In the spirit of a thousand "Don’t taze me, bro!" remixes, Wired Science is proud to announce the "Drill, baby, drill!" remix contest.
The phrase was coined by Republican operative Michael Steele on Wednesday night at the Republican National Convention, and — in perhaps the convention’s only spontaneous development — chanted during the speeches of Rudy Giuliani and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
As the governor of Alaska, Palin has supported drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Increased domestic oil production — which Democrats say will produce more environmental damage than energy benefits — is the closest thing this Presidential race has to an environmental controversy, a proxy for battles over climate change and the influence of the oil industry.
Nevertheless, hearing thousands of voices raised as one to call for drilling — baby! — was flat-out weird. And, to be snarky for a moment, I was less than impressed at the time it took for conventioneers to synchronize their chanting. (Maybe the Democrats wouldn’t have done any better, but the Republicans definitely left their rhythmically gifted delegates at home.)
So get cracking with your software, and send your audio remixes to me. (Videos should go on YouTube). The winner will receive my very own copy of How to Fossilize Your Hamster: And Other Amazing Experiments for the Armchair Scientist, along with other exciting swag excavated from Wired.com office sediments. We might even throw in a drill bit.
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