Please use this thread to post whatever links or comments you wish; self-linking is encouraged.

This is an open thread; use it to say what you’d like and post the links you like. Self-linking is encouraged.

Talk about whatever you’d like. Self-linking is encouraged.

Oh, and here’s a creepy photoshop drawing from Pixeloo:

Please use this thread to say whatever you’d like to say, or to share any links you’d like to share. Self-linking is encouraged.

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As a Harvard-trained neuroanatomist, Jill Bolte Taylor has always known more about brains than most people. But when a brain hemorrhage triggered her own stroke, she suddenly had a front-row seat on the deterioration of the brain.

Dr. Taylor recounts the details of her stroke and the amazing insights she gained from it in a riveting 18-minute video of her speech at the Technology, Entertainment, Design Conference in Monterey, Calif., last month. Her fascinating lecture includes a detailed explanation of the differences between the left and right sides of the brain, complete with an incredibly cool prop — a real human brain.

Use this thread to discuss whatever you’d like, or post whatever links you want. Self-linking is encouraged.

These photos, part of a series on Damn Cool Pics, show the aftermath of an ice rain in Southern China.

Please feel free to use this thread to post whatever comments and links you’d like. Self-linking and self-quoting is encouraged.

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Take this observation test.

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Bean pointed this out to me… A musical that was rehearsed and performed with the permission of the mall, but none of the customers and only the necessary mall staff had been warned it was going to happen. (More info here).

I love stuff like this. You should also check out the surprise musical “Teach!,” if you haven’t seen it.

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A comparison of the same scenes from Star Wars, both in American comics and in manga. The result: Manga does it a hundred times better, mostly because of the space restrictions of American comics.

Use this thread to post whatever links you want (self-linking is encouraged), and to discuss whatever you’d like.

Bean sent me this “Subnormality” strip which totally cracked me up. Click through to see the whole thing.

I also liked this story on Boing Boing:

The Star Tribune reports that dozens of bars in the Twin Cities are holding “theater nights” and declaring everyone in the bar to be an actor. By law, performers are allowed to smoke during theatrical performances.

I’m fond of this loophole, and hope it leads to the logical outcome: Vice cops grimly viewing a bar full of “actors” to confirm that they’re all really playing characters, not being themselves enjoying a smoke, while drunk smokers break out into desperately improvised musical numbers.

As usual, feel free to post whatever you want on this thread. Self-linking is encouraged.

Found on the interwebs:

(Thanks, Bean!)

Damn, I love New York.

Please use this thread to discuss whatever you’d like, or to put in whatever links you like. Self-linking is encouraged.

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I haven’t yet listened to the California Clinton/Obama debate, but I will be listening to it today as I draw; several people I’ve read have claimed it’s the most substantive debate of the primary so far, with a lot of focus on health care (an area where Clinton is better) and Iraq (an area where Obama is better). Part one is here, part two is here. (Or, if you prefer smaller chunks, it’s on youtube in 12 parts; part one is here.)

As usual, use this thread to discuss anything and everything, or to post whatever links you’d like. Self-linking is encouraged.

Please use this thread to post whatever you’d like; linking to your own stuff is encouraged.

By the way, I’m off to Florida for a week, and I’m not sure how much internet access I’ll have.

And Bean emailed me this story:

Dog retrieves his best friend - a cat buried in the garden
Russell Jenkins

A pet dog missed the family’s dead cat so much that he dug up his grave and brought the body back into the house.

When Oscar’s owners woke up the next morning they discovered the dog curled up beside Arthur, the late cat, in his basket.

His owners, Robert Bell, 73, and his wife, Mavis, of Wigan, Greater Manchester, believe that the dog had licked the cat clean before falling asleep.

Mr Bell said that the two pets were constant companions. Arthur, who was a large cat, used to help Oscar to climb on to the sofa.

Oscar, an 18-month-old Lancashire Heeler, had watched Mr Bell dig a grave in the garden and then lower the cat into the hole.Mr Bell said: “He had managed to climb out through the cat flap in the night, obviously with the intent to get Arthur back. Bearing in mind that Arthur was a huge cat, Oscar must have used all the strength he could muster.

“Then he pulled him into the basket and went to sleep next to him. Arthur’s coat was gleaming white. Oscar had obviously licked him clean. It must have taken him nearly all night.”

Arthur is now reburied in a secure grave. And Oscar has a new playmate, a kitten called Limpet.

I also enjoyed the first comment left by a reader:

If Oscar has broken the law, he should face the full force of the same, whether by means of tasers or detention, it doesn’t matter. Just because he is no doubt a very cute and adorable canine, doesn’t mean he should be let off with just a warning (”No!, Bad boy!”).
We need to celebrate species diversity yes, but we are all equal before the law.

Please feel free to use this thread to discuss anything you’d like, or to post any links. Linking to your own stuff is definitely welcome.

My plan is to do almost nothing but image posts until 2008, btw. So for those of you who are sick of image posts from Amp, there is an end in sight.

(Part of Roadshow, by Robert Blanz).

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“The Contortionist,” by Original Ann.

And finally, a truly neat-wow animation; more information from the maker at Hipsters, Inc.

Here. Thanks, Bean!

(Bean also pointed out the most awful — in a couple of senses of the word — headline ever, from — of course — the New York Post.)

Oh, and as long as I’m posting stuff Bean sent me, check out this TV commercial for AOL, which is either hilarious if you get the references, or completely bewildering.

Feel free to post whatever you’d like (including links to your own stuff) in this thread.

I saw this for the first time today, and it totally cracked me up. And then it was stuck in my head.

For hours. And hours. And hours.

I now pass it on to you folks.

Also, I learned from The Curvature that Dennis Kucinich told a crowd of supporters that his first choice for vice-president in a Kucinich administration would be Ron Paul. This indicates to me that either Kucinich is nuts, or he thinks of his candidacy as a joke. I don’t know which it is: but in either case, the “should I be supporting Kucinich?” question is now answered: “Hell, no!”

From The Debate Link:

Herbert A. Millington
Chair - Search Committee
412A Clarkson Hall
Whitson University
College Hill, MA 34109

Dear Professor Millington,

Thank you for your letter of March 16. After careful consideration, I regret to inform you that I am unable to accept your refusal to offer me an assistant professor position in your department.

This year I have been particularly fortunate in receiving an unusually large number of rejection letters. With such a varied and promising field of candidates it is impossible for me to accept all refusals.

Despite Whitson’s outstanding qualifications and previous experience in rejecting applicants, I find that your rejection does not meet my needs at this time. Therefore, I will assume the position of assistant professor in your department this August. I look forward to seeing you then.

Best of luck in rejecting future applicants.

Sincerely,

Chris L. Jensen

If you’ve got any neat links, thoughts, or whatever, feel free to post them in the comments.

Mandolin pointed this out to me:

105 years ago, they thought everyone would be able to afford Segways. The gender roles in the illustration are not surprising, but I always find that sort of thing ironic in folks who are thinking about future changes (see also, Ray Bradbury’s Mars stories). And speaking for myself, I wish that everyone still wore bowlers nowadays.

I like the detail that all the sidewalks have sloped edges.

Via XKCD.

Anyway, feel free to use this thread for any links or comments you want. Such as this link to the Predatory Loan Association, suggested by Sailorman.

Here.

I’m a bit late posting these, but what the heck.

If you haven’t already done so, check out the newest Carnival of Feminists up over at Cubically Challenged, which is exceptionally well organized. (I love it when people number things.)

And the 25th Disability Blog Carnival is up at If The World Had Wheels.

The inaugural edition of Electronic Village’s Top Ten Black Bloggers is out, and — even though I’m retired from non-cartoon-or-baby-blogging — I wanted to quickly congratulate some of my favorite blogs that made the top ten. I was pleased to see that five of the top ten are blogs that I’m a big fan of (gotta check out other five, I guess!)

So congrats to Angry Black Woman, Racewire, Prometheus 6, Angry Black Bitch, and Republic of T. (And congrats to the other five selectees, as well). These are some of the best political blogs out there, period.

Use this thread for talking about whatever you want to talk about. Meanwhile, here’s four more or less arbitrarily chosen items:

“Only one in seven Americans (15 percent) can correctly name John Roberts as Chief Justice of the United States while two-thirds of Americans (66 percent) know at least one of the judges on the Fox television show American Idol.”

In more interesting survey news, a survey of Iraqis shows that the majority of Iraqis not only want the US out of Iraq, but thinks that violent attacks on US troops are acceptable. Gee, wonder why they hate us? Oh, wait, yet another new survey of Iraqis finds that over a million Iraqis have died due to the US occupation. I guess that’s a good reason to hate us.

Meanwhile, in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, a waiter left his post to tackle a knife-wielding carjacker who was attacking a woman outside the restaurant. The waiter wrestled the carjacker to the ground and, with help from some passerbys, held him until the police arrived. He talked to the cops and the media, returned to the restaurant, and was fired for having left his post.

Finally, my friend Heron61 argues, I think persuasively, that the threat of overpopulation is solving itself.