Friday fun: The Economist rap

'Friday' fun this week is a tad odd: it's the rap duo Psikotic on... The Economist. I won't try to explain further, that would be futile. Have a listen for yourself: Psikotic – The Economist.

(See also: The Guardian's take).

Friday fun: Frozen Grand Central

So I'm back from vacation and "Friday" fun is here... The video embedded below (or click here) is a beautiful illustration of the organizational wonder of the internet. Flash mobs are the WAY. This stunt, by the way, was the work of a group called Improv Everywhere.

Friday fun: Phd Comics

Oh the glories of methodological debates... (Click on the image for a better quality version).

Late Friday fun: Cectic

Cectic is a terrific, pointed and funny skeptical cartoon-strip, drawn by one Rudis Muiznieks and updated three times a week. Here is one of my favorites from the archives (click on the image for a better quality version):

Late Friday fun: 9/11 Conspiracy Theories 'Ridiculous,' Al Qaeda Says

I really should start calling it weekend fun... but, anyway. As I've said several times before, when confronting nonsense sometimes ridicule and satire are far more effective weapons than cool analysis. And the single best source of satire, in my opinion, is The Onion, "American's Finest News Source". In the hysterically funny video embedded below (or click here) the Onion's "Onion News Network" takes on the 9/11 conspiracy theorists...


9/11 Conspiracy Theories 'Ridiculous,' Al Qaeda Says

Friday fun: Cephalopods

Note: This week's fun is a bit late...

Cephalopods - squids, octupuses, cuttlefish and so on - might seem like an unlikely topic for Friday fun, but they're not, really. In the TEDTalk embedded below (or click here), David Gallo shares the wonders of these creatures (and some others). Truly amazing.

Friday fun: xkcd again

xkcd is deservidly one of the most popular web comics and Friday fun wouldn't be the same without it. There have been some classic xkcd's, like this one:

Friday fun: Penn & Teller reveal the saw trick

The magic duo Penn & Teller are terrific performers and first-rate skeptics (their show Bullshit debunks nonsense regularly). This week's Friday fun is a great act wherein Penn & Teller reveal how the famous (but now cheesy) saw trick is done. (The video is embedded below, here is the direct link to Metacafe). Obviously, if you don't want to know how the trick is done, don't watch the video...


Penn & Teller: Saw Trick Revealed! - The funniest home videos are here

Friday fun: A 'Scientific' Guide to Flirting

As I've said before, I am completely convinced some clever publisher will stumble upon the findings of evolutionary psychology and commission a self-help book based on its findings. It's bound to happen, if it hasn't already. In fact, there is a "scientific" self-help guide (based in part of evolutionary psychological findings) available online already: the Social Issues Research Centre's "SIRC Guide to Flirting". Combining common-sense and research findings, the guide offers amusing and (it seems to me) perfectly reasonable flirting advice.

Anyway, don't take it too seriously, this is "Friday fun" after all. (In other words, I disclaim all responsibility: if you follow the advice and it backfires, don't send me an angry email!)

Friday fun: The Onion Gets It

The people who produce The Onion, "America's Finest News Source", really get it. Their preposterously funny, entertaining, cutting satirical pieces invariably get to the heart of the topic, exposing bumpkin, spin, absurdity and the folly of the human condition along the way. Indeed, some of their articles do a better job of dealing with contentious issues than much longer non-satirical works. (Take how brilliantly they've exposed Creationism: "Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity With New 'Intelligent Falling' Theory", "I Believe In Evolution, Except For The Whole Triassic Period" and "Kansas Outlaws Practice Of Evolution", among others).

Anyway, to come to this week's Friday fun, a wonderful article on pseudoscience, entitled "Rogue Scientist Has Own Scientific Method":

"TALLAHASSEE, FL—Only months after abandoning a tenured position at Lehigh University, maverick chemist Theodore Hapner managed to disprove two of the three laws of thermodynamics and show that gold is a noxious gas, turning the world of science—defined for centuries by exhaustive research, painstaking observation, and hard-won theories—completely on its head.

The brash chemist, who conducts independent research from his houseboat, has infuriated peers by refusing to "play by the rules of Socrates, Bacon, and Galileo," calling test results as he sees them, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary..."
(Read the rest of the article).

Friday fun: The Pale Blue Dot

In the video embedded below (direct link to YouTube), the wonderful and sorely missed Carl Sagan reflects on what that famous image, the Pale Blue Dot, says about our place in the universe. Highly recommended.

Friday fun: A Random Quiz

I know a lot of very random stuff: that's what happens when you read a lot of books, have too many RSS subscriptions, watch TV shows like QI and spend far too much time on Wikipedia. So I was curious the other day - how much overlap is there between my recondite/random trivia knowledge and that of other people? To find out, I created the following quiz. (Obviously, this isn't really a test of anything substantive.)

To my surprise, when I posted it on Facebook as a note, one friend managed to get no fewer that 5 correct. Without further ado, the quiz...

1) Which country has a current head of state who has been dead for almost 15 years?

2) How did Marquis de Condorcet indirectly inspire Darwin’s discovery of the theory of natural selection?

3) What medical condition is it thought (but not established) that Paul of Tarsus, Mohammad and Joan of Ark had in common?

4) Which of the current or former candidates for the US presidential election in 2008 had a child serving in Iraq until recently?

5) What previous pandemic caused the evolution of a mutation that protects a proportion of people of European descent from being infected with HIV?

6) Which is the only region that we know of that had a (fairly recently extinct) bird as the top predator?

7) Which famous and extremely influential 19th century thinker’s thought may have been affected by a skin disease with known psychological effects?

8) What do the quotes “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it", ” “What’s good for General Motors is good for the country” and “War is the extension of politics by other means” have in common?

9) What name would be credited as director in American films and television series between 1968 and 1997 if the actual director wanted to be disassociated from the production?

10) What do Vladimir Putin, George Bush Snr., George Bush Jr. and John McCain have in common? (Other than being politicians and leaders).

Friday fun blogging

I apologize for not blogging recently, I've had a pretty serious bout of flu for a while now so I've been out of commission. (That and my teaching has started...). So this is my (newly instituted) version of 'Friday cat blogging'. It won't (usually) feature cats, but other funny /interesting / cool stuff.

The first installment is a fantastic xkcd cartoon. I try my best to remember its message when writing this blog... (Note: strong language ahead, avert your gaze if needed).