Warning on a piece of equipment at my gym:
STOP EXERCISING IF YOU FEEL WEAK OR FAINT
Showing posts with label ?. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ?. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
I know what they MEANT, but...
Friday, August 28, 2009
This day in history: Lunar Lunacy
"On August 28, 1835, one of newspaper history's most notorious hoaxes was perpetrated by the New York Sun. An article in a week-long series about the telescopic 'discoveries' of esteemed British astronomer Sir John Herschel -- an alleged reprint from the nonexistent Edinburgh Journal of Science -- described his detection of winged, humanlike beings on the moon. Sir John was quoted as saying, 'We counted three parties of these creatures walking erect in a small wood... They averaged about four feet in height, were covered, except on the face, with short and glossy copper-colored hair, and had wings composed of a thin membrane without hair, lying snugly upon their backs, from the top of their shoulders to the calves of the legs. The face, a yellowish flesh color, was a slight improvement upon that of the large orangutan.' The ruse temporarily catapulted the Sun ahead of its rivals and went on to badly embarrass those who copied the story without authenticating it. The New York Daily Advertiser, for example, wrote that Herschel 'added a stock of knowledge to the present age that will immortalize his name.'" (via my Dictionary of Forgotten English desk calendar)
More on the Sun's moon hoax here.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Wednesday coffee break: Fun with Google Analytics
Some of the keyword searches people were using over the past year when they stumbled upon our little ol' URMAblog. Feel free to use any of these as a jumpoff point for your next poem, short story, folk song, or flashback:
don't step in that
short words are words of might
break a kindle
cap'n franks nc
found that ducks may be even more comfortable standing under a sprinkler
hot housewives 2008 pictures
urma pics
redsex
was darwin wrong
bluesex
coffee makes you happy
oh evolve
best way to win a debate
chuck berry is on top
pretend restaurant
cold down
nyuk nyuk
break nut
endowment effect cartoon
good screenplay
new zealand citizenship requirements
perks for employees
the snobbishness of the learned
a&m rubber ducks
agoraphobia parrots
parrots for psychosis
black hole black coffee
coffee makes you break out
egg corns
easy ways to win a debate
evolution for dummies
feel dizzy
i hate my copy editor
jason smith breaks neck
nutjobs r us
pictures of 100 year old men
rich kids want pity
rubber ducky you're the one
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Friday, August 7, 2009
Friday coffee break: the weirdest thing you will see all week
One Got Fat: Bicycle Safety, 1963. "A group of children, all wearing ape masks, rides their bicycles to the park for a picnic. Along the way, all but one are eliminated for violating basic bike safety rules. This strange film was narrated by Edward Everett Horton."
"Farewell, Mossby Pomegranate -- victim of fallen arches."
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
Can't possibly be true
"The normal way that the U.S. Bureau of Prisons transfers "low-risk" inmates between institutions is to buy them bus tickets and release them unescorted with an arrival deadline. In the last three years, reported the Las Vegas Sun in May, 90,000 inmates were transferred this way, and only about 180 absconded. Though supposedly carefully pre-screened for risk, one man still on the loose is Dwayne Fitzen, a gang-member/biker who was halfway through a 24-year sentence for cocaine-dealing. (Since the traveling inmates are never identified as prisoners, Greyhound is especially alarmed at the policy.)" [San Jose Mercury News-Las Vegas Sun, 5-23-09, via newsoftheweird.com]
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
Friday coffee break: alcoholic monkeys in St. Kitt's, via the BBC
"Just as we vary in our tastes for alcohol, so do the monkeys...just as some people are teetotalers, so are some of the monkeys. Significantly, the percentage of teetotaler monkeys matches the nondrinkers in the human population..."
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Thursday coffee break: how many colors?
"You see embedded spirals, right, of green, pinkish-orange, and blue?" Not quite. (discover magazine)
Monday, June 8, 2009
To kill? A mockingbird.
Mockingbirds may look pretty much alike to people, but they can tell us apart and are quick to react to folks they don't like. Birds rapidly learn to identify people who have previously threatened their nests and sounded alarms and even attacked those folks, while ignoring others nearby, researchers report in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"This shows a bird is much more perceptive of its environment than people had previously suspected," said Douglas J. Levey, a professor in the zoology department of the University of Florida. (USA Today, 5/19/2009; hat tip to newsoftheweird.com)
Monday coffee break: You can't make this stuff up
"my name is gerry (jerry) phillips and i have been playing songs on my hands for 38 years! [queen's] brian may wrote this about this video: 'I gotta say ........ this is one of the greatest videos I have ever seen ... the guy is brilliant ... '"
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Thursday coffee break: like weird stuff?
American Stonehenge: Monumental Instructions for the Post-Apocalypse "The Georgia Guidestones may be the most enigmatic monument in the US: huge slabs of granite, inscribed with directions for rebuilding civilization after the apocalypse. Only one man knows who created them -- and he's not talking." (wired.com)
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Yikes.
Texas lawmaker: Asians should change their names to make them ‘easier for Americans to deal with.’
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Wednesday coffee break, part 2: complaining holidaymakers
Aroused elephant tops list of bizarre holiday grievances: Telegraph Travel has compiled a list of the 20 most riduculous complaints received by tour operators. (telegraph.co.uk)
Monday, February 16, 2009
Monday, February 9, 2009
Top 15 Unanswered Questions posed by Chuck Berry
A dubiously useful list in no particular order.
1. Maybellene, why can't you be true?
2. What to do?
3. Will you dine and dance with me?
4. Out the door?
5. Nadine, honey is that you?
6. How long to get fixed?
7. Should I pick you up at a quarter to eleven?
8. Is it a date?
9. Where to dine?
10. Can we get in?
11. Girl, what'd I say?
12. Oh mommy, mommy, please may I go?
13. Oh baby doll, will it end for you and me?
14. Who's the queen standin' over by the record machine?
15. Would you get hip to this kindly tip?
Monday, February 2, 2009
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