So Brad had a rule that whenever he got confused in his work, and things didn’t make sense anymore, it was time to go to lunch. After the lunch conversation got confusing, and things didn’t make sense anymore, it was time to go back to work.
Sad news, everyone. I heard from his son today that Sir Olaf Pol passed away early this morning. As you may or may not remember, Sir Pol lived in Durham for many years. He was an amateur quantum physicist who presented his findings to a group at Duke several years ago, coincidentally on this date. His most striking—and controversial—contribution to his science was taking the “gedanken” out of the “gedankenexperiment” of Schroedinger’s Cat. A shocked audience listened to him describe how he took in stray cats of the streets of downtown Durham and Chapel Hill for these practical applications. Sir Pol’s son reports that three and a half of the cats survive.
Every so often I make up a mix CD of my favorite songs at the moment; mostly new songs, but with some old songs sprinkled in for flavor. I thought it’d be a neat feature of this new blog to go through, song-by-song, and explain a little about why it appeals to me.
Psych is almost one of my favorite shows on television. The show follows goofy Shawn Spencer, son of a retired cop, who was drilled with techniques of keen observation as a child. He’s never been able to hold a steady job, until he enlists his nerdy best friend Gus (played by West Wing alum Dulé Hill) to open a psychic investigating firm. Of course they’re not psychic, but they’ve found it’s the only way to get the local police department to contract them out. The show is quite funny. Most episodes revolve around a theme, from spelling bees to roller derby to astronomy.
The theme song is performed by The Friendly Indians, the garage band of series creator Steve Franks. I’ve always had a little more respect for people who’ve been in a band, because it’s not easy. I’ve dabbled in karaoke from time to time, but I’ve never had the discipline to perform in an actual band.
I thought I’d share a link that touches on a number of Lunchtime! themes, however inspiring or sad that might be. Namely: sports, lists, Duke, spelling/grammar mistakes, and poor judgment.
On an unrelated note, I recently saw Mulholland Drive for the first time. Let me toss out this conversation starter: WTF?!?
Finally, as one of the few Americans at the institute, I’ve been congratulated on our recent elections more times than I can count. Since I’m sure this is disproportionate to whatever amount of credit I actually deserve (first time voting in a swing state!), let me at least pass along the sentiment.
There are some things about North Carolina almost everyone knows, such as tobacco, basketball, and NASCAR. Then there are things that you only learn if you live here for a while; e.g. coleslaw is a condiment.
That’s right, any self-respecting North Carolinian restaurant serves a tiny cup of coleslaw on the side with every sandwich (and many other orders) so that you can put it on your sandwich if you care to. It actually works quite well because the cole slaw here is the best I’ve ever had: unlike its Midwestern brethren it contains only a bit of mayonnaise, and unlike the local barbecue it’s light on the vinegar.
Another, more interesting North Carolina “quirk” has to do with how I’ve used quotation marks in these last two sentences. Read the rest of this entry »
I was just going through my forgotten and nearly dead post drafts and found this doozy. Since many of us went and sat through the amazing-looking, albeit fascist 300 together, I figure many of you might also enjoy Robot Chicken’s 300-inspired take on the American revolution:
I especially enjoy the crossing of the Delaware. Robot Chicken really captures the movie for me — I remember longing for the sophistication of Starship Troopers.
And while on the topic of the founding fathers, I can’t help but find HBO’s John Adams to be completely unnecessary. I don’t really think it’s any fault of it’s own (except maybe for casting overused Paul Giamatti) but I can’t help but giggle at the oh-so-serious looking promos that popped up seemingly everywhere a few weeks ago. I don’t know if it’s possible to have year-long movie-watching moods, but I feel like I wouldn’t be in the mood for something like this until at least next year…
The New York Times has a great article on Mad Magazine’s Al Jaffee today. Jaffee has been responsible for Fold-In’s, Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions (my personal favorite as a kid), and other Mad features for the past 53 years. The article describes his upcoming Indiana Jones-themed Fold-In: “What frightening ancient relic will be the focus of much attention and fanfare this summer?” If you don’t think that’s a set up for a certain former P.O.W. who doesn’t think that techniques he believes to be torture should be illegal, then you should check out the picture that runs with the story.
The best part of the article is a slide show of past Fold-In’s that gives some excellent examples. I haven’t read Mad in years, but I am very happy to see him still actively involved. I was also a little surprised that they got away with that “human growth injections” gag…
One of the many reasons I miss the Triangle area is the quality of the local media (although the TV doesn’t hold a candle to my beloved Upstate). So it is with envy that I watch this video of the NBC 17 late night news on YouTube several days later.
Today’s funny blog of the day: Garfield Minus Garfield. Basically, take a strip of Garfield and remove the cat and everything associated with him. The net effect: it leaves owner Jon babbling crazily to himself. Very zen, and a little scary.
Posted by brianbunton 
Posted by jwambaugh 
Posted by brianbunton 
Several of the larger internet sites have an annual April Fool’s Day gag. Here’s a roundup of some of them:
One of the many reasons I miss the Triangle area is the quality of the local media (although the TV doesn’t hold a candle to my beloved Upstate). So it is with envy that I watch 
