Haha, a funny

Daniel Drezner in reference to the altered US position towards Iran: Tomorrow in Bizarro world politics -- Dick Cheney buys Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a flower. UPDATE: Quote of the Day, Part 2 from Christopher Preble at Cato@Liberty Were that question to be posed to George Bush, that most incurious of modern presidents, it appears we already know the answer, at least based on the President's public remarks. As the Post reported, "Bush defended his approach [toward Iran] during a televised session in the White House briefing room, saying 'our policy remains the same' regardless of the new…
Having a ball pit in your living room may be expensive, but it is still totally awesome. Comic from xkcd.
Someone who really should know better sent me the video below the fold. The best thing about this video is the content. The second best thing about it is the horrifically bad British accents the actors are putting on. I don't know anything about the gold standard either, and I have a sudden urge to pet some kitties...
Working on for scienceblogs.com, I would say that I receive more interesting emails than the average person. Most of these emails are legitimate such as offers to send me books to read, and those are always appreciated. Some of the emails quote scripture and say that I am going to burn in hell. I would have to say that I appreciate those as well; I rather doubt the people would send them if they realized how much they put a smile on my face. Well, here is one for the crazy record books. Because this email is truly deserving of ridicule, I will interject. from time to time. To wit:…
Times Online details 10 of the most bizarre experiments ever devised. I rather doubt some of these would have made it past institutional review today: 7) Turkey turn-ons Martin Schein and Edgar Hale, of Pennsylvania State University, devoted themselves to studying the sexual behaviour of turkeys in the 1960s, and discovered that the birds are not choosy. Taking a model of a female turkey, they progressively removed body parts until the males lost interest. Even when all that remained was a head on a stick, the male turkeys remained turned on. Read the whole thing, and wonder to yourself who…
This is just priceless. Stephen Colbert talks about the vanishing awards that he can win now that Gore has the Nobel. (Sorry about the ads.)
I don't remember the last time I found two Onion articles funny in the same calendar year. Here is another one: "If you're looking for some button-down traditionalist who relies on so-called induction, conventional logic, and verification to arrive at what the scientific community calls 'proof,' then I'm afraid you've got the wrong guy," said the intrepid 44-year-old rebel, who last month unveiled a revolutionary new model of atomic structure that contradicted 300 years of precedent. "But if you want your results fast and with some flair, then come with me and I'll prove that the boiling…
I don't catch the Onion much anymore, but this is just priceless: Top physicists from several major American universities appeared before a Congressional committee Monday to request $50 billion for a science thing that would further U.S. advancement science-wise and broaden human knowing. The scientists spoke for approximately three hours about the complicated science machine, which is expensive, and large, telling members of the House Committee on Science and Technology that the tubular, gamma-ray-using mechanism is vital in some big way. Yet the high price tag of the thing, which would be…
Here's a quote of the day for you by Katie Glasrud, writing at Pharyngula: That fumble in the fourth quarter? You just dropped it didn't you. It looks like you've had a lot of testosterone-dropping moments this season, and I have to warn you: If you continue on this painful trajectory, you could wake up one morning to find you've developed female secondary characteristics. (Emphasis mine.) Read the whole thing.
Why must scientists play with salmons' heads like this: Researchers have succeeded in making salmon couples give birth to trout -- using a technique that they argue could help to preserve rare species of fish. Goro Yoshizaki and his colleagues at the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology in Japan had previously shown that male salmon could be injected with cells from closely-related trout to produce viable trout sperm. When the sperm were introduced to trout eggs, healthy trout offspring were produced... Now the researchers have taken the work a step further, showing that salmon…
From the always excellent xkcd (click to enlarge): Someday, someday I will meet a woman who loves the fact that I like to graph. There is important stuff out there that needs to be correlated -- like the amount of torrential rain that falls outside my window vs. how many people fall flat on their ass on the way to work. These are important issues that demand graphical representation. As a side note, do you think that "Age/2 + 7" rule is fair? I would say that it is fine when you are over a certain age, but that would mean I can date a 20 year old without sketchiness. Empirical evidence…
This dude got arrested because he tried to smuggle a monkey on an airplane in his ponytail: A passenger who originally departed from Lima, Peru, and connected in Fort Lauderdale had been hiding the small monkey in his ponytail, under his hat, according to Spirit Airlines spokeswoman Alison Russell. During the flight, the monkey crawled out of its hiding spot, forcing the owner to hold it in his hands, where the unexpected visitor was soon spotted by fellow passengers and crew members, Russell said. Awesome. I mean every time I think the human species cannot become more ridiculous, they just…
Entitled Wikipedian Protestor Priceless...
I love the comic XKCD. This comic is just exquisite geekiness:
Yes! Dutch students have found a loophole that they argue should allow alcohol to be sold to minors: Dutch students have invented powdered alcohol which they say can be sold legally to minors. The latest innovation in inebriation, called Booz2Go, is available in 20-gram packets that cost â¬1-1.5 ($1.35-$2). Top it up with water and you have a bubbly, lime-colored and -flavored drink with just 3 percent alcohol content. "We are aiming for the youth market. They are really more into it because you can compare it with Bacardi-mixed drinks," 20-year-old Harm van Elderen told Reuters. Van Elderen…
Oops: Children here got more than they bargained for when they tuned in to "Handy Manny" on the Disney Channel this week -- hard-core pornography. Cable giant Comcast is investigating how the porn was broadcast during the popular cartoon, which is about a bilingual handyman, Manny Garcia, and his talking tools. Customer Paul Dunleavy was stunned Tuesday morning to find his 5-year-old son watching the broadcast. "It was two people doing their thing; it was full-on and it was disgusting," the father of three told The New York Daily News. Well, I guess Manny really is Handy... (Sorry, the joke…
As I indicated in my previous post (also related to Lindsay Lohan), being a redhead derives from a recessive allele in the Melanocortin Receptor 1 -- a receptor from Melanocyte Stimulating Hormone. MC1R mutations also result in the phenotype of A) Being super hot and B) A higher risk for skin cancer so it would be useful for individuals of such a genetic inheritance to identify themselves and one another (you know...by ways other than their hair...). To accomplish this task, Realm of Redheads sells the t-shirt on the right. The geeky goodness of this shirt boggles the mind.
Hat-tip: Shelley. This site is awesome!!! They did all these experiments with Peeps like what it takes to dissolve a peep or what happens to a peep in a vacuum. I am so going to do some of this stuff when I get home. My favorite: the peep fear response (from being put in a test chamber...read: microwave). It is the opinion of the authors that these data clearly demonstrate an adaptive fear response to stressful stimuli in the peep species. This response likely evolved in order to intimidate potential predators through the awesome size and prowess achieved in a frightened peep. Peeps may…
Now that is unfortunate: Japan's leading toilet maker Toto Ltd. is offering free repairs for 180,000 bidet toilets after wiring problems caused several to catch fire, the company said Monday. The electric bidet accessory of Toto's Z series caught fire in three separate incidents between March 2006 and March 2007, according to company spokeswoman Emi Tanaka. The bidet sent up smoke in 26 other incidents, the company said. "Fortunately, nobody was using the toilets when the fire broke out and there were no injuries," Tanaka said. "The fire would have been just under your buttocks." ... The…
Not to be outdone in ridiculousness by the younger generation, Keith Richards has admitted to inhaling his father's ashes: Keith Richards has acknowledged consuming a raft of illegal substances in his time, but this may top them all. In comments published Tuesday, the 63-year-old Rolling Stones guitarist said he had snorted his father's ashes mixed with cocaine. "The strangest thing I've tried to snort? My father. I snorted my father," Richards was quoted as saying by British music magazine NME. "He was cremated and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn't…