humor
mementomori | December 14, 2007'Tis the time of year to bring tidings of joy and celebrate Homo sapien-kind's (formerly known as mankind's) spirit of generosity. Not being one to scoff at this equitable terpsichore of self-esteem, we here at the Cheerful Oncologist have a quiz of medical knowledge guaranteed to raise the confidence of every person who takes it. Initial beta-testing has shown that 99% of testees (please don't confuse this term with any androgenic anatomical appendages) obtain a perfect score. What better way to promote our citizen's intelligence than to give everybody an "A," right? Now sharpen your…
sb admin | December 14, 2007In a parody of Make Magazine projects, Austrian group Monochrom demonstrate how to create a brain computer interface, a.k.a. braicin, using household materials like duct tape, old ice skates, a vintage calculator, and onions in alcohol ("preferably Romanian"). Via Boing Boing TV. Link to extended director's uncut version (shown here).
j7uy5 | December 13, 2007Yale
University is following the trend, putting entire college
courses on the Internet.
As a member of the vast left-wing conspiracy, I object.
I object, because now, conservatives will be able to see what methods
we use to brainwash college kids. They will see how we get
them to vote for Ralph Nader. They will see how we get them
to use those weird curly light bulbs. The will see how we get
them to eat tofu and tabouleh and tempeh.
They will find out about the
href="http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=7591">most
dangerous books we give them, such as Silent Spring,
Coming…
pharyngula | December 13, 2007Your puny space shuttles are as toys to our powerful invertebrate overlords.
pharyngula | December 13, 2007Put a couple of illustrators together to draw superheroes, each one able to defeat the previous one, and what do you get? Weirdness. Especially when one of the superheroes is…The Creationist.
The ability to make evidence disappear sounds powerful, until you realize that all it really is is the ability to close his eyes very tightly.
pharyngula | December 12, 2007
All right, this comic convinces me that the tactics of godless rationalism and saintly religion are indistinguishable.
(I'll also be curious to see how many creationists overlook the sarcasm and accuse me of wanting to torture them on the rack…)
mikethemadbiologist | December 11, 2007And I blame the demise of my rocket-propelled toilet for this. As the hackneyed phrase goes, let's start at the beginning.
In my apartment, my toilet used to have a gizmo in the tank that looked like one of those rocket backpacks from the 1930s comic books--there was no water, just this rocket pack looking thing. It was designed to use very little water because it was some sort of high-pressure system: it probably could have flushed a bowling ball (regrettably, it's now too late to try). Unfortunately, the containment vessel sprung a leak and the rocket-propelled toilet was replaced with…
grrlscientist | December 11, 2007tags: Hollywood writers' strike, cute internet animals, humor, politics, streaming video
This is hilarious. All the cute animals on the internet are going on strike (by not being cute or adorable anymore) in support of the Hollywood writers' strike. From Colbert Report writers Frank Lesser and Rob Dubbin, and Viola/violin: Niamh and Pamela. [1:18]
evolvingthoughts | December 10, 2007
From Henry Gee's blog:
I had thought that people who write marketing and advertising blurb for publishers occupied a rung on the scala naturae slightly above creationists. This may be true, but whatever the height of their perch, it is still below that of estate agents, as judged from this flyer from Oxford University Press promoting James D. Watson’s latest effusion, Avoid Boring People, in which you’ll see this puff:
’...an engaging writer…’ – Dr Henry Gee, Focus
Well, it’s quite true that I reviewed the book for Focus, and also true that I said Watson was ‘an engaging writer’, because…
oracknows | December 10, 2007...here's an example where the conspiracy obviously failed and failed miserably.
And if you like their Chanukah specials, you'll love their Ramadan lunch specials.
You'd think they'd know better in New York City, though.
grrlscientist | December 10, 2007tags: James Watson, racism, African ancestry, genetics, genome, deCODE Genetics
James Watson, 1962 Nobel Prize winner
for co-discovering the structure of DNA along with
Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins.
This is one of the funnier things I've read recently. It turns out that 1962 Nobel laureate, James Watson, who recently made some disparaging comments about the intelligence of Africans, probably is of African descent himself.
Watson, whose genome was completely sequenced, is the second person whose entire genome was published on the internet. As a result, it is freely accessible to the…
grrlscientist | December 9, 2007tags: Walmart, Walmart Cake
Would you like to work for a place that does something like this?
I wonder if the conversation that led to this cake went something like this?
Walmart Employee: Hello dis Walmarts, how can I help you?
Customer: I would like to order a cake for a going away party this week.
Walmart Employee: What you want on dat cake?
Customer: "Best Wishes Suzanne" and underneath that "We will miss you"
pharyngula | December 9, 2007Here's a useful formula devised by Jessa to evaluate creationist hate mail, called the Creationist Rant Absurdity Phenomenon Index:
CRAP Index = M + 10(µ + Ω + I) + 10(F + σ + ρ) + (H)(1.0 x 106)
Where:
M = number of words in all capitals
µ = number of misspelled words
Ω = number of superfluous quotes around words or phrases
I = number of exclamation points
F = number of factually incorrect statements
σ = number of times the words "Darwinist," "evolutionist," etc. are used (double points for "evilutionist")
ρ = number of insults
H = number of statements that the recipient is going to/will…
pharyngula | December 9, 2007One Day You Will Learn Everything About Santa Claus. That Day Remember Everything The Adults Have Told You About Jesus.
pharyngula | December 8, 2007Here are a few ideas. Myself, I don't have a “Mohammed”, but I have decided to call any trip to the bathroom a Hajj.
sporte | December 8, 2007Lots of new and curious gift selections are available this year for those of you who had a dog or know a dog owner. All kinds of interesting doggie presents are showing up, like doggie DNA tests and special nutrigenomic doggy diets.
And of course, nothing tops the gift of fake testicles for the dog who's never quite recovered from the big operation.
It's true, the Bleiman brothers were the first to bring up the idea of presents for pets by suggesting the kitty toilet trainer as a holiday gift. Really, though, is that kind of gift that you give to the cat? or the owner?
I just don't think…