Trying to come up with ideas for "Top 10 Completely Pointless Science Choices"

[Big Bad Boo]

Okay, So I have a pretty cool idea for a comedic article to submit for Cracked.com (if they pick it, I'll get $50!) It's along the lines of "Top 10 Completely Pointless Scientific Choices" The number isn't fixed, so it could be like 6 or 15 or something.

The problem is that I can't think of enough choices to write about.

And, I've officially decided google is useless at the moment. (Or, I'm just not google savvy. YOU DECIDE!)

Anyway, the only thing I can think of is the whole "Pluto is a dwarf planet" thing.

I know there's more stuff I can put on the list, but I can't find any. So I figured "Hey, why not ask a group of scientist/astronomers/really-really-smart-people?"

Please help?

[sarongsong]

...ask a group of...really-really-smart-people?..."You talking to us?...you talking to us?" http://www.bautforum.com/images/icons/icon10.gif


Pointless Science (http://www.google.com/search?client=opera&rls=en&q=%22pointless+science%22&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8)

[Kadava]

Have you checked out Improbable Research (http://www.improbable.com/)? They award the Ignobles. It mightn't be exactly what you want, but it could give you a start.

[Jeff Root]

How reality-based do what the topics to be? How science-centered?

If you go for imaginary rather than real, there would be no end to the
possibilities. If you go for technological or political or economic choices,
rather than scientific, you have a vastly larger range of idiocy to pick from.

The problem with anything you or I can come up with is that there are
generally good reasons why one choice was made rather than another,
and we just don't know what those reasons were. In some cases, nobody
knows anymore.

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

[Big Bad Boo]

Very Reality based. Like stuff that got into newspapers and textbooks based.

I would prefer it to be science based, but it doesn't have to be if I can't come up with enough stuff to fit the criteria.

(By the way, thanks for the links guys. They're helping a lot. Also, if you go to the first link you can see this thread on google! =D)

[Tuckerfan]

How's about a kidney removed via the hooha? (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080331101517.htm) (Science journal, worksafe.)

Your job can kill you. (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080409205727.htm)

The world's oldest profession is hardwired into humans. (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080410153643.htm)(Science journal, work safe.)

Females sometimes pick mates for no obvious reason. (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080415210626.htm)

Taking an appendix out via the mouth. (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080317093904.htm)

You remember how they got the kidney out? They did the same with an appendix. (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080328135738.htm)(Science journal, apparently has photo of said appendix.)

[Chuck]

http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/pickover/pc/realitycarnival.html

[Michael Noonan]

Just found this thread.

How about a satellite to fly into a sunspot to study the sun? We are approaching a new solar season and that may give you some leverage. The thing is it is genuinely being considered but as a recoverable mission, pointless.

A fortune in diamonds waiting to be had for particle physicists. Always a good one and great for funding until it is pointed out that to create a diamond is far more expensive than to find them.

Or if desperate ...

A completely untrue story would be fly wire escape hatch covers for submarines to keep the sharks out when doing an emergency compartment flooding. An old Irish joke.

[sarongsong]

...A fortune in diamonds waiting to be had for particle physicists...until it is pointed out that to create a diamond is far more expensive than to find them..."...and Ill take a dozen of these..." http://www.bautforum.com/images/icons/icon10.gifSeptember 2003
The New Diamond Age
...I peer through the glass. Four diamonds are growing beneath a shimmering green cloud...chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond precipitates as nearly 100 percent pure diamond...price per carat: about $5...
wired (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/diamond.html?pg=4&topic=&topic_set=)

[Michael Noonan]

Well well well, so there really was something in alchemy after all.

:clap: :clap: :clap:

[Redrum]

How do I know that we all are here?
I could be the only real one here.....well at least submiting this post!

:think:I wonder what you all could could really be...and no I am not mad...well...I probably sound mad....but....ok just think about it for a while...:question: