A group of mathematicians and a group of engineers are traveling together by train to attend a conference on mathematical methods in engineering. Each engineer has a ticket whereas only one of the mathematicians has one. Of course, the engineers laugh at the unworldly mathematicians and look forward to the moment the conductor shows up.

Suddenly one of the mathematicians shouts: "Conductor coming!" All the mathematicians disappear into one washroom. The conductor checks the ticket of each engineer and then knocks at the washroom door: "Your ticket, please." The mathematicians stick the one ticket they have under the door, the conductor checks it and leaves. A few minutes later, when it is safe, the mathematicians come out of the washroom. The engineers are impressed.

When the conference has come to an end, the engineers decide that they are at least as smart as the mathematicians and also buy just one ticket for the whole group. This time the mathematicians have no ticket at all...

Again one of the mathematicians shouts: "Conductor coming!".
All the engineers rush off to one washroom. One of the mathematicians goes to that washroom, knocks at the door, and says: "Your ticket, please..."

If you like that, there are more excellent math jokes at University of Alberta's math professor Volker Runde's website: http://www.math.ualberta.ca/%7Erunde/jokes.html

Fifty-five years ago today, the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas died of an alcohol overdose. Even if the name of the hard-drinking poet doesn't ring a bell to you, I'm sure you've heard of one of his most famous poems, Do not go gentle into that good night.

Dylan wrote the poem watching his father, formely in the Army, grow weak and frail with old age:

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

The Academy of American Poets has a recording of the reading of the poem: Link | If the words from the poem sound vaguely familiar to you, it may be because you've ran across its many pop culture references (as listed in Wikipedia )

Docstoc user PowerfulPointer uploaded a funny set of clips of The Strangest Places To Put a Toilet (And Someone Did): Link

(If you pay close enough attention, you'll see some of Neatorama's articles linked on that docstoc page)

L: Ca-D'Oro (1964) R: Spike (1964) both by John Chamberlain
Photo: Sotheby's, Christie's Images Ltd via The New York Times

Take a look at these two 1964 sculptures by John Chamberlain. The one to the left, titled Ca-D'Oro is valued at between $1.8 million to 2.2 million by Sotheby's whereas the one to the right, titled Spike, is valued by Christie's at between $900,000 to $1.2 million.

They look the same, made by the same artist in the same year. So why the price difference? Carol Vogel wrote an article for The New York Times about the pricey world of art:

Both of these colorful crushed metal sculptures are from the artist’s prime period, when he used everyday objects, like abandoned car parts. He often sprayed as many as 100 coats of lacquer on the steel to achieve the surface he desired.

Estate property is generally more reasonably priced, and Christie’s has given the Lawrence heirs a guarantee. That means the auction house rather than the estate can set the prices. The one at Sotheby’s seems to have been estimated at the whim of an auction house expert — or possibly a hungry seller.

Link - via Book of Joe

Better question: why is it worth so dang much in the first place?

Italian photographer Gianni Fasolini heard that the divorce rate is going up and got a brilliant idea. People take wedding photos, so why not offer them a divorce photo album as well?

"People celebrate a marriage as a milestone in their lives, but a divorce is an important event too," he explained.

The 45-year-old added: "I have been doing photos of weddings and marriage ceremonies for years, day in and day out, and people told me they like having a photo marking important events in their lives.

"Then I got to thinking that maybe there would be some demand for people marking their divorces and so I started to offer photo sessions for freshly divorced couples - them smiling or shaking hands or in some cases even kissing.

Link | Photo from Veja.it (Google translation of the page)

In his book Damp Squid: The English Language Laid Bare, Jeremy Butterfield outlined the top 10 most irritating phrases of the English language. (Why damp squid?)

... the book's author Jeremy Butterfield says that many annoyingly over-used expressions actually began as office lingo, such as 24/7 and "synergy".

Other phrases to irritate people are "literally" and "ironically", when they are used out of context.

Mr Butterfield said: "We grow tired of anything that is repeated too often – an anecdote, a joke, a mannerism – and the same seems to happen with some language."

Here they are:

1. At the end of the day


2. Fairly unique


3. I personally


4. At this moment in time


5. With all due respect


6. Absolutely


7. It's a nightmare


8. Shouldn't of


9. 24/7


10. It's not rocket science

Link to Telegraph article | Damp Squid review on The Bookbag

Can you at this moment in time come up with a fairly unique sentence that contains all ten? While it's not rocket science, at the end of the day, I personally can't!

Photo: Paul Mortfield, Stefano Cancelli

Is that a ghostly specter in the night sky? Actually that's part of The Veil Nebula, recorded through filters that show emissions from hydrogen atoms in red and oxygen atoms in greenish hues.

APOD has more details (and of course, larger photos): Link

Madonna con Clon by Hunter O'Reilly (2001)

Hunter O'Reilly is a rare mix of artist and geneticists whose art revolves around the science of biology and biotechnology. She now teaches a course titled Biology Through Art, at Loyola University Chicago, where students create artwork in a biology lab.

This painting above, titled Madonna con Clon (2001) is her abstraction on biotechnology:

A human clone may have the same DNA genome as another, but would be a unique individual with a unique personality and soul. The painting, Madonna con Clon, depicts the loving relationship between a mother and a human cloned child and the uniqueness of each.

Whether or not you agree that humans should be cloned, the first human clone will likely be created in the next few years. The term clone has negative connotations. The very word makes us think of a xerox copy. We know how identical twins are very different people with unique personalities. Identical twins have more in common than human clones will. Identical twins have the same mitochondrial DNA and are raised in the same household in the same time in history. A later born twin, a human clone, would be raised in a different environment at a different time in history. A human clone would also have different mitochrondrial DNA, unless the egg is donated by the woman being cloned. For the infertile person being cloned, the human clone would be a biological sibling, but socially, would be their child.

Link | Art Gallery

Previously on Neatorama:

• Visual DNA Art by Daniel Becker
• Glowing Bacteria Art - Stocker and Nestelbacher's GFPixel

Eighteen years after the launch of Windows 3.x, Microsofit has finally bid goodbye to the software that did much to establish its dominance in the personal computer industry.

The comparison of requirements between Windows 3.x and the latest Vista is remarkable:

Windows 3.x required an 8086/8088 processor or better that had a clock speed of up to 10MHz. It needed at least 640KB of RAM, seven megabytes of hard drive space, and a graphics card that supported CGA, EGA and VGA graphics.

By comparison, the Home Basic version of Windows Vista requires a 32-bit 1GHz processor, 512MB of RAM, 20GB of hard drive space, and a graphics card with at least 32MB of memory.

Previously on Neatorama: Take a Stroll Down Computing Memory Lane

Here's reasons no. 1, 2 and 3 for never ever cleaning cobwebs off your house with a blowtorch:

Authorities said Galen Winchell set fire to his home on Smith Road in Sargent around 11:30 a.m. Wednesday as he cleaned cobwebs from exterior eaves with a blowtorch. Winchell noticed the blaze when he saw smoke pouring from the attic.

http://www.cbs46.com/news/17919628/detail.html?taf=lnta#- - Thanks t!

Keepers at the Jiaozuo City Zoo in China were worried that an orphan monkey was being bullied by bigger primates so they gave it ... a guard dog!

After being forced to intervene to save its life several times, they settled upon the trained canine, named Sai Hu, and are happy to report that it has been very successful.

"Whenever the baby monkey gets bullied, he dashes up and drives the others away. And the baby monkey is also very smart. Each time he smells danger he runs to jump on the dog's back and holds on tight. The alpha male monkey has been really unhappy since we sent in Sai Hu. He tried to organise several ambushes on the little monkey, but they all failed because of the dog," said a zoo spokesman.

Cellar IotD has the story: Link

Okay, okay - I know a lot of you are tired of the overplayed Mario Bros. theme, but bear with me this one instance.

Adrian Holovaty, one of the lead developers of the Django web framework, stumbled upon VGMix.com, an online community of amateur musicians who make recordings of video game music. Inspired, Adrian then recorded his version of the Super Mario Bros. 2 Level One theme music, in the style of gypsy jazz music of Django Reinhardt.

It's wonderful, check it out: Link (embedded YouTube clip)

That "maze" bookcase is built by German product designer René Mueller and forester Nina Griesshammer of Woodloops.

Their products are "green" (built out of wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council) - but even if you don't care about all that, it's still easy to marvel at the craftsmanship and wonderful design.

Inhabitat blog has more: Link

Geoff of menegay blog put together a large webpage showcasing some 700 frontpages of newspapers from around the world (from Newseum) on the day that Barack Obama won the US Presidential Election - Link

The selections are impressive, though toward the end some newspapers apparently either didn't get the news, didn't care or had to go to press before the results were in.

The Statesman Journal's frontpage to the left should bring a smile to veteran web users. Apparently the Statesman Journal editors are Web lingo enthusiasts.

In other news, The New Mexico Sun News printed its declaration of an Obama victory one week before the actual election:

The Sun News is a bi-monthly newspaper and its Oct 26-Nov 8 issue had to hit the streets, and the newsstands, before the election. So the editors decided to make a leap of faith and declare Democrat Barack Obama the winner.

In an article explaining their choice, the editors unabashedly wrote, “When it comes to calling the winner of a presidential election, everyone wants to be first. The New Mexico Sun News hereby claims that achievement.” (Source)

Add this to the growing heap of narrowly-focused blogs on the Web: a blog dedicated to documenting the "Employees Must Wash Hands" signs from restaurants around the world!

This one to the left must have a pretty gross story behind it! Link