humor
pharyngula | February 2, 2009I was sent this very exciting piece of promotional art. I don't know why they didn't use it — it captures the movie perfectly.
By the way, the quote from me is something I said…it's just taken a teeny-tiny bit out of context.
sa smith | February 2, 2009BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
England's second-largest city has decided to drop apostrophes from all its street signs, saying they're confusing and old-fashioned.
Soon Ill control everything... My wish is your command! BWAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
In her best-selling book "Eats, Shoots and Leaves," Lynne Truss recorded her fury at the title of the Hugh Grant-Sandra Bullock comedy "Two Weeks Notice," insisting it should be "Two Weeks' Notice."
"Those spineless types who talk about abolishing the apostrophe are missing the point, and the pun is very much intended," she wrote.
Its not about being right. It…
oracknows | February 2, 2009I love Tim Minchin.
I also totally understand where he's coming from when it comes to confronting woo, though, as I've described here. In any case, see Tim in action (parts may be NSFW due to profanity):
Enjoy, as I'm running a bit late in producing my usual content for Monday. Fear not, it's coming later today!
oracknows | February 1, 2009Sometimes, coincidence is a strange thing indeed.
Friday, I wrote this post about yet another meta-analysis whose results are completely consistent with acupuncture being nothing more than an elaborate placebo. Later that day, less than four hours after my post went live, I received this e-mail sent, not to my work account or my other Gmail account, but rather to my account for this blog:
For immediate release
Contact: Karla Shepard Rubinger, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. (914) 740-2100, ext 2153, krubinger@liebertpub.com
21st Annual Symposium of the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture to Be…
grrlscientist | January 31, 2009tags: mystery bird, identify this bird, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] photographed on the island of Labrador. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Orphaned [larger view].
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
tqa | January 30, 2009
I'm rereading "Guards! Guards!" right now, and I just came across this quote:
But incompetents with possibilities, nevertheless. Let the other societies take the skilled, the hopefuls, the ambitious, the self-confident. He'd take the whining resentful ones, the ones with a bellyful of spite and bile, the one who knew they could make it big if only they'd been given the chance. Give him the ones in which floods of venom and vindictiveness were dammed up behind thin walls of ineptitude and low-grade paranoia.
Is it just me, or is this a good description for a large chunk of a current…
pharyngula | January 29, 2009We have a new word added to the English language in honor of the teachings of people like Warren: saddlebacking. Share it and use it!
grrlscientist | January 28, 2009tags: taxes, pet taxes, humor, satire
Image: Orphaned. Please contact me for proper attribution [larger view].
This form should look familiar to those of you who live in the USA, but if you click on the "larger view" link, you'll realize this is yet another change that has been made to our existing tax code.
I am not sure about you guys, but I am already preparing my income taxes. Since I don't earn enough to qualify for the "economic stimulus package," I need to know how much I have to cough up this year so I have enough time to somehow come up with this sum so the IRS doesn't send…
pharyngula | January 27, 2009Some of you were very disappointed that this amusing monolog by Tim Minchin was yanked off of youtube shortly after I mentioned it. Hey, it's back, in an official release by Minchin himself!
grrlscientist | January 27, 2009tags: politics, GWBush, satire, humor, funny, streaming video
That scumbag, GW Bush, seeks to comfort the millions of victims of his presidency as they try to make sense of the destruction he caused during the past eight years [2:58]
pharyngula | January 25, 2009The New Zealand department of conservation maintains a network of huts in the backcountry — these are little shelters with a radio for emergency calls and a mattress so hikers can wait out a spell of bad weather. It's all very sensible. Until the evangelicals discovered them. Now there's a missionary campaign to put a bible in every one of them, too, since, as the founder of this plan says, "I realised then this was a captive audience."
I think I'm going to have to move to New Zealand now. The response by hikers to this effort is classic pragmatism. They think it is a fine idea.
"Given the…
amillikan | January 24, 2009
Monday, January 26, ScienceBlogger Chris Mooney will be a guest on The Colbert Report, hosted by the one and only Stephen Colbert on Comedy Central. Mooney and Colbert will discuss Bush's "war on science" and how the Obama administration can change the scientific climate in America.
Mooney is a contributor to The Intersection where he blogs with Sheril Kirshenbaum. Together, the two have co-authored a book titled "Unscientific America: How Science Illiteracy Threatens Our Future." The book hasn't been released yet, but you just can't get enough of Chris Mooney, you can pre-order the book…
pharyngula | January 24, 2009
Oh, man, this gets so much wrong. Sentient life did not evolve 600 million years ago; that was roughly the time that true multicellularity arose. Unless you consider something spongelike to be sentient, it doesn't work.
Intelligent life did not first evolve 2.5 million years ago. Animal intelligence is something that has to be measured on a continuum. Molluscs are intelligent. It's just not the same kind or degree of intelligence that tool-using humans have.
Intelligent life hasn't evolved in Texas yet.
grrlscientist | January 24, 2009tags: GW, George Bush, top ten best GW moments, humor, funny, streaming video
This video shows you the one reason that I'll miss GW: because now that GW is gone, comedians will have to work for a living -- just like the rest of us! [2:12]
tqa | January 23, 2009
Dear National Republican Congressional Committee:
After reading a couple of very interesting blog posts today, I took a look at your website. It only took me a minute or two to identify some of your party's biggest problems. I know you didn't ask for my advice, but I'm going to give it to you anyway. I have to. I firmly believe that a healthy and loyal opposition party is vitally important to the success of any democracy, so I would be failing in my patriotic duty if I did not.
Your first and most obvious problem may be the hardest to fix: You Have No Issues!!!
Seriously, that's not…
evolvingthoughts | January 23, 2009this makes you laugh out loud:
It's even relevant to this blog...