Teabonics

A Flickr set of signs from Tea Party demonstrations.

Planets Screw-up Science!

Well, not really:

The disk spins, rotating around its center like a DVD (though stuff toward the center goes around faster than stuff near the outer edge). The middle of the disk is where the star forms. Farther out, local eddies and vortices can form planets. But the important thing to note is that in this scenario, everything spins in the same way. If the disk appears to be spinning clockwise, say, then the star will spin that same way, the planets will orbit that same way, and the planets will spin that same way. We’re pretty sure this is how things work because that’s pretty much what’s happening in our own solar system.

This theory has been tested by observation and by increasingly complex modeling. Sometimes there are problems with it, but in general new ideas have been added that fix those problems, and over time we’ve been pretty happy overall with the idea that stars and planets form this way.

However, a bunch of newly discovered planets have messed this nice idea up. They orbit their stars the wrong way!

Atheist Barbie

8 Bits of Awesome

Fun With Venn Diagrams

Lovely 8-Bit Horrible

It's been all over the blogonets today.

Not Playing Farmville.

If any of you play it, I'm sorry, but I think you might be a sucker. I am, however, distracted by stories about people who play Farmville. Especially when it gets you kicked off your seat on the city council.

The troubled councilor, Dimitar Kerin, has defended himself by saying he was not the only one in the City Hall watering virtual egg plants. He said he had reached only Level 40, whereas Daniela Zhelyazkova, a councilor from the rightist Democrats for Strong Bulgaria party, was already at Level 46.

[Via: All Tech Considered]

For Elex

(passiveaggressivenotes.com)

More Trouble With Blaintology

In the spirit of Josh's last post; getting called on your bullshit can be painful, like so:

Would you like to learn more about Blaintology?

When a famous tantric guru boasted on television that he could kill another man using only his mystical powers, most viewers either gasped in awe or merely nodded unquestioningly. Sanal Edamaruku’s response was different. “Go on then — kill me,” he said.

Plenty more found here.