humor
scientificactivist | February 14, 2008Two years ago, The Scientific Activist introduced the world to valinetines, scientifically-themed valentines named after the amino acid valine. Last year, I recycled the same valinetines from the first year, but today--on this Valentine's Day 2008--I bring you all new material:
Your nuclear pore
Is far from a bore:
Let anyone in
And then beg for more.
But your active site
Is perfectly tight,
Evolved so it fits
My substrate just right.
Or, for the more biophysically inclined, here's an NMR valinetine:
My NMR magnet
Is just inadequate
For globular domains
So impressively sized.
For tumble as…
evolvingthoughts | February 14, 2008Comment
Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,
A medley of extemporanea;
And love is a thing that can never go wrong,
And I am Marie of Roumania.
Courtesy of Mrs Dorothy Parker
grrlscientist | February 14, 2008tags: mandles, gifts for men, valentine's day, streaming video
Don't know what to get your man for Valentine's Day? How about Mandles®, the candles made for men with scents like "Hardware Store", "A1 Steak Sauce", "Burrito Fart" and "Chuck Norris Sweat" [1:52]
jlynch | February 13, 2008
I don’t do Hallmark holidays, but in the spirit of sharing something on Valentine's Day, I give you this wonderful cartoon (source). Be sure and check this one out as well. Excellent stuff.
evolvingthoughts | February 13, 2008
Have you ever noticed that there are occasionally periods in which things just work, particularly with computers?
I find that there is a confluence of coherence about every four years. I'm not sure if it's just because the vendors - the Evil Apple Empire, or Micro$oft, whoever - recognises that if they don't actually dangle a carrot of functionality from time to time we'll all give up and start knitting or making model planes or killing software vendors or something, or if it's an outcome of cycles of dysfunctionality that cancel each other out like standing waves, but I'm in one now.…
tqa | February 13, 2008
The Daily Mail has a picture of the massive crucifix statue in Rio getting hit by lightning. And it happened on a Sunday, no less.
(ht; Shakesville)
mikethemadbiologist | February 12, 2008I'm referring to moose, of course. From an interview with biologist Joel Berger in the New York Times:
Q. O.K., why did the moose go down to the road?
A. If she's a native of the greater Yellowstone ecosystem and she's pregnant, she may have done it because she wanted to give birth in a place where one of her main predators, the grizzly bear, rarely goes.
Grizzlies tend to avoid humans. In the part of Yellowstone that I've been studying this past decade, the Grand Teton National Park, grizzlies don't go near the roads because they know that's where the humans and cars are.
I collar and track…
pharyngula | February 12, 2008You need a website that chronicles instances of giant Jeeebi. These aren't mere graven images, these are graven mega-images of apocalyptic proportions, which really ought to bring down the wrath of the Lord already.
j7uy5 | February 10, 2008...You are trying to run a country. What would you like to do?
href="http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2008/02/overwhelmed-at-work.html">
This must be old, before Powell joined the torrent of acceptably
competent persons leaving the Administration, and before MS Office
2007. It is still funny. HT:
href="http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2008/02/overwhelmed-at-work.html">Dark
Roasted Blend.
oracknows | February 10, 2008Nooooo!
Why do I do it? Why? It only raises my blood pressure and probably contributes to atherosclerosis, stress, and all sorts of other things likely to shorten my lifespan. But I do it anyway. In my interest in Holocaust denial, I keep an eye on a fair number of Holocaust denial and white nationalist (or, as I like to call them, white power rangers) sites. It's usually the vile stuff that you'd expect, replete nasty and vicious attacks on Jews, blacks, or any other race that is "destroying our nation" or race or worse, diluting it out with all sorts of horrific multicultural miscegenation…
pharyngula | February 9, 2008Another of the virtues of rural living: the coverage of my area by google maps/earth/etc. is pathetic. The rest of you, though, better watch out.
oracknows | February 9, 2008I'm on the road for the weekend, and Internet access will likely be spotty until sometime Monday afternoon. Does that mean Orac has abandoned his readers? O ye of little faith! Of course not! There are scheduled posts in the meantime; that is, assuming that ScienceBlog's post scheduling feature doesn't let me down. Lately, it's been--shall we say?--rather less than reliable. So if my scheduled posts don't show up or, as seems to be more common, don't show up until hours after they were originally scheduled, it's not my fault. Really. They're there.
First up, never let it be said that I've…
evolvingthoughts | February 9, 2008
Hat tip: Chris Ho-Stuart. What I want to know is, who is keeping tabs on my social life?
grrlscientist | February 8, 2008tags: Macbook Air, humor, streaming video
I am so jealous, I want a Macbook Air, too! Here's a streaming video of this amazing new laptop, just to make you envious of those lucky few who own one [0:39]
I could carry this in my back pocket of my jeans!
hrynyshyn | February 8, 2008Friday morning chuckle: The Science Channel asks William Shatner about scotched plans to get him into space:
Q: And there was some kind of mix-up with the Richard Branson civilian space project?
A: Well, I guess you could call it that. He thought I should pay to go into space, and I thought he should pay me. The conversation pretty much ended there.
oracknows | February 6, 2008...when it comes to "9/11 Truthers":
(Click on the picture for the rest of the cartoon.)
You know, the same thing could be said about creationists, HIV/AIDS denialists, and many "CAM" mavens.
tqa | February 5, 2008
It's Super Tuesday, but the primaries aren't the only political action in town. My kids came up with an election of their own. They created, and are both running for, the position of "President of the House." Both of them have been putting up posters, and each of them has independently discovered a common political strategy. My daughter managed, in just a couple of hours, to master the fine art of the meaningless slogan ("Vote for me and do what is right"). My son has mastered the tactic of slapping his posters directly on top of his opponent's. They're ten and eight respectively. I think…
evolvingthoughts | February 4, 2008
I am quite sure that this is how undergraduates in philosophy see the whole thing:
HT: Creative Synthesis