The cat who co-authored a physics paper
Link here. The paper not only was peer-reviewed, the university even considered giving the cat a position as a “visiting distinguished professor”!
Tag: comedy
Jim Gaffigan – 4 Kids
An evening pause Some good stand-up comedy to lighten the first half of the week.
Hat tip Tim Vogel, who emailed to say “One of our friends sent this to us because we are having a 4th ourselves.”
2D Photography – Rube Goldberg Machine
An evening pause: I think taking a picture is a nice way to start the week.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
High Diving Giraffes
An evening pause: Based on some emails I have received, I think some people have been fooled by this cool animation and actually think these are real giraffes! This just tells us that it will not be long now before real actors are no longer necessary and it will be possible to do live action films entirely with animation.
Hat tip George Petricko.
The Kingsmen – Louie Louie
An evening pause: Normally I don’t post videos with no visuals, but for this I will make an exception. It is probably the first time anyone has ever done the hard work necessary to translate the mumblings of the singer to find out the lyrics of this pop tune. Before now, who knew?
Hat tip Phil Berardelli.
Victor Borge – Getting ready
An evening pause: Hat tip Edward Thelen.
Wally Eastwood – Piano Juggler
An evening pause: Hat tip both Edward Thelens.
Tom Lehrer – Poisoning Pigeons In The Park
An evening pause: Tom Lehrer has always been a favorite musical satirist of the modern intellectual community. In the 1960s he was radical, cute, and refreshing. There are many comedy songs by him that I like. This song, performed here on September 11, 1967 (a date quite appropriate in retrospect), illustrates however why in many ways the humor of the left has become somewhat shrill. Too many times, they actually mean it.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
Steve Martin – The Great Flydini
An evening pause: The silliness couldn’t be greater.
Hat tip Peter Fenstermacher.
As always, I welcome suggestions from anyone for evening pauses. If you have made them before, please feel free to send me more. You know how to reach me. If you’ve never suggested any but want to, comment here (without including the suggestion-that would give it away) and I will contact you myself.
“You’re just not couth!”
An evening pause: Judy Holliday and Broderick Crawford from the 1950 classic, Born Yesterday.
Hat tip to Phil Berardelli, author of Phil’s Favorite 500: Loves of a Moviegoing Lifetime.
Bob Stromberg with Ken Davis – Hand Shadows
An evening pause: Hat tip Tom Biggar.
Leningrad Cowboys & the Red Army Choir – Sweet Home Alabama
An evening pause: I can think of nothing more appropriate to begin the new year with than this performance. Nothing.
Hat tip hondo.
By the way, with the New Year I am in desperate need of more Evening Pause suggestions. If you’ve sent me suggestions in the past, you know the email address. If not, post a comment here saying that you have a suggestion (without mentioning what it is) and I will email you for it.
Science journal publishes fake study
The uncertainty of peer review: A science journal has published a fake study that supposedly proved that kissing a child’s “boo-boo” has no medicinal value.
In their study, the authors claim to be members of the Study of Maternal and Child Kissing (SMACK) Working Group, which they say is a subsidiary of Procter and Johnson, Inc., the maker of “Bac-Be-Gone ointment and Steri-Aids self-adhesive bandages.” Procter and Johnson, which is not a real consumer goods company, is an obvious mash-up of Procter & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson, two consumer packaged goods companies which sell health care items like bandages and ointments. The only contact information for the study’s authors disclosed in the research paper is a Gmail address. Bac-Be-Gone ointment and Steri-Aids also do not appear to be actual products available for sale. Additionally, many of the academic research references listed at the end of the study–including one article entitled “So what the hell is going on here?”–also appear to be fake.
The journal, the Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, claims on its website that all papers published by it are copy-edited and peer-reviewed. In this case I suppose the reviewers worked for Comedy Central .
Andre Rieu – 2013 Brazil Skater’s Waltz
An evening pause: Something for the party week between Christmas and New Years. Stay with it, because this orchestra really does know how to enjoy itself.
Hat tip Danae.
Pagagnini – Pachelbel’s Canon in D
An evening pause: Funny, and they demonstrate that it is possible to play the Canon in D as a tango, bluegrass, gypsy, and practically any musical style you can imagine.
Hat tip Phill Oltmann.
Olivia Newton-John & Bob Hope – Silver Bells
An evening pause: As we move into the heart of the Christmas season, this piece from the 1974 Bob Hope Christmas Special will allow us to remember a time when the idea was to express some good cheer and good will, not whine about oppression because someone said something we didn’t like or agree with. Note that a few of Hope’s jokes at the beginning are very time sensitive, as this was aired just after the 1974 elections where the Republicans got badly beaten. Hope, who was Republican, still had no problem cracking jokes at his own party’s expense.
Hat tip Danae.
The New Periodic Table Song
An evening pause: Hat tip Phill Oltmann.
Tom Lehrer – The Irish Ballad
An evening pause: Recorded live, September 5, 1967, in Copenhagen, Denmark. Having some fun with the old folk ballads.
Hat tip Danae.
The Lion Roars
An evening pause: A very short pause, but one that I think is appropriate today with the success of the grassroots tea party movement in forcing John Boehner out as House Speaker.
Hat tip Diane Zimmerman.
Philomena Cunk’s Moments of Wonder: Time
An evening pause: This hilarious parody of BBC science documentaries, which are not much different than many American PBS science documentaries, captures perfectly the typical empty-headed interviewers that I myself have sometimes had to deal with during too many of my television and radio appearances. They are not only often ignorant of some basic science, they are also ignorant of their own ignorance. They think they know a lot, and thus are easily confused and defensive when suddenly confronted with that ignorance.
I especially like her description of “the famous Greenwich Marillion line.”
Hat tip to Danae.