humor
pharyngula | January 11, 2008…you think the PCR song is kind of catchy.
The PCR Song
There was a time when to amplify DNA,
You had to grow tons and tons of tiny cells.
Then along came a guy named Dr. Kary Mullis,
Said you can amplify in vitro just as well.
Just mix your template with a buffer and some primers,
Nucleotides and polymerases, too.
Denaturing, annealing, and extending.
Well it's amazing what heating and cooling and heating will do.
PCR, when you need to detect mutations.
PCR, when you need to recombine.
PCR, when you need to find out who the daddy is.
PCR, when you need to solve a crime.
(…
sporte | January 11, 2008Yesterday, I posted a memorial for Ron Mardigian, an enthusiastic champion of science education at Bio-Rad. Today, I scanned RPM's blog and what do I see?
A choir! Bio-Rad has produced a really funny music video. It reminds me of the music video from "We are the World," except some members of the choir are holding PCR machines and singing about the wonders of PCR!
Scientists for Better PCR is a really cute video, with a catchy tune, and it's fun to watch. If you're teaching about PCR, I highly recommend showing it to your class.
tqa | January 11, 2008
There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of…
clock | January 11, 2008Bloggers often highlight e-mail they get. I also get a bunch of loony stuff (and if it is not loony I try to respond, unless it is a medical question which I cannot ethically answer as I am not an MD, or a "do my homework for me" requests from students which I ignore) which ends up in Trash in nano-seconds. The loony stuff is soooo easy to recognize at first glance, there is no need to actually read that stuff and I am usually not compelled to use that kind of stuff as inspiration for blog posts. Just a waste of my time.
But what I got last night is something I just cannot help but wish to…
evolvingthoughts | January 10, 2008
A classic Abbott and Costello skit, done in Elizabethan English. Video below the fold.
pharyngula | January 10, 2008Next time you have to bring treats to a school board meeting, or need something sacramental for your church, if you're just looking for something fun to do with the kids, here's what you can do:
It's a completely edible FSM, and it sounds like it would be sweet, too.
mikethemadbiologist | January 9, 2008No, I'm not referring to the Jetsons. By way of Phronesisaical comes this story about an air-powered car:
BBC News is reporting that a French company has developed a pollution-free car which runs on compressed air. India's Tata Motors has the car under production and it may be on sale in Europe and India by the end of the year.
The air car, also known as the Mini-CAT or City Cat, can be refueled in minutes from an air compressor at specially equipped gas stations and can go 200 km on a 1.5 euro fill-up -- roughly 125 miles for $3. The top speed will be almost 70 mph and the cost of the…
grrlscientist | January 9, 2008tags: Deroptyus accipitrinus, hawk-headed parrot, red-fan parrot, pets, birds, avian, parrots, behavior
Okay, my peeps, a regular reader was inspired by the earlier blog entry, Songs About Birds -- Can You Name Some? to write a poem about birds, Dirty Bird! Dirty Bird!, except this reader claims this is actually a song because there is a tune that goes with it .. I would like to challenge this reader, Digital Cuttlefish, to sing this song and post it as an mp3!
grrlscientist | January 9, 2008tags: internet cats, humor, Catz PWN, streaming video
This is a really funny video that will make you smile, and it has some really nice music, too! [3:17]
pharyngula | January 9, 2008This is probably a serious site. Probably. It could be satire, but the line between satire and Christianity is razor thin. Read Christian dating tips, and judge for yourself.
First rule of Christian dating: it's pretty much like going to church. Boring, chaste, and offering nothing but faint hopes. No intimacy is allowed, not even a kiss.
Choose to not kiss - At least until you are engaged to be married. Okay, this can be extremely difficult, but if you can follow this one dating tip then most of the others will happen naturally. Even kissing once you are engaged can be very dangerous. It's…
oracknows | January 8, 2008Cectic tells us why we should be afraid:
But who will save us from this menace? Click on the picture to see!
jlynch | January 8, 2008
Progressive Boink has a nice rundown of 25 great Calvin & Hobbes strips, including my favorite commentary on hunting. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry. Check it out.
pharyngula | January 7, 2008Here's a fine list of 20 blasphemous events, rated by
vulgarity, criminality, religious impact, political impact, and deaths. My favorite has to be number 13.
Rude Buddha
A sculpture of Buddha with a banana and two eggs strategically placed was happily on display at the Royal Academy of Arts this summer, but when it was moved to the sculptors' home city of Norfolk it raised hackles amongst the local police force's hate crime unit. DC Dan Cocks ordered it to be removed from the gallery. The artist said he aimed to show that in a global village everyone can take offence at something.
I know,…
grrlscientist | January 7, 2008tags: God, MySpace, humor, streaming video
An amusing music video by Bradley Bandara, based upon the Eric Bazilian song One of Us, which was a 1996 hit when sung by Joan Osbourne. This video features a badly-costumed supreme being accepting and rejecting friend requests, responding to prayers in the form of messages, and being barraged with IM attempts. [5:04]
mikethemadbiologist | January 6, 2008But Obama supporters should keep something in mind that Jon Swift wrote:
The biggest loser of all was Hillary Clinton. If she can't win in Iowa, where can she win? In every contested race since 1972 (Bill Clinton ran unopposed in 1996), the winner of the Iowa caucuses for the Democrats has gone on to be elected President, except for 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 2000 and 2004 when the winner did not go on to be elected President. Iowans have an uncanny ability to predict which Democrat can win in the general election, which means Hillary's campaign may be doomed.
Snark aside, I wonder…
oracknows | January 6, 2008Charlie Anders seeks to answer that very question:
(Click on the graph above to go to the full size original graph, which graphs the frequency of stories per season in which the Doctor is portrayed as overthrowing the government or the status quo or foments a rebellion.)
Although the arch-conservatism of the John Pertwee-era Doctor (which continued into the early part of the Tom Baker-era Doctor) is not that surprising (at the time the Doctor did work for the quasi-military U.N.I.T. as its science advisor, after all), who'd have thought that the Sylvester McCoy would be the Che Guevara of…