Knoxville '82: Where Miscellany Thrive
bcohen | December 7, 2006A Forum on the Presentation of Data, More or Less.
(As sent by the Good Folk at the Battle-Scarred Muffin Pan, we present pie charts and a bar graph, all from this wonderful site, titled simple "We Have Pie Charts.")
ANALYSIS OF RIFFS IN DEVO'S "SPEED RACER"(a propos of the recent sciency-album post Dave put up)
more samples below the fold...
TRAGEDIES, BASED ON A SURVEY OF 1000(created by Michael Daines)PIRATE INFORMATION(switch it up, go with bar graph instead)HOW MUCH I LIKE DINOSAURS
WORLD POPULATION(it's funny because it's true)
bcohen | December 5, 2006If you really need to get a hold of Paul, he's here now, and can be emailed at gotmybootysacked@hotmail.comWe have recovered from a long phase of [insert prior reference here] PF#1 debriefing, having [insert pithy topical subject here] commissioned the Baker-Hamilton PF Study Group to offer alternatives for proceeding. We've long planned the second installment of a multi-series puzzle sequence, expecting to begin round #2 in mid-Fall. But the publishing world, as it is, has been jammed up, and [inserting another reference here to prior posts] the problem we've had with scheduling is partly…
worldsfair | November 30, 2006So, I'm prepping for a talk that looks at some of the scientific elements behind music, stuff that builds upon some of the stuff I've looked into in the past. Anyway, seeing that I like to place elements of pop culture in my talks, I thought it would be interesting to do a little "google image" searching to see what kind of CD/album covers are out there with "Science" as a key component in the CD's title.
Here's what I found, with a token review blurb from some place here and there:
Nightmareson Wax, "A Word of Science"
Nightmares on Wax's A Word of Science was recorded at the height of…
worldsfair | November 28, 2006Continuing on with our half year evaluation of the World's Fair, we are pleased to have a few phrases of note that are represented by Google as a number one hit.
These include from myself, the following:
"Tatooine is already too fucking hot"
"Scooby Doo is truly magical"
"eliticism in mountain culture"
"fricking Earths!"
"ooh I like puzzles"
And from Ben:
"faint of link"
"those badass Scots"
"growing love of unicorns"
"Yee-haw idiots"
"Fffft. Canadians"
worldsfair | November 24, 2006
(You know what the feather is, but do you know what that thing on the right is? - answer is below the fold)
Recently I gave a bit of an unusual talk to welcome UBC's new Dean of Science (Dr. Simon Peacock). And since I'm not on the up and up with his specialty, plate tectonics, I thought it would be more fun to take advantage of his surname and build an entire talk around the peacock itself (hence my familiarity with the peacock's latin label).
In the end, I was able to structure the talk around three statements:
1. Via PUBMED, there are 33 peer-reviewed scientific articles on Pavo cristatus…
worldsfair | November 10, 2006(Image from herbalgram.org)
This past week and a bit have been chaos central with a number of things going on round my neck of the woods. Some of which are your usual academic doledrums, but some of which were pretty inspiring overall. I guess the thing that has been most on my mind was my role as a "producer" of sorts for a high-profile speaker series at UBC. Two days ago we had a visit by National Geographic Explorer in Resident, Wade Davis, so only now, are my wedding planner type instincts starting to die down.
For those of you, who have never heard of Wade Davis, he is quite an…
worldsfair | November 3, 2006So, things have been pretty busy round here, as among other things, I've been getting things ready for a visit to UBC by Wade Davis, which sort of explains my general absence from this blog (thanks Ben, for picking up my slack).
In any event, I have other excuses for my absence which can be summarized with the following list:
Children are ill
My scheduled posts were accidently or perhaps deliberately junked, by bad bad people, no less.
The special Director's Version of the "Bring it On" DVD has just been released.
Canada is on holiday.
There is a lot of marking to do.
I am caught in the…
bcohen | November 1, 2006The system has failed. My point is that the system, as we have constructed it, is a failed one. All kids choose "treat." None choose "trick." Not one. It is time to change course. It is time to cut and run from the Trick-Or-Treat option. That's my only point. We're a one-party system when it comes down to candy distribution.
Furthermore, it would seem more important at this point to get on with the taxonomy scheme project well underway, the one following from that dominant "treat" selection.
Have at it.
bcohen | November 1, 2006Although there were some intra-family disputes about what belongs where, we did derive a basic candy hierachy, and I do think it is basically sound. This taxonomy is based on years of research and debate, on thorough testing and re-testing, on statistical comparison and quality measurement, on focus group testing, and on a series of FTIR scans that reveal various hydrocarbon peaks and whatnot.
In other words, this is sound science.
Here's what we've found, with uncertainties acknowledged:
TOP TIER
(not suprisingly, exclusively chocolate-based)Milly Way --- Snickers --- Peanut M&M's…
bcohen | October 31, 2006So here's one from TIME, on population density. I did not realize Dallas-Fort Worth was the fifth largest metropolitan area. I did not know that.
(it's an old map, completely irrelevant to the link above)
bcohen | October 31, 2006This has to be the best new job title. George Mason University is looking for a Technology Evangelist. Quoth GMU:
The Center for History & New Media at George Mason University is seeking a technology evangelist for Zotero (www.zotero.org), an open source bibliographic management and note-taking tool for the Firefox web browser. The technology evangelist will be responsible for building alliances with scholarly organizations and libraries, encouraging scholars to try Zotero, developing and maintaining user documentation, and building awareness of this next-generation research tool. We…
bcohen | October 30, 2006This time it's possible that it isn't really his fault. Dawkins is speaking here at the University of Virginia this Friday, on the rare day that I'm out of town at a conference. I could blame the History of Science Society, or the Society for Social Studies of Science. (See Janet's post too; get the HSS program here and the 4S program here.) But I'd still like to pin this on Dawkins himself. And since I assume he reads The World's Fair (4 out of 5 evolutionary theorists do, studies show) I'll leave it at that.
If anyone at U.Va. reads this too (don't have the comparable study to show that…
bcohen | October 26, 2006The new Border Fence Law: What a stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid , stupid, stupid, stupid , stupid idea.
Hmmm, a billion bucks or two...
What would I spend it on?
Healthcare?
Education?
Scientific resources?
Critical infrastructure?
Arts funding?
Language classes?
New TiVos?
Me? Not on a border fence, that's where I wouldn't. Not on a technological fix in the worst way, one meant to "fix" an issue that is not even addressed by said fence fix, an issue that remains underspecified and deeply morally problematic, one that is a point of ignorance or is the most recent…
worldsfair | October 25, 2006Yes, Ultraman or "Paul", our new intern could certainly stick it to Mr. Norris. Especially, if what PZ writes about Mr. Norris is true.
If you don't believe, then watch the movie below the fold, which has a friend of Paul, who goes by the name of Ultraman Taro doing some serious butt kicking. And get this - Taro is suppose to be the funny one!
Man, that Paul must be one bad dude!
Of course, this leads to the inevitable debate (possibly like before where the nuances of epistemology can be discussed) that queries - who exactly would win in a battle between Chuck Norris and Ultraman (er I…
worldsfair | October 19, 2006With the "dressing up as a dinosaur makes for a challenging interview" post yesterday, I thought it would be kind of interesting to hear what other odd or creative interview techniques are out there.
I know for myself, when I hire undergrad or grad students for my various science education projects, I often need to hire a few at a time, as in hire a team. This generally is about 3 to 10 students hired to work together. Because of this, I think my interview technique is a little different, in that I intersperse pertinent questions, with less pertinent questions. I guess, just to see how…
worldsfair | October 18, 2006
So after an intensive search, Ben and I have agreed on who to hire as an intern, whose sole task is to look after the upcoming Puzzle Fantastica #2. So please say hello to Ultraman, or just "Paul" as he is called around these parts.
Because the criticism for our previous PF#1 was pretty clear, we wanted to make sure the person we hired was of an exemplary nature, in so far as puzzle design and as well as work ethic. Plus, Paul can very easily beat the crap out of anybody he wants.
For example, here is a clip from the interview:
Ben, of course, is dressed up as the dinosaur (in my view…
worldsfair | October 18, 2006
Although, of course, they were made from recycled cardboard boxes. Ben, you see, was a big fan of that "Cars" movie that came out a while ago, and so wanted to have his birthday (held on Saturday)centre around a car theme.
So here was where I was a little torn. Even though you're dealing with a young child's brithday party, you still kind of want to make sure you stick to certain principles, such as maybe be sensitive to the whole car emissions thing. I know I know, it's just a birthday party, but when you're heading a campus wide project where you're teaching sustainability principles…
worldsfair | October 16, 2006I see Ben has requested sciencebloggers to weigh in on another musical question. This time to see whether there is any consensus in choosing a house band for our consortium - you know, the sort that could maybe write a song for us, perform during Christmas parties and the like.
Which I think is going to be a formidable challenge - maybe not formidable like figuring out what to do about North Korea, etc - but man, do people ever get fiesty when it comes to musical preferences.
But I think I've got a good suggestion, not one that I'm proud of, and in truth, it's one that I am even a little…
bcohen | October 16, 2006We need a house band. Scienceblogs needs a house band. And I know what you're all thinking: Phish is the obvious choice. Now, while I admire the force of your collective appreciation for Phish - I'm astounded by it, in fact, by all the bloggers' recognition of greatness - I actually have to argue against them as the Sb House Band. A few reasons:
Whereas, it is true, they exemplify all that is good about music, the experience of music, the aura of performance, the construction of art, and so on. I can't argue against any of that. They are all that. The very notion of creativity and…
bcohen | October 14, 2006This graphic would suggest so. And on the heels of Friday the 13th, we wonder, we really wonder.