Daily Archives: November 10, 2011

9 posts

And the Oscar Host Gig Goes To…Billy Crystal!

Oh, crap. No, wait…yay! Urmph. Such conflict. On one hand he’s an Oscar testament. Seriously, if there were a tabernacle built on the undulating viscera that is the Oscar Stage where many have fallen on a sword of awful jokes, rambunctious dance numbers, a whole oven full of pot brownies, and the lovemaking of Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin — that tabernacle would be Billy Crystal. The bad part of this is we’re kinda afraid of Billy telling jokes that were last funny in 1992. Something about pecan pie and white men’s overbites. Sheesh. This could be awful.

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Everyone. Everyone! Twilight is Nearly Here!

Well, do you have tickets for the November 18th opening night of the next installment of the Twilight Saga, Twilight: Breaking Dawn or as I refer to it lovingly, reverently, and comically — Twilight: Pulsing Uteri? No? You better hurry up! Tickets are selling like mad. Mad I tell you! Mad like a shruggy virgin about to have the sparkle sex for the first time with a bed-crushing, star-dusted vampire nebulous, and then give birth to the world’s first twinkle fetus!

It. Will. Be. Glorious.

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Adventures in Old Paper: Collecting Ephemera

A 1914 pamphlet by Daylight Savings Time inventor William Willett. Part of his campaign to convince the government to legislate DST into effect.

Ephemera. Such a great word. Sorta sounds like the heroine of a bodice-ripper, non? “Lord Hunkley shook his fist at the retreating pirate ship and howled into the wind, ‘Ephemera! I will find you! Our love will never die!'”

But no. It means printed material that was never intended to last beyond its initial use. A newspaper, magazine, poster, a pamphlet, an auction advertisement, a bill of sale, a catalogue. Most of the print-run would have been thrown out once the auction was over, the concert had been given, the newspaper had been read.

Collecting ephemera is part of what is sometimes called the old-paper market. It’s similar to collecting rare books, except that books sit nicely on a shelf, but ephemera, which often consists of a single sheet of cheap paper, has to be filed flat, between sheets of permanent (no acid, no lignin, no sulphur) paper.

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More Wild Births of the Endangered Northern Hairy-Nosed Wombat

In our recent article about the critically endangered Northern Hairy-Nosed Wombat, we saw photos and footage of the first baby (known as a joey) born at the newly established wild colony at Richard Underwood Nature Reserve in southern Queensland. There was a second pregnancy at the reserve and lo and behold, in the past 10 days, a second joey has been running around. And we do mean running. The footage that the park rangers have taken of the second joey suggests he/she is a hyperactive little born performer! Continue reading →

Rick Perry’s Blunder Heard Round the World

All is quiet. Every eye in the house is on you. You’re on the spot. You start talking, and talking, and then….it all stops. You’ve totally lost your train of thought. You can’t for the life of you remember what the hell it was you were going to say. You grasp onto any slight vestige of that thing you were supposed to remember. Just got to remember! What is it? Holy Inert Brain Function…JUST WHAT THE HELL IS IT?! It’s over. You never remembered. Instead you just stammered and stumbled like an idiot, as if your brain just leapt out of your head, hit the wall, sunk to the floor and then drooled on itself while screaming MARIGOLDS AND MUSTACHES! BOY THESE TWINKIES TASTE LIKE PAELLA!

This is what happened to Rick Perry.

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Adventures in Survey Research Part 1: The Respondent

Working in Social Science/Public Opinion research has made me very sympathetic to anyone who makes their living talking on the telephone. Something about the anonymity of the phone seems to make people feel very safe in expressing their deepest (racist/sexist/classist) thoughts to the interviewer. Conversely, many people are certain that you are trying to steal their money, their opinions, nay, their very souls through your insidious questioning about their attitudes toward any number of innocuous things. I want to discuss some basics of survey research and explain some of the qualities of any kind of opinion or attitudinal research. These are often the surveys that form the basis of the “97% of Americans HATE BREATHING AIR” kinds of stories that we see on a daily basis. Continue reading →

For No Good Reason: The Slavoj Žižek Interview

Back in 2008, The Guardian interviewed Slovenian rock star philosopher Slavoj Žižek. I know this is three years old, but I don’t care. Something this good never gets stale.

Žižek is basically the grumpiest grump that ever did grump it up. I love him.

What is your earliest memory?

My mother naked. Disgusting.

What is the worst job you’ve done?

Teaching. I hate students, they are (as all people) mostly stupid and boring.

EU or PU? News Round-Up

Some years ago, a small rural town in Spain twinned with a similar town in Greece. The Mayor of the Greek town visited the Spanish town. When he saw the palatial mansion belonging to the Spanish mayor, he wondered how he could afford such a house. The Spaniard said: “You see that bridge over there? The EU gave us a grant to build a two-lane bridge, but by building a single lane bridge with traffic lights at either end this house could be built.”

The following year the Spaniard visited the Greek town. He was simply amazed at the Greek Mayor’s house – gold taps, marble floors – it was marvelous. When he asked how this could be afforded the Greek said; “You see that bridge over there?” The Spaniard replied: “No.” Enough said. Continue reading →