Two Kooky Krackpots: IQ Alone Is Not Enough
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Lovers of humorous books often bewail their sparsity. Well, they can get their teeth into this one. Many humourous books are too short because authors find it difficult to keep humor alive for a full length book. Not Tom Bullock. He knows kooky scientists, he knows government bureaucracy, and he's a storyteller who knows how to weave a 350-page novel suitable for everyone. This first novel by Bullock is a squeaky clean book, but you might not notice.
Bullock mixes two intelligent, but kooky, scientists, lots of government research money, a bunch of ambitious administrators, and what does he get? Answer - belly laughs. When lead kook Sid forgets to go to work, he mathematically proves that calling four hours work anything less than a full day's work violates work rules. The other, Harold gets lost so often that his wife worries each day whether he'll manage to find his way home.
The pair delight in getting their equipment from the salvage building. One day a salvage video system shows some, but not all, people with an orange glow. Circumstances convince the pair that people acting deceitfully show up orange on their system. They decide that they have a video deceit detector, an item the CIA would spend mega bucks to get.
When administrators want proof that the machine works, Harold and Sid invoke the psychological code of ethics. The code prohibits testing people without their knowledge. They then give a convincing argument that the machine is untestable because a person instructed to tell an untruth is not really acting deceitfully. Administrators love the piles of research money the deceit detector brings in but don't dare get near it. They fear their images might glow bright orange. When Sid and Harold come up with a portable model, the administrators protect themselves by declaring it unsafe for use outside Sid's laboratory.
Developing the deceit detector provides plenty of opportunities for Sid and Harold to show that too much intelligence and logic produces uproarious situations. In one case, Harold visits the CIA and is told he must remain within the sight of his escort. So, when nature calls, he feels he must invite the escort to join him the mens room stall. Other episodes involve Sid's home repair fiasco that floods his house in the middle of the night, and Harold's computerized exercise machine that lets him reason with it.
It is a well-told tale full of ridiculously funny episodes that merge seamlessly with the plot to produce a truly funny book.
Book Description
Did you ever . . .
Get lost at work coming back from the mens room?
Design an exercise machine that lets you reason with it?
Build a superpressure bean cooker that erupted like a volcano and paint the ceiling with bean juice?
Rent a car and couldn't find where to put in gasoline?
Ask a CIA Security Escort to join you in a mens room stall?
Convince your boss that "Dear It" is the nonsexist way to start a letter?
Show by mathematics that 4 hours is a full day of work?
These guys did.
They may be brilliant scientists, but Harold's wife worries that he'll get lost coming home from work, and Sid regularly forgets to go to work. Harold can make equipment talk, and Sid can figure angles to convince administrators to do whatever he wants. They're an ideal, but kooky pair.
The two, who always get their research equipment at the salvage building, find certain people glow orange in the video system they built. Circumstances convince them that people acting deceitfully have the orange glow. They convince administrators that the machine works but is untestable - they say a lie told for the sake of testing sometimes may not be a lie.
Laboratory administrators are afraid to get near the machine because it might expose them, but they see the deceit detector as a money cow for research funds. Management says the project is too important for working scientists to manage and put a wheeler-dealer in charge. With plenty of funds available, new deceit detector projects sprout, machines to detect potential deceit, past deceits, . . . Sid and Harold lay low and keep puttering with scientific toys they get at salvage. Sid and Harold discover their machine does not work. However, they elect to tell nobody and figure keeping quiet will let their funding go on for years and years.
Two Kooky Krackpots: IQ Alone Is Not Enough
Two Kooky Krackpots: IQ Alone Is Not Enough,Tom Bullock,Abique Inc,1892298023,Fiction,Humorous
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