"This is Where Geeks Turn Into Rockstars..."

"...and that's the game changer." 

Is being a nerd cool now? Well this is news to me but Nancy Conrad, wife of late astronaut Peter Conrad, and founder of the Conrad Foundation which (go figure) hosts the Conrad Awards, seems to think that it's becoming this way.

The Conrad Awards, awards given to those students who complete the program, are a way for educators and students to get involved in solving tangible and real problems in today's society. Combining competition, fun, and good old fashioned nerdyness, this 3 year old program has quickly become an unintentional international project.

Founded on the ideals of Education, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship, the program that Conrad and her team has come up with is based on the touching tale of her husband's rise from troubled child to Astronaut extraordinaire. 

Watch the video to found out more, and visit the Conrad Foundation's website for more information on how to get involved. I wish I was this enthusiastic about science when I was younger, or at least more involved.

Probably the best song on the internet.

Stumbled upon this creative song on Reddit today and I couldn't resist making a blog post about this.

I think this song is probably one of the truest geek litmus tests. The more references you understand in this song, the geekier you are.

I'm fairly curtain that I understood at least 3/4ths of the references.

Leave me a comment telling me how many you understood! If you didn't understand any of them then...well...get out.

Photon Torpedos, Solar Cells, Spaceships and Flashlights.

Oh Michio Kaku, you both crush my childhood dreams and create new, more adult ones at the same time.

I was simultaneously enraptured, and saddened, by this video by Michio Kaku in which he describes why Photon Torpedos and Photon engines are nothing but the stuff of science fiction, and will probably remain that way, at least in the way that we think of them.

Michio Kaku is a science-show staple. You can't have a show on the science channel without having an expert testimony from Dr. Kaku. A lot of his "testimonies" have to do with either validating or debunking (or both) sci-fi "impossibilities", and one of my favorite books by him is called "Physics of the Impossible". 

Picked up in an Airport book shop and devoured by the time the plane touched down several hours later. This book provided much entertainment and scientific fun facts. Now whenever a friend or acquaintance (sometimes even just random passers by) are talking about things like time travel and human cloning and they refer to them as "impossible", I like to pipe up and say something to the tune of :

"NAH UHH!!! YOU'RE WRONG AND HERE'S WHY..."

I make lots of friends.

If you don't already know who Michio Kaku is (you heathen) you need to head over to his blog and check out all of the awesomesauce things he has to say all the time. You won't be sorry.

It's Elementary my Dear WATSON.

WATSON, A question answering program/machine developed by IBM, is now the new Jeopardy champion.

Last week WATSON went up against Jeopardy's two well known champions, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, who hold the records for longest consecutive winning streak and highest earning respectively. 

Not surprisingly considering that it's a machine, WATSON kicked both of the champions' butts in the competition, winning itself the $1 Million prize. 

More importantly, however, WATSON has shown us that the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) development is rapidly expanding, we're making great leaps and bounds towards a machine that we could potentially, have a conversation with in very natural language. Gone would be the days of typing things into Google to find an answer to, lets say, a computer problem. 

The IBM website for WATSON has a ton of interesting 2-minute videos about the various applications of WATSON and how it came to be developed, it's all very interesting. 

Particularly interesting would be this technology's use in the medical field, doctors would be able to use WATSON (Or some variation thereof) to assist them in diagnosing a patient, and the results would be able to be highly personalized, as you'd be able to enter all the parameters surrounding the patient's condition, hight, weight, age, medical history, etc. 

Not just plain medicine either, biomedical research, business, sociology, anthropology, customer service, and everyday things like fixing a computer problem or a car problem could be significantly aided with this technology. It sounds optimistic but there's really no end to the industries that would be drastically altered (probably for the better) by this technology. WATSON is a huge leap in the field of AI, and it's only going to keep getting better. The future is upon us.

If you'd like to learn more about WATSON check out their website, there's tons of information there about it, and make sure you watch Jeopardy every single day. Because it's the best show ever. (In my opinion).

(By the way, Sherlock Holmes never actually says "Elementary my dear Watson" in any of the Sherlock Holmes stories, just a fun fact.)

How Genetics Should Be But Isn't Viewed

This isn't a post about religion.

This isn't a post about the morality of genetic engineering.

This isn't a post about nature vs. nurture (well, maybe a little).

Although I'll probably post about all of these things in the future...

This is a post about the fact that people seem to think that our genetics are the absolute end all be all about everything that ails society. From disease to maladaptive personality traits, people are want to believe that everything can be explained or solved through genetics. This simply isn't the case, and I'll explain why in a moment.

This post is about those people who like to play the "genetics card" and blame every problem they have, like drug addiction, commitment problems, tendency to abuse their kids, and anything else that they might not have an explanation for, or they're too lazy to fix or both. Large news aggregators like CNN or MSNBC or NPR have decided it would be a good idea to link genetics with things like child abuse and heart attacks, and even the inability to recognize faces. I'm not saying it's not true that our genes might affect our ability to recognize faces, but we are all products of our environments and our genes, you can't blame everything on one factor.

 The truth of the matter is that genetics can only play part of the role in determining somebody's propensity for a certain trait or a certain disease or a certain something or other. The way the media portrays genetic studies makes it seem like we're all slaves to our genetics.

What people need to understand is that genetics plays a ROLE in determining somebody's personality or propensity towards heart attack or inability to recognize faces.

There is no "heart attack" gene that we can remove to ensure that you'll never have a heart attack. You might have a gene (or lack of a gene) that gives you less of a chance of having a heart attack, but if you eat a double cheeseburger with bacon every day you're still going to have a heart attack eventually(probably).

There are definitely genes that are set in stone though, like hair color, eye color, how much hair you have, etc. These things might be set in stone, and they might be governed solely by genes, but that DOESN'T mean that they're controlled solely by ONE gene. Often times many genes working in tandem with each other determine somebody's hair color, or skin color.

This is also true for the less "set in stone" genes like a propensity for heart attack, there are dozens of factors, dozens of genes, that will determine whether or not you have a heart attack, and painting one gene as the enemy of anybody who's ever had a heart attack diminishes the seriousness and the size of the problem that scientists face when they're looking for cures for diseases.

  PROOF! (You're Welcome)

 

Image Attribution: jscreationzs | FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The Art of Being Geeky: An Introduction

Being a Geek is an art form, it really is. It's not enough to just follow the vlogbrothers on YouTube (although that would technically make you a nerdfighter, we'll let that slide, they're essentially the same). It's also not enough to browse ThinkGeek every once in a while. And it's certainly not enough to read Engadget or Gizmodo every time you can be bothered to open your RSS reader.

It's all of these things, and more.

Being a Geek is a way of life, it's religiously checking Gizmodo, Engadget, YouTube, The Oatmeal, Hyperbole and a Half, and every other tech and internet meme blog on the internet (this is by no means an exhaustive list). 

It's making lame internet meme jokes when you're out with your "real life"  friends in the "real world". 

It's referencing a YouTube video that you just assume everybody has seen. 

It's correcting people's grammar just because you feel like it. 

It's getting in debates on Forums or the comments section of your favorite blog. (not to be confused with the actions of trolls on YouTube or Chatrooms for we shall not be associated with trolls.)

Being a Geek is something that you're born into, it's something that you live, It's not really something you can become.

So for all my Geeks out there, I introduce to you a new blog, a place where you can get your daily dose of Geek, a place where you'll (hopefully) laugh a lot, and a place where you can feel at home.

Welcome to OMGeeky. I hope you enjoy your stay.

Image Source: renjith krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net