Woot! Done with school!

popunie.nl

As I mentioned in the very beginning of this blog, this blog is done as a requirement for my communicating science class.  And, as I'm not an avid participator, more of a lurker, of the online community, any of them, I am not continuing the blog.

I'm graduating and as such I want to enjoy doing nothing.  I can't remember what that feels like and look forward to growing bored of it.

Good luck to my readers!

Blog Evaluation the Third

xkcd.com

What an Odd Couple

Not that long ago, I was taking to one of my friends on how my fiance and I want to make a secret room in a house and tell no one about it, even our kids.  That I want to see how long it takes them to notice there is something off about the house.  And my friend said we were really odd, and he laughed about us planning experiments on our children long before we even have them.  All I have to say is that I am getting too good of ideas from television these days.

And pretty much any prank between Jim and Dwight, that NBC wont allow me to find a clip of.

Is Lie to Me Lying to You?

So, I absolutely adore this show.  But, how true to life is Lie to Me?  I recently read an article from Popular Mechanics, of all places, on the science behind the show.  It really is interesting what you can find on the internet when you're bored.

First of May, First of May

www.roadsideoregon.com

Well, it's not the first of May, but that song is too catchy to not think of when I think of May.  I decided on a floral theme, because April showers, that were nonexistent, bring May flowers, through the acts of planting them.

Science of Doctor Who? What Science?

tvscoop.tv

Some people are of the belief that all fiction needs to portray factual science.  I'm  in agreement with Doctor Who, to the right; "Eh?"

I do have this blog to explain science in works of fiction.  But there are times, and all of Doctor Who are those times, that you ignore science and enjoy yourself. That's why I have been staying away from shows like this and Star Trek.  Even my post on the shrink ray from Despicable Me was as a "what if," a "how could this be possible."

You Don't Worry About Velociraptors Attacking

Ever have nightmares from this?  Exhibit paranoid behavior around paleontologists?  Worry about how far genetic research will come?

Angels & Demons & Biometrics

strangeherring.com

As some of you may have already read on Carlos' blog.  We teamed up to do a joint post relating biometrics and fiction.  I recommend reading his original post, as I'll only highlight over it.  Carlos is more the expert here than I.

You'll never believe what happened...

ichacorner.blogspot.com

Sorry, for not posting in a while.  My life became really busy as of late.  I have some back posts that I was working on, that I'll publish momentarily.

I'll give you a little anecdote as example of how my life has been going.  An example of how the universe hates me:

Clowns & Scientists

*WARNING STRONG LANGUAGE!*

So, I feel stupid...

I think I somehow deleted all the comments on my blog because they're not there anymore.  So, if you had a comment or question that I did not answer yet, please post again and I will respond promptly.  Sorry for the inconvenience this may have caused.

Can You Give Thoughts or Memories?

www.onlineweblibrary.com

About a month ago, my fiancé and I were driving down 93.  Out of the blue, I thought about Spiderco and made a comment to him about how I thought it was impressive that such a good company started in Golden.  Turns out he was thinking just that; and he was thinking about it because we were driving right by it then.  I had no idea that Spiderco was there—I was looking out the opposite window a the time—and I don't know what made me think about it.

The Milgram Experiment

www.huffingtonpost.com

The Milgram experiment was preformed in 1961 by  Stanley Milgram of Yale University.  Milgram wanted to find answers to if someone will obey an authority figure even if he knows they are doing something that conflicts with his personal ethics/morals.

New Image for April!

I picked blue for April in the hope that Colorado will be getting early rainstorms this year.  I didn't change much for the layout; though, I am concerned that the link color isn't that visible to everyone.  Please give me some feed back on whether you can clearly see the link color or not for the poll to the left.

I'M A LINK!!                         I'M NOT A LINK!!

The Second Blog Evaluation

I'm up for my second evaluation for the class.

Working to Enrich Our Cell Walls

 

Back from spring break and ready to do a follow up to my previous Nature Made post.  I received this tip from an anonymous commenter; so, thank you Anonymous!

UPDATES to The Technicalities of Technical Terms

As I mentioned in the original post, I was going to continually update that blog post in order to build a comprehensive list.  All new words will have a "*" next to it.

Go to The Technicalities of Technical Terms.

This week:

Accuracy vs. Precision
Effect vs. Affect
Heat
Speed, Velocity, & Accerlation

A New Layout!

www.clker.com

It's a new month, so I felt like updating the blog image.  I'm, also, trying new font.  Hopefully it's legible to all.  I went with green because it's my favorite color and when better to use green than the month of St. Patrick's Day!  And, now, my blog is safe from being pinched. ;P

Please answer the poll on the left so I know if this was a positive move.

And feel free to leave feed back here.  Especially, if the poll doesn't address how you feel about it.

Angels & Demons & Science

specialscreening.blogspot.com

For Angels & Demons I will be covering both the book and the movie.  Angels & Demons is about a symbologist who is enlisted to help stop a secret society called the Illuminati from setting off an antimatter "bomb" in Vatican City.

Medical Truth of House

greenshieldintl.com

Today I found a blog, Polite Dissent, that discuss the medicine of House.  The site covers all the seasons, 7 currently.  For each episode a synopsis and review of the medical what-have-yous are given.  The episode is also rated (A,B,C,D,F) for mystery, final solution, medicine, and "soap opera".  Soap opera is the drama between the characters.  It's a very thorough and well down site, and I highly recommend checking it out.

The Technicalities of Technical Terms

EDIT:  NEW WORDS ADDED FOR THIS WEEK MARKED WITH "*".

In this post, I'm going to go over some technical terms that I find are commonly misunderstood or misused.  I decided to write this post because of a teacher in one of my classes.  Now, it's not really because of the teacher that I'm writing this, but more because he made me realize that the media commonly uses words incorrectly and then this carries on to the people who learn the terms that way.

The class I'm talking about is History of Science.  The class is done from a literary and historical perspective and not a technical one.  And, therefore, is taught by someone educated in literature.  And he does a great job in that respect.  However, he sometimes gets his science-y things wrong.  And I know this isn't because he's stupid, it just comes from hearing the terms used incorrectly all the time.

When Science Goes Right... For the Most Part Anyway

stargate.blogvie.com/

Stargate SG-1 is a science fiction television show.  In the show, the US military acquires a device that allows them to connect to other planets via wormholes.

In the episode "A Matter of Time," one of the military groups begins to explore a planet before they realize that it is being drawn into a black hole.  When the earth facility attempts to get in contact with the the group on the foreign planet, the gravitational effects of the black hole are transfered through the wormhole.  This causes the facility on earth to experience time dilation.

For a more complete synopsis go here.  And to watch the episode go here.

Common Movie Misconceptions

Last night I found this website.  The website touches on a few misconceptions that are so popularised in the entertainment world that some people believe that they are true. For example, that people "fly" back when they are shot.  I highly recommend reading though all their explanations.  They are short but offer a lot of insight.

Interviewing & Evaluating Myself

xkcd.com/833/

This is the first of three personal evaluations with a personal survey included!  This is for the class, but I will try to make it easy to read for those you who want to just skim through it.

You Know You're Nerdy When...

If any of you have seen The Big Bang Theory, then you will know that Sheldon takes nerdy to a whole new level. He's so nerdy that he has his own nerdy planet, with a nerdy alien race that normal people can't even communicate with.  Well, it turns out that I live on his nerdy planet too.  He finds the science in fiction hard not to think about, as well.

Here is Sheldon discussing the scientific inaccuracies  and of Superman:

I find this video better, but upon user request I cannot embed it.

And here he is trying to reason out the science of Superman doing his laundry.

Trusting in Scientists

nasa.gov

In my Communicating Science class, we were talking about the deficit model of relaying information to the general public. The deficit model is, basically, when someone just dumps information on you and then it's in your hands on what to do about the information. Let me give you a scenario I think we've all seen before to explain this.

Despicable Me: Shrink Ray

Let us watch the following video and dissect the science of the shrink ray.

The Purpose & Conduct

I'm writing this post because I want to outline the purpose of my blog and to give a little background into who I am and why bad science make me squirm.

pondering science

So, let me start with the basic questions

Nature Made Vitamin Commercial

Recently there has been a Nature Made vitamin commercial that talked about sending the vitamins through metal detectors to make sure there are no metals that shouldn't be there. 

Welcome!

Hello to all who may read this.  I am doing this blog for a class of mine, Communicating Science (see the professors blog).  For this blog I will be covering whether or not I can "buy" the science in books, movies, or on the television.