humor
pharyngula | March 3, 2008As a parent who has read every single opus in the Seuss oeuvre multiple times, and as a parent of at least one such youngster who has since graduated to Dr Who fandom, today's Sluggy had a special je ne sais quoi. Some of those books would have benefitted from the addition of Daleks, especially that promoter of parental abuse, Hop on Pop.
grrlscientist | March 3, 2008tags: Microwave vs. Easter, streaming video
Easter has a special place in my heart because of those disgustingly wonderful confectionary creatures: PEEPS! [2:18]
pharyngula | March 2, 2008This is amusing, but isn't George W. Bush also increasingly irrelevant?
(via Philosophy Monkey)
oracknows | March 2, 2008As I mentioned in January, everybody's favorite blog mascot has seemingly undertaken a new career in show biz. In fact, he's become a big movie star, even popping up in some fairly avant garde movies.
This month, however, he's popping up in a most unexpected place: In one of the greatest science fiction movies of all time:
Even better, though, there's something that my readers would most definitely appreciate. You--yes, you!--can, if you so desire, peruse the various movies that EneMan is slated to appear in through the course of 2008 and vote for your favorite at EneMan Goes to Hollywood…
evolvingthoughts | February 28, 2008
Janet asks what others have asked - what is science blogging all about, after a bully in the schoolyard taunted us Sciencebloggers. Her questions (and her answers) are very like mine, so I will steal them, below the fold.
1. Why do you consider this blog a science blog?
Like Janet, I don't. I don't often blog about the science, for a very simple reason: I'm not a scientist, nor have I scientific credentials. I'm a philosopher of biology (check the Profile at the top left - it's there for all to see).
So I blog about science itself, about scientists, ideas in science, and the ways we…
pharyngula | February 28, 2008Where it doesn't descend into bad poop jokes (the good poop jokes are funny), this collection of photoshopped book covers has its moments.
I like this one: it's the book Brockman told Dawkins that he'd never get published, because it's too controversial — although, of course, it would probably provoke exactly the same cries of outrage his last book did, for exactly the same reasons.
This book, on the other hand…what's inappropriate about that? I want to own this!
mikethemadbiologist | February 27, 2008In response to this post about scientist-turned-congressional candidate Bill Foster, Renaisauce writes:
I completely agree. More scientists should be running for office, and they should be winning, especially over career politicians. Then again, if all the scientists went into politics, then there would be a big void in the labs. All the politicians would have to go back to school and get degrees in science. Somebody suggest that as an alternative to Hillary in a few months. I bet she could run a mean protein gel.
This brings up a story from graduate school. Many moons ago, a faculty member…
pharyngula | February 27, 2008It's true! They're all arcane tormentors who like to confuse us with arcane rules and weird nomenclature. One example should suffice to show the truth. (Don't try and tell me that a formal taxonomy tries to call these creatures merely "brown". That's just as sneaky.)
grrlscientist | February 26, 2008tags: achievement whore, humor, satire, social commentary, streaming video
This amusing little video shows you just what a life of an achievement whore is really like -- it's not all goodness and light, either. Yes, it's safe for work, too. [2:37]
evolvingthoughts | February 25, 2008
I suppose you all have heard of the recent trade agreement between South Africa, Tibet, and the Netherlands, swapping cattle for birds, and known as the Gnu yak stork exchange...
[I'm not to blame. I saw it on the Dino-L list.]
evolvingthoughts | February 25, 2008
... a female deer. Oops, sorry, wrong thread.
Anyway, a medievalist, goblinpaladin, has tagged me with a meme. Now I don't' get tagged a lot with memes, possibly because folk know I have published on them, both for and more recently against, but you can't deny the buggers on the Interwubs. Here it is:
1) Link to the person who tagged you.
2) List 7 random/weird things about your favorite historical figure.
3) Tag seven more people at the end of your blog and link to theirs.
4) Let the person know they have been tagged by leaving a note on their blog.
It's hard work, because I don't…
evolvingthoughts | February 24, 2008
Are you a sad nerd, spending more time with your computer than with actual people? Do you think a great night is when you get a debate going in the comments of a Pharyngula post? Would you like to meet other sad people and mingle?
Well, apart from the scary coincidence that there are so many people like me out there, which must have public health professionals very worried, there is something you can do, although you don't get a set of steak knives with each order. You can join the Scienceblogs Facebook Group. Nefarious plans (are there any other kind?) are afoot to organise Real Life meet…
terrasig | February 24, 2008Following last week's outtakes from church bulletins, the synthetic organic chemist who goes by Milkshake of Org Prep Daily sent along this for our pleasure.
j7uy5 | February 23, 2008Sigmund Freud was right about a lot of things, but he also was wrong
about a lot of
things. For example, he thought that there were only two
fundamental motivations: sex and aggression. Bloggers know
better, as this xkcd panel illustrates...
href="http://xkcd.com/386/">
(I know
href="http://scienceblogs.com/evolvingthoughts/2008/02/why_i_never_sleep.php">my
colleague already posted this, but I couldn't resist putting
this twist on it.)
terrasig | February 23, 2008
You can see all the stars as you walk down Hollywood Boulevard,
Some that you recognise, some that you've hardly even heard of,
People who worked and suffered and struggled for fame,
Some who succeeded and some who suffered in vain.
Celluloid Heroes, The Kinks, 1972
Star-generator hat tip: Pharmagossip
With gratitude to Johnny G. for taking me and T.P. to our first big concert, The Kinks at Nassau Coliseum, 1979-ish.
sporte | February 23, 2008Long ago, I worked in a large lab that was divided into several small rooms. For part of that time, I shared one of the small rooms with a graduate student from Taiwan. She was a wonderful person who taught me that many cultural norms are not normal in other cultures.
One moment stands out.
She sneezed.
"Gesundheit" I replied.
She stared at me, clearly puzzled. "What?"
"You know, it's a word we say when people sneeze. It keeps demons from running up your nose"
If she looked puzzled before, now, she was clearly alarmed. I could see her sneaking furtive glances towards the door. Was she…
mikethemadbiologist | February 22, 2008In response to my post about the ludicrous rightwing charge that Obama is a result of a Communist interracial breeding plot, Graculus writes:
I understand that Barack Obama has a black child.
Heh.
(It's reference to the sliming of McCain by Bush in 2000, who had operatives spread rumors that McCain has an illegitimate black child--the child used to 'prove' this is, in fact, an adopted Bangladeshi orphan).
terrasig | February 22, 2008I am very deeply touched (as I was literally yesterday) by the outpouring of support and best wishes from fellow bloggers on the liveblogging of my vasectomy.
For all of the dark humor and puns, you have each been instrumental in supporting my aim of telling men relatively quick and painless the procedure is, or at least getting them to think about this as a contraceptive alternative to having their wives undergo a more involved tubal ligation.
I'll still never understand what makes things fly in the blogosphere as I spend hours writing what I think are thoughtful posts about drug safety…