humor
oracknows | January 28, 2007Remember Donnie Davies, the "youth pastor" that I wrote about a couple of days ago, who posted a list of gay bands, plus a homophobic video proclaiming that "God hates a fag" that led to a prolonged debate over whether he was for real or some sort of elaborate Borat-like prank?
Two sources tell me that he's apparently been outed as actor Joey Oglesby:
Thanks to the sleuthing of Dallas JMG reader Bob Stoller, "Pastor Donnie Davies" has been exposed as Dallas-area actor Joey Oglesby (First name corrected from post headline). Here he is. Joey Oglesby recently appeared in a production of Debbie…
pharyngula | January 28, 2007Apparently, I've been labeling the Discovery Institute incorrectly all these years. It's not a think-tank, it's a belief tank.
evolvingthoughts | January 27, 2007If I had a category for "If all your friends jumped off a cliff, would you?" this would be in it. The Sciblings are doing it, so I must.
I am:
Gregory Benford
A master literary stylist who is also a working scientist.
Which science fiction writer are you?
It's oddly apposite. Benford is one of my favourite SF writers, the only real practitioner of what I call SF these days. I grew up with Asimov, Clarke, and the oldies. My first novel read, at age 8, was Brave New World, followed by First and Last Men, and thereafter I was hooked. I read Amazing Stories, and waited breathlessly for…
oracknows | January 27, 2007I don't know if I'll make this a habit or not, but it's a Saturday, and once again I feel like posting a YouTube or two and dedicating it to one of the "targets" of the week. (Besides, after the last post, I could use something light-hearted, or at least funny.) This one, of course, has to be dedicated to Donnie Davies, the evangelical pastor whose homophobic song The Bible Says, all of which may or may not be a hoax:
And here's another take on this for Donnie to enjoy:
A two-fer: "Gay music" and rampant disrespect for a great American!
Finally, for a take on this great song that should…
pharyngula | January 26, 2007Two thoughts on watching this video: Dick Cheney is a contemptible tool, and Jon Stewart is one of those national treasures who makes me think being an American isn't so shameful after all.
omnibrain | January 26, 2007Here's a little Monty Python action about a brain surgeon.
D. P. Gumby - My Brain Hurts!
and a little P-Funk below the fold...
Parliament Funkadelic "Maggot Brain" 1978
omnibrain | January 26, 2007Here's the truth so far...
- A WEB EXPERIMENT -
(In no particular order)
1. Cigarettes are bad for you.
2. Men and Women are equal.
3. Global Warming is real.
4. It's not all relative.
5. Intelligent Design is wrong.
6. Over consumption is a serious problem.
7. The Millenium Development Goals are worthy*.
8. Wilco is good, sometimes exceptional, but often inconsequential.
9. Shit happens.
10. Creationism is silly. (also, see 5)
11. Science, for better or for worse, is all around.
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What the hell is this? See here
pharyngula | January 25, 2007People are always asking me this question:
I swear, though, that I never, ever give them this answer…
omnibrain | January 25, 2007It seems that alcoholics just can't seem to get a joke. In this study from Germany, participants underwent a series of tests including, mood, intelligence, memory, psychomotor skills, and their ability to enjoy a joke.
For example, one of the jokes tested on the subjects began as follows: It was Mother's Day. Anna and her brother had told their mother to stay in bed that morning. She read her book and looked forward to breakfast. After a long wait she finally went downstairs. Anna and her brother were both eating at the table.
The subjects were given a choice of five punchlines:
a) Anna said…
oracknows | January 25, 2007Oh, no! The gay bands are here! Hide your children, and keep them away from this corruption! So sayeth Donnie Davies, an evangelical preacher who runs a website called Love God's Way:
One of the most dangerous ways homosexuality invades family life is through popular music. Parents should keep careful watch over their children's listening habits, especially in this Internet Age of MP3 piracy.
Oooh. Scary!
But let's look at the list of bands that Davies thinks we should all watch out for and protect our children from. The first thing I noticed is that Elton John is listed twice. Given what a…
pharyngula | January 24, 2007That would rock, and might change my opinion of ID, 'cause silk bikinis and diaphanous veils are always good.
grrlscientist | January 23, 2007
Rogue MTA notice.
Image: David Harmon.
The text reads;
All trains will be running at the normal unsatisfactory rate, along with track diversions and problems with closing the doors, which will make you late for any appointment or job you have. We sincerely do not apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
----------
3AM until 9 PM
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MTA Transit
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This service notice has been brought to you by none other than Peet Skeet. Please enjoy the over priced, over populated, shit ass ride on the train.
.
tags: NYCLife, MTA, notice, rogue MTA notice
omnibrain | January 23, 2007I used to love these books! Check out this funny post about Mr. Bump over at Mind Hacks.
I've been notified of a rare case of focal retrograde amnesia that doesn't seem to have been reported in the medical literature.
Focal retrograde amnesia is where memory for past events and personal information is lost, while the ability to remember new events is spared.
The case is described in Mr Bump Loses His Memory by Roger Hargreaves (ISBN 1844229866).
tsmith | January 22, 2007An essential piece of trivia: what bacterium was named after a George Lucas invention?
An investigator discovers a new bacterium that lives in the mitochondria in tick ova. Can you guess what Star Wars organisms they're named after?
Soon, Lo and his colleagues began looking for a name for their new genus, which proved easier said than done. The morphology of the organism didn't present any immediate clues, and there weren't any eminent tick bacterium researchers in whose honor it could be named.
So Lo started surfing the Web, looking for ideas and finding nothing until one link took him to…
pharyngula | January 22, 2007Uh-oh…now there's a magic spray to turn you into a believer.
…don’t you wish there was a God who could just make it all right for you? Wouldn’t it be nice if God could clean up the vomit, instantly heat the water, wash your shirts daily, and always keep your car full of gas? But what darn luck…you don’t believe in God!
Well have we got the solution for you! The scientists at Jesus Had A Sister Productions have been hard at work, and are ready to help you get that much desired faith lift you’ve been saving up for.
That’s right. Surrender yourself to that higher power with a pepper-minty faith-…
evolvingthoughts | January 21, 2007In an inadvertently, or perhaps deliberately, funny abstract, D. Osorio notes that there's a role for spam in insect evolution.
Spam and the evolution of the fly's eye.
Osorio D.
School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QG, UK.
The open rhabdoms of the fly's eye enhance absolute sensitivity but to avoid compromising spatial acuity they require precise optical geometry and neural connections. This neural superposition system evolved from the ancestral insect eye, which has fused rhabdoms. A recent paper by Zelhof and co-workers2 shows that the Drosophila gene spacemaker (…
sporte | January 21, 2007I read about this in Science and immediately had to check it out. Instant gratification on the internet is such a wonderful thing!
The Ed Kravitz lab has made movies of fights and even put them on the web for your viewing pleasure.
You can see the following fly fights that might suit your fancy:
Fighting flies
Male Drosophila melanogaster aggression (with music)
Female Drosophila melanogaster aggression page
Or if you prefer battling sea life, you can watch the lobsters duke it out. Now I know why the lobsters in the grocery store tank always have rubber bands around their claws.…
mikethemadbiologist | January 21, 2007This is from a speech given by Adam Werbach, former head of the Sierra Club. It's an interesting speech, and worth thinking about, but this quote about funders cracks me up (italics mine):
On a blustery day in New York City two years ago, I sat across the table at a noodle shop from Peter Teague, the director of the Environment Program at the Nathan Cummings Foundation. It was a restaurant that only New York could produce with perfect, spicy food on the table and a strange stickiness on the walls. I was just getting to know Peter, in the way that grant-seekers get to know grant-makers. These…