Conundrum solved

I have had occasion to refer to the ground-breaking research of Anders Sandberg and now I found his quantum-mechanical analysis of angels dancing on a needle point.

Do you feel welcome? Well, do ya, punk?

Confused laughter

My old friend Erik sent me this link and I had to read it several times.

Yes, it is a real Microsoft page. Yes, they carefully explain how to become competent in using humour. With a development plan. And testable proficiency levels from “Basic” to “Expert”. With a reading list. And without the slightest attempt at levity.

So do the authors lack humour from the outset, or did a committee carefully go through the text, removing any “untimely or inappropriate humor”? Or is this an elaborately set-up meta-joke, poking extremely satirical fun at the perceived lack of humour of Microsoft? My head spins, I feel like laughing, but don’t know if I dare to.

If the Japanese didn't exist, we'd have to invent them

The Algorithm March:

OK, it's an ad

…but it's still a seriously weird example of what you can do with digital post-processing.

Empty in one sense

I open a tin of Grebbestads anchovies. I pour off the liquid and find there's nothing left in the tin. Oh well, I don't really like anchovies all that much anyway…

Cover me, I'm going in!

I have been on holidays before, but it's been for family trips or other travel. Now I have two mostly unscheduled weeks before me and feel a bit trepidated.

If I start blogging about my navel lint or sound otherwise delirious, come and pull me out!

Why indeed?

For some reason the comp.text.tex news group gets regular attacks from people of precarious mental health who wish to tell the world of the secret monitors the lizard people have installed in their TV sets. Occasionally perverse curiosity makes me read a screed—it is painful in several senses so I gingerly let my eye skim over the sentences as if trying not to inhale the fumes. However, in a recent word salad, the following shone out:

why is their hair growing out of my ears?

It might be a simple typo, but taken with the rest of the rant it might just as well be intended as written. It does make you wonder, doesn't it?

If he wasn't such an awful player, they would still be recording

Stop-motion photography recreates computer games using human pixels



Space Invaders
Pong
Pole Position

Headshake…

Today at IKEA I saw a girl stepping around in high-heel basketball shoes. Obviously fashion has its own logic, unfettered by the actual utility of the clothes.

More weird maps (weirder maps?)

It seems another thing you can do to avoid doing what you should be doing, is to look for anomalies in Google Earth. The Register has collected many of these findings.

Research can be anything!

When I once got involved with Young Scientists, someone expounded on how you could turn anything into research—the method is everything! Some who have taken this to heart are the people behind My Science Project. They look into questions that most of us would just idly speculate about and instead carefully find out exactly what you have to do to nail jelly to a wall, how to keep cut flowers fresh with Viagra, and whether Dick Cheney probably told the truth about his shooting accident.

Mad scientist par excellence

It is my great pleasure to have known Anders Sandberg for many years and all through this time he has always been been coming up with weird and interesting ideas. Of course he has a blog, and among his recent work is a study on the evolution of zombie populations.