Love, of course, is what makes the pop song sing, as Thomas Dolby’s She Blinded Me With Science (and thrilled me with technology) makes clear. But on a more neuroscientific level: Does the body rule the mind/or does the mind rule the body?/I dunno, conclude The Smiths. Entering the nature v nurture debate, Girls Aloud proclaim: You can’t mistake my Biology/The way that we talk/The way that we walk/it’s there in our thoughts. Jarvis Cocker sang about parallel dimensions in Quantum Theory, basically a love song, which has been movingly added to Dr Who footage here, and topped only by Air’s Biological. Among the best and strangest science songs are surely the Beastie Boys’ Sounds Of Science, Kool Keith’s version of Ego Trippin’, MC Hawking’s What We Need More Of Is Science, Sweet’s Alexander Graham Bell, Einstein A Go-Go by Landscape and E=MC2 from Big Audio Dynamite. Oh and of course, Monkey vs Robot. But there’s also Kraftwerk’s Computer Love, Big Science by Laurie Anderson, pharmaceutical trial procedure described in Siouxsie and the Banshees’ Placebo Effect, Blur’s Chemical World, Electricity courtesy of Suede (also OMD), Atomic by bombshell Blondie, Genetic Engineering by OMD (and X-Ray Spex), and what list would be complete without Diana Ross’s Chain Reaction (less ably repeated by Steps)?
Tag: culture
QOTD
Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.
Women of Wikipedia
off to a so-so start with ada lovelace (good!) and amy lee (please, no starlets).
Harry Potter Spoiler Spreads
Gabriel, seeking the title of biggest spoil sport in the history of the world, explains his motivation: Yes, we did it. We did it by following the precious words of the great Pope Benedict XVI when he still was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. He explained why Harry Potter bring the youngs of our earth to Neo Paganism faith. So we make this spoiler to make reading of the upcoming book useless and boring.
this is awesome, including the motivation of the spoiler: “we make this spoiler to make reading of the upcoming book useless and boring.” agreed. “Harry Potter bring the youngs of our earth to Neo Paganism faith.” HUH?
Brown’s human universals
By winnowing the literature of anthropology, Donald E Brown collected a list of some 200 ‘human universals’. I think trying to re-sort it in ‘evolutionary‘ order should be more instructive
Swiss languages
They didn’t reckon on a popular uprising of defenders of the national languages, many in the canton of Neuchâtel, who clamoured, “Don’t mess with our mailboxes!”. Chastened, PostMail capitulated. Although the new logo will continue to be used for the enterprise, the postboxes will continue to bear the original language-specific labels, at least until 2010. One of the ringleaders in the campaign not only deplored “PostMail” as a “nasty anglicism” but pointed out that it was also a pleonasm. You know you’re living in a place with more than a pretension to cul-chah when you encounter the word “pleonasm” in the daily newspaper
such insecurity
One Perfect Day
deconstructing the wedding industry. about time this $160B scam gets some scrutiny.
Farfegnugen
ewww. try fahrvergnuegen.
The groupies of science
for the last 4 years … has attended graduate physics seminars, used the offices reserved for doctoral and postdoctoral physics students and for all intents and purposes made the Varian Physics Lab her home. The only problem is that Okazaki appears to have no affiliation with Stanford and no real reason to be there.
When we discover a stowaway on the great Ship of Science, why throw her overboard when we could make her swab the decks?
Office Jargon
Let’s think out of the box: Really means, “Can you creatively anemic people please come up with something?” The person who says, “Let’s think out of the box” is usually desperate for a new idea and surrounded by people who are not known for generating ideas. So the phrase is actually an announcement that says, “I’m in trouble.” I need someone who can hit the ground running: Really means, “I am screwed.” Because no one can hit the ground running. You need to at least assess what race you’re in and who else is running. Do you have the bandwidth? Note that bandwidth is not time. It is something else. If you ask someone “Do you have time?” you mean, “Am I a priority?” If you ask someone “Do you have bandwidth” you mean, “You seem like your brain is fried. Can you pull yourself together to do this for me?”
the talk of a dysfunctional organization. see also research into the evasiveness of business english. strong words like “truth” are rarely used, the study finds.