The World's Fair

Spin spin spin - what you see is not always what you get...

Category: Knoxville '82: Where Miscellany Thrive

This cracks me up every time, and will be sure to somehow make an appearance in my talks on science literacy. I'm thinking this would make a great graphic to segue into discussions on the public perceptions of technologies,...

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Posted by David Ng at 3:28 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

3 Song Mix #3

Category: Knoxville '82: Where Miscellany Thrive

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

JK Rowling and her advice to students (on fear and imagination)

Category: Video links (archive.org samples, for example; Youtube.com; others...)

This is actually very nicely done - a commencement speech by JK Rowling at Harvard a few weeks ago. I've embedded the movie file below the fold for convenience, but full details (as well as the transcript of the speech)...

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Posted by David Ng at 10:39 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Food Miles: Spinning Our Wheels?

Category: Industrial Agriculture

With localism, the same conversations going on, over and over again. This week Salon.com joined in.

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

The unicorn - official mascot of the World's Fair (and a bit about nuclear warheads)

Category: Humor stuff, and in the best of worlds, science humor stuff

When I read pieces like this one (at McSweeney's), it makes me want to make the World's Fair the place to go to at ScienceBlogs when you want to catch up on unicorn stuff. Anyway, here's the first paragraph: The...

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Posted by David Ng at 10:58 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

The Uncombable Hair Syndrome

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

Occasionally, I talk about this when I'm giving a talk on science literacy, and most often, I'll present the following statement asking if it's true or false: There is a human disease characterized by uncontrollably messy hair. It is...

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Posted by David Ng at 9:58 AM • 17 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Things that are unlucky (or lucky?): Carbon tax game on when gas prices high.

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

So, there's been much argument lately in my neck of the woods, over the BC's new carbon tax. This is coming online in a few days (July 1st), and will be responsible (amongst many other things) for what has been...

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Posted by David Ng at 1:05 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

3 Song Mix #2

Category: Knoxville '82: Where Miscellany Thrive

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Posted by David Ng at 5:10 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Just curious How important is the "name" of a website?

Category: Knoxville '82: Where Miscellany Thrive

As in popperfont.com Last week, I opened up a free wordpress blog, with the hopes of collecting my writings in one place, as well, as trying to categorize the silly "true or false" questions I use in many of my...

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Posted by David Ng at 1:01 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Say it with me: "It is always wiser to side with an overwhelming expert consensus than with a celebrity endorsement."

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

I think this statement should be obvious, and for that reason alone, we've included it in the SCQ's list of truths. This, by the way, is a web experiment run by the Quarterly. The background can be found here, and...

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Posted by David Ng at 2:20 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks