bcohen | November 16, 2006A story in the Post yesterday, "Think Tank Will Promote Thinking: Advocates Want Science, Not Faith, at Core of Public Policy," begins this way:
Concerned that the voice of science and secularism is growing ever fainter in the White House, on Capitol Hill and in culture, a group of prominent scientists and advocates of strict church-state separation yesterday announced formation of a Washington think tank designed to promote "rationalism" as the basis of public policy.
It's being promoted by the Center for Inquiry-Transnational, which apparently also just put out a "Declaration in Defense of…
worldsfair | November 15, 2006
Image resulting from tree "painting" by Douglas-fir for two minutes
Nalini Nadkarni, a tree canopy researcher and a National Geographic regular, was kind enough to let me publish this interest piece that looks at the intersection of science and arts.
In essense, she explores the notion that lack of empathy for flora such as trees, is partially mitigated by its stationary status, and so goes on to explore whether how mobile trees actually are. To do this, she essentially adheres a paintbrush to a twig on a branch, and places a canvas in proximity. What's produced is essentially a "painting…
worldsfair | November 15, 2006Here is some silliness to get back in the swing of things. Composed whilst waiting for Ben (Cohen) at the Vancouver Airport, recently rejected by McSweeney's, and likely to make an appearance at one of my sites in the not so distant future.
Still, I was (and still sort of am) seriously considering shopping a better version/take of this piece to a place that "pays per word", mainly because it would be deliciously ironic to get compensated for words like "Uuuuhhhggg", "Gggrr", and "Rrrrn."
HAN SOLO AND CHEWBACCA WEIGH IN ON THEIR NEW HYBRID MILLENIUM FALCON.
HS: Well, so far, it seems like…
bcohen | November 14, 2006We end up examining political, cultural, economic, moral, environmental, and technical factors of nuclear energy in some of my courses here in the Engineering School. In the process of reviewing some older material, I once again came upon this wonderful article by Kristin Shrader-Frechette, a philosopher and environmental ethicist at Notre Dame: "Nuclear Technology and Radioactive Waste: A Survey of the Issues," Environmental Ethics 13:4 (1991): 327-343.
In it, she explains some of the background for distrust in the technical expert:
"At the nuclear waste facility containing more plutonium…
bcohen | November 13, 2006One of my favorite recent sub-features at McSweeney's is Lawrence Weschler's Convergences Contest. I am stunned yet again with today's artful entry (#28), sent to L.W. by Walter Murch:
[caption from the site: "Logging trees in a Swedish forest, as seen from the air"]
bcohen | November 10, 2006As far as transits across the sun, this was a good one. (It's a video link to NASA, who has several color variations at this main link -- just click "Hotshot" at the top.) As far as transits in general, it ranks right up there with other famous transits, like the ones astronomers would go on about, if left to their own devises and if they'd caught you at a cocktail party celebrating the announcement of a new galaxy or something, which is what I figure they have cocktail parties for.
Apparently, there have been 94 transits over the last seven centuries. And 2/3 of those come in November…
worldsfair | November 10, 2006
(Image from herbalgram.org)
This past week and a bit have been chaos central with a number of things going on round my neck of the woods. Some of which are your usual academic doledrums, but some of which were pretty inspiring overall. I guess the thing that has been most on my mind was my role as a "producer" of sorts for a high-profile speaker series at UBC. Two days ago we had a visit by National Geographic Explorer in Resident, Wade Davis, so only now, are my wedding planner type instincts starting to die down.
For those of you, who have never heard of Wade Davis, he is quite an…
bcohen | November 9, 2006Ah, how exciting it is for Democrats. So much so that they forgive and/or forget moral lapses elsewhere, such as that old Virginia trick of state-sponsored discrimination. To avoid such easy ignorance, The World's Fair's Gift Shop and Haberdashery proudly links to the next great T-Shirt, available here (and courtesy of J.L.).
Go wild, buy a dozen. They make a great holiday gift.
bcohen | November 9, 2006As introduced here a month or two ago, Mountain Man Dance Moves is making the rounds, picking up the press, impressing the ladies. The McSweeney's Book of Lists was released in September, with a steady rise in Amazon ranking since then (from the 15,000 range to the 1500 range). There was notice of it in the The New York Times - more like an extended blurb than a small review; and not even in the Book section; and I can't access it or link to it now because I forgot my NYT password; but good either way - and then John Warner (web editor and, again, head of the Senate Armed Forces Committee)…
worldsfair | November 3, 2006So, things have been pretty busy round here, as among other things, I've been getting things ready for a visit to UBC by Wade Davis, which sort of explains my general absence from this blog (thanks Ben, for picking up my slack).
In any event, I have other excuses for my absence which can be summarized with the following list:
Children are ill
My scheduled posts were accidently or perhaps deliberately junked, by bad bad people, no less.
The special Director's Version of the "Bring it On" DVD has just been released.
Canada is on holiday.
There is a lot of marking to do.
I am caught in the…
bcohen | November 1, 2006The system has failed. My point is that the system, as we have constructed it, is a failed one. All kids choose "treat." None choose "trick." Not one. It is time to change course. It is time to cut and run from the Trick-Or-Treat option. That's my only point. We're a one-party system when it comes down to candy distribution.
Furthermore, it would seem more important at this point to get on with the taxonomy scheme project well underway, the one following from that dominant "treat" selection.
Have at it.
bcohen | November 1, 2006Although there were some intra-family disputes about what belongs where, we did derive a basic candy hierachy, and I do think it is basically sound. This taxonomy is based on years of research and debate, on thorough testing and re-testing, on statistical comparison and quality measurement, on focus group testing, and on a series of FTIR scans that reveal various hydrocarbon peaks and whatnot.
In other words, this is sound science.
Here's what we've found, with uncertainties acknowledged:
TOP TIER
(not suprisingly, exclusively chocolate-based)
Milly Way --- Snickers --- Peanut M&M's…
bcohen | October 31, 2006So here's one from TIME, on population density. I did not realize Dallas-Fort Worth was the fifth largest metropolitan area. I did not know that.
(it's an old map, completely irrelevant to the link above)
bcohen | October 31, 2006This has to be the best new job title. George Mason University is looking for a Technology Evangelist. Quoth GMU:
The Center for History & New Media at George Mason University is seeking a technology evangelist for Zotero (www.zotero.org), an open source bibliographic management and note-taking tool for the Firefox web browser. The technology evangelist will be responsible for building alliances with scholarly organizations and libraries, encouraging scholars to try Zotero, developing and maintaining user documentation, and building awareness of this next-generation research tool. We…
bcohen | October 31, 2006The Silencer (being performed in Blacksburg, VA, on November 1, 2, and 3, ahead of its London opening in 2007) is a play about Global Warming and Climate Science. How about that, a play about global warming and climate science. Not your everyday occurrence. I can't say if it's Michael Frayn-level theater, but I can say that it's not the usual approach to confronting climate science issues.
Here's a summary of the play:
Dr. Brian Heath must decide whether to protect his family or publicize his alarming findings about the impending threat of climate change. His predicament stands for our…
bcohen | October 30, 2006This time it's possible that it isn't really his fault. Dawkins is speaking here at the University of Virginia this Friday, on the rare day that I'm out of town at a conference. I could blame the History of Science Society, or the Society for Social Studies of Science. (See Janet's post too; get the HSS program here and the 4S program here.) But I'd still like to pin this on Dawkins himself. And since I assume he reads The World's Fair (4 out of 5 evolutionary theorists do, studies show) I'll leave it at that.
If anyone at U.Va. reads this too (don't have the comparable study to show that…
worldsfair | October 27, 2006Chances are, this 1952 film from Norman Mclaren cost less than $1.2 billion. Despite that, it won the Oscar for best animation that year.
worldsfair | October 27, 2006
At the beginning of this past week, I did a post on some of the science behind the aroma of coffee, so I thought it would be fitting to talk a bit about wine as well. Not because I'm a wine afinionado (not even close), but mainly because I had the opportunity to write a piece for Maisonneuve which looked closely at the burgeoning use of genomic technology in this otherwise tradition steep profession.
As well, the process behind this piece getting published was interesting in of itself, since this was one occasion where I really experienced how heavy handed the editing process can be.
Anyway…
bcohen | October 26, 2006The new Border Fence Law: What a stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid , stupid, stupid, stupid , stupid idea.
Hmmm, a billion bucks or two...
What would I spend it on?
Healthcare?
Education?
Scientific resources?
Critical infrastructure?
Arts funding?
Language classes?
New TiVos?
Me? Not on a border fence, that's where I wouldn't. Not on a technological fix in the worst way, one meant to "fix" an issue that is not even addressed by said fence fix, an issue that remains underspecified and deeply morally problematic, one that is a point of ignorance or is the most recent…
bcohen | October 26, 2006From an Eco Politics listserv I see mention of an upcoming debate about Nuclear Energy: "Cradle to Grave: New Nukes and Old Radioactive Waste"
It is a Live Webcast Debate being held on the 27th. The link is here, but you can't see anything until the webcast.
More details below the fold...
MEDIA ADVISORY FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
CAN NUCLEAR POWER BE THE SOLUTION TO CLIMATE CHANGE AND FUTURE ENERGY DEMAND?
***Live Webcast Debate***
FORMER GREENPEACE ACTIVIST TURNED NUCLEAR INDUSTRY SPOKESMAN TO DEBATE LEADING "VOICES OF REASON" AGAINST A PROPOSED NUCLEAR RENAISSANCE
Burlington, VT - After…