Humor

'A peculiar Scottish disorder' is described in the Scottish Medical Journal (SMJ), August 2011 vol. 56 no. 3, pp. 164-166 (by Doctor I. B. McIntosh.)  “A highly contagious behavioural affliction is now endemic in highland areas of Scotland. Pretravel advice ought to include a health warning to sport-lovers venturing north into wild, highlands of Gaeldom. It particularly affects young adults and predominates in men, although women are affected. The disorder can be acute or chronic and when severe, it can threaten one’s life and limbs. Acute attacks may bring spontaneous recovery in months…

“Cotton buds are commonly used to clean the ears, remove wax, in case of itching in the ear, aural toilet in discharging ears and some time as a habit.” – explain Suresh Kumar and  Shamim Ahmed  of the Department of ENT, at Liaquat University of Health Sciences, Jamshoro, Pakistan. They go on to warn that : They supposedly represent a safe means of cleaning the ear and nose. Insertion of cotton tips is not only unnecessary but also potentially dangerous. The conclusion of their study, which tracked cotton bud usage in 100 patients at the ENT Department, of Sir Syed Medical…

In the award-winning children’s book ‘Don’t let the pigeon drive the bus’ by Mo Willems, (Hyperion Books for Children, 2003) a persistent pigeon ‘asks, pleads, cajoles, wheedles, connives, negotiates, demands and uses emotional blackmail in attempts to get behind the wheel’. The bus driver is decidedly reluctant to let the pigeon drive. But why? “On the one hand, the bus driver might have been concerned that the pigeon would not be able to safely drive the bus. On the other hand, maybe the driver was more concerned that the pigeon would not be able to take a route that would efficiently…

Here is a (partial) overview of (some of) the recent academic literature on the subject of 'Humming' Security Humming-based human verification and identification “The experimental results show that linear prediction cepstral coefficients and perceptually linear prediction coefficients are conducive to verification and identification, respectively.” Medicine Strong humming for one hour daily to terminate chronic rhinosinusitis in four days: “The morning after the first 1-hour humming session, the subject awoke with a clear nose and found himself breathing easily through his nose for the first…

In the beginning, Mother Nature created the universe and in it she put Quantum Mechanics. Mother Nature had formed out of the ground all the wild particles in the sky. She brought them to Quantum Mechanics to see what Quantum Mechanics would name them; and whatever Quantum Mechanics called each thing, that was its name.  But it was not enough. Then Mother Nature said, “It is not good for quantum mechanics to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for her.” And so she created Relativity and a classical garden in which they could live. But the serpent Electromagnetism was more crafty than…

“… everyday, spontaneous sexual behavior is a quintessentially private activity not open to public scrutiny.“ But not always. As evidenced by the work of an investigatory team from the Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain, where Jose-Miguel Fernández-Dols, Pilar Carrera and Carlos Crivelli “… analyzed the facial behavior of 100 volunteers who video-recorded their own expressions while experiencing an episode of sexual excitement that concluded in an orgasm, and then posted their video clip on an Internet site.” Using the standardised Facial Action Coding System (…

When I first saw a new article about cow tipping, I bristled just a little. The last thing American culture needs is another flatlander telling real farmers whether or not cows fall over. But Jake Swearingen, Digital director at Modern Farmer, does a good job dealing with a sensitive topic. Sensitive may be the wrong word. Cow tipping brings out the passion in cows. And people too. You think the neo-cons in the White House and peaceniks in the public are going at each other over Syria? Tell someone in the city a hillbilly can't tip a cow. Everyone knows of someone who did it. Heck, I do too.…

It's time to stop oppressing breasts, according to a massive 15-year investigation by professor Jean-Denis Rouillon, from the University of Besançon in eastern France. Bras are a false necessity, he said in April, and his evidence was gained by carefully measuring changes in the orientation of breasts belonging to hundreds of women aged between 18 and 35 using a slide rule and a caliper. At least we think. The results weren't published, he just said them on a radio show, but that was enough to get him covered in misogynistic sites like the New York Times and Reuters. Oh, and most importantly…

What do a coffee machine, a mosquito, a fridge, gastric ‘flu and silence have in common?One answer is sounds. Or lack thereof. And all have been researched by Dr. Salomé Voegelin, who is Sound Arts Course Leader, and member of CRiSAP (Creative Research into Sound Arts Practice) at the London College of Communication, University of the Arts, London. Dr. Voegelin has performed an in-depth investigation into noise and silence. In her book Listening to Noise and Silence: towards a Philosophy of Sound Art, (Continuum, NY, 2010.) the author points out that, in the Heideggerian sense at least,…

“taH pagh taHbe’. DaH mu’tlheghvam vIqeInIS.” – the translation of which, as speakers of Klingon will know, is “To be or not to be; that is the question.”  The Klingon Shakespeare Restoration Project has received considerable attention from academia – see for example: ‘Adapting Shakespeare for Star Trek and Star Trek for Shakespeare: The Klingon Hamlet and The Spaces of Translation‘ (Studies in Popular Culture, vol 32, no. 2, pp. 35-55.) The author, Dr. Karolina Kazimierczak (Researcher at the Academic Urology Unit, University of Aberdeen, Scotland.) explains - “The Klingon…