Read an article today about a man who accidentally fired a gun while in a Walmart. Shrug. What was interesting was the headline and first line of the story: — Surprise man arrested after gun fires at Walmart Authorities said a Surprise man has been arrested on suspicion of endangerment when the gun he was […]
Archive | Miscellany
The Best Joke in the World
Just listened to the latest Guardian Science podcast, and although it was mainly not very interesting (a rare occurrence, indeed), there was some good stuff about laughter and humor. The guest, Mr. or Dr. Something or other, said that his best guess at the evolutionary background of laughter is that it was a social indication […]
Finding a Job: Try This
Print your resume on a t-shirt. This is by far not the worst idea I’ve heard of. “Tap shoulder for contact information.”
Spring Equinox
So it’s here! Today the sun appears to drift directly over the equator. The day is roughly as long as the night in both the southern and northern hemispheres. And after today, until late June, each day in the Northern hemisphere will be a little longer than the previous day. (In the Southern hemisphere: Darkness […]
Falling and Condoms
A primer on how to survive falling out of a plane at 6,000 feet. I’m totally gonna try this. Completely unrelated is this article about the new exhibition at the Museum of Sex: “Rubbers: The Life, History & Struggle of the Condom”
Roundup
By weeklyrob on January 20, 2010 in Famous People, Language/Lit, Law, Miscellany, Politics, Religion, Science and Such
— The Britannica blog calls a spade a spade. Robertson and Limbaugh are: “…two men who have made a very good thing in this life of saying very stupid things that excite an audience of equally stupid people.” [LINK] — Freakonomics wonders: Do Bike-Helmet Laws Discourage Bicycling? — The Why Files: Fish cheat and get […]
Server-speak
This isn’t new, but I don’t think I’ve written about it before. It often strikes me that people adopt a special way of talking once they become waiters. This isn’t necessarily a matter of training, but of some internal device that switches on when they take the job. For example, when I’m eating at home, […]
Do Not Blame the Kangaroo
Let’s say this happened: A man, walking with his unleashed dog, happens upon a kangaroo. The dog runs at the kangaroo, who hops away. The dog chases the kangaroo. The kangaroo hops into a pond. The dog chases the kangaroo into the pond. At that point, the kangaroo stops running and turns to fight the […]
Here Today, Gone Tomorrow
I don’t know whether that’s the idea behind this video, but that’s what I’m going with. I stole this directly from boingboing, who lifted it from somewhere else.
Life Expectancy and Infant Mortality
I keep reading dire numbers about the USA. For example, one list shows the infant mortality rate in the US as higher than in 28 other countries. The main cause, apparently, is premature births. The life expectancy in the US is about 50th in the world. Lower than Bosnia, for example. And although this is […]