humor
evolvingthoughts | August 3, 2007
So I'm home from Ish, and the front part of my brain is giddy and tired while the rest has just shut down. I don't travel well, I'm afraid.
One thing that I came back fired up over are the unfinished projects I have running. So I intend to finish them. They are, in no particular order:
1. Denying that genes have information [heresy #1] Status: Written and needing to be submitted.
2. Denying that functions in biology exist outside models [heresy #2] Status: Written but badly in need of a rewrite.
3. Denying that essentialism ever existed in biology [#3. Four more and I get a free auto…
pharyngula | August 2, 2007News from the Wingnut Heartland! Brave Oklahoma is issuing a new license plate design:
Wouldn't that look perfect on the SUV decorated with yellow magnetic ribbons that you use to drive (alone) into work every day?
And how about Kansas? You know they're always going to be at the forefront of America's mad plunge backward. Now the Republican party in that fine state has decided they need loyalty oaths:
Over the weekend, Kansas Republican leaders formed what they're calling a "loyalty committee," a move that's ticking off moderates and conservatives alike.
It is never a sign of strength when…
j7uy5 | August 2, 2007
face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">Microsoft
(the company, not the cat) is planning
to introduce a free,
href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070801/tc_nm/microsoft_works_dc_1;_ylt=AvNzaQ0YzHMN8HgffxSZzmYE1vAI">adware
version of Microsoft Works.
Works is their stripped-down version of Microsoft
Office. Works already
comes bundled with many newly-purchased Windows machines.
Most people are not aware of paying for it anyway.
The
version they are planning come conveniently pre-loaded with
advertisements stored on the hard drive. When the user
connects to the Internet, more ads are…
omnibrain | August 1, 2007Ok ok... they do have a sense of humor but... age related cognitive decline has led to many older adults not getting 'the joke'. In a study by Wingyun Mak and Brian Carpenter, Ph.D. , of Washington University they discovered that
Humor comprehension in older adults functions in a different fashion than humor comprehension in younger adults. The researchers studied older adults from a university subject pool as well as undergraduate students. The subjects participated in tests that indicated their ability to complete jokes accurately as well as tests that indicated their cognitive…
pharyngula | August 1, 2007Who knew librarians had telepathy?
I like theband's other music, too…I may have to hunt down a CD.
(via Susie Bright)
pharyngula | July 30, 2007I never get stalkers like this. What is the secret of Phil's animal magnetism?
(via Depleted Cranium)
evolvingthoughts | July 30, 2007Your results:You are Malcolm Reynolds (Captain)
Malcolm Reynolds (Captain)
80%
Dr. Simon Tam (Ship Medic)
70%
Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic)
65%
Jayne Cobb (Mercenary)
60%
Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command)
55%
Derrial Book (Shepherd)
55%
River (Stowaway)
50%
Wash (Ship Pilot)
40%
Inara Serra (Companion)
30%
Alliance
20%
A Reaver (Cannibal)
10%
Honest and a defender of the innocent. You sometimes make mistakes in judgment but you are generally good and would protect your crew from harm.
Click here to take the Serenity Firefly Personality Test
pharyngula | July 30, 2007
Tom Tomorrow has a list of things he's been wondering about, but it's actually a list of things I suspect but would rather not have confirmed.
j7uy5 | July 29, 2007In
general, the Corpus Callosum celebrates the entrepreneurial spirit.
This may be the best example of Yankee ingenuity I've ever
seen.
This
being a family-oriented site, it would be too risqué for me
to show the photo uncropped. Plus, my mother reads this
sometimes.
So the full monty is below the fold...
The
href="http://markmaynard.com/index.php/2007/07/29/24_hour_panty_people#comments">Artist's
post is here; the newspaper article
href="http://www.mlive.com/annarbor/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1185692833237380.xml&coll=2">here;
the online Ypsipanty
store is here…
omnibrain | July 29, 2007There's a great Flickr slide show with some brilliant LOL Philosophers right here.
Here's one of my favorites:
And a link to a few LOLScientists was brought to my attention recently. Check them out here.
mikethemadbiologist | July 29, 2007I've been away at a meeting, so I'm just starting to work my way through the comments. While I was away, I posted a picture that I called "LOLGeenomz!!" One comment was so brilliant that it deserves its own picture:
Heh.
oracknows | July 29, 2007Continuing this weekend's silliness, I found a contender for Gene Simmons' throne, at least as far as the tongue action goes:
I don't know why I find this video disturbing, but I do.
Don't worry. I promise to post something substantive tomorrow.
pharyngula | July 29, 2007
I am appalled. A man in New York was arrested for throwing a copy of the Quran in a public toilet. He deserved arrest—everyone knows it is vandalism and criminal mischief to clog a public toilet with debris.
Oh, hang on — the guy was arrested for a hate crime? Are toilets now on the list of victims targeted by fringe fanatics? What's their slogan: "Bring Back the Open Trench!"? It is a shame to see innocent and useful toilets persecuted in this ghastly way …
Wait, never mind. He was arrested for being mean to Muslims, which also makes no sense. He destroyed a book and clogged a toilet. If…
sporte | July 28, 2007In academic biology, scientific publications are a serious thing. People battle over positions in the author list and debate endlessly over who should be on the paper and who should not.
The funny thing is that sometimes we think that our rules and standards apply to other fields of science and assume that our conventions are, well, conventional.
If they're true for us, they must be true everywhere, right?
I was surprised, for example, when I learned that one of our (former) programmers didn't know there was a difference between peer-reviewed publications and the white papers that…
mikethemadbiologist | July 28, 2007Amanda has a very interesting discussion of why Oscar the Cat of Doom--the cat that sees soon-to-be-dead people--can do so. However, the Mad Biologist has an alternative hypothesis:
When I shuffle off this mortal coil, I'm going to the bad place for this one....
j7uy5 | July 28, 2007President
George W. Bush will have a brief opportunity to know what it is like to
be in command, when VP Dick Cheney undergoes surgery to replace his
automatic implantable cardioverter defibrillator. White House
spokesman Tony Snow told reporters, "This will be an historic occasion.
Under the terms of the 28th Amendent, for the first time
ever, VP Cheney will hand over power to the President." He
noted that it will be the first time the 28th Amendment has been
invoked. He did not, however, disclose the full contents of
the 28th Amendment, citing national security risks.
The Justice…
omnibrain | July 27, 2007Since we're talking about panicking about drugs today, complements of Robot Chicken:
grrlscientist | July 27, 2007tags: Mother's Day, humor, streaming video
This is a little late for Mother's Day but I watched this video while sitting in the library and was laughing so hard (and silently) that tears were coming out of my eyes. [2:08]