fun
clock | September 21, 2006Herbert George Wells was born at Bromley, England on this day in 1866. He was apprenticed as a draper, which inspired several of his novels, then taught school before securing a scholarship to the Normal School of Science at South Kensington. Although his writing covers a broad range, he is now best known for his science fiction work, mostly between 1895 and 1905, starting with The Time Machine and including The War of the Worlds.
Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo.
Whilst there is a chance of the world getting through its troubles, I hold that a reasonable man has to behave as though…
clock | September 15, 2006I feel a professional duty to watch - once it is available - and review this movie about sleep deprivation and insomnia. Sounds pretty good and informed, as well as entertaining, at least according to the article:
Night after night for some 40 years, the US independent filmmaker, Alan Berliner, has battled with his sleep demons.
He has tried everything to defeat them, including meditation, acupuncture, herbal remedies, "lots of sex" and earplugs.
Recently, he made Wide Awake, a film investigating both insomnia in general, and his affliction in particular. In the film, we watch as night…
clock | September 13, 2006I finally saw the newest 'King Kong' (thanks to Netflix). Not much new to say. We fixed lots of popcorn and big glasses of Coke, sat back and enjoyed the special effects without any expectation that anything in the movie will make sense - which it didn't. Thus, it was great fun.
In a way I am glad I did not see this on a big screen - this movie is not for people with a fear of hights! Even on a small screen some scenes made me dizzy.
clock | September 13, 2006Another one from my daughter's photo album. Marbles is in front, Biscuit in the back. They are ready to wrestle:
clock | September 9, 2006This nerd thing going on is really bugging me. I went back and re-did the test, changing only 2 or 3 answers to what I did before (not lying, just taking the other one of two possibly correct answers) and got a much higher score:
I agree with Jim that the quiz is not really measuring nerdiness so well. I'd argue that it actually measures geekiness instead. The questions are all about computers, math and Star Trek! And others have added Tolkien and slide-rules to the mix.
I can barely figure out HTML after two years of blogging. Yeah, I played Pong with another friend when I was a kid,…
clock | September 6, 2006I am reading with amusement all of my SciBlings' examples of extreme nerdiness (just look around the ScienceBlogs today!). Apart from wearing turtlenecks (at the time when they were not fashinable) and having some science-related decorations at home, I am really not that nerdy:
On the other hand, I answered almost all of these questions with "Yes" so I may be special kind of nerd - the science nerd! Do I really need to post pictures of myself wearing science-related t-shirts (like 50 of them)?
clock | September 5, 2006Carl Feagans made this for my blog:Make your own at the Vinyl Record Generator.
clock | September 1, 2006And even better - they were discovered to be working illegally.
Steve says: "Extraterrestrials gotta eat, too"
Lex noticed that (if you hover your cursor over the "illegal aliens" in the text), you can find Roswell aliens on eBay!
clock | August 31, 2006You Are Dr. Bunsen Honeydew
You take the title "mad scientist" to the extreme -with very scary things coming out of your lab.
And you've invented some pretty cool things, from a banana sharpener to a robot politician.
But while you're busy turning gold into cottage cheese, you need to watch out for poor little Beaker!
"Oh, that's very naughty, Beaker! Now you eat these paper clips this minute."
The Muppet Personality Test
(Hat-tip: Grrrrlscientist)
clock | August 28, 2006My daughter is getting really good at photography. Here is one from her recent set of pictures - our older cat, Biscuit:
clock | August 25, 2006After reading this, I really want to see 'Snakes On the Plane' as I now feel like I have a chance of comprehending its depth and subtlety.
clock | August 25, 2006From December 18, 2005 - a very modern version of Dick and Jane...
This is what my wife brought home yesterday: Yiddish with Dick and Jane. I picked it up and read it out loud for the whole family and we could not stop laughing! I cannot possibly give it the review it deserves, but check out the readers' reviews. Here is the "official" review first:
"Dick and Jane are all grown up, and they're living in the real world-and it's full of tsuris (troubles). That's the premise of this hilarious little book, which functions both as a humorous tale and a genuine guide to a language with a…
clock | August 19, 2006The American poet Frederick Ogden Nash was born at Rye, New York on this day in 1902. After family finances prevented him from finishing even a year at Harvard, he struggled as a school teacher (a class of 14-year-olds caused too much stress), bond broker (he sold but one bond in 18 months, and that to his godmother), advertising copywriter, children's book author (The Cricket of Carador sold only 900 copies), but finally thrived as an editor at Doubleday. He dashed off some very silly poetry to relieve office boredom, his boss suggested he send a few to the New Yorker where he was first…
clock | August 19, 2006Yeah, I know everyone is doing it, but when I first tried I never got quotes that were really satisfying. But when PZ set up a random 5 from his own vault, I got an embarrasment of riches. So here are the first 5 I liked from there:
Creeds made in Dark Ages are like drawings made in dark rooms[Joseph McCabe, The Story of Religious Controversy, 1929]
So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence.Bertrand Russell
The kindly God who lovingly fashioned each and every one of us and sprinkled the sky with shining stars for our delight -- that God is,…
clock | August 17, 2006It's a big AIDS week here and I hope you are checking the AIDS at 25 special blog here on scienceblogs.com. There is a lot of good information and opinion there. And then, sometimes there is some fun. Like this one, for instance, which look almost elegant compared to the one under the fold....
This dress reminds me of posters with a bunch of colorful condoms, inflated, with smiley faces drawn on their 'heads' I remember since late 1980s (when AIDS became big news in Yugoslavia). I also remember the slogan "Kondom u svaki dom!" (a condom in every home) from that era.
clock | August 11, 2006I guess the people at Belk only read personal diaries and Wingnut blogs. They should come visit Scienceblogs sometimes.
(hat-tip:Ed)