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Science Askew
Whoever came up with that joke definitely doesn't know geeks, or he'd know that they most certainly do appreciate the opposite sex and that that programmer would have been all over the frog in a second. But when geeks make fun of themselves? Now that's something to see -- and Science Askew is a collection of just such humor. The jokes run the gamut from one-liner to extended essay, and almost every major branch of science is represented.
The great strength of Science Askew is that, unlike so many collections of humor about a particular group of people, these aren't just blonde jokes with "chemist" or "computer programmer" or "mathematician" substituted for the word "blonde." It's subject-specific humor -- and at its best, it's good for some serious belly laughs. (An example: "Never lend a geologist money. They consider a million years ago to be recent.") Most of the time, a specialized knowledge of a particular branch of science isn't necessary to get the jokes -- merely being a generalist geek is more than enough.
You'll find many old chestnuts gathered here, such as the "Ban Dihydrogen Monoxide!" essay, mixed in with original material by Donald Simanek and lesser-known pieces plucked from magazines. John Holden's illustrations, which range from the brilliantly funny to the incomprehensible, are sprinkled throughout.
Why does Science Askew rate only a 7? While it's nice to have so many science jokes gathered in one place, you're likely to have heard a good number of them before -- and even if you haven't, you can find them (and many more) for free here. While there is a significant amount of original and hard-to-find material, it tends to be of lesser quality than the stuff you can find on the Web. Thus, it's hard to justify the $30 price tag. Plus, as a chemist, I can't help but be miffed that there's no section for chemistry (though there are a few chemistry jokes scattered in other parts of the book). There's an entire 23-page chapter devoted to the life and times of a single fictitious scientist, so why not a chapter for the chemists?
When geeks lampoon each other, the results can be dangerously funny. Unfortunately, as Science Askew shows, the jokes can also fall flat -- but there's enough good material inside to make it worth a look.
You can purchase Science Askew from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
If 9/11 showed this country anything is is that blind devotion to science has not gotten us any where, we teach things like evolution and copernicanism where there is no real proof, and have shunned all of the teachings that use'd to be the moral foundation of the country, time to get back to basics, time to get some moral fiber. that is how we will win
But that fact apparently hasn't prevented the homosexualist apologist lobby from continuing to perpetuate that whole "10%" lie. The most recent real statistics indicate that at most two to three percent of the population is "gay" (read: homosexualist.) When these people have to resort to outright lies in order to further their agenda, what does that say about how much their agenda is actually worth? A society that condones and even celebrates child rape is not a society in which I wish to live.
.. offtopic as hell, mod me as you wish, but this whole 10% Kinsey lie pisses me off badly every time that I see it spread.
Yeah, yeah, I know
Why don't you post some NEWS for a change instead
of this daily drivel.
The United States is being robbed by the Cheney-Rumsfeld
administration and you lamers want to report
about a person named Science Askew. What a stupid
name!
Cheers,
Woot
Oh please... +2 interesting for such an obvious joke? Would the moderators please read the link before moderating?
Thanks!