or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
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"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
March 29, 2010
A Science Joke Which Writes Itself
By: Aaron Datesman
MEMS, or Micro-Electrical Mechanical Systems, is a sub-field of electrical engineering which has emerged in the fifteen years or so. The first “killer app” for MEMS was the collision sensor which activates the airbag in an automobile, but the devices are fairly ubiquitous today. For instance, the microphone in your cell phone is probably a MEMS device; and so is the gizmo which tells your digital camera which direction is pointing up when you rotate the frame.
Like 90% of the modern practice of electrical engineering, of course, MEMS would almost certainly not exist except for Pentagon support. It’s in this vein that I got a good laugh from the title of this article about MEMS research going on in Israel:
More sensitive sensor paves way for better prosthetic limbs, cars and missiles
It’s a perfect cycle: we’ll build better missiles to blow up your cars and outfit your mangled children with better prosthetic limbs.
I have no idea whether the author of the article was trying to make this joke. But intentional or not, it’s simply a fantastic conjunction.
— Aaron Datesman
I think it should go: "More sensitive sensor paves way for better cars, missiles and prosthetic limbs." And then the cycle is (1) build cars that can more easily avoid collisions, (2) build missiles that can hit the cars anyway, and (3) outfit your mangled children with better prosthetic limbs.
Ciiirrrrclllllle of Liiiiiiffffeeeee
Posted by: Jonathan Schwarz at March 30, 2010 12:30 AMInternet is the new world and you shouldn't be board from that you may earn from the internet and many more things can happen on the internet.
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Internet is the new world and you shouldn't be board from that you may earn from the internet and many more things can happen on the internet.
The problem is that all those missiles are being aimed at the wrong people....
Posted by: NomadUK at March 30, 2010 07:07 AMI have a subscription to Science News (perfect for my layman's interest in science) and at least once per issue I'll be reading along happily, going "wow science is cool!" and then all of a sudden it'll be like "Scientists hope to apply this discovery to create better missiles/military armor/brainwashed super soldiers," and it always throws me right off.
Posted by: ethan at March 30, 2010 09:11 AM@Ethan - yeah, try being a scientist..... Someday I'll write a post about my first day at Bettis Lab, which was the second-most dispiriting day of my entire life.
Posted by: Aaron Datesman at March 30, 2010 11:53 AMFarming, that's what supports the armies of the world.
Posted by: Murfyn at March 30, 2010 12:12 PMIt’s a perfect cycle: we’ll build better missiles to blow up your cars and outfit your mangled children with better prosthetic limbs.
I think I see a way to economic recovery here ... as long as the people don't mind. And really, when was the last time they did?
Posted by: laym at March 30, 2010 12:57 PMI find it hard to believe that even the stupidest clod actually purchases something as a consequence of comment sp*m. Fortunately I'm not board enough to even click on the link to investigate.
Posted by: grimmy at March 30, 2010 01:58 PMI don't know which is worse, the spam, the complaints about the spam, or the complaints about the complaints about the spam.
Medical and safety applications help keep sane those of us who work on tech more immediately applied to military uses. Real-time signal and image processing software guides missiles (most typically to blast warplanes), but is essential for processing MRI scans and to keep passenger planes from colliding.
Posted by: Nathan Myers at March 30, 2010 03:21 PM
