Tuesday 22 September 2009

Scherzo II

I'm still in a holiday mood so forgive one more prank before moving to serious physics (as if this blog were ever serious ;-). Traveling to conferences this summer I noticed that humans had acquired a new useful skill. Have a look at this picture:
and another:
and there are many more similar ones stored on my disc ;-) Of course, the interesting point here is not sleeping during a talk - everybody does that. The remarkable point is perfect balancing of a laptop while sleeping. In the extreme case it went on for 45 min without awaking and without dropping the laptop to the floor. Amazing!

Using Darwin's theory of evolution one can predict that this new skill will quickly spread in the scientific community.Those who do not possess it will inevitably destroy their laptops while sleeping at conferences, thus losing years of work and dropping in the academic ranking. As a consequence, these handicapped ones will acquire less mating partners and thus less chances to pass their genes. Unless laptops become shock resistant in the meantime.

3 comments:

CarlBrannen said...

I would destroy a laptop if I tried that. But it does look like a useful way of shielding your gaping mouth from the speaker.

Giulio said...

Perhaps you could start marketing velcro strips adapted to this basic need, and become rich...

james said...

Do you have it backwards? Perhaps the higher in the professional ladder you climb, the greater obligations which you assume mean less time available for your spouse, and thus fewer children.

I've complained for years that a lanyard ring would be an easy thing to build into laptops--just a little loop in a corner...