen answered, shrugging his shoulders.
And what is more, to make the miscellany just that prescient...
It must be a movement then, an actuality of the possible as possible. Aristotle's phrase formed itself within the gabbled verses and floated out into the studious silence of the library of Saint Genevieve where he had read, sheltered from the sin of Paris, night by night. By his elbow a delicate Siamese conned a handbook of strategy. Fed and…
bcohen | May 7, 2007This week's sponsor is none other than the good people at Fellman, Ltd., whose motto, "Individuality in Men's Footwear," we consider right on mark for the Scienceblogs demographic. Hear hear!
I want to say, on a personal note, that I have long been a fan of The Rover by Allen Edmonds, and can attest to the comfort and elegance of the Plantation Crepe bottoms. All the happier for us, then, that Fellman wanted to help sponsor our site. Kudos to you Fellman. Kudos to your Ltd. friends. And bullocks to anyone who calls you out for an open parentheses in your ad. We love your style!
Just…
bcohen | May 6, 2007PRESS CENTER | PRINTABLE BRACKETSWhuh? Dot? Speck? Wet? Triangle Foe? Nobody knows, but for his triumph over General Relativity
Stately, plump Particle walked off the court that night, victorious, triumphant. There was a dragon slayer on the loose, yes, there was a dragon slayer. And it was him. Despite odds makers giving General Relativity healthy, spacious, easy 5-1 odds, Particle had come out on top. Somehow, crawling from the depths of this near mythical tournament, Particle had climbed to the top of the mountain. The crowd quickly gendered this subatomic feature, dubbing it…
worldsfair | May 3, 2007PRESS CENTER | PRINTABLE BRACKETSShe shoots! She scores!
O.K. folks, so this was a wierd one for sure. I'm mean seriously, on one team, you've got it stacked with 2 or 3 giant squids (the big female variety as well) plus a roster so deep as to command 97% of the animal kingdom; and on the other, you got these itty bitty viruses with some real scary ass ball-handling finesse.
It was crazy, just crazy...
I mean, just think of it like this. If we were to suppose that this red pixel (just a bit down from here) is the real size of an HIV virion (using mature HIV virion estimates of about 1.3 x…
bcohen | April 30, 2007Ostensibly related to nature, but not really. Let' say instead impermanence and its contrary. Another poem, this one from Rosanna Warren.
MAN IN STREAM
You stand in the brook, mud smearing
your forearms, a bloodied mosquito on your brow,
your yellow T-shirt dampened to your chest
as the current flees between your legs,
amber, verdigris, unravelling
today's story, last night's travail ...
You stare at the father beaver, eye to eye,
but he outstares you-you who trespass in his world,
who have, however unwilling, yanked out his fort,
stick by tooth-gnarled, mud-clabbered stick,
though you…
bcohen | April 29, 2007By way of starting to return to the blog, after a few weeks of VT/Blacksburg-only considerations, we offer the poem below, by American poet Marvin Bell. It appeared in The New Yorker last October. Fond of it then; fond of it now.
OPPRESSION
I begin by a window, a lamp over my shoulder,
and a glance outside to see
if a light snow is falling or if it's just the day's
floaters in an old man's eyes. I check the clouds
for signals and cuneiforms
among the pillows, and the mountain ash
for its resistance to autumn, and only then
am I ready for the news, the artillery,
the detonators, the…
bcohen | April 20, 2007A friend and colleague of mine, who teaches engineers at Virginia Tech and who is a gifted photographer, took a series of photos earlier this week. They are on display here, with captions beneath each one. I've also put a few of them below the fold (shrunk to fit this page -- the originals, in full size, are more evocative). Thanks to Brent for these pictures, and for his diary of the day (here).
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(Thank you Blu Gnu)
bcohen | April 19, 2007While everyone decides the best way they can deal with the mass murder this week, I'll point only to this commentary in the Chronicle yesterday that I found well put. It's by an author whose written about the Texas 1966 murders.
I lived a good percentage of my life in Blacksburg (as recently as 2005) and won't go on about that here. Thanks to those bloggers, though, who've tried to provide observations and insight with dignity and respect. (And to the Mungers for this compilation page.)
worldsfair | March 29, 2007PRESS CENTER | UPDATED BRACKETKAPOW!!KA-CHING!WHUPAH!BADA-BING!COWABUNGA!KUNG-POW!
(Images from Chemsoc, wiki, and Accelrys)