humor
grrlscientist | January 23, 2009tags: politics, GW, George Bush, humor, funny, streaming video
This hilarious video features a toddler who recounts all the lessons that GW taught her -- and the nation -- during his eight years as the illegal White House resident [1:08]
tqa | January 21, 2009
My last prediction seems to have worked out OK. Let's try another one. President Obama re-swore the oath of office tonight just to be safe and head off the tinfoil hat brigade. According to the pool report, he did not use a Bible for the do-over.
Would anyone like to bet on which right wing blog is going to go the most completely insane on that the fastest? Also, would anyone like to make any wagers on how long it will take for the no-bible retake to be touted as evidence that (a) Obama really is a secret Muslim; (b) Obama really is the anti-Christ; or (c) both of the above?
Note that I'…
evolvingthoughts | January 20, 2009Linked in the comments of the latest Australian-bashing by that cold bastard in Minnesota, comes this piece by Douglas Adams Jeremy Lee on how dangerous Australia is. I want all you foreigners to read it in case you ever decide to move here and raise the rental princes. I've reformatted it below the fold.
I once met Adams, or rather I literally bumped into him at a science fair in Melbourne. Six months later he was dead. I swear I had nothing to do with that.
Australia is a very confusing place, taking up a large amount of the Bottom half of the planet. It is recognisable from orbit because…
pharyngula | January 20, 2009It's very short. It only has to cover 6000 years to describe all of creation.
tqa | January 20, 2009
Some predictions:
1: Within the next week, at least one member of the tinfoil hat brigade will start to pitch a fit about how Obama's not really President, because he didn't really take the real oath.
2: It's more likely than not that someone (maybe the same person, maybe not) will claim that this is somehow or another tied to the whole "he's not a real American citizen" lunacy.
3: At least one of the nuts will try to file a lawsuit, and will probably try to demand that Roberts recuse himself due to his own involvement.
Anyone want to bet against any of those?
mikethemadbiologist | January 20, 2009By way of Amanda, when pandas attack:
Don't mess with the panda! Odds are pretty good that this will crack me up for days.
oracknows | January 19, 2009This was so good that I just couldn't resist.
Yesterday, I did a quick post about an amusing bit of pareidolia, in which the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus were seen in a Lava Lamp. Apparently, an Australian man going by the pseudonym of John Smith noticed the shape in the wax as he fired up a brand spanking new Lava Lamp, recognized it for the Holy Miracle that it was, and shut off the lamp before Satan's heat could melt the apparition. He then stayed quiet for over a year and then announced his discovery to all the world. Naturally, I and other skeptics, particularly you, my readers, were not…
evolvingthoughts | January 18, 2009People get ready
There's a bus a'comin'
Don't need no deity
Just get on board
Won't hurt believers
If you can't hear God's mummery
You'll still need a ticket
From the Transport Board
People get ready
For the bus to show you
All people are passengers
From coast to coast
Citizenship's the key
For the doors of freedom
There's room for all
Among the secular host
There's plenty of room
For those you call sinners
They're still part of humanity
To each his own
Have pity on those
Whose minds are narrow
Cause there's no real place
Where theocracy's at home
So people get ready
There's a bus a'comin'…
oracknows | January 18, 2009Let's see.
We've seen the Virgin Mary on trees, under a freeway overpass in Chicago, a window in Perth Amboy, NJ, and even in the brain. We've seen Jesus himself show up on toast, on a piece of sheet metal, on a potato chip, on a pierogi, on a ceiling tile, and even on a cat. Heck, we've even seen Elvis Presley on a rock and Pope John Paul II in a flame.
What could be left?
Stupid Evil Bastard tells me it's Lava Lamps, maaaan:
AN Australian man says the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus have appeared in his lava lamp and ever since the "miracle" his life has been blessed.
The man who identified…
pharyngula | January 18, 2009Since the wingnuts and creationists are busily pushing a bogus version of intellectual responsibility that they have labeled "academic freedom", which is really an excuse to peddle any old nonsense to children, some wag is now promoting Academic Free-For-All Day.
Ever since that sad debacle known as the "Enlightenment", a cult of knowledge-and-learning has insisted that any investigation be based on what has been learned in the past. How limiting! If we can only free our minds from the yoke of wisdom, the possibilities become endless. Also, there is way too much hero worship these days.…
mikethemadbiologist | January 17, 2009One of the things people seem to forget in the midst of all of the internet-age triumphalism is that some people just are not technophiles, as this hysterical satire by way of Mark Wilson illustrates:
This makes one appreciate good public health programs that have figured out how to communicate to their target audiences....
oracknows | January 17, 2009Everyone agrees that it was an amazing demonstration of pilot skill, combined with the rapid response of a large number of people, that allowed all 155 passengers and crew members of a U. S. Airways flight that hit a flock of birds to do a controlled crash into the Hudson River to survive and be rescued from the icy waters. Many are calling it a miracle, even though, more than anything else, it was the skill of a seasoned pilot that salvaged life from death.
So where was God in all this? Why did he allow the flight to hit a bunch of birds, which disabled both of its engines?
Apparently God…
grrlscientist | January 17, 2009tags: humor, silly, entertainment, shoes, beer, streaming video
Okay, so this is silly .. (but nevertheless, Dr. Isis will love it) .. but it might make you smile since you might also be thinking about what all of us crazy scientists have been doing last night in North Carolina [0:32]
oracknows | January 14, 2009Too bad the holidays are over. I've found something that would make a perfect gift for J. B. Handley, Jenny McCarthy, Mike Adams, and other "friends" of the blog. After all, clearly scientific arguments aren't working.
Hmmm. Perhaps a certain physiologist-blogger would be interested in purchasing these items to give out as well.
pharyngula | January 13, 2009
Jeffrey Rowland points out a great truth: there must be a conspiracy of bad web design behind all the wacky sites on the web. If he'd only more carefully read one of the victims of the conspiracy, David Icke, he'd have drawn the web design expert as a reptoid illuminatus.
Wait! Everyone knows this! Is Rowland hiding something? Is he part of the global cabal?
oracknows | January 12, 2009In responding to Deepak Chopra's "integrative medicine" nonsense from last week that I "http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2009/01/the_three_musketeers_of_woo_m…," Derek Lowe proposes the best trial of Qi Gong ever:
"Chronic pain is one of the major sources of worker's compensation claims costs, yet studies show that it is often susceptible to acupuncture and Qi Gong. Herbs usually have far fewer side effects than pharmaceuticals".
Studies show, do they? Is there really a believable study that shows that Qi-freaking-Gong, of all things, is good for chronic pain? Ancient hokum about "energy…
tqa | January 12, 2009
At his "farewell" press conference earlier today, President Bush commented that, "most Israelis understand there needs to be a democracy on their border in order for there to be long-lasting peace." A short time later, Israel announced that they were barring Arab political parties from running in next month's parliamentary elections.