{"id":392,"date":"2008-09-30T11:24:59","date_gmt":"2008-09-30T11:24:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/2008\/09\/30\/on_the_newsworthiness_of_clever_bastards\/"},"modified":"2008-09-30T11:24:59","modified_gmt":"2008-09-30T11:24:59","slug":"on_the_newsworthiness_of_clever_bastards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/2008\/09\/30\/on_the_newsworthiness_of_clever_bastards\/","title":{"rendered":"On the newsworthiness of clever bastards"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>bq. _Einstein can&#8217;t be classed as witless.<br \/>\nHe claimed atoms were the littlest.<br \/>\nWhen you did a bit of splitting-em-ness<br \/>\nFrighten everybody shitless_<\/p>\n<p>\n&#8220;Jenny&#8221;:http:\/\/network.nature.com\/people\/UE19877E8\/blog\/2008\/09\/29\/in-which-science-becomes-a-sport-\u2013-hypothetically-speaking is talking about turning science into a spectator sport. <a href=\"http:\/\/network.nature.com\/people\/etchevers\/blog\">Heather<\/a>, I think, is volunteering to be the anchorman on the evening news. <\/p>\n<p>\nIf, I think the argument goes, it is important for people to know\/sells newspapers that a washed-up actress has been arrested for driving under the influence of prescription medication<sup><a href=\"#fn19387623904d13de8d3c3bb\">1<\/a><\/sup> or that a rugby player is threatening to beat up a football player over a girl<sup><a href=\"#fn985545244d13de8d3c3d1\">2<\/a><\/sup>, then surely the continuing story of our continuing epic struggle against the very forces of Nature<sup><a href=\"#fn14711269904d13de8d3c3e6\">3<\/a><\/sup> herself deserves a few column inches?<\/p>\n<p>\nWhat we are doing, those of us who aren&#8217;t failed editors at any rate, is actually pretty damned <em>important<\/em>. We&#8217;re trying to find out how things work, and eventually how to fix it when it breaks. And it&#8217;s a bloody, bitter struggle sometimes. It has passion, pathos, despair, triumph and elation, the deepest depths and the highest heights and even (if you&#8217;re lucky) wild sex.<\/p>\n<p>\nIt would make <em>stunning<\/em> TV.<\/p>\n<p>\nWhat we need to do is get it out of the hands of the lawyers and the PR droids and the marketing managers, back into the hands of the real live scientists who are actually <a href=\"http:\/\/blackandtantees.com\/Images\/just-did-it.jpg\">doing it<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>\nAnd people will watch\/listen\/read. There are people getting very heated on YouTube about <a href=\"http:\/\/au.youtube.com\/watch?v=T6pwf-fp0aE\">quantum<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/au.youtube.com\/watch?v=UL2bqkihX4E\">physics<\/a>! And we all know that the only thing quantum physics has given us is some confused-looking cats. Just imagine what interest real science would engender.<\/p>\n<p>\nGeeks of the world unite! Throw off your labcoats and get a camera. Let&#8217;s see you <em>give<\/em>, ducky.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n_There ain&#8217;t half been some <a href=\"http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/4fyftp\">clever bastards<\/a>.<br \/>\nNow that we&#8217;ve had some,<br \/>\nlet&#8217;s hope that there&#8217;s lots more to come._<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\nfn1. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/tvshowbiz\/article-1063731\/Moment-Heather-Locklear-helped-police-car-arrested-drug-driving.html\">Daily Mail<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><p class=\"footnote\"><sup>2<\/sup> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/sol\/homepage\/news\/article1749008.ece[4\">The Sun<\/a><\/p>\n<p><p class=\"footnote\"><sup>3<\/sup> That&#8217;s Nature the mythical personification of the natural world, not <em>Nature<\/em> <del>the evil publishing conglomerate<\/del> our generous hosts. But you knew that.<\/p>\n<p><p class=\"footnote\"><sup>4<\/sup> The URL for <em>The Sun<\/em> online contains &#8216;sol&#8217;, which my inner geek finds unspeakably funny. Maybe <em>that&#8217;s<\/em> why I&#8217;m not on TV. Yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>bq. _Einstein can&#8217;t be classed as witless. He claimed atoms were the littlest. When you did a bit of splitting-em-ness Frighten everybody shitless_ &#8220;Jenny&#8221;:http:\/\/network.nature.com\/people\/UE19877E8\/blog\/2008\/09\/29\/in-which-science-becomes-a-sport-\u2013-hypothetically-speaking is talking about turning science into a spectator sport. Heather, I think, is volunteering to be &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/2008\/09\/30\/on_the_newsworthiness_of_clever_bastards\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}