Saturday Bulletin

This is a webcomic where the technique is to find some retro/old-style picture, then caption it with a (frequently very dark) punchline that is at odds with what one imagines was the original tone and intent of the image. If that sounds convoluted and not funny, it's my fault. Here's a couple of my favorite examples from recent posts. Front page here. Today's issue.
January 29

I hope you agree that it's much funnier than I made it sound. RSS feed available (and recommended).

Dispossesed

Couple of old jokes, one new to me, that are appropos to our times:

Did you hear about the guy who fell behind on the payments to his exorcist?
He was repossesed.

And from Krugman, on Geithner's financial rescue plan, the "old" joke I had never heard before:

What do you get when you cross the Godfather with a deconstructionist?
Someone who makes you an offer you can’t understand.

Part of what I enjoy about reading Krugman's writing, in addition to the fact that he has, during the ten years or so since I started reading his pieces at Slate, accumulated a uncannily accurate track record on his predictions, and in addition to his ability to write at a level and information density that I can grasp, is his dry wit and humor. He follows the above post with a matching cartoon. And in an earlier post, titled "Acronyms," he relates, "But Jamie Galbraith (private communication) has trumped me; he says it’s the Bad Assets Relief Fund."

So my point is, even the Nobel-winning economist seems to think our last, best hope to get through this mess is to develop a sense of humor.

Followup: to get at the list of Krugman's articles at Slate, follow the link to that page, which will take you to a search for "Paul Krugman." Then in the author column, click on his name for a listing of his articles there. That's the link I tried to embed, but it takes me back to the first search page. And to clarify, Krugman quit writing a regular column for Slate when he picked up his column at the NYT.

When All Else Fails

I've been following XKCD for a while, but I've never gone through the entire archive. I hadn't seen this one before. Hat tip to The Ethical Paleontologist.

Metric Conversions

This was going around as an e-mail many years ago, and I decided to see if I could track it down. The metric system is an elegant, easy to learn and easy to use system that Americans are profoundly unable to deal with. The site where I found this has some of its examples incorrect, so take them with a grain of salt.

2000 mockingbirds = two kilomockingbirds (correct)

1 million microphones = 1 megaphone (incorrect)
1 million microphones = 1 phone
1 million phones = 1 megaphone (corrected)

1 millionth of a fish = 1 microfiche (correct)

1 million bicycles = 2 megacycles (this is correct, but there's an additional unit conversion assumed)

1 million billion picolos = 1 gigolo (incorrect; it would take 1000 billion billion picolos to make one gigolo)

There's quite a few more at the linked site, and one more I remember that isn't on the list:
1 millionth of a mouthwash = 1 microscope

So I hope that clarifies everything and we can switch from this silly English system now.

The Effin' Weather

So after yesterday's "woo-hoo, spring is nearly here" post, it's been downhill. Rainy, cold, 35 degrees... and it was snowing just a little bit ago. I carried both my umbrella and my gloves today, an unusual combination. So I was quite amused to see this on Buzzfeed: The F'ing Weather. If the F word offends, don't bother, but if you find its gratuitous overuse in the context of accurate data amusing, check it out. The small comments under the large banner are varied and change with each click. Examples include (for my zip code today), "My nipples could cut glass," "Why do I live here," and "Not f'ing jogging weather." Apparently his server has been swamped, and visitors my get locked out; he has also remarked that he can't provide info for outside the US. But you can get the info in F'ing Celsius as well.

Springing Forth

I saw this comic earlier, and thought about posting it, but I've already posted a few and don't want to use too many from the same source. It's like a privilege I don't want to abuse. But E.B. Misfit, one of my favoritest bloggers, has posted it, so if you'd do me a favor and run over and take a look at it, I'll wait a minute.

No, I'm still here. Go look. I'll wait. I promise.

Funny, Hunh?

Ooooo, I just love making people envious... I had to walk down to the orange market (not its real name) to get some tobacco this morning, and these are in a yard across the street. Those are snowdrops- or at least that's what I grew up calling them. They would come up in late Feb to early March back in Ohio, often, as the name implies, poking up through the snow. I actually noticed these last week, but it was night and I didn't have my camera with me anyway- so these have probably been blooming for a week or so.
A closer picture. Note the standard "north side" lawn here: always green, never needs mowing. Moss is a far superior ground cover to grass, unless you actually want to do anything on your lawn. I don't know what the following plant is called, but I think it's related to the eastern Jack-in-the-pulpit. The leaves are similar, but variegated. It's always some of the earliest significant foliage to pop up, and the foliage dies back by the end of June. It sometimes sets seeds, and the seeding stalk is very similar to that of Jack-in-the-pulpit. That's the main reason I think they're related. The flower must be very subtle (unlike "Jack," which is quite showey); I've never noticed the blooms.

And just to take the edge off my gloating... no more than two minutes after I took these pictures, the heavens opened up and covered the ground with ice pellets- not deep, but completely covered. Those stinkers can sting! But at any rate, I'm pleased to report that the first spring flowers have officially been spotted in my neighborhood.

Sign Hacking

...has apparently become quite the thing amongst our society's un- or under-employed, computer literate citizenry(remember this from a couple of weeks ago?). It's looking like the stimulus bill will assure plenty of time for more such shenanigans, which on one hand is just fine. No one is going to have to drive to work, so hacking the signs won't have any effect on traffic. On the other hand, it's too bad because the tax cuts won't have any effect on the hackers' discretionary spending. From Gizmodo, a week or so ago. Does this prove that raptors were endotherms? Do they still have to wear parkas and snow boots? Do the snow boots interfere with that wild move where they eviscerate you with the swiveling back claw? I think these are questions that need answering.
From Buzzfeed. Where's Lou Dobbs when you need him? Maybe if we just took out ads in all the English newspapers: "We don't have any jobs either!"