worldsfair | January 24, 2007Do I detect a tone of bitterness here? But, please, please - wouldn't it be great if textbooks were written like this?
worldsfair | January 24, 2007
Chris Van Allsburg, "Just a Dream" (over consumption)
So as the truth experiment continues to do its thing, I'm getting ready to give two talks on sustainability and climate science concepts to an audience of visual arts students here at UBC. Specifically, these university students are exploring the techniques and expressive values of drawing and printmaking, so I thought I would colour these talks with a few examples of the art that I'm probably most familiar with - that being kid's books. As well, I'll be working generally with these students on a project, that aims to produce some type…
worldsfair | January 23, 2007So, it's come to this, in the latest version of the truth:
Wilco is good, sometimes exceptional, but often inconsequential.
You can see the editing process here.
Also, does google censor things like attempts at google bombing, or is there some algorhymicy reason why the piece dissappeared from the google cache the third day in? Apparently, according to their FAQs, they don't censor - at least not without an explanation.
It is Google's policy not to censor search results. However, in response to local laws, regulations, or policies, we may do so. When we remove search results for these…
bcohen | January 22, 2007Virginia's State Advisory Board on Air Pollution released a report on greenhouse gases. Here is a Richmond Times-Dispatch front page story about it. What's fun is that famous anti-global warming critic, and University of Virginia Professor (though not "state climatologist"), Patrick Michaels "was on sabbatical and had no comment on the new report."
The report, my friend at the VA DEQ tells me, may be the first state-affiliated one in Virginia (other than academic papers from state universities) that discusses global warming and potential responses in any detail.
The newspaper article says…
worldsfair | January 22, 2007
And the object in question is this Lego ad, which to me almost represents the exact opposite sentiment to the "talking science" avenue raised in Ben's previous post.
Why do I think this is a thing of beauty. Maybe, it's because I'm in the know. Maybe, because the tag-line ("Make Anything") is something clever enough to make my heart sing. Maybe, because there's no even the slightest mention of ubiquitination here. Or maybe, because I think Lego is just freakin' cool anyway.
What's especially interesting, is you go to the referring post at ADVERTISING/DESIGN GOODNESS, there is a…
bcohen | January 22, 2007So I'm leafing through my good old weekly Science, as ever, and looky here, what do I find...the fantastic duo Mukhopadhyay and Riezman at it again. In the 12 January 2007 issue -- yes, the issue with the "scanning electron micrograph of Trichomonas vaginalis parasites (gray-green) adhering to vaginal epithelial cells (pink)" that look like strawberries, on the cover -- and they've got a research review piece, "Proteasome-Independent Functions of Ubiquitin in Endocytosis and Signaling," and I admit there were some parts I simply didn't quite follow. They start with the obvious: "…
bcohen | January 20, 2007Why would Der Kommissar's presence in town ("oh, oh") require one not to turn around? This has puzzled me for nigh on two+ decades now. Even if we cared that he was in town -- fearful, I assume -- then what does not turning around do for anybody? They say "if he talks to you then you'll know why." But that's just stupid.
I find it hard to imagine a scenario where my turning around would in anyway be dictated by the presence of Der Kommissar. It wouldn't happen. There's no reason for the edict. Let's be done with already then?
We appreciate your attention to this.
worldsfair | January 20, 2007Well, this is curious. Looks like the truth has had has had been shut down.
This is odd, since I don't think we're there yet for traffic, and besides, the SCQ can handle enormous amounts of traffic. I wonder if the truth has was has, literally, been attacked? (again) I'll have to check in with my team on monday (thanks to them by the way)
(Info on this web experiment found here)
bcohen | January 19, 2007[I'd consider this a cultural studies of science kind of post, which isn''t philosophy of sience proper, as the psot is officially categorized, but is science, technology, and society, which I'll treat as this category's more general frame, for the time being.]
There's a play being produced in New York, at the Julia Miles Theater (not that I know where that is) called "Victoria Martin: Math Team Queen." I heard about this on Talk of the Nation Science Friday today. They interviewed the writer, Playwright Kathryn Walat, and it seemed eminently intriguing.
When pressed, she said it had…
worldsfair | January 19, 2007Who says, society can't influence the definition of the truth? (Well, in the Web2.0 context anyway). Apparently, it already has. (Origin of this experiment here)
worldsfair | January 19, 2007<a href="http://scq.ubc.ca/?p=677">truth</a>
Use this code as often as you can.
A while back, I wrote a post asking ScienceBloggers what they thought were successful tactics in the game of initiating forms of viral marketing. The question was primarily posed to ask whether such tricks to be used to promote things of, perhaps more importance (i.e. in the social responsibility context). You know, not Snakes on a Plane, or cool music videos with treadmills.
Anyway, this is what I've decided to try. Basically, it's a chance to create a version of a Truth that can propogate. That…
worldsfair | January 18, 2007Just wanted to let folks know that the "Gap Ad Celebrity Speaks to a Geneticist" piece is getting some good discussion going on. Specifically related to issues of gender sterotyping - here's part of the dialogue I wrote:
Still, I think the "lightening up" aspect merits more discussion. Whilst you are aggravated by [the piece], it would be interesting to see whether others feel the existence of such a conceit is wrong. To be honest, I'm not so sure myself.
I guess there's two things at play here: those being (i) the issue of stereotyping itself, and (ii) the manner in which you broached the…
bcohen | January 17, 2007A conference announcement, for all who are fond of this Darwin person, dear old Mister Darwin. "Darwinism after Darwin" (indeed the subject of many a Scienceblogs post) is being sponsored by the British Society for the History of Science (BSHS) and hosted by the University of Leeds, from September 3rd - 5th 2007. Should the drive to submit a paper proposal find its way to you, be a dear and click here for details on the official Call for Papers.
This gives us a chance to plaster a portrait of the young Chuck D:
(image credit)
One might even accuse us of writing this otherwise rudimentary…
worldsfair | January 17, 2007
This 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 16, 2007Not counting Shouts and Murmurs email queries, I've sent pieces to the New Yorker proper on three occasions, the last of which just a few months ago. What I've noticed is that there is a clear trend is how these rejection letters have been developing over the years.
Here's the first one I got, which I think is pretty impressive and earned a rating of "A" in a previous post. I mean, it's got it all. Handwritten, reference to a powerful editor at the top of his game, written and signed even by someone in the same plateau. Plus, just the right amount of pretention in the letter to make it…
worldsfair | January 16, 2007Last week, I proposed the writing of a piece that aimed to look at the music video for Radiohead's "Just" in a scientific way. Here, I just wanted to note that Bill Benzon over at The Valve picked up on it and generated some interesting reader feedback - feedback that was distinctly different from the sort generated here at Scienceblogs. Is this another good illustration of the "two cultures" phenomenon?
Anyhow, you can go here to check out that dialogue, but here also is the commentary I provided when weighing in myself:
In some respects, the basic idea behind the query is to look at what…
worldsfair | January 13, 2007Here, succinctly anyway, is why a School Board place a moratorium on showing Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth":
"Condoms don't belong in school, and neither does Al Gore. He's not a schoolteacher ... The information that's being presented is a very cockeyed view of what the truth is. ... The Bible says that in the end times everything will burn up, but that perspective isn't in the DVD."
(Frosty Hardison, parent of seven who also said that he believes the Earth is 14,000 years old)
Looks like I found a potential third topic for my "Bible Passage Trilogy."
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.
bcohen | January 12, 2007What we have here is an escalation in the nature of the PF. Phase Two of PF#2 is now upon us. Because PF#2 has been solved.
But which solution is it?
(Ever looking for "D")
The first Puzzle was a game, a set of clues to see how people think through evidence, and to see which directions thoughts and inclinations lead people. It shouldn't be confused with science, we should note. We're not imitating "science." We're more interested in knowledge production and reasoning and argument and uses of evidence. Science, as I think most of us know it, provides the best way to deal with those…