Thursday, May 7, 2009

How do you get people interested in science?

(Wired magazine has described this web log as "high-brow humor about low-brow topics." Now I'm taking on "the cheerleader," a difficult topic for high-brow! So we'll see how this goes....)

How to get them interested in science? How about sex? Yeah, crazy idea, huh? Who would think sex could ever be used to sell anything, right?

But there is a great website called Science Cheerleader that I encourage you all to look at. And here's the great punny thing about this site....you go because you want to see a cute girl in a short skirt, and you get that...but also, the blog is produced by a woman who is encouraging people to be cheerleaders for science. Citizen scientists, see. You get the eye candy, but also something of substance. Essentially you go to the site and you get your sex and can eat it too. Err...wait...strike that. Poor choice of words. Well, you know what I mean.

The woman who wrties this blog (who btw, doesn't have a very cheeleadery name at all like Tiffany or Serenity or Amber, but a very sciencey name - Darlene) is smart when it comes to marketing, no? I just ran a test in Google Analytics and compared potential web traffic for blogs like hers differentiated only by name. I used "Citizen Scientists," and "Science Cheerleader." "Citizen scientists" hypothetically would get 12 visits a day, most from "the kind of person who aspires to speak Klingon." Harsh, yes, but hey...Google's words. "Science Cheerleader," however, gets 100,000 a day (a lot from prisons), 90 percent of whom leave after four seconds. BUT, the important thing is they've been exposed to the content matter and some are bound to stick around for awhile. Or at least until they've realized they've found all the photos and videos the site has to offer. (This took me 3.5 minutes. I mean...not that I did that.) But you know, "cheerleader" kind of makes everything better, more appealing. Try it: Penicillin....penicillin cheerleader. Nice change, huh? Miasma....miasma cheerleader. You get the picture. Just listen to the wonderful way they say "discrete units." I should add that it's a nice coincidence that Darlene actually WAS a cheerleader.

Now, I didn't really associate cheerleaders with science when I was in school, and it had nothing to do with a lack of faith in their innate abilities (right, Larry Summers?). I think it was because "cheerleader" was taking up many other associations in my mind at the time, most of which also involved rainbows and cupcakes and cuddly kittens and all that was good and wonderful in the world. Not that science isn't wonderful, but ya know...when it came to "science," I would think of a teacher, Mr. Beichner, whose primary contribution to my education was to demonstrate how NOT to look lasciviously at young women. Because it was so obvious and gross that the whole school knew he did it...yet he still kept his job. Hmm.

In America, and perhaps in the rest of the world where this creature, "the cheerleader," exists, there is a very idealized and romanticized version of her. I suppose it's because man's initial encounter with her is at a very...let's say "charged" time of life. And we don't know what to make of them at that time except that they get to wear skirts to school that are actually shorter than what is allowed in the dress code, they jump around a lot, and they are shrouded in mystique. They're kind of like unicorns... An organization that studies adolescent males, the Homeland Office of Research on Needy Youth, claims that while the average 14-year-old boy thinks about cheerleaders once every three seconds, when confronted with one, he usually runs the other way. Their power overwhelms.

But back to the Science Cheerleader and the impact she's trying to make. She's really made some in-roads and has attracted some attention so far, so good for her. And watch her bitch slap the status quo in the video in the video on her site! Speaking of the video, note Penn and Teller there...good PR for the site, despite the fact that Penn is skeevy, big time. True story: After his appearance on Dancing With the Stars, his partner, Kym Johnson, had a breakdown, contracted eczema, and quit ballroom dancing. She is now a dispatcher for DHS.* So you just know that the entire time the Science Cheerleader and him were shooting this he kept trying to talk her into a trick he called "putting the rabbit into the hat." Eww...he's gross. Word on the street is that Teller's silence isn't an act...he witnessed Penn doing so many graphic and horrible things during their nascent days as a magic team he is actually in a perpetual state of shock, allowing for Penn's schlock. (Almost used schtick here but I liked the rhyming...either way, Yiddish shout out to my Jewish readers!)

Keeping with the magician theme, the Science Cheerleader has stated that one of her next projects is to use science to determine the true sexual orientation of David Copperfield. Cause Claudia Schiffer ain't talking. (Aside - Wouldn't it be funny if David Copperfield named his kid Oliver Twist? Ha! These are the little things that I stay up thinking about that I just know would make the world a more fun place.)

Anyway, keep up the good work Darlene. There are many of us who appreciate your effort!

Oh, and if you want to see the naughty pictures of Science Cheerleader in her outfit, go to this pay site.



* Not a true story.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

thanks for the terrible reminder of science class. before i started high school, you told me, "stay away from mr. beichner." on the days we had to wear our cheerleading uniforms to school, he would follow us around the classroom!

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