Archive for July, 2008
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
July 29th, 2008
Q: Do androids dream of electric sheep?
A: Only the ones from the Deep South. The others dream of electric French maids.
- Brian Malow
Linus Pauling on Ideas
July 28th, 2008
The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.
- Linus Pauling
Science Comedian on the Bob Rivers Show
July 27th, 2008
Back in April, I was in Seattle, performing at the Mainstage Comedy and Music Club, a fantastic newer club, which I highly recommend to anyone in the area.
To promote my shows, I made an appearance on The Bob Rivers Show on KZOK 102.5, a classic rock station.
I had about as much fun as I’ve ever had on the radio – the whole crew was fun to interact with and they seemed genuinely happy to have “the science comedian” on the show. They had even been talking me up before I got to town.
They also videotaped my segment and put it up on YouTube in two clips:
Part 1:
Part 2:
Neal Stephenson on Jupiter Envy
July 26th, 2008
“For a Westerner to trash Western culture is like criticizing our nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere on the grounds that it sometimes gets windy, and besides, Jupiter’s is much prettier. You may not realize its advantages until you’re trying to breathe liquid methane.”
- Neal Stephenson
Why is there something instead of nothing?
July 25th, 2008
For all that astronomers and physicists, philosophers and poets have learned about the universe since women and men first peered out of those tiny holes in our skulls, we are still no closer to answering perhaps the most fundamental cosmological question of all:
Why is there something instead of nothing?
But I have my own theory:
It was a tax write-off.
It was more beneficial to have a universe than not to have one. And it was designed to fail – which it has, if local conditions can be taken as any indication.
The Universe – Why?
July 24th, 2008
“In answer to the question of why it happened, I offer the modest proposal that our universe is simply one of those things which happen from time to time.”
Brian Malow on MicrobeWorld
July 20th, 2008
One of my favorite places to perform is the Marian Koshland Science Museum of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C.
I’ve performed there annually for the past three years. (I’m admittedly partial to any place that has me back even once 
The first event, in 2006, was called Rational Comedy for an Irrational Planet. It was a grab bag, a best of, a greatest hits of my science routines. The classics. No particular theme, just science comedy.
When they invited me back, my contact there, Amy Shaw, asked if I could do a new show to go along with their exhibit on Infectious Disease.
Yes, in what may be a first in comedy history, she actually asked me to create an infectious disease-themed comedy show. Why not?
So of course I did. That became Science Comedy: It’s Infectious!
The American Society for Microbiology got wind of the scheduled show, and Chris Condayan (Manager of Public Outreach) arranged to videotape it and interview me. The result was episode 5 of their surprisingly popular podcast, MicrobeWorld … further evidence of my knack for landing the strangest credits of any stand up comedian.
“Oh, you got Letterman and a mention in Variety? That’s awesome! I got MicrobeWorld! And Chemical & Engineering News is doing a profile of me!”
It’s a living.
