humor
sastyk | February 15, 2011One of the projects we're working on is ways to bring more people to our farm. A lot of folks want to see what we're doing, and we've been contemplating open farm days, and possible ideas for classes we might teach. Well, while Eric and I were discussing it the other night, we came up with the idea of the "realistic farm tour" that gives people a real sense of what actually goes on on a farm - we could market ourselves a unlike all those other agritourism ventures that sell the dream - we sell the reality! Here are some of the activities we are sure people would pay us to do!
"Explore the…
oracknows | February 10, 2011Let's face it. This week has just been one of those weeks, and it's not over yet. A little silly break is in order:
There, I fell better now.
Consider this a Thursday open thread. I haven't had an open thread in a while, and when things get busy enough it's a time-honored way of filling blog time...
mikethemadbiologist | February 8, 2011Lest there be any doubt that I'm not as nuts in real life as I am on the blog, here's a slide I used yesterday during a full-blown fancy-schmancy professional talk:
Just saying.
For context, read this post (IT HAZ SCIENTISMZ!!).
pharyngula | February 7, 2011
Of course the Founding Fathers rode dinosaurs! How could they not? If it was awesome, and riding dinosaurs is always awesome, then it had to have happened in the Tea Party History of the World.
pharyngula | February 5, 2011The other day, this comic was posted on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. Would you believe those crazy conservatives at the National Organization for Marriage — those blinkered bozos who think letting gays marry will destroy the fabric of society — posted it on their forums?
It's rather strange — the comic shows a bunch of kids who are aghast at the weird old fashioned way babies used to be made. The humor in it is that you have to realize that they aren't at all horrified by their technology, but find the old ways incomprehensible. It's actually mocking the rigid antiques, but NOM just…
pharyngula | February 2, 2011Laugh anyway. It's a cartoon illustrating what would happen when a bunch of astrologers wielding homeopathic rays and perpetual motion engines encounter Captain Sagan in a starship armed with Science. The results are a bit brutal, but I guess that's what happens when fantasy and reality collide.
oracknows | February 1, 2011Paul Offit on the anti-vaccine movement:
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Looks like a win to me. Colbert appears to get it. I like how he doesn't mention Andrew Wakefield's name and he asks Dr. Offit a bunch of questions based on talking points the anti-vaccine movement likes to use to frighten parents.
sastyk | January 31, 2011From The Onion:
According to anthropologists, untold millions of slaves and serfs toiled their whole lives to complete the gap. Records indicate the work likely began around 10,000 years ago, when the world's first landed elites convinced their subjects that construction of such a monument was the will of a divine authority, a belief still widely held today.
Though historians have repeatedly disproved such claims, theories still persist among many that the Gap Between Rich and Poor was built by the Jews.
"When I stare out across its astounding breadth, I'm often moved to tears," said…
oracknows | January 30, 2011Of the two, The Daily Show or The Colbert Report, I tend to favor The Daily Show because there are times when I find Stephen Colbert's schtick tiresome. True, Colbert can at times rise to the level of being brilliant, but there are other times when he gets on my nerves. In contrast, Jon Stewart tends to be more consistently funny.
However, tonight, there'll be a guest on who'll very likely get me to tune in to The Colbert Report on the night the show airs, rather than my usual practice of watching its rerun the next day. That's because on Monday, January 31 (i.e., today), Stephen Colbert's…
pharyngula | January 30, 2011Follow this link to the amusingly bizarre webcomic about homeopathy behind it. I'll just share with you the story behind the artwork:
So this might seem to make very little sense at all. Fair enough, it's sort of supposed to. But this did actually happen to me at work — A guy came in to buy some homeopathic tablets, and was quite insistent that I not let them touch the large tub of ice-cream that he was also purchasing. Assuming that it had something to do with astronomically minute quantities of poison that such remedies are reputed to contain (they don't, by the by — it is entirely water,)…
mikethemadbiologist | January 29, 2011I appreciate the value of optimistic weather forecasters, as opposed to the usual doom-and-gloom types, but this seems a little too far in the other direction:
Look at the bottom right: who plays golf in this weather? I don't think even Scotsmen are that crazy...
sastyk | January 25, 2011There's quite a bustle among my colleagues about the deficiencies of recent studies about whether X female thingie evolved as a strategy to prevent rape. My favorite such study is one that seems to think that the only critical thing that happens when women ovulate is that they might get raped. The (probably bullshit) increase in strength, for example, one study showed couldn't be part, say of making sex more fun, could it?
Mike the Mad Biologist as always makes a cogent analysis of the general limits on that study while Greg Laden critiques speculation about tears being used to limpify…
sastyk | January 24, 2011Note: I'm way behind on my 31 books resolution - I'll have to hurry to catch up. In the meantime, will you count these 12? I bet you don't own them!
Worms Eat my Laundry by Alcea Grovestock - Worms are hot - in-house domestic composting is everywhere. But have you considered the way red wigglers could augment your laundry routine? After all, so many of us, taken up with homestead and farm work, garden and family chores have developed that layer of laundry that never seems to get washed, composting at the bottom of the hamper. With the addition of red worms and regular contributions to…
pharyngula | January 24, 2011Don't send the kiddies to Sunday School, just have them watch this video and they'll master the whole of the Bible (Old and New Testaments!) in 2½ minutes.
(via SMBC, of course)
mikethemadbiologist | January 22, 2011I sound like this:
I have no idea what's going through this dog's mind. Likes singing, I guess.
pharyngula | January 19, 2011
Well? Don't just sit there! You have to go give meaning to Jesus' sacrifice!
oracknows | January 18, 2011My faithful minions have pointed me in the direction of a poll that desperately needs crashing. Apparently, Andrew Wakefield posted a link on his Facebook page, and the forces of anti-science have already descended upon it. Here's the poll:
We think the British Medical Journal's report debunks once and for all the supposed link between autism and the MMR vaccine. But what do you think? Is the vaccine-autism link debunked? Take our poll.
Yes.
No.
You know what to do, my minions. Make me proud.