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Everybody remembers Tom Weller's wonderfully funny book Science Made Stupid, right? It won a Hugo for Best Non-Fiction Book, and in his acceptance speech he said that he was really happy to hear he was nominated for the award until he saw what category it was, and had to wonder . . . were we aware of the literal meaning of the term "non-fiction?"The next year, the category was re-named Best Related Book.
And Science Made Stupid was reissued with a blurb saying, "Winner of the 1986 Hugo -- you know, one of those small Yugoslavian cars?"
If you don't already know about the book, you can read an abridged version here, which will let you know whether you need to rush out to your local independent bookstore to buy a paper copy.
All of the above, however, is mere prologue to the YouTube video below. Which demonstrates that Science didn't need Mr. Weller to make it stupid. Science has people of its own to do that.
Enjoy.
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3 comments:
There's also a matching _Culture Made Stupid_ which is almost as good.
Amongst the interesting facts it contains is that Wagnerian orchestras were large enough to have their own postcodes.
Considering the likelihood that those cats vomited all over the place before and after the filming, I have to question whether the whole endeavor was really worth it.
Oh, I dunno, worth finding out how any animal reacts to zero-g. The webs spun by European garden spiders in space are not quite the same as those spun on the earth, for example ... one does start wondering exactly why. Purely biological reasons? Or is there some sort of mentation behind the patterns?
--Mario
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