Monkey ping pong foreigner gangs and the pursuit of happiness

All from the internets:

• Why the whole world, not just the internet, is like a ball of monkeys – Cracked.com
• I guess I’m not a molecular biologist anymore, this does not make sense to me (ping pong, aubergine, Tudors, Krimping?) – Dara Sosulski
• Fun with Foreigners (not the band) – Sometimes I Make Lists
• Co-operating with the Police (also not the band) – All Men Are Liars
• (If you only click one of these links CLICK THIS ONE) And the pursuit of happiness – NY Times

Final image by me – original base by smooshmasterflex (Creative Commons)

Critters and chainsaws

Ah… the internet:

• Top 10 species discoveries 2009
• Creatures that can kill you without you seeing them first
• Bizarre writing prompts
• Food for thought if you hand chainsaws for arms

Image credit: Snazzy llama pic by complicated combination of Laurie Pink, Lispencie and others… [Creative Commons]

Love, share, learn

As seems to always be the case, as soon as I decide to take a short blog break, people link to me.

Greg did it twice. Hat-tipping me for that cool UK Swine Flu video I spotted – and also featuring some of my flu posts on this month’s Scientia Pro Publica – a collection of awesome science blogging written for the people – this month’s theme: OMG … Science is Everywhere! You can read more about SciProPub at Grrl Scientist.

I have also been quoted (and named, with my real name!) at BNET Pharma industry blog. I do have to agree with the sentiment. It would be a lot easier to sound sane if when I try to defend Pharma against claims of unethical practices if the industry I am trying to defend would just kindly stop engaging in them…

Linkdump and run

So tomorrow, having had recovered from the last few days of furious drinking, running and cleaning, I’ll be making the almost 1000km drive up the Pacific Highway back to Brisbane (in an awesome big red shiny car*).

So here is a quick linkdump to keep you amused – until I get housing, employment and classes fixed posting may become even more irregular than usual. Bear with me, on the positive side, I should be able to amp up the quality of my posts as I will now be (A) student with nothing better to do, (B) be in a better mood than recent months.

• I think this experiment explains why I think physics is insane and will cause your head to explode (you have been warned)
• With biology you get to have fun without creating a paradox that causes your brain to explode. Check out the TimeTree of Life. It’s always difficult frustrating to trawl through various papers that ultimately disagree on at least some level as to when certain clades diverged. This neat tool pretty much indexes all the relevant papers and can pop out divergence times at the click of the button, complete with reference. Protip: check that the name you are using refers to what you think it does (I had trouble when I used Echidna to represent Monotremata)
• Need to buy something in private?
• The future is NOW… in a bookstore near you
• I wonder if I would get in trouble for printing this out and taping it to a classroom wall?
• Are you a scoftic? You know who you are Mr Nobody-Needs-Vitamins
• via The Scientist’s forums – awesome stem cell micrograph flickr gallery
• Some of you may have seen this awesome optical illusion – but check out the examples of it in action by commentor Grand Dizzy – here, here, here, here and here

*FACT: Red ones go faster

Image credit: explodingdog

Your internet has a drugs

Whiz Kids: Alec & Shanna and The Computer That Said NO To Drugs!

Computers and drugs, do they mix?

So the last post didn’t quite Pharm me all out as it was supposed to, so here’s a few remaining links in my medical marketing and related sturf I’d like to purge from my chest before they become totally irrelevant:

1. Dose of Digital has a Top 10 marketing ideas for Pharma. I wonder if the critics agree with any of these (such as doing away with branded websites)
2. Tips for using Twitter as a pain log (also advice on when to ignore your doctor)
3. The UK National Health Service (NHS) has engaged the community online with a remarkably well done website. Not only does it provide health advice, contact details and news – it also responsibly examines health claims made by the UK media and lets you know the real story between red meat and sperm.
4. The U.S. FDA has made steps towards global domination: In January it set up its first permanent base in Costa Rica
5. A bit more technical, an article on establishing standards in biomarkers research. Biomarkers are molecular tests used to type diseases like cancers to determine which treatments are the best for you.

Feast of the Unicorn

Just some things I wanted to get out of my chest of unlinked links (plus I promised dolphins a while ago)

• Dolphins don’t need cutlery or tools to go a-hunting
• Dolphins are stupid smart and don’t need our protection (they’re always beaching themselves)
• Karoshi Suicide Salesman flash game – last few levels are tricky – walkthrough here
• Children’s classic Cluedo to be updated
• One-armed women are invading playschool and beauty contests

Image credit: submarinefeast ©unforgivablerealness

Darwin day: Rational selection

With the BlogForDarwin blogswarm coming to a close, here are a few selected stories.

While no head-mounted lascannon, Darwin had a magic hammer. Was he a mortal incarnation of the mighty Thor? You’ll find in this post at Life Science Tools of the Trade further evidence incriminating Darwin as a single minded rare-species killing machine (and that he did it in full knowledge that the fox was a rare inhabitant of the island). Luckily(?) the dodo was already extinct 100 years by the time Chuck D was roaming the seas “collecting specimens”.

Christie (I avoid the N-word where I can) elegantly posits why Darwin day is a good idea, but that good biologists are not “Darwinists”. Science works and *ahem* evolves beyond original concepts.

It’s not that Darwin was wrong, as some feeble-minded magazine cover designers have purported. It’s that he wasn’t complete.

Deep Thoughts and Silliness plays it a little less diplomatically, stating Darwin WAS Wrong.

John Wilkins uses a comprimise: Darwin was wrong…ish. And also points out that some of “Darwinism” that has been shown to be wrong wasn’t even Darwin’s work anyway.

Faith In Honest doubt had an interesting post last year, but has decided this year to point out someone else shares Darwin’s exact birthdate.

Tiffany Day – two weeks late

Tiffany Day was January 6.

I’m sure she’ll be relieved to know (Although, St Tiffany was a guy, and his feast day was November 24)

Tiffany totally forgot to mention any of this when she was interviewed last Thursday’s Eve. Disappointed…

In her interview Tiffany confesses her thirst for blood, blames her father and wonders why anyone is interested in her at all.

To predict your next question – Tiffany is an astronomy student, Macquarie skeptic and contributor to the popular The Skeptic Zone podcast (and also a judo Olympian from Queensland. aha! Google has betrayed your secrets to me). She’s even available on a T-shirt. And hopefully she doesn’t find this blog post in any way disturbing.

Fun fact: Tiffany can either mean “manifestation of God”  from Greek, or “thin veil” or “gauze” in Old Middle English. Thanks, internets.

I was kidnapped by lesbians from outer space

“You have well developed canines”

I’ll take things you don’t want to hear (or say) on a date for $500. Oh what an interesting weekend…

This photo got so many positive comments on my facebook profile.

Two vampire links today:

Via A Good Poop – some “nasty ass case reports” at forensic nurse detailing real-life cases of haemophagy (blood consumption) behaviour. Sadly Bobbi Jo sinks into blaming Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Masquerade, and even D & D, for dangerous sadomachistic behaviour. With some weird witchhunt-esque scaremongering about a Tome entitled “Book of Shadows”.

There is also this Penny Arcade comic. My sister had a little chat about me borrowing her Laurel K. Hamilton novels. Honestly I’m with the blonde stranger, Hamilton actually had talent. The books were actually quite good before, not that the freaky voodoo sex is a turn off or anything.

Monkeys and Shakespeare, your love was forbidden

I have now pretty much imported all the links I was going to from my old Kickin’ Moron Ass sidebar.

One of the things that didn’t make the cut was the almighty Monkey Shakspeare Simulator. An online project attempting to test out Infinite Monkey Theroeom.

A non-working archive can be seen here for those after a whif of nostalgia.

A summary detailing the background and scope the Shakespeare simulator can be found at Everything2 – included below the fold for your pleasure.

The MSS even got a mention on USA Today.

Dominatrix Barbie says it’s link week!

Hai!!

Still no internet connected. I’m getting anti-Mac discrimination from optus. So it’s going to be a random splurge of simple links this week.

Posting from work, and this better not see me violating my new work’s internet code of conduct (I can’t access facebook or MSN, wikipedia has been my only salvation).

I feel a little weird linking to Cosmopolitan, but you can’t expect me to have resisted the temptation to click on something that says Dominatrix Barbie now can you?

What’s wrong with a little destruction?

Utilising the awesome power invested in me by the Wikimedia Foundation, I nominated some poor rpg fanboys work for deletion. (Actually I prod-ed which could be consider better or worse than an afd). The rpg/persistent world has been dead for quite some time. Probably another poor overadventurous utopian sandbox-style wannabe squashed by the likes of warcraft, anarchy and SL.

Not that exciting of a story, but decent enough excuse to throw out two other links to punic worlds I’ve stumbled on recently.

Compare:

Planet Urf

and

Planet Irf.