bcohen | July 16, 2009I haven't been here much, but I did begin a new series over at McSweeney's called "Days at the Museum." It's a limited-run set of dispatches (summer-length, let's say) about research at the Smithsonian and related miscellany. Tuesday was the first one, called "Ronzoni All the Way Down."
This is the central image of the story, a fairly well-known portrait by the French Barbizon artist Jean-Francois Millet from 1857 called "The Gleaners":
And what is the story? I'll repost it in full below the fold. I'd bet it's fair to say it has the character of one of Lawrence Weschler's Convergences…
bcohen | July 14, 2009Alas, I have a book cover to share for Notes from the Ground! I'm pleased with it. I was even brought to use an exclamation point just there.
It happens, I know it, it happens, people judge these things by their covers. I don't say so to be cutesy or play the cliche. I'm just acknowledging it happens. I've done it. Not infrequently, in fact. The one for this book is a plate from the 1697 John Dryden translation of Virgil's The Georgics, one of his epics and the one that threads through the book underneath the cover. I'm excited to see it. Make posters, put it on your walls, behold,…
worldsfair | July 3, 2009
Science Scout Twitter Feed
Somebody recently tweeted the term "transmon qubit" to the Science Scout twitter account, and (for the life of me) I cannot wrap my head around what it is exactly (other than a piece of delicious sounding science jargon).
As far as I can make out, it has something to do with a bit unit in the computation sciences context, which happens to quantum properties. i.e. Not just binary, but more a binary plus this "both, at the same time" option.
Anyway, if anyone can shed some light (a la Bill Nye style) on this term then it would be greatly appreciated.
bcohen | July 2, 2009I realized of late that I am more a fan of Malcolm Galdwell's reviews than his articles. It's possible I've even poked fun of Gladwellian articles in the past ("I Dream in Malcolm Gladwell"). But oh boy did I enjoy his recent review of Chris Anderson's Free: The Future of a Radical Price. Anderson, the editor of Wired, puts forth an economic argument about the digital age -- all information wants to be free; all info in the digital age shall thus be free -- based on an impoverished concept of technology. In "Priced to Sell," Gladwell handily calls him out for it.
Anderson's primary…
bcohen | July 1, 2009Among other things, John Stuart Mill wrote about deliberation in a democratic society. It's the philosophy that a strong democracy is one whose members are actively involved in the functioning of that government. This, as opposed to a passive, distanced, and unreflective citizenry. Engagement and participation into the activity of the society offer benefits in at least two directions: in one way, they make for a stronger democratic society as a whole by demanding connections between the everyday life of the citizens and the everyday operations of the government; this is an advantage that…
bcohen | June 25, 2009The photographer Jade Doskow is capturing and creating images of the once-grand spectacles called World's Fairs. Her photographs do triple duty: they track down those old sites, in cities across the world (from Brussels to Seville, from New York to Spokane, from Paris to Philadelphia); they call back to the technological grandeur such exhibitions sought to promote; and they put those now-decaying sites into a contemporary landscape, setting up questions about past and present and hoped-for futures and the role of technological throughout.
Caption from TMN: "'The Columbian Exposition,'…
bcohen | June 18, 2009Joel Salatin's Polyface Farm is about a half hour from Charlottesville, give or take. His local prominence preceded the Omnivore's Dilemma bump of '06 and continues on after. Jane Black, the food writer for the Washington Post, wrote last year about the Chipotle franchise's decision to use Salatin's pigs as the sole source for their Charlottesville store's carnitas. I use her story in a few of my classes as an entry into the larger topic of local food, infrastructure, distribution, and land use.
Nightline ran a story last night about the Chipotle-Salatin partnership. I don't know how to…
bcohen | June 16, 2009Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead on this day back in 1904. I'm many hours late noting it.
One favorite passage among many quoted below. Try to commit it to memory.
What in water did Bloom, waterlover, drawer of water, watercarrier returning to the range, admire?
Its universality: its democratic equality and constancy to its nature in seeking its own level: its vastness in the ocean of Mercator's projection: its umplumbed profundity in the Sundam trench of the Pacific exceeding 8,000 fathoms: the restlessness of its waves and surface particles visiting in turn all…
worldsfair | June 12, 2009Just a quick heads up to let you know that the Science Scout website has been completely revamped. It's now capable of accepting comments (anecdotes) of why you feel particularly inclined to deserve certain badges.
As well, there are a few these new badges for you to peruse through:
And the start of an attempt to organize according to locale (separate Facebook group sites for individual cities - starting with Vancouver, New York, and London).
But here's the best bit of news...
We're working on real badges! That's right! Nerd Merit Badges are game on to see if they can make some for us.…
worldsfair | June 12, 2009Sorry this has been a bit delayed (for those following anyway).
Song 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
1. Waterfall - James
2. Wake Up - Arcade Fire
3. Never Had Nobody Like You - M Ward
4. No one is to blame - Emile Millar
5. Tournament of Hearts - The Weakerthans
O.K. this song by the Weakerthans is personal because I happened to have used it for my annual family video. Plus, it rocks!
Anyway, I make this family video every year which is essentially pieced together from short home movie clips, but it's cool now, because we actually have about 8 of them or so in total, which when strung together make a…
worldsfair | June 10, 2009
Science Scout Twitter feed
(Originally from here)
Dear Mr. Superman, Mr. Batman, Ms. Wonder Woman, and other esteemed do-gooders,
Although I have been waiting patiently for a few years in the hope that an advertisement would appear, I feel for the sake of my career that now is a good time to approach you. In essence, I am wondering whether you are, or will be, accepting any new members into your fine organization. More specifically, I am inquiring as to whether you need the services of a geneticist, since that is my particular field of expertise.
Part of the reason I am contacting you now…
bcohen | June 10, 2009A slow June at the Fair (see here for an explanation), but I'm popping in to share what constitutes a different sort of landscape image(s) below. Here's the first:
The Citarum River in Indonesia.
Here we have landscapes of garbage, scenes of environments overwhelmed with waste, with excess, with disposed and disposable items. The images are jarring to me, especially when defined as landscapes -- that these are visions of the terrain in which we live. Nobody would confuse these for wilderness pictures. In this case, the human contrivance is too obvious to warrant comment, though In prior…
worldsfair | June 9, 2009So, I'll soon be in London to attend the British Science Association's Science Communication Conference, as well as check in with some folks on possible sabbatical stints, and I'm wondering if there's anyone around who would be into having a beer.
This could even be in the guise of a Science Scout kind of thing, so maybe check into this Facebook page and leave a note if you're interested.
I'm always happy to talk science and education, especially if art comes into the mix as well. If you'd like to see the sort of stuff I'm involved with, you can check out my facility's website, or maybe…
worldsfair | June 3, 2009
Science Scout Twitter feed
Crustaceans are a very large group of arthropods, comprising almost 52,000 described species, and are usually treated as a subphylum. They include various familiar animals, such as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles (from wiki).- - -
This collage art by Mark Wagner is pretty wild. As well, there's a great interview you can read at The Morning News.
I was making a lot of collage and artists books using Camel Cigarette packages. To a large extent it was the familiarity of the pack for people that made the work effective. That led me to the…
worldsfair | June 1, 2009
Science Scout twitter feed
In botany, a pome (after the Latin name for fruit: pomum) is a type of fruit produced by flowering plants in the subfamily Maloideae of the family Rosaceae.(from wiki)- - -
Today at the Science Creative Quarterly we have this great story written by Matt McKenna.
For those of you unfamiliar with the SCQ, it's sort of a science web publication whose most mentioned comparison is the McSweeney's website (not a bad thing to be compared to, and to be honest, I quite like the site having the label, "McSweeney's for Sciencegeeks.")
Anyway, the SCQ has actually been on a…
worldsfair | May 27, 2009
Science Scout twitter feed
(From MonkeyBicycle)
6.
Ray Romano
Is it just me or is this guy too funny? I mean, that thing he does with his TV mom and wife just cracks me up. Plus, he once made $50 million bucks in one season, which is totally cool, and is in no way the reason for putting him on this list. Too bad about the TV kid twins, though - I mean, what's up with their foreheads being so massive? It doesn't look natural.
5.
Cosmic Rays
These are the rays that gave the Fantastic Four their powers. But even cooler - in astrophysics, they are basically high-energy outer space particles that…
worldsfair | May 22, 2009
Science Scout twitter feed
Thanks so much for all the great feedback with the Mitochondria song, and as promised, I picked a request from the comments for my next attempt at song writing. Specifically, this one:
That's right - we're talking about the Buckminsterfullerene!
Here is the demo mp3 for your listening pleasure (might be best with headphones), and the lyrics reprinted for all to see below:
Buckminsterfullerene
it's the craziest thing you've ever seen
C60 in my dreams
It's a real life chemical celebrity scene
Good enough to catch a nobel prize
But more than that it's easy on the…
worldsfair | May 20, 2009
Science Scout twitter feed
Recently, I heard of a new documentary called "Act of God" by Jennifer Baichwal, that involved looking at individuals struck by lightning.
I haven't had a chance to check out this new film, but it did remind me of a previous movie that she had done called "Manufactured Landscapes," which highlighted the remarkable photography of Edward Burtynsky.
And whilst thinking about this, I've stumbled across Edward's great website which has some of the most striking imagery I've seen in a long time (Click on the images to get to a larger version and title on Edward's…
worldsfair | May 15, 2009Song 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
1. Waterfall - James
2. Wake Up - Arcade Fire
3. Never Had Nobody Like You - M Ward
4. No one is to blame - Emile Millar
Finding a great cover tune is tantamount to a glimpse of the promised land for a mixed tape afficionado. And if the cover happens to do justice to a classic, and one that has considerable kitsch value, then so much the better. Add the possibility of it being a fresh interpretation and - wait for it - also good, then you should be good to go.
Anyway, I think this cover of Howard Jones, "No One is to Blame", which I recently overheard in a movie called…
worldsfair | May 15, 2009Very cool.
Called, the "Mother of All Funk Chords," this song and video is made only from various YouTube clips. Must of taken forever, but boy did it ever pay off. More at thru-you.com/.
It's stuff like this that really dictates the passage of copyright laws, since it's obviously a creation of considerable originality and artistic value, but made with previously released parts.