brainwagon

From the “It’s fun to be a Luddite” file, witness this bit of news from the BBC that Merck’s new vaccine to prevent cervical cancer might be available within the year. Cervical cancer is associated with the human papillomovirus. The drug Gardasil was apparently 100% effective at preventing early stage cancers and pre-cancerous abnormalities, which […]

It’s just like what it sounds like.

Over at boingboing, bpowah has designed a “walking fish” graphic for Pastafarians. I love it. I want one for the bumper of my car. Confused? Try looking at this Wikipedia entry.

When it comes to most things, I’m about as geeky and gonzo for gizmos as you could possibly imagine, but in some things, I’m a bit of a purist. It’s hard to argue with a charcoal fire for cooking salmon and steaks. It’s hard argue with roses and diamonds for an annivery gift. And baseball […]

Okay, okay, it’s not really a gem, except in the sense that it’s interesting to read an early example of utter and complete mumbo jumbo. Occult Chemistry, by Annie Besant and Charles W. Leadbeater is an extensive, detailed, and complete description of chemistry as revealed to the authors through clairvoyance. Published in 1919, the exact […]

Damn! I hesitate to claim fraud, but is this really possible? Courtesy of the Make Blog.

I found the rather curious non-word “skeptable” in a posting, and wondered just how often people used this particular bastardization of the word skeptical. The answer is ::google(“skeptable”, “quite a lot”)::. Try for instance this link from Waukegan Schools that instructs parents on how to educate their children: Have a ZERO tolerance for ANY grade […]

just how did this seem like a good idea? I mean really, did someone pitch the idea like “I know, to emphasize how the comments in the press can turn around and reflect badly on our organization, let’s make a training video featuring a topless lesbian wedding!”? Did that seem like a good idea to […]

Estimates are varied, but it seems clear that over a million people saw the pope’s body before he was finally buried over the weekend. Keeping with the spirit of brainwagon, let’s not dwell on the greater impact this man’s life had on the world, but rather just concentrate on the trivial aspects. Assume that each […]

A crook decided to break into the counterfeiting business. To ensure success, he decided that he would only try to pass his phony currency in the most back water towns deep in the heart of hillbilly country, figuring that most of the poor and simple folk who lived there had never seen denominations of even […]

Hitachi has a technical briefing the breakthrough Storage Technology which is used in their latest drives, destined for an mp3 player or cell phone near you. Did I mention that you’ll need Flash to view it? Link courtesy of Dave Slusher.

Your beloved editor (that’s me, in case you didn’t realize) was apparently taken in by an Internet hoax. The image of the “computer of the future” envisioned by Rand scientists in 1954 is in fact a cleverly edited photograph from a Navy website which shoes a full scale mockup of a nuclear submarine’s maneuvering room. […]

Oh, good, Lord. Gizmodo : The Amazing Breast Enhancing Ring Tone Is there even one person this stupid?

The caption reads: Scientists from the RAND Corporation have created this model to illustrate how a “home computer” could look like in the year 2004. However the needed technology will not be econimically feasible for the average home. Also the scientists readily admit that the computer will require not yet invented technology to actually work, […]

Oh good God. I think I’m glad I can’t understand Japanese. The idea that I might “get” what this is all about just numbs my already enfeebled brain. Thanks to the gents at Metafilter for crowding my brain with this.