bcohen
Posts by this author
February 20, 2008
Listen, we've got a lot to do here, it's a hectic post, lots of links, so stay awake, put down your cell phone, and keep those new windows open and visible in new tabs.
World's Fair guest contributor Oronte Churm uses a pen name -- if it wasn't obvious. But he reveals his identity today in two…
February 15, 2008
Daniel Nocera, Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at MIT and international spokesman on sustainable energy, is giving a talk here at U.Va. today. I thought I'd share some of the stats that he's pulled together in prior publications. Readers of this blog will already know that I question a commonly…
February 14, 2008
They're born that way.
February 13, 2008
Watch to see if Cuke Skywalker joins (the genetically modified) Darth Tater to rule the grocery store. And don't blame us for the humor. Just the messengers, folks.
Be warned, spoiler below the fold...
Omigod-omigod-omigod...Darth Tater is Cuke's father!!
What? What? Too much?
February 12, 2008
As a follow-up to Dave's prior post, I add here reference to a discussion about the same topic in response to an Orion article last Fall. The essay by Janisse Ray, "Altar Call for True Believers: Are we being change, or are we just talking about change?," was followed by over 200 comments. It…
February 11, 2008
I continually write my own biography by my actions, mixing involvement with knowledge, accountable to those moments when both drop away to reveal the act of mixing--something a priori recognizable. This process doe not differ measurably from the way I come to understand others, my time, or past…
February 10, 2008
Clearly there is now a growing need for a special section at the bookstore on Mountaintop Removal (MTR). We made a section at this blog for MTR posts when we started, since it is an issue of local immediacy (I'm close to the Appalachian mountains being blown up, at least regionally speaking), a…
February 8, 2008
So sue us. 18 months of blogging and one unbearably lowbrow entry. But my hand was forced -- not just because I laughed, but because the arrest was in my childhood hometown. Click below the fold for a screenshot of the headline.
Sigh.
With all due apologies to regular readers. That means you,…
February 6, 2008
Preface | Pt. 1 | Pt. 2 | Pt. 3 | (Sidebar 1) | Pt. 4 | Pt. 5 | Pt. 6Pt. 7 | (Sidebar 2a) | (Sidebar 2b) | Pt. 8 | Pt. 9 | Conclusion
As an understatement, I can say this: I've been overwhelmed of late. All of these questions Morris raises about Fenton and the cannonballs of Sebastopol and I'm not…
February 5, 2008
Here's a link to a question about ethics and science:
In reference to Craig Venter's road towards "the world's first artificial organism," Good Friend of The World's Fair and guest contributor Oronte Churm asks:
"has there [ever] been a greater gap between the capabilities of science to create new…
February 5, 2008
This is a quiz. Can you best it? Will you ace it? Is your scientific knowledge sound? What about of 18th c. knowledge?
To what does this phrase, taken from a 1703 English diary, refer?
"Balsamic Panspermicall Panacea Juice of Heaven"
If ever there was a need for our sub-category, "where…
February 5, 2008
Another from the vault, this one by Don Wright in the Miami News (1970s).
February 4, 2008
Why is it that showers and even storms seem to come by chance, so that many people think it quite natural to pray for rain or fine weather, though they would consider it ridiculous to ask for an eclipse by prayer?
Henri Poincare, Science and Method
(Sorry I missed the opportunity to run this quote…
February 4, 2008
One from the vault, this is by Jim Borgman, at the Cincinnati Enquirer (1990). Click on the image for a slightly larger version. All editorial comments on this editorial comment are welcome below.
January 23, 2008
Wilkins had a post that linked to a Monty Python sketch. So why not watch (or re-watch, if that be your angle) another sketch, pasted below for your viewing ease? Always good fun.
January 22, 2008
Preface | Pt. 1 | Pt. 2 | Pt. 3 | (Sidebar 1) | Pt. 4 | Pt. 5 | Pt. 6Pt. 7 | (Sidebar 2a) | (Sidebar 2b) | Pt. 8 | Pt. 9 | Conclusion
As I was saying, I love that Morris gets peeved at the expert's claims for certainty. It reminded me immediately of the grad student seminar experience--and any…
January 21, 2008
Preface | Pt. 1 | Pt. 2 | Pt. 3 | (Sidebar 1) | Pt. 4 | Pt. 5 | Pt. 6Pt. 7 | (Sidebar 2a) | (Sidebar 2b) | Pt. 8 | Pt. 9 | Conclusion
Here's a supposition, as I continue this series of posts on seeing and knowing: those Morris essays about Fenton's Crimean War photographs at a road outside…
January 18, 2008
"On this broad but synthetic continent of plastics, the countries march right out of the natural world - that wild area of firs and rubber plantations, upper left - into the illimitable world of the molecule. It's a world boxed only by the cardinal points of the chemical compass - carbon, hydrogen…
January 17, 2008
"Curiosity is a vice that has been stigmatized in turn by Christianity, by philosophy, and even by a certain conception of science. Curiosity, futility. The word, however, pleases me. To me it suggests something altogether different: it evokes 'concern'; it evokes the care one takes for what exists…
January 14, 2008
Preface | Pt. 1 | Pt. 2 | Pt. 3 | (Sidebar 1) | Pt. 4 | Pt. 5 | Pt. 6Pt. 7 | (Sidebar 2a) | (Sidebar 2b) | Pt. 8 | Pt. 9 | Conclusion
I wrote earlier (here, to be precise) that there are numerous ways a picture can manipulate its viewers, but most break down into two: a modification of an image…
January 11, 2008
The 10,000 member Ecological Society of America released a position statement "that offers the ecological principles necessary for biofuels to help decrease dependence on fossil fuels and reduce carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global climate change."
Supplying the emerging biofuels…
January 10, 2008
Preface | Pt. 1 | Pt. 2 | Pt. 3 | (Sidebar 1) | Pt. 4 | Pt. 5 | Pt. 6Pt. 7 | (Sidebar 2a) | (Sidebar 2b) | Pt. 8 | Pt. 9 | Conclusion
This post was written by new guest blogger Jason Delborne.*
George Cruikshank (1836), A London Audience, from Hulton Archive/Getty Images
The notion of the "…
January 10, 2008
Flight of the Conchords = Mr. Show + Tenacious D + Extras
=
+
[forgoing the Tenacious D You Tube clip for the sake of the children]
+
___________
Somebody must have been given a Conchords DVD over the holidays, you think?
January 8, 2008
By Guest Blogger: Oronte Churm. (See here for Mr. Churm's prior guest post and mini-bio.)
As an undergrad, I once attended a seminar where a prof from Berkeley, if I recall correctly, showed us an animated model of the learning path of a neural network. The Navy had funded the program in hopes of…
January 8, 2008
Preface | Pt. 1 | Pt. 2 | Pt. 3 | (Sidebar 1) | Pt. 4 | Pt. 5 | Pt. 6Pt. 7 | (Sidebar 2a) | (Sidebar 2b) | Pt. 8 | Pt. 9 | Conclusion
"Pictures are supposed to be worth a thousand words. But a picture unaccompanied by words may not mean anything at all. Do pictures provide evidence? And if so,…
January 7, 2008
The writer, blogger, teacher, and, we're proud to say, World's Fair guest contributor Oronte Churm has a remarkable small essay over at The Education of Oronte Churm, called The Calculus of Military Service. He writes of his own past military experience and his own dawning awareness of the effects…
January 5, 2008
2007 SCIENCE SHOWDOWN PRESS CENTERPRINTABLE BRACKETS | FINAL GAME: Darwin v. HIV
Darwin! Darwin! Darwin! Darwin! Darwin! Darwin! Darwin! Darwin! Darwin! Darwin! Darwin! Darwin! Darwin! Darwin! Darwin! Darwin! Darwin! Darwin! Darwin! Darwin! Darwin! Darwin! Darwin! Darwin! Darwin! Darwin! Darwin!…
January 4, 2008
Preface | Pt. 1 | Pt. 2 | Pt. 3 | (Sidebar 1) | Pt. 4 | Pt. 5 | Pt. 6Pt. 7 | (Sidebar 2a) | (Sidebar 2b) | Pt. 8 | Pt. 9 | Conclusion
The title above is a quote from the book, Objectivity, subject of the prior two posts. Below the fold is an extended quote following that line. It circles back to a…
January 3, 2008
Preface | Pt. 1 | Pt. 2 | Pt. 3 | (Sidebar 1) | Pt. 4 | Pt. 5 | Pt. 6Pt. 7 | (Sidebar 2a) | (Sidebar 2b) | Pt. 8 | Pt. 9 | Conclusion
The last post (Scientific Objectivity has a History) was about an article from 1992 called "The Image of Objectivity," by Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison.
Daston…
January 3, 2008
Preface | Pt. 1 | Pt. 2 | Pt. 3 | (Sidebar 1) | Pt. 4 | Pt. 5 | Pt. 6Pt. 7 | (Sidebar 2a) | (Sidebar 2b) | Pt. 8 | Pt. 9 | Conclusion
Title page of William Cheselden's (1733) Osteographia; or, the Anatomy of the Bones, showing an artist drawing a half skeleton through camera obscura.
Students end…