Pop Culture
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Category archives for Pop Culture
A Sizzling Hypocrisy
Posted by RPM on July 22, 2008 Randy Olson left a career as a marine biologist (Titleist!) to become a film maker. His first feature project was Flock of Dodos, a movie I enjoyed. His second film is Sizzle, a movie reviewed by lots of ScienceBloggers a couple weeks ago. The gist: a lot of ScienceBloggers didn’t like sizzle. Neither did a…
Whad’ya Know About Protists?
Posted by RPM on May 20, 2008 My advisor has recently got me listening to Whad’ya Know. My first reaction: It’s like Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! Only not as funny, not as interesting, and not as good. I’ve been downloading the podcasts for the past couple of weeks, and I’m not sure whether I’ll keep subscribing in iTunes. I’m only bringing this…
Expelled Exaggerated?
Posted by RPM on April 21, 2008 The creationist movie that everyone* is talking about came out was released this weekend. Early reports have Expelled coming in 9th nationally in weekend gross, with about $3 million. That’s a lot of money, and you can color Randy Olson freakin’ impressed. However, put in the context of what the producers were expecting, it’s not…
Stuff White ScienceBloggers Like
Posted by RPM on March 6, 2008 Apparently, ScienceBlogs is loaded with white people. Hell, the whitest person I know blogs in this very domain. That got me thinking. Sure, we may look white. But are we really white? I mean, really white. So white that we like the stuff white people like.
Is Auburn the new Birmingham?
Posted by RPM on November 26, 2007 So, I missed the three year anniversary of evolgen (it was last Wednesday for those of you keeping score). What does that have to do with police dogs and civil rights protesters in Alabama in the 1960s? Absolutely nothing. But I’m combining two unrelated topics into a single post — neither of which have anything…
The Turning of an Atheist
Posted by RPM on November 7, 2007 He’s not an atheist! He’s found god! This atheist is no more! He has ceased to be (an atheist)! He’s found god on his way to meet his maker! He’s a deist! Bereft of doubt, he thinks no more! If you hadn’t written his book for him, he’d be wandering around a nursing home dribbling…
Some day I sell DNA!
Posted by RPM on October 25, 2007 Why is this video so damn funny?
A Job Posting
Posted by RPM on October 24, 2007 Too funny to pass up: Seeking NIH Geneticist as early (paid) reader of Science/Adventure Novel I’m looking for a one or more readers to vet the science and NIH-specific details of a science/adventure novel. This is a “hard science” book along the lines of Carl Sagan’s “Contact,” but with certain spiritual elements. The ideal reader…
A Rube Goldberg Machine….
Posted by RPM on April 23, 2007 …that appears to do absolutely nothing (link). Usually they do something mundane in a really complex manner. But all this one does is open the curtains so that the credits can run. The device pictured below is different from the one linked above, but I figured this post needed something to fill up more space.…
Flying in a Confined Space
Posted by RPM on April 19, 2007 On yesterday’s episode of Mythbusters they tested the myth that birds in a trailer decrease the weight of the trailer when the birds take flight. The ‘busters put a bunch of birds into a trailer, weighed the trailer + birds, and then allowed the birds to fly in the trailer, measuring the weight every fraction…