References

One thing I've learned writing scientific publications is that references are very important.  You've got to give credit where credit is due.  That said, the longer the article you're writing, the more references you're probably going to have to include just to make sure you've got all your bases covered.  In fact, just today I read a journal article where someone referenced "personal communication" (which granted, seems ridiculous to me, but who am I to judge?).  In that spirit, as I'm thinking about writing my dissertation, I've decided that I'm going to include the following in my list of references:

1.  Snapple bottle caps  (The sun is really, REALLY big!)
2.  General scientific knowledge provided in Spiderman comic books (They're like text books, but with more awesome.)
3.  Fortune cookies ("Money will come to you, if you are doing the right thing...")
4.  Bathroom hand dryers (They've got to be good for something, and it sure isn't getting hands dry!)
5.  Bill Nye, the Science Guy (Science rules.)
6.  Paul Harvey's "The Rest of the Story"  (Though, before my conclusions, I'll have to include a chapter about the Bose Wave Radio and Tempur-Pedic.)
7.  Star Trek: The Next Generation (Giving engineers hope for a future that includes both respect from society and female companionship)
8.  Issue #57 of the Journal "Nunya Bidness"  (Cause reviewers are all up in mine.)
9.  This dream I had this one time.  (about a wizard, a giant cybernetic chicken, and a better way of solving problems involving radiation hydrodynamics)
10.  The Onion  (The last bastion of true journalism.)
11.  The Complete Works of Sir Mix-A-Lot (I like big graphs, and I cannot lie...)
12.  My cheat shirt  (You thought I was kidding when I said I used it.)
13. I know... many things.  (Self-referencing is the ultimate catch-all.)
14.  Square One/Math Net  (Where I learned that, when you multiply any number by 9, the digits of the product all add up to a multiple of 9)
15.  The Game Show Network  (Survey says, my conclusions are brilliant.)
16.  The Andy Griffith Show  (The solution to an unending graduate career?  You've got to nip it in the bud.)
17.  The Wikipedia entry for Uranium (3,000,000 people who haven't studied chemistry since high school can't be wrong)
18.  Your mom (my muse)
19.  The Scientist's Guide to Faking or Manipulating Data by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Foreword by NASA)