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Post by timothylane on Jul 16, 2019 17:38:30 GMT -8
Tom Weller in 1985 did a fairly short parody of science (and often a very pointed one as well as quite funny and reasonably erudite) called Science Made Stupid.
The book looks at a variety of fields of science in a most irreverent fashion, and finishes off with a page of references -- a short glossary of terms ("Circular reasoning -- see reasoning, circular . . . Reasoning, circular -- see circular reasoning"), a list of units (the millihelen is 1/1000 of a helen, and is the amount of beauty it takes to launch one ship), a timeline of events (unfortunately, his prediction of when a Democrat would next win the Presidency was a bit off), and other features such as an ad to become a quantum mechanic (carrying a wrench probably designed by M. C. Escher).
Weller's take on astronomy includes a listing of the symbols of each of the (then) 9 planets, including a Mars bar for Mars, a particular cartoon dog for Pluto, and an image for Uranus suggested by the most common pronunciation of the planet. There's also a star map with rather different names for the constellations and stars.
His look at physics includes a discussion of a famous experiment by Galileo. Aristotle had theorized that a lead ball and a feather would fall at the same speeds in an ideal state known as a vacuum. Galileo tossed a heavy weight and a feather off the Leaning Tower of Pisa, demolishing this ivory tower theory. His look at weather includes the water table with its 3 phases of the cycle (elaboration, condescension, and participation), and his coverage of geology includes the 3 general types of rocks (ignominious, sedentary, and metaphoric).
The section on particle physics includes lists of strange particles (I recall the steverino as one), as well as the comment that an amusing but unrealistic parody of the material can be found in any book about particle physics. (My friend the physics major rather enjoyed that.) Some of this material shows up in the reference page, such as the quark (the sound made by a durk).
He has a nice section on events such as volcanic eructions (the diagram can be painful for a male to view) and earthquakes. He explains the latter as self-fulfilling prophecies -- a psychic predicts an upcoming quake, people read about it and panic (the paper being shown with the prediction also has a headline elsewhere, "Princess Di Eaten by Giant Squid"). This causes an uproar among animals, which eventually causes the earthquake to happen.
The longest section covers biology, especially natural history. There are pages on the Paleozoic Era (which mentions the chanting of mantra rays as one feature), the Mesozoic Era, and the Cenozoic Era. Some of the best material comes in the Mesozoic. (I no longer have my copy and can't remember if he actually used those terms, or parodies of them.) We have different versions of what it was like, as well as such creatures as the Diplocaudus and Diplocephalus (a disputed reconstruction because fossils of the two are always found together).
Human evolution is covered as well, including a combination of religious and Darwinian evolution that he argues can legally be taught anywhere in the United States. It includes the evolutionary tree of horses from Itsyhippus to modern times, including such oddities as the Xylidae (sawhorses, hobby horses, and Trojan horses). There's also a demonstration of the evolution of clergy from Moses through Savonarola to Dr. Gene Scott. (That would more accurately be called devolution.) There's even a brief look at ancient history.
As it happens, Science Made Stupid even won an award -- the Hugo Award for Best Related Work (usually a non-fiction book). I hadn't nominated it because it never occurred to me that it qualified, but when it did get nominated I went ahead and voted it first. After the Hugos were handed out in 1986, some of us were wondering how SF's enfant terrible, Harlan Ellison (who had a nominee in that field) had reacted to losing to Science Made Stupid.
Used copies are available cheap at Amazon, and I may even consider buying one just to be able to peruse it again. At any rate, I think a lot of readers here would enjoy it.
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Brad Nelson
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עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jul 17, 2019 9:12:42 GMT -8
I may be turning into a Luddite as I get older. I remain fascinated by electronic trinkets and gadgetry. But I remain skeptical of what “science” has to offer in terms anything other than technical details (fine) or a left-leaning politics wrapped up as “science.”
The last scientist I can think of who was worth a damn to read was Richard Feynman.
But even scientists can have a sense of humor (as Feynman did). How can you not like the idea of the “strange” and “charmed” quark? They are perfect names for a something that we’ll never experience first-hand and can only ever pin down (like Jell-o to the wall) with abstract mathematics. Otherwise, for all practical purposes, it is a ghost in the machine — probably strange, charmed, and a few other things as well.
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Post by timothylane on Jul 29, 2019 15:39:23 GMT -8
Weller did a sequel, Culture Made Stupid, a few years later that was similar in size and structure. Overall I didn't like it as much as I did Science Made Stupid, but it does have a few good items. The first, discussing controversies over the First Amendment, suggested that it should be ended after the first 5 words.
He also reported on a newly discovered Shakespeare play, including a brief excerpt. It seems the play only had 2 words not found elsewhere in Shakespeare: "thermonuclear" and "jazzercise". I rather liked the whimsical nature of that one.
In addition, he briefly discussed Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, pointing out that it was actually only made up of a few paragraphs each with a few sentences. At the bottom he had an image of 2 pages of the book, which in all contained only part of one very long and complex sentence.
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Post by artraveler on Jul 29, 2019 18:02:39 GMT -8
One of the best, and funniest humor books to take on the establishment is at least 60 years old. Will Cuppy and the, Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody. 1066 and all that, takes on history. I think I read it in 7th grade. I recall seeing them on Amazon several years ago.
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Post by timothylane on Jul 29, 2019 18:42:46 GMT -8
I heard about Cuppy's The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody from a friend at Purdue, where an annex of the library had a copy. (I think that may also have been where I first located Hector Bywater's The Great Pacific War, about a fictional war between the US and Japan. I later got my own copy.) Eventually I got a copy of my own, along with some other Cuppy works, most notably How to Get From January to December.
I also had a copy of 1066 and All That, which is indeed a weird book. Another writer later did an updated sequel, 1956 and All That, taking the history forward into (I think) the 1970s. One touch in the latter was a question as to whether a descending sequence of numbers constituted a Liberal revival, with an admonition to answer it mercifully. A friend who knows British politics says the sequence was the (declining) number of seats the Liberal Party won in successive elections.
For what it's worth, all the books mentioned here are available on Amazon.
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kungfuzu
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Post by kungfuzu on Jul 29, 2019 18:45:30 GMT -8
How did "1066 And All That" close? Something like, "And then history ended." I believe it ended in 1918 when the USA became the premier world power.
I have the book somewhere, again in one of my boxes of books.
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Post by timothylane on Jul 29, 2019 19:03:46 GMT -8
I checked in wikipedia (they actually had an article on the book), and KFZ's memory is quite good. They also note that Richard Armour's It All Started With Columbus was not only inspired by 1066 and All That but also dedicated to the authors, Sellar and Yeatman.
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kungfuzu
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Post by kungfuzu on Jul 29, 2019 19:36:47 GMT -8
History has always been one of the two (non-human) loves of my life. The other being music.
And English history was and still is my first love.
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Post by timothylane on Jul 29, 2019 19:45:46 GMT -8
I've followed a fair amount of British history as well. Probably the heaviest emphasis has been on the Plantagenets from the originally family with its hell-spawn reputation to the end of the Wars of the Roses. This especially included reading Costain's history of that era. I've also read Sharon Kay Penman's many historical novels on this period. I also read a lot on the Napoleonic Era from just about every point of view, and have similar material on the Crimean War, the various British wars in South Africa (especially with the Zulus and the Afrikaners), and the World Wars. Not to mention the war for the Falklands.
I have many intellectual interests, but history has no doubt been the most extensive.
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kungfuzu
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Post by kungfuzu on Jul 29, 2019 19:54:48 GMT -8
I particularly liked Medieval English history, but was at a disadvantage in pursuing it as I did not know French and Latin, which are both very necessary to pursue a serious study of the period.
I also enjoy the history of Austria and the Habsburgs as well of that of the Holy Roman Empire. French history has never been of a particular interest to me, but is important for understanding Europe.
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Post by timothylane on Jul 29, 2019 20:06:16 GMT -8
A college friend was a devoted Habsburg fan. I had a lot of material on them, but even more on Prussia (including one or two volumes of Carlyle's biography of Frederick the Great). I also had a considerable amount on Russian and Balkan history. I even had a fair amount of (translated) primary sources, some of which I've mentioned in passing in various posts here.
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Post by timothylane on Aug 20, 2019 12:04:59 GMT -8
I will mention here Richard Armour's It All Started With Columbus, which I reviewed on ST. This is a humorous look at US history, which has gone through different editions as Armour updated it with new material. (History never ends.) The illustrations add to this, naturally. In discussing New Netherlands, he mentions the poltroons, who smoked tobacco in long pipes and ate burghers. This is accompanied by a picture of one with pipe and burger. His discussion of the crime gangs during Prohibition included a picture of a short mob boss with a pair of hulking bodyguards; the caption was "One Big Shot and Two Little Shots". The punny descriptions are often good in more than one way, as when he refers to Germany having a "furor" running things during World War II. Or there was the final attack at Gettysburg, Pickets Charge -- by then the Confederates were out of ammunition and armed with sharpened wooden staves. His discussion of the possible names for the new nation including proposals such as the Union (favored by labor), the Nation (favored by leftists), and the New Republic (favored by liberals). This is just one of many such books he wrote with similar titles. He also did parodies of various literary works. American literary humor was definitely enriched by his presence. |
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