Humor?
revere | February 16, 2010When I heard ace flu reporter Helen Branswell was covering the Olympics, I said to myself, "Hey, if she can do it, so can I!" So I'm covering the Olympics:
revere | January 2, 2010It's easy to lose track of current events during the holidays, so here's an update of the week's most important news. We lead off with a breaking swine flu story:
revere | December 5, 2009If you are a publishing scientist this will hit home. It's making the rounds of the science community, so you may have seen it, but if you haven't, it's hilarious. In fact it's still hilarious after the third and fourth times through. Warning: If you are sensitive about Hitler associated parodies, don't watch it; I take my cue from Mel Brooks on that subject [added: in light of a comment from a German speaker, please take this warning seriously. While the German dialog is irrelevant and it is the English subtitles that are funny, if hearing and understanding the German in this already much…
revere | November 24, 2009All geeks love science jokes (one of my favorites: what's purple and drives to work? Answer: an Abelian grape [explanation, the elements of an Abelian group commute, i.e., a + b = b + a]).
Science jokes are good. You can learn some science from them. In particular, the first three or four of this set of groaners involve viruses and infectious diseases and each tell you -- vividly -- an important truth. The rest are pretty good, too.
Enjoy (hat tip Boingboing):
revere | October 17, 2009The vaccine problem as seen from a different angle:
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Doubt Break '09
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes
Political Humor
Ron Paul Interview
revere | October 3, 2009As Mrs. R. remarked, it's American ingenuity at work. Or something. She was referring to the winner of the 2009 Public Health IgNobel Award. For those of you who don't know about the IgNobel Prizes given each year in a variety of categories for scientific or engineering achievements (as documented in scientific journal articles or patent applications) that "make people laugh, and then make them think." There is a well-attended public ceremony each year at Harvard's Sanders Theater and the 2009 version was two nights ago. There are lots of winners each year, often for achievements from some…
revere | September 24, 2009Bats are no doubt fascinating animals. They also carry rabies. And I'll be honest with you. Rabies scares the crap out of me. Most people know that rabies is caused by a virus that is spread through the saliva of an infected animal. Because the virus attacks the nervous system, rabid animals often act aggressively and may bite, thus transmitting the disease. Fortunately vaccination against rabies is available and since the disease has a longish incubation period, there is usually ample time after being bitten by a known or suspected rabid animal to get a series of shots that will protect you…
revere | April 27, 2009Now that the initial rush is over, time to settle in for the long(er) haul. It's 3 am here. Good time to clear the air and lighten up:
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
M - Th 11p / 10c
Snoutbreak '09 - The Last 100 Days
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes
Economic Crisis
Political Humor
revere | March 12, 2009My problem with The Onion is that sometimes their pieces are so good I can't figure out how to extract pull quotes. I just want to reprint the whole damn thing and that's not exactly "fair use." So if want to read it all you'll have to go there (link with pull quote after the jump). Here's a piece that is at once so grotesque and so spot on it's scary:
WASHINGTON—Calling it "perfectly safe for the most part," and "not nearly as destructive or fatal as previously thought," the Food and Drug Administration approved the enterobacteria salmonella for human consumption this week.
FDA director…
revere | February 21, 2009The good news (for me) is I've been doing a lot of science lately. The bad news is that I have had to use some research software written in C# that uses Microsoft's .Net framework. Said another way, I, a long time Mac user, have been forced to use the Windoz operating system. It's not just extremely painful. It's infuriating. It assumes it's smarter than I am and insists on doing what it thinks I want to or should do (like install an update and then restart while I'm in the midst of trying to figure out a dataset). I am not a violent person, but I understand completely the growing genre of…
revere | January 25, 2009From a colleague who knows I am interested in prophylactics for flu:
Miss Beatrice, the church organist, was in her eighties and had never been married. She was admired for her sweetness and kindness to all.
One afternoon the pastor came to call on her and she showed him into her quaint sitting room.
She invited him to have a seat while she prepared tea. As he sat facing her old Hammond organ, the young minister noticed a cut-glass bowl sitting on top of it. The bowl was filled with water, and in the water floated, of all things, a condom! When she returned with tea and scones, they began…
revere | January 1, 2009Loyal reader Man of Misery sends this recap of 2008 from Uncle Jay. I had an Uncle Jay. But he was an orthodontist. Not like this Uncle Jay.
Happy New Year boys and girls:
revere | December 6, 2008So here's the deal. Grandson #2 picked up some kind of norovirus-like thing at daycare and by late afternoon was seriously engaged in projectile vomiting. My daughter and I picked him and his little 'bro up (his dad was in class) and brought them to her house. Since I am getting ready for a scientific meeting across the country I didn't feature doing my own projectile vomiting high above Iowa. Yes, I know they have these airsickness bags, so it would be a convenient place. But these days they probably charge you $5 per bag. So I took care of Mr. Four Months Old and stayed away from Mr. Virus…
revere | November 28, 2008Travel is off this year because of the dreadful state of the world economy, but this is still probably the biggest travel weekend of the year. So to commemorate it and because our publisher, Seed, is a German publisher as well, we present this tribute to the pleasures of Thanksgiving travel, first in English, then in German:
1040+
revere | September 26, 2008I don't know how many of these you received yesterday, but here's one more:
Dear American:
I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.
I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.
I am working with Mr. Phil Gram, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a Senator, you may know him as…
revere | June 24, 2008One thing about the sixties. If you weren't there, it can be hard to understand the real message. For the age challenged, here is one of the great Beatles songs sung by the one-of-a-kind Joe Cocker at Woodstock in 1969, complete with subtitles so you can understand the words:
Hat tip Jesus General.
revere | March 3, 2008Scienceblogs has a German cousin, Scienceblogs.de where I found this absolutely hilarious YouTube music video, "Scientists for a better PCR." Yes, it's an advert for a PCR device called a thermocycler but it's incredibly funny -- if you have that kind of sense of humor.
PCR is a technique called polymerase chain reaction. It can take pre-specified tiny bits of DNA or RNA and grow them up into huge amounts. That's how they can do forensic DNA identification from the small amounts in spit or semen stains. They pre-specify parts of DNA that are unique to an individual and amplify it up by PCR.…
revere | February 2, 2008Last week we brought you the Kinoki Footpad and the TV ad that drives me crazy. Not all infomercials are so stupid. Some sell products with genuine health benefits. I spend a lot of time sitting in front of a computer (like at this moment) so I don't get enough exercise. And my abs? Forget it (bad visual).
But as Mike Huckabee (or was it Bill Clinton) might say, Hope is a Chair called Hawaii:
revere | January 3, 2008Too little discussed -- gender differences in upper respiratory infections:
glumbert - The Man Cold