Graffiti from Pompeii

Just a warning, as with all graffiti, some of it is not work safe.

A couple of weeks ago when I posted about sabertooth cats hunting in packs, I also mentioned two other jokes from my terrestrial paleontology class. Since a retelling of these jokes has been requested, I will not provide an explanation.

( Man, if I only have 23 hours in day... )

( The 'Oh Shit' turtle )

Sabertooth tigers hunted in packs.

True story: we were discussing the Rancho La Brea fauna in my Terrestrial paleo class. In particular, we were discussing how Smilodon brought down its prey. I forgot what prompted the comment, but my professor made the following remark:

"Well obviously they were going after big prey. You wouldn't expect to see a sabertooth cat lunge after a bunny. It's teeth would be stuck in the ground and the bunny would just hop out between them."

I loved my paleo classes. These are the same classes that produced the "Oh shit!" turtle story and the "Man, if only I have 20 hours in a day" line.

Article on the BBC about a new study corroborating the Mann hockey stick controversy.

I've actually read the paper by Mann that started it all as well as attended a talk by him about the paper. If you are so inclined, you can read it too in in PDF form (I can already hear some people's brain asplody. I have to say, this is actually one of the easier to follow scientific papers I've had to read). A lot of people also credit it with starting the man-made global warming debate.

It's also an illustration of why I avoid debating climate change with people like the plague. Trying to debate climate change with someone who doesn't understand the difference between weather records and climate records and where they come from is, for me, very much like beating my head against a brick wall. I've tried and all it does is give me a headache. So I don't any more.

And in other news, I have discovered that I'm going to have to finish my stats homework tomorrow on campus because I screwed up in getting all the data I need with the stats program the professor wants us to use. Sigh...

I kind of wish I could sew and still went to cons because I think it would be fun to go as maderr's character Koray from her series Black Magic. People would be totally baffled about who I was and I would get the added pleasure of pointing them to Maderr's fic. Alternately, I wish I could sew and had some where to go for Halloween that would justify me putting that much effort into a costume. I'd especially want to do the outfit he gets when he becomes High Necromancer.

Why yes, I am a dork.

I really shouldn't be this pleased at the fact that I set up a database to catalog all our stuff for insurance in Access and made myself neat little drop down menus for certain stuff.

You can definitely tell I've been taking classes on Access in my spare time. ^^

I should not be so amused by the fact that I have to save all my thesis data on the D drive. Why does this amuse me so? Because all the path names to the files begin with this.

D:

Yeah, that's about how I feel about this thesis some days.

Okay, this site sends me into hysterical laughter. I could listen to it for hours. NOT safe for work, parents, or around people with heart conditions.

Image is from Marvel's latest weirdness.

It's a dinosaur.

Listening to the NPR segment about the scientist from Rice University who has come the closest to making a "perfectly black" material makes me cringe. Why oh why lady did you think it was a good idea to play a clip from Spinal Tap in the middle of your scientific interview? Why? You're cluelessness about science makes my brain hurt.

There's an Indian restaurant near where I live that every time I go by, I think it's called Heero's. It's not, but my mind keeps trying to insist it is. I find this though vastly amusing. It was bad enough when one of the nearby towns had a "Barton College" (Trowa could totally be a Dean at a college), but this? This is just too much. Can you imagine Heero running an Indian restaurant? What's the special? Self-Destruct Curry?

There is also a flier that someone put up on campus for Eric Church. First time I saw it, I thought it said Elric Church. Then there was a long moment of "OMG, did someone actually establish a Church of Elric?" before I realized I was misreading it. Still, that was an interesting few moments.

I'm going to wait until this weekend before posting the next STFU bit. I'm just too tired to really do it justice. Also, I need to stop obsessively checking the stats page on my Fiction Press account. Yes, self, it's really thrilling that the number of views keeps going up. We do not need to check it 4 times a day.

I find it highly amusing that I'm downloading Maui.

Yes, I mean the Hawaiian Island. ^^

Totally inappropriate traditional star names for fun and profit!
Disclaimer: Since these are traditional names, most are in Arabic though I saw some Greek, Latin, Chinese, and possibly an Egyptian in the mix.

Mirach: "the loins" (the nickname of several stars in several constellations with rather unfortunate placement)
Al Bali: "the swallower"
Tarazed: "the plundering falcon" (I think everyone's mind went there)
Aludra: "maidenhood"
Schedar or Shedir: "breast"
Tsih: "whip"
Sadr: "breast" (although since this is for the constellation Cygnus, so it probably means chicken breast)
Rastaban: "head of the snake" (euphemism time!)
Megrez: "insertion-point" (supposedly of the bear's tail because it's in Ursa Major)
Phad or Phecda: thigh

Here is the full list if you're curious. You'll see quite a few Harry Potter character names from the list. You'll also see some really nifty names and some that will make you scratch your head (who in the ancient world decided to name a star "the armpit"?). Even though some of the stars say "translation unknown" check out Wikipedia. Even if it's not accurate, someone will usually have a pretty good guess up.

Superheroes Anonymous Meeting.

It's NY Times, so you may need to register/login in order to read. Worth it though.

A good day is one where I get to flex my geology muscles and help someone figure out how to make the evil bad guy from their NaNoWriMo novel get a volcano to erupt and try to take out the world.

I swear it's like listening to one of my professor's talk.

Chicken chicken chicken

EDIT: That hyena laughter you hear? It's probably a graduate student who has worked a bit too long on their thesis.

I'm looking through the list of clubs on campus, trying to see if there's an anime club. None so far but I did find a club called "Dumbledore's Army" that's a Harry Potter fanclub and describes J.K. Rowling as a "legendary genius."

^_^

EDIT: No anime club to be found. Sigh.

Geeks with too much time of there hands.

People playing chess on roller coasters.

I always wonder about the people who come up with these ideas, but not as much as I do abut the people who implement them.