Offmessage

Following on from yesterday‘s post about Americans not believing in evolution, waxy.org points us at these useful disclaimer stickers for science books. My favourite?

This book was anonymously donated to your school library to discretely promote religious alternatives to the theory of evolution. When you are finished with it, please refile the book in the fiction section.

Following on from an ancient Internet toy (that’s always worth a revisit), how about 6 degrees of Wikipedia?

Let me get this straight. Our current Government is Labour? And the year is 2004? Right. Then how the hell can something like this be proposed? Absolute fucking lunacy.

The legislation is expected to introduce a new definition of “possession” of an illegal drug, making it an offence to have a certain amount in the bloodstream.

This, ID cards, trial without jury, removal of the right to silence on arrest, double jeopardy, allowing previous convictions to be used in trials… This Government is completely insane, and getting worse by the day.

The ubiquitous Hello Kitty makes it to the world of Warhammer 40k. Nice.

God created Americans, apparently. Gallup poll shows that only a third of Americans believe evolutionary theory to be correct, while another third are biblical literalists. I don’t know what to say. I really don’t.

Nice little Flash game that asks you to count the number of stars you see when you’re only shown a sub second flash of the image.

Interestingly the ability to count subliminally varies tremendously among people. Speaking as a mathematician with an interest in the philosophy and history of mathematics (once, a long time ago) there are accounts of certain cultures being able to subliminally count certain objects to great numbers. Some accounts show a tribal people in Africa able to subliminally count up to 50 large objects (livestock, houses, people, etc) but to be unable to count more than 3 small objects without actually counting them off. It would appear, therefore, that this is a matter of training and context rather than an inate ability. Most westerners tested have difficulties beyond 6. How do you do?

The Aussies crush the Kiwis, and Glen McGrath gets his first 50 to boot. Looks like we’re the first team likely to stop ‘em.

Rather unsurprisingly Microsoft reckon that Bill Gates gets more spam than most (a million a day, apparently)…. More surprising, however, is Ballmer’s claim that only 10 pieces of spam get into his inbox every day “because of the spam technologies that our IT department implements.” Can I suggest something Steve? If it’s really that good, sell it – we all want it. If it’s actually your secretary, shut up. Thanks.

oops

Saw a really good program on Channel 4 a couple of days ago called “Straight 8.” It’s a film making competition with a twist. Each entrant gets sent a uniquely numbered Super 8 cartridge on which they must make their film. That means no editing, no post production and that the maker doesn’t get to see the results until the competition screening with everyone else.

Some of them were sheer class – the winner of this year’s event (entitled “Evol”) was absolutely jaw dropping. Find out more at their web site.