Category: Society

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Professor Demoted For Video Game Designer

Say it ain’t so Hasbro, say it aint so. From an NPR story on a makeover of the game “Clue”:

The characters have changed, too. Miss Scarlet has a first name: Cassandra. Colonel Mustard left the military; he’s a former football star. Victor Plum, formerly the professor who was always known as the smartest man in the room, became recast as a self-made video game designer — a dot-com billionaire.

Take that you stuffy academic professors, with your padded elbows and your pipes and your uncombed Einstein hair: you’re no longer the smartest person in the room (unless you’ve made a video game, that is.) But I still think you were the murder, in the spa, with the baseball bat.

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I Like My Facts Well Done and Humorless

The Scienceborg is all abuzz about some Sizzle movie, with all sorts of good and bad reviews, and gnashing of the teeth about whether the movie stunk or whether it was the best thing since the invention of sliced ham (few know that this event was much more important than the invention of sliced bread, which is vastly overhyped.) A good way to waste your time, I suppose, but I thought I wasn’t going to get much out of it, you known, in terms of actually getting any good insight or educational crap like that. But then I discovered Chris C. Mooney’s post on the whole thing. (Chris is lucky, he can use his middle initial. If I use mine, my initials are DMB. As in not so bright.)
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Occupational Arrows of Time

One of the subjects of great debate in physics goes under the moniker of “the arrow of time.” The basic debate here is (very) roughly to try to understand why time goes it’s merry way seemingly in one direction, especially given that the many of the laws of physics appear to behave the same going backwards as forwards in time. But aren’t we forgetting our most basic science when we debate at great philosophical lengths about the arrow of time? Aren’t we forgetting about…experiment? Here, for your pleasure, then, are some of my personal observations about the direction of time which I’ve observed over my short life. Real observation about the direction of time should lead us to the real direction of time, no?
(With apologies to Alan Lightman)
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Scientists Without Borders

Interesting new website from the New York Academy of Sciences: Scientists Without Borders:

Scientists Without BordersSM aims to mobilize and coordinate science-based activities that improve quality of life in the developing world. The research community is already promoting areas such as global health, agricultural progress, and environmental well-being, but current communication gaps restrict its power. Organizations and individuals do not always know about one another’s endeavors, needs, or availability, which limits the ability to forge meaningful connections and harness resources. This situation is especially striking in light of the growing realization that integrated rather than focused approaches are crucial for addressing key challenges such as extreme poverty and the glaring health problems that accompany it.
The concept
Opportunities to foster synergy in the capacity-building arena would explode if an effective information-sharing tool existed. Institute leaders, project officers, and individual investigators could gather advice, other forms of human capital, and material assets. Furthermore, a central knowledge store about science-based capacity-building activities would help funding agencies and other institutions apply their efforts efficiently.
The solution
Scientists Without BordersSM is building a Web portal whose cornerstone is a database that serves as a digital repository for such information. The database will provide a way to match needs with resources. This tool will eventually create a record of accomplishments that also identifies the next steps for solving specific problems.

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Best Science Movie? It Doesn't Take a Genius…

After a comment suggesting that a Science Film festival be held to combat a certain idiotic movie, He of Uncertain Principles agreed, and then the powers that be at scienceblogs decided to hold a poll on the Best Science Movies. And the four choices are….”Contact”, “Gattaca”, “An Inconvenient Truth”, and “Jurassic Park.” To which I can only say…
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Der Took Our Science N Engineering Jerbs!

Whatever you do, Mr. and Mrs. Joe and Mary America, make sure to tell everyone you know not to go into science and engineering! You see those who major in science and engineering are certain to not get jobs, because, as many commenters love to point out, all those jobs are being exported overseas! But wait, what is this:

The overall unemployment rate of scientists and engineers in the United States dropped from 3.2% in 2003 to 2.5% in 2006…according to data from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Scientists and Engineers Statistical Data System (SESTAT). This is the lowest unemployment rate measured by SESTAT since the early 1990s. It continues a trend of lower unemployment rates for scientists and engineers compared with unemployment rates in the rest of the U.S. economy.

Who knew? A degree in science and engineering actually appears to help your employment chances 🙂

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If Only I'd Founded "iPho"

Quick, Batman! To the trademark-mobile along with a stack of three or four letter company names:

Feb 27 (Reuters) – On-demand business phone service provider Nuvio Corp said it filed a lawsuit against Garmin International Inc…alleging Garmin’s Nuvifone infringes on Nuvio trademark, which it uses on its phones and telephony services.

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Pseudonyms in Science?

A while ago a message from Kris Krogh appeared on Scirate.com about ariXiv:0712.3934 stating Kris’ belief that the paper appeared under a pseudonym (the comment contains the contents of the link which was sent to the arxiv’s administrator.) Today I checked with the arxiv and found that the paper had been removed:

This submission has been removed because ‘G.Forst’ is a pseudonym of a physicist based in Italy who is unwilling to submit articles under his own name. This is in explicit violation of arXiv policies.
Roughly similar content, contrasting the relative merits of the LAGEOS and GP-B measurements of the frame-dragging effect, can be found in pp. 43–45 of: this http URL

Humorously (I guess) while the statement goes to pains to not name the Italian physicist, the link is to a Nature article…by an Italian physicist.
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