Westboro Baptists @ Nerd Prom

7/22 @ 1:15pm - Westboro Baptists picket San Diego Comic-Con. I urge nerd-dom to not give them the attention they crave, but rather keep asking them what anime they are cosplaying.

(Parenthetically I note that 'nerd prom' no longer has an unambiguous referent.)

30 Days - Living in the Museum of Science & Industry (Chicago)

The MSI is having a contest, looking for someone to live for a month inside the museum (October 20 to November 18, 2010). Live, eat and sleep there, unless they let you out for a few public appearances. Blog, tweet, vid, and photo your experiences. Pay is $10K, you can sleep in a submarine, and all the baby chicks you can eat at the incubator exhibit. Looks pretty sweet, and then I got to the part in the application where it asks "What experience do you have working with children?" And the thought of being surrounded by a milling crowd of nose-explorers and crumb-grabbers gave me the heebie jeebies. But maybe one of you will be more intrepid; it would be pretty neat.

They say they're equally open to scientific neophytes and scientific experts, but I would imagine they'd like someone to whom everything would be new and cool, who would act as a regular joe/jane ambassador to the outside world. But who knows?

contest spotted by notjenschiz

Bellwether by Connie Willis

I chewed my way through Bellwether during my various durances vile in planes and in airports Wednesday. It's pretty short, but I still felt accomplished as I completed the last few paragraphs while the plane taxied to the gate on my return to LAX.
It's a light comic work, with a satirical look at the fads of modern society and the evils of coporatespeak. It's an amusing bagatelle, with most of the characters so broadly drawn they are not believable except as comic characters, which is okay, since that's what they are. One of them reaches a height of comic awfulness that rivals Basil Fawlty. If there's any seriousness in Bellwether, it's an exploration of, and paean to, contingency and serendipity. Good stuff.