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humor
Thursday various
- Scholars beware!
Experts on the various fungi that feed on the pages and on the covers of books are increasingly convinced that you can get high–or at least a little wacky–by sniffing old books. Fungus on books, they say, is a likely source of hallucinogenic spores. [via]
- I have to admit, I didn’t immediately understand this video (a collaboration with NPR’s Radiolab), but I liked it enough to re-watch from the beginning once my brain kicked in. [via]
- I have no idea if the new Scott Pilgrim movie will be any good or not. Some say awesome, some not so much. I know this will lose me some indie geek cred, but I’ve been stuck halfway through the first volume for several months, not particularly loving it. That said, I can totally get behind this:
There’s no reason to be angry at the people you imagine a movie will make happy just because you didn’t like the movie. [via]
- Oh come on, it’s an honest mistake. [via]
- And finally, I need to start riding the subways more often!
Monday various
- Maybe you’ve seen these clever Old Spice commercials, or these responses to Twitter fans? But have you seen this terrific parody? Well, now you have. [via]
- I’m not always in love with Improv Everywhere’s “missions,” but this was pretty cute. How is it that I never seem to run into these things in Manhattan?
- John Sclazi discusses Canadians in Science Fiction Because, you know, there are.
- Also coming soon to Canada: Netflix streaming. This was part of the exchange deal for Tim Horton’s, right?
- And finally, last week I mentioned how this “I Write Like” meme that’s been going around was kind of dumb and inaccurate. Turns out, it’s probably also kind of a scam.
Wednesday various
- Stieg Larsson is turning out to be an incredibly prolific dead man.
- Scientists have created software that can recognize sarcasm. Now if we could just figure out a way to transfer that ability to more people… [via]
- Whatever your feelings about deaf culture and cochlear implants — personally, I sympathize, but I still believe deafness is a disability — it’s hard not to be a little moved by this video of an eight-month-old deaf baby hearing sound for the first time. [via] And that child later would grow up to be…Iron Baby.
- And finally, Lorne Michaels on being Canadian and comedic [via]:
“I think that Canadians have an incredible reverence for authority and regard for authority, and I think one of the healthy ways that it’s challenged is through questioning it, through the polite hostility of comedy. It’s allowed. It’s not encouraged, but it’s definitely allowed, and you stand very little chance of being shot.â€