{"id":2128,"date":"2014-03-09T23:28:36","date_gmt":"2014-03-10T06:28:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/?p=2128"},"modified":"2014-03-10T09:18:00","modified_gmt":"2014-03-10T16:18:00","slug":"podthoughts-the-titanium-physicists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/?p=2128","title":{"rendered":"Podthoughts: The Titanium Physicists"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/center>Vital stats:<\/strong>
\nFormat: topics in physics explained by physicists, to web comic artists and podcasters
\nEpisode duration: 30m-1h20m
\nFrequency: one or two per month<\/p>\n

The science podcast\u00a0The Titanium Physicists<\/em><\/a>\u00a0[RSS<\/a>] [iTunes<\/a>], it may not surprise you to hear, sometimes references the web comic\u00a0xkcd<\/em><\/a>. The enterprises share not only a sensibility, catering to the now-proud \u201cgeek\u201d culture, but, seemingly, a business model:\u00a0xkcd<\/em>\u00a0creator Randall Monroe supposedly makes the lion\u2019s share of his revenue by selling themed T-shirts, and\u00a0The Titanium Physicists<\/em>\u00a0host Ben Tippett often pitches garments similarly branded in accordance with his own intellectual property. He comes right out and calls them \u201ca little expensive\u201d \u2014\u00a0$22.99 to $27.99<\/a>, turns out \u2014 but then underscores their durability. I may have a weak grasp on most if not all of the ideas of physics discussed on this show, but I do know a thing or two about higher-quality and thus pricier yet long-lived garments costing, in the long run, less than cheaper ones. Witness my essays on the matter for\u00a0Put This On<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Admittedly, I also don\u2019t know who actually buys the T-shirts that keep all this internet content afloat, from web comics to podcasts to vlogs to MP3 albums to multi-user dungeons. I myself seldom have occasion to wear a T-shirt as my outermost, visible layer when not actually asleep, no matter how inflated my enthusiasm for the logo, joke, or URL emblazoned on its chest. Yet even now, thousands of human beings just like you and me order the T-shirts, and even hoodies, that subsidize the things we like to watch, read, and hear. I have similar questions about other supposedly popular wearables, such as Teva sandals: people buy them, obviously, but which people? Not that I claim total ignorance. We\u2019ve all noticed that Tevas have achieved a strange prevalence in the science and engineering communities. In fact, I\u2019d bet folding money that some\u00a0The Titanium Physicists<\/em>\u2019 regular panelists \u2014 the Titanium Physicists themselves \u2014 have on Tevas even as they record. Don\u2019t ask me how I know; at this point, I simply feel it in their voices. And that aside, I think even cold, hard Vegas odds would back me up, given the correlation between the percentage of a person\u2019s life dedicated to the natural or applied sciences and the likelihood of that person\u2019s wearing Tevas \u2014 or podcast- and web comic-branded T-shirts, for that matter.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the whole thing at Maximum Fun<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vital stats: Format: topics in physics explained by physicists, to web comic artists and podcasters Episode duration: 30m-1h20m Frequency: one or two per month The science podcast\u00a0The Titanium Physicists\u00a0[RSS] [iTunes], it may not surprise you to hear, sometimes references the web comic\u00a0xkcd. The enterprises share not only a sensibility, catering to the now-proud \u201cgeek\u201d culture, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-podthoughts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2128"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2131,"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2128\/revisions\/2131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}