Archive for the ‘Images’ Category
My 25 Mundane Neutrino Explanations
September 22nd, 2011
Today I had the most fun I’ve ever had on Twitter, thanks to the OPERA experiment working out of CERN, home of the Large Hadron Collider.
The blogosphere is ablaze with news that they seem to have detected neutrinos traveling faster than light. If true, it would be the biggest science news of the century, overturning one of the most fundamental concepts in physics. There is obviously much skepticism amongst scientists. For a typically insightful explanation, check out Bad Astronomer Phil Plait‘s post: Faster-than-light travel discovered? Slow down, folks
The Twitter fun began when a discussion between two physicist/mathematician-types, Blake Stacey (@blakestacey) and S.C. Kavassalis (@sc_k) led Blake to tweet:
@sc_k Maybe we need to counterbalance the HEP blogohedron with a Twitter meme? e.g., #mundaneneutrinoexplanations
Then he spun out a few funny examples of more mundane explanations for the unusual neutrino measurement:
- #CERN physicists did arithmetic on old Pentium computers
- #CERN physicists let undergrads near the experiment
- Calculations done by visiting Americans who still don’t get the metric system.
… all with the #mundaneneutrinoexplanations hashtag appended.
I think I was the first one to follow his lead with:
- Forgot to carry the one
- Confused neutrino with one sent later
- Study published by Wakefield et al
Then @drskyskull and @physicsdavid and others joined in (even astophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and the Bad Astronomer) and, before you know it, the Twitterverse was alive with funny explanations, some of which may be as likely as superluminal neutrinos. I ended up spitting out about 25 of them, which I present here, as they were tweeted, in reverse chronological order (so start from the bottom). Enjoy!
Lunar Eclipse Defined by Wikipedia
June 15th, 2011
In celebration of today’s lunar eclipse, Google‘s logo features an animated moon. When you click through, as usual, you get a page of related search results.
A little while ago, one of the top results included a surprising definition of “lunar eclipse” from Wikipedia:
According to Wikipedia:
Lunar eclipse: A lunar eclipse is when the moon turns black and explodes, releasing a poisonous gas, killing all of humanity. Of course this can occur only when the Sun, …
The page had already been corrected by the time I saw it. But the false definition was apparently cached and showing up in Google’s search results, until a little while ago.
I love Wikipedia. But it’s still funny.
Check out the page devoted to Google Doodles.
Green Vanity License Plates
April 1st, 2010
I’ve been performing stand up comedy for two decades. I get all the stage time I need. But I realize not everyone has such an outlet. And, yet, humans are such complicated, emotional creatures. They have so much to express!
That’s why I’ve always been fascinated with vanity plates and bumper stickers. And I’ve always lumped them in with answering machine outgoing messages and Karaoke. I think, for some people, these might be the only outlets they have through which to express themselves to the world. They have so much to say – and so little space! But humans are creative.
And humans that drive the Toyota Prius Hybrid Vehicle in the San Francisco Bay Area… well, they are particularly creative. And consistent with their message. I keep seeing hybrids with green-themed vanity plates. Not every one below is a Prius, but most of them are.
Have you seen any other vanity plates with environmental themes or messages? Let me know!
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The Secret Life of Flies
February 22nd, 2010
If you know me, you know I like my insect photography. I primarily shoot (and release) live insects. But who amongst us hasn’t seen a dead bug posing while reposing in death and felt the need to capture that macabre Kodak moment? If my eyes are the only eyes of the universe to observe this detail, am I not obligated to record it?
Anyway, that’s how I feel about it. So, I’ve shot a few dead flies.
But this guy at Muhr Photography takes it to a new level, combining real live dead flies with simple line drawings. And I think they’re hilarious. I applaud the idea and the execution. I’m jealous!
After you start the slideshow – click the icon in the lower left corner to make it bigger so you can see the titles (in some cases, it helps you appreciate the image). Or you can see this gallery and others here.
Toilet of the Future!
January 21st, 2010
If it were biologically necessary for movie characters to go to the bathroom, this would be the toilet in Blade Runner and 2001. I half-expected the designer to be Syd Mead.
For futurists and conservationists (and other people who use toilets)! Sleek, integrated design – compact enough for an apartment in Manhattan or Tokyo. Plus, it re-uses water from the sink to flush the toilet! It’s the all-in-one loo:
The Home Core concept integrates the toilet bowl, sink, mirror and a vanity table into one. However, this is not the central theme for this all-in-one-loo. There is a water storage tank right below the sink, where you can choose to store the currently used water or allow it to drain off. (The stored water is meant for flushing the pot) Also, the water pressure from the tap can be moderated to four different levels, giving you the satisfaction of conserving some resource.
Designer: Dang Jingwei
Science Cookies
December 13th, 2009
Awesome science cookies in a series of posts to a food blog by a biological anthropologist.
Aren’t all anthropologists biological? I’m a biological comedian.
Ooh, she also has Space Invaders!
Free WiFi on Virgin America – Thanks, Google!
November 13th, 2009
For the holiday season, Google is offering free WiFi on all Virgin America flights. So this is my first in-flight post.
I’m flying from Boston to San Francisco, returning from a college gig at SUNY Plattsburgh, which is so far up, up, upstate New York that it’s just a stone’s throw from Montreal (you’d have to have a very good arm and/or be throwing the stone in a weaker gravity field, perhaps that of an asteroid).
I’m 38,078 feet over the Nevada desert, flying 463 mph and it’s -64 degrees F. outside.
And I’m surfing the web. +1 Internets.
Virgin America has the coolest planes – they’re like flying discotheques:
The free in-flight WiFi from Google is only part of the deal. They are also providing free WiFi in a bunch of airports – including Boston Logan where I took a pic of this sign:
My Bizarros
May 4th, 2009
My friend Dan Piraro is the mastermind (and master hand) behind the cartoon Bizarro.
And, even drawing a daily cartoon – 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year – and being a most active animal rights activist, he somehow finds time to make a daily blog post. And his blog is hilarious. He’s a very entertaining writer, he includes a lot of cartoons, and he delights in the playful use of hyperlinks. Click on every link – it’s always good for a bonus laugh.
Dan and I have collaborated on a handful of cartoons. Basically, I send him an idea every once in a while and, if he likes it, he plays with it, draws it, makes it a Bizarro cartoon.
Go check out his blog – and here are my favorite collaborations with genius Dan Piraro:
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Vega Next 3 Exits
March 17th, 2009
Oops… I must’ve taken a wrong turn at Arcturus…
From the Wikipedia entry on Vega:
Vega is the brightest star in the constellation Lyra, the fifth brightest star in the night sky and the second brightest star in the northern celestial hemisphere, after Arcturus. It is a relatively nearby star at only 25.3 light-years from Earth, and, together with Arcturus and Sirius, one of the most luminous stars in the Sun‘s neighborhood.
Vega has been extensively studied by astronomers, leading it to be termed, “arguably the next most important star in the sky after the Sun”.[8] Historically, Vega served as the northern pole star at about 12,000 BCE and will do so again at around 14,000 CE. Vega was the first star, other than the Sun, to have its photograph taken and the first to have its spectrum photographed. It was also one of the first stars to have its distance estimated through parallax measurements.
Also: Vega became the first star to have a car named after it when Chevrolet launched the Vega in 1971.
