Daily adorable medieval mathematician mugshot

Fibonacci, yes please!

Really.

http://www.converse.com/index.aspx?mode=pd&sku=1S147#productdetail

By the Palin standard

By the Palin standard, I guess this means she's an expert on 9/11.

Reading

Old posts from dooce.com. You should definitely check out this blog, which is hilarious despite the high level of content related to dogs and babies. Read backward until you're hooked, cause some of the most recent posts aren't that good.

Silly scientist name of the day:

Buckminster "Bucky" Fuller

(okay, he is only sort of a scientist.)

This really happened in Sam Harris's article in Newsweek

"Governor Palin, are you ready at this moment to perform surgery on this child's brain?"

"Of course, Charlie. I have several boys of my own, and I'm an avid hunter."

A couple of things that have been on my mind

Is it true that Hitler commited suicide because he found out that his own mother was Jewish? And also I would like ask you if you can tell me more about the industrial revolution.
Thank You,
Star

Whatever--

I think it's cool.

And then Ben Bernanke spanked them

This headline confused me: "Markets Gyrate After Central Banks’ Move." Markets can gyrate?

Polls show:

With seven votes, "It's goin'" is the correct response to "How's it goin'?".

McCain interview

Interviewer: Many people in Latin America feel that Latin America is ignored in Washington. What are you going to do to make sure that it is not ignored?

McCain: Pay more attention.

Listen to McCain make an idiot of himself here.

No, but seriously guys, you should probably give me like $100 million

PARIS (AP) -- A researcher says a previously unknown piece of music by Mozart has been found in a French library.

Ulrich Leisinger, head of research at the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg, Austria, described the work as rough notes, the preliminary draft of a musical composition. He says it was found by a library in Nantes in western France as staff were going through its archives.

He says there is no doubt that the single sheet was written by the composer and that it is ''really important.''

The city is planning a news conference Thursday.

Leisinger says the library contacted his foundation for help authenticating the work.

Leisinger said ''it's definitely Mozart's handwriting.''

We are not stupid!

Jean-François Gravelet

Jean-François Gravelet, the Frenchman who crossed Niagara Falls on a tightrope many times in the mid-19th century, also crossed the Edgbaston Reservoir in Birmingham, England. The reservoir, which is located in Rotten Park, was formerly a small fish stock pool called Roach Pool, and is fed by Titford Reservoir upstream.
This is, of course, just down the road from Fartinghamshire.

Nelson Mandela's first day of school

Teacher: And what's your name little boy?
Mandela: My name is Rolihlahla.
Teacher: Hmm...we'll call you "Nelson."

And Adam and Eve rode off into the sunset on a triceratops.

Dr. Jason Lisle, who works for the Creation Museum, recently gave a lecture in Souderton, Pennsylvania. He began by suggesting that dinosaurs were not such fearsome creatures as you might have been led to believe by the heathenish Jurassic-Park-loving media. Dinosaurs, he said, were vegetarians. But why did they have such long, sharp teeth, you ask?

"You see, you think of a watermelon as soft. But in order to get to the soft stuff on the inside, you have to cut through the hard outer exterior. But not T.rex. He was quite ready to eat it off the vine."

All the world's a stage...

and all the men and women want to be playwrights.

I'm directing a short play this fall and as part of the theater's arrangement, I have to choose from a list of selected scripts written by up-and-coming female authors. So far I have read scripts on the following topics:

Murder (3)
Ghosts only the protagonist can see (2)
Dissolving marriages (2)
Dissolving relationships (2)
Gang rape (1)
Alcoholism (1)
People who don't realize they themselves are ghosts (1)
Satanism (1)

I'm going to ask if I can do "The Odd Couple."

International bovid rights law

Come on, Democratic Republic of Congo. Every other country in the world treats goats with dignity.

Found poetry on the subject of commuting

The text of this poem comes from an email from my roommate, which is especially timely because I just hate people on the subway sometimes, don't you like totally sometimes too?

People seem to think
that if they push
their way onto the train
before you get off,
that's the right thing to do.
People also seem to think
that if they push off
the train before you,
their lives will be
immeasurably improved
because there is now one person
behind them
getting off the train.
This is why
I think
we need to impose
a radical population reduction program.
Shoot
people who are rude
during subway commutes.

Silly scientist name of the day:

Friedwardt Winterberg

I don't know if I can take it anymore...

Silly scientist name of the day:

Fritz Zwicky

Cindy McCain with a pancake on her head

Thank you to reader Dan Lacey for this amazing painting. Check out his website, where you can find images of other political celebrities--including Dick Cheney, Sarah Palin, and Hurricane Gustav--as well as the artist himself with pancakes on their heads.

When donuts go bad

I guess I missed the bandwagon on these bacon cheeseburgers in a Krispy Kreme bun (allegedly made for the head of Google's cafeteria staff on their birthday). What amazed me most was not just the concept, which is cute--if disgusting--but the fact that they made so many! How many people were actually willing to eat one? Then a little research revealed that this is not an isolated affair. A minor league baseball team in St. Louis makes them. Here is a gallery of Krispy Kreme burgers from "around the world." At some point, you have to throw up your hands and admit that it is sort of delicious sounding.

Jack Abramoff's hat

All ten people at the RNC were riveted by Sarah Palin's speech last night.

Also, somebody definitely drugged that baby.

McCain Forces Small Child To Wave; Bristol Palin's Jacket Covers Embarassing Mistake; A Disheveled Cindy McCain Wanders Into The Right Side Of Photo

The family portrait.

Female, 26, seeks missed connection

26 year old female living in Gramercy seeks missed connection with slightly older man. Brooding brown eyes, boyishly dimpled chin, deep frown lines suggesting a troubled past a plus. Our accidental and random encounter can be repeated eye contact on the 4/5 train, you giving up your seat for an elderly woman on the bus so I don’t have to, or you asking to share my table at Starbucks since everywhere else is full. Could even be a more striking brief, anonymous engagement such as us both reaching for the last marble mocha muffin at Dean and Deluca, or you commenting on the book I am looking at in the Strand. You decide. I’ll be looking everywhere.

Sarah Palin's foreign policy experience