Thinky links

The Ig Nobels (which are today! watch them online!) and my ongoing cold have kept me from reacting much, but I’ve been reading a lot great stuff!

The New York Times uses Randall Monroe’s xkcd to anchor a piece about the rise of geek/nerd culture: “[O]nce-fringe, nerd-friendly obsessions like gadgets, comic books and fire-breathing dragons are increasingly everyone’s obsessions.” UPDATE: Seven more pundits weigh in on the question “So what does it mean when geek culture becomes mainstream?” as a Room for Debate feature.

The NYT also summarizes recent research on how reading Harry Potter can affect young people’s political opinions.

There’s been a lot of good writing about science fiction and politics this week. The phrase “science theater” or “science entertainment” makes people think of stories about the hard sciences, but there’s a lot of implicit sociology and psychology in all stories, and it’s best to get it right.

i09 has a simply brilliant piece about how real-life revolutions work, and how history shows up the overly simplistic dystopias so popular at the moment.

Slate takes on a similar theme–the lack of any kind of real political backstory or worldbuilding in much science fiction. “”Like Snowpiercer, these stories of unchecked economic inequality aren’t finally sure if they want to be taken literally or figuratively. More often than not, they split the difference.

Another article in the same Slate series urges writers to envision better utopias.

This year’s Ig Nobel opera features a microbe chorus–and me, as assistant director pressed into service at the last minute. Thus attuned to microbes in the public eye, I was delighted by this 6 1/2 minute animation celebrating “invisible life,” and the Dutchman who first discovered it. Meanwhile, the Globe gently demolishes a much-quoted microbial statistic, and ponders its staying power:

Ten parts microbe and one part man vividly captures our imagination. Even if the estimate is off, it is innocuous—certainly it has no obvious negative consequences, nor is it a result of outright deception in the sciences, as in the case of debunked research connecting vaccines and autism. Perhaps the crude estimate endures because it serves the practical purpose of astonishing those who hear it, in the same way that bogus Martian canals inspired a greater curiosity about the solar system, or the myth that all humans only access 10 percent of their brains might foster a greater appreciation for neuroscience.

Finally, tickets have been selling fast for BAHFest–the Festival of Bad Ad Hoc Hypotheses–so get yours now! BAHFest is a contest for the most ingenious and hilarious evolutionary explanations for … well, pretty much anything. I was a judge last year and will be again.

They’ve gotten a fair amount of publicity in the past week for last year’s winner, who hypothesized that paleolithic warriors wore babies into battle. (The crying provides an adrenaline boost.) Here’s the winning presentation.

And, yeah, at least one person has taken it seriously. Oy. I do really enjoy BAHFest, but doing satire these days is a dangerous thing.