Friday, March 27, 2009

Short attention span theater

Little boy, pointing at Obama poster: Look, mommy it's Will Smith!
Mother: No, honey, that's not Will Smith. That's...uhmmmm... (to husband) What the fuck was his name again?

--Columbia University

via Overheard In New York

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Henry David Thoreau:

"The heart is forever inexperienced."

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Howard Cosell:

"Mommy, why does daddy cuss the TV and call it Howard?"

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Where's Atreyu?



click for big

Meister Eckhart:

“The eye with which I see God is the same eye with which God sees me."

Monday, March 23, 2009

Tonga's out of virgins, apparently



click for big

R. Buckminster Fuller:

“Everyone is born a genius, but the process of living de-geniuses them."

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Unquote

"Just go up to somebody on the street and say “You’re it!” and then run away."

- Ellen DeGeneres

and

"I have long known that it is part of God’s plan for me to spend a little time with each of the most stupid people on earth."

- Bill Bryson

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Yes, he did!

Lanky white guy: Well, I'm still expecting my pony from Obama.
Female friend: He cured your leprosy. Stop complaining.

--187th & Broadway

Via Overheard In New York

Synthetic Life Form Grows in Florida Lab

Feb. 27, 2009 -- When NASA began thinking about missions to look for life beyond Earth, it realized it had a problem: how to recognize life if it were found.

Scientists came up with a definition for life -- a self-sustaining chemical system capable of Darwinian evolution -- but remained understandably fuzzy on the details.

It is still not known how life on Earth took hold, what happened to a bunch of chemicals that made them capable of supporting a metabolism, replicating and evolution. But a new field of science, called synthetic biology, is aiming to find out.

One of the most promising developments lies in a beaker of water inside a Florida laboratory. It's an experiment called AEGIS -- an acronym for Artificially Expanded Genetic Information System. Its creator, Steve Benner, says it is the first synthetic genetic system capable of Darwinian evolution

From Discovery News

anyone else think they should stop this now?

Monday, March 2, 2009

You know that saying? It's too late...

On Nov. 4, 1909, English pilot John Moore-Brabazon put a pig in a basket, tied it to a wing, and took off.

The basket read I AM THE FIRST PIG TO FLY.

via Futility Closet

Yeah, but he's not Irish...

Hipster guy: I need some toothpaste and...what else did I say I needed?
Hipster girl, shouting: Condoms!
Hipster guy: Shhhhh!
(everyone in store starts chuckling)
Hipster girl: The extra small ones.
Hipster guy: Shhhh!
Hipster girl: With a juicy flavor!

--Rite Aid, 6th Ave & 11th St

Via Overheard In New York

Fragments of Ancient Egyptian Papyrus Found

Feb. 27, 2009 -- Some newly recovered papyrus fragments may finally help solve a century-old puzzle, shedding new light on ancient Egyptian history.

Found stored between two sheets of glass in the basement of the Museo Egizio in Turin, the fragments belong to a 3,000-year-old unique document, known as the Turin Kinglist.

Like many ancient Egyptian documents, the Turin Kinglist is written on the stem of a papyrus plant.

Believed to date from the long reign of Ramesses II, the papyrus contains an ancient list of Egyptian kings.

From Discovery News

Sunday, March 1, 2009

What will Christina Aguilera do then?

Computer Zeroes in on Oldest English Words

Feb. 27, 2009 -- The oldest words in the English language include "I" and "who," while words like "dirty" could die out relatively quickly, U.K. researchers report.

Scientists at the University of Reading have used a supercomputer called ThamesBlue to model the evolution of words in English and the wider family of Indo-European languages over the last 30,000 years.

From Discovery News