humor
oracknows | November 11, 2007Hilarious.
Even though I risk bringing back some of the anthropogenic global warming "skeptics" (in reality pseudoskeptics) here, this is too rich not to mention, because it reminds me of how advocates of all stripes of pseudoscience react, particularly advocates of alternative medicine, most of whom wouldn't recognize a well-designed study if it bit them on the behind. Apparently, Rush Limbaugh and the usual suspects fell for a rather obvious hoax in the form of an online journal article:
Daniel A Klein*, Mandeep J Gupta*, Philip Cooper**, Arne FR Jansson**. Carbon dioxide production by…
evolvingthoughts | November 10, 2007
When people visit Australia, we locals like to play up the dangers, like the most poisonous snakes and spiders, poisonous jellyfish, sharks, the drop bears, and of course the crocs. Very few of these are actually dangerous, in that with a bit of sensible precaution and awareness, you can avoid them pretty easily.
Unless you are drunk. A new report suggests that even just a bit of alcohol on board lessens people's risk awareness, particularly with saltwater crocodiles. So, don't drink and share space with crocs near briny water. Don't walk in the water, gut fish on the shore, or take active…
oracknows | November 10, 2007Given the general level of intelligence and erudition of commenters here, rare would be the need for a product such as this:
(Fortune Magazine) -- Internet veterans have long complained about the steady erosion of civility -- and worse, intelligence -- in online discourse. Initially the phenomenon seemed to be a seasonal disorder. It occurred every September when freshmen showed up for college and went online. Tasting for the first time the freedom and power of the Internet, the newbies would behave like a bunch of drunken fraternity pledges, filling electronic bulletin boards with puerile…
j7uy5 | November 9, 2007
O excellent! I love corpus callosum better than figs.
Which work of Shakespeare was the original quote from?
Get your own quotes:
j7uy5 | November 9, 2007
href="http://quirkynomads.com/wp/2007/11/05/podcast-genetink/">This
is a highly amusing podcast, for nerds anyway. Tweaking a few
genes here and there will not alter our fundamental humanness.
But is this what we really want?
Go to the page and click on the Listen: MP3 format
link.
j7uy5 | November 9, 2007I was thrilled to note that the
href="http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/prometheus/archives/climate_change/001258sokal_revisited_i_.html">Journal
of Geoclimatic Studies offered open access to their
papers. But as of today, the
href="http://www.geoclimaticstudies.info/">website
is down, with no explanation.
Whois
href="http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/results.jsp?domain=geoclimaticstudies.info">shows
that their site was created on 11/2/2007. Pity, it last just
one week. Funny thing is, most of the authors of their papers
are, likewise,
href="http://www.theregister.…
mementomori | November 9, 2007Things Overheard in a Plastic Surgeon's Office:
1. "Doc, can you at least bring me down to an A-cup?"
2. "Yes, I'm pleased, but why does my husband keep asking me if I'm ready for my close-up?"
3. "I'm afraid I made this one longer than the other."
4. "We perform laser removal here, Mr. Talbot - not miracles."
5. "You have four sisters just like you? Well, I suppose I could take a look at them..."
6. "Now, then, Mr. Jones, if you'll just take off your fur coat..."
7. "Are you sure you want a reduction? It might affect your career, you know."
8. "Please - no more. I can't take it! You've…
tqa | November 9, 2007
I was just watching the Today Show a couple of minutes ago. They're getting ready to set up the Christmas Tree, and someone from the Center was just talking about their new, environmentally-friendly approach to the tree. Apparently, this year they used a handsaw to trim up the base instead of a power saw. They're also going to be stringing the tree with power-saving LED lighting instead of the usual bulbs. And they were discussing all of this right next to the 84-foot high tree that they cut down to use as a holiday decoration.
sb admin | November 9, 2007The Onion News Network brings us In The Know: Is The Government Spying On Paranoid Schizophrenics Enough? Satire of a talk show with pundits who promote more and better spying on people diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
Note: It's "people diagnosed with" (or just "people with") and not "schizophrenics" as people are more than their differences and labels. But that's not as funny, is it?
sb admin | November 8, 2007
A depiction of delusional parasitosis in Dave Kellett's webcomic Sheldon. DP, a fixed delusion in which one believes s/he is infested with bugs despite no evidence, was famously described in Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly. Superblogger and psychologist Vaughan Bell wrote a nice article on the subject, check it out.
Thanks again, Dave, for permission to share your comic (with slightly modified layout to make it blog-friendly).
oracknows | November 7, 2007Along with Dr. R. W., I've become known for my rather vociferously expressed dismay at the ever increasing infiltration of unscientific and non-evidence-based woo in the form of "complementary and alternative medicine" (CAM) into academic medical centers. Well, thanks to a reader, I've seen a vision of the future of American medicine, and it's frightening. Imagine, if you will, an academic medical center where the infiltration of woo is complete, where all manner of "alternative" modalities are viewed as equal or even superior to our unfeeling and nonwholistic scientific medicine.
Imagine, if…
oracknows | November 5, 2007This is true with respect to chiropractic, anyway. Just get a load of this ad from 1922:
(Click on picture for a larger image.)
You know, tart this ad up with some color and better graphics, and it wouldn't be out of place today making claims like this:
Fastest growing healing profession, outstripping all others. CHIROPRACTIC is today far in the lead of all other drug-less methods. In greater numbers than ever before intelligent people are seeing the light; they know that CHIROPRACTIC is practical, sane and gets results in treatment of disease. Endorsed by leading educators. Demand for…
grrlscientist | November 5, 2007tags: talking deer prank, humor, streaming video
This streaming video shows what happens when two city boyz strap a stuffed deer to the hood of their car, and leave it in the parking lot of a local truck stop. Oh, did I mention that this stuffed deer can also move and .. talk? Much hilarity follows [4:17]
grrlscientist | November 2, 2007In this streaming video (below the fold), Steve Carell teaches Stephen Colbert how to trick-or-treat. I know this is a little late, but late is better than never, right? [4:39]
grrlscientist | November 1, 2007This short streaming radio report, presented by The Onion, tells how Microsoft was recently sold to crows. Includes an exclusive interview with the spokescrow.
oracknows | November 1, 2007Over the summer, I got into a bit of an argument with a certain Libertarian comic named Tim Slagle who doesn't seem to accept the scientific consensus that anthropogenic global warming is happening or that it is a potentially grave problem. In a perilous bit of criticism, given that comedy often depends on saying stupid things, I deconstructed his comedy routine in which he threw all sorts of bad arguments and straw men as attacks on Al Gore. It was a routine with the old trope that "science has been wrong before," with a truly unpleasant bit of scientist-bashing thrown in for good measure.…
sporte | November 1, 2007Reposted from Halloween 2006.
Since Ben shared his family's taxonomy of candy types, and it's Friday, after all, I thought I'd share some of things that we do with candy around our house and describe some fun things that you can do with candy at home.
Materials and methods. First, you need some candy. My husband and I used to get our candy fix from our kids, but only one of our children goes trick or treating these days. She's good, though. She works the blocks like a political volunteer a week before the election, hitting all of her friends' houses and the commercial district besides…
grrlscientist | November 1, 2007tags: humor, edith ann, Lily Thomlin, streaming video
The brilliant Lily Thomlin portrays a five-and-a-half year old girl, Edith Ann, who is describing the sandwich that she made [2:32]