Category: General

Quoting now from an email Trish sent me this morning, after Sarah went to her one year doctor’s appointment: Sarah had her one-year appointment this morning. I don’t have the exact measurements with me, but she’s 90th percentile for height, 75th for weight, and well over 100th for head circumference. She had three needles, each of which got progressively more… Read more →

In response to a thread where scientists discuss silly things that non-scientists have said to them, a similar thread has sprung up where philosophers have the same kind of discusstion. Reading through this really amused me, especially the places where the “public” (which might be best read as “non-academic” but also including “non-amateur philosophers”) perception of the field interacts with… Read more →

My favourite post in the blogosphere today. Here’s a little bit for you: You, dear mechanic, proceeded to tell me that the knock sensor was wearing out, and needed to be replaced, to the tune of $250. I immediately called BULLSHIT on that, and asked you to check my extended warranty. When you told me that my extended warranty didn’t… Read more →

(This meme contracted from Kristine Smith, who’s books I quite enjoy desipte their mil-porn covers (well, the first three anyway), and who’s answer to the last question really made me smile.) Be warned, unless you are me, the odds are good you will not recognize all of these names, but Google will not let you down. Best fictional character to… Read more →

A fun blog to read: Pharyngula by U.Minn. biology professor Paul Z. Myers. At least it’s fun for me to read, since the content often involves smacking down various ridiculous “Intelligent Design” proponents and other pseudo scientific drivel. Plus, lots of scientific goodness. One fun thing to look into here is the ongoing intellectual beating Myers is giving George Gilder.… Read more →

The Houston Chronicle has a review of a new book, The Roots of Desire, which book purports to be about “The Myth, Meaning, and Sexual Power of Red Hair”. The review starts out strong, making me think I need to buy this book: Redheads make up only 2 percent of the American population. I would have guessed more. But that… Read more →

Wow, that was a long blogging break. Combination of the end of a product cycle at work, the start of a new one, building some new shelves, having parents visit, and having Sarah go through her first ear infection. (An aside–having a sick baby is very frustrating because there is nothing you can do. You can hear the crying, you… Read more →

Damn. Halifax is not supposed to get this hot. (P.S. You know how much you hate trying to sleep when it’s too hot? 10 month olds hate it just as much, if not more, and are not afraid to express an opinion on it.) Read more →

While God is on one side of Nairobi telling septagenarians to go all Mola Ram on tigers, apparently the Devil is on the other side telling cobblers to go down the Begnigni cab driver route: ‘The devil told me to have sex with sheep’ A cobbler suspected of sorcery was attacked and nearly lynched by outraged villagers in central Kenya… Read more →

The emphasis is mine. Grandfather kills leopard with his hands – Yahoo! News A 73-year-old Kenyan grandfather reached into the mouth of an attacking leopard and tore out its tongue to kill it, authorities said Wednesday. Peasant farmer Daniel M’Mburugu was tending to his potato and bean crops in a rural area near Mount Kenya when the leopard charged out… Read more →

Everyone and their cousin has seen the six-legged, two penis dog story by now, so I won’t go into that. I do, however, want to take a moment to call attention to a couple of “news of the weird” items from last week that shouldn’t slip by without attention. First, is the story about the German sex huts. What makes… Read more →

In order to more fully mock my wife’s horrible allergic reactions to bug bites, I spent some time today reading up on Joseph Merrick (a.k.a. “The Elephant Man”) at Wikipedia. The entry has all the basic information, but includes some details that literally could not be made up. In particular: He received care from this place until his death, a… Read more →

I love this article about teenage slang from Wales–I assume that it’s the newspaper writers being behind popular culture, and not in fact true that teen slang in Wales is North American suburb slang from ten years ago: Talk to the hand ‘cos the face ain’t listenin’ (with palm outstretched like a stop sign) – typical response to any kind… Read more →

+ = Either this is going to be genius, or it is going to be Ishtar bad. I see no middle ground. (Either way, I bet the movie poster is awesome.) Read more →