How a Man Does Science

The Schmidt Sting Pain Index measures how much the sting of various insects will hurt. If you are ever captured by a supervillain and given a choice between escaping thru the tunnel guarded by Mud Daubers or the tunnel guarded by Paper Wasps, this knowledge will be helpful.You may also find it useful when dropping a hive into the villains’ lair to avoid being caught in the first place. Continue reading →

On 10 March 1972, America launched the Pioneer 10 spacecraft with a gold-anodized aluminum plaque, measuring 9″ x 6″. The plaque told any aliens finding the probe about our knowledge of Hydrogen, what we looked like, and, conveniently, on which planet they could hunt us. Continue reading →

Mankind (and if that word offends you this is going to be a rough piece), is on the cusp of a great societal breakthrough. Around 3500 BC we built a great tower, and challenged God for control of the heavens. God was not amused, and sentenced us to language diversity. You can read the original story in Genesis 11.

Mankind now has an answer. It took us long enough. Maybe God had a point. Continue reading →

I’ve always pictured societal stupidity as a two-dimensional graph. I’m almost certain that one of those sides is labeled “self-importance”. The other is a mystery. At present, we are far down an asymptote, where parody is regularly confused with news, and politicians are confused with problem-solvers.

I’m not naive; I realize there is no such thing as “peak stupidity”. Continue reading →