cockroach control and humor

In my time in Graduate school I dabbled in the area of Autonomous Robotics. The area of study where programing, construction, creativity and natural research combine to create robotic technology that has changed the way we live. Anyhow, I recently saw this great little talk from a neuroscientist to a audience of high school students. Now when you have to give a talk to high school students you have to do two things to have a "successful" talk. 1) you must do something gross or crazy and 2) you have to use some sort of apple product. This guys does both by making a severed cockroach leg dance as he hooks it up to his ipod. Enjoy.



On another (related but not) note I have always found what people put up in their offices and on their doors facinating. Especially when it comes to humor. In that same Autonomous Robotics program I mentioned earlier I would always see calvin and hobbes comic strips cut out and taped to office and lab doors. I like calvin and hobbes as much as the next person but they always seemed to treasure the ones that were not funny. But these were odd folks to begin with. I find it amusing to go into the ITS department on Georgetown Colleges campus and see the comics on the wall and how they relate to the people there. Below is an image I came across a bit ago and just laughed out loud. This would be something that the people of autonomous robotics or ITS would not find funny.

Chair descending a staircase.

(note: If you miss the joke make sure to look at Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 by Marcel Duchamp and One and Three Chairs, by Joseph Kosuth.)