Tag: Linkonomicon

…but my business cards are “cool”

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One Version of My Business Cards (Art by Jill Powell; Used With Permission)

It’s true. They are. They are those trendy small ones. They have a QR code. And, most importantly, they have original, The Finch & Pea inspired artwork by Jill Powell. At the 2013 Santa Fe Science Writing Workshop, I gave one of those cards to Karen McLeod of COMPASS. That lead to a thoroughly enjoyable conversation with COMPASS’s MBA intern, Ben Hamm.

Ben has been investigating how COMPASS might help improve interactions between the business and scientific communities. I, apparently, was one of 40+ “thinkers” he talked to about this topic. Fortunately, the other 39+ thinkers were able to make up for my ramblings. Ben summarized some of what he learned from these interviews in a very thoughtful blog post “Looking Beyond the Business Card”:

But over the course of more than 40 interviews with thinkers in nonprofits, government, journalism, and the private sector, I discovered a cultural divide among scientists themselves – between academics and their counterparts in industry. . .While there’s plenty of cross-pollination between university and commercial scientists on topics like chemistry, geology, and medicine, it seems that communication grows thinner in more interdisciplinary and holistic fields like ecology and climate. If this is true, it points to many missed opportunities for both groups to learn from one another.

Up and Over

Science Careers has compiled an excellent list of articles and stories about scientists overcoming disability, mental health issues, and scores of other problems. With all of the negativity surrounding maintaining a career in science, it’s refreshing to read about how a scientific career is possible even with a few extra hurdles.

Linkonomicon: Science, Democracy, and Plato’s Revenge

Some decisions clearly require expert knowledge, but democracy is a commitment to letting consequential decisions be resolved by a group of people who are clearly not experts on every important issue, i.e. all of us. And so we have a problem.

My favorite philosopher of science, Philip Kitcher, says Plato would think we’re crazy:

If the public does not think a particular issue should be addressed, then it is entirely right that nothing should be done about it. Plato saw this as a fundamental commitment of democracy, and, because he understood that people may be massively deceived – or misled – about what is in their interests, he drew the conclusion that democracy is a political disaster.

But Kitcher doesn’t think Plato should have the last word. Go check out his ideas about the role of experts in democracy in “Plato’s Revenge: An Undemocratic Report from an Overheated Planet”, via the journal Logos

Send not to know for whom the patent trolls, It trolls for thee

According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Edith Ramirez, Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), announced that the FTC is committed to using its investigatory and antitrust powers to take on patent trolls:

First, she revealed that the FTC will conduct a wide-ranging investigation into the conduct of patent trolls. Second, she confirmed that, when appropriate, the FTC is committed to using its antitrust enforcement powers. – Daniel Nazer for EFF

Pedantic Cow

The Laughing Squid is a font of linkjoy, like this stylized, but functional illustration of a cow’s digestive processes.

Cow from Nova Jiang on Vimeo.

Nova Jiang’s sculpture, Cow, is not, however, a “Rube Goldberg-style” machine, as described in the Laughing Squid piece:

“Cow” is an interactive wooden sculpture that demonstrates the complicated digestive system of a cow with a complicated Rube Goldberg-style mechanism. – EDW Lynch

Rube Goldberg-style machines are unnecessarily complicated. The game Mousetrap involves the construction of a Rube Goldberg-style machine. The “This Too Shall Pass” video from OK Go we featured as our Song of the Week shows the operation of a Rube Goldberg-style machine.

This machine is not unnecessarily complicated. It is necessarily complicated, because digestion in cows is complicated.