World's Fair
Archives for July, 2009
Smithsonian’s 145 Days Without Lost Time Accident Put In Peril (Days at the Museum #2)
Posted by Benjamin Cohen on July 28, 2009 Not the best title for a post, and by best, I mean most accurate. If you’d like to get to the bottom of it, though, try this new dispatch over at McSweeney’s: “The Elevator to Room 1028.” It has elevators. It has intrigue. It has secrecy. It has stacks of books. And it has elevators.…
Mass Destruction: the environmental effects of mining
Posted by Benjamin Cohen on July 23, 2009 Tim LeCain, a professor at Montana State (in Bozeman) and a talented scholar in environmental history and the history of technology (“envirotech“), has just published Mass Destruction: The Men and Giant Mines that Wired America and Scarred the Planet. Although I’ve not read it yet, I’m familiar with LeCain’s work in general (having read prior…
Luther Vandross and the French Rural Landscape (Days at the Museum #1)
Posted by Benjamin Cohen on July 16, 2009 I haven’t been here much, but I did begin a new series over at McSweeney’s called “Days at the Museum.” It’s a limited-run set of dispatches (summer-length, let’s say) about research at the Smithsonian and related miscellany. Tuesday was the first one, called “Ronzoni All the Way Down.” This is the central image of the…
How Dirt Became Scientific: Book Cover Edition
Posted by Benjamin Cohen on July 14, 2009 Alas, I have a book cover to share for Notes from the Ground! I’m pleased with it. I was even brought to use an exclamation point just there. It happens, I know it, it happens, people judge these things by their covers. I don’t say so to be cutesy or play the cliche. I’m just…
What is a transmon qubit?
Posted by David Ng on July 3, 2009 Science Scout Twitter Feed Somebody recently tweeted the term “transmon qubit” to the Science Scout twitter account, and (for the life of me) I cannot wrap my head around what it is exactly (other than a piece of delicious sounding science jargon). As far as I can make out, it has something to do with…
Gladwell Calls Out Insipid Digital Utopian
Posted by Benjamin Cohen on July 2, 2009 I realized of late that I am more a fan of Malcolm Galdwell’s reviews than his articles. It’s possible I’ve even poked fun of Gladwellian articles in the past (“I Dream in Malcolm Gladwell“). But oh boy did I enjoy his recent review of Chris Anderson’s Free: The Future of a Radical Price. Anderson, the…
John Stuart Mill on Digitized On-Line Collections
Posted by Benjamin Cohen on July 1, 2009 Among other things, John Stuart Mill wrote about deliberation in a democratic society. It’s the philosophy that a strong democracy is one whose members are actively involved in the functioning of that government. This, as opposed to a passive, distanced, and unreflective citizenry. Engagement and participation into the activity of the society offer benefits in…