humor
sa smith | December 15, 2008Ive spent the past week staring at a computer screen, comparing amino acid sequences of the envelope gene of various kinds of HIV-1.
CNNKTFNGTGPCHNVSTVQCTHGIKPVVSTQLLLNGSLAEREIIIRSENLTDNVKTIIVHLNESVEISCTR
PNNNTRKSIRIGPGQAFYATGDIIGDIRQAHCNISENWNKTLEWVRKKLEEHFPNKTIAFKPSSGGDLEI
TTHSFNCRGEFFYCNTSKLFNGTDN
CNNKTFNRTGPCNNVSTVQCTHRIKPVVSTQLLLNGSLAERKIIIRSKNLTDNVKTIIVHLNESVKIECTR
PNNNTRQSTKIRPGQVFYAISNIIGDIRQAHCTINKKEWNTTLQQVTEKLKEHFPNKTIAFQPSSGEDLEI
TTHSFNCKREFFYCNTSKLFNSTDN
CNNKTFNRTGPCNNVSTVQCTHRIKPVVSTQLLLNGSLAERKIIIRSENLTDNVKTIIVHLNESVEINCTR…
pharyngula | December 15, 2008I must object to this list!
The differences are obvious. If you're good, Santa brings you toys every year, and if you're bad, you get a lump of coal. Jesus, on the other hand, offers nothing but vague promises that will only be redeemed after you're dead, and neither alternative (hovering about in the clouds with a harp vs. crackling fiercely in a hellish fire) sound particularly attractive.
If you really must believe in some magic man flying through the sky, I recommend Santa.
evolvingthoughts | December 14, 2008
I think maybe they've taken filtering a bit too far this time...
evolvingthoughts | December 14, 2008Here's an article, by MSN no less, that explains the problems with broad filtering. A fellow named Herman Libshitz can't get an email account from Verizon because his name contains "shit". Residents of Scunthorpe in the UK apparently have similar problems. God only knows what the residents of Testiclebreastpenisvaginaville can do...
grrlscientist | December 14, 2008tags: Hobo Matters, satire, parody, streaming video
This streaming video is a tongue-in-cheek look at the Hobo world after the stock market crashed [7:45]
John Hodgman's PBS documentary, Hobo Matters. If not the most celebrated episode of The American Experience, certainly the most astounding, not only for the number of facts packed into this short episode, but also for the fact that PBS actually produced and dared to air it.
Unfortunately, this chronicle of the Great Depression and the Hobo Wars was quickly erased from history by the powerful Hobo Queen for it revealed too many secrets…
tqa | December 12, 2008
There's a very interesting article over at Uncommon Descent about beavers, and the things that they do. I'm not entirely sure why they posted the article - Barry seems to be trying to make the point that because Beavers clearly can commit criminal acts but just as clearly can't form criminal intent, their brains are different from humans, and there's therefore something "non-materialist" and special about the human brain. I'd like to take a look at the same story, but with a slightly different focus.
Here's the story:
Green campaigners called in police after discovering an illegal…
grrlscientist | December 12, 2008tags: the weiner dog song, humor, cute, streaming video
This silly video is all about Dachshunds .. it includes a song, too [0:38]
evolvingthoughts | December 11, 2008From Almost Diamonds, by Stephanie Zvan, comes a description of many of my favourite trolls, including the one who won't take "you're banned" as an answer. This is why he's banned.
Or, A Primer in Antisocial Attention-Seeking
Lay your groundwork. Watch the group interaction. Make yourself known to the community. Engage on a topic or two. Piss a few people off so they'll react to you reliably later.
Watch for your chance. If the blog is any good, the host and/or community practices some sort of moderation, active or passive. You'll have to catch them on a busy day or heated topic to get them…
omnibrain | December 10, 2008In the never ending quest for death gadgets Mercedes has come up with a specialized screen that will show the driver one thing and the passenger another. Just think, now in addition to a driver watching a movie while they are going 70 mph they will be leaning all the way over into the passenger seat to see it. Unfortunately Mercedes hasn't created a system to keep stupid drivers from doing stupid things... like driving off a cliff while following the GPS directions on the screen they're allowed to see. Ok.. I jest - this seems like a pretty damn cool system and I totally want one. I'm…
evolvingthoughts | December 10, 2008I've been travelling a little to organise my move to Sydney. Love the building, the department, the people and the project. Not sure about Sydney... so anyway, nothing of substance from me for a while.
Here's a lovely little essay about Newton pissing off most of the European intellectual giants of his time, by one of our commentators, Thony Christie, at Etherwave Propaganda. He truly was the most egotistical and curmudgeonly bastard of his time, matched only by his actual achievements.
The latest Linnaeus' Legacy is up at Agricultural Biodiversity. They had the good taste to use one of mine…
clock | December 10, 2008Yesterday's PhD comic strip:
We still have ways to go until we get it right....
grrlscientist | December 10, 2008tags: Holidays, companion pets, parrots, humor, funny, gift wrapping
Orpheus.
Male Hawk-headed (red fan) parrot, Deroptyus a. accipitrinus, April 2008.
Image: GrrlScientist 2008 [larger view].
I thought you might find this little essay amusing about wrapping gifts when there is a parrot in the house.
How to Wrap Gifts with a Parrot in the House:
Clear large space on table for wrapping your special gifts.
Go to cupboard and collect bag in which gifts are contained, and shut the door.
Open the door and remove bird from cupboard.
Go to closet and retrieve rolls of wrapping paper.…
omnibrain | December 9, 2008I've always joked around about girls who would walk into a tattoo parlor and ask for a Chinese character that means something to them... like love, hope, or faith. Of course the tattoo artists don't know one damn character in Chinese so they just pick a random character from the internet and the girl ends up with something that actually says slut, pink slippery Christmas tree, or something else random. I never imagined a scientific magazine would fall prey to something absolutely ridiculous like this.
Science journal mistakenly uses flyer for Macau brothel to illustrate report on China…
clock | December 9, 2008See the screen-capture here: If The USA Had A Facebook Page During The Civil War (then click on the image to enlarge).
grrlscientist | December 8, 2008tags: the doghouse, humor, social commentary, streaming video
I am not a fan of diamonds because they are the single biggest cause of oppression in South Africa, but I am also not much of a fan of dual-bag vacuum cleaners. However, in my case, a parrot would make an acceptable "get out of the doghouse" gift [4:45]