Testimonial: "It's just honestly sad that a place like this exists"
Quote from: Jerry_Frankster on February 10, 2010, 12:44:44 pmQuote from: Sigmatic on February 10, 2010, 07:32:28 amWe are going to need nemeses. Cf: 48 Laws. Anyone here know of a forum where scientists go to debate ethics?The Union of Concerned Scientists is chock full of meddling do-gooders.Also, they have a cool name for cursing and fist shaking and wot-not.Do they have a website?
Quote from: Sigmatic on February 10, 2010, 07:32:28 amWe are going to need nemeses. Cf: 48 Laws. Anyone here know of a forum where scientists go to debate ethics?The Union of Concerned Scientists is chock full of meddling do-gooders.Also, they have a cool name for cursing and fist shaking and wot-not.
We are going to need nemeses. Cf: 48 Laws. Anyone here know of a forum where scientists go to debate ethics?
Quote from: Doktor Howl on February 10, 2010, 03:23:29 pmQuote from: Jerry_Frankster on February 10, 2010, 12:44:44 pmQuote from: Sigmatic on February 10, 2010, 07:32:28 amWe are going to need nemeses. Cf: 48 Laws. Anyone here know of a forum where scientists go to debate ethics?The Union of Concerned Scientists is chock full of meddling do-gooders.Also, they have a cool name for cursing and fist shaking and wot-not.Do they have a website?Yeah, but no message board.http://www.ucsusa.org/
Dear Dkr. Howl,I understand your reasoning completely. In a world where people are taken way too seriously, being a mad scientist means you are one of the few who actually /isn't/.However, I think I'm there already. You see, I'm a biologist, and not just a biologist, but a systematist, and not just a systematist but a pattern cladist systematist, and not just a pattern cladist systematist but a pattern cladist systematist that specializes in a group of insects which make most people ask the question, "What the HELL is a Cah-deece Fly?" No one takes me seriously, except my fellow Trichopterists, and we're all a small group.Turns out we end up pretty much like mad scientists without even trying. All that's left is some style. I mean, what's the point of all this if you can't look strange doing it?So, here's some ideas:1. Change of wardrobe. I have some of the same sort of button downs my adviser wears, but my pants are all wrong. Also, fishing vests, you know, the sort that have all the pockets so I can have vials and notebooks and forceps stuffed in with me at all times. Also also, pocket protectors. My glasses are just about perfect now, so no change there.2. Library. My adviser stresses this quite a bit, and I've obliged probably more than I should considering my funds. The more old entomology texts I have, the better. Hell, I've got 100 year old copies of Darwin. And I've always got an old book on my person for reading. 3. Language. It's not that I can't speak English, it's just that it's so much more fun to speak in lingua siencia. Using entomology terms for body parts is a good start (ig, frons for forehead, tarsus for foot). Also, change of curse words. Frass for shit, adeagus for penis derivatives, and "Phryganeids!" as an interjection. If I'm gonna swear, might as well do it in style.4. Absentminded professor. Now, I don't mean being actually absentminded. I mean, instead feining absentmindedness. Keep the kids on their toes. Part of being a mad scientist is seeming completely harmless in your ridiculous while in actuality you're so much more.I know this is probably not the sort of mad scientist you aspire to, but there's more than one mad scientist out there. We're all the same in the sense that we see how unbelievably amazing reality is, and how equally unbelievable is the stupidity of the ordinary human monkeys we see every day in their complete failure to see the amazingness of reality. This, of course, drives us mad.Sincerely yours,Kai
Entomologists don't get mad, they systematically get even.
Quote from: Rumckle on February 10, 2010, 09:47:56 pmEntomologists don't get mad, they systematically get even.But they DO go mad. Comes from spending all day picking through vats of bugs.
Quote from: Doktor Howl on February 10, 2010, 09:51:41 pmQuote from: Rumckle on February 10, 2010, 09:47:56 pmEntomologists don't get mad, they systematically get even.But they DO go mad. Comes from spending all day picking through vats of bugs.Seriously. It's not the bugs themselves, but the poly-acetyl-vinyl-formalin-napthaline-alcohol vapors rising out of the liquids they are pickled in.
EoC, you are the bane of my existence.
EoC doesn't make creepy.EoC makes creepy worse.
the afflicted persons get hold of and consume carrots even in socially quite unacceptable situations.
Making babies associate fuzzy rabbits with distress and fear.
As a neuroscientist I have to disagree with the perception that anyone is doing mathematical modeling of cognitive intelligence, yet; intelligence as an economist defines it, yes, but economists are worlds away from actual cognition.
Quote from: EoC on February 10, 2010, 11:08:18 pmMaking babies associate fuzzy rabbits with distress and fear.NOT. FUNNY.
