October 15, 2005

Some of these links are not so fresh. I hadn't blogged in a few days and then my webhost got totally h@x0r3d, so the site was down for a few days. It's amazing how much your blog becomes a regular part of your routine, and you don't realize it until it's gone. I missed the poor little guy. Adam will never let you get p0wned again.

• For the first time in a very long time, wine has surpassed beer as America's casual drink of choice. I love them both, but I do think America could stand to be classier, so I'm happy with the bourgefying of the country. And I'm happy with making up words.
• Speaking of making up words, Word Spy is a site whose business is lexpionage, "the sleuthing of new words and phrases" that have been used multiple times in legitimate sources. Basically it tracks the emergence of neologisms. Very cool to browse.
• Speaking of naming new things, here is a stale article about the shortage of names for new things on Mars. The rovers are finding so many geological features that NASA is struggling to find names for them all. They are turning to pop culture references. Names of rock formations and features of land include Engelbert Humperdinck, ABBA, Spongebob, and a whole series of rocks after the twelve days of Christmas.
• Speaking of science, read the winners of this year's Ig Nobel Awards, the competition for academic achievements of merit that also are, at least on their faces, humorous. This year's winners include:
  
  
  
  • A study called "The Significance Of Mr. Richard Buckley's Exploding Trousers
    
  • The inventor of Neuticles, artificial replacement testicles for dogs
    
  • The inventors of an alarm clock that runs away and hides, repeatedly, thus ensuring that people get out of bed
    
  • A study called "Will Humans Swim Faster Or Slower In Syrup?"
    
  • A study called "Pressures Produced When Penguins Pooh -- Calculations on Avian Defaecation"
    
  • And the best one, the Ig Nobel Prize for Literature: The Internet entrepreneurs of Nigeria, for creating and then using e-mail to distribute a bold series of short stories, thus introducing millions of readers to a cast of rich characters -- General Sani Abacha, Mrs. Mariam Sanni Abacha, Barrister Jon A Mbeki Esq., and others -- each of whom requires just a small amount of expense money so as to obtain access to the great wealth to which they are entitled and which they would like to share with the kind person who assists them.
• Speaking of literature, Salon has a very interesting article that bemoans the sorry state of masculinity in America, and searches for its roots.

  The men I meet are not the rakish, workaholic, cheating cads of yore. No, I'm bearing witness to a bonafide crisis in American masculinity, one that seems especially, but not exclusively, to afflict the young, urban and privileged. And with it, I have observed the birth of a new breed of man: a man of few interests and no passions; a man whose libido is reduced and whose sense of responsibility nonexistent. These men are commitment-phobic not just about love, but about life. They drink and take drugs, but even their hedonism lacks focus or joy. They exhibit no energy for anyone, any activity, profession or ideology.

• Speaking of males and their passions, Red Sox fans have been belting out Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" for years and years. NPR's Susan Orlean investigates how this tradition arose.
• Speaking of music, Tony-award winning composer Adam Guettel and screenwriter William Goldman are collaborating to create a musical based on The Princess Bride.
• Speaking of previously inconceivable things, engineers have attached a seat to a giant robotic arm designed for mixing paint, modding it to create a new kind of thrill ride. Make sure you watch the videos. I'm telling you, the robots are going to take over. And if they don't, the dolphins will. We're all going to die.
• Speaking of the apocalypse, Vatican astronomer Guy Consolmagno SJ has written a short book on Catholic attitudes toward extra terrestrials. Intelligent Life in the Universe? Catholic belief and the search for extraterrestrial intelligent life asks questions such as:
  
  
  
  • Would humans recognise intelligent life if we saw it?
    
  • Could we communicate with it? Should we even try?
    
  • Is Original Sin something that affects all intelligent beings?
    
  • Is Jesus Christ's redemption valid for intelligent beings throughout the universe or would other worlds have their own versions of Jesus?
    
  • Would the Church send missionaries to ET planets?
• Speaking of make-believe stuff, Joel linked to a very funny alternate account of the intelligent design of the universe. What would creation have been like if the gods were gay?
• Speaking of things that supposedly happened a long time ago, an archeological team has found the oldest evidence of noodles ever disovered, thus offering very persuasive evidence in what has apparently been a big debate: Who invented the noodle, the Chinese, Italians, or Arabs? Answer: The Chinese. The noodles discovered were about 4000 years old, and the researchers said the Ramen flavor they most tasted like was Creamy Chicken Flavor.
• Speaking of things people do in college (you know, eat Ramen...), an MIT group set out to determine the feasability of Archimedes' optical death ray, supposedly used to defend Syracuse during the siege of 212 BCE. Legend had it that if focused on a ship anchored in the port, the ship would combust. The MIT group attempted to duplicate the death ray. Very cool.
• Speaking of who cares about these transitions, here's a pretty good method of overcoming procrastination.
• Check out BeeDogs.com, a sit entirely devoted to pictures of dogs in bee costumes. Wow. Amazing.
• What the fuck? Shaquille O'Neal is trying to become a Miami Beach police officer. So weird. And then this weekend (after already having been fitted for his police uniform), he witnessed a man yell defamatory slurs at a gay couple, and then followed the man and flagged down an officer, who made the arrest. Shaq is the gigantic savior of the gays!
• And finally, here are several humorous blogs for you to check out:
  
  
  
  • Harriet Miers' Blog
    
  • Linked to by Harriet Miers, You Knit What?
    
  • 5ives, a blog consisting entirely of lists of five things.
    
  • And I've linked to this one previously, but check out The Dullest Blog In The World

Posted at October 15, 2005 6:37 PM | Comments (1)

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