Hootworthy
bushwells | October 15, 2007In the same spirit as OBJECTIVE: Ministries, I give you Telco Powered⢠Products.
New Patented Technology allows you to use Power from the Phone Company to operate everyday items that you have to use -even if the power is out.
The product line is truly amazing. I'm torn: should I order the Telco Powered⢠Fan Cooler (When the Air Conditioning is out, it gets HOT in the desert. Fill the bottle with cold water, and spray as needed!) or the Telco Powered⢠Vibrator:
There's a lot of stress when the power is out!
Use our soothing Vibrator to relax your muscles after dealing with this serious…
bushwells | October 12, 2007I have a hodge-podge of old National Lampoons stored away in the basement. Periodically, I scan a few selected items (articles by P.J. O'Rourke and Chris Miller, various cartoons) for digital posterity. All are highly irreverent and culturally insensitive, and yes, I hoot raucously at them. Among my favorite bits of the NatLampPoo are Son-o-God Comics. Here's the cover of the August 1973 edition and its inner leaf.
bushwells | September 21, 2007I didn't shuffle through the digital shoe box of photos for flower porn today, so I'm offering something else.
A few posts back, LOLTHULHU made an appearance. It's a parody of LOLCATS. With regard to the latter and the former, here's what the blog formerly known as the Table of Malcontents (now Ectomo) had to say:
Is there anything more loathsome, more indicative of the rife idiot stupidity of the Internet than the LOLCats meme? The endless repetition of the exact same joke (photograph of surprised cat + implausible misspelling) done over and over and over again. Have you ever opened…
bushwells | September 15, 2007I concede. As self-deprecatory as I can be, I am left in the dust, gasping and quivering, by the mighty Christopher Hitchens who aptly displays the gloriously superior sense of humor that is characteristic of the human male. I am humbled, Mr. Hitchens. My hat's off to you.
In the latest Vanity Fair, Hitchens writes about his experience at the spa of the Four Seasons Biltmore Resort in Santa Barbara, CA: On the Limits of Self-Improvement, Part I.
It's an entertaining - and funny - article on the micro-economy of self-improvement. Be sure to check out the slide show!
bushwells | September 12, 2007James Lileks maintains one of my favorite high-kitsch entertainment time-sinks, namely The Institute of Official Cheer. Lileks has scanned all sorts of advertisements, comics, and cookbooks (sp. The Gallery of Regrettable Food) from the 30, 40s, 50s and 60s, and then has commented on them. Some of his text makes me smile. Some makes me laugh aloud, spraying my computer monitor in a Jackson Pollock-like motif using masticated food or coffee as the medium.
A science and technology related addition to the Institute is Compu-Promo. Here's an excerpt from the introduction:
The "Computer" photo…
jfiore | August 9, 2007A 53 year old Colorado priest faces indecent exposure charges for jogging naked at a local track according to the AP. The priest, Robert Whipkey, claims that he sweats profusely while running, and as he was running in the very early morning prior to sunrise, he didn't think anyone would be around to notice.
Why does this sound like an old Monty Python skit? I can just see Terry Jones wearing nothing but the collar and shoes running away from a Bobby (Graham Chapman or John Cleese) who surprises him with a "What's all this then?"
jfiore | June 27, 2007UK gold medalist in the triple jump, Jonathon Edwards, long known for his wear-it-on-your-sleeve Christianity, has admitted to apostasy. Here is an article in The Times Online. It's a good read. Here's an out take:
Once you start asking yourself questions like, 'How do I really know there is a God?' you are already on the path to unbelief," Edwards says. "During my documentary on St Paul, some experts raised the possibility that his spectacular conversion on the road to Damascus might have been caused by an epileptic fit. It made me realise that I had taken things for granted that were taught…
bushwells | June 2, 2007"Your children, like or not, are attracted in their weaker years to the occult..."
Sit in on an actual gaming session with the Dead Alewives' Watchtower and see for yourself!
8-bit D&D from Cyber Moon Studios.
Sent to me by my delightfully nerdsome son, a D&D aficionado, who sports a permanent "Kick Me" sign on his back.
bushwells | May 28, 2007
But he don't pay no mind to no intelligent design. He'll tell you how it's absurd.
He's evolution's top banana and he's married to Romana and that kinda makes him king of the nerds!
Check out Mitch Benn's (indie UK musician) "Richard Dawkins" number. It's in the downloads box on the right section of his web page.
Hat tip to the Irish cephalopod.
jfiore | May 18, 2007They say good things (or is it bad?) come in threes. Check out Hitchens' article in Slate. Here's an exerpt:
All bigots and frauds are brothers under the skin. Trying to interrupt the fiesta of piety on national television on the night of Falwell's death, I found myself waiting while Ralph Reed went all moist about the role of the departed in empowering "people of faith." Here was the hypocritical casino-based Christian who sought and received the kosher stamp from Jack Abramoff. Perfect.
But tell us how you really feel, Chris:
"The evil that he did will live after him. This is not just…
jfiore | May 18, 2007Some more priceless quotes from Chris Hitchens regarding the late Jerry Falwell, including "If you gave Falwell an enema he could be buried in a matchbox".
Thanks to Bill from Dover and mg for the heads-up.
jfiore | May 16, 2007Christopher Hitchens tears into the hypocrisy of the late Jerry Falwell with Anderson Cooper.
bushwells | May 3, 2007Check out Blake Stacey's My First Embedded Video, a hilarious presentation. I will not embed the video here because I want you to go visit Science After Sunclipse for the full effect of the blag.
in lieu of "chicken," I would have used Roo-roo.
bushwells | April 18, 2007This is entirely unscientific, unless one wishes to calculate to trajectory of the flying pizza wedge, but entirely hootworthy. It had me hooting partly because I can just imagine how the Sox fans drenched in beer sounded, but mostly because the announcers for the New England Sports Network yammer on and on to the point of hilarity as they focus on the pizza wedge as weapon, or as they say, "a piece of pizzer." to the expense of the game.
God, I miss Boston...
jfiore | March 27, 2007I always snicker when I hear folks talking about "liberal leaning colleges", especially when they are referring to small junior and community colleges. I do not consider our community college faculty to be particularly liberal, nor is our campus a "hotbed of liberal activism". In fact, a number of my colleagues are staunch Republicans. Yet, one thing I can say is that I generally trust them to be rational, even if we don't always agree on matters of policy. In spite of this, there are always those who will decry the goings-on on campus. Here are just two examples of the crazy liberal thinking…
bushwells | March 21, 2007Just as a toddler who persisently pokes the light socket with a fork, looking for the forbidden jolt, so I invariably open spider links on Live Science. This latest salacious spidey-bit did not disappoint. I'm beginning to think that spider sex on Live Science is equiavlent to the cheesecake shots in Rupert Murdoch tabloids.
Creepy: Spiders Love to Snuggle by Jeanna Bryner.
Excerpts below the fold...
While not usually considered paragons of tender, familial love, some spiders do have a touchy-feely side. Scientists have discovered two arachnids that caress their young and snuggle together…
bushwells | February 7, 2007 Mr. Beck's evocative text...
Then the overdressed fitness-jogger types carrying gallon jugs of water or grog, huffing like crazy and staring grimly at the ground. I'm not sure if I was last, but I do know that my not-so-novel strategy of trying to escape my morass of perambulatory incompetence by swinging my arms in furious, powerful arcs resebling George Foreman uppercuts didn't do shit for my pace or standing.
...deserves an illustration:
There are three more panels of this cartoon, a rare Bushwellian original, but there are bad words and stuff used in the dialogue. Wouldn't want to…
jfiore | January 25, 2007At the beginning of each semester I give my new students what I've come to call "the metric lecture". Since we do everything in metric units and many of the freshmen have only a vague knowledge of the topic, I tend to go on a tear. Many years ago I put this all down in an essay for them to peruse (and hopefully, gain a little insight along with some humor). I recently updated it and present it for your own use or amusement.
Thoughts on the Metric and English Systems
Consider the following: The United States of America is the only country of any economic consequence on the planet that still…
bushwells | January 13, 2007I just can't get enough of arachnids these days! Maybe I am unwittingly engaged in exposure therapy for my phobia.
This parody gives a nod to Peter Witt's research on spiders' web weaving abilities while under the influence. For a legit example, see A. Christiansen et. al (1962), "Changes in spider webs brought about by mescaline, psilocybin and an increase in body weight," Journal of Pharmacology And Experimental Therapeutics, Vol. 136: 31-37.
Hat tip to Kevin's mom for passing along the video link!
Note that the film was created by The First Church of Christ, Filmmaker, whose delicious…
jfiore | January 4, 2007The latest issue of Freethought Today, the newsletter of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, has a bunch of goodies, including an article by Daniel Dennett, a transcript of Sam Harris' speech at the 29th annual FFRF convention this past October, and an article by atheist Brenda Frei who appeared on an episode of 30 Days, where she stayed with a family of evangelical christians for a month. High on my list of FFRF entertainment pieces are the cartoons by Don Addis and items by Philip Appleman, Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Indianna University. This month, we're treated to Appleman's…