I was delighted to discover that if you put 'wind up a scientist' into Google, the very first item that comes up is my post last year on this topic. Surely definitive proof that if you want to wind up a scientist, this is the place to do it (see the old post if you want to know why this date is the second annual wind-up-a-scientist day. Actually it will tell you why it's wind-up-a-scientist day - the reason it's the second one is because last year's was the first).
The point is that scientists can take themselves a bit too seriously, something that is probably worth both celebrating and deflating.
Last year I suggested many options, but this year I'd like to focus on a theme. What's your favourite item spoofing a real scientist (not fictional ones, that's cheating)? To lead off, I'd like to provide this rather excellent Brian Cox spoof:
I'm not sure this is a spoof -- it's pretty great, actually, really...tastefully done? -- but if you haven't seen/heard it, I definitely wanted to share.
If I'm honest, the title of this post is an exaggeration to make a point. I don't really hate opera. There are a couple of operas - notably Monteverdi's Incoranazione di Poppea and Purcell's Dido & Aeneas - that I quite like. But what I do find truly sickening is the reverence with which opera is treated, as if it were some particularly great art form. Nowhere was this more obvious than in ITV's 2010 gut-wrenchingly awful series Pop Star to Opera Star , where the likes of Alan Tichmarsh treated the real opera singers as if they were fragile pieces on Antiques Roadshow, and the music as if it were a gift of the gods. In my opinion - and I know not everyone agrees - opera is: Mediocre music Melodramatic plots Amateurishly hammy acting A forced and unpleasant singing style Ridiculously over-supported by public funds I won't even bother to go into any detail on the plots and the acting - this is just self-evident. But the other aspects need some exp...
The Internet has gone mildly bonkers over a child in America who was marked down in a test because when asked to work out 5x3 by repeated addition he/she used 5+5+5 instead of 3+3+3+3+3. Those who support the teacher say that 5x3 means 'five lots of 3' where the complainants say that 'times' is commutative (reversible) so the distinction is meaningless as 5x3 and 3x5 are indistinguishable. It's certainly true that not all mathematical operations are commutative. I think we are all comfortable that 5-3 is not the same as 3-5. However. This not true of multiplication (of numbers). And so if there is to be any distinction, it has to be in the use of English to interpret the 'x' sign. Unfortunately, even here there is no logical way of coming up with a definitive answer. I suspect most primary school teachers would expands 'times' as 'lots of' as mentioned above. So we get 5 x 3 as '5 lots of 3'. Unfortunately that only wor...
I freely admit that chess, for those who enjoy it, is a wonderful game, but I honestly believe that as a game , backgammon is better (and this isn't just because I'm a lot better at playing backgammon than chess). Having relatively recently written a book on game theory, I have given quite a lot of thought to the nature of games, and from that I'd say that chess has two significant weaknesses compared with backgammon. One is the lack of randomness. Because backgammon includes the roll of the dice, it introduces a random factor into the play. Of course, a game that is totally random provides very little enjoyment. Tossing a coin isn't at all entertaining. But the clever thing about backgammon is that the randomness is contributory without dominating - there is still plenty of room for skill (apart from very flukey dice throws, I can always be beaten by a really good backgammon player), but the introduction of a random factor makes it more life-like, with more of a sense...
I'm not sure this is a spoof -- it's pretty great, actually, really...tastefully done? -- but if you haven't seen/heard it, I definitely wanted to share.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSgiXGELjbc
Hope you enjoy!
That's very nice - as you say, not so much a spoof, more an appreciation, but very fitting for this august event.
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