PZ

Pharyngula is the blog run by Paul Myers, also known as PZ.
I started reading his blog on a regular basis around november 2005.
He describes the blog as "Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal" and if you automatically asume that a liberal is funny it's a complete and correct description.
He posts about biology and the latest insane stuff the creationist have repackaged and are trying to sell to the world once more (unfortunately their actions are welcomed by many).
His blog definitely makes an interesting read and i find myself most of the time greatly appreciating -but not always agreeing with- his viewpoints on many things.
So go and give him a try if you have the time, if you don't, here's an idea to ease the pain:
Regularly he also posts funny things that i sometimes put up here.
Starting right now (and especially foy you, you, me and you) i'm going to make a category out of it, just another place on the web were nice links are to be found.
So here you have a few recent ones (with comments ;)):

#1 I'm no expert on religion but what i personally find very disturbing are religious suicide terrorists ...
Throughout history millions of people have put their life on the line to defend protect or save their family, home, city and country. Or at times even more noble, to simply help another human being. And i obviously respect that and hope that when it is needed i will have the courage to take part in it.
But here you have a segment of people who are fighting/killing in the name of their God and don't mind dying because there's always the afterlife...
Once you believe in it, i can understand that they go through with it, it's the ones who stay behind and make the promises about the afterlife that are the real evildoers!! And they probably even have ulterior political (power hungry a-holes) or financial motives.
Anyway, here's the link
(The ending might be a little tasteless, blaming the accident on the victims is well .. a special kind of humor.)

#2 Pie doesn't have tentacles!!
Well ok .. i agree, but here's a funny story anyway :)


#3 a special kind of science...
If i tried anything even remotely like this in a paper or in the masters' thesis i'd be in BIG trouble, luckily reporters don't have to measure what they do against any kind of standards (nor common sense)

what to do with your brand new i-phone ??

why not try and make something tasty out of it?


from the guys/girls at http://www.willitblend.com/, they've blended a few other things, you can go and go check it out, i didn't
personally i think it's one of the more original ways to promote a product :)
most commercials just make me feel .. well .. ashamed for the makers and for those influenced by it, but maybe also for the network stations who ultimately could maintain high standards for commercials ...

via PZ

Destination - EXTREME Japan

Sadly i'm going to need too much time for the master's thesis to be able to go to Spitsbergen this summer ...
sigh,
we even had a website about our trip
But finishing my year is simply a million times more important, i really have to finish the mater's thesis, it's really sad, but it's the right thing to do

Anyway, where should you go on a holiday ??

My Score: Extreme Japan
I scored 51% culture, 61% social, 63% activity, and 69% adventure!

You want it all. The great thing is, in the Land of the Rising Sun, you can HAVE it all. Japan has a rich culture that goes back thousands of years. But did you know that along with enriching your mind, you can also get your adrenaline going? How about climbing Mount Fuji, sea kayaking around the Noto Peninsula, surfing, diving, rafting, paragilding, horseback riding or cycling among unique scenery and terrain. If you go in a group, this will give you a great chance to form relationships easily with others on the tour and having more friends around will make the whole experience all the more rewarding and memorable. You can then balance out your adventures with some Japanese theatre or exploring the exciting markets and city streets. You may have never considered such a destination, but maybe you have learned something. If you had fun dreaming about where you might go, don't forget to rate my test. Thanks!

Link: The Where Should YOU Travel Test written by thinkandcome on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

If only i knew someone from Japan to tell me where to go ... ;)

This explains a lot

PZ links to this,
maybe i should print it and hang it on my wall ...

weird plants

Happy Birthday Johan!!
May your life become even better than is already has been!
And thanks for the tip that lead to this post!

The movie is made by http://www.1st-ave-machine.com/
It's their project named "sixes last" and if you click on it you can choose "view quicktime"

for those who are afraid of looking for the right link on the website, here's an easy shortcut to the same footage albeit in poor quality

but eyes and rotating elements in plants ??
exobiology or computer animation ..

well eyes aren't that impossible in living things but evolving something like that in earth plants ... not very likely in any reasonable time-frame and probably a few evolutionary re/constraints are going to prevent it
but recalling the evolution-course i followed once, rotating things are quite impossible because the wires would snap: veins, nerves etc ... would not survive it

Do you want to know more? An article by Richard Dawkins on the subject

Here are a few shorter remarks about the lack of wheels in animals, but the Dawkins piece is much better.

and that's that

yesterday i had the last exam-thingie, i think everything went well (the entire series) and now all that's left is the master's thesis ...
let's just say it's going to need some work, a small massive amount of mork to be more somewhat exactly precise

while i go work on it some more,
maybe you and you and you can take a look at some of Weird al Yankovic 's song on youtube, his parodies are so cool :) !!
like this one i just saw:

update: embedding has been disabled

he has much better parodies that which i euhm ... certainly do NOT have downloaded in mp3 format in my criminal past, so I well .... well i just now they exist ;)

sorry tom

especially for the grunt who's not feeling all to well, some funny t-shirts that can put a smile on your face

this one's really funny if you show it to someone named tom

they have many other funny ones, these are the funniest in my humble opinion:
evolution of life painfully true
no strings eum .. true
dikfore :)
shit happens tetris is cool
beards also true
amish driving causes global warming
second amendment the best one :)

Patient is the mother of the carefull porcelain rhinoceros

just trust me on that quote,
it's a translation of an aggregation of several dutch proverbs that came to be in my mind this morning, just trust me on it

especially for this post the posting category 'weirdness' was established,
want more weirdness?
try this wwweirdness
or maybe this webweirdness
or possibly even weirdness.org
some semi-random google results for weirdness,
i really really really don't have any time to check out those websites right now so unlike my other posts i'm not really taking responsibility of what may be found there, seems weird? well it is
have a nice week!

Why France is better that the US

but Belgium is even better, just too small to get noticed :)



Via Pharyngula

Old forests are cut down and turned into toilet paper ...

... and still all the toilets are always out of paper ...
this and many other sad or silly stuff are things we all complain about sooner or later in this amazing life.
Some of the complaints are absolutely justified and should really be dealt with, but in the mean time, why not make a song about it?
I just love the concept :)
PZ links to this: The Helsinki Complaints Choir

It's not an all to new concept (a few years at least), but it's the first time (that i can remember) that i encoutered something like this.
First i thought that maybe it was a 'normal' song in finnish and that someone had placed clever subtitles underneath it, with a different meaning (who would notice but the Finnians?)
But apparently they really are a 'complaint choir' and there are others:
Birmingham:

Canada:

and even more but you'll have to look for them yourselves
(post them in the commments if you want)
have a nice day!