My Friend Flickr

If you're looking for something to while away a Wednesday afternoon, you could do far worse than the following photosets on Flickr: Understanding art for geeks and Andy Ihnatko's awesome behind-the-scenes tour of Alcatraz. Well worth your time, both of 'em.

Is Our Harvard Grads Learning? No.

This report has been making the blogospheric rounds today and it is, well, damning of our educational system's ability to impart civic knowledge, to put it bluntly.
Simply stated, when presented with a 60 question test covering basic U.S. history, civics and political philosophy, Harvard seniors scored best with a D+ average. All other schools' [...]

Bestest Fark Thread Evar

We've previously discussed the lolcats Internet meme briefly here before, so I won't go into its origins at the moment (citations for the development of said meme/macro/fad/"kitty pidgin" available here, here, here, here, here and here, if you're interested). However, I simply must point out the following "lolpresidents" thread over on Fark that has [...]

Historical Idiocy

What do you get when you congregate a bunch of medical doctors and scientists with little to keep themselves amused? You find out that Abraham Lincoln might have survived, had he had access to 21st century medical technology.
Next up, I fully expect to see a History Channel documentary detailing just how differently Custer's Last [...]

Conspiracies, Man, Conspiracies!

Several disturbing conspiracies have come to light recently and I just can't keep quiet about them any more.
First up is the Great Shrinking Cadbury Creme Egg conspiracy, as pointed out by noted researcher and comedian B.J. Novak:

I knew something was up when Cadbury, that most English of companies, was gobbled up by a Swiss company [...]

Happy Palindromic Birthday, Texas!


…Or Else, My Brother, I Might Have To Get Medieval On Your Heiney!

The original helpdesk employees, apparently, were not brought about by the advent of the computer as previously thought. Instead, a far earlier invention spawned an entire industry:

I bet those Gutenberg rollouts were a real bear at monasteries Europe-wide.