HOME |
RSS | 
Captchas are there so you can prove you are a person instead of a ‘bot. But what if you fail the test? They can be pretty hard! Frank Lesser, who writes for The Colbert Report, expresses his frustration with captchas in a column in the New York Times that you might relate to. Link -via the Presurfer
Hardcore gamers love expert mode because it provides them with such a challenge…but no matter how good you are at aiming, I don’t recommend trying out this advanced level -especially if you ever have any ladies visit your home.
The Force comes in really handy some mornings. -via Geeks Are Sexy
This staircase makes four 90-degree turns, yet forms a continuous loop that would not be possible in the real world.
Optillusions is a blog with more illusions like this. Pretty dumb, yes, but good for a laugh. And each post is handy for sending your annoying relative who forwards things to you constantly. Link -via Metafilter
A simple and not-too-effective spam Twitter account has become an internet phenomenon. @Horse_ebooks may or may not be a ‘bot, but the nonsensical snippets that it Tweets, supposedly from the ebooks it is trying to sell, has caused over 25,000 people to follow the account.
I tend to liken horse_ebooks to some wacky public access show you might have watched in college. There’s no comedic motive — as with the weirdo doing a foreign events call-in show at 3:00 in the morning, there’s no irony — but it doesn’t carry that guilt of mockery: you are not, and couldn’t be, making fun of Horse_ebooks. If anything, it’s making fun of you.
Whatever the appeal — explication does more harm than good — it’s stuck with people. Someone started a genuinely good horse_ebooks fanfiction site. There’s Horse_ecomics, which posts comics inspired by the account’s Tweets, and a litany of smaller tributes: people have had ordered framed images of the account’s avatar, turned Tweets into mug inscriptions (“Swallow that garbage”), and renamed their Twitter accounts in it honor.
John Herrman at Splitsider explains what he knows about this account, and how it has taken off as a rising star on Twitter and in the larger internet universe. Link -via Boing Boing
Comments Off
sKate Bush is the namne of a Tumblr blog dedicated to posting photoshopped images of the English singer-songwriter Kate Bush riding a skateboard. The site is quite new, so there aren’t that many photos up yet, but hopefully the collection will grow over time.
Comments Off 
From the idle fertile minds behind Geeks Are Sexy comes a new site that focuses on the world of IT professionals and the funny stuff they encounter in their work. FailDesk has, of course, those clueless co-workers, resourceful workarounds, and clients that will surprise you.
I had a very nice lady call me completely in tears one day because she had spilled an entire can of soda on her keyboard and it had quit working properly (aside from being just nasty – lol). One of the tricks I had learned was to have the customer put the keyboard in the dishwasher, after which, they should let it dry for a day or two. I explained to her this was perfectly safe to do and she was elated that it could possibly be so simple. Several days pass and she calls me back in tears because it didn’t work and NOW her computer won’t even turn on! After a few minutes of interrogation I determined that I needed to overnight her a new replacement computer.
What tripped me off? It was at the moment when she stated that she was able to get her keyboard AND box (CPU) in the dishwasher but the monitor didn’t fit so she had to remove the top shelp of her dishwasher and run a separate load just for it!
You’re invited to send in your IT stories, pictures, and other funny stuff and share it with those who will understand. Link
Six famous thought experiments explained humorously in a minute each, by David Mitchell of the BBC’s That Mitchell and Webb Look. Produced by The Open University. -via The Daily What
Comments Off This video tour of life in Norway is not particularly new or accurate, but it sure is interesting! It was produced by Norwegian YouTube member petepants. -via Breakfast Links
In case you are too young to remember, macramé owls were all the rage about 40 years ago. Now rarely spotted and near the brink of extinction, there is an organization dedicated to saving this cultural landmark.
This organisation is dedicated to saving, rehabilitating and reviving the Macramé Owl.
The Macramé Owl is a rare species that is dreadfully declining in numbers worldwide. This heartbreaking situation is partly due to the difficulty in finding jute at local craft shops. It is further exacerbated by a lack of a sense of humour in humans for the sake of Seriousity.
Learn about owl watching, macrame owl hoots, the different variety of owls, and what you can do to save them. Link -via Laughing Squid
Comments Off 
Our friends at Improbable Research awarded the annual Ig Nobel Prizes last night at Harvard’s Sanders Theater for research that makes you laugh, and then think. This is the 21st year for the awards. Ten prizes were awarded in different disciplines; here are some of the more notable:
BIOLOGY PRIZE: Darryl Gwynne (of CANADA and AUSTRALIA and the USA) and David Rentz (of AUSTRALIA and the USA) for discovering that a certain kind of beetle mates with a certain kind of Australian beer bottle
CHEMISTRY PRIZE: Makoto Imai, Naoki Urushihata, Hideki Tanemura, Yukinobu Tajima, Hideaki Goto, Koichiro Mizoguchi and Junichi Murakami of JAPAN, for determining the ideal density of airborne wasabi (pungent horseradish) to awaken sleeping people in case of a fire or other emergency, and for applying this knowledge to invent the wasabi alarm.
LITERATURE PRIZE: John Perry of Stanford University, USA, for his Theory of Structured Procrastination, which says: To be a high achiever, always work on something important, using it as a way to avoid doing something that’s even more important.
PEACE PRIZE: Arturas Zuokas, the mayor of Vilnius, LITHUANIA, for demonstrating that the problem of illegally parked luxury cars can be solved by running them over with an armored tank.
Pictured are researchers Darryl Gwynne and David Rentz accepting their prize for biology. See the complete list of winners at Improbable Research. Link
Watch the entire ceremony on video. Link
Comments Off 
Toilet Monster – $16.95
Are you a prankster who loves potty humor? You need the Toilet Monster from the NeatoShop. Simply attach this hilarious green monster to the toilet and wait for someone you know to lift the lid.
Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more hilarious Gag Gifts & Pranks.
Comments Off 
The following is an article from the book Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Salutes the Armed Forces.
Before World War II, cartoons with war themes attempted to use humor or satire to sway public opinion. The spread of military newspapers and the inclusion of cartoons as a feature designed to boost morale changed all that.
UP FRONT
Arguably the most well-known of the World War II cartoonists, Bill Mauldin created the characters Willie and Joe, who were depicted as rank-and-file soldiers dealing with the realities of war without sugarcoating that some leaders, including General George S. Patton, would have preferred to see. Mauldin’s caricatures, which began in 1940 when he was an 18-year-old in the U.S. Army’s 45th Infantry Division, were initially published in the division’s newsletter and soon became hugely popular with the soldiers on the front lines. In 1943 Mauldin’s cartoon was picked up by Stars and Stripes and was then distributed domestically by United Features Syndicate as Up Front, thanks in part to the war correspondent Ernie Pyle, who helped bring the cartoons to the attention of the general public.
Bill Mauldin did not attempt to glorify the fighting in any manner; rather, he used wry humor to demonstrate the absurdities of war. For example, to make an exaggerated commentary on the practice of sending increasingly younger soldiers to the front lines, Mauldin showed Willie and Joe in a bunker, reading a notice handed to them by an adolescent dressed in a soldier’s uniform. One says to the other, “I guess it’s okay. The replacement center says he comes from a long line of infantrymen.”
SAD SACK
At the time that he was drafted in the U.S. Army in June 1941, George Baker was a struggling animator on the verge of losing his job with the Walt Disney Company in Los Angeles. Although the war in Europe had been raging for several years, the possibility of the United States entering the war seemed remote to many at the time. Baker and other soldiers went through the motions of their training with little sense of purpose, waiting for their one-year enlistment to be up so they could get on with their lives.
To break up the monotony of Army life, Baker began to create drawings on his own time, attempting to explain pictorially what life was like in the armed forces. After taking his drawings to several New York publishers and being rejected, a despondent Baker put his cartoons away and tried to forget about them. However, a few months later, the armed forces sponsored a cartoon contest for servicemen. Baker decided to enter one of his drawing into the contest -and won first prize. This caught the attention of the editor of the Army’s Yank magazine, Major Hartzell Spence, who secured Baker a position on the Yank’s staff. Baker worked for Yank for the duration of World War II, moving from one training camp to another as a salesman for the magazine while also being exposed to the many facets of Army life, which he then used for the basis of his cartoons.
more …
These fun, comical and totally cartoony character redesigns are from Thomas Perkins, an artist who really knows how to capture attention with dynamic poses and visual appeal. All of the designs found on his DeviantArt page and blog would make awesome cartoons, and the humorous nature of his redesigns (Captain America as luchador, for example) breathe new life into these iconic superfolks.
DeviantArt link; Blog Link -via ComicsAlliance
Comments Off Mr. Mochi is an Oblivion machinima (computer-generated production), but he isn’t your everyday, garden variety game character. To be honest, he is utterly ridiculous. But gaming doesn’t have to always be serious business! -via I Am Bored
Pony is an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher, and “A” is her student in Japan. They do lessons via Skype. As an exercise, Pony sends “A” strange found photos, and she writes a few sentences about each one. The result is a taste of Japanese humor rendered in intermediate English. Link -via Gorilla Mask
Comments Off 
Get ready for gallery after gallery of great, not-so-great, and over-the-top cosplay pictures from Comic-Con, coming soon to a website near you! Cats are celebrating Comic-Con as well, over at I Can Has Cheezburger, and they’ve got a great roundup of costumes from comic books, science fiction, and movies to show off! Link
Comments Off 
A while back we posted a video of actual Miss USA contestants being asked “Should Evolution Be Taught in Schools?” Now someone has posed an even greater question to some would be “Miss USA contestants.” Should math be taught in schools? Their answers may shock you. Watch second video at bottom of link post.
Have you ever wondered what your photos would look like if you and your friend’s faces were replaced with kitten faces? Probably not, but now you will know if you go to this link and upload your photo. You could spend whole minutes doing this yourself in Photoshop, but now you can do it with one click of a button.
Comments Off 
For some reason the creepiest mode of transportation is the van. It evokes images of kidnappings and unlawful activity. That’s why SuspiciousVan.com has cataloged dozens of photos of unseemly vans in various states of suspicion.
Have you checked on your kids lately? That 72? Astro with boarded windows has been camped out in the back of the school parking lot for three weeks now. It’s a suspicious van, and this a website dedicated to finding them, documenting them, and in an odd way, cherishing them–before they show up on Nancy Grace. To do this, we must understand…
A useful tip for taking family photographs: make sure the background looks good. -via b3ta
When you get your photo for your driver’s license taken you are not allowed to wear a hat or head covering unless it is for religious or medical reasons. One Austrian follower of the satirical Church of The Flying Spaghetti Monster won the right to wear a pasta strainer on his head on religious grounds for his driver’s license.
Pastafarian Niko Alm, follower of the One True Flying Spaghetti Monster, won the right to appear in his driving-license photo with a pasta strainer on his head after it was formally recognized by Austrian authorities as “religious headgear.”
Caity Weaver at The Hairpin took a really close look at all the US state flags to find out what was unique about each of them. And turned those things into snark.
1. Sometimes state flags run out of red marker before they’re finished. (Tennessee)
Check out what she said about your state. Link -via Metafilter
Yes, the rules are pretty basic, but 78 of them are hard to keep track of if you’re a beginner …or a complete idiot. Latvian photographer Ivars Gravlejs put them all in one place because he’s seen every one of these rules broken too many times. Link -via the Presurfer
Vaudeville makes a modern comeback! Tuesday’s game between Clemson and Davidson was delayed by rain, so the players jumped into the gap to keep the fans amused. -via Metafilter
This animation was produced by Qais Sarhan for his graduation project on child labor at the University of Leeds. -via Nag on the Lake
We know that a piece of toast, if dropped, will fall butter-side down. We also know that a cat, if dropped, will land on its feet. What happens when you strap a piece of buttered toast to a cat’s back and drop them both is called the Buttered Cat Paradox, and there’s an extensive amount of research on the internet devoted to just this conundrum. Find out more about it at mental_floss, including possible uses for the energy produced from such a venture, and ways it could go wrong. Link
The White House prepared a movie trailer for president Barack Obama’s routine last night at the annual White House Correspondents Dinner. It’s a sequel to The King’s Speech.
Psst! Ever heard about the professor who tries to explain every joke ever told?
No, that’s actually not a joke. Joel Warner of Wired explains how Peter McGraw attemps to explain what makes things funny.
A lanky 41-year-old professor of marketing and psychology at the University of Colorado Boulder, McGraw thinks he has found the answer, and it starts with a tickle. “Who here doesn’t like to be tickled?”
A good number of hands shot up. “Yet you laugh,” he said, flashing a goofy grin. “You experience some pleasurable reaction even as you resist and say you don’t like it.”
If you really stop to think about it, McGraw continued, it’s a complex and fascinating phenomenon. If someone touches you in certain places in a certain way, it prompts an involuntary but pleasurable physiological response. Except, of course, when it doesn’t. “When does tickling cease to be funny?” McGraw asked. “When you try to tickle yourself … Or if some stranger in a trench coat tickles you.” The audience cracked up. He was working the room like a stand-up comic.
Many would assert that this tickling conundrum is the perfect evidence that humor is utterly relative. There may be many types of humor, maybe as many kinds as there are variations in laughter, guffaws, hoots, and chortles. But McGraw doesn’t think so. He has devised a simple, Grand Unified Theory of humor—in his words, “a parsimonious account of what makes things funny.” McGraw calls it the benign violation theory, and he insists that it can explain the function of every imaginable type of humor. And not just what makes things funny, but why certain things aren’t funny. “My theory also explains nervous laughter, racist or sexist jokes, and toilet humor,” he told his fellow humor researchers.
Link (Photo: Andrew Hetherington)
Ever wondered what bears consider worth their hard-earned money? You probably could have guessed this one, but Pleated Jeans has also charted how bats, cats, kangaroos, snails, rabbits, bluejays, anteaters, and more animals are spending their tax refunds. Link to part one. Link to part two.
