I’m a big fan of any public sharing or education of science. Science is great, right? Right! I love when we can, as a field, encourage others to appreciate what scientists do and engage in meaningful discussion.

There are public science festivals all over the country, but the longest-running annual event is in my neighborhood: Bay Area Wonderfest. Founder Tucker Hiatt was inspired by the great science popularizer Carl Sagan, and Sagan is featured prominently in the literature and throughout the website, including my favorite quote of his: “I hold that the popularization of science is successful if, at first, it does no more than spark a sense of wonder.”

This year was my first visit to Wonderfest, and I’m so glad I went! I attended lectures on astronomy and human behavior, topics about which I am thoroughly ignorant, and even got to browse science-related art and projects.

By far my favorite part of the afternoon, though, was Bay area physics teacher Zeke Kossover, who put on the kind of demonstration that makes you wonder why you didn’t major in physics. After taking onlookers for rides on his homemade hovercraft, he blew smokerings across the room with a huge fan, a garbage can, and covering plastic. His 2-inch PVC-pipe blowgun was kind of cool, but it was overshadowed by the 6-inch version that blew a ping pong ball straight through a Coke can. Zeke ended with every physics nerd’s favorite science demonstration: he laid on a bed of nails while someone smashed a cinderblock on his chest. Don’t worry, he wasn’t hurt! Physics!

Have you even been to a science festival? What did you like best about it?

When you hear about voting technology and electronic ballots, it’s almost never without a mention of the election snafu of 2000. Remember that doozy? Remember pregnant chads, butterfly ballots, and election workers squinting at punch cards in what must have been the most boring job ever? If anything could have spurred us to adopt full-on nationwide electronic balloting, that was it. And yet, ten years later, even here in high-tech San Francisco, we vote (at least at my polling place) by connecting arrows with a magic marker.

Electronic voting is actually a broad term, encompassing voting by touchscreen, voting by optically-scanned paper ballot, or even simply counting votes electronically. In any form, though, e-voting is more efficient and more accessible than hand-counted paper ballots.

Why haven’t we fully adopted e-voting? In part, underfunded localities cannot afford to wholesale replace their voting systems. Even if they can, touchscreen and e-voting technology become obsolete as fast as anything else—even if they make an initial investment, it’s hard for localities to keep pace with upgrades and new systems.

Another answer, however, is that improved voting technology has been blocked in some cases by organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which harbors concerns about privacy, accuracy, and disenfranchisement. In the e-voting rush after 2000, we moved a little too quickly without thinking through those issues.

And so, ten years after Bush v. Gore, we’re in the middle of a transition from paper to computer. Some scanning, some punch cards, some touchscreens, some paper. In Washington, D.C. and other cities, voters are given the option of using touchscreen or paper ballots, which prompted my favorite response of the election season, from humor writer Gene Weingarten:

I voted this morning. Had a choice to use paper ballot or touch
screen. Chose touch screen, for the novelty, and the green, of it. Was
led to touch screen area, where it became apparent there was only one
touch screen, and a grumbly line; paper-ballot people were sailing
right through without a wait, and looking at touch-screen people with
sympathy. Why aren’t there more touch screens, I asked. “People don’t
seem to like ‘em,” I was told.

What do you think of e-voting? How do you vote at your polling place?

So, how was your Halloween? Did you dress up?

Some women view the holiday as a chance to act out their inner strumpet. Me, I see it as a chance to act out my inner nerd (as if she doesn’t get enough action already). In recent years, I’ve been Punky Brewster, Animal, and Captain Hammer. Sure, I’m 32 and maybe a little too old to be dressing up as my childhood and geek-meme favorites, but that’s what Halloween is all about, right?

Sometimes Halloween marries the slutty and the geeky. Throw a pair of glasses on with a plaid skirt or a lab coat and suddenly you’re a sexy nerd. Not that I have any problem with showing skin, but some of the women in these costumes seem like they might be the same ones who picked on the nerds in junior high. And now dressing like us is sexy?

I tend to prefer the true-geeky, whether or not the character herself is actually sexy. Doesn’t matter if you’re Molotov Cocktease for Halloween or, say, Hypnotoad, as long as you know and embrace the character. (And, hey, Hypnotoad would make an awesome costume. Maybe next year.)

Do you wear geeky costumes at Halloween? Did you see any awesome geek-girl costumes this weekend? What do you think of sexy-nerd costumes?