|
 In
Issue 18 (March 1999) I looked at Web sites devoted to physicist Stephen
Hawking.
Not
surprisingly, his world famous Brief History of Time
has in recent times attracted at least one humorous
derivative, namely a book by astronomer and educator Eric
Schulman entitled
A Briefer History of Time: From the
Big Bang to the Big Mac (1999, ISBN: 07167 3389 7),
.
. . a highly irreverent and scientifically entertaining overview of some
of the most important cosmic milestones since the beginning of time.
The
critical thing is that Schulman’s book will answer questions you might have
never even conceived of asking — like why the universe is expanding and
why this doesn’t make it any easier to find a parking place. Even if you
were asking those very questions only yesterday, I know you can’t wait to
get further info about the book from the Web. And while you’re in the
mood, take in some other intelligent nonsense from Eric Schulman —
The
Universal History Translation Project.
In 1997
Schulman had published in The Annals of Improbable Research what he
called The History of the Universe in 200 Words or Less. This gave
rise to The Universal History Translation Project, which has
involved the translation of those 200 Words (or Less) into more than 30
languages. A Briefer History of Time is itself based on the
200-word history. This second Web site presents us with all available
translations to date, including some “in two words or less”,
(a) the
scientific:
Bang.
Expansion.
(b) the
religious:
God.
Man.
(c) the
agnostic:
Nothing.
Something.
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