cultural observation
grrlscientist | August 3, 2006This streaming video shows an interview with ex-muslim, secular humanist and feminist, Ayaan Hirsi Ali Wafa Sultan, discussing her beliefs about the clash between Islam and "the West": essentially she argues this is a clash between the Middle Ages and all it represents and the 21st Century, and all it represents. I would like to expand her ideas to include all religious fundamentalism, such as what is happening in America today with our own homegrown religious wingnuts.
Okay, thanks to a reader, I now know that I mixed up Wafa Sultan with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who is the author of a book, The…
grrlscientist | July 31, 2006
Look, Ma! Dinosaurs and people must have lived at the same time because The Flintstones says so!
Like most natural history museums, this one has exhibits showing dinosaurs roaming the Earth. Except here, the giant reptiles (sic) share the forest with Adam and Eve.
This reporter has it all wrong! This is not a "natural history museum", because if it was, it would clearly be scientific in its objectives. No, this instead is an extension of religious faith -- a church! -- which has nothing whatsoever to do with science, scientific experimentation or rational thought!
Ken Ham, an Australian…
grrlscientist | July 31, 2006"If you were to hang out with me here it won't be five or 10 minutes before you see a Republican hug me. That is almost as entertaining as some of the films."
Who said that?
Michael Moore, who wrote, filmed and produced the controversial film, Fahrenheit 9/11, is apparently benefiting from Republican "buyer's remorse". Moore has noticed that conservatives' attitudes towards him have changed, sometimes radically so, from one year ago.
Used to traveling with security and encountering a barrage of hostility, Moore said he finds people now more accepting, even to the point Republicans are…
grrlscientist | July 30, 2006I displayed this quiz result on my original blog for quite a long time, until I decided it was having a negative impact on my social life, whereupon, I removed it. However, because I no longer have a social life, not any sort of life whatsoever, I realize it probably wouldn't hurt to put this quiz result back, especially because I can ask all of you to tell me how nerdy you are!
Did you know the identities of the two men whose pictures were shown in the quiz? Why do you suppose they didn't show a picture of Darwin and ask you to identify him, instead? I guess it is because he is probably…
grrlscientist | July 26, 2006
"Why do I feel most alive when I am working myself to death?"
"I feel like I am missing some pieces of the puzzle."
"I don't even feel 39."
Since August 2005, We Feel Fine has been harvesting human feelings from a large number of weblogs at LiveJournal. Every few minutes, the system searches the world's newly posted blog entries for occurrences of the phrases "I feel" and "I am feeling". When it finds such a phrase, it records the full sentence, up to the period, and identifies the "feeling" expressed in that sentence (e.g.; sad, happy, depressed, etc.). Because blogs are structured in…
grrlscientist | July 11, 2006Caught on video; even lifeguards need to take a break now and again.
So .. do you think all those people went back into the pool after that performance? Would you go back into the pool if you were there?
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tags: streaming video, humor, prank, hotel pool, lifeguard
grrlscientist | July 7, 2006The annual "Stella Awards" have been announced for this year. The Stella Awards were inspired by 81 year-old Stella Liebeck of New Mexico, who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonald's for her injuries. That lawsuit inspired the Stella Awards, which recognize the most frivolous, ridiculous, and successful lawsuits in the United States. Even though these awards recognize truly outrageous examples of people successfully abusing the system, ask yourself; are these reports true? Or are they simply a way to sell books?
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This year's Stella Awards Winners;
7th Place: ⨅
grrlscientist | July 5, 2006An issue of the Food Insects Newsletter reports that 80 percent of the world's population eats insects intentionally and 100 percent eat insects unintentionally. In fact, if Americans tolerated more insects (you know, like, BUGS) in their food, farmers could significantly reduce the amount of pesticides applied to their crops each year. Additionally, by weight, termites, grasshoppers, caterpillars, weevils, house flies and spiders are better sources of protein than beef, chicken, pork or lamb according to the Entomological Society of America. Also, insects are low in cholesterol and low in…
grrlscientist | July 4, 2006
Today's World Cup futebol game was spectacular. It epitomized everything that I hoped for in a World Cup game.
The crowd gathered in my local watering hole were (mostly) supporting Italy (yes, even the Germans!), but everyone agreed that Germany would beat Italy because they enjoyed the home-crowd advantage. But like those pleasant surprises that are often only brought to light after plenty of drunken speculation combined with wishful thinking, our confident predictions were not to be: Italy had other plans.
After an exciting but scoreless game, Italy managed to kick a goal near the end…
grrlscientist | July 3, 2006
As some of you might remember, I lived in Tokyo for awhile when I was a grad student. When I left the States, I had never eaten Japanese food before and, as a microbiologist, I was worried about my impending death after being eaten alive by parasitic worms that I would get from eating raw fish. I worried about this until I had my first taste of sushi. After my first taste of sushi, well, I didn't care if I died as the result of eating Japenese cuisine; I simply knew that I had to have more and that, if I did die, it would be with a smile and tuna sashimi on my lips. The food was fabulous…
grrlscientist | June 30, 2006
I thought you all would enjoy this silly video of a British journalist interviewing several members of the Iraqi resistance in the swirling sands near Tikrit.
tags: satire, humor, streaming video, interview, Iraq
grrlscientist | June 27, 2006Or .. how to gross out your friends at dinnertime and make them wish they never met you!
Believe it or not, in honor of their 75th anniversary, the crazy people at Hostess compiled the Twinkies Cookbook (2006) that was just published by Ten Speed Press. This amazing book gives you 50 recipes -- everything you need to know to actually prepare food containing Twinkies -- "food" that is reported to actually be edible. "Food" such as Twinkie Burritos, Pigs in a Twinkie, Twinkie Sushi, Twinkie Lasagna, and for dessert, the red, white and blue Patriotic Twinkie Pie. Having reviewed a few books…
grrlscientist | June 21, 2006A reader wrote to tell me that my wee rant about Stephen Hawking's comments was quoted -- but not linked! can you believe it? -- in a piece that appeared yesterday on Spiked.
Um, yeah. This is good .. I guess.
grrlscientist | June 21, 2006An informed public and open debate is vital to a healthy democracy, but they depend upon free access to the facts. A free and fair media is indispensable to democracy because they are the only institution that can regularly question the president and other public officials. However, not everyone thinks that the American media has been doing their job recently. One of those people is Helen Thomas.
Thomas is a journalist who has covered Washington news for more than 60 years. In her new book, Watchdogs of Democracy? The waning Washington press corps and how it has failed the public (NYC:…
grrlscientist | June 17, 2006
I am talking about Bill Gates, of course.
Most people have read the recent reports that Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates's personal net worth exceeds 40 billion dollars. Consider that he made this money in the 22 years or so since Microsoft was founded in 1975. If you assume he worked 14 hours a day on every business day of the year since then, that means he's been making money at a staggering half-million dollars per hour, approximately $150 per second.
Gates owns $27,381,883,256.00 ($27.38 billion) of Microsoft stock, a sum that is greater than the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of most…
grrlscientist | June 14, 2006
I guess these advertizers haven't heard about avian influenza yet nor about how cats appear to be surprisingly susceptible to it.
Well, big cats, anyway.
Hat tip: Dawn, via Brainstorm #9.
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tags: advertizing
grrlscientist | June 14, 2006I like Stephen Hawking, but someone needs to have a little chat with him because today's comments are simply ridiculous. In fact, his comments make me wonder why humans won't do the right thing for a change, by doing what is necessary now to avert disaster on earth, our only home, instead of following Hawking's suggestion to evacuate the planet? It disgusts me to know that some people -- yes, even scientists, who should know better! -- think it is acceptable behavior to abandon earth after we have finished trashing the place, rather than changing our behavior to prevent things from worsening…
grrlscientist | June 10, 2006
Yes, this is made entirely of legos. Legos have taken on a life of their own, it seems.
Recently, the editors of PC Magazine published their list of the "Top 10 Strangest (or Coolest...) Lego Creations". This particular creation [larger image] was made by Nathan Sawaya and used over 10,000 lego pieces and required more than 3 months to make this "Han Solo in Carbonite" masterpiece.
This website has photos of the top ten strangest Lego creations, including amazing items such as functional air conditioners (even though I live in NYC, I have never owned an air conditioner, so this is…
grrlscientist | June 9, 2006Has anyone seen the cover of today's New York Post? Apparently, the NYPost was giving away today's issue on the streets because no one would buy it (and no, I am not posting the cover picture here; it's disgusting. Funny, but disgusting).
grrlscientist | June 6, 2006
ApatheticAgnostic
So .. are you still here? Well, so am I, dammit. I guess none of us were good enough to be sucked up into god's mouth like an overcooked spaghetti noodle during this so-called "Rapture".
Since I had already been enduring some rather serious tribulations of my own for the past two years, in the form of unhappy unemployment punctuated with several brief bouts of underemployment (combined with liberal quantities of abuse so I would not forget the general misery of my existence), I was truly ready for a rapturous moment. Oh yes, a rapturous moment such as learning that I…