Humor stuff, and in the best of worlds, science humor stuff
worldsfair | February 6, 2008Just wanted to pass on two pieces, the SCQ has been lucky enough to present. They are:
THE WIKI HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE IN 200 WORDS OR LESS
and
TRAGEDY OF THE COMMONS EXPLAINED WITH SMURFS
The history piece in particular was done by none other than Eric Schulman, who was responsible for "A Briefer History of Time." Both are definitely worth checking out.
bcohen | January 5, 20082007 SCIENCE SHOWDOWN PRESS CENTER
PRINTABLE 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! 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! Darwin! Darwin! Darwin! Darwin! Darwin! Darwin! Darwin! Darwin! Darwin! Darwin!…
bcohen | December 28, 2007PRESS CENTER | PRINTABLE BRACKETS | FINAL GAME: Darwin v. HIV
Now that d-Orbitals are sitting at home doing the work of orbitals while TiVoing the Darwin-HIV match-up, it's hard for some to believe that they once looked to take it all. But this scrappy bunch of, of whatever d-Orbitals are (besides being the premier orbital of the 2007 season, obviously), took it to Acids and put their stamp on this year's Showdown.
Dave captured the spirit here, noting in particular that:
This game really had it all, it was dynamic, it had equilibrium, it had fluid transition, and it was catalytic. It…
bcohen | December 27, 2007PRESS CENTER | PRINTABLE BRACKETS | FINAL GAME: Darwin v. HIV
This is how tournaments go. You end up with some of the classic games in the middle, you find a monster match-up in the Sweet Sixteen. And that's how it went down when Corporate met Darwin, as Rich called it over at Evolgen.
As Rich said,
Yesterday's game between Corporate and Charles Darwin was a battle between free market capitalism and the greatest naturalist of all time. The Corporate team is loaded with the world's top pharmaceutical and chemical companies. Darwin is the author of important works such as On the Origin of…
bcohen | December 26, 2007PRESS CENTER | PRINTABLE BRACKETS | FINAL GAME: Darwin v. HIV
It was Particle versus F=ma in the Sweet Sixteen, and BBC Radio 4 LW was broadcasting with those charming accents. Fortunately, geologist Chris Rowan was there to translate. Mostly.
This is what we heard when we first dialed in...
JA: Welcome back to the final session of this very special Science Spring Showdown one day international: we've just reached the end of the tea break, and the Particle batsmen are just making their way to the crease; the F=ma team are already in position in the field, poised, eager almost.
For those of…
bcohen | December 25, 2007PRESS CENTER | PRINTABLE BRACKETS | FINAL GAME: Darwin v. HIV
And then there was a slew of action in the Mortar and Pestle Region. Janet Stemwedel, ethicist to the stars, was there to give the pre-game rundown. Her sense of the science's strengths and weakness proved prescient.
It began like this...
Here are the first round match ups:
Acid vs. Base: It's not a surprise to find these teams here, as they're standbys in the Chemistry Conference. While tournament games are all played inside, we hear that Acid has been practicing out in the rain to get ready for these games. It's worth noting…
bcohen | December 24, 2007PRESS CENTER | PRINTABLE BRACKETS | FINAL GAME: Darwin v. HIV
What began as a field of 64 highly competitive teams has ended with just Darwin and HIV. With the tournament's Final game currently underway, we look back on a Science Showdown like no other. Some of the best play in the early rounds came from the Physics, or Orbit, Region. Chad Orzel, of Uncertain Principles, caught all the action.
It all began with this...
Anchor 1 (voiceover): The Showdown begins! Four regions, eight games each, sixty-four top science concepts in a fight to the finish.
Anchor 2: In today's Orbit region…
worldsfair | December 20, 2007Well it's been 9 months going and 64 teams from the beginning, but it's come down to this folks - a battle between two giants in the scientific world.
DARWIN vs HIV
So how does it look?
Well, Darwin has never been a quiet one, and some say he's just gearing up for his 200th birthday. Conversely, this year's worldwide infection count downgrade of 40 million to 33 million doesn't fool anyone - as all indications suggest that HIV is definitely ready for action.
Anyway, click on this bracket image below if you need a reminder of the amazing gameplay over the last 9 months. It'll take you a…
worldsfair | December 19, 2007It has come to our attention here at Pole Headquarters that something disastrous is occurring in regards to the Earth. It seems that there have been too many bad little boys and girls polluting the atmosphere with the byproducts of carbon fuels, causing world temperatures to rise.
And so it continues. Worth a read.
worldsfair | December 18, 2007Let's do some pre-game chatter.
Because the winner of this semi final in the SCIENCE SHOWDOWN 2007 (can you tell, we're trying to finish up before the end of the new year) will earn a spot in the final - and against Darwin no less. What do you think? When push comes to shove, which is the badder baddie?
The horror of HIV, or the ominous nature of fossil fuels?
Game time: Wednesday am...
worldsfair | December 18, 2007PRESS CENTER | PRINTABLE BRACKETS
What a game! What a game! Unbelievable from the start to the finish! I mean who could've imagined such drama in a match that pitted tentacles against viral particles. But this baby was action packed all the way. HIV was cocky from the get go...
"I am sooo gonna kick ass. I am unstoppable. Folks call me a travesty, folks call me a genocide, and there's nothing you can do about it. Even my merchandise is better than those pansy soft invertebrates. They got nothing on me. Nothing!"
And while the dig about the merchandise may have been true, it was…
bcohen | December 17, 2007PRESS CENTER | PRINTABLE BRACKETS
I don't even know what to say. Darwin won. It was won, how to put this, how to put this, it was won a little more than handily. Particle didn't even score. Darwin won 142 to 0.
WF: [speaking to the camera, microphone in hand] Let me step into the press conference. Not many folks left. I should be able to get a good spot. I have no idea what I just saw out there. Particle had been so dominant, so free-flowing in defeating General Relativity. I don't know what happened over these past months, during this game. But what a debacle here today.
P:
WF…
worldsfair | December 17, 2007PRESS CENTER | PRINTABLE BRACKETS
"We're not quite done yet" said a smug Minister John Baird, Environment Minister for Canada, as he celebrated a close win for the Fossil Fuel team.
Fossil fuels vs d-orbitals - it really doesn't sound like a fair matchup from the get go, especially when you look at the stats over the last 300 years or so. Clearly, fossil fuels have a strong track record and have just kept getting stronger and stronger.
Meanwhile, d-orbitals had a tough time making any gains in the popular media (even googling the term only returns a paltry 37,000 hits).
"We wanted to turn…
bcohen | December 17, 2007PRESS CENTER | PRINTABLE BRACKETS
Aaaaannnnnd, we're back. Thank you for tuning in.
Remember? Remember the brackets? The 2007 Science Spring Showdown? The phenomenon Rolling Stone said was summarized at this url"; the tournament ESPN: The Magazine hailed as "full of 64 teams and then some, as shown here!"; the event Larry King called "As good as Cocoon, and twice as young!"? Remember?
We didn't, but our readers sent us a note. So do some clicking on the header links, and catch up. Because our readership has tripled since the Showdown's start, all you upstarts will want to do some…
worldsfair | November 15, 2007Good old McSweeney's scores again.
Free Range:
Animals raised with a free-range lifestyle have plenty of room to stretch out and eat bugs. This is particularly important for chickens, which need at least two square feet of space at all times. Factory-farming conditions are like living in apartment buildings in big cities: a co-op is formed within the coop, and the poultry have grinding meetings on where to put the satellite dish and how much to tip the doorman at Christmas. As in a human co-op, any new members deemed unsatisfactory or weak are pecked to death. Other free-range items, such as…
worldsfair | November 13, 2007
Today the SCQ published what can only be described as a necessary appendum to the IPCC reports. The title above is but one of many papers sited, and the others are presented below (and below the fold). Of course, like any good scientist, you'll have to dig deeper to make sense of them, but you can get the review here (OTHER POSSIBLE CAUSES OF GLOBAL WARMING: A LITERATURE REVIEW)
Waddleton, et al., 2000, "Cool Summer Temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere: Evidence for Temporal Correlation with Mrs. Price's Oven Repair Work," Climate Studies 12: 55
Rigby, et al., 1972, "Mrs. Price Slow…
worldsfair | October 31, 2007This might be handy, if you happen to be dressed up as a ghost or flying superhero or bat, etc - the SCQ has a piece up today, that goes over the physics of learning to fly, a la Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. In other words, the piece takes a look at some of the Newtonian physics needed to "throw yourself at the ground and miss."
It's quite well done, because it goes through the premise a single concept at a time (the above image for instance noting how to do it to fly for 1 second, and noting the caveat that since you accelerate as you fall, you need some more thinking to work out how…
worldsfair | October 26, 2007A piece of geeky brilliance, reprinted from McSweeneys, one of my favourite websites:
Illnesses Whose Victims May Not Be Safely Eaten
1. Rabies
2. Chickenpox
3. Leukemia
4. Tuberculosis
5. The common cold
6. Hodgkin's disease
7. Hepatitis*
8. Leprosy
9. Crohn's disease**
10. Mono (aka mononucleosis, the Epstein-Barr virus, the kissing disease)
11. AIDS
12. Influenza
13. Malaria***
14. Herpes (genital or oral)
15. SARS
Illnesses Whose Victims May Be Safely Eaten
1. Color blindness
2. Tourette's syndrome
3. Alzheimer's disease
4. Breast, thyroid, liver, and prostate cancers****
5. Asthma
6.…
worldsfair | October 24, 2007I just saw Timon put this up on Filter, and found it very funny (the control experiment made me chuckle). Worth a boo:
I've put this below the fold because it starts automatically, and I'm not sure how to disable that.