Humor stuff, and in the best of worlds, science humor stuff
worldsfair | May 2, 2007
I've just started playing around with facebook, and thought it would be a great way to organize the whole Science Scouts phenom (even Nature picked up on our anthem, "Increase the N"). Anyway, we've had at least 150 calls for membership from the first boingboing nod, and with the second nod from boingboing (to coincide with additional badges), well, I'll admit, I'm having a tough time keeping up.
Hence the use of facebook, where all of this joining and dialogue can hopefully take care of itself. So, if any of you are on Facebook, I'd invite you to join, and would especially appreciate it if…
worldsfair | April 18, 2007
...The Blob has been dormant for half a century, but it's out there and the only thing preventing it from squishing through the streets of our cities right now, leaving a slimy trail of death in its wake, is the biting cold of the polar ice cap. Remember? That's where the Air Force marooned it after a bunch of teenagers neutralized the thing by freezing it with CO2 fire extinguishers. Steve McQueen himself assured us that we were safe "as long as the Arctic stays cold."
As long as the Arctic stays cold. . .
Read the full piece at the Science Creative Quarterly here (by Laurence Hughes)
worldsfair | April 17, 2007Teams have just returned from Sagittarius A*, situated pretty much at the centre of our own galaxy. This was where the final game of the Sweet Sixteen was played in a last minute venue change implemented by the tournament organizers to generate some buzz.
Regrettably, special relativity nuances weren't factored in these logistics, despite the traveling distance needed to be covered (about 26,000 light years one way). Consequently, even though the teams were only traveling for microseconds (i.e. really really fast), and the game itself lasted for a little over 40 minutes, space-time curvature…
worldsfair | April 11, 2007I've got a list up at McSweeney's today. Click here to read.
That brings my creationism/intelligent design mockery count to three. The previous include this one and this one.
worldsfair | April 6, 2007PRESS CENTER | UPDATED BRACKET
Welcome folks, to this here what we'll call the beautiful game (at least we'll say that for the molecular level). This game really had it all, it was dynamic, it had equilibrium, it had fluid transition, and it was catalytic. It involved freakishly large chemical sounding words, and also a wierd scoreboard that looked something like this:
But hey, whatever, right?
The game started off slowly enough, with Team Acid moving the ball well. Their game plan was fairly straight forward, and with a play by play that looked a little bit like this:
But then the d-…
worldsfair | March 27, 2007Basically, an almost last call for entries. And to reiterate, a humour piece is needed, plus (plus) additional captions can be supplied if you want to take a chance at modifying your score for better or for worse. Also, note that the prize rocks! (full details below)
* * *PDF | JPG
The Science Creative Quarterly seeks science humour pieces for entry into our awesome new contest. Judging will be based on a number of criteria that can be annotated as follows:
Briefly, final Score (FS) is equal to the the base score of the humour piece submitted (S), times a number (n) of modifiers (fs) which…
worldsfair | March 22, 2007
So like, I'm not a big fan of making lunches for my children, and in my household we actually alternate that chore between the two of us (If Kate is doing bedtime stories, I'm on lunches, etc). In fact, on the days when the daycare or school is doing a "hot lunch" or it happens to be "Hot Dog" day or whatever, and it works out to be on the day you're suppose to make the lunch, then it's like time for a goddamn happy dance! Much merriment. Seriously.
Anyway, because of this, I just want to say a few words of thanks to the Starfrit company for one of their products. No, it's not the Apple…
worldsfair | March 21, 2007This is how I'd imagine the thought process would go (or why I think satire does a pretty good job of showing the silliness of intelligent design).
(From Inkling)
worldsfair | March 9, 2007So, apologies again for the recent lack of posts. There's been a number of things going on of late, including getting a chance to meet fellow Scienceblogger, Chris Mooney, as well as being in full wedding planner mode for an upcoming visit by Dr. Vandana Shiva.
To get back into the swing of things, let's first start with a link elsewhere. Is it science porn? I don't know - although the thought of these pin-ups gracing the locker rooms of laboratories across the planet is strangely appealing to me.
This is the second pin-up from the SCQ and in keeping with a "skin" theme, it's on our…
bcohen | February 17, 2007After a long delay, the Annals of Science at McSweeney's are back with Volume XII. In fact, I've been off-line for several days (what a world out there, you should see it) and only now saw that it was up: "Galileo Was Right About the Stars".
So, if you were looking for a small write-up with an over-reliance (some might say juvenile fixation) on Italian names, and one that held Galileo, Jesuits, Maffeo Barberini, Spanish anti-papal cabals, and weather commentary together, then this is your lucky day.
worldsfair | February 16, 2007Last day of my workshop.
And I simply must direct folks to the piece that is up at the SCQ today. The piece by Hugh Powell (who also contributes over at the always wonderful Inkling), is really what the SCQ is all about. Go check it out - it's called, "MALCOLM GLADWELL WRITES THE INTRODUCTION TO A NEW EDITION OF THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY."
Also, the Science Scouts has gotten a wonderful response, and so new members and new badges will be duly added sometime next week (some of the badge suggestions have been really funny).
And for those of you who haven't had a chance to…
worldsfair | February 14, 2007This piece is great. Basically looking at scientific ways to query a few well known hypotheses such as, "All we need is love", "It's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all", and "Love means never having to say you're sorry."
Fitting too, being Valentine's Day and all (Happy Valentine's day , Kate!)
worldsfair | January 29, 2007Seriously now, everyone should take this course. Although I hear it's restricted to folks who have their own fellowships. Competition is tough these days.
worldsfair | January 17, 2007This is a GTPase Activating Protein... "GAP" - get it? Nevermind...CELEBRITY: Who are you?
SCIENTIST: I am a geneticist.
CELEBRITY: Like, is that a big word for someone who is not as cool as me?
...and so on
Another one of my geneticist pieces. Read it all here at the always marvelous Inkling.
worldsfair | January 12, 2007Including:
And at the early dawn of the seventh day, just before He rested, God did a lot of pretty complicated things at super duper God speed. This was so that people would think the whole Creation thing probably took a lot longer than seven days.
(more here)
This piece was fun to write and is more or less a sequel to a previous piece on stem cells. Hmmm... I wonder what topic might be entertained to make this a trilogy.
worldsfair | January 11, 2007Entitled: "The iPhone: A User Guide" and courtesy of Darren Cahr (via McSweeney's).
Includes:
IX. Using the iPhone to solve disputes between Moqtada al-Sadr and certain Sunni elements within Iraq without causing an escalation of hostilities, or the development of closer ties between Iran and Shiite militias
XIII. Using the iPhone to take pictures of celebrities without underpants
XIX. Using the iPhone to learn whether Ehud Barak ever considered adopting Barack Obama and changing the Illinois junior senator's name to Barack Barak
XX. Using the iPhone to find love, true love, love like you've…
worldsfair | January 9, 2007Alright, it's 2007, and already I'm feeling the soft squeeze of all the different things that need tending to. In fact, there are two comics at the Science Creative Quarterly today that, perhaps to greater extremes, emulate my current mood (i.e. this is what it feels like when you've effectively been away for 2 to 3 weeks and then come back to a deluge of correspondence).
Here's one of two graphics by Lena Webb, and captioned, "Cap-Snatching: What the Mechanism Doesn't Show You..."
Actually, getting pieces like this does a great job of illustrating the wondrous interactivity and community…
worldsfair | December 22, 2006(By Paul Clarkson and reprinted from the Science Creative Quarterly)
Being a scientific investigation of a cultural conundrum
Soon it will be Christmas Eve, and once more children will be divided into distinct factions. Here, Cyr [1] described younger children (12 years) who have ditched this 'childish' belief. But he fails, by excluding from his questionnaire, to describe a third group who aren't really sure - the undecided voters if you like. And as the eldest child, I have spent a large part of my life in this group. Moreover, being scientifically minded even at the age 7, I of course…