Although, let’s face it, it does most everything for you…even that

Handy tip in case your boss catches you playing Herd It.

Science has spent its entire existence making your life easier, and now science is asking for your help. Oh now, don’t give me that “I work 100+ hours a week while raising 42 children and don’t have  any brain power left to devote to anything else at the end of the day” look. Science wants to meet you at the door with a sweet smile, your pipe and slippers, and a glass of single malt, and it has gone to great lengths to ensure it’s fun. I’d even go so far as to say it is coyly batting its eyelashes at you, and how can you resist such wiles?

You see, some FoTs (Friends of Thundersquee!) at University of California at San Diego are doing research to make your life a little easier and they need your input. In loose scientific terms they’re “Collecting data to associate semantic concepts with acoustic properties of the music.  This data is used to train a machine to generalize the acoustic/semantic associations to new songs.” Which roughly translates to “They’re trying to make it easier for you to search for music you actually like, and they’ve created a game for you to play to aid their research.”  They’ve even used Cait’s bowmchickabowmbowm playlist as inspiration.  Here’s the skinny.  Did I just say “skinny?”

Herd It is a new game on Facebook that is all about music.  Music fans are connected in real time and form a “Herd.” You listen to great  tunes–we have pop, rock, blues, hip hop and electronic (more genres coming soon)–and quick minigames quiz you about what you hear in the music.  Score points when what you hear agrees with the rest of the Herd.

For example, will the songs from Thundersquee!’s bowmchickabowmbowm playlist put you and the Herd in a baby-making mood?  Think you can tell a tender tune from a melancholy melody? Play Herd It and find out!

So please, for the love of Squee! and science, play Herd It today, and maybe, just maybe, science won’t have to get all huffy and take back toilet paper.

[Cartoon image courtesy of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal... because we're not thievy dooshes.  Except when we are.]

Ada Love-Bale

Ada Lovelace (December 10, 1815 – November 27, 1852) was the only child of the poet Lord Byron, and considered to be the first “computer programmer.” She’s best known for having written a description of Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, an early form of computer, and writing “programs” for Babbage’s Difference Engine, a machine that Babbage had yet to build, and she is also considered to be the first person (at least on record) to foresee the capabilities of computers. She collaborated extensively with Babbage, and while she was obviously a major 19th century babe, it was Lovelace’s intellect that impressed Babbage most, and caused him to dub her “The Enchantress of Numbers.”

Unfortunately, Lovelace died quite young from uterine cancer (or the treatment of it), but she left a lasting legacy and paved the way for women in science and computing…and computer science.  As a tribute to her and all the pioneering women who came after, she is today’s Bale.

Thanks to Wikipedia for making this post easier!