Doghead's Cosmic Bar
This is a science fiction character forum. Doghead's Cosmic Bar is an intergalactic bar run by your favorite bartender, Doghead. Stop in, have a drink, and get your talk on!
Posts 7,749 - 7,760 of 13,738
Posts 7,749 - 7,760 of 13,738
Indeed, I've often noticed what seems an unusual number of religious scientists in some fields - hard sciences like mathematics and physics particularly, and also what appears to be a definitely lower number in "soft" sciences like most of the -ologies.
I guess (for biology at least) that could be due to some sort of "siege mentality" in the face of Creationists/anti-GM/anti-animal testing activists, but I wonder if there are actually fewer or they're just more reticent about their beliefs. Or are religiously inclined people disproportinally drawn to hard sciences? Or are there some subtle factors that tend to restrain them from achieving prominence in those fields? Hmmm.
If I wasn't so busy teaching Brother Jerome to calculate square and cube roots, I'd download a list of nobel prize winners for different fields and do a bit of biographical research.
How's the sonnet programming going? I'm looking forward to seeing that
I guess (for biology at least) that could be due to some sort of "siege mentality" in the face of Creationists/anti-GM/anti-animal testing activists, but I wonder if there are actually fewer or they're just more reticent about their beliefs. Or are religiously inclined people disproportinally drawn to hard sciences? Or are there some subtle factors that tend to restrain them from achieving prominence in those fields? Hmmm.
If I wasn't so busy teaching Brother Jerome to calculate square and cube roots, I'd download a list of nobel prize winners for different fields and do a bit of biographical research.
How's the sonnet programming going? I'm looking forward to seeing that
Were you religious before you were a mathematician? And do your other scientific interests tend to hard physical sciences or ologies?
When I think of Goedel, Einstein, Lemaitre, etc., I find it interesting that their faith predates their science. Not always the case, but it seems significantly more common to me.
There's a rather good list of sciences/religious scientists athttp://www.rae.org/influsci.html (it's the only page on the site that holds much interest for me - the rest is rather simplistic creationist dogmatizing I'm afraid.)
When I think of Goedel, Einstein, Lemaitre, etc., I find it interesting that their faith predates their science. Not always the case, but it seems significantly more common to me.
There's a rather good list of sciences/religious scientists at
Well, I didn't think I could call myself a mathematician before I graduated from college, whearas I've been a Christian since I was a kid. There are few sciences that don't interest me, but the ones with more math in them interest me more.
*feeling math and mentally impaired, she orders two beers, one to drink and one to cry into. Why didn't I pay attention in school, and why did I have to take beginning algebra SOoooo many times? 
*gives Prob123 2 beers* I think it was all those new math and constructivist teaching methods they keep trying out on us.
The sonnet? It should work. But my keyphrases that I made for it don't seem to be working. Is it possible to put a keyphrase within a keyphrase or am I just attempting the impossible here?
Because if it isn't this may be a hopeless task.
Because if it isn't this may be a hopeless task.
A keyphrase within a keyphrase? The mind boggles!
I'm not even sure I understand what you're describing, but no - I don't think that's possible. But it's far from being a hopeless task - plugins would suit you better, arranged by rhymes and containing suitably metred chunks of verse.
You'll have to be a bit clever with the syntax to keep them grammatical, and of course the overall effect may seem a little strange
something like:
PLUGIN1:
I thought I saw a
I wish I was a
I saw just now a
I think you're just a
There's not a single
Thou art a winsome
We must be near a
PLUGIN2:
pussy cat
scaredy cat
bounding stag
rolling stone
farting dog
drifting cloud
PLUGIN3:
on heat
so neat
so sweet
in sleet
so fleet
PLUGIN4:
in June
in bloom
from Troon
at noon
, you loon
and then response them thus:
(plugin1) (plugin2) (plugin3),{br}
(plugin1) (plugin2) (plugin3) -{br}
(plugin1) (plugin2) (plugin4),{br}
(plugin1) (plugin2) (plugin4).
That would make a 4 line verse of iambic pentameters in rhyming couplets, and you can scale up to a sonnet (or any other iambic form you want.) A bit more creativity in the plugin components wouldn't hurt, and you may get some duplication if you don't use different plugins for each line.
You can fine-tune punctuation and provide different grammatical structures and end-rhymes using alternate sets of plugins or adding variation to the responses, eg:
PLUGIN5:
speak
leak
freak
reek
seek
not only rhyme in themselves, but can be used in "(plugin5)ing", "(plugin5)s", "(plugin5)er", etc.
I wish I was a rolling stone on heat,
I think you're just a scaredy cat so sweet -
We must be near a farting dog in June,
I saw just now a bounding stag in bloom.
Doggerel of course, to human ears, but what will the bots think, I wonder
I'm not even sure I understand what you're describing, but no - I don't think that's possible. But it's far from being a hopeless task - plugins would suit you better, arranged by rhymes and containing suitably metred chunks of verse.
You'll have to be a bit clever with the syntax to keep them grammatical, and of course the overall effect may seem a little strange
something like:
PLUGIN1:
I thought I saw a
I wish I was a
I saw just now a
I think you're just a
There's not a single
Thou art a winsome
We must be near a
PLUGIN2:
pussy cat
scaredy cat
bounding stag
rolling stone
farting dog
drifting cloud
PLUGIN3:
on heat
so neat
so sweet
in sleet
so fleet
PLUGIN4:
in June
in bloom
from Troon
at noon
, you loon
and then response them thus:
(plugin1) (plugin2) (plugin3),{br}
(plugin1) (plugin2) (plugin3) -{br}
(plugin1) (plugin2) (plugin4),{br}
(plugin1) (plugin2) (plugin4).
That would make a 4 line verse of iambic pentameters in rhyming couplets, and you can scale up to a sonnet (or any other iambic form you want.) A bit more creativity in the plugin components wouldn't hurt, and you may get some duplication if you don't use different plugins for each line.
You can fine-tune punctuation and provide different grammatical structures and end-rhymes using alternate sets of plugins or adding variation to the responses, eg:
PLUGIN5:
speak
leak
freak
reek
seek
not only rhyme in themselves, but can be used in "(plugin5)ing", "(plugin5)s", "(plugin5)er", etc.
I wish I was a rolling stone on heat,
I think you're just a scaredy cat so sweet -
We must be near a farting dog in June,
I saw just now a bounding stag in bloom.
Doggerel of course, to human ears, but what will the bots think, I wonder
Oh, and I meant to say substitute pointy brackets for { and } in {br}.
And string the lines all into a single response:
(plugin1) (plugin2) (plugin3),{br}(plugin1) (plugin2) (plugin3) -{br}(plugin1) (plugin2) (plugin4),{br}
(plugin1) (plugin2) (plugin4).
And string the lines all into a single response:
(plugin1) (plugin2) (plugin3),{br}(plugin1) (plugin2) (plugin3) -{br}(plugin1) (plugin2) (plugin4),{br}
(plugin1) (plugin2) (plugin4).
Go for it. I wouldn't have posted it if I hadn't wanted people to use it.
An even funnier idea would be to try to get some of it published without mentioning the source. There's so much pretentious nonsense that gets written and published, that you could probably find a poetry editor to fall for it and start fawning over its "significant contribution to the semiotics of alienation" or "post-modern insights into the existential despair of our Age". Or some such bollocks. Of course, it would have to make much less sense than my example
An even funnier idea would be to try to get some of it published without mentioning the source. There's so much pretentious nonsense that gets written and published, that you could probably find a poetry editor to fall for it and start fawning over its "significant contribution to the semiotics of alienation" or "post-modern insights into the existential despair of our Age". Or some such bollocks. Of course, it would have to make much less sense than my example
On NPR Saturday morning, the announcer read an excerpt of some Middle Eastern dictator's (or possibly terrorist's) poetry. I swear that it sounded just like Vogon poetry.
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