mindstalk | Entries tagged with humor

"Critics were divided on the scene where Arwen tells Frodo the history of the rings while naked in the bath, but audiences gave it the highest ratings of the 2023 season..."

Crossposts: https://mindstalk.livejournal.com/561709.html

Judges 1:19, Matthew 27:52-53.

Crossposts: https://mindstalk.livejournal.com/559409.html

Still watching his Coursera. He's often funny.

Asteroids are the rubber duckies of the Solar System.

Many acronyms are "lame!" As a Caltech professor, I wonder what he thinks about SURF (Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship.)

He's shameless about "eight planets", and how Pluto is the second biggest Kuiper Belt object. (Would be third if Neptune hadn't captured Triton.)

Bunch more, but I have a poor memory for funny moments, my own or other people's.

Crossposts: http://mindstalk.livejournal.com/483534.html

Inspired by a Scalzi article on accurate but misleading movie descriptions, I tried some of my own. Not always as complete as his:

Cordelia's Honor: a woman falls in love with her captor and is convinced to cover up a mass murder.

The Warriors Apprentice: a mentally unstable noble acquires a private fleet through deceit.

Nine Princes in Amber: the inmate of an insane asylum has increasingly surreal adventures.

The X-Men: a teen runaway meets and falls for a much older and dangerous man.

Castle in the Sky: two kids defy the advice of their elders and destroy a priceless historical site.

Nanoha: a boy spends months living with a girl without telling her he's a boy.

Lord of the Rings: a special forces team sets out to infiltrate enemy territory and assassinate the enemy leader. Multiple betrayals ensue.

Crossposts: http://mindstalk.livejournal.com/447720.html

Michael Moorcock on writing 60K novels in three days. Granted, part of the secret is prep work. http://www.wetasphalt.com/content/how-write-book-three-days-lessons-michael-moorcock

Relatedly, Stross on why modern SF novels are longer: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/03/cmap-5-why-books-are-the-lengt.html Old constraint of magazine serialization, new one of US hardcover binding and non-linear response to pricing. We also learn that the UK uses glue (misleadingly called 'perfect') binding for everything, while the US still mostly sews its hardcovers.

A comment there leads to a Kipling poem, something of a shaggy dog pun poem.
http://allpoetry.com/The-Three-Decker

***

Unrelated humor:

Retweeted William Germano (@WmGermano):
She decided to teach postcolonial theory instead of seventeenth-century poetry.
Because, well, you know, easier Said than Donne.

Crossposts: http://mindstalk.livejournal.com/439566.html

meth lab dog
http://fcdn.roadbikereview.com/attachments/lounge/289765d1386834851-make-meth-stop-meth-lab-dog.jpg
penguin cymbals
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2264/2490739514_8489e9ee1a.jpg
attempted murder of crows
http://bitsandpieces.us/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/imagesattempted-murder.jpg
cupcake dog
http://weknowgifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/cupcake-dog-gif.gif
i am the night http://cdn.iwastesomuchtime.com/11920122037181.jpg
gerbil closeup
http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view/129865/dramatic-prairie-dog-o.gif
animals in a box
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Y-iXbMMoMJQ/UqufeI3mhlI/AAAAAAAAAEo/CG_LqhNOpKY/s576/132.jpg
cat balloon plan http://cheezburger.com/2253757184
vomiting sphinx http://i.imgur.com/X7SIU.jpg
fall cat fail
http://siji.cz/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/fat-cat-jump-fail-o.gif
none pizza with left beef
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbm9tfmwQI1r8a8j4o1_500.jpg
anatomy of a wasp
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v674/MarianLH/Cake/Yellow%20Jacket%2002%20-%20Anatomy%20of%20a%20Wasp_zpssel97b7o.jpg
people in science matrix PhD matrix
https://www.sfu.ca/content/sfu/dean-gradstudies/blog/tips/ScienceChart/_jcr_content/main_content/image.img.jpg/1375726892714.rendition-medium.jpg
Iceland question
http://cdn.funnymemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/funny-memes-oh-boy.jpg

Crossposts: http://mindstalk.livejournal.com/424922.html

SAD

Judge gives people a choice of jail or church for a year http://www2.wkrg.com/news/2011/sep/22/serve-time-jailor-church-ar-2450720/ You'll be unsurprised to learn it's Alabama.

Carbon credit land theft http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/22/world/africa/in-scramble-for-land-oxfam-says-ugandans-were-pushed-out.html

HAPPY

Non-violent first person shooters: http://www.popphoto.com/news/2011/09/warco-first-person-shooter-arms-you-camera-rather-gun
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_66/385-My-Hindu-Shooter

I've learned that the 'yucca' root I've eaten in restaurants is cassava, or 'yuca'. I'm horribly disappointed; as a one-time SoCal geologist, I'd seen eating yucca as revenge. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassava

Funny used yoga mat ad. http://seattle.livejournal.com/6491700.html

From James, another link about the explosion of space probes and the modern golden age of space exploration. http://babelniche.wordpress.com/2011/08/03/the-robot-population-of-deep-space/

New Goya painting found via X-rays http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15018174

Downtown Kroger has Medjool dates for $5.29 or $5.79 per 14 ounces. Cheaper than the $7.99/pound other places here have.

My bike's taillight was dim. I finally got out the screwdriver to replace the batteries. I noted that it still had light, and didn't fade right away, so I wondered if I really needed to replace it, but did so anyway. Holy crap! Whereas before it was "I am a light, technically", now it's bright enough to illuminate. Even the dimmest mode is a good deal brighter than the brightest one was before.

Nothing new, but my cork handlebar grips are still awesome. Look pretty dirty, but still feel better than my old plastic ones. I still don't know how they hold up in rain.

I'm pretty sure my parents cooked a lot with green onions (scallions), though I cannot remember exactly what, other than my birthday won tons, probably. I never did anything with them, but I figured I should finally give them a try. Still haven't sauteed with them, but chopped scallions has been a nice addition to alfredoish pasta, and I've mixed them into lambburger before cooking it. A good taste.

After getting some store sushi from Bloomingfood's, I remembered seared rare ahi tuna with pepper that I had long ago in SF. So I tried griding black pepper on the sushi (salmon, tuna, probably red snapper). Not a bad variation.

George Takei (Sulu) and Brad Altman tell married gays how to fill out their census form. Cute, short, youtube.

Why do anarchists drink herbal tea?

Because proper tea is theft. -- Aaron Denney

"See, it's called Easter in a linguistic shift from the antique Yeaster, which was used because He is Risen." -- 'Guvmint Helper' on RPG.net

...stocks are up and Federal bond rates are down. Why are the markets blind to the fall of the Republic? Why?!

(Not that I put much, ahem, stock in stock-o-mancy. But people liked to use it against Obama when convenient, so I figure return digs are in order. All that New! Inflationary! Spending! yet important people with money are willing to lend it to the government at *lower* rates today.)

Humor
* Headline writer apotheosis
* Imams issue fatwa against attacks on US or Canada. Archive of other condemnations of terror
* Key West secession
* Ongoing Silk road manga. More art porn than plot, but hey.
* Egineering and terror

News
If you haven't heard, Portugal's parliament approved gay marriage, while New Jersey's Senate rejected it.

* VISA's monopoly power and use of kickbacks to dominate the debit card market. High ime for some more regulation.

Picture news
* Social mobility graphic
* Graphic of future deficits: it's all about health care
* Map (second picture) of Senate delegations by party. It's interesting, in a way hard to pin down.
* Graphics of gay, cousin, and underage marriage laws by state
* Tesseract rotation. Another one. Roll 2d10 SAN loss.

Economics, law, crazy, and politics
* Progressives and deficits
* Real legislative transparency
* Dodd vs.Lieberman, and sacrifice for the party vs. clinging to power.
* Simple description of the NHS, as well as of some recent or upcoming changes
* America's deep history of crazy, like Alaskan mental hospitals political opponents were going to be sent to, at least in the same universe as "death panels" and "Obama's from Kenya"
* Christian terror in the US
* On Reid's statements and attitudes toward Black English
* Anti-abuse U visas

More random news
* Chinese lung cancers may be connected to coal containing silica from the Permian extinctions
* Lead poisoning and crime?
* More on the Antikythera device
* The nightmarish future of peace and prospe... well, peace, anyway, continues to advance: US violent crime rates continue drop
* A majority of Germans, as well as majorities of wealthy ones and Merkel's supporters, oppose Merkel's tax cuts
* Falsity of European economic decline
* (From 2007) Buffet: "I should pay more taxes"
* God vs. Allah in the Middle-East
* Helping the homeless vs. housing codes

james_nicoll on a recent xkcd.

Part of the fun of geekdom: mentally traumatizing each other.

Last week, at gamer's guild, Mykal and someone were talking about vagina dentata for some reason. I joked about "anus dentatus", for the gay set. Someone made the mistake of asking how teeth would get there, and I replied "Someone with dentures went rimming overenthusiastically." Mykal subsequently screams if someone says "dentures", or even mouths toothlessly at him.

Tonight at anime club, fanfic came up, and the phenomenon of assuming that people who appear to hate each other are really attracted to each other. Me: "So the whole world actually loves George Bush?" Jenny: "I don't like you anymore! I don't have anything to throw at you! Go sit somewhere else!"

Hee hee.

I could mention Darth Ochi's mindgames too, but it wouldn't make sense unless you've seen Hikaru no Go.