bioephemera | July 17, 2008
"We're borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet." -- Al Gore
We all knew what he'd say, but we still stood in line for an hour to hear him say it. Today Al Gore issued his "Generational Challenge to Repower America" to a packed house at the DAR Constitution Hall in DC.
After zinging the administration a few times as a warm up ("I don't remember a time in our country when so many things seemed to be going so wrong simultaneously"), Gore laid down the We Campaign challenge. Basically, he wants the entire nation to be on "100…
bioephemera | July 17, 2008As I sit here waiting for Al Gore to start speaking, I'd like to note that Scibling Chris Mooney over at the Intersection has really annoyed me. Apparently the fact that I didn't like the film Sizzle is evidence that I, too, am likely a terrible communicator of science who lacks self-awareness. (Since there is no other possible reason for me to fail to LOVE the film!)
Now, Chris, some scientists who dislike Sizzle may dislike it for that reason - but there are a lot of other reasons to dislike the film, some of which I and other Sciblings have mentioned! When you say,
In my view, what's so…
bioephemera | July 16, 2008
The brand-new Device Gallery is hosting a group show called "Fantastic Contraption" featuring artists like H.R. Giger and Christopher Conte. The show opens this Saturday, July 19, from 6-9 pm - check it out if you're in La Jolla!
Steam Insect
Christopher Conte
Via dark roasted blend.
bioephemera | July 15, 2008
Leo Burnett Agency/Prop Art Studio, MMT
This Chicago McDonald's has a giant egg billboard that cracks open to indicate they're serving breakfast (the yolk inside says "fresh eggs daily") then closes up again at lunch. How cool is that?
Via Arab Aquarius.
bioephemera | July 15, 2008
This morning, a plethora of Sizzle reviews will saturate Scienceblogs. I've no doubt that the film's science will be thoroughly dissected by more informed reviewers than I. So I'm going to steer clear of temperature trends and timetables, and instead consider how the film pitches its message.
Sizzle is billed as "a global warming comedy"; the official website claims "Sizzle is a novel blend of three genres - mockumentary, documentary, and reality." Personally, I think the film suffers from an identity crisis: it tries to fit all three genres at once, and it gets a little scrambled in the…
bioephemera | July 14, 2008
You may have already seen this video over at Boing Boing, but I thought it was worth posting anyway: a flock of what look like starlings doing some seriously creepy flocking. Check out the ribbon formation about ten seconds in. It literally gave me goosebumps!
Link
bioephemera | July 11, 2008Michael Dax Iavocone
Another opportunity for DC-area readers: Michael Dax Iavocone's new show opens at flashpoint gallery tomorrow (Saturday), July 12, 6-8pm.
From the gallery press release (pdf):
Artist Michael Dax Iacovone investigates and chronicles his familiar DC environs using mathematical algorithms to govern the way in which he experiences space. Using these formulas, Iacovone creates a blueprint to follow, film and photograph the DC area. Iacovone's solo exhibition at the Gallery at Flashpoint, The Numbers Behind, explores spaces and image-making in a new and mechanical way and is on…
bioephemera | July 9, 2008"Sonnet: To Science"
words by Edgar Allan Poe
song by Alex Colwell
video by Jeff Burns
From oilcanpress
I love the pairing of Poe's sonnet, which basically accuses Science of destroying the poetic mysteries that make life meaningful, with the techno-optimistic nostalgia of early films glorifying science and technology. Yummy!
Poe had a curious relationship with science. Despite the accusatory tone of his poem, Poe was fairly well-versed in contemporary scientific theory, with a solid grasp of astronomy in particular. Poe even wrote a small book called Eureka (1848) about his early,…
bioephemera | July 8, 2008
Those of you in the greater DC area may be interested in the NIH Science in the Cinema Film Series at the AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring.
Starting tomorrow, July 9, there will be free weekly screenings of films centered on various medical conditions - like Alzheimer's (Away from Her), locked-in syndrome (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) and HIV/AIDS (Life Support). The films will be followed by commentary from researchers in the field and a Q&A session, which could be interesting, given the directorial liberties that are often taken in films dealing with medicine and biology.
If…
bioephemera | July 8, 2008Sloan-Kettering's online lung cancer risk calculator tells smokers what their relative risk of cancer would be if they quit.
I'm all in favor of getting people to quit smoking, but this kind of risk can really only be calculated for groups, not individuals. Will people using the calculator understand that?
Sloan-Kettering recommends the tool for "people who meet all of these conditions: Age: 50 to 75 years old; Smoking History: 10 to 60 cigarettes a day for 25 to 55 years; Current Status: Current smokers, and former smokers who quit 20 years ago or less." My mom is one of those people, but…
bioephemera | July 4, 2008GONE
Isabella Kirkland, 2004The sixty-three species painted in Gone have all become extinct since the mid-1800's and the colonization of the new world.
Isabella Kirkland's Taxa series are beautiful, intricate, large-scale indictments of humanity's destructive potential. Drawing stylistic cues from 17th and 18th century European still lifes, Kirkland's huge oil paintings depict species driven to extinction or near-extinction, introduced/invasive species, and illegally traded species.
GONE (detail)
Isabella Kirkland, 2004
Each of the paintings is accompanied by an outline key that identifies…
bioephemera | July 2, 2008
Any recent decline in the popularity of reading, especially reading long books, appears to have totally bypassed Ammon Shea. Shea recently spent a year reading the Oxford English Dictionary, and his book about the experience, Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages, drops today.
When I first heard about Shea's project, I wasn't especially inspired. What is an "expert dictionary reader" anyway? And who wants to read a book about reading a book - especially a dictionary? It's not that I don't love dictionaries. I keep a massive unabridged Funk & Wagnalls flopped open in my…
bioephemera | June 30, 2008
Cristina Vergano, 2006
Via the wonderful Phantasmaphile, I just discovered artist Cristina Vergano. Her latest series, "Figures of Speech," are like Old Masters crossed with children's puzzles - playful Renaissance rebuses that spell out their own titles (key at the bottom of this post).
Cristina Vergano, 2006
Vergano mixes trompe l'oeil with typefaces, clear-eyed, enigmatic people and animals, and allegorical landscapes to perfectly balance frivolity with the suggestion of deeper meaning. Vergano said in the artist's statement for an earlier exhibition, "Knowledge and our approaches to it…
bioephemera | June 30, 2008FYI - the deadline to apply for astronaut school is tomorrow, July 1:
NASA is now accepting applications for its 2009 astronaut class. The agency is looking for a few men and women who want to fulfill their dreams and be a part of the next generation of explorers.
To be considered, a bachelor's degree in engineering, science or math and three years of relevant professional experience are required. Typically, successful applicants have significant qualifications in engineering or science, or extensive experience flying high-performance jet aircraft. Teaching experience, including work at the…
bioephemera | June 28, 2008
Jacques DonnezFertility and Sterility
Jacques Donnez, a doctor in France, was conducting a routine hysterectomy when he discovered the ovary was coincidentally in the process of expelling an egg. He captured these photos, which clearly show what a dramatic event it is. The word "explosive" seems apt enough, but it's not quick; Donnez captured these photos over a period of 15 minutes.
I don't know what's more alarming: that these are the best images to date of how each one of us started life, or the realization that my own personal ovaries have done this more than 200 times. Yowch!
Donnez'…
bioephemera | June 26, 2008This is why I don't do digital art (click PLAY, or for a larger, higher-res version, go to the link below):
AtomFilms.com: Funny Videos | Funny Cartoons | Comedy Central
Higher-res version: "Animator vs. Animation" by Alan Becker
Sequel (via GrrrlScientist, thanks Bob O for the heads-up): "Animator vs. Animation II" by Alan Becker (this summarizes nicely why the second and third Matrix films were doomed to mediocrity).
bioephemera | June 26, 2008
Via the SEA blog: Jeremy Kalgreen at Amorphia Apparel has created some delicious t-shirts that help you advocate teaching your controversy of choice. Or, display your support for the amazing things Science has brought us - like giant guitar-playing robots and mechanical paramecia:
Rock on, Amorphia! We here at Scienceblogs understand that it's turtles all the way down. . .
bioephemera | June 25, 2008Fly Away Home (detail)
Jessica Palmer
On my old blog, I posted poems regularly (among my favorites were Dan Chiasson's "Mosaic of a Hare" and David Barber's "Pilgrim's Progress.") But I haven't encountered a particularly inspirational poem recently, so I let the habit lapse here on the new blog.
I think it's high time to reinstate the tradition, starting with this gem from Stanley Plumly, who teaches just a few miles away at the University of Maryland-College Park:
"The Crows at 3 A.M."Stanley Plumly
From the June 2 New Yorker
The politically correct, perfect snow of Vermont
undulant under…
bioephemera | June 24, 2008
My friend Jane sent me this link to a wonderful blog, Ptak Science Books, which declares itself "A Blog of the History of Ideas--unusual connections in the history of science and mathematics with the arts and social history."
It's fabulous and bizarre. Witness the latest post, "Fantastic and Unreachable Intellectual Claims: Psychology and Dr. Strangelove":
How could one argue with the simplex simplicity of this slightly mechanical reader's aids, "The Mental Chart, How Your Mind Works"? It continues "The Original and Only Chart of its Kind Ever Published to Simplify the Study of Psychology…
bioephemera | June 24, 2008Mark Wahlberg's science teacher contends with his own confusion while gratuitously alluding to Einstein.
Zade Rosenthal. c 2008 Twentieth Century Fox. All rights reserved.
Last night I saw The Happening, which is hands down the worst film since Battlefield Earth. I savor big-budget, mindless popcorn romps (Independence Day, yay!) but The Happening was a nasty lump of awful dialogue, overacting/nonacting, and ludicrous pseudoscience. I'm not sure how this film even got released. Several people fled the theatre as it became painfully clear just how bad it was. Those of us who stayed were…