Humor

Sun Reaches Quietest Solar Minimum Since 1913 Blankest years of the last century? I have seen some really good examples of making the data fit the curve, but this has to be the best ever.  Someone even managed to sneak 2007 and 2008 into the data for last century. Awesome! Douglas Adams would have been impressed. ... and as the Deep Calm leaped from solar minimum to solar minimum it accidentally leaped into the theoretically lowest minimum possible and was swallowed by the black hole.   The yoga drive continued to oooooooooom serenely.  Emerging into an alternate universe…

Hi, I’m the Science Cyclops. I was created from molecules of caffeine and genetically engineered organic pluats.  I was sent here by Zeus to inspire humans through my tales of terror and physical improbabilities while not helping him fight the Titans, because of the economy and all.  First things first, let’s get this out in the open.  I get stopped on the street quite often and people always want to know one thing; how is your depth perception in battle so accurate when you only have one eye?   The answer is simple.  Through the transverse effects of milicones…

Cracked has the latest 5 scientific reasons why people act like, umm, jerks. (If crassness bothers you don't click that link! If you think crass is funny, then what are you waiting for?). Reason 1: angry people get more attention: When the Bangor scientists studied the section of the brain that responds to angry, happy or neutral faces, they found something interesting: This area is also tied closely to areas of the brain associated with survival instincts–like your fight or flight reflexes. When you detect anger in your vicinity, your facial recognition center suddenly lights, allowing…

Scoop!  ScientificBlogging Exclusive! Your intrepid investigative reporter can exclusively report the finding of an unpublished complete proof of the Riemann Hypothesis.  The key document was only discovered during a routine stock-taking following the takeover of Scicenceblogs by ScientificBlogging announced earlier. Based on the astounding discovery that any number divided by zero is a NaoN - Not an ordinary Number, the discoverer has shown related proofs describing free energy, antigravity and demonstrating  how to crack RSA encryption in 0.1ms using an old Pentium 1. Shares…

We're always looking for new ways to add value to the science community.   Sure, other sites may offer the usual boring job placement listings or forums on how to write effective grant proposals, but we all know how to get jobs.    What not everyone knows is how to get a date.    So  today we are unveiling our newest feature for the science community; the Scientific Blogging Dating Service.     If you are one of the millions of lonely scientists that cant seem to find anybody nearly as smart or interesting as you, look no further!   We have…

Hi, I am The Science Ninja.    When I am not killing people with my pinky, I am doing awesome science experiments, like how to kill people with my pinky. Because I am also scientifically awesome, people have a lot of questions, so I thought I would answer them here. Q:  How are you able to kill regular people from 100 yards away by being totally sweet? I'm not the first person to kill someone from a hundred yards away by being totally sweet but because people didn't always believe in ninjas, they invented stories instead.    An early Greek ninja, Archimedes, flipped…

Can you remember great jokes? I know I can't. Now I know why - the greatest jokes work by subverting usual thought patterns, making them less memorable but funnier, according to the Daily Telelgraph. A final twist and surprise in the joke makes us remember the punchline, but forget the run-up to the gag. Let's take a little test, shall we? The Telegraph's example of a bad joke: What do you call a judge with no thumbs? Justice Fingers. The Telegraph's example of a "better" joke: A linguistics professor was lecturing his class one day. "In English", he said, "A double negative forms a positive…

How bad science can make you feel really good. There is some really wonderful bad science to be found out there in the wierd world web.  More wonderful than the bad site is the good site that gives insight, laced with humour, into the wierdness of the bad sites. Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author.  He is also a very astute observer of human nature and is one very witty dude.  For some moments of absolute hilarity I strongly recommend his blog Bad Astronomy and especially crankocentrism. Bad Mad and Just Plain Doolally From bad…

First published in Dutch in 1976, Gnomes by Wil Huygens and Rien Poortlivet remains the definitive tome on these reticent woodland denizens.  A classic of fiction science, this lavishly detailed field notebook of the physiology, habits, and habitat of gnomes as observed over 20 years of firsthand observation.  The physician-illustrator team wastes no time in addressing questions of physiological scale: "Because—going from large to small—the volume, and therefore the weight, of an object decreases as the cube of its linear dimension and the surface area only as the square," Yes! Very…

Note:The ideas developed here were prompted by my reading a recent blog.Thank you Becky Jungbauer. What you are reading is a mix of whimsy, ethics and philosophy applied to a problem in politics.  It does not offer a solution to any specific problem. It may direct the attention away from what is unimportant in current debates about evolution. One can only live in hope. An Essay Concerning Wings Once upon a time, Sithopholis Farkworthy attended a lecture on the Ethical Principles of Umer. It was a meeting of like minds.  The lecturer didn't understand the half of what he was talking…