BBT
That stands for Big Bang Theory, which has restored my faith in sitcoms. Science is cool, uncool, funny, awkward, bizaare, mind-blowing, unpredictable and full of incredibly colorful characters. I'm not really sure why hollywood didn't catch on to this sooner. I could rant on, but that would make me too much like Sheldon, which doesn't fit at all since I'm the geek who landed the hot babe.
Funny story. I was struggling tonite to watch Bill O'Reilly to broaden my cultural horizons; he was yelling a lot and hurling insults and acting up a storm. Do people think this is news? And apparently some viewers like this but I was grudgingly forcing myself to watch. It's a free country - I don't like what he says so I don't watch him. But as I was grappling with why anyone would actually want to watch this, suddenly the screen went blank, then there was a pause, and then in plain text the words 'poor quality signal' flashed on the screen.
Back to science. Once again, I haven't felt like writing. I could continue my various humbugs about the miserable science reporting on CNN. Or I could regurgitate the popular science stories in the news like the one about element 112 being confirmed by IUPAC or that a high school student self-diagnosed herself in the middle of a lab class. Great stories, but you know them already and I have no insights on them. I don't enjoy watching MSNBC either, but I really liked Bill Nye's guest appearance tonite talking about clouds. I mean this guy is good - he can really show why talking about the weather (ok, this bizaare cloud picture) is exciting (and it is, FYI - I'm not being cheeky). But put all of this together (yes, even include BBT) and it feels like there is more science out there in the mainstream.
Now I'm not saying we should we go as far as professor trading cards, but it feels right to see all this science capturing the country's imagination. Is this a blip? Will it continue? And while I'm at it, just where is the next great kids science show? Henry's only a few years away from the age where I started to watch Mr. Wizard; Bill Nye is doing other important work. Actually, some of you may recall I was bummed out about this in a post that I wrote ages ago and it just hit me that there still isn't anybody out there doing this that I know of. (Does Mythbusters count?)
Meanwhile I'm still missing the Kirk burger king glass. KAAAAAAAAAAAHN!