A particularly tricky wrestling move. The long anticipated installment of a popular Japanese police TV serial. An unfortunate typo for an especially niched Japanese pop music chart. An ointment used to treat especially aggressive forms of Nagoya. The first line of a haiku that was awarded the distinction of being “most boring.” Next year’s popular International CATS ON PROZAC seminar. A droid that is seen for only 2 seconds during the Return of the Jedi. Worst ever celebrity child name. * * * (Curious folks can read this if they’d like to find out more. Folks on twitter may add…
The Science Creative Quarterly
The Science Creative Quarterly (SCQ) is not a quarterly, but instead publishes new material at a non-linear rate. Currently, it is sleeping and in a sort of stasis (turpor?) It used to seek science writing of any genre, and your contribution would have involved checking out our submissions guidelines.
The Science Creative Quarterly (SCQ) has a single print edition so far (half SCQ pieces, and half fake science journal – see here for more details). Also, badges?
Stay safe everyone!
IN MEDIA RES: NEWS AND THE PUBLIC (MIS)UNDERSTANDING OF SCIENCE
“The best lack all conviction, while the worst ere full of passionate intensity.” The Second Coming, William Butler Yeats – – – “Scientists identify gene that influences quality of person’s empathy”… “Earth ‘heading for 6ºC’ of warming”… “From the lab, a New Weapon Against Cholesterol”. These three headlines were taken from three leading and reputable media outlets: the Times of London, the BBC and the New York Times. Apart from their provenance, these headlines share another, arguably less desirable, trait. All massively simplify the scientific primary sources they are reporting. But why would such erudite news sources feel the need…
THE MISSING LINK BETWEEN ROCK AND PET ROCK
I’ll begin by apologizing to the media reporters who rushed here thinking they were covering a car accident involving an elderly pedestrian, two kittens, and a baby. To my chagrin, I did not receive any RSVPs to “Shock Rock Talk 2010.” How was I going to know how much sheet cake to order? It’s in the back and it’s chocolate ice cream and it’s delicious. But I’m sidestepping the main event. We must celebrate the once missing link between the zircon rocks of the Archaean era and the pet rocks that roam children’s bedrooms and eBay this very day. Understand…
VENUS AND THE VEGAN
I was a vegan, you know. That was my choice. All the others—well, as soon my siblings wriggled free from the amber chambers of our pupal stage, they began to indulge their taste for the fetid and putrefying. They dove into the waxy mustard lakes of Aunt Peggy’s deviled eggs, lapping at stale currents of cayenne that dappled her discarded delights; they flew straight through tin-toothed mouths into hollow cans of cat food, kissing every centimeter of metal to sponge up flecks of flesh from what was once a fancy feast. And when Tiger graced the lawn with yet more…
GOODNIGHT LUNA
(With respect to Margaret Wise Brown marvelous words). – – – Goodnight Luna. Goodnight spacecraft orbiting Luna. Goodnight Chang’e, And the Lunokhod rovers. Goodnight norite. Goodnight dunite. Goodnight granophyre, And goodnight vitrophyre. Goodnight olivine, And goodnight pyroxene. Goodnight gabbronorite, And goodnight labradorite. Goodnight orthoclase, And goodnight anorthosite. Goodnight hypersthene, Goodnight troctolite, And goodnight to the reflectors waiting for light. Goodnight Surveyor. Goodnight Ranger. Goodnight landers everywhere.
IF ONLY MORE PEOPLE WERE LIKE THE CHOWDHURY’S
Advanced publicity for The World is Round: A Year of Living Off the Land and Off the Grid, by M. Chowdhury The heroic and humorous account of one Bengali family’s year long attempt to go without the fruits of the world economy. After stumbling across a LiveEarth brochure at a local recycled-goods pile, the Chowdhury family decide to take a principled stand against the worst excesses of global capitalism – environmental degradation, human rights abuses, unfair trade practices – and devote one year to simplifying their lives and lessening their contribution to these problems. Gone are the basic necessities –…
LESSER KNOWN LAWS OF PHYSICS AND MATHEMATICS
The Einstenian Hillbilly Theory of Marriage: It’s all relative. Fermat’s First Theorem: The one he made in pre-school that showed why bullies are idiots. The High School Uncertainty Principle: You can never simultaneously tell how fast you should be moving in a relationship or at what position you are currently in. Central Limit Theorem as Applied To Dancing: In large populations, the drunkest people tend to congregate in the middle of the dance floor. Law of Large Numbers as Applied to Nerds: Just because that girl will go out on a date with you doesn’t mean you got skills. That’s…
LIMERICKS TO PONDER
Creationist theory is moot. Nature chose an alternative route / root. You’ve seen Darwin’s chart. You know me by heart– I’m the white guy up front in a suit. Unfounded beliefs and defiance, In obedience more than compliance. Here’s hoping (in vain?) That good faith will soon gain A greater alliance with science. AGE-OLD QUESTIONS In various legends and labels, Lies are the true term for “fables.” The egg or the hen: Which was first? Tell me WHEN, And did navels precede Cain and Abel’s?
SEXTING: THE “PERFECT STORM” OF EVOLUTION, CULTURE, AND TECHNOLOGY (SOME THOUGHTS)
The “modern” human is the product of evolution, a natural process that operates on scales ranging from millions, to hundreds-of-thousands, to tens-of-thousands of years. The average individual of today is little changed from the average individual 30,000 years ago. We are literally prehistoric when we are born. Culture, our ability to pass information, artifacts, and other non-genetic material from one generation to the next, operates on much smaller time scales: millennia, centuries, even decades. The larger cultural landscape consists of religion, language, governments, laws, etc. and many of these change so quickly that they have only been in their present…