The World's Fair

John Cage Guest Posts at The World's Fair

Category: Knoxville '82: Where Miscellany Thrive

.

Read on »

Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 9:00 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

"Leicester School of Design Considers Name Change"

Category: Knoxville '82: Where Miscellany Thrive

Well then. Seems some are worried the "Intelligent" modifier to "Design" makes them look dumb if they don't have it too?

Read up to find out more, as Wyatt Galusky tells it, in these revealing minutes from a school board meeting last year:

Read on »

Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 11:00 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

World Death Rate Holding Steady at 100%

Category: Knoxville '82: Where Miscellany Thrive

In anticipation of writing a post on The New Yorker's recent and somewhat disappointing issue on technology and innovation (and, more interestingly and less disappointingly, technology and progress), I return to some old data that I often use in lectures on the subject of technology and progress. The set up question is, progress towards what? Then, this revealing data set:

Read on »

Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 10:35 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Michael Pollan: Chewed Up and Spit Out

Category: The Book Building

Oh boy. Pollan's new book, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, gets eviscerated in this review by James McWilliams at the Texas Observer (Laura Shapiro at Slate isn't a fan either, though offers some hope in her review; an issue of the journal Gastronomica last summer also called out Pollan on some features of his approach and message). I haven't read the new book, so this link is neither an endorsement of McWilliams's review nor of Pollan's text. But, wow, the review is a fun read.

Read on »

Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 10:15 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Science podcasts heard 12 million times daily

Category: Links to interesting sites and discussion of them

Here's a site with a slew of podcasts about science, Earth & Sky: A Clear Voice for Science. I found it because a colleague in my department, Rosalyn Berne, was being interviewed about her book on Nanotechnology and Ethics. But there are tons more, including Michael Pollan, Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus (authors of the provocative "The Death of Environmentalism"), James Hansen on climate change, and on and on.

Oh, and if you want to track down more about nanotechnology and ethics and the whole gamut, here is The Power of Small, a forum discussion by some who tell us nano will save everything and others who tell us maybe that's not so true. (I still remain convinced that Steve Martin already has this one taken care of.)

I guess that makes this post a graphics-free, non-editorial informational alert only.

Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 10:00 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Borges was a Webelo (and Other Book Jokes)

Category: The Book Building

Happen you to need a diversion, check out The McSweeney's Joke Book of Book Jokes, why not? It's new, it's got about 70 stories (or entries, more properly), it has a picture of a chicken smoking a cigarette on the cover, and if you're not overwhelmed by the end, it even comes with a story I contributed about Borges. Come on, people've been griping for years about the dearth of Borges jokes. It's time. It's here. Admittedly, I would consider the contribution more melancholy than funny. More of a meditation or lament. About Borges. From his time in the Cub Scouts. He made it to Webelo. Jeffrey Lyons calls it the best story he's ever seen.

Read on »

Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 1:40 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Baby 2.0

Category: Links to Other Conversations and Articles

The reason for a robots code of ethics, says Nicole Pasulka: "Because the more human these robots become, the more likely they are to act like assholes."

I thought this was a nice combination: Pasulka reviews the coming age of the robots (because it is always the coming age of the robots) at The Morning News as Ravi Mangla reports on a day in the life of Baby 2.0 at McSweeneys.

The robots, that is, are already here.

Read on »

Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 2:00 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

EPA Official Fired Over Dow Chemical Dispute

Category: Ethics Palace: Where ethical questions go to live or die

Last year we posted a notice of the highest measurement of dioxin ever recorded by the EPA. The reading was from the Tittabawassee River in Michigan, downstream from Dow Chemical's headquarters in Midland and on its way to Lake Huron (see map below). Michigan state safe levels are set at 90 ppt. The EPA standard is 1000 ppt. A hot spot reading on the river clocked in at 1.6 million ppt. Last week, the Bush Administration forced out a senior EPA official who was pushing Dow to clean it up.

Read on »

Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 10:30 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

If you could host your own version of a TEDtalks at your institution, what exactly would you do? Looking for feedback...

Category: Nature as in Earth, as in Global, as in Global Issues Generally

A couple months back, I wrote a grant for one of my main educational projects (Terry), that would ask for funding to host a student conference here at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Terry, as some of you already know, is aimed to build an interdisciplinary undergraduate community, with a directed focus on issues of social and/or environmental responsibility.

A couple weeks ago, we heard that we were successful in securing the funds for this conference. This is very exciting for me, because we explicitly wrote the grant so that conference in question gets to follow a TEDtalks format. In other words (from the grant):

This conference will be an annual event where undergraduates are given a high profile platform to communicate their passions and desires to an audience of their UBC peers. It essentially borrows a template from a well-established conference known as the TEDtalks (www.ted.com), and modifies it for delivery within the UBC setting. Here, the general intent is to bring together the University's "most fascinating (student) thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives." Under this context, a single day conference would accommodate 16 nominated student speakers from a wide range of interests and backgrounds. This would provide stimulating content, relevant to a variety of globally relevant issues, that would ultimately foster collaborative efforts and idea sharing amongst the conference attendees. In all, this will strengthen the existing networks responsible for student led initiatives, and in doing so act as a significant catalyst in creating a stronger socially responsible student community.

Read on »

Posted by David Ng at 12:10 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Gravity trumps sunlight!!

Category: The STS Compages

"What seems a detour has a way of becoming, in time, a direct route." R. Powers, Three Farmers...

[Note: if you're new to the series, don't know what's going on, and want a shortcut, I'd say you can start with Part 3, skip the sidebars, and still cut a reasonable swath.]

It was gravity. Gravity gives us the answer. Not sunlight, not the pathetic fallacy, not Olga the tour guide, not forensic expertise about the shine off the cannonball. Gravity. So there.

Read on »

Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 9:00 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Don't you just hate the difference between seeing things 'as they are' and 'as they ought to be'?

Category: The STS Compages

Richard Powers, in his debut novel Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance, constructs a story about the identity of the three farmers in August Sander's 1914 photograph of that name. The novel takes on not just the three farmers, but three storylines too. The many characters in his three-thread narrative each, in some way, contribute to the larger story about technology, photography, philosophy, and knowledge. I've touched on as much in earlier parts to this series (and more directly in Part 7). There is much to say about Sander's ambitions as a photographer and Powers' elegant fictional delivery of those ambitions, but I'll cut to the chase to keep it in touch with Errol Morris's Cannonball Run.

Read on »

Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 9:00 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Bacon, Fish, Arts vs Science, and Dawkins.

Category: The Art/Science (Non?)Divide Building

I wrote about this over at Terry, but will reprint here as well

This is interesting, if not a bit alarming. Essentially, this story follows a trail of individuals that even Kevin Bacon would be proud of.

The cast includes: a UBC student, her sister (also a UBC student), a senior level biology course, the course's teacher and the course's teaching assistant. As well, there is another teaching assistant - this one from the History Department (not Biology), and for the rest of us here, this TA is sort of the antagonist. Oh, and the aforementioned biology course focuses on the theory of evolution, with historical as well as current cultural contexts provided.

Anyway, the story goes a little like this:

Read on »

Posted by David Ng at 11:32 AM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Chicken - Chicken = Chicken (+ $1 Million)

Category: Industrial Agriculture

This post was written by guest blogger Wyatt Galusky.*

So, it's come to this. PETA has just announced a $1 million reward for the first group to make in vitro meat edible and tasty. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have decided that, in lieu of turning the whole world veg, they will promote research into suffering and death-free means of satisfying people's "meat addictions." (Talk of the Nation: Science Friday weighed in on this too.)

Read on »

Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 8:00 AM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Your Connection to Environmental Destruction: Coal Does More Than Keep the Lights On

Category: Mountaintop Coal Removal

The Washington Post ran an excellent story on Mountaintop Removal (MTR) in West Virginia on the front page of this week's Sunday paper. The story is notable for several reasons.

Read on »

Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 9:00 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

The H.M.S. Beagle Project: geeky science pin-up number 3!

Category: The Art/Science (Non?)Divide Building

Today at the SCQ, there's an awesome piece that imagines Charles Darwin being brought back to life for next year's bicentennial celebration. As well, the piece is written in the context of him checking out the proposed (and, hopefully by then, built) replica of the H.M.S. Beagle. Better still, it's being presented as a pin-up for your locker room needs.

This is all spear headed by a group over at the HMS Beagle Project: the piece itself written by Peter McGrath (one of the co-founders) and illustrated by Diana Sudyka (do check out her album cover and music poster work - it's wonderful).

As a extra bonus, we've been told that a direct descendant of Darwin has chuckled her approval.

Go here to read the piece, and/or download the pin-up.

Posted by David Ng at 10:59 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Paul Collier and the Bottom Billion (a.k.a. no nonsense global poverty solutions).

Category: Nature as in Earth, as in Global, as in Global Issues Generally

About a month ago, I was lucky enough to partake in a speaker event, where noted economist Paul Collier gave a great talk.

Who is Paul Collier? Two titles to throw at you: Professor of Economics, in the Oxford University Economics Department; as well as the Director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies.

Read on »

Posted by David Ng at 2:47 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

It's official - Introducing the Science Creative Literacy Symposia

Category: The Art/Science (Non?)Divide Building

The Science Creative Literacy Symposia is a new fieldtrip program offered at the University of British Columbia, and is designed to provide an engaging outreach experience for students at the Grade 6/7 level. Here, the intent is to combine elements of science exploration with expository creative writing with the aim of fostering skills in written literacy, scientific literacy, as well as develop appreciation in interdisciplinary connections.

Hosted by the Advanced Molecular Biology Lab at the Michael Smith Laboratories, and by the fine folks at the UBC Creative Writing Program, the fieldtrips will be held at the Michael Smith Building. Both research laboratory settings as well as spaces conducive for reflective writing activities will be used.

Each session involves a class of Grade6/7 students (about 30 max), and will encompass a timeframe from 10am to about 2pm: this includes a lunch break of 30 to 45minutes somewhere in the middle. Basically, the session will be run by two instructors; one a Graduate Student within a scientific discipline, and the other a Masters of Fine Arts student within the Creative Writing program. Each session will be designed to allow the elementary students to play the both the role of the scientist (perform a science experiment) and the writer (engage in a reflective writing exercise), with a concerted effort to provide linkage between the two skill sets. As well, it is hoped that there will be an outlet for publication of works from these sessions, whilst still allowing copyright to remain with the student. The fieldtrip is free (first come first served in terms of bookings), although transportation and lunch is not provided.

For more information about registration, participants, and fieldtrip content, please check out the Symposia's mainpage.

Posted by David Ng at 5:01 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

"Tyger": a beautifully visual short film with environmental overtones.

Category: The Art/Science (Non?)Divide Building

Recently, I picked up a copy of the latest 3x3 Annual (No. 4 to be exact), and was perusing through the great artwork that it compiles. Here the entries (about 250 pages worth) are essentially on display via a competition format, and if looking at a wonderful array of graphics is your kind of thing, then this kind of publication can't help but be a treat.

Anyway, one of things I had a chance to look at this morning, was their animation category, which is presented in full here. The winner entry entitled "Tyger" is just luscious to watch, and definitely has some strong environmental overtones. I've put it below the fold, if you're curious in checking it out yourself.

Read on »

Posted by David Ng at 11:58 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

20 Ways Meat Packers Reduce Costs from Farm to Table: This Month's Alternative Sponsor at The World's Fair

Category: Knoxville '82: Where Miscellany Thrive

Long time since we had an alternative sponsor, and just at the time I've been starting to wonder if The World's Fair should remain part of the scienceblogs collective. With the Dow Chemical ads back, we also took note of more recent news on the morally debased position the company takes with respect to its purchase of Union Carbide back in 2001 -- and the responsibilities for the 1984 Bhopal leak that one would assume came with said purchase but, per the Dow spokesman, do not: "A Dow official in Midland, Mich., said the firm did not inherit Union Carbide's liabilities when it acquired the company." That leak, the Washington Post article titled "Indians Pressure Dow on Bhopal Cleanup" reports, "killed at least 3,000 people in the first few days and led to 14,000 deaths overall from illness, according to the government. Survivors contend the toll is 23,000."

It happens that we'd been in meetings with the American Meat Institute (circa 1953) for a few months anyway and, given the above, thought the timing was right for bringing them on board as an alternative sponsor. So today we thank them for their support.

Read on »

Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 12:00 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Hydrocolloids and Rabbit Mousse: An Experiment in Artscience

Category: The Art/Science (Non?)Divide Building

This post was written by new World's Fair guest blogger Rachel Carr.^

"You've heard of Le Laboratoire, of course?"

We would have, had we been keeping up with NPR, Science, the LA Times, or, er, The World's Fair. Evidently, most of us gathered to hear Jonah Lehrer discuss his new book, Proust Was a Neuroscientist, weren't so fresh on our Third Culture news. Lehrer had just wrapped up his presentation - a spirited rehearsal of the book's art-inspires-science theme - and we'd started a roundtable Q&A.

Read on »

Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 9:00 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

The US: #2 in MRIs, #15 in Health Ranking

Category: Author Meets Bloggers

Part 4 with Kelly Joyce, author of Magnetic Appeal: MRI and the Myth of Transparency, follows below. All entries in the author-meets-bloggers series can be found here.

Read on »

Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 9:00 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Labspotting: A graphic for those who are discontent with research life (or Timon has outdone himself this time).

Category: The Art/Science (Non?)Divide Building

...and maybe he's a little on the bitter side.

Anyhow, Timon Buys has been doing a great job of looking after the Science Creative Quarterly's FILTER site, and today he put up something that is all kinds of awesome. link (also to hi-res version)

I'm curious - for those of you in the research arena - how often does this match your sentiment?

Posted by David Ng at 7:17 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

What does a Sociologist of Science do? Let alone one of medicine...

Category: Author Meets Bloggers

Part 3 with Kelly Joyce, author of Magnetic Appeal: MRI and the Myth of Transparency, follows below. All entries in the author-meets-bloggers series can be found here.

Read on »

Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 9:00 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

The Turn to the Visual in Medical Practice: Part 2 on Magnetic Appeal

Category: Author Meets Bloggers

Part 2 with Kelly Joyce, author of Magnetic Appeal: MRI and the Myth of Transparency, follows below. All entries in the author-meets-bloggers series can be found here.

Read on »

Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 9:00 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Can you solve Puzzle Fantastica #3? - The Final Clue...

Category: Knoxville '82: Where Miscellany Thrive

"It's all about the pork products..."

For a more detailed look at the first 4 clues, see below. If you've got one, leave an answer below. Good luck!

Read on »

Posted by David Ng at 5:49 PM • 34 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

The problem that is the Road Runner: and why Microcredit doesn't seem to help.

Category: Nature as in Earth, as in Global, as in Global Issues Generally

We had a humour piece go up at Terry today that was just too cool. Since, the Terry website isn't as visible as the Science Creative Quarterly, i thought I would highlight it here. It's called:

Microcredit Isn't Right for Everyone (by Mike Richardson-Bryan)

Oh yeah, Terry has a contest, open to the general public as well, and happy to take in well written blog posts - just a thought for those hungry for bookish gift cards that can be used online.

Posted by David Ng at 12:38 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Magnetic Appeal: MRI and the Myth of Transparency: medical knowledge, healthcare policy, and those huge loud machines, with author Kelly Joyce

Category: Author Meets Bloggers

Read on »

Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 9:00 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Timebomb - everybody dance.

Category: The Art/Science (Non?)Divide Building

Boy, talk about consumption. Great music video featuring the digital art prowess of Chris Jordan.

We offer this as a follow-up to last summer's "What We Waste," a post on Jordan's work that was part of a larger discussion of consumption patterns and energy (cf. E-trash , What We Eat, and this larger conversation on e-trash with Lizzie Grossman).

Posted by David Ng at 1:39 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Glitter, Martha Stewart, Easter Pie, Darfur and Bill Clinton: Now there's a list you don't see very often...

Category: Knoxville '82: Where Miscellany Thrive

Just got back from some time off, where my wife (Kate) and I had a week to explore the city of New York. It was the first time for us, and it was a pretty busy week where we tried to fit in as many of the sights and sounds as we could. Anyway, one of those days included a visit to Martha Stewart's television studio (Kate is a big fan), and it was here that we were treated to the strangest collaboration of items I have ever witnessed in a 50 minute block.

What we saw included Conan O'Brien learning the ropes behind glittering eggs (it was the pre-Easter show), then glittering a large ham, followed by a section where two charming, funny, and very short Italian ladies taught us all how to make an Easter Pie, and then suddenly it was a segue into a spot with Bill Clinton, who immediately began to talk of his mycommitment.org program. It was here that we heard references to Ruwanda and Darfur, with nary a mention of glitter in this part of the mix.

Read on »

Posted by David Ng at 11:56 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

The Best Thing on the Net Right Now

Category: About writing generally

I know Carter has interesting things to say about race relations in America, but how can you concentrate on them when they're surrounded by silly prose:"Julia was kicking herself, and not only because she and Mary might both be dead in five minutes." Don't you just hate it when you're about to be dead in five minutes? J.F. Kane, on New England White

Last year at this time the claimant to that title, best on the net, was obviously The 2007 Science Spring Showdown (eventually won by Darwin). But lurking behind that, in a very close second, was The Morning News's 2007 Tournament of Books (eventually won by Cormac McCarthy's The Road). Since the Science Showdown is a triennial event, as everyone knows, it is easy to declare that this year's Tournament of Books is without a doubt the best thing going on right now on the net. Or web. Or both.

Read on »

Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 9:00 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Who's Out to Get Them?: Localism and the Politics of Food

Category: Industrial Agriculture

"We Americans increased our travel -- just for shopping -- by over 90 billion miles from 1990 to 2001. That's billion with a 'B.' It's safe to say that most of those new miles were not spent seeking out local food." A. Flaccavento

So it is that the localism movement is in full flush. No news flash there. Along with such popular movements come determined counter-arguments. With local food, one of those counter claims deals with Food Miles (as discussed before here and here and here). Anthony Flaccavento, director of Appalachian Sustainable Development, wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post--"Eat Locally, Ease Climate Change Globally"-- that aimed to rebut those counterclaims. His case is well put. In the brief letter, he draws from his own vast experience and work coordinating a successful alternative agricultural system in southwestern Virginia to argue for the benefits of local foodshed development. Take a look.

Read on »

Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 9:30 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Insect Cyborg Engineering

Category: Ethics Palace: Where ethical questions go to live or die

A public service announcement from The World's Fair.

DARPA Hybrid Insect MEMS

"DARPA seeks innovative proposals to develop technology to create insect-cyborgs, possibly enabled by intimately integrating microsystems within insects, during their early stages of metamorphoses. The healing processes from one metamorphic stage to the next stage are expected to yield more reliable bio-electromechanical interface to insects, as compared to adhesively bonded systems to adult insects. Once these platforms are integrated, various microsystem payloads can be mounted on the platforms with the goal of controlling insect locomotion, sense local environment, and scavenge power. Multidisciplinary teams of engineers, physicists, and biologists are expected to work together to develop new technologies utilizing insect biology, while developing foundations for the new field of insect cyborg engineering. The HI-MEMS may also serve as vehicles to conduct research to answer basic questions in biology."

Deadline: April 17

Read on »

Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 2:45 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Food security in my neck of the woods, Richmond, Vancouver, British Columbia

Category: Nature as in Earth, as in Global, as in Global Issues Generally

Food is a big issue these days - none more so than where I live in Richmond (at this very moment).

To: GCL Public Hearings, Richmond, BC

Attn: Richmond City Clerk
Re: Public hearing on the Garden City Lands, 5555 No. 4 Road, Richmond

To whom it may concern

This letter is to state my personal opposition to the City of Richmond's block application to remove the Garden City Lands from the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR).

This, I feel, is currently the preferred mechanism that will segue into the allowance of a urban agricultural space to be created - a space that can provide communal, educational, and cultural contexts so that members of the public can engage in sustainable food practices.

This opportunity is founded on the notion that taking the land out of the ALR will more likely result in the land being used for aggressive real estate development. This act, I believe, (good or bad) is one that carries with it a high degree of familiarity. As such, it also represents a direction towards the status quo, which from an environmentally responsible view is arguably uninspired. This letter therefore submits that the space could be better used. And given the central locale of this land and its amenability to agricultural practices, the letter also submits that there is a tangible prospect of making this space something Richmond, and all other involved agents, can be truly proud of - a physical area that takes issues of food security and culture to heart, being designed to engage the citizens of Richmond, the province, Canada and indeed the international community.

This letter does not suggest that such an outcome is easy - it only suggests that the opportunity to create such a legacy is there. Therefore, I implore other members of our community to think wisely before this opportunity is lost.

Yours sincerely,

David Ng

Richmond, BC.

In a way, this situation has some similarities to what the UBC Farm may be up against. If you have an opinion, and you happen to live in Richmond, BC, send your own letter to mayorandcouncillors@richmond.ca, but note that that the deadline could be as early as today at 5pm.

Posted by David Ng at 2:39 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

A big hurrah to all those who participated in THE INAUGURAL FIRST ANNUAL "MOST EXCEPTIONAL ESCAPADES IN SCIENCE" HIGH SCHOOL CONFERENCE!

Category: Gift Shop & Haberdashery

Not just exceptional, but awesome...

Read on »

Posted by David Ng at 3:51 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Storm Worlds of the Enlightenment: Part 2 with historian Jan Golinski

Category: Author Meets Bloggers

Read on »

Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 9:00 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

British Weather and the Climate of Enlightenment: Between the Scientific and Traditional with Historian Jan Golinski

Category: Author Meets Bloggers

Read on »

Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 9:00 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Epistemic Shadows: Can sunlight explain a photographic mystery?

Category: The STS Compages

Morris believes that shadows are the key. Yes, I'm back onto the actual path of Morris's investigation, where he's been pursuing the question 'which of Fenton's Crimean pictures came first?' and I've been pursuing his pursuit. He thinks that by measuring the angle of shadows from the cannonballs he can determine what time of day each picture was taken and, thus, get them in the correct order. A shadow is the back third of a three-part connection: the light, the solid body, the shadow. The darkness of a shadow, though, is not opaque. You can still see what's under it. Fenton's photographs from The Valley of the Shadow of Death have been Morris's jumping off point for a discourse on what's visible underneath.

Read on »

Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 9:00 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

GMO?

Category: Nature, as in parts, bits, molecular and stuff

The opener for my lecture last week. Note that I got the biggest laughs with Grimace (Grimace is always good for a laugh), and with the Olympic mascots (a Vancouver thing). Know any others? (click on the movie).

Posted by David Ng at 11:15 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

The Apartment of the Future

Category: Knoxville '82: Where Miscellany Thrive

When I saw the title to Mike the Mad Biologist's post recently -- The Apartment Building of the Future? -- I thought he'd taken an image from one of my class lectures on the history of the future. Alas, not. So here is a competing Apartment of the Future, circa 1884.

It too has greenery throughout, a park, in fact, right there on the side. It is also equipped with passive heating and cooling (of a sort). And it combines the best cultural features all-in-one. A college, a theater, a church, etc. Not only that, but note the novel technological features of an elevator (again, of a sort) and a fire escape. Right in tune with the new demands of an increasingly urban population.

Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 8:00 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Worst jobs in humanities? What are they exactly?

Category: The Art/Science (Non?)Divide Building

Dave Semeniuk over at the Terry blog has posed an interesting question. Namely, what are the worst jobs in the humanities? (Another pandering to the two culture debate?)

The question is framed around the report that Popular Science annually releases on the "