[Noisebridge-discuss] Science for Juggalos

[Neil Kandalgaonkar]

On 06/03/2010 01:00 PM, Christie Dudley wrote:

> Keep in mind that the topic of the song /is/ about the wonder of the
> universe.  Believe it or not, ICP took a remarkably spiritual bent a couple
> of years ago and the juggalos have followed along.

Interesting.

> I remember discussing with colleagues at the last place I worked how I
> thought it was sweet and a little romantic to discuss the physics behind why
> the sky is blue.  They felt quite the opposite - that knowing what makes the
> sky blue takes the romance out.

I don't agree with the "Learn'd Astronomer" notion that it necessarily
removes the romance. Maybe presentation matters. I sometimes explain to
people that their sky is blue because someone else's sunset is yellow
and red.

But school is practically designed to make people hostile to subjects
that they aren't good at or don't have aptitude for. A lot of geeks are
turned off of athletics because they felt humilated by their
experiences. I'm sure it's the same for some nongeeks and math and science.

People are so concerned about guarding their own little fiefdoms. It's
easy for the geek to fall into the trap of thinking that the whole of
science is your posse. But the truth is... a lot of us couldn't explain
how fuckin' magnets work any better than your average juggalo.

Personally, I know the Physics 201 stuff about moving charges and the
right-hand rule, but what it "really" is involves exchanges of virtual
photons imparting negative momentum and fuck if I know what that even means.

http://www.xs4all.nl/~johanw/PhysFAQ/Quantum/virtual_particles.html

-- 
Neil Kandalgaonkar (|  <neilk at brevity.org>