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Dean, Ed, Ben, and Jim talk about summer festivals, baby jumping, and Mormonism in the latest episode of the Stuff Smart People Like podcast. Ben shares his adoration of territorial battle games, Ed travels to New York to experience something unique, and Dean tastes craft beer in Michigan’s tulip capital.
Main Segment
Chicago Festivals including Lollapalooza and Taste of Chicago
Superman Festival, Big Lebowski Festival, Mormon Festival, and Baby Jumping
Smart Suggestions
Ed - Lift for iPhone
Jim - Ingress
Ben - Planetside 2
Dean - The Crane Wives
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Dean has Jury duty and for some unknown reason brings Jim along as “legal consult.” The host duties fall to Ed and the cast quickly falls into Chaos. Jean shorts, Dog Flatulence, Fake Mobsters, Cocaine Humidifiers, and (of course) Smart Suggestions all find their way into the discussion. Don’t miss a special guest appearance by the one and only Jordan.
Smart Suggestions
This is a podcast post, click here to download the MP3 audio, click here to subscribe via iTunes, click here to visit our blog, and click here to show us some love. Have feedback or suggestions? Then click here. And as long as you’re still clicking, why not follow us on Twitter: Ben | Ed | Jordan| Dean | Jim | smartppllike
Illustration by Claire Scully / via Aeon Magazine
The discussion of whether maths exists independently of humans has been a tension within the sciences for centuries. However, over the past two weeks it seems like the internet has become really interested in it. PBS Idea Channel’s last episode tackles the question head on, and a recent Aeon Magazine article by Margaret Wertheim explores how the reality of maths could impact future research in physics. I highly recommend checking out both.
The following is an excerpt from the The Limits of Physics by Margaret Wertheim:
Most physicists are Platonists. They believe that the mathematical relationships they discover in the world about us represent some kind of transcendent truth existing independently from, and perhaps a priori to, the physical world. In this way of seeing, the universe came into being according to a mathematical plan, what the British physicist Paul Davies has called ‘a cosmic blueprint’. Discovering this ‘plan’ is a goal for many theoretical physicists and the schism in the foundation of their framework is thus intensely frustrating. It’s as if the cosmic architect has designed a fiendish puzzle in which two apparently incompatible parts must be fitted together. Both are necessary, for both theories make predictions that have been verified to a dozen or so decimal places, and it is on the basis of these theories that we have built such marvels as microchips, lasers, and GPS satellites.
Quite apart from the physical tensions that exist between them, relativity and quantum theory each pose philosophical problems. Are space and time fundamental qualities of the universe, as general relativity suggests, or are they byproducts of something even more basic, something that might arise from a quantum process? Looking at quantum mechanics, huge debates swirl around the simplest situations. Does the universe split into multiple copies of itself every time an electron changes orbit in an atom, or every time a photon of light passes through a slit? Some say yes, others say absolutely not.
Ever since the 1500s, and for hundreds of years after, the only people who used @ were bookkeepers, who used it as a shorthand to show how much they were selling or buying goods for: for example, “3 bottles of wine @ $10 each.”
Since these bookkeepers used @ to deal with money, a certain degree of whimsical fondness for the character developed over time. In Danish, the symbol is known as an “elephant’s trunk a”; the French call it an escargot. It’s a streudel in German, a monkey’s tail in Dutch, and a rose in Istanbul. In Italian, it’s named after a huge amphora of wine, a liquid some Italian bookkeepers have been known to show a fondness for.
Even with such cute names to recommend it, though, @ languished in obscurity for three and a half centuries, only ending up on a new invention called the typewriter when salesmen realized that accountants and bookkeepers were buying them in droves.
In 1971, however, a keyboard with a vestigial @ symbol inherited from its typewriter ancestors found itself hooked up to an ARPANET terminal manned by Ray Tomlinson, who was working on a little program he’d come up with in his goofing-off time to send messages from computer to computer. Tomlinson ended up using the @ symbol as the fulcrum of the lever that ultimately ended up lifting the world into the digital age: email.
This might be the coolest mobile library I’ve ever seen.

Ben, Jim & Dean explore college. Pros? Cons? Ex-cons? Semi-pros? They’ve got ‘em all. Plus… wait for it… Smart Suggestions. This episode is priceless, so we’ll let you have it for free.
Smart Suggestions:
This is a podcast post, click here to download the MP3 audio, click here to subscribe via iTunes, click here to visit our blog, and click here to show us some love. Have feedback or suggestions? Then click here. And as long as you’re still clicking, why not follow us on Twitter: Ben | Ed | Jordan| Dean | Jim | smartppllike
Most us know that calling someone an ape is racist, but few of us understand why apes are associated in the European imagination with indigenous people and, indeed, people of African descent.To understandâ¦
A rather uncomfortable topic to address. But the history of racism and eugenics are part of the shadow of evolutionary theory.
The radar is malfunctioning. Repeat, the radar is malfunctioning.
Stop. Don’t reblog that helical solar system on the Tumblr Radar or if you find it on a friend’s blog. Don’t like it. Don’t put it on Twitter or tell your friends on Facebook. Don’t go on and on about how you never knew that the solar system traveled this way through space. Don’t make sounds with your mouth like an explosion and say “Mind Blown!” because you never considered that the planets are rotating as they fly through space like a vortex. How did no one ever notice this revolutionary theory before?!?
Because it’s B.S., that’s why. I eviscerated the science (along with Phil Plait) back in March, when it made the rounds the first time. It’s a nifty animation, but it’s just not at all realistic.
As of now it has 130K+ notes on Tumblr, which makes Carl Sagan’s stardust cry. Chances are we can’t get everyone to delete it, but maybe we can spread the word that it isn’t true? And maybe we can at least get it off the radar? Truth soldiers of science, roll out!
Using your imagination to imagine new possibilities is a cornerstone of scientific discovery, but using fancy graphics to fool people into believing bad science is just mean. Here’s why the helical model of the solar system is a toilet-like vortex of bad science.
Well, I certainly don’t want to be part of the herd that makes “Carl Sagan’s stardust cry”; do you?
(via mattfractionblog)
This episode finds Ben and Jim coming to Dean with questions about just what makes good acting and what does it take to be a good actor. Then we wash that down with smart suggestions.
Smart Suggestions:
This is a podcast post, click here to download the MP3 audio, click here to subscribe via iTunes, click here to visit our blog, and click here to show us some love. Have feedback or suggestions? Then click here. And as long as you’re still clicking, why not follow us on Twitter: Ben | Ed | Jordan| Dean | Jim | smartppllike
iO9 has a great article exploring the implications of our home planet having rings.
Episode 67: Check it off the list!
Ben, Ed, Dean, and Jim talk about their methods for getting things done. What keeps you from spending every evening watching The Voice? What’s stopping you from watching The Voice right now? Seriously, isn’t that show just the greatest? We love Dan Brown, too.
Main Segment
Getting Things Done!
Smart Suggestions
This is a podcast post, click here to download the MP3 audio, click here to subscribe via iTunes,click here to visit our blog, and click here to show us some love. Have feedback or suggestions? Then click here. And as long as you’re still clicking, why not follow us on Twitter: Ben | Ed | Jordan | Dean | Jim | smartppllike
Kevin Hartnett, “Judging Luhrmann’s Gatsby: Five English Scholars Weigh In” (via millionsmillions)
Interesting.
(via thenoobyorker)
(via thenoobyorker)
And you can too if you check out our latest episode!