Category Archives: Curiousities

"Here Comes Another Bubble"

Remember, you skeptics live outside Silicon Valley, even an old warhorse like Oracle is humming along,posting a 35% increase in net income. From the Richter Scales:

Shark Kills Kangaroo

Aaaw….From the BBC: A kangaroo met an unlikely death after it bounded into the surf in southern Australia and was mauled by a shark, according to eyewitnesses. Daniel Hurst, who says he saw the incident while out walking his dogs, was accused of being drunk or on drugs after he told the story to friends. […]

Franco Zeffirelli: Pope Needs an Image Makeover

This BBC story shows how naive I am. I didn’t realize Supreme Pontiffs had image advisors: Franco Zeffirelli, the Italian film, stage and opera director, has said Pope Benedict XVI needs a makeover of his “cold” image and “showy” clothes. Zeffirelli told La Stampa newspaper that the Pope communicated in a cold way that was […]

Red Florescent Cat Cloned

This article about a cat designed to glow in the dark may well be a hoax, but it appears in a recognized venue, namely, the Korea Times. Either way, it’s a testament to human imagination and creativity. I’ve included the reporter’s e-mail address so skeptics can correspond. From the Korea Times: A cloned Turkish Angola […]

Ben Stein Takes on Goldman and Loses

Does Ben Stein, who writes the more-or-less weekly “Everyone’s Business” column at the New York Times, have any pride of authorship? Stein’s articles have a cobbled-together quality, as if he agglomerated whatever was rattling around in his brain and called it a day when he got to his word count (I’ll concede he might have […]

Credit Crunch Humor

Who was it who said money is too important to be taken seriously? I came across this video courtesy Dave Iverson at Economic Dreams – Economic Nightmares. Enjoy!

How to Look Generous on the Cheap

A very useful holiday shopping advisory from Eliezer Yudkowsky at Overcoming Bias. Bottom line: you get more credit from buying the top item in cheapie categories than by buying low to moderate priced items in more exclusive types of goods. But the reaction also depends on whether the recipient is able to evaluate what they […]

Psychopharmacologist’s Song

Completely deranged. Wonder what he’s on. I think I want some. Hat tip aci.net:

Humans May Have Shortened the Life of the Universe

Never mind global warming. Human observation of the universe may have accelerated its demise. An article in New Scientist discusses the theory developed by cosmologists Lawrence Krauss of Case Western Reserve University and James Dent of Vanderbilt University. They believe that the observation of dark energy made in 1998 may have caused the universe to […]

Surfer Comes Up With New Theory of Everything

No, the headline is not a variant on the now tired joke, “What does a guru order at a McDonalds? ‘Make me one with everything.’” It instead refers to a different sort of messianic endeavor, the quest in physics to come up with a unified theory that integrates all known types of matter and forces. […]

Payday Lending Video

Time for comic relief. Hat tip Credit Slips:

Man Marries Dog

From the BBC: An Indian man has married a female dog, believing the union will help him atone for stoning two other dogs to death.P Selvakumar, 33, said he had been cursed since the killings, suffering paralysis and a loss of hearing. The wedding took place at a Hindu temple in Tamil Nadu state. The […]

Ten Seriously Misguided Experiments

Folks, it’s a slow day in the media and blogland, not even a sighting of Ben Stein to liven things up. So I will pass along this story (warning: gross at points) from the Times of London, which recaps an article from Science Magazine on the ten “wackiest” experiments of all time. Unfortunately, this falls […]