bcohen
Posts by this author
May 15, 2008
Notice of a conference at the University of Toronto: Reclaiming the World: The Future of Objectivity.
If you're interested in what people are talking about when they're talking about reclaimig the world and the future of objectivity -- as in, how does one do that exactly? -- you can find the…
May 9, 2008
Well then. Seems some are worried the "Intelligent" modifier to "Design" makes them look dumb if they don't have it too?
Read up to find out more, as Wyatt Galusky tells it, in these revealing minutes from a school board meeting last year:
Here are some excerpts from those "Minutes of the…
May 9, 2008
In anticipation of writing a post on The New Yorker's recent and somewhat disappointing issue on technology and innovation (and, more interestingly and less disappointingly, technology and progress), I return to some old data that I often use in lectures on the subject of technology and progress.…
May 9, 2008
Oh boy. Pollan's new book, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, gets eviscerated in this review by James McWilliams at the Texas Observer (Laura Shapiro at Slate isn't a fan either, though offers some hope in her review; an issue of the journal Gastronomica last summer also called out Pollan…
May 9, 2008
Here's a site with a slew of podcasts about science, Earth & Sky: A Clear Voice for Science. I found it because a colleague in my department, Rosalyn Berne, was being interviewed about her book on Nanotechnology and Ethics. But there are tons more, including Michael Pollan, Michael…
May 6, 2008
Happen you to need a diversion, check out The McSweeney's Joke Book of Book Jokes, why not? It's new, it's got about 70 stories (or entries, more properly), it has a picture of a chicken smoking a cigarette on the cover, and if you're not overwhelmed by the end, it even comes with a story I…
May 5, 2008
The reason for a robots code of ethics, says Nicole Pasulka: "Because the more human these robots become, the more likely they are to act like assholes."
I thought this was a nice combination: Pasulka reviews the coming age of the robots (because it is always the coming age of the robots) at The…
May 5, 2008
Last year we posted a notice of the highest measurement of dioxin ever recorded by the EPA. The reading was from the Tittabawassee River in Michigan, downstream from Dow Chemical's headquarters in Midland and on its way to Lake Huron (see map below). Michigan state safe levels are set at 90 ppt…
May 1, 2008
"What seems a detour has a way of becoming, in time, a direct route." R. Powers, Three Farmers...
Preface | Pt. 1 | Pt. 2 | Pt. 3 | (Sidebar 1) | Pt. 4 | Pt. 5 | Pt. 6
Pt. 7 | (Sidebar 2a) | (Sidebar 2b) | Pt. 8 | Pt. 9 | Conclusion
[Note: if you're new to the series, don't know what's going on…
April 29, 2008
Preface | Pt. 1 | Pt. 2 | Pt. 3 | (Sidebar 1) | Pt. 4 | Pt. 5 | Pt. 6
Pt. 7 | (Sidebar 2a) | (Sidebar 2b) | Pt. 8 | Pt. 9 | Conclusion
Richard Powers, in his debut novel Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance, constructs a story about the identity of the three farmers in August Sander's 1914…
April 28, 2008
This post was written by guest blogger Wyatt Galusky.*
The future of meat? (image source)
So, it's come to this. PETA has just announced a $1 million reward for the first group to make in vitro meat edible and tasty. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have decided that, in lieu of…
April 24, 2008
The Washington Post ran an excellent story on Mountaintop Removal (MTR) in West Virginia on the front page of this week's Sunday paper. The story is notable for several reasons.
"This area once was once an open valley with a stream."
Image credit: Michael Williamson, Washington Post.
One reason…
April 7, 2008
Long time since we had an alternative sponsor, and just at the time I've been starting to wonder if The World's Fair should remain part of the scienceblogs collective. With the Dow Chemical ads back, we also took note of more recent news on the morally debased position the company takes with…
April 4, 2008
Pt 1 | Pt 2 | Pt 3 | Pt 4
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Part 4 with Kelly Joyce, author of Magnetic Appeal: MRI and the Myth of Transparency, follows below. All entries in the author-meets-bloggers series can be found here.
WF: Is your story of MRI one that is common to medical technologies? Common to the…
April 3, 2008
Pt 1 | Pt 2 | Pt 3 | Pt 4
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Part 3 with Kelly Joyce, author of Magnetic Appeal: MRI and the Myth of Transparency, follows below. All entries in the author-meets-bloggers series can be found here.
WF: Let me risk a more blatantly social sciency question. Did you ever become part of the…
April 2, 2008
Pt 1 | Pt 2 | Pt 3 | Pt 4
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Part 2 with Kelly Joyce, author of Magnetic Appeal: MRI and the Myth of Transparency, follows below. All entries in the author-meets-bloggers series can be found here.
WF: You also discuss the importance of the users of technologies in the development and identity…
April 1, 2008
Pt 1 | Pt 2 | Pt 3 | Pt 4
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The World's Fair is pleased to offer the discussion below about a fascinating new book, Magnetic Appeal: MRI and the Myth of Transparency, with its author Kelly Joyce. Joyce is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the College of William and Mary…
March 26, 2008
I know Carter has interesting things to say about race relations in America, but how can you concentrate on them when they're surrounded by silly prose:"Julia was kicking herself, and not only because she and Mary might both be dead in five minutes." Don't you just hate it when you're about to be…
March 24, 2008
"We Americans increased our travel -- just for shopping -- by over 90 billion miles from 1990 to 2001. That's billion with a 'B.' It's safe to say that most of those new miles were not spent seeking out local food." A. Flaccavento
So it is that the localism movement is in full flush. No news…
March 21, 2008
A public service announcement from The World's Fair.
DARPA Hybrid Insect MEMS
"DARPA seeks innovative proposals to develop technology to create insect-cyborgs, possibly enabled by intimately integrating microsystems within insects, during their early stages of metamorphoses. The healing processes…
March 12, 2008
Part 1 | Part 2
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Part 2 with Jan Golinski, author of British Weather and the Climate of Enlightenment, follows below. All entries in the author-meets-bloggers series can be found here.
WF: This was the most interesting part of the book to me, and I have to risk being too general or generic…
March 11, 2008
Part 1 | Part 2
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The World's Fair is proud to discuss British Weather and the Climate of Enlightenment (University of Chicago Press, 2007) with its author, Jan Golinski of the University of New Hampshire. Golinski is a Professor of History and Humanities, the Chair of the Department of…
March 10, 2008
Preface | Pt. 1 | Pt. 2 | Pt. 3 | (Sidebar 1) | Pt. 4 | Pt. 5 | Pt. 6
Pt. 7 | (Sidebar 2a) | (Sidebar 2b) | Pt. 8 | Pt. 9 | Conclusion
Morris believes that shadows are the key. Yes, I'm back onto the actual path of Morris's investigation, where he's been pursuing the question 'which of Fenton's…
March 3, 2008
When I saw the title to Mike the Mad Biologist's post recently -- The Apartment Building of the Future? -- I thought he'd taken an image from one of my class lectures on the history of the future. Alas, not. So here is a competing Apartment of the Future, circa 1884.
It too has greenery…
February 27, 2008
I have a guest post today over at The Education of Oronte Churm. It's called Too Much Culture But Not Enough to See. Please be obliged to confer.
Coincidentally, Russell Jacoby has a column in The Chronicle of Higher Ed on the same subject (of the place and merits of binaries) called "Not to…
February 26, 2008
Preface | Pt. 1 | Pt. 2 | Pt. 3 | (Sidebar 1) | Pt. 4 | Pt. 5 | Pt. 6
Pt. 7 | (Sidebar 2a) | (Sidebar 2b) | Pt. 8 | Pt. 9 | Conclusion
...continuing from Sidebar 2a (you might read that first before continuing on below)
All of the above (Sidebar 2a) interested me in its own right but truly…
February 25, 2008
Preface | Pt. 1 | Pt. 2 | Pt. 3 | (Sidebar 1) | Pt. 4 | Pt. 5 | Pt. 6
Pt. 7 | (Sidebar 2a) | (Sidebar 2b) | Pt. 8 | Pt. 9 | Conclusion
"Synchroneity. All times at one. My hobby."*
This one's about bombs and mercury and milk and Communists and theater and world history. That's all.
Daston…
February 21, 2008
This post was written by guest blogger Jody Roberts.*
19 February 2008 was an historic day. For the first time in history, the price of oil at the close of the U.S. markets sat above $100. Ok, it was by only a penny, but that penny was probably the most significant penny anyone's see in years. And…
February 20, 2008
I'm continuing to play up this same theme of blowing up mountains not to beat a dead horse but because not many people, still, know about the horse. Click below for a link that shows how you personally are connected to mountaintop removal. It goes to addressing this question: what's mountaintop…