worldsfair | September 20, 2006Although I recently had a piece on the art of vanity searching of the motif DAVIDNG, here is an interesting art project that revolved around "Davids" in general.
(From Geist)
In Winnipeg in 1993, Micah Lexier put an ad in the local newspaper looking for males named David. Hundres of people responded, and he asked the first David of each age one to seventy five, to be photographed at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. The result was an exhibition of life size portraits entitled A Portrait of David. Ten years later, Lexier, with the help of the Winnipeg Free Press, located many of the original…
worldsfair | September 20, 2006So, for the last couple of days, I've been feeling a little unsettled. Here's the backdrop, but I'm also interested on what folks think, if they care to comment.
Basically, for about a week or so, I had a MRI head scan of someone I care about on one of my office walls. Initially, the reason to do this was that MRI's are first and foremost impressive looking, and the sort of thing that one can marvel at - that is, the ability to see the brain in different swaths etc.
On occasion, people dropping by the office would ask about it, and this would inevitably lead into an anecdote that is part…
worldsfair | September 19, 2006I just thought this was an amusing liner note for the above song.
"The melody for 'Black Seam' has lain among my mental notes for perhaps ten years, could never finish it, or find a suitable lyric until the miners' strike and a long talk with a friend who has a job trying to mend nuclear power stations with gaffer tape."
'Bring On The Night', '86
The lyrics are kinda nice too. Sting for all his criticisms knows how to turn a lyric or two. Plus, the Police rocked.
bcohen | September 19, 2006This article by David Ewing Duncan, "The Pollution Within," is in the new issue of National Geographic. (He was also on NPR this morning.) So, while we're on the subject of consumption her at The World's Fair, I think we need to get far past very narrow senses of what consumption means. So, Duncan asked himself, what is he really consuming?
The tag line on the piece:
Modern chemistry keeps insects from ravaging crops, lifts stains from carpets, and saves lives. But the ubiquity of chemicals is taking a toll. Many of the compounds absorbed by the body stay there for years--and fears about…
worldsfair | September 19, 2006
There is, it appears, a nice discussion going on over at a post that Ben recently put up regarding the use of nuclear energy. And quite a few of the commentary take a stance that the ideal for citizens to consume less, is at best unrealistic and at worst an impedent to our right towards progression.
I'm not sure if this sits well with me. It seems too easy to say that because humans have needs to expand, to produce more, to (dammit!) play around with charts and the like so that consumption needn't slow down, then why ask for the sacrifice? Indeed, no-one is really going to do it anyway.…
worldsfair | September 18, 2006Janet has finally put up the results for the nerd-off here, and I have to say that I feel like it was a fair and heated battle. Some folks have mentioned that I was a better contender for winning a "Geek-Off" and I am similarily confused by the Geek vs Nerd nomenclature. This I fear, could be a whole field in the philosophy of names.
Anyway, here are some choice reasons used for the battle:
That's a real picture of me on my blog, balding ponytail and all.
(Mark Chu-Carroll)
When I was in high school, my sister was watching Star Trek. I walked into the room. I saw Kirk leaning over the…
worldsfair | September 18, 2006So it turned out that my back to school crunch was even crunchier than expected, no doubt brought upon by the fact that my daughter had just started Kindergarten (talk about the sense of relativity and time flying), and the usual chaos associated with a new semester starting. As well, I've been procastinating lots on a book project where the first two chapters are entitled "A is for ASS," and "B is for BEETON," a process I hope to be able to discuss more fully if I have the luxury of certain things being finalized.
But no matter, back to the blog. And I thought easing in would be the best…
bcohen | September 18, 2006Link to a great article in the New York Times yesterday about satire, irony, sarcasm, and our modern world. It's by Wyatt Mason, who is a contributing editor at Harper's.
"Satire, then, signals both the sickness and health of a society in equal measure: it showcases the vigor of the satirist and the debility of the satiree. As such, we might conclude, in America, that its abundance suggests a normal balance of destructive yin and creative yang, a human need to view the most vexing frailties of a culture through the liberating prism of lampoon."
All told, it's a good narrative that gets…
bcohen | September 15, 2006I'm way late to the Ask a Scienceblogger of a few weeks ago. So late that the question has come back around in a new Ask for this week (and this after being trumped by last week's Organic query - and both subjects are of great interest to me and soon I will converge them, plausibly, not as a lark). I fear now that I may have waded into a mini-manifesto below.
The actual article referenced in the Global Warming Ask category is not worth addressing, though it is actually kind of funny (by intent, I suppose). But I am concerned that Global Warming talk is becoming the end-all and be-all of…
bcohen | September 14, 2006The 13 Sept "Ask a Scienceblogger" query is:
When I think about global warming, I feel completely powerless. Is there any meaningful action I can take to help?...
The answer is yes: consume less. In individual acts, on a daily basis, consume less. This isn't the same thing as suggesting that we consume nothing. It is to say, rather, that we have opportunities in everday life to avoid the destructive tendencies of a hyper-consumer philosophy of life.
bcohen | September 13, 2006A smashing product plug -- this is Mountain Man Dance Moves, the McSweeney's Book of Lists.
"SIGNS YOUR UNICORN IS CHEATING ON YOU" and "THINGS KOALA BEARS WOULD SAY" below the fold.
(By the way, bad news on a prior product plug., Encyclopedia Brown..., as it's been pulled from the shelves, or simply not released, because of legal wranglings.)
I edit this page -- McSweeney's Lists -- and put a link to some select, science-related ones a few months ago. (By the by: some of the lists in the book are not at the site anymore, but some are -- including, again, Dave's "Chapter Titles from My…
worldsfair | September 12, 2006Well Janet has decreed a nerd-off, and I think I'm game to compete (albeit a little late). The truth is, is that I am a nerd at so many levels, whether this gauged by my application to the Super Friends, wearing t-shirts with Epithelial Cell Barbies on my chest, or owning a life size cardboard cut out of Han Solo (although it's currently carefully folded, because it scares the begeezus out of us everytime we forget about it and walk by).
As well, I have it on good authority (via a vote actually) that I am one of the "coolest geeks" around. Which I'm not sure how to take, and also not sure…
bcohen | September 8, 2006But most of it isn't.
You've eatin it, this food they speak of, good or bad or middling. I bet. No no, think again. I'm sure of it. I think later today I'll do it again. Mmmm, foody.
I'll be posting something next week in response to this week's wildly interesting "Ask a Scienceblogger" topic of Organic Food. They query:
What's up with organic foods? What are the main arguments for buying organic? Is it supposed to be better for me, or better for the planet, or what? Are organics, in any sense, worth the higher price?...
For today, this Friday, here's a discussion forum from The Nation…
worldsfair | September 8, 2006To start off the sophomore year of the SCQ, I published a piece that I had sitting around for the last year or two. Basically, it's a creative non-fiction piece that looks at the sorts of things one can fear in the sciences.
It actually started off as a request by Maisonneuve for their "Good & Evil" issue, in that they wanted me to write about the top ten things to fear in the sciences. I thought it was an interesting request, but when I was rummaging through my mind on what these things to fear were, they inevitably turned into a list of societal nuances, as opposed to a pragmatic…
worldsfair | September 7, 2006I have to say that I was seriously upset by hearing that Steve Irwin was killed recently, and by a Stingray barb no less. It's kind of strange actually, because I was just about to submit a humour piece to Seed where I did a little play on words with the name "Crocodile Hunter."
I know that he'll be sorely missed in my household, having made some serious kiddie street cred by appearing in a Wiggle's video. Besides which, I think he was one of the funniest things ever on TV, and I mean that in only the best of ways. (BBC obituary here)
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THE CROCODILE HUNTER BECOMES THE PLANET HUNTER…
worldsfair | September 5, 2006Here it is:
(Download pdf)(View high resolution JPEG)
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And in essense, we hope it had a feel of convergence to it all, in the sense that clues provided both a metaphorical and game play element. As well, it was our intention to make familiarity with the blog in general, a helpful component to solving the puzzle. In any event, we hope that this was as much fun for you, as it was for us. Some of the answers given were truly truly wonderful.
So for now, let's just say: To be continued?
bcohen | September 1, 2006Somehow I thought the quote below might go with the "Letter to the Dead" poem I posted yesterday. So I will offer in in the same vein of not-too-much-pre-commentary. It's just a quote. But it does a few things:
Ties the very idea of knowledge to the idea of progress in yesterday's poem (how strange to speak about the "idea" of knowledge, isn't it?)
Evokes an elegant image of Nature, eternity, and essence (though brings with it the danger of having me be perceived as associating with essentialism, which I won't weigh in on now)
It has a kind of six-degrees feel, the way in which the…
worldsfair | August 31, 2006In response to the "Hooray for Global Warming" article as queried by this week's Ask a ScienceBlogger, I offer this public message from a representative of the glacier community:
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RANT FROM A GLACIER - CONCERNED, BITTER, AND SOMEWHERE NEAR THE NORTH POLE
Dear humans everywhere:
People. I'm melting. I'm actually melting.
Are you not paying attention to what's going on here? Are you not following the news? Are you just out and out disregarding the collected and heated but (get this) generally agreed upon advise from a whole bunch of experts? Is it because you don't trust them? Because…
bcohen | August 31, 2006Oh, how to load a question, eh? And a dangerous one, at that.
I mostly think of this topic, of progress and science and technology, as one of faith. Saying that doesn't explain much about what I'm talking about, but I don't intend here to be unnecessarily obscure. Rather, here's a poem instead of a diatribe or monologue or pontificatory (not a word) uber-blurb. It's by a Portuguese poet, and I thank WG for sending it along.
Affonso Romano de Sant' Anna"Letter to the Dead" (2000)
[translated from the Portuguese]
Friends, nothing has changed
in essence.
Wages don't cover expenses,
wars…
worldsfair | August 31, 2006Today, the SCQ in preparation for its second year run, has a sort of a housekeeping post, which talks about haiku projects, its print edition woes, but more importantly an interesting sidebar which has all the makings of a conspiracy involving Bobby Henderson and the FSM phenomenon.
It reads:
1. Who gets the Ramen?
Many of you have been waiting to hear from Bobby with regards to the FSM contest. In truth, we have been too, but repeated emails to him have been unsuccessful. The one time we did received a reply (on May 19th, 2006), it simply said, "help selma pee." This, of course, has all…