August 5

[Zeke]

I'm back!

Zeke's Better Judgment: You know how Jean Grey keeps getting killed in the X-Men comics? And each time, she ends up making some big return? And it's supposed to be a big deal and everything, but you start to wonder why the other characters even care anymore? You being "back" is like that.

I don't know why I keep letting you talk. Anyway, to start things off, I'm going to answer the big question that's surely on everyone's mind....

Zeke's Better Judgment: Why you keep putting on those 3D glasses?

What? No. I mean the question of filler. Before I left I said I would arrange some sort of filler. Well, I did -- I suggested to Sa'ar and Derek that they write some newsposts. Sa'ar did one, but I ended up not having time to post it. So here, slightly belated, it is.

What ho and salutations, all and sundry.

Sa'ar Chasm here. Since Zeke is up to his eyeballs in trying to make math fun for kids -- a Herculean task if there ever was one --

Hey!

-- he's asked the rest of the staff to keep you all entertained for the week. I figure I should probably do something to earn my keep around here, so I agreed.

Today's link combines two of my passions: chemistry and parody. In 1959, tunesmith and satirist Tom Lehrer penned a little ditty about the periodic table to "a vaguely recognizable tune." Flash forward half a century or so. Someone called Mike Stanfill had too much time on his hands and created a rather clever Flash animation for it. Be warned: the last line contains a highly questionable rhyme.

Incidentally, the "vaguely recognizable tune" is one of my karaoke standbys. When I manage to get all the way through it without passing out or tying my tongue into a knot, there's cheering from the back of the room.

And if you buy that, I've got a bridge over troubled water to sell you.

So, go enjoy Tom Lehrer's "The Elements Song" and come back tomorrow for, uh, I dunno, something. Possibly dancing monkeys, but no promises.

No promises? Wow, Sa'ar's a quick study. It took me a long time to learn that lesson about newsposts. Now come back tomorrow for big updates! Big! Big! BIG!

[evay]

I love that song, and I adore Tom Lehrer. My high school chem teacher would play that on the first day of the course to see who "got it," and it happened that year that I was the only one who did. (The rest of the class just sort of rolled their eyes and collectively muttered "There she goes again.") I never heard whatever else he said the rest of the lesson because I couldn't stop giggling.

Didn't the Animaniacs do something similar? was it geography?

[mark726]

Animaniacs did a countries of the world song, but there are a few notable exceptions that don't show up. I forget what they are, but I was surprised. Still, a great song overall.

[Nate the Great]

Yeah, I've seen the flash. You can also see one here http://www.privatehand.com/flash/elements.html
No idea if it's identical, better, worse, etc.

My only complaint is that I believe that about a dozen elements have been discovered since, so they can't be included.

I've been told that the Harvard/discovered rhyme is actually okay, if you have an accent from a particular place. I've heard much worse. In fact, Dave Barry once made a point that in a song someone actually did a world/good rhyme, and that if he were God he'd never let anyone get into heaven who'd try a rhyme like that. I can't help but agree with world/good, but Harvard/"discovearde" is borderline. Maybe just a hundred years of purgatory.

[Nate the Great]

Sorry, it is the same flash. When you see "this flash" as a hyperlink, you don't really pay attention to the address. How do you do that, anyway? I always have to have the entire line as blue hyperlink. Annoys me to no end in Word when I type an address and have to turn OFF the hyperlink. None of my printers can handle blue. Seriously, designers of word processing programs, is it so hard to add a line of code that says "oh, and if you're exporting nonblack letters to a printer, just make the letters appear black to the printer's computer." I'm no programmer, but I can't imagine it's that hard.

[Sa'ar Chasm]

My only complaint is that I believe that about a dozen elements have been discovered since, so they can't be included.

Which is the whole point of the Harvard/discovered line.

Besides, you come up with a rhyme for "Seaborgium" or "Meitnerium".

Sa'ar Chasm here. Since Zeke is up to his eyeballs in trying to make math fun for kids -- a Herculean task if there ever was one --

Hey!

The end of that thought got cut off somewhere between my fingers and the keyboard. What I meant to say was "a Herculean task if there ever was one, but if anyone is up to it, Zeke is."

/backpedal

And if you buy that, I've got a bridge over troubled water to sell you.

Anyone who doesn't believe me is welcome to pop up to Ottawa on a Thursday night and see for themselves.

[Nate the Great]

Seaborgium=bubblegum?

Meitnerium=you could mangle "serum" to rhyme with this.

Okay, fine, so you give each of them their own line ending in a rhymeable word.

[Sa'ar Chasm]

Okay, fine, so you give each of them their own line ending in a rhymeable word.

That's a job for Tom Lehrer. Unfortunately I think he might be dead. I'm not sure.

Edit: Wikipedia says not dead. Good for him.

[Scooter]

Originally Posted by Zeke

Why you keep putting on those 3D glasses?

An Army of Ghosts/Doomsday reference! Cool.

A singing group I belong to had a Tom Lehrer night once. "The Elements" (the periodic table song) was the centerpiece, someone else did "The Hunting Song," and I got to do "The Masochism Tango." A lot of his work, including some very clever advertising material, is truly classic.

[mudshark]

Nope, not dead. I used to have an article bookmarked which told what he'd been up to of late, but the computer upon which I'd done so suffered a S.M.E.F. -- all I can remember for sure is that he was teaching math at UC Santa Cruz as of early 2004 (and, I think, still the odd semester at Harvard, but don't quote me on that.)

For the heck of it, here is a Tom Lehrer website containing lyrics to most of his songs and... other stuff. Do yourselves a favor: find and listen to a recording of "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park" -- you can thank me later.

Edit:

I'm not 100% sure this is the right article, but it seems to cover most of the same points as the one I mentioned above, so here you are.

[evay]

Here's a much longer article from a few years ago on what he thinks of his work and career.

[mudshark]

Read that one before -- it's a good one.

[PointyHairedJedi]

Originally Posted by mudshark

Do yourselves a favor: find and listen to a recording of "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park" -- you can thank me later.

It just takes a smidgen/To poison a pidgeon


I second this recommendation.

[Gatac]

When they see us coming, the birdies all try 'n hide / But they still go for peanuts when coated with cyanide...

I endorse this song.

Gatac

[Zeke]

My favourite Lehrer song will always be "Who's Next." It was on one of the tapes my dad would play on long car trips when I was a kid, so I knew it long before any of his other work.

If you didn't know that, you'd probably have guessed that my favourite was "New Math." And I do like that one. It led to a funny incident last fall when I ran a tutorial section for first-year math and they were covering non-decimal bases. We'd just done a problem in base 8 and I mentioned that Tom Lehrer had a funny song about this. They told me they knew -- because it was mentioned in their textbook. I looked, and sure enough, there was a footnote referring them to "New Math." Never let it be said that textbook authors lack a sense of humour.

(Actually, it's not a bad suggestion. The song gives perfectly clear directions for a base 8 math problem -- what makes it funny is how fast he goes through it, plus the incomprehension of the audience. You know you've got the hang of base 8 when you can follow what he's saying.)

That same tutorial, incidentally, was when I had one of my finest hours. I told them we could perform the given calculation in any base we wanted. Why? Because all your base are belong to us. Brought the house down.

Originally Posted by Scooter

An Army of Ghosts/Doomsday reference!

Yep. My Better Judgment didn't get it, not having seen the episode. He thinks we watch too much Doctor Who as it is.

[Scooter]

Originally Posted by Zeke

My Better Judgment didn't get it, not having seen the episode. He thinks we watch too much Doctor Who as it is.

Your Better Judgment and mine would get along great. Mine is pissed at me because I just caved and bought the season 1 DVD set, just when it thought DW was out of its life until Christmas...

[Chancellor Valium]

Originally Posted by Zeke

Yep. My Better Judgment didn't get it, not having seen the episode. He thinks we watch too much Doctor Who as it is.

Too...Much...Doctor...Who?

The individual words I understand, but I'm having trouble making sense of the whole...

[evay]

Originally Posted by Zeke

That same tutorial, incidentally, was when I had one of my finest hours. I told them we could perform the given calculation in any base we wanted. Why? Because all your base are belong to us. Brought the house down.

AAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA oh jeez I SO wish I'd had you as a math tutor in college.

[PointyHairedJedi]

Originally Posted by Chancellor Valium

Too...Much...Doctor...Who?

The individual words I understand, but I'm having trouble making sense of the whole...

Your eyes just seem to slide over it, don't they. Like trying to look at something that can't possibly exist.

[Chancellor Valium]

Yes.

For us not to be able to understand it...

The language its in must be old...Impossibly old...