Which Manhattan Project scientist won the betting pool to determine the explosive yield of the first atomic bomb?

Image via WikipediaRemember when those wacky Los Alamos boys inaugurated the nuclear arms race by detonating the world's first atomic explosive?

Well, as humans are wont to do, those Manhattan Projectors laid out a little wagering action as to exactly how explosive said atomic gadget would turn out to be. So the question becomes: Who won the Trinity Test betting pool? 

You can find out one of two ways:

• Audio, via one of my appearances on TechTalk radio in Chicago (which includes some additional content about Chip Bell and John Patterson's new book Wired and Dangerous)
• Text, via a recent Geek Trivia column (which includes pithy commentary from my Geekend readership)

Hint: The guy who won the pool is probably more famous in medical circles than he is in the halls of physics. Maybe.

Dragon*Con 2011: A n00b's Tale, Part II

Image by Cayusa via Flickr[Be forewarned, this more a memory core-dump than structured narrative. It's gonna get rough.]

FRIDAY

Despite the rather exhaustive and enthralling nature of the preceding day, Dragon*Con doesn't actually begin until the Friday of Labor Day weekend. Being the early riser (*cough* non-drinker *cough*) amongst my roommates, I awoke about 8:00 am, quietly showered and dressed, then descended the only slightly overcrowded elevators in search of food, and the location of my first panel.

Dragon*Con 2011: A n00b's Tale, Part I.

Image via WikipediaAs some are aware, I was ordered by my wife to attend my first Dragon*Con this year. Now, I help run my local con and I attended Comic-Con in 2002, back when it was only twice as large as Dragon*Con, so I figured I was prepared for whatever D*C could throw at me.

Woe, the hubris of geeks.

How many parents did Dolly the cloned sheep actually have?

Image by Bigod via FlickrEverybody remember Dolly, the first real-life clone that ever got significant mainstream press coverage? Well, as is often the case, the science fact of Dolly is rather more bizarre than your typical clone-oriented science fiction. Turns out Dolly had a rather unorthodox number of parents, depending on how you define the term. How many? I'll tell you two ways:

• TEXT: Geek Trivia: How many parents did Dolly the cloned sheep actually have? 
• AUDIO: TechTalk Trivia: How many mommies and daddies did Dolly, the famous cloned sheep have? 

The latter podcast also has some nice ancillary material about the fate of the human brain from Matt Richtel and a tidbit about Intel's Museum of Me.

Need more trivia? Try one of the labels at the bottom of this post.

Related articles

• Scientists Who Cloned Dolly the Sheep Plan to Clone Endangered Scottish Wildcats Using Eggs From Spayed Pets By Rebecca Boyle (imullins89.wordpress.com)
• Animal cloning: Top five clones (telegraph.co.uk)
• Cloning - Should It be Prohibited? (socyberty.com)

What two movies created by a famous Hollywood geek pushed the PG rating so far that the MPAA created PG-13?

Image via WikipediaYet another of my infamous TechTalk radio appearances has been archived online, wherein I ponder what two movies created by a famous Hollywood geek pushed the PG rating so far that the MPAA created PG-13?

More importantly, there are vague implications that Google's self-driving cars may be a secret contingency plan to stave off a Decepticon invasion. You decide.

Related articles

• Has the PG-13 Rating Outlived Its Usefulness? (moviefone.com)
• "A raunchy summer": R-rated movies are gRRRRRReat! (gointothestory.com)