The Filter^

Doing your bit for climate change

One of the funniest exchanges about climate change I've seen - Have I Got News For You last night (8min 16sec - 11min), where James May and Reginald D Hunter ripped into Ian Hislop. I just loved the attitude towards scientific experimentation: cynical at how experiments are conducted, but generally respectful of the scientific process

I need to get my own data... my research is inconclusive

One of the funniest emails I've ever received...

November 16th 2006

Dear Grad students,

Several weeks ago, a grad student borrowed a hammer to use in a demonstration to their class.  Please return it to the Economics Department in Enterprise 354.

Washington Post's Annual Neologism Contest

I've finally found a stable URL (as opposed to email) link for the following:

The Washington Post has published the winning submissions to its yearly contest,in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words.

1. Coffee (n.) the person upon whom one coughs.
2. Flabbergasted (adj.) appalled over how much weight you have gained.
3. Abdicate (v.) to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
4. Esplanade (v.) to attempt an explanation while drunk.
5. Willy-nilly (adj.) impotent.
6. Negligent (adj.) describes a condition in which you absent-mindedly answer the door in your nightgown.
7. Lymph (v.) to walk with a lisp.
8. Gargoyle (n.) olive-flavored mouthwash.
9. Flatulence (n.) emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are run over by a steamroller.
10. Balderdash (n.) a rapidly receding hairline.
11. Testicle (n.) a humorous question on an exam.
12. Rectitude (n.) the formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.
13. Pokemon (n) a Rastafarian proctologist.
14. Oyster (n.) a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.
15. Frisbeetarianism (n.) (back by popular demand): The belief that, when you die, your Soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.
16. Circumvent (n.) an opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men.

I AM SHOUTING!!!

I recently taught a course that covered communication skills and email style, reminding me of the following (via Peter Klein):

Years ago, I was participating in an email discussion with Heckman, who made all of his contributions to the conversation IN ALL CAPS.

As I recall, I privately emailed him to suggest — diplomatically, I hoped — that if he didn’t find the shift key convenient, he could just eschew upper case altogether and type using only lower case, like e.e. cummings. You see, I explained, using all caps gives other readers the impression that you are shouting.

“I AM SHOUTING!” he emailed back.

Book review of the day

The Economist:

“The Age of the Unthinkable” is a thought-provoking book. Unfortunately, one of the thoughts that it provokes is that its central argument is wrong.

If you love women so much...

I've just seen this superb website, "Speak your brains". The premise is simple: (STEP 1) quote actual comments left by members of the public on the BBC's "Have your say" site. Such as:

Does this mean that ‘anyone’ can effectively stake out my house or the houses on a street? So, for example, if this works in anything like ‘realtime’, a criminal could ‘watch’ my house from his PC (as opposed to lurking about suspiciously), work out my usual routine and then plan his business accordingly. I can think of a lot of other reasons why this and Google Earth could be a very handy tool for certain unsavoury members of society!
Johnny PH, Leeds

(STEP 2) mock them:

I started off feeling a little bit sorry for Johnny and thought perhaps it was too easy to mock someone who doesn’t understand modern technology. Then I realised we’re not talking about someone who doesn’t understand the difference between a router and a hub, or someone who can’t distinguish between emails and webpages. This is someone who not only believes that Google has invented magic, invisible techno-eyes but also imagines that, faced with the chance to virtually visit anywhere in the world, people have decided they’d rather watch some cunt from Leeds going about his “routine”

There is something fundamentally dangerous about the democratisation of opinion that leads to expert judgment being curtailed for the thoughts of the general public. I appreciate how elitist that sounds, but I am speaking as a member of the general public. If I'm watching a news story about heart disease, I would rather hear from a respectable authority on the issue than a token person off the street. Which is why I don't watch the news anymore.

GORDON BROWN SUICIDE

You know what it's like - a few days after a night out you're looking through your phone and discover photos that you can't remember taking. It makes you glad that camera phones weren't about when you were at uni, and also curious as to what the rest of this headline was.

Speaking of Gordon Brown, this video is fantastic

Finno-Ugric Joke of the Week

A Finno-Ugric joke tells of migrating tribal forebears finding a signpost on the steppe reading: "To civilisation". Those that could not read it went north and became Finns. Those that could went to Central Europe and became Hungarians. (Finns tell the story the other way around).

(From The Christmas Economist 2005, previously posted on January 10th 2006)

50 Greatest comedy clips

Are here. Very US-centric, but the challenge is to list the ones that should have made it. For me:

• The Two Ronnies - 'Crossed Lines'
• Newman & Baddiel's 'History Today'
• Does 'The Day Today' count?

What else makes you go ha-bloody-ha?

Seinfeld: The challenge

For a while now I've had an idea for a new episode of Seinfeld. Rather than do the full screenplay, I'll just write up the main plot. The challenge is to make it as Seinfeld-like as possible.

I have the basic storyline but am now trying to pepper it with recurring character behaviour. Historically these probably occur less often than we imagine, but since this is speculative fiction the challenge is to incorporate as many as possible. The types of behaviour I'm thinking about are things like:

• Elaine pushes someone (possible shouting "get OUT!")
• Jerry ends up paying lots of money
• Kramer using one form of social convention in an inappropriate environment
• Kramer engaging in slapstick comedy

So help me out - what are some other Seinfeld conventions?