humour
aardvarchaeology | January 12, 2013My boss at the Academy of Letters used to head the National Archives. Here's a story he told over coffee the other day.
Some decades ago a delegation of Swedish archivists was driving across the American Midwest to visit a Mormon microfilming facility. Stopping in a small town for lunch, they noticed that it had an unusual name in a Native American language. At a fast food restaurant, the head of Stockholm's town archives asked the cashier,
"Excuse me miss, we're from Sweden and this place has such an unusual name. Could you please tell me how to pronounce it?"
The young lady stared at him…
illconsidered | December 25, 2012Negative brownie points to anyone who feels it necessary to point out that penguins and polar bears do not cross paths in the wild! (Oops, I guess that would include me...)
(cartoon courtesy of Alex Hallatt, Creator of Arctic Circle cartoons)
illconsidered | November 18, 2012I don't myself visit Watts' blog unless someone points to something particularly funny or egregious, and the comment threads are so long and monotonous it is even rarer that I go there.
That said, I am always grateful to others who have occasion to do that hard work and who come back out to highlight particularly mind-blowing examples of...of... of whatever it is that adequately describes what passes for dialogue over there. So, many thanks to Holly Stick over at Rabett Run who points us to the Gray Monk at WUWT who writes:
Actually the question is whether or not CO2 is the ‘evil game…
illconsidered | November 8, 2012Via Thngsbreak, we have the charming Lord Monckton back at it with all out Birtherism:
The diligent, unpaid heroes who have been investigating the dodgy document for more than a year on behalf of the people of Maricopa County, Ariz., have found a long list of irregularities in Mr. Obama’s identification documents.
I have used the investigators’ list to draw up a schedule of probabilities – one for each individual irregularity. The probability that the “birth certificate” and other Obama identity documents are genuine is just 1 in 75 sextillion.
Funny, that was just about the same odds I gave…
illconsidered | October 30, 2012The reality of weather modification is no conspiracy theory. Or at least, so say the conspiracy theorists....
Hurricane Sandy is being described as the “worst storm in 100 years” and will possibly mutate to super-storm status once it combines with a polar air mass over the eastern United States enabling it to cause widespread damage and chaos, but how convenient is the timing of this “natural” event in regards to the election? Is it possible that the storm is a contrived event designed to throw the election for Obama?
Just askin'....
(h/t mandas)
illconsidered | October 26, 2012As you travel the inter-tubes in search of learned discourse, understanding and information to prepare you for the coming climate cataclysms, you will see many curious creatures, some common, some rare, who are here for the sole purpose of deterring, deceiving and confusing you. Some will pray on your admitted ignorance or uncertainty. Some will pray on your subconscious wish that climate change not be real or if it is, it will be benign. Some will seem to engage sincerely but seek only to lure you so deep into the rabbit hole you will be unable to return. Some will dazzle you with words so…
illconsidered | October 24, 2012So this is an idea shamelessly stolen from Noah Smith, a blogger who writes about economics. He has created an "illustrated bestiary", introduced thusly:
In your journey through the Econ Blogosphere, you will be beset by a great many curious and interesting species of EconoTroll. At first you may be intimidated by their voluminous use of insider jargon, their rough-and-tumble personal attacks, their strenuous insistence that you read the complete works of their movements' founders before participating in any discussion, and above all their sheer persistence and apparent surplus of spare time…
illconsidered | October 23, 2012Just thinking about a previous look at Roy Spencer:
We believe Earth and its ecosystems—created by God’s intelligent design and infinite power and sustained by His faithful providence —are robust, resilient, self-regulating, and self-correcting, admirably suited for human flourishing, and displaying His glory. Earth’s climate system is no exception.
in the context of this recent post of his that finishes with this similarly fact-free gem:
It’s time for the 99% to start supporting the 1% a little better, because in the end it is the 1% who enables the 99% to maximize their standard of living…
illconsidered | September 26, 2012Inferno is back at it at Denial Depot, and as always it is good for more than a few laughs! I particularily enjoyed this comment he/she added in the thread under the latest post on artic ice:
Although that said, Earth's polar axis of rotation has only been reliably observed during the last 30 years of accurate satellite measurements, which as any credible climate denier will tell is is a mere drop in the ocean of Earth's thousands of years climate history. It's far too short to draw any conclusions from. So we must admit that long ago as 1900 the Earth may have rotated top to bottom instead…
illconsidered | September 13, 2012I hope it can stay lighthearted for Stephan Lewandowsky, it may be fun in the beginning grabbing the tiger by the tail, but some of these climate denial bloggers have made harassment an art form and this tiger may well turn around! I refer to the subject referenced in this post, the survey of climate blog readers that shows conspiracy theories run rampant in folks who deny the reality of AGW.
But at least for now, the fun continues. Apparently Stephan and co-author of the post Klaus Oberauer have determined that crazy denialists like Lord Monckton are really "warmists" in disguise only…
illconsidered | September 11, 2012There is a blogstorm raging these days for those of you with inadequate workplace supervision. Check here for the latest post from ground zero.
The synopsis is: scientist releases paper showing strong correlation between belief in conspiracy theories, free market ideology, anti-science attitudes and the rejection of climate science; climate skeptic blogger community sees conspiracy and scientific fraud. (To their credit, I have not yet seen the accusation of "socialist".)
I don't have much to say about it, I am as embarrassed for these folks as I am amused by the irony of it all. I should…
illconsidered | September 5, 2012His attitude might more resemble this below (very funny)!
(seen at P3)
I always say that living well is about choosing when to laugh and when to cry...
illconsidered | September 4, 2012Most of you will have heard by now of Mitt Romney's convention chuckle at the expense of the global biosphere, of which you and your family are of a part:
"President Obama promised to slow the rise of the oceans and to heal the planet. My promise is to help you and your family."
(Full text is here)
Bill McKibben's tweet in response is pretty perfect: "On some other planet, apparently". Planet3.0 has a lengthier and very good exposition on what underlies the success of such a mockery.
My only thought on what Dan has written is that all us concerned individuals in the greater blogosphere…
illconsidered | August 31, 2012As Eli Rabbet is noting, Anthony Watts is really unraveling, even further than we noted here a couple of days ago. So, I just have to post the video below, picked up from Denial Depot. I swear, I am NOT calling Watts Hitler, not even a Nazi, it is just pretty funny!
illconsidered | August 27, 2012So as I warned about some weeks ago, almost all of the record lows are already broken in the arctic sea ice front. Neven seems to have the best discussions going, but he is on holiday for the next couple of weeks. You can see almost all (all?) of the scientific surveys of the various ice metrics in this single page jam packed with graphs here. It's a fantastic resource with links to all the original data sources. I found it at Neven's, not sure if he created it but many thanks are owed to whomever it was.
And we still have as much as 4 weeks of likely declines remaining! A truly stunning…
illconsidered | August 1, 2012Via email, you might like to have a look at this video from CollegeHumour, a "what if" look at an alternative Lorax raised on Fox News propoganda:
CollegeHumor’s Favorite Funny Videos
illconsidered | July 27, 2012The UCS is having a cartoon contest, go here to vote for your favorite. Please feel free to vote for any of my favorites, below ;-)
(This last one is confirmed by many of the past discussions around here!)
aardvarchaeology | April 23, 2012Early 20th century, a newlywed couple celebrates their wedding night at a hotel. In the morning, the young man chivalrously pricks his finger with his pen knife and smears some blood on the bedsheet.
50 happy years later, the couple returns to the hotel to celebrate their anniversary. And in the morning, the woman can finally return the favour. She blows her nose on the bedsheet.
aardvarchaeology | February 24, 2012Juniorette: "So Thomas had his semla cream bun and he said he liked it, but later he threw up."
Me: "Thomas? Is he a new boy in your class? Haven't heard of him before?"
Juniorette: "No, he's not annoying. Not very."