humor
grrlscientist | June 14, 2007tags: environment, humor, streaming video
Martin Short revisits his classic character Nathan Thurm, the nervous, sweating, chain smoking big business lawyer. In this skit, Robert F. Kennedy grills him on global warming and how his clients, the big oil companies, are contributing to it. [2:18]
pharyngula | June 14, 2007(click for larger image)
Uh-oh. My actual identity has been exposed, and one of my true forms has actually been published in a publication of the American popular press. Now people are going to understand why I am so pro-choice: "I AM PHARYNGULA, THE HARVESTER OF STILLBORN SOULS!"
About the English thing—I've been working on it, 'k? And I have no idea who the cheerleader chick is.
Otherwise, though, sure, that's exactly what I look like. Horns, red glowing eyes, muscles like boulders stuck under my skin, armful of squirming babi…hey, wait a minute. What's with the babies? "I'm a fierce demon…
mementomori | June 13, 2007Things you don't want to hear from your hospital nurse:
1. "Oh, do we have a big surprise for you today!"
2. "Let's see if I've got this straight - you're on for a castration at 1:00, right?"
3. "Here, give me that newspaper - it'll just bore you."
4. "Now where did I leave that thermometer?"
5. "Dmitri will be giving you your bath this morning."
6. "Why don't you take a guess first."
7. "Time for a walk in the halls!"
8. "Hmm...there seems to be something stuck under your mattress."
9. "Let me get you a band-aid."
10. "You haven't had a cigarette in three days - aren't you proud?"
grrlscientist | June 12, 2007tags: constitution, humor, streaming video
This biting political piece by Bill Maher has been around for a little while but it is but it is definitely worth watching. "I email myself a copy of the constitution every morning in the hopes that they [the Feds] will open it to see what it says." [6:11]
oracknows | June 11, 2007After having been pointed yesterday to a video of an old Betty Boop short that strongly suggests that Boop may have been a homeopath, I couldn't resist clicking on the links to a couple of other old Betty Boop cartoons. One of them reminded me of just how different our culture was 72 years ago when this cartoon was released. What's astonishing to me, from the vantage of 2007, is the casual racism, done without a care in the world that it would offend anyone and done with the grossest racial stereotypes played for cheap laughs:
We can be grateful that such stereotypes are no longer…
omnibrain | June 11, 2007We all know, thanks to Dan Simons and Chris Chabris (unless you've been living under a rock), that if we're really paying attention to something we can miss something else entirely... like a gorilla walking into the middle of a room and banging on its chest. Check out the video here. (Clearly this won't work for you now since you know what to look for, but there are some other examples on Dan Simons'' site that you can check out as well.)
In any case ... on to the main story here which is really the complete opposite of Inattentional Blindness. This time the gorilla suit was meant to bring…
pharyngula | June 10, 2007Oh, crap. Tristero throws me into despair with this sad quote.
Science is a gift of God to all of us and science has taken us to a place that is biblical in its power to cure," said Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, arguing for the bill's passage. "And that is the embryonic stem cell research."
And here I've got a "Pelosi '07" bumper sticker on my car. How could she say something so idiotic? None of the Democrats are meeting my minimal standards for competence so far.
I know we have a fair number of nerds here, so I thought one way to illustrate the situation in American politics…
grrlscientist | June 10, 2007tags: urban sports, humor, streaming video
While writing tomorrow's issue of Birds in the News, I found this hilarious video that you might enjoy. Like most sports, urban sprinting is simple. First, you find a shop with a security guard, then you take an alarmed tag off merchandise and walk out the door with it, setting off the alarm. Of course, you haven't stolen anything (except the tag), but they'll still chase you anyway. When you get to the nearest hamburger shop, the clock stops. And that's how you play urban sprinting!
pharyngula | June 10, 2007This is grossly unfair. Ric Mercer makes fun of Americans for not knowing much about Canada. I assure you, though, that Americans know as much about Canada as they do about the United States.
pharyngula | June 10, 2007Just something for you zombie cannibals to think about.
(via Gimme back my god!)
oracknows | June 10, 2007While reading through a mailing list I belong to, I came across a link that demonstrates that alternative medicine has been ingrained in popular culture since at least the 1920's and 1930's. Indeed, I never realized that that icon of flappers, Betty Boop, practiced homeopathy. Don't believe me? Well, here's incontrovertible evidence in the form of a short called Betty Boop, M.D. released in 1932 and perhaps the most bizarre Boop short I've ever seen (particularly the last shot, which makes me wonder if acid had actually been invented six years before it was supposedly discovered). Basically,…
evolvingthoughts | June 10, 2007
The world is divided, runs the old joke (which I heard when it wasn't so old), into two kinds: those who divided the world into two kinds, and those who don't. [There's actually an interesting feature of the history of logic here that... never mind. Later.]
We all, or very nearly all, like to divide the world into those who are like-minded to us and those who are not. It is not just a matter of religion, but of sport, music, politics, ethnicity, and tastes in literature. And although we do not express it out loud, we think that we have chosen the best of all these alternatives. Of course…
pharyngula | June 9, 2007John Scalzi lives right near the Creation "Museum," and he refuses to go. Good for him, I say — we're going to have to start starving Ken Ham soon. On the other hand, if anyone could mock Ham's Folly effectively, it's Scalzi … it's also so much fun to torment him. So his readers are teaming up to compel him to go.
Here's the deal: Scalzi has a price. If people send him at least $250, which he will turn around and donate to Americans United for Separation of Church and State, he'll suffer through the cheesy dinosaurs and silly lies, and also write an amusingly snarky summary of the visit. If…
pharyngula | June 9, 2007Now this is a different categorization of the differences between bold, brave assertive atheists and the spineless, gutless apologists for religious lunacy: we're "mean", and they're "nice".
When the mean atheists and the nice atheists get together, it's not so much that it annoys the mean atheists to be asked to play nice. It's more that they just want to be able to call the nice atheists names like "sniveling milquetoast" and the like. Y'know, while they're at it. Because when it comes right down to it, the mean atheists just want to have fun. And I respect that.
Yeah, we just want to…
oracknows | June 9, 2007Car alarms probably annoy you. Certainly, they annoy me. I understand the reason for their existence, but some of them seem to be so finicky that just a truck driving by will set them off. Fortunately (or, unfortunately, depending on your point of view), there's the Orgasmalarm
If you're at work, you're definitely going to want to turn the sound down low for this one:
I don't know if this would work any better than a standard car alarm or get people's attention any more, but it'd sure be funny. Well, maybe the first couple of times. After that, I'm sure it would be just as annoying as any…
pharyngula | June 8, 2007Wesley has the story, and you can get more details from Toledo TV news story and a Cincinnati Enquirer article — but the silly news is that one of the models for the Creation "Museum's" Adam was a fellow named Eric Linden, who was associated with a site called the Bedroom Acrobat. The "Museum's" video with Linden has been yanked, and Linden himself seems to be rushing to dissociate himself from the naughty web site, claiming now that he only bought the domain name.
I say there is nothing wrong with running a site about sexual activities; Linden should not be ashamed of it; it is disgraceful…
omnibrain | June 8, 2007Yes yes... I know cancer isn't funny and I also seem to be obsessed with Family Guy in the last day or two. So without further ado.... Here's a Peter Tumor!
omnibrain | June 8, 2007I know you probably can't see the image and text very well - so just go ahead and click on the picture for this damn funny parody in full size.
grrlscientist | June 8, 2007tags: creation museum, humor, streaming video
This streaming video shows Jackie and Dunlap talking about Kentucky's new creation museum, the new Billy Graham library, and Murfreesboro's own bible park. Plus, it includes a sneak peek at the new Ben Stiller comedy "Night at the Creation Museum". [2:36]