Walking along with my to-go lunch in hand, it occurred to me how heavy the bag was. Probably a good pound or more. Man, I thought, we sure are inefficient machines. According to Einstein and the rest, the amount of atoms in my lunch should be able to power a human for a hell of […]
Archive | Miscellany
Lemme Just Hold Your Wallet
Skeptic magazine online links to a video of a con in action. The Pigeon Drop.
Dose of Truth
Does this bowl of guac make me look fat? BBC online gives us a short list of medical myths. * I’ve been saying for a long time (to disbelieving parents) that it’s a myth that sugar makes kids hyperactive. Gee, your kid is all crazy after eating birthday cake? Surprise, he was at a birthday […]
Nice to See Ya
Today I ran into a guy who mentioned to me that he’s been reading weeklyrob. Occasionally this happens, and I invariably do the following three things, in order: 1. Feel embarrassment, shame, dread, and horror while trying to remember the latest post. 2. Go read the front page of weeklyrob, pretending that I’m new. 3. […]
Not in the Office
In Wales, all official signs must be in English and Welsh, as in the picture above. So the government wrote the English, then emailed the translator for the Welsh translation. The response came back and they printed the sign. The problem is that the email reply said, in Welsh: “I am not in the office […]
Ghosts!
I read two thing on the Britannica blog today and couldn’t decide which one to post about. So here they both are: Mantyhose. Ghosts in southern libraries (but nothing in my state).
Is Government Doing It Right?
In my little post about This American Life’s show about the economy, I didn’t mention any particulars. But one thing that seemed clear by the end of the show was that buying up the debt wasn’t as good an idea as buying shares in the troubled banks. The show’s participants were skeptical about whether the […]
Economy
This American Life has a very good hour-long explanation of why my 401K is down 20% in three months, and whether the bailout package is the right thing to do. It’s called, Another Frightening Show about the Economy
Average-Looking
A friend of mine recently said that Ellen Barkin used to be on his list of the hottest of hot women. To me, she’s not the slightest bit pretty. This brought to mind a bit of a tangent: What does it mean to be average-looking? I used to think it meant that on the bell […]
Rockin'
Last night I finally watched Air Guitar Nation, the documentary about the World Air Guitar championships. It was gooood. So funny, but also touching. I was laughing at the whole idea for a while (and the air guitarists were mainly laughing along), but then ended up really cheering for our guy to win. Good stuff.