Month: January 2008

  • Too much time + high altitude =

    [This take-off of Hotel California from astronomers in Hawaii](http://www.badastronomy.com/bablog/2007/12/29/hotel-mauna-kea/). Quite a good singer, which makes this quite a bit better than the average for this kind of joke.

  • Coming soon to Batemans Bay

    [Global warming could lead to coral reefs moving further south](http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2007/s2130195.htm). Last thing the South Coast needs is *more* tourists, of course. Judging from the last weekend of the year it’s already bursting at the seams.

  • Physics and flight

    [The Russian SU-30MK can stop and hover in mid-air](http://www.boingboing.net/2007/12/05/russian-fighter-jet.html). Fun toy. Probably a little pricey.

  • Anti-semitism made easy

    [The Zionist-Conspiracy-O-Matic](http://judeosphere.blogspot.com/2007/12/zionist-conspiracy-o-matic.html). Funny. But don’t forget that some people actually believe this poison.

  • Counter-intuitive findings

    [More medical treatment doesn’t (necessarily) make you better](http://www.cato-unbound.org/2007/09/10/robin-hanson/cut-medicine-in-half/). Health ‘economics’ is a very tricky area – most of the usual rules of economics go out the window when people start to have near-infinite demands for healthcare. But the underlying idea here is interesting – in the US system you can buy as much healthcare as…

  • Holiday!

  • Happy Australia Day!

    Go throw something on a barbie, play some backyard cricket, or complain about the politicians. You know, something Australian. I’ll be back on Tuesday. Everyone have a great long weekend. And if you don’t get the long weekend because you’re not in Australia: [Why not fix that?](http://www.immi.gov.au)

  • Cool music

    [A Brazilian ice-cream company has a competition where you can find an iPod in your ice cream](http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/frozen-ipods/ice-cream-company-giving-away-10000-frozen-ipods-inside-popsicles-333129.php). Incredibly clever packaging, a good example of someone not letting the fact that an idea is impossible stop them.

  • Not getting the point

    [A beautiful but silly wine decanter](http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2007/11/27/n2-and-n4-decanters.html). Why silly? Because half the purpose of a decanter is to aerate the wine – after all, sediments are pretty rare in modern wines. So if the wine can’t breathe, why bother decanting?

  • The best story The Onion has ever done

    From The Onion’s week of true stories: [“Gore Wins Oscar, Nobel Peacce Prize for Slide-Show Presentation](http://www.theonion.com/content/news/gore_wins_oscar_nobel_peace_prize?utm_source=onion_rss_daily). The deadpan accuracy of the story is probably the funniest bit.