Siblings Day Fun

I must say, I have to tip my hat to these brothers for playing one of the funniest pranks I've yet seen in the wake of their little sister's having her wisdom teeth removed:

Comedy gold.

Irony from New Hampshire

Bernie Sanders handily beat Hillary Clinton in the New Hampshire primary. However, he will not receive more delegates from New Hampshire than did Ms. Clinton. Indeed, Ms. Clinton has so far had one tie and one blowout loss, yet has many more delegates so far as compared to Mr. Sanders. I don't mind this much either way, to the extent that I won't be voting for either of them; I do think that the Democrats (and the Republicans, to the extent that they do this too) should consider not placing so much power in the hands of the party machine, since it does tend to make voters feel disenfranchised, to say nothing of disenchanted, with respect to their party of choice.

With that said, there is something ironic about the idea of the man who is running on an explicitly socialist platform complaining that the votes which he is working so hard for are being taken from him and given to somebody else who didn't earn them.

Bonus:

Surgeon General's Warning PSA

Warning: taking one of my classes may be hazardous to your grandparents' health. I'm not sure why, but I figure I should put the PSA out there given the large number of my students who have to attends funerals of various "family members" in any given semester.

In any given semester, about 8 grandparents will die (as measured by funerals) in any given 50 person lecture. Fermi problem: how many should we expect? I got 1-2, but to be fair the point of the Fermi problem is to get a ballpark estimate, so maybe 8 is not unreasonable.

On a Related Note to My Last Post

Posting has been pretty light because I've been really busy around here. Anyway, the folks at Lutheran Satire have made a video which was too good not to share--and it ties in to my last post.

Enjoy:

Next Time the Racism/Sexism Card is Played...

Next time that the racism or sexism card is played against you, fellow white male readers, you need only point to this list to prove that you are not, in fact, privileged. Because according to this list, there are literally not many white men in the world at all. That is all.

Tough Luck

'Tis the time of semester when I get inundated with students requests for deadline extensions, and frankly for free points. Since many of these requests are for extensions on weekly homework assignments which they had 4-5 weeks to complete, I tend to be unsympathetic.

Better still is the number of students asking for extensions on an extra credit assignment (which improves a midterm grade and covers the same material as the midterm in question). It seems that a number of them let the two week deadline slip by without remembering to ever attempt the bonus test.

Bummer for them. Bummer for me, too, since they keep sending these requests. It's bad enough that I pretty much have to watch a motivational video to keep dealing with them:


Of course, they keep coming, so I get a little exasperated. It's not like this deadline was kept a secret or anything. A few also couldn't figure out how to ass teh bonus to their midterm scores, despite that fact that this is spelled out (with an example) in the actual midterm instructions. Luckily, there's a motivational video for that, too:


Ah, but there are some who are persistent. They feel like a college course should be scored like a video game, or a gameshow, or the like. I'm pretty sure I would get fired (or otherwise disciplined) for treating the course like a gameshow, but if I did:


They also spend a lot of time whining about how there is no curve. The semester will be all over in about a week. A new semester (with the same students) can commence in about a month. And still, I love my job.

There's Psycpaths and Then There's Sociopathic Psycophaths

And among the latter category, there's the Man in the Yellow Hat and his evil pet monkey. The language at the link is NSFW, unless your boss an coworkers also have both a child under the age of 4 and a good sense of humor about it (and even then).

"His best friend (other than George and their doorman) seems to be a woman named Dr. Weisman, a highly regarded scientist, and beyond their friendship, the relationship has professional tones to it. She’s introduced Yellow Hat guy to colleagues, whom he impresses with his work, which happens to come in the form of “drawings.” He’s had to give some high-profile speeches and he seems respected by the community in general. He’s clearly important enough that no one bats an eye when he shows up places with his Monkey of Destruction. Perhaps because they’re distracted by the completely ridiculous yellow get-up he’s wearing."

I wonder if he's related to our president?

Pre-Lab Plagiarism

How do I know when somebody is plagiarizing? Because this:

Pre-lab question: "What is temperature?"
Actual answer given by a student: "The degree or intensity of heat present in a substance or object, especially as expressed according to a comparative scale and shown by a thermometer or perceived by touch."

wut?

What Grading Exams Is Like

Real men of genius. Today we salute you, Mr. Shot in the Dark Fermi Problem guy. (Mr. Shot in the Dark Fermi Guy!) When asked to estimate how many cumulative hours the people of Alabama spend asleep each year, your answered 3600. That amounts to fewer than 1 second per person per year. (My eyes are feelin' heavy)

Your population estimates are so bad that a casual reader might think you were working on a post-apocalyptic sci-fi story. (Hello is there anybody out there?)

So crack open a bud lite, Mr. misjudger of powers of ten, and then have a few dozen more, cause that's how many you estimate you need before feeling "buzzed."

The State of the Internet

The state of the internet is entertaining, if broken down by common search terms in each state.

Some favorites:

CALIFORNIA: Alcoholics Anonymous / Bros Before Hos / Dandruff Cure / Food Poisoning / Google Glass / Kim Kardashian / Meat is Murder / Paris Hilton / Pokemon / Rogaine / What does Siri look like?
Analysis:  California has a variety pack of issues.

NEVADA:  Bitcoin / Breast Implants / Gamblers Anonymous / Great White (band) / Guy Fiery (TV chef) / Online Poker / Quiet Riot (band) / Tattoo Removal

Analysis:  The shallow hedonism that was the 1980s is alive and well in Nevada.

OREGON:  Allah / Sex / Spork
Analysis:  Somebody needs to go and check on Oregon.

RHODE ISLAND:  Andre the Giant / Beer Pong / Blumpkins / How to roll a blunt? / MSNBC
Analysis:  So is Rhode Island is just one big college fraternity?

UTAH:  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints / Def Leppard (band) / Demolition Derby / Girls Gone Wild / Global Warming Hoax / Jay Leno / Kama Sutra / Laser Hair Removal / Magic Tricks / Mustaches / Star Trek / Star Wars / Twinkie / Tinder / Twilight (book series) / Weird Al Yankovic (singer) / What is the internet?
Analysis:  Utah spends too much time on the internet. 

Urban Cow Tipping

"Smart Car Tipping."

What else do I have to say?

On Sticking it to the NCAA

I enjoy watching college sports (in particular, football) as much as the next guy, but I really hate the NCAA. Therefore, I enjoy watching stuff like this:

Thank God for local affiliates.

The Musical Question Is

"How did these books ever get published?"

And perhaps more importantly, who buys stuff like this?

How It Works

Happy Friday.

This Brings Back Memories

My friend Shawn Nelson has uploaded his very first production movie to YouTube. I remember when they screened it in the MU. Brings back some memories:



Happy Friday.

The Most Brilliant Parody Blog I've Seen in a While

At least, I'm assuming that's what this is. Unfortunately, there are some people who take it at least a little seriously, so I guess Poe's Law kind of applies. But yeah, it's a brilliant parody of modern "radical" feminism, as embodied by such protesters as FEMEN etc.

Demotivators

Always good fora quick laugh or a small dose of reality. Now available in Illboard format.

Although, they are entirely too kind to the president.

Obamacare Explained

It occurs to me that the AT&T "It's Not Complicated" commercials make an excellent critique of the Obamacare Website:



Really, also the whole boondoggle with the premium increases:




Then there's the question of why there are fewer options under Obamcare. Is it better to have more options (e.g. to not get your old plan terminated), or the single-payer option which Obamacare is heading towards:


Even some of the "retro" commercials work:


Somebody should make a parody version of these, seriously:

Truth in Advertising: Obamacare Hotline Edition

Apparently, the Obamacare help hotline is 1-800-318-2596, that's 1-800-F1UCKYO. And that's exactly what the helpline (and really, Obamacare) is designed to do.

That is all.

Evolution of US Foreign Policy

Heh.

Evolution of US Foreign Policy, 1946-present
1946-2000: Realism
2001-2008: Neconservative idealism
2009-2012: Neointernationalism
2013: "YOLO" Doctrine

That about sums it up.