James Thurber. "It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers." [Quotes of the Day]

7:49:36 AM    

comment [] Alexandre Dumas. "Rogues are preferable to imbeciles because they sometimes take a rest." [Quotes of the Day]
7:49:00 AM    

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Stranger Than...

They should not do things like this to me. Can you imagine how I felt, reading "Secretary Rumsfeld resigns after Kay report, citing pledge to grandson," before seeing the itsy bitsy word "satire" up in the corner?

President Bush Pens a Poem. This one is real. Roll over, Robert Frost and all you other word frauds.

7:47:03 AM    

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Quirky Scientists Win Ig Nobelity. Celebrating cutting-edge scientific discoveries such as how best to drag a sheep to be sheared and necrophilia in mallard ducks, the Ig Nobel awards honor scientists who fail to draw mainstream attention for their research. Mark Baard reports from Cambridge, Massachusetts. [Wired News]

You can read about past winners in The Ig Nobel Prizes, which the publisher calls "A sidesplitting compendium that pays tribute to those individuals whose scientific achievements cannot or should not be reproduced." Some of the more notable winners were:

• creators of a birthing machine that spins expectant mothers at a high speed [You try it, buddy, with a watermelon strapped to your gizzard.]
• authors who explain why people don't need to eat food [oh, please]
• church leaders who devised a mathmatical formula for determining how many Alabamans were bound for hell [including themselves?]
• scientists who deemed romantic love indistinguishable from obsessive-compulsive disorder [You know, they just might be on to something.]

Scientists Meditate on Happiness. In other strange liaisons, the Dalai Lama took part in the recent Investigating the Mind conference at MIT. He's been in dialog with scientists for 17 years in pursuit of physical evidence for the benefits of contemplative practice. Were it not for centuries-old prior commitments, the Dalai Lama speculates he would have been an engineer. At least in this economy, he's got a steady job, unlike engineers.

7:36:02 AM    

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