OnPoint by Keith Ng

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OnPoint: Angry Fisk of Rightwing Thinktank for Entertainment Purposes

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  • Lucy Stewart,

    That post, I must say, was beautiful. And yet terrifying.

    But rather than crediting people who use the technology with its development, perhaps you should credit the people who developed the technology for its development? Maybe? Just a little?

    This bit actually makes me a bit sick, recalling as it does all the times that science and technology get credited not to the actual people who do the actual work, but the pretty people who use it.

    Newsflash: forensics is done by ordinary, non-porn-star people in boring, windowless laboratories. Very few glass walls and flashing computers are involved. New technology is invented, by and large, by people in other boring, windowless rooms. Cool space science is not done by astronauts, it's done by engineers in boring, windowless rooms. Can we have some love for the non-pretty people in boring, windowless rooms here?

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2105 posts Report Reply

  • Keith Ng,

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 543 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Campbell,

    While I didn't go to CES this year I have friends who did ... first of all CES where they were touting all the 3D TVs is not a porn convention .... but every year across town the porn industry does have a show always at the same week, I guess it helps get the punters in ....

    My friends who went (and who don't do 3D TV or porn, as far as I know) tell me that the 3d TVs cause massive headaches - at least wandering the show floors and looking at them did - they didn't say anything about the porn

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report Reply

  • Tze Ming Mok,

    Maybe people didn't move to Hong Kong for the low taxes and the liberal regulatory regime, but for the absence of a civil war and a cultural revolution? Maybe? Just a little?

    snort!

    Hearted.

    Oh wait, this isn't a Gawker blog.

    SarfBank, Lunnin' • Since Nov 2006 • 154 posts Report Reply

  • Steve Barnes,

    My friends who went (and who don't do 3D TV or porn, as far as I know) tell me that the 3d TVs cause massive headaches

    When porn gives you a headache it rather destroys its purpose doesn't it?
    "No thank you dear, I have a headache".

    Peria • Since Dec 2006 • 5521 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    Maybe it's homeopathic

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Lucy Stewart,

    Like so?

    http://xkcd.org/683/

    I have a serious need to frame that cartoon, put it on my wall, and point emphatically at it when people ask what I do.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2105 posts Report Reply

  • Rich of Observationz,

    But rather than crediting people who use the technology with its development, perhaps you should credit the people who developed the technology for its development?

    Word.

    But that's standard practice in this world, where people consider themselves "geeks" even though they haven't created anything original ever - just because they know which Apple product they're going to buy next and can cut-and-paste the views of Richard Stallmann with fluency.

    (grumps)

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report Reply

  • Steve Barnes,

    I have a serious need to frame that cartoon, put it on my wall, and point emphatically at it when people ask what I do.

    Cool, all those flashing lights and backlit displays. Do you get to say "Let's GO!" often?
    :-)

    Peria • Since Dec 2006 • 5521 posts Report Reply

  • Rich of Observationz,

    Also:

    What kind of physics or chemistry experiments are better understood with 3D video than with 2D video?

    A proper experiment is one that leaves the windows cracked, glassware embedded in the ceiling and the class being evacuated coughing onto the front lawn.

    Sadly, today's kids don't learn to handle energetic materials at school and are forced to rectify this attempting reductive amination by trial and error at home.

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report Reply

  • Grace Dalley,

    I have a serious need to frame that cartoon, put it on my wall, and point emphatically at it when people ask what I do.

    Lucy, that's what you do? Awesome :-)

    Can we have some love for the non-pretty people in boring, windowless rooms here?

    <3 <3 <3

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2008 • 138 posts Report Reply

  • Islander,

    Or they join my whanau-only Molotov class-




    (catch-2<3)

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • Islander,

    Exceptions made for promising (i.e missing fingers) applicants.

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Campbell,

    Rich - well those lab safety demonstrations would be enhanced by bits of glass shrapnel appearing to fly over your shoulder - otherwise 3D video for schools - meh

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report Reply

  • Keith Ng,

    My friends who went (and who don't do 3D TV or porn, as far as I know) tell me that the 3d TVs cause massive headaches - at least wandering the show floors and looking at them did - they didn't say anything about the porn

    Maybe it'd work better if they were on a bed that was vibrating at the same frequency. Or maybe it's the viewing angle. Nah, I'm sticking with the vibrating-bed-required theory.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 543 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    Lucy, that's what you do? Awesome :-)

    Failing to completely rule out the presence of barium and radium in things: a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • Keith Ng,

    A proper experiment is one that leaves the windows cracked, glassware embedded in the ceiling and the class being evacuated coughing onto the front lawn.

    I take my chemistry cues from Breaking Bad: Safety gear, appropriate equipment, and an emergency eyewash station nearby. Safety first, manufacturing of methamphetamines second.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 543 posts Report Reply

  • recordari,

    Perhaps a 3D video would have helped me during sixth form chemistry.

    Gossiping with friend I was passed a test tube.

    "What's this?"
    "Chloroform."
    "What should I do with it?"
    "Sniff it."
    "Oh, Ok"

    >-|o

    AUCKLAND • Since Dec 2009 • 2607 posts Report Reply

  • Rich of Observationz,

    Best chemistry link:
    http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/things_i_wont_work_with/

    Sample quote:

    The experimental section of the paper enjoins the reader to wear a face shield, leather suit, and ear plugs, to work behind all sorts of blast shields, and to use Teflon and stainless steel apparatus so as to minimize shrapnel. Hmm. Ranking my equipment in terms of its shrapneliferousness is not something that's ever occurred to me, I have to say. It's safe to assume that any procedure which involves considering which parts of the apparatus I'd prefer to have flying past me will not get much business in my lab, no matter how dashing I might look in a leather suit.

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report Reply

  • Joanna,

    Newsflash: forensics is done by ordinary, non-porn-star people in boring, windowless laboratories. Very few glass walls and flashing computers are involved....Can we have some love for the non-pretty people in boring, windowless rooms here?

    That sounds like a pretty good set and plotline for a porno, if you ask me.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 746 posts Report Reply

  • Pete Sime,

    So DARPA, CERN, Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Al Gore put all that effort into the internet just so you can jack it without the embarrassment of getting a dirty magazine at a newsagent.

    Dunedin • Since Apr 2008 • 171 posts Report Reply

  • Lucy Stewart,

    Lucy, that's what you do? Awesome :-)

    Not precisely, but with the exception of some minor details ("I can say that this strain is probably not enterotoxic. Unless I set the conditions wrong. Or forgot to add the DNA. Or it's mutated from the sequence on Genbank.") it certainly looks very much like what I'm doing right now, especially when I run out of stuff to do and resort to staring at the PCR machine in the hope that it will magically go faster.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2105 posts Report Reply

  • recordari,

    Ironically, after my inauspicious beginnings, I now find myself managing a small laboratory, and unlike Lucy, I find Colorimetric assays quite sexy, and if you'll excuse me I'm just going to have a quiet moment with the HPLC, and Electro-Chemical Detector, which must surely have been spawned from the porn industry. What with the injector ports, pumps and columns and... sorry, where were we?

    Oh yes, xkcd. Mmm, yes, good.

    AUCKLAND • Since Dec 2009 • 2607 posts Report Reply

  • Lucy Stewart,

    unlike Lucy, I find Colorimetric assays quite sexy

    Spend three hours trying to get first-year university students to do them correctly and that embarrassing problem will go away very quickly, I promise.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2105 posts Report Reply

  • recordari,

    Ah yes, I guess I was looking at it from an aesthetic viewpoint. "Oh, look at the pretty colours".

    Teaching it would be an entirely different matter. "Yes the colours are pretty, but could you just please concentrate on the $500 auto-pipette, because you just stuck it in sulfuric acid." That sort of thing?

    AUCKLAND • Since Dec 2009 • 2607 posts Report Reply

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