Humor

All At Sea Over Iceberg Science At the opening of the 20th century, British maritime safety was a matter for the Board Of Trade.  This was the era of cork lifejackets.  The consensus of opinion on the saving of lives at sea was that, broadly, a minimum of lifeboats was enough to transfer passengers from a ship in distress to the other ships that were certain to come to her aid. It was left entirely to ship owners whether or not they wanted to pay for extra lifeboats. The loss of the Titanic in April 1912 triggered a new round of debates on that topic. What follows is a speculation…

Old World Order Overthrown : Newsflash THE THYMES July 1st, 1776 News has just reached the shores of our Britannic Majesty's Kingdom - that certain seditious rebels have defeated His Majesty's armies and our beloved Royal Navy in various battles in the New World. ---------------------------------------------------- A letter to the Thymes. The Editor,Esteemed Sir, Regarding the horrendous news in today's Thymes: I feel somewhat forced to put quill to parchment.  My morning tea was quite spoiled by the news from the New World.  If this news be true, then one can only assume that the…

A Humorous Poem Remembered This poem delighted me as a child.  I still enjoy it. I hope you may enjoy it also. Sir Smashem Uppe Good afternoon, Sir Smashem Uppe,We're having tea, do take a cup!Sugar and milk? Now let me see,Two lumps, I think?Ah! dearie me!The silly thing slipped off your knee!Pray don't apologize, old chap;A very trivial mishap! So clumsy of you? How absurd!My dear Sir Smashem, not a word!Now do sit down and have another,And tell us all about your brother,You know, the one who broke his head,Is the poor fellow still in bed?A chair?  Allow me, sir! Great Scott!…

I can't believe they did this.Check it out! LHC Webcams

The Linguistics of Computer Science As somebody with more than a passing knowledge of computer science and linguistics, I thought I would share a few insights into the deeper meanings of some common terms used in computer science. algorithm - a way of doing something right. program - a way of doing something nearly right. code - a way of making a snafu look like a design feature.implementation - I did it my way.upgrade - the stuff we left out.patch - the link that was missing between two bugs. forking - what is always done to global implementation standards.deprecated - elitists look down…

Context Is Vital The meaning of a string of words can seem to be entirely opposite in intent if it is placed in the wrong context.  The device of spreading false ideas by quoting people out of context has a long and dishonorable history. It is not just words that can be twisted by manipulating the context.  No supposed scientific 'fact' should be trusted in isolation.  Science is not a set of isolated facts - it is a beautiful canvas woven with the finest silks.  The fact that one damaged thread can be plucked out does not constitute proof that the whole picture is flawed…

Time for my irregular not-semi-annual roundup of recent science webtoons.  Today we have a pair of comics detailing the difference between Movie Science and Real Science.  Enjoy! AlexTues and Fri here, via RSS feed, and twitter @skydayRead about my own private space venture in The Satellite Diaries

For those not living on the East Coast or regions around Atlanta, be thankful that you (a) live in an area that can actually deal with snowfall, or (b) don't live in an area that gets snow. It is fun to see who was wandering through the blanketed landscapes ahead of you, as xkcd notes. I suppose that's more accurately a hare dryer.

Of Snakes And Oil A headnote explaining the need for the footnotesThe author not wishing to superimpose an overabundance or superfluity of operose terms, has subpended copious footnotes for the edification of the non-indigenous benefactor of the globalisation of the English language.----------------------------------------------- Sarah_Palin says: "... global warming studies that now we're seeing [are] a bunch of snake oil science." A major recent complaint against climate scientists has been that they are too secretive.  AGW deniers have been demanding access to, not only raw data and…

Some Gems Of Comment Spam We get a few spam comments here, promoting all sorts of rubbish web sites. Currently, we seem to be targeted by people who want to do our writing for us.  Now, given that scientificblogging.com is promoted as "The world's best scientists. The internet's smartest readers" one would think that we know a thing or two already about the art of writing. The writing style in many spam comments is absolutely hilarious.I have decided to save some gems for posterity.  I will add more gems as they arise. I would like to to argue that a reliable paper writing service…