Bovine Compasses?

I was reading this what-if on xkcd yesterday, which, in the context of photosynthetic cows, noted that cattle have a natural tendency to align themselves north-south. Apparently there's even been research on the subject: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2008/08/22/0803650105.

Short of photosynthetic cows -- or even cows equipped with solar panels, as xkcd suggests -- I wonder what sorts of applications this bovine property might have. A cow would make a particularly large, unwieldy, and recalcitrant compass (and presumably you'd never know if it was actually facing north-south, or whether there was simply something tasty/interesting in the general direction of its head). A herd of cows, though -- that might be promising. Perhaps a cowboy, if stranded during a solar eclipse (or just a really cloudy day), could use his herd of cows to determine the direction in which they ought to be heading?

xkcd: The Modern Major-General on Higher Education

Today's xkcd:

Did you sing it? All the way through?

I thought it was rather clever. There's one spot (that I noticed, at least) that didn't quite scan, but it's still a really impressive filk!

Also, I was reminded of the song "What Do You Do With a B.A. in English?" from Avenue Q.

xkcd: So, It Has Come to This

Today's xkcd, which I thought was wonderfully funny:

http://xkcd.com/1022

Appending "of epic proportions" to nouns at the end of sentences achieves a similar effect, as several friends and I have discovered over the years.

xkcd: Sail

Today's xkcd, which I thought was really cute and quite clever:

That is all.

All Roads Lead to Philosophy

 According to Wednesday's xkcd, if you click through the first non-italicized, non-parenthetical link on any Wikipedia page, and keep clicking through every subsequent page, you will eventually reach the article "Philosophy". Naturally, I had to try this:

Beauty

Believe it or not, I was a techie once upon a time. Well, more techie than fuzzy, at least. (It's Stanford terminology; techie means science-oriented, and fuzzy means humanities-oriented.) That was before college; I was a mathlete, and built airplanes and trebuchets for Science Olympiad, and memorized the periodic table, and dressed as a nucleotide for Hallowe'en one year... the works. (I was an... interesting child.)

Anyhow, even though I've gone over to the dark side, as it were, I can definitely relate to this (once, for an art assignment wherein I had to draw two creatures interacting, I rendered two one-celled organisms floating around under a microscope):

http://xkcd.com/877

xkcd: Scientist vs. Pole Vaulters

Today's xkcd, which I thought was especially funny:

http://xkcd.com/852/

Though, come to think of it, 2cm makes a big difference in certain sports.

xkcd: Antiquated Speech Patterns

It bothers me immensely when people think that Shakespeare wrote in Old English. (That was modern English, people!) A good example of Old English is Beowulf, of Middle English is Chaucer.

Anyhow, if several centuries of the evolution of the English language can be jumbled together in the modern consciousness, the scenario below is perfectly plausible, given the passage of another century or two:


http://xkcd.com/771/

I am amused.

The Problem with World-Hopping Fantasy Novels

I've always wondered about this, actually, in the back of my mind:


http://xkcd.com/693

(Click on the image; it's a little small to read.)

Neil Gaiman's story "The Problem of Susan" addressed this in the Narnia-verse (Lewis himself touches upon the problem in the later books), but few of the subsequent Narnia-inspired world-hopping fantasy novels really deal with the problem of post-return adjustment, especially since the protagonists often spend years of their lives in these otherworlds, only to come back the same age as when they left. One would think that there would be some period of time immediately afterwards where the protagonists couldn't help acting oddly, out of habit, and were shipped off to a psychiatrist or something. (That would make an interesting story, come to think of it.)

This is a problem often found in the work of inexperienced fantasy writers; I see this sort of thing every day in the slush pile (which is, for the uninitiated, the flood of unsolicited submissions we get in the submissions inbox). Advice/food for thought for aspiring fantasy writers, from someone who reads (and judges) your submissions:

(a) What the deuce would a magical world need from some kid (it's invariably a teenager) from Earth that a native couldn't do better (and don't give me any of that "prophecy" drivel)?

(b) Why would you ever leave your admittedly ordinary life on Earth on the request of some elf-guy who randomly appears in your bedroom? How do you know they won't just bash you over the head and eat you? I've been told I'm entirely too trusting, but even I know better than to trust strangers who break into my house.

(c) What makes you think that someone didn't just slip something into your drink? If someone tells me I'm the savior of the world and makes some pretty sparkling lights, I'd assume I ate something funny, not that I needed to travel to another dimension and face the legions of the Dark Lord, or something equally preposterous.

I'd caveat that all of this can be done well. But generally, most of the people who think they can do it well really, really can't (and the ones who can and know they can are generally pretty modest about such things).

xkcd: The Search for Sentient Life

http://xkcd.com/638

I believe there's life out there. I still hold out some hope for SETI (that's the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence), even though the probability that we find anything is exceedingly small. That we have not made contact is not evidence that no life exists beyond Earth, Fermi paradox that it is. One cannot prove a negative, after all.

The New Yorker: God, on Evolution -- Oops!

A humorous take on creationism:


http://www.newyorker.com/humor/issuecartoons/2010/03/15/cartoons_20100308#slide=4

I'm not sure whether to laugh or to cry when I hear about the latest theories propagated by young-earth creationists. If I believed in God, our interaction might go something like this.

Bug report, indeed.

xkcd: Iambic Pentameter (because I sometimes feel as though I'm living in the wrong century)

http://xkcd.com/79

I think we should institute an "International Iambic Pentameter Day", much like the extant "International Talk Like a Pirate Day". It would be glorious. (I am a huge fan of the iamb.)

xkcd: Boo!

http://xkcd.com/412/

I'm not sure what I can add to this. It's just awesome.

The World is Just Awesome (and so is the Discovery Channel)

I'm posting this just for the warm fuzzies:



I absolutely loved the Discovery Channel as a kid, and still do. What little television I watched growing up consisted of that, the History Channel, National Geographic (the television channel, though I also read the magazines, and have papered my college dorm room with maps therefrom), and Animal Planet. I like to say that I got my action-adventure fixes from Sherlock Holmes and The Three Musketeers (and I throw in Shark Week for variety, on occasion).

I've been told that I had a bit of a deprived childhood -- and I never do get pop-culture references -- but I think I turn out all right, all things considered.

Boom-de-yada!

xkcd: Take That, Andrew Jackson!

http://xkcd.com/84/

Because really, the Bering Strait existed way before the caravels were ever commissioned. People ought to remember that, instead of just assuming that white is the default option in America. Huzzah for minorities!

(This is one of the older comics; it's still drawn in pencil.)

xkcd: The Truth Behind the Kindle

http://xkcd.com/548/

Hey, a girl can dream, right? (Not about electric sheep, though -- five nerd points if you get the reference.)

xkcd: Newton:1, Leibniz:0

http://xkcd.com/626/

There are no words.